HEYDORN’S AEW DYNAMITE RECEIPT 8/24: Moxley vs. Punk more of an angle than a championship match

This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-Some real good business between Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia, and Bryan Danielson to start the show. Entertaining, too. Look at all they accomplished. First, Garcia got some heat as a babyface. That audience was behind the “he’s a wrestler” thing and when he says it eventually? Pop city. Jericho came across like a total jerk and heel opposite both Danielson and Garcia. Check. Danielson came across great opposite Jericho and spoke truth to him and the crowd. I wouldn’t call Danielson vs. Jericho a novel match at this point, but it works for where it is on the All Out card.

-Real quick on Garcia. He showed significant range on that promo. His best one yet. A good sign for his development.

-A good match between Dax Harwood and Lethal, but … RANT TIME. Dax is doing jobs like this? To Lethal? I don’t get that. Harwood and FTR are one of the most over acts in wrestling this summer. Why is that team not getting fed to build momentum for them. Tony Khan’s biggest miss since starting the company in 2019. Phew. Ok. Rant over.

-Alright, it was weird watching Billy Gunn beat up his son. Anyone else feel that way? If you’re going to have that match, there has to be more build behind it so the audience can accept that weirdness and this didn’t qualify as that.

-Britt Baker is going to bury the entire women’s division by the time her run is up in AEW. Like, what are we doing out there, Britt? Undercutting potential opponents is not a smart way to position yourself as it does not cultivate meaningful matches. It’s just also bad business for her politically with the company.

-Ok, Jon Moxley vs. C.M. Punk. Interesting, huh? There were a few different ways to go about booking a finish for this match, but this may be the most intriguing one. Moxley dusting Punk in just a few minutes clearly sets up a rematch at All Out. We should look at this match really as an angle rather than a match itself. With that perspective, Punk vs. Moxley 2 is the only title match for All Out that makes a lick of sense.

-Is Christian Cage teaching promo class? His backstage promo on Jungle Boy and accepting the All Out match was perfectly on point. Cage came across as serious and dangerous, thus building a mountain for Jungle Boy to climb. Really good work. I’ll take this over the shock promos he cut any day of the week.

-Ricky Starks is going to force Tony Khan’s hand in terms of dishing out opportunities his way. An effective promo from him this week that sold the match with Powerhouse Hobbs very well.

-Holy Jon Moxley promo, Batman. Moxley saying the words of a top star, but walking that walk too. What a run he’s be on in 2022.

-Good luck Trios Championship Tournament. How is any match going to top Death Triangle vs. United Empire? It was such a treat to watch Will Ospreay collide with Pac. The others involved contributed heavily, too. This was spot heavy, but of course it was, right? If the Trios Championship division is going to look like this each week, it’ll be can’t miss television on AEW Dynamite for many and likely will draw some new fans as well.

CATCH-UP: HEYDORN’S WWE NXT 2.0 RECEIPT 8/23: Bron Breakker and Bate deliver strong Worlds Collide promo segment