AEW Weekly BreakDown June 3-9

                           

The road to Forbidden Door is heating up, and it feels like a little more pressure is on AEW to execute this event after WWE and TNA partnered up for the upcoming Battleground event. The one thing that AEW has going for them right now is that their franchise player MJF is back. Why is it so important that MJF is back. The man is hot, and he connects with the audience. The AEW crowd is more alive when MJF is involved. The man is able to draw love and hate like nobody else in the business. The product is better with him…period. And that was obvious Wednesday night. Let’s jump into the BreakDown of this week's AEW shows. 

AEW Dynamite 6/5 

The show kicked off with MJF making his return to Dynamite, and MJF was in rare form. The first note from this stellar promo, was that in a matter of moments, MJF managed to elevate the entire roster around him. He made fun of Will Ospreay, Swerve Strickland, Kazuchika Okada, and many more. Instantly, the intrigue of a potential feud with any of those 3 title holders have fans excited. My one note from this segment was him not going too hard on The Elite and their turn on Tony Khan. With him having a new contract extension, you’d think the fact that Tony is losing control of the show to the EVP’s would be something of importance to MJF. Especially if MJF feels that this is his company, and he’s responsible for success. From a traditional standpoint, I get not pinning your two top heels against each other. However, the world of wrestling isn’t just babyfaces and heels anymore. There’s also antiheroes. Stars like CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre, and MJF have this versatility of character where they can skate the good guy/bad guy spectrum. It will be interesting to see if the Bucks and Perry take aim at MJF, or if they try to align themselves with him. Either way, Dynamite was 10X as interesting with MJF back. The cherry on top of all of that, was Rush came out as the first challenger to MJF, likely for Forbidden Door. We’ve been waiting for AEW to push Rush, the former ROH World Champion. This is a great feud for the Mexican superstar to get some exposure to a large audience. Again, MJF elevates all the talent around him. That’s why he’s your franchise player. 

The next match was a fatal 4 way match for the right to challenge Will Ospreay for the International Championship next week on Dynamite. Orange Cassidy, Rey Fenix, Jay Lethal, and Kyle O’ Reilly competed in a back and forth match. With Kyle and Will already clashed last Saturday, and Orange is in the middle of a feud with Trent, Rey Fenix was the natural fit for the next challenger to Will. Fenix pinned Lethal, so you protect Orange and Kyle. Ospreay and Fenix should provide a wild match next week. After the match, Don Callis and Trent marched to the ring. Orange grabbed a chair to defend himself. However, Kris Statlander got involved which caused Orange to lower his defenses, just to get slapped by Statlander. Just before things could escalate, Willow ran to the ring to exact her revenge on her former friend. I’ve read some reviews saying this is lazy booking, and give each competitor a reason to be out in front of the audience. I didn’t view that this way. I think this feud that’s building with Orange and Trent is one of the best things that have happened to Trent in his career, and pairing him with Callis could actually push the needle with him. You heard the fans react to Orange, they love him, and Trent is a legitimate heel right now. And Willow got a pop coming to the rescue of Orange. You now have a mixed tag match you can do, and Willow and Kris are engaged in what should be a solid feud. I really liked this for all 4 wrestlers involved. The one thing that I’m a little bummed about is the laughing stock that AEW has turned Jay Lethal into. This is a man that feuded with Cody for the ROH World Title during the rise of independent wrestling into the mainstream. According to BleacherReport via Cagematch.net, Jay hasn’t won a match since October 23, 2023. 

The qualifiers for the TNT Championship ladder match continued. We got Brian Cage and Mark Briscoe squaring off. You knew Briscoe was going to win this match. If you're going to have a ladder match, you need someone willing to take crazy spots and has experience navigating through the match. There’s just something that turns me off of Brian Cage. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s the largest man I’ve ever seen, yet all his moves seem soft and in slow motion. His maneuvers are something you’d expect from a cruiserweight, except they're slowed down because he’s the size of four cruiserweights. After Briscoe got the win, Jack Perry gave a deranged backstage segment interview. I don’t particularly hate what Jack has done, but I’m just not sold on Jack as a threat. He’s so small, and creative is pushing him like he’s a heavyweight or a former MMA champion. It’s like if Rey Mysterio tried to act as vicious and threatening as Chris Benoit back in 2004. It’s just not very believable is my point. 

