AEW Dynamite 08/15/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show where sometimes you just have to spend some time working out your issues before you leave for the United Kingdom to run Wembley Stadium for the second time! And yeah, we did kind of need to know some stuff, like whether HOOK and Chris Jericho would make the card, and who's challenging for the tag titles, and what's even happening with the International title shot PAC won back when it was still called the International title? Still, doing your due diligence doesn't always make for the most thrilling of television, and for those of us here on Wednesday night for Wrestling Inc., there were plenty of misses to go with the show's hits.

Which is good, because that's what this column is here to highlight! You can always check out our "Dynamite" results page for the objective facts of the matter, but if you want to know what we thought about Mercedes Mone vs. Hikaru Shida or Swerve Strickland vs. Wheeler Yuta, this right here is where you want to be. We even managed to cover most of "Dynamite" ourselves this time, though we'll refrain from bringing up the Bryan Danielson video package set to Green Day — whether that's because it gave us too many emotions or too few is for you to decide. Either way, here are three things we hated and three thing we loved from the 8/14/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

Mercedes Mone versus Hikaru Shida should not have been on this episode of "Dynamite." That pains me to say, because this match was so good, and it was an excellent way to open the show. However, the fact Mone had already been set to take on a newly-returned (both from injury/illness and now suspension) Britt Baker at All In really put a dark cloud over an otherwise excellent match. I'm pretty sure not a single AEW fan thought Shida was walking away with the title tonight, and that does her a disservice. Because, just, why? We all know how amazing of a wrestler and performer Shida is, you don't need to put her in a nothing, throwaway match with Mone for us to know that. I want my women's matches, especially on AEW, to mean something, and this didn't exactly serve a purpose. I'd be interested to know how the crowd was live, in-person in Norfolk, Virginia, as it's always so difficult for me to gauge an audience while watching on TV. Maybe they were hot because they wanted to see Mone?

Shida brought a good fight to Mone, and for that, I'd say she deserves a shot at the TBS Championship at All Out, but that's only if Mone emerges from Wembley Stadium still champion. That's one match on the card where my prediction remains up in the air. Do you take the belt off arguably the biggest women's star in the division? Mone hasn't held it for too terribly long, and she's holding it well, especially now that she has a bodyguard in Kamille to continue to make each match even more interesting. Do you put the title on a returning Baker? If you would have asked me two weeks ago, I would have said yes, prior to Baker getting suspended for an alleged backstage incident involving MJF, Alicia Atout, and Will Ospreay. However, it seems like Baker can do no wrong in the eyes of Tony Khan, if backstage rumors are to be believed, so maybe, you do still put the gold on her. Shida still deserves a shot at the championship, but I honestly rather see her take on Mone again, rather than Baker.

Despite all of that, the main point of this "hated" section is the fact AEW needs to stop doing title matches before a pay-per-view when their champions are already booked to face someone else at the event. Fans aren't stupid. We know that a lot goes in to the marketing of a match and things are highly unlikely to change in 11 days before All In, one of, if not the biggest yearly event in AEW. Tony Khan, while I loved this match a lot and I want to see Shida wrestle on my TV, I'm not dumb. Book this as a "title eliminator match" or whatever it is you've been doing, and don't get my hopes up that I'm going to see some dramatic title change before an event.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Forbidden Door may be one of AEW's flagship annual shows, but year after year, it seems that the vast majority of the matches and storylines of the show are almost instantly forgotten about after the event given the crossover nature between AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. For once, it's nice to see that's not necessarily the case even if it's just having Mina Shirakawa comment on the feud between Toni Storm and Mariah May in a short backstage interview with Renee Paquette.

Months went into the build for the match between Storm and Shirakawa, with May clearly being caught up in the middle. Shirakawa already had a storied history with May, but also came to get to know Storm relatively well in that time. While Storm may have been the one to emerge as the victor back in June and ultimately retain the AEW Women's World Championship, it was a refreshing element to see Shirakawa comment on the changes in both women and actually acknowledge her respect for Storm. It may not have done too much to further the build, but it was a compelling way to demonstrate that Storm and May aren't the only ones being affected by their rising issues so to speak.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Hook has been embroiled in a feud with Chris Jericho for many months now and it has taken him from wrestling at AEW All In for the FTW Championship all the way to wrestling at All In for the FTW Championship. Some will split hairs and tell me that Hook has graduated from the pre-show to the main show, and I need all of those people to have a very serious conversation with themselves. This is how you're spending your life. Think about your choices. Call your mother, she would always like to hear from you.

Hook has been the clearest case of "The Jericho Vortex" as anyone. Not held back by the personal issues that can excuse Sammy Guevara's fall from grace. Not hounded by "He's leaving rumors" like Ricky Starks to explain his lack of momentum. Hook has been showing up, putting in the work, and he's exactly in the same place he was a year ago, except now he has to deal with a washed-up has-been doing an Andy Kaufman impression (and doing it poorly) tied around his neck.

Jericho will say that he's about to go 0-2 at Wembley, losing to Will Ospreay and Hook two straight years in a row, but the timeline speaks for itself. Jericho is a quantum hack, who has somehow managed to time-and-time again end up in situations where he puts people over and holds them back all at once.

