AEW Dynamite 11/22/23: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that's almost always continental and occasionally classic! For those who are new, this is the place where WINC's writing and editorial staff sound off with their personal opinions of the evening's events — anything that tripped up our emotions like so many red carpet-walkers, for either positive or negative reasons. Of course, we won't be covering everything that happened on the show, but for more comprehensive (and objective) coverage, you can check out our live coverage/results page.

Here, on the other hand, is where you'll learn to answer to such questions as: Did the WINC staff approve of the beginnings of the Continental Classic tournament? Did we scoff, perhaps, at the "Christening" ceremony performed by Christian Cage? And most importantly, are we excited to see Wheeler Yuta do the exact same things Wheeler Yuta has always done, more, again, forever? Or are we actually kind of into it? Here are three things we hated and three things we loved from the 11/22/23 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

I had gotten a little down on the "Timeless" Toni Storm character in recent weeks, just because AEW leaned into it so hard that it seemed like they were squeezing the juice from the idea a little faster than it needed to be squeezed. And yes, AEW might have gotten to the Oscar ceremony segment more quickly than I'd have expected, but that doesn't change the fact that they knocked the Oscar ceremony segment out of the damn park.

So many great things about this. RJ City and Renee Paquette opening an envelope and pretending they didn't know whose name was inside (followed by Storm pretending the same thing). Commentary saying she's currently on the cover of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Storm doing the "Oscar winner slips and falls on their way to the podium" gag. And of course, the promo/acceptance speech itself, where Storm thanked "Anthony Khan," actual historic Warner Bros. mogul Jack Warner, and "whoever trained me," among others, while being played off the stage. It finished by planting the inevitable seed of discontent in the mind of Mariah May, which again, feels early, but was well-executed nonetheless.

Part of me suspects Tony Khan is uncertain about the shelf life of the "Timeless" character or is having doubts about how well it's going over (notably, there were "What?" chants during Storm's promo) and wants to burn through it as quickly as possible while it still has good will. That would be a shame, though in some ways an understandable one. Regardless of how long it goes, this was a segment everyone knew the character had to have at some point, and it went about as well as could have been hoped.

In doing these "loves" and "hates" for a number of weeks now, I have come to the realization that Tony Khan is really a fan of renewing old rivalries. While it can work out with the right stars and the right circumstances, oftentimes it comes off more as being repetitive and invokes a feeling of the company being out of new, interesting stories. The latter is the case for the tease of Wheeler Yuta renewing old rivalries with International Champion Orange Cassidy and ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata.

The three men came face-to-face backstage while speaking with Renee Paquette, and Yuta took a few shots at his former ally Cassidy before he made it clear to Shibata that he was looking for a title shot. In all fairness to AEW, Yuta never got his rematch with Shibata after losing the title to him at ROH Supercard of Honor, but that pay-per-view took place in March, and it feels way too late hold a rematch now, in November. Yuta hasn't done anything significant as of late (especially in comparison to his Blackpool Combat Club teammates, who are all currently competing in the Continental Classic), and having him rekindle his feuds with Cassidy and Shibata is not doing anything to alleviate this in any way.

A lot of segments on AEW programming don't tell a story, they tell a chunk of a story and then leave the viewer hanging until next week. Christian Cage, Nick Wayne, Luchasaurus, and Adam Copeland, however, took viewers on a long, unwieldy ride Wednesday night.

What started as a rechristening, with Cage egomaniacally dubbing Luchasaurus "Killswitch," quickly turned into Cage adopting Nick Wayne, declaring him the son he never had and reaffirming his "Prodigy" nickname. Wayne's mother, disowned by Wayne just weeks ago, stormed to the ring in protest, but soon found herself knocked to the canvas and set up for a Con-Chair-To. Cue "The Rated-R Superstar" Adam Copeland, who saved Madame Wayne from a head injury. But after a vicious spear, Copeland's anger was not sated, and he delivered a sickening Con-Chair-To to Nick Wayne — to his mother's horror, and to Cage's horror as well. It was more nuanced and complicated than AEW's usual storytelling, and added a psychopathic edge (no pun intended) to Copeland, who no longer seems interested in "doing the right thing," as much as he's looking to cause Christian as much distress as possible.

AEW doesn't always tell the tightest stories, and the segment itself felt like three segments sewn together like the Human Centipede, but every development had me hooting, hollering, and howling.

