AEW Dynamite 3/20/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that's not afraid to pit Toronto's two favorite sons against each other in a violent bloodbath for a midcard championship! Adam Copeland vs. Christian Cage got the main event spot this week, but WINC's writers and editors didn't really have strong feelings about it. Nor did we have much to say about Will Ospreay, who cut another promo this week. We did have strong feelings about lots of other stuff, though! Like Chris Jericho! And Triple Crowns! And women!
Anyway, if you want a more comprehensive, more objective report on all the goings-on Wednesday night, our "Dynamite" results page is the place for you. This space is for how we feel about the show, in both the most positive and the most negative ways. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/20/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."
Loved: AEW giving love to the women's roster
The impact of the "CEO" is already being felt in AEW, with this week featuring two major women's segments that furthered several storylines and continued to develop more characters. From day one fans have been crying out for AEW to do more with the women's roster, and while Tony Khan has signed tons of talented workers none of them have managed to force that change, but it appears Mone could be the catalyst for more.
The show kicked off with Mone cutting a promo that felt like a playbook straight out of WWE's sports entertainment world, and while that might not be to the taste of everyone it is what this division needs so that characters and storylines can develop. She continued to tease issues with Willow Nightingale, while they were then forced to work together again as they fought off Julia Hart and Skye Blue, which smartly promoted the AEW Rampage main event.
All of the tension between Nightingale, Mone, and Kris Statlander continued to play out in a backstage segment, continuing the thread even further. Meanwhile, we were treated to an excellent tag team match as Toni Storm and Mariah May competed against Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo. It was a reminder of just how deep and talented the roster is, with this being a great fast-paced encounter that helped to keep Purrazzo as a threat to the title, while also throwing Rosa into the mix.
The fact it was Rosa who pinned Storm to win the match was an interesting twist, and that opens the door for further drama down the line when it comes to that situation. While this was a show with some huge men's matches, it was great to see that they didn't completely dominate the night like they would in the past. It's only a small step, and fans are always going to want more, and people need to see consistency to believe an actual change is coming. However, if this is a sign of how the women's division is going to be treated in this new era of AEW, then sign me up.
Written by Matthew Wilkinson
Hated: The Continental Crown goes out with a whimper
I already wrote a lengthy screed ranting about the Continental Crown in last week's hot takes column, so I'll try not to repeat myself here, but you have to write the obituary before you can start the grieving process, and I don't know that I've ever seen anything more dead than AEW's supposed American Triple Crown Championship.
Kazuchika Okada won the Continental title from Eddie Kingston Wednesday night, which (in theory) breaks up the Continental Crown, which was also supposed to include the NJPW STRONG Openweight title and the ROH World Championship. The idea that these belts had been at least somewhat unified isn't something I just made up — Tony Khan explicitly referred to the Continental Crown as a single consolidated title, and Kingston defended all three belts together five times before losing to Okada, including against Bryan Danielson at AEW Revolution. Now, not only has the Crown been broken up, but there wasn't even a mention of the Triple Crown on Wednesday's broadcast. You'd think Kingston losing the belt would trigger at least some explanation of what will happen with those titles now, but no. No mention of anything, and Kingston didn't even bring his other two belts with him to the ring. Functionally, it's like the entire Triple Crown concept never existed.
In other words, the Continental Crown was an incredibly poorly-planned waste of time, and now it's over. Cool, great job everyone. Hope you enjoy yet another midcard title in AEW.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Loved: Chris Jericho wrestles Hook in spectacular failure
Recently, Denis Villeneuve released part two of his competent, if a bit visually flat adaptation of the Dune franchise to much critical and commercial acclaim. However, when it comes to Frank Herbert's tale of space drugs and the political machinations behind said space drugs, I will always be more charmed by the 1984 David Lynch adaptation, which can only be described as a spectacular failure. That is what Chris Jericho and Hook delivered on Wednesday, a spectacular failure, and I loved every second of it. It was an absolute disaster from bell to bell.
For the second time this year, Jericho seemed to pay homage to Brock Lesnar's thrashing of John Cena in 2014, this time outright stealing the blueprint of that match, with Hook delivering suplex after suplex to the helpless veteran, but the results were not as glowing as Lesnar and Cena's encounter. Jericho was dropped on his head with the very first suplex of the match and seemingly never recovered from getting rocked. What proceeded were a baker's dozen of the worst suplexes I have ever seen in my life. Hook was terrified of throwing Jericho. Jericho was terrified of going up for the suplexes. It was quite simply the funniest thing I have ever seen. When they weren't suplexing each other, they were hitting each other with the hardest, most awkward strikes I've ever seen.