Written by Ross Berman

Let me just get this out of the way first; there is absolutely no reason why Mariah May shouldn't be the one to take the title away from "Timeless" Toni Storm, and that needs to happen at All In. Pardon the pun, but May has been on fire lately, and the promo she cut in the video that aired tonight proved that even further. When commentary announced we'd be seeing May "debut a brand new film," I expected it to be in black and white, like Storm's current era. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't, but it was shot in a pretty dark manner, which made it all the more menacing, yet in a sexy way, something May has perfected since turning on Storm.

May also dropped some fire (again, I'm sorry!) lines during the promo. She mentioned Storm losing to Saraya at All In last year, and said, "I copy your successes, but never your mistakes." Amazing. Another good line? "Your greatest mistake was being alive at the same time as me." Phew, get her, girl. May is seen in the video gathering up all the gear she had to look like Storm's various eras, taking them outside, and dousing them in gasoline before lighting it all on fire.

The final fire line? "Don't worry, darling, we're both going to die. I just get to write your eulogy," as the final shots show May standing behind the burning gear, then a photo of Storm burning. Just simply incredible. Simple and effective.

I mentioned during our "WWE Raw" coverage this week that the feud between The New Judgment Day and Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest was already getting stale, because they do the same things week in, and week out. AEW is guilty of this often as well, but not tonight with one of its hottest feuds going in to All In, in what commentary kept hammering home throughout the night, is in just 11 days. We didn't actually see May or Storm live on the show. With just, as of the start of the show tonight, two "Dynamite" episodes to go, neither appeared. There was no sneak-attack beatdown in the ring, nobody jumping anyone on the stage, but this one video from May was more effective than any of that. This was very well shot, edited, produced, written, just, everything. When AEW does video promos like this right, they really nail them. I can't be convinced otherwise that May versus Storm is probably the hottest feud going in to the pay-per-view. I also can't be convinced that May doesn't walk out of this AEW Women's World Champion, and Storm's life falls to pieces once again. Those are two dynamics I'm excited to see on "Dynamite," and for once, a women's feud is one of the best things AEW has going, and that's incredible.

Written by Daisy Ruth

One of the things that consistently bothers me about AEW is their seeming allergy to the concept of the squash match. Too often, Tony Khan insists on matches where everyone involved gets significant offense, because he's doing his best to protect the entire roster at all time. I assume Khan thinks this results in his entire roster looking strong. Unfortunately, it actually results in his entire roster looking mid.

Take, for example, Jay Lethal vs. "Hangman" Adam Page. There's nothing wrong with the fact that this match was booked — Page is (apparently) feuding with Jeff Jarrett, who's friends with Jay Lethal; it's not rocket science. But Page is a former world champion with a blood vendetta against the current world champion. Not only has Lethal never held a title of any kind in AEW, he hasn't won a match on AEW TV since October 2023. I'm not saying Lethal should look like he doesn't belong in the same ring as Page, but the match was clearly booked with the idea of making Page look dangerous, and instead he just looked like someone who needed nine minutes and 32 seconds to put down Jay Lethal.

And ironically, it's a very similar situation with AEW World Champion and aforementioned Hangman blood nemesis Swerve Strickland, who's feuding with Bryan Danielson and defeated Danielson's stablemate, Wheeler Yuta, in nine minutes and 22 seconds. And really this is the more egregious of the two. At least with Lethal you could theoretically lean on his pedigree and his experience. Yuta is a 27-year-old up-and-comer who recently came back from injury, lost the midcard Ring of Honor belt he had been holding, and has been winning matches against the likes of Rocky Romero, Anthony Henry, and The Butcher. Like we don't need to do this with Yuta, he can take a loss in a 90-second squash match where he gets like one brief hope spot before Strickland murders him, thereby backing up the points he was making to Danielson last week and building up the feud that all of this is meant to be in service of. Yuta needed to get eaten alive here, and he could have easily survived that kind of loss to the man who is literally at the top of the company. But no, he had to get in all kinds of offense and even come half a second away from pinning the world champion.

And again, Tony: That doesn't make Yuta look good, it just makes Swerve look bad, no matter what kind of finish you slap on. The fact that Yuta did so well against the world champion isn't special, because anyone would have, because that's just how matches work in AEW. So the oversaturation kills the potential benefit, and in the meantime Swerve looks like he couldn't back up his words with his actions. You gave 10 minutes to a story beat that would have been much more effective if only given two. Congratulations, I guess?

Written by Miles Schneiderman

As I said last week, Bryan Danielson is hell-bent on destruction. This has been a fact that many have accepted but very few are willing to admit that there is something wrong with a proud family man like Bryan Danielson being so gleefully self-destructive.

Swerve Strickland is not like most people. He is determined to end Danielson's career at AEW All In and give Birdy and Buddy Danielson the present father they deserve, whether he can walk or not. What could've been seen as a cold, chilling threat, to me read like someone finally addressing the elephant in the room. Bryan Danielson has a family, and if he doesn't want to focus on the people he loves, then he is going to pay a dire price.

I might not agree with Swerve's method, as a paralyzed Bryan Danielson will be an added burden to a family with two young children but healthy or not, Danielson's children will only get one childhood, and that childhood is disappearing day by day. Danielson's unhealthy obsession with his career will need to be dealt with eventually. He is promising a world where every victory means more time away from that childhood, while Swerve is promising to put Danielson where he belongs: in his children's lives.

Written by Ross Berman