I'm glad there's written evidence of just how in I was on the MJF/Adam Cole story prior to Cole's injury, but man, I have really not been feeling it lately, and that did not change Wednesday night. The MJF/Cole/Samoa Joe promo segment was way too long and tried to do way too many things — very few of which, in my opinion, worked out.

There were several problems here, but for me, the central one involved inconsistency of character. MJF just beat Jay White on one good leg, got his title back, and passed the one-year mark of his world championship reign. You'd expect him to be on top of the world, at his most confident — and for a while, he is. But then Samoa Joe comes out, and suddenly he's denying Joe the title match he promised him. Then Cole gives him a pep talk about being "the new MJF," and suddenly MJF is offering Joe a title match right here tonight. But then Joe is like, no, you're walking around with a cane (inspired, by the way) and I want you at 100%, let's do it at Worlds End? And MJF is like, in my hometown, where I'm definitely gonna beat you?" And Joe is like, "YES. And also I will be your personal bodyguard until then!"

For the record, the parts of this that involve Joe delivering dialogue do work, because it's Joe, and he's great at this stuff. But I thought we were past MJF doing things as blatantly cowardly as refusing to honor his word to give someone a title match. I thought we were past MJF having to be talked into doing the right thing by Adam Cole. It didn't fit with the character as we know him today, and the result was a chain of similarly offbeat character reactions and a much longer, more convoluted segment than necessary. Couldn't MJF have just said to Joe, "Yes, I'm giving you your title match, but we're not doing it right now while I'm injured, we're doing it at Worlds End in my hometown of Long Island, good luck"? That seems to me like something a confident champion would say coming off one of his biggest wins, but also like something "Your Scumbag" MJF would say, because the whole point of "Your Scumbag" MJF is that he's a huge babyface who will still take any advantage to win. And it also gets you there faster. Just an idea!

Bottom line: I've really cooled off on how the MJF story is being told since All In, and while Cole's injury was obviously a huge wrench thrown in the gears, that doesn't make me like this replacement angle any more. And I won't pretend it helps that people in the audience are now constantly screaming "ADAAAAAAAAM!"

The big hook for this episode of "AEW Dynamite" was the start of the Continental Classic, which is a tournament that Tony Khan has been heavily hyping up ever since it was announced. The Gold League side kicked things off on this show with three singles matches, and if they're any indication, this tournament could end up being a lot of fun.

AEW has always provided good in-ring matches, but adding in the point-scoring element and the fact that there can be no outside interference did add a fresh dynamic to the matches Wednesday night. This was helped by the fact that the majority of the wrestlers who competed are notorious for having people at ringside with them, which drove home the idea of a clean tournament. Swerve Strickland continued his momentum by defeating Jay Lethal in the first match, which was competitive and reminded fans just how talented Lethal is when he's not focusing on the drama that comes with being in Jeff Jarrett's group, RUSH and Jay White then had an extremely physical bout, holding nothing back which emphasized how much this tournament means to them. The fact they were able to get the fans on board even though they're both heel wrestlers showcased the effectiveness of their physical approach. Finally, Mark Briscoe brought the fight to Jon Moxley in the main event, even if he did fall short.

With three great matches taking up a big chunk of time on the show, the episode went by in a breezy manner. Because the stakes are only going to rise with these matches as the tournament goes on, fan investment should increase. But in regards to this show, the tournament started positively, and is clearly a project AEW is working hard to get over.

There's an old "Family Guy" joke about the extended version of the Maude theme song, where Peter Griffin gets so furious about waiting for the final "And then there's Maude!" line, that by the time the line finally comes, he's exasperated and angry. Such is the AEW Continental Championship.

AEW has a new title belt, but fans are likely not going to see it until Worlds End on December 30. I'm personally excited for the idea of an American Triple Crown that includes an NJPW, ROH, and AEW Championship, but I am a simple man, and if you show me a black bag with a belt in it for 4-5 weeks, I'm going to grow impatient. I'm going to get a bit annoyed.

The new title is a good promotional tactic — WWE did a similar thing with the initial reveal of the Universal Championship in 2016 — but something about the black bag just makes the whole thing feel like being put in a hammerlock and told you'll only be let out if you watch the PPV. Even if I buy the PPV, I'm probably not seeing that title until the end of December. Thanksgiving will come; I will turn 33; all eight days of Hanukkah will come and go; Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day; all of these will pass, and that black bag will continue to haunt the corners of every entrance during the Continental Classic, as my excitement for the tournament curdles into frustration over just wanting to see the belt.

And then there's Maude ...