The two men stumbled through this script for what felt like an eternity, until Hook locked in his Red Rum submission hold. This was seemingly not enough to defeat a nearly-60 year-old man who had already been dropped on his head so after a series of awkward counters, Hook had to settle for winning with a roll-up. No one looked good, everyone looked bad, and I laughed harder than I have since I saw "Madame Web."
Ok, but now let's get serious...
Written by Ross Berman
Hated: We need to talk about Chris
Tony Khan should fire Chris Jericho. I am completely serious. He adds nothing to the program and there is no way that the egomaniac will move any kind of needle over in WWE. Just get rid of him and let him be TKO Group Holdings' problem. He is an albatross around the neck of AEW and no where was that more clear than tonight's episode of "Dynamite," where he took the heat that Hook has built over the course of his young career and dropped it in a puddle.
Jericho is not able to even take the most basic of suplexes and is seemingly scripting matches that he is not capable of competing in. He has completely lost the plot and watching him smack Hook around between awkward suplexes was the saddest display of a so-called "Legend" I've ever seen. He doesn't even bring the most popular version of Jericho, eschewing his "Judas" anthem to look like the bloated corpse of "The Lionheart." He is no longer a Terry Funk-like legend giving back to the kids, he is a washed-up Vegas lounge singer, living out his greatest hits on a billionaire's dime.
For the price of one Chris Jericho, AEW could sign at least 5 wrestlers and barely underpay them. I am simply tired of watching him flush his legacy down the toilet on primetime, that's what lesser-indie promotions and the convention circuit are for.
Written by Ross Berman
Hated: What has Adam Cole become?
So much of this is not his fault. Injuries (to himself and others) affected a long-term storyline (that had issues already) which eventually paid off as well as a fart in church, and the residual creative has been wonky as well. But it still saddens me to see what's become of Adam Cole in AEW at the moment. Now, still hobbled and often seated when we see him, including recently in a "Masterpiece Theater" setting of sorts, the leader of "The Undisputed Kingdom," though he be (I guess) "The Devil" himself has become nothing more than a regular guy taking up air time.
For all the things he is, outstanding wrestler, inimitable worker, excellent on the microphone, Cole has never been intimidating. In this current role, had Murphy's Law never even struck, his reveal as The Devil was always going to be a hard sell to me, as he doesn't scream "Big Bad" in the traditional sense. That's not to say he can't be an effective heel — time and again, we've witnessed the contrary over the years — but Cole as the personification of evil was always a stretch. And now, there he sits, talking about being disappointed in Wardlow for not having beaten Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship last week on "Dynamite."
Look, the gag here was always that Wardlow was supposed to win and hand over the title to Cole, injured or not, it appears, but let's get serious; that was never going to happen. So now, on top of Cole coming across as a weenie — which, again, CAN be a viable heel approach but not when this guy's supposed to be THE DEVIL — Wardlow is on the verge of being neutered for the umpteenth time in his AEW run, as his inability to fulfill a new task of making sure the rest of Cole's cronies hold on to their existing gold will surely force his exile from the group.
But here's the thing: Do we care? We're talking about the ROH Tag Team Championships and a midcard belt here. Plus, is he supposed to protect them in perpetuity? None of this works, it looks bad on Wardlow, and it looks worst of all on Cole who undoubtedly deserves so much more.
Written by Jon Jordan
Loved: Swerve Strickland gets to be dominant
While nothing is announced at this point, AEW is very clearly building toward Swerve Strickland challenging Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship, which is an encounter everyone is patiently waiting for. However, ensuring that Strickland keeps his momentum until then is crucial, and tonight was an effective example of how to do that in a limited amount of time, ensuring that he still got to shine on a stacked show.
AEW had two title bouts and time was dedicated to the likes of Mercedes Mone and Chris Jericho here, but Strickland still got to remind people why he's the man right now in AEW. He cut a quick and effective backstage promo, demanding a match which happened to be against The Butcher. In the past when AEW has booked these types of matches, the wrestler that is obviously slated to lose often ends up getting a lot of offense and time to shine, simply because Tony Khan likes to have a lot of competitive encounters.
While that can be beneficial to the person getting beaten, it doesn't help the wrestler who's supposed to be going over. However, tonight showcased that AEW can book these types of matches effectively, as Strickland completely dominated and secured a routine win. After all, someone being positioned as a potential World Champion should be able to dispatch The Butcher in quick time, and allowing that to happen was the right call.
The post-match promo segment with Samoa Joe was what it was truly about, and while the inclusion of Don Callis was draining for everyone, it has set up an interesting match for next week where Strickland will get to be involved in a more competitive encounter against Konosuke Takeshita. That will highlight all of his skills, while tonight was simply about reminding everyone who he is.
Written by Matthew Wilkinson