AEW Dynamite - 7/24/2024: 3 Things We Loved And 3 Things We Hated

By Wrestling Inc. StaffJuly 25, 2024 2:40 am EST

AEW/Lee South

Another edition of "AEW Dynamite" has come and gone, and this week's show was centered around the return of Blood & Guts. Team AEW triumphed over The Elite in a brutal match that didn't end with a pinfall or a submission, but a negotiation. Chris Jericho defended his FTW Championship. MJF debuted a new version of the AEW International Championship. Mariah May and PAC were in action.

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Like every week there was plenty to love, and also plenty to hate. There will be no recaps in this, that's what our fastidious results page is for, just love, hate, and opinions. Here's three things we loved and three things we hated from the July 24th edition of "AEW Dynamite."

AEW/Lee South

AEW Blood & Guts has a reputation for being a decent to good match every year, and this one was no different than the rest.

Prior to tonight, AEW had already put out three Blood & Guts matches. With even that many already under the company's belt, it can be hard to keep the specialty match still feeling fresh and unique. Still, Team AEW and Team Elite managed to create several new spots in the match whether that be "Hangman" Adam Page handcuffing Swerve Strickland to the outside of the cage prior to him entering it, Anthony Bowens falling off the side of a cage through a pile of tables, Darby Allin landing a Coffin Drop off the top of the inside of the cage, or Matthew Jackson surrendering to prevent Darby Allin from engulfing Jack Perry in flames.

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While all that stuff made the match gripping, the thing that made this particular Blood & Guts stand out perhaps more than any other one thus far was the fact that it still told stories and contributed to the build of future storylines especially heading into All In. Nothing was forgotten about, between Matthew being the one to quit, having Allin, The Acclaimed, and Strickland arguing before the match, and Page having to be told he was taking his beat down of Strickland on the outside too far before the two encounter one another once more in the ring. It's the perfect set-up for what's to come and made it feel like there was a reason for everyone who competed in the match to be chosen.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

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AEW/Twitter

I am so confused about the AEW International Championship. Or the AEW All-Atlantic Championship. Or the AEW American Championship. It's a title that has been "made" time and time again by a pretty ironclad list of champions and consistently outstanding matches have made the title one of prominence, even if it will never reach the lofty heights of AEW's world title, but for much of its existence, it's felt more important than the AEW TNT Championship. I could probably even handle MJF's pseudo-JBL move of rebranding it as the AEW Ironic Nationalism Championship if it weren't for how thoroughly confused I am about the actual title scene.

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MJF and Will Ospreay have made it very clear that they will battle for the title in a month at All In. That I am not disputing. But MJF is also feuding with the -admittedly injured- Daniel Garcia, who had an All In challenge from MJF prior to the former World Champion's entanglement with Ospreay and the International Title. Furthermore, PAC won a four-way match to win a shot in the future at the title, which PAC seemed to think would be All In, as he signaled as much after winning the title shot. PAC's title match is now in the nebulous future, one would assume after All In, but MJF is set to defend the "AEW American Championship" when he visits CMLL in August. Also Ospreay has the Don Callis Family in his rearview mirror, possibly striking at any moment, as the split from that faction never felt what one could call "concluded."

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If you shrunk the context in that paragraph by about half, you could have a pretty compelling title scene, but all I'm looking at is a mess, a miasma of half-started feuds that almost forms a title scene, but is more like a Gordian Knot, and I have no interest in untangling it.

Written By Ross W Berman IV

AEW/Twitter

Alex Marvez has a stilted, mechanical delivery to everything he says. Will Ospreay is a cartoon man who has never reacted to anything in half-measure. This is the kind of dramaturgical dyad that has created plenty of comedic partnerships. AEW struck gold early on Tuesday by putting these two men together in the opening segment.

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I have been a devout Ospreay hater for much of his New Japan Pro-Wrestling career. His Roman Empire fetishization and edgelord braggadocio just rubbed me the wrong way and his matches aren't what could be described as "for me." That being said, he has pivoted completely in AEW. He has somehow become a more real person by also being a much more ridiculous version of himself. He uses the word "Bruv" the way most men use a comma. He can't drive. He's no longer about marble columns and golden laurels and instead is about cashing checks and nearly crippling people. He's dropped the wanna-be emperor schtick in favor of being a British superathlete who is just trying to make money for his family and have, to borrow a term from the terminally online, "bangers."

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Now he's speeding through the streets of Nashville making Alex Marvez say "Ahh!" If I have any criticism, it's that there wasn't more of Ospreay and Marvez's dangerous drive through the streets of Music City, but what I got was magnificent.

Written by Ross W Berman IV

Blood & Guts is one of AEW's annual marquee specialty matches, so it's no surprise that it took up the vast majority of "Dynamite" and the rest of the card was built around that as mostly filler. With that said, it doesn't necessarily feel like enough of a justification to put two jobber matches back-to-back right before Blood & Guts in the main event.

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Giving wrestlers who aren't as high profile or well known is always great exposure for the wrestlers in question, and can in some cases even lead to bigger things for them. However, when you can't hear or read their name as was the case for Mariah May's opponent, then it becomes virtually pointless unless you as the audience member are already aware of who the local performer is. Yes, Toni Storm surprising May, and having the two brawl was a good build for their All In match. There just feels like there are better ways that could've been set up, and could've been accomplished by just giving May another in-ring promo like last week or even a backstage segment.

Unlike the case of May, Boulder and his Iron Savages stablemates appear on "AEW Collision" and Ring of Honor programming on a relatively regular basis, so he's known by at least some of the fan base. Having him face PAC for the sole purpose of giving PAC a win heading into All In without even being announced prior to the start of the show, though, just felt like a way of eating up television time before Blood & Guts especially with the May match coming immediately after. It was just a weird choice and something that could've been done on "AEW Rampage."

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Written by Olivia Quinlan

AEW/Lee South

Throughout the course of its time as a promotion, AEW has always been good at not forgetting certain rivalries and moments that have happened in its storylines. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. and Hikaru Shida are no exception to this list, and it was cool to see them renew an old rivalry.

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Baker and Shida have a long history with one another in AEW dating all the way back to 2019. While at first, it might seem like a random choice to have them renew their rivalry five years later, Shida was actually the perfect choice to have as Baker's first opponent in the ring since making her return to AEW in May. The match basically writes itself, and AEW has to do almost nothing to set it up or build it up. On top of that, Baker and Shida took themselves to the limit and put on an entertaining match that made for a good watch. It's always fun to see an old rivalry renewed, and these two certainly did not disappoint.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

AEW/Lee South

I swore I wasn't going to write about Chris Jericho anymore but his brutally long match with Minoru Suzuki was a punishing slog and I need to tell somebody, might as well be you, dear reader.

"Two men chopping each other for an entire commercial break until one of them bleeds" sounds good in theory but in practice, it can eventually become sad. I miss the days of Chris Jericho hucking hockey pucks at his opponents or just getting involved with general plunder. Suzuki and Jericho had a match that under a lot of circumstances could work as "two old men fighting God and each other," but the Looney Toons hijinks of Jericho's FTW Championship don't really lend themselves to a Pro Wrestling NOAH special singles match. It was a fine display, probably even "good" to some, but considering the dire state of "The Learning Tree" and all the nonsense that comes with it, a high-concept but plunder-less Suzuki match just doesn't quite pass muster for me. 

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There is always time to cut down The Learning Tree and use it as kindling.

Written by Ross W Berman IV