AEW Dynamite, 6/5/2024 - 3 Things We Loved And 3 Things We Hated

By Wrestling Inc. StaffJune 6, 2024 12:47 am EST

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Another "AEW Dynamite" has come and gone. The road to Forbidden Door 3 is becoming clear with each week and the women's roster especially made a mark on the Wrestling Inc. Staff. Much like every week, this will not be a place to "tell you what happened," that's what our fastidious results page is for.

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As is always the case, there was plenty to love about this week's "Dynamite," and also plenty to hate. After all, Chris Jericho was involved and he has never inspired middling or muted reactions from this crowd either way. However, there were bright spots like Willow Nightingale's inspiring promo or Saraya's win after a long dryspell.

Here's 3 things we loved and 3 things we hated from this week's edition of "AEW Dynamite," which was held in Colorado.

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I often bristle at the comparison between AEW and WCW. It feels like someone describing an orange while eating a tangerine. It's not completely different, but it's different enough and words mean things. Which is why I am saying tonight's "Dynamite" did something that truly made WCW successful: Someone said "F*** it, go let the luchadors fight some of our established stars, we gotta kill some time. I'm gonna go crack a beer with Hogan in his locker room and-" ok, I may have leaned too far into the WCW side of things there, but so did AEW.

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They just threw four luchadors, Volador Jr., Rugido, Magnus, and Esfinge, who have a history with The Blackpool Combat Club, into the ring and let the eight men celebrate Wheeler Yuta's return from injury with some athletic pugilism. It was heated, intense, and completely gossamer. The match had very little ramifications. Wheeler Yuta picked up a return win, sneaking a pinfall on Rugido. No one earned a title shot. No blood feud was stoked. It was just a simple case of two teams trying to beat the piss out of each other.

The fact that this was the most excited I was able to get throughout all of "AEW Dynamite" is better left unsaid for this section. I have already stretched a "really like" into a "loved" but success is built out of "really like." I will never turn up my nose at something I "really like." AEW could use more 8-man tag showcases like this, rather than burning stipulations and doing endless Casino Gauntlets.

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Written by Ross W Berman IV

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I'll be the first to admit that while I was certainly not a fan of The Young Bucks' current characters at first, they've slowly grown on me as the weeks have gone on now that Matthew and Nicholas Jackson have settled into the roles nicely. While I understand the need for them to interact with many roster members on television given their status as EVPs who are trying to take over AEW programming, I just don't feel like The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn needed to be included on that list.

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Matthew and Nicholas' appearance on the big screen to tell The Acclaimed an Gunn that their unannounced segment was being cut from the show and the backstage segment where The Acclaimed and Gunn confronted The Bucks in The Elite's dressing room as security held them back were both incredibly short. They didn't take up much time on the show, which therefore made them feel like they weren't needed on the show in the first place. They had little importance, and felt very random especially when you consider that there were plenty of other things The Bucks could've inserted themselves into tonight whether that be intervening in the TNT Championship Forbidden Door Ladder Match Qualifier between Mark Briscoe and Brian Cage in some capacity to help out Jack Perry or become involved in the AEW World Championship match between Swerve Strickland and Roderick Strong to help out Christian Cage after he had asked them for another title shot earlier.

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Written by Olivia Quinlan

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Last week, Saraya hinted at some backstage shenanigans after her match against Mariah May was cut last-minute in favor of Mercedes Moné's unadvertised "Dynamite" debut. Coming into her match against May tonight, both the general, soul-crushing pressure to wrestle a great match and the pressure to deliver a match that justified her social media outburst must have weighed heavy on her mind. When the dust settled and the bell rang, however, Saraya's hand was the one that was raised, and now, we don't know what to expect from the former AEW Women's World Champion — in a good way.

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This wasn't any Match of the Year, but going into tonight's contest, I thought this was a surefire May victory. May is one of AEW's hottest acquisitions, and even though she's been here since November 2023, she still is one of the promotion's biggest draws, especially in the women's division. Before tonight, she had won eleven out of the fifteen matches she was involved in, which places her success rate within range of top stars such as "Timeless" Toni Storm, Thunder Rosa, and Willow Nightingale. Saraya, on the other hand, has one singles win and three losses in her 2024 record — needless to say, not great. The odds were stacked against Saraya from a booking standpoint, and judging from her social media fit last Wednesday, I wouldn't have been surprised if she was buried.

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In fact, Saraya's chances of winning were not even on my mind until the bell rang, and Saraya's hand was raised. It was a pleasant surprise that offered a much-needed twist to an admittedly stale women's division — by all patterns and expectations, May should've won. Add the fact that, on top of an upset victory, Saraya made May verbally tap out. Submissions are far more emasculating and humiliating than pinfalls, and so for Saraya to win in a dominant way — on top of her winning at all — is tantalizing. Saraya's victory was an upset (which is weird to say, considering how infamous she is in the industry), but it was an upset that left me wanting more. What does this mean for The Outcasts going forward? Will Saraya be featured more in upcoming shows post-Forbidden Door? Are we finally going to have a reason to care about Saraya after she's been irrelevant for most of 2024?

This is less about Saraya and May's match, and more about the growing number of possibilities for Saraya's career, now with a tide-turning victory over May underneath her belt. When women only get a 15-30 minute slot in the midcard of a show, there is only one chance to surprise us, to make us care, and to leave us wanting more. Having Saraya come out on top over May? This is how you leave us wanting more. It was unexpected, it was something new in a women's division that relies on the same three women to carry the entirety of the roster, and it was long overdue. This could be the start of something big for the former AEW Women's World Champion, and I am strapped in for the ride.

