AEW Dynamite 5/22/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show where more than the usual number of storylines hinge on shots of cars. There are two of them this week, and we want to talk about both, because they certainly made an impression! We also want to talk about other stuff that spiked our emotions up or down, like the return of Death Triangle, the determination of Chris Jericho's FTW title challenger, and Malaki Black getting covered in blood! After all, it was the last "Dynamite" before Double or Nothing — one last chance to make the WINC staff have feelings about these stories and characters before the PPV.
Of course, we can't and won't cover everything — sorry, both tag team matches and also Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita — but that just makes the things in this column more exclusive, because one way or another, they stood out from the pack. If you want to know all the details of every little thing that happened Wednesday night, check out our "Dynamite" results page. For our actual opinions and analysis, this is the place to be, and these are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/22/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."
Loved: Death Triangle lives again!
I find that AEW tends to be a promotion that lives and dies based on the strength of the fanbase's previously established connection to the talent on the roster. It's why their biggest moments are debuts and returns, why they book "dream matches" so often, and why they benefit from letting wrestlers keep their names and gimmicks on arrival. It's all about appealing to a deeply passionate and clinically online fanbase that really just want to see their favorite guys from Ring of Honor and New Japan and PWG get to wrestle under their existing personas on a national platform. And if I sound like I am somehow above this behavior, please keep in mind that I loved Black & Gold "NXT" and "Lucha Underground," so obviously one of my favorite things that has ever happened in AEW is Death Triangle, because it has guys I loved in Black & Gold "NXT" and "Lucha Underground."
Anyway, this is just a very roundabout way of explaining why I popped so hard for Death Triangle getting back together Wednesday night to serve a beatdown to what I guess is now the former Bullet Club Gold. It helped that Pac and The Lucha Brothers have a revamped Death Triangle entrance that absolutely rules, and that "The Bastard" on the mic just generally goes insanely hard. These guys returning as a trio gives that division a much-needed shot in the arm, and honestly they should probably just murder the Bang Bang Gang at Double or Nothing and take their titles right off the bat, because I'm not sure I could suspend my disbelief for anything else. Jay White got his ass kicked by Billy Gunn, after all.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Hated: A copy-paste match ending
Ending triple threat matches –- particularly No. 1 contender's bouts –- with two competitors both being declared the winners isn't great, and this was certainly the case for Katsuyori Shibata and HOOK, who made Bryan Keith tap out at the same time to earn the right to challenge Chris Jericho for the FTW Championship at Double or Nothing. But there was one extremely glaring issue that made it so much worse.
"WWE NXT" had a very similar finish Tuesday night in another triple threat No. 1 contender's match, with Wes Lee and Joe Coffey both being declared the winners after they both pinned Josh Briggs at the same time. Both matches resulted in the title match the wrestlers were competing for also becoming triple threats. Whether or not this similarity was intentional or just coincidence is up for debate, but regardless, doing a very similar finish except with a submission rather than pinfall was definitely a bad look for AEW (ESPECIALLY the night after the first finish took place). It left a bad taste of pettiness in the mouths of viewers, with AEW coming across as though they've completely run out of original ideas.
If AEW was planning on doing the triple threat at Double or Nothing anyway, there was no reason for them to do this "mini tournament." And while it's great to see AEW give Bryan Keith television time on "Dynamite," there was no need to have him involved considering Jericho has had issues with both HOOK and Shibata over the course of the last few weeks. There was already enough build to just make the match official, and including Keith just to have him tap out while declaring both HOOK and Shibata the winners seemed to be a little pointless when there was a much easier and simple way to get where AEW wanted to go.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Hated: Malakai Black and Kyle O'Reilly swing for the fences
I need to preface this with the admission that I actually liked what Kyle O'Reilly and Malakai Black attempted on Wednesday night. I just think it was the wrong match for the crowd, the show, and the story.