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Written by Angeline Phu

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I think we last left off on Berman v. Jericho with me saying that his transition into cartoon plunder had reinvigorated a grating on-screen presence and now I am once again saying Jericho is bad and should probably stop being bad. I'm sure you are tired of me bouncing between "We're so back" and "It's never been more over" when it comes to Jericho, so just imagine how it is in my head. This is why I suggest Jericho do what he's done in the past and do something less bad, possibly even good.

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This week's Jericho omnipresence felt like a rib on someone, maybe me. Maybe he's doing an impression of The Young Bucks, who are seemingly doing an impression of...CM Punk? I'm actually not sure. Either way, Jericho came off like an annoying parrot and Big Bill came off worse. Bill and Jericho both tried to play the segment as bad on purpose and ended up with something that was just bad. Jericho was showing people how to do things backstage, much to their chagrin, completely oblivious to how much people hate him and oh my god I'm tired just talking about it. It's phony in a way that isn't fun, it's inside baseball in a way that even insiders are shrugging and saying "Man, what?"

I have no notes however for Bryan Keith's new gimmick of yelling "DISRESPECT" as if it's some kind of nervous tick. I just wish it was part of a better whole.

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Written by Ross W Berman IV

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In what is sure to be considered a hot take from me by many, I tend to be much more drawn to heel characters and personally find many of the babyfaces in the modern professional wrestling landscape to be boring because they all kind of start to blend together for me and have a certain expiration date when fans inevitably start to grow tired of them. Willow Nightingale is one of the exceptions to that, as she has plenty of personality to keep her from feeling stale and has the natural ability to be a babyface. No matter if it's a match, an in-ring promo, or a backstage promo, Nightingale manages to put a smile on the face of almost everyone watching.

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Nightingale's backstage interview with Renee Paquette showed a bit of a different side to her tonight, which made it stand above all the other million backstage segments the rest of "Dynamite" was filled with. While she is generally happy-go-lucky, she showed tonight that she can both own up to her mistakes in losing the TBS Championship and knows when it's time to get serious when she was addressing Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway. It added more depth and dimension to her already interesting character and made for a fun time to watch. Orange Cassidy appearing at the end and fist-bumping Nightingale was the cherry on top of everything, and was an excellent tease for a tag team I didn't know I needed to go up against Statlander and Trent Beretta.

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Written by Olivia Quinlan

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Stephanie Vaquer has it. She has the aesthetic, she has the talent, and she has the international experience to become one of the top women in the wrestling industry, period. Even if she hasn't wrestled on AEW television, there is no way she earned the moniker of "belt collector" without an intense, fiery passion for this business, and some damn-good in-ring ability to back it up.

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What's the one way you can crush that fire before it even ignites the hearts of the American audience? Put her up against someone who has a 2-0 record — someone who is so beloved by the wrestling community that booking her to lose is practically inconceivable — and make it a title-for-title match, for...some reason.

Jokes aside, it makes a lot of sense to make this match title-for-title. After the stipulation shenanigans of the other company this past pay-per-view cycle, it is almost refreshing to hear it put plain and simple: "Yes, this will be a title-for-title match". Both women are champions, and it is expected that a champion defend their title at big pay-per-view matches with high stakes. There is little to no reason that this match can't be title-for-title — AEW has carried NJPW titles on their shows before, and NJPW has hosted AEW stars (recently, too). It makes perfect sense that this match is a title-for-title contest, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

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Ever since Moné debuted outside of WWE, her reputation has preceded her. She is one of the most recognized and iconic women's wrestlers of this time. Her reputation as a legend in the flesh precedes her, yes, but it goes way past her crowd appeal and into the logistics of her booking. Promoters are afraid to let her take a loss — if it weren't for her shattered ankle, she would've had only one loss on her record since leaving WWE. Promoters are afraid of her fanbase coming for them, and accusing them of booking her poorly just like her previous employer. As such, anybody that comes for Moné is going to be taking a loss, plain and simple.

It would've been just an unfortunate result of the circumstances for Vaquer to go 0-2 against Moné if her NJPW Strong Women's Championship was not on the line. However, when her arguably most visible and career-launching title is on the line in a contest that she will certainly lose? It just leaves a sour taste — new-on-the-scene talent is being stifled to build up someone who is clearly well-established, to the point where booking her to be anything but dominant is a death sentence for a promoter. Sure, Vaquer may still have her CMLL titles, but even in Mexico, CMLL is one of the lowest-rated wrestling programs. Her NJPW Strong Women's Championship is key to her international visibility, and we are going to stifle her momentum for what? To give Moné a title she doesn't need?

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To be clear, this is not an attack on Moné. She is one of the most coveted performers, and for good reason. However, there is no good reason for her to win that title right now, other than the fact that she's super popular. Sure, winning the NJPW Strong Women's Championship would be a nice full-circle moment to when she broke her ankle, but after the moment subsides, what is she going to do with it? This title would add little to Moné's current status or character (unless we're going to make her a belt collector as well, but that is currently unknown). It is much more valuable and well-used in the hands of someone like Vaquer, who is on the verge of breaking out in the North American wrestling scene.

There is no reason Moné can't be booked to take a loss, and while there isn't a rule in the promoter's bible that expressly prohibits it, nobody is willing to put out their neck to book her to lose. In that sense, Moné isn't truly elevating and diversifying the women's division — she is simply a figurehead for it, and not much more. We've been put in an un-winnable situation, and all we can hope is that Moné and Vaquer have a great match before the Chilean belt collector is ultimately buried at Forbidden Door.

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Written by Angeline Phu