Black and O'Reilly exchanged an endless stream of kicks in their match on "Dynamite." It felt like a throwback to the days of Pancrase or even the Japanese promotion GLEAT, and the crowd had absolutely no idea what to make of it. The match didn't lend itself to the usual crowd reactions, and despite an attempt at a "This Is Awesome" chant, the audience seemed to be respectfully silent for Black and O'Reilly's exhibition of kicks and grappling.
In a vacuum, the match might have worked, but as the go-home match before Black fights AEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match, it came off flat. Black didn't seem like a threat heading into Sunday's match, as O'Reilly — who has already lost to Copeland — went blow for blow and move for move with Black, neutering his aura immensely. He's a spooky wizard who sees the darkness in the hearts of man; he should not be having even-handed kickboxing exhibitions with guys like Kyle O'Reilly. As technically proficient as the match was, it killed any momentum the story between Black and Copeland had ahead of Sunday. Even the unusually chunky bloodbath afterward couldn't save this tepid segment.
Written by Ross Berman
Loved: WHOSE HOUSE?!
Finally, after multiple weeks of mistreatment by Christian Cage and The Patriarchy, Swerve Strickland exacted his revenge, and the icing on this generous serving of cathartic cake was none other than Prince Nana's long-awaited return to AEW programming.
While they were not the main event (the chronic absence of the AEW World Championship from the main event scene never gets less odd, but I digress), Strickland and Nick Wayne put on an entertaining match to mark the halfway point of this week's edition of "AEW Dynamite." Wayne had a comical amount of shoulder tape on, Strickland apologized before sending Wayne's head into the fifth row with a particularly nasty House Call, and it would've been good if it ended there. However, in typical Patriarchy fashion, Strickland was caught from behind, and after he laid out Killswitch, he chased Cage out of the arena and into the parking lot. For a moment, it seemed that Cage was going to get away, and the saga of disrespect against the AEW World Champion seemed like it was going to continue.
Suddenly, a black car obstructed Cage's path of exit, and the driver was revealed to be Nana. The world rejoiced, and then rejoiced some more as Strickland cornered Cage for an absolute beatdown.
Strickland's booking during this feud with Cage has been strange from the get-go, and it seems that AEW has not done much to improve over the past few weeks. Fans will remember their varying levels of disappointment when Cage was announced to be Strickland's first opponent following his historic victory over Samoa Joe at AEW Dynasty. As the weeks passed, The Patriarchy beat and humiliated Strickland multiple times, and for a moment, it seemed as if Strickland was an underdog in a feud where he should've been a dominant champion. One would think that, in a new champion's first feud with the title, things would be a bit more evenly split, if not leaning in favor of said champion. To watch The Patriarchy continuously berate and emasculate Strickland was odd and unsatisfying.
So when Strickland finally got his hands on two of The Patriarchy's members in victorious fashion, it was like all the tension of an unsatisfying build was released, and we could finally relax our tense muscles and watch a dominant champion. It would have been great just to see Strickland get his hands on Cage, but when Nana's return is added to the mix? It feels like the tide is finally changing in favor of the champion, and in a way that ties up all the pieces together. The Patriarchy took out Nana and pummeled Strickland into the ground in humiliating fashion. Now, Strickland beat Cage on top of a car, and Nana was there by his side, ready to lend his support to the champion through the art of dance.
Of course, true catharsis (or the complete opposite of it) will not be felt until someone is pinned or submitted at Double or Nothing in a week's time. Regardless of if you consider Cage your father or if you're a proud member of Swerve's house, it sure is nice to see the champion booked as ... a champion.
Written by Angeline Phu
Hated: Willow Nightingale & Mercedes Mone go home too early
At the risk of sounding like a broken record like I'm sure so many of us do when it comes to talking about the women's division in AEW, Tony Khan just really isn't good at booking the ladies. While there was a tag team match pitting AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm and Mariah May against Saraya and Harley Cameron, which got a decent amount of time on the show, I'm surprised and disheartened that what I would consider the bigger women's championship match had no presence outside of a video package on the go-home "Dynamite" to the pay-per-view. Of course, by that, I mean TBS Champion Willow Nightingale taking on Mercedes Mone, who will be making her long awaited in-ring debut at Double or Nothing.
I think AEW's first mistake was bringing Mone on to television well before she was seemingly cleared, but that aside, I think they showed their hand too soon when it came to their rivalry going in to the match on Sunday. Their contract signing segment was last week, which culminated in the line I was waiting for from Nightingale, telling Mone, "I walked out of NJPW a champion, and you didn't walk out at all." The line? Straight fire. What Nightingale did next was even better, putting Mone through a table after eating a slap from "The CEO." That entire segment was great, and I'm not even a big fan of contract signings, but this week? Nothing outside of a video package. While I did like that AEW used footage from Nightingale and Mone's NJPW STRONG Women's Championship match, the entire thing felt weak compared to everything else on the show. Everyone has been waiting over a year for Mone to wrestle in AEW, and you're going to relegate her to "Rampage" before her very first match? Mone didn't even make a backstage appearance or even have a video segment of her own, cutting a promo on the champion. From what we've seen of the former "Boss" turned "CEO," that really seems unlike her character, and it just doesn't sit right with me.
I don't know if Khan thought that maybe there were too many big angles on the show, from the "blood" being dropped from the ceiling on Malakai Black, to the return of Prince Nana and the parking lot brawl between AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Christian Cage, or heck, even Darby Allin coming out of the back with a freaking flame thrower, but I think a more simple, yet effective angle of Nightingale putting Mone through the table this week would have fit right in with the chaos.
Yes, Storm is having a championship match for the "main" women's belt on Double or Nothing, but Mone is the highlight of the women's division, along with her history with Nightingale. I think many fans are looking forward to, or even just expecting, the former Sasha Banks to win her first shot at gold in WWE's biggest competitor, so it really does feel like the bigger women's match on the card. To me, it's such a shame that the contract signing between these two women was pushed back to last week, rather than being held on a much bigger show Wednesday night.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Loved: Satnam Singh punches a guitar (and Darby Allin has a flamethrower)
I was raised just outside the town that played host to the New York State Fair, back when that meant you could still pay a few bucks to gawk at the Spider Lady, the World's Smallest Horse, the Human Blockhead, the Two-Faced Man, Little Otis the Frog Boy, Dolly Regan (a lady who is half lady and half baby), a giant snake-eating frog, a pig with an elephant nose, a man surviving the electric chair, The Bed of Nails, or any of the other anatomical wonders and strange phenomena that were usually hiding behind a painted tent flap. To put it simply, I am not always drawn to wrestling for the athletic competition, the sportsmanship, or even the violence. I come to see a freak show.
Satnam Singh and Bryan Danielson put on a perfect freak show display on Wednesday. The match was built around the fact that Singh is very tall and Danielson is decidedly not. Simple. Done. Singh also doesn't wrestle like the modern big man, he wrestles like the giants of old, who literally didn't have to do much more than stand and be impressive. While the match quickly devolved into a disqualification brawl, that led to Singh showing off his massive strength as he blocked a shot from a guitar by punching it with his bare hand, shattering the wooden instrument in Bryan Danielson's hand. Reader, I felt like a child again, surrounded by hay and horses*** as I watched fireeaters and magicians at the fair. But the spectacle wasn't over there.
After the match, The New Elite attacked Danielson, a repeat of last week's attack on Eddie Kingston — but unlike last week, Darby Allin appeared with a f***ing flamethrower, forcing The Elite to retreat as he sprayed fire into the air with a wild look on his eye. I had so much adrenaline flowing that I probably could've broken a car window with my bare hands and not felt it, buzzing with fire and carny violence like a rabid jackal.
There are plenty of great wrestling matches. None of them made me feel the way that ending did.
Written by Ross Berman