Samoa Joe and Hook were backstage when Jay White and The Gunns came up to him and insulted him. Hook ran to attack but Joe held him back. I actually liked Hook in this segment, his rib on Jay was funny. Jay White VS Samoa Joe sounds like a match everyone wants, and no booking or belt needed. Put that on the Forbidden Door pay per view, and everyone is tuning in! 

Blackpool Combat Club VS Team CMLL was the next match, and it was a lengthy one. It’s a call back to CMLL attacking the members of the BCC a couple of months ago. Volador, Magnus, Esfinge, and Rugido battled with the members of the BCC in a really chaotic affair. This is good exposure for the BCC and a way to get them back on the win column. But Moxley is the IWGP world title, and should be the main attraction heading into Forbidden Door. He shouldn’t be scraping with CMLL guys unless one of them will challenge him for the belt. They should be finding a high profile Japanese opponent for Daniels, and leave some of the CMLL stars for Claudio and Wheeler Yuta. Claudio and Wheeler need something, both are too talented to stay stuck in the mood from a booking perspective. Where is Gran Guerrero and Hechicero? Wheeler and Hechicero would be great, and an established well known talent like Claudio to face the CMLL Champion Gran Guerrero would be great exposure for the brand. I loved the vignettes of Daniel Garcia, but incorporating more CMLL vignettes to explain them like they did with Stephanie Vaquer would be great. Also, CMLL wrestlers have to win on Dynamite and even at the paper view to elicit any type of interest in future crossovers. It feels like a lot of their exposure is getting beat by AEW talent, which is going to make them feel like glorified jobbers. 

Stephanie Vaquer and Mercedes Mone were announced for Forbidden Door. That should be an incredible match for both women. Say what you want about Mercedes, but this will elevate Stephanie by facing someone with the star powers as Mercedes has. Also, somebody needs to pull Chris aside and tell him to move on. This character isn’t good. And he’s coming really butt hurt by the “please retire chants” and the comments saying he takes up all the TV time. I get what he’s trying to do, but it’s not resonating, and people openly tune out when his segments run. There's a heel, and then there’s people just not wanting to watch you. Jericho is the second portion of that, whilst thinking he’s doing edgy heel work that’s getting a reaction. Nobody is reacting, and nobody is enjoying it.

The pornographic segment of the night with Saraya taking on Mariah May went down. Mariah and Saraya had an alright match. Saraya got a big submission victory. Instead of putting Saraya over, Mina Shirakawa came out and there were a lot of pouty faces between her and Toni, excessive pushing of the breasts together, and Mariah holding both their heads to her breast. It was bizarre and kind of awkward. My biggest problem with this. They’re taking the flamboyant and cringy sexual humor popular in Japanese culture and trying to push it to an American audience who just don’t get it. It would be fine if this was a pre-show type of program, but this is involving the AEW Women’s champion. They’ve managed to do something insane, and that is making the TBS title more important than the AEW title. Now this brilliant, creative character Toni has been doing, is now tied into minor feuds and silly antics with Mariah May. It all feels elementary and underneath a woman who’s been the leader of this division for months. And to be eclipsed by Mercedes who’s only been TBS champion for a couple weeks. I get Tony invested a lot into Mercedes, but what type of creative is this? Abandoning a champion in the middle of her title reign. These are the things that open Tony up for harsh criticism online. 

The final match was Swerve taking on Roderick Strong. I actually loved that Roderick got this title shot. He was hot before losing to Will, and if he beat Swerve, it would earn him another shot at Will at the end of the month with a new prize on the line. This would all work. Also, Roderick Strong’s resume speaks for himself. Not only has he had success with AEW, but he’s beaten some of the best wrestlers in the world. And the match was booked well. Swerve beat Roderick clean, and came out looking very strong for his match with Will. It would have been bad if Roderick Strong whooped on Swerve with no interference, but that didn’t happen. The night ended on a high note, and besides some questionable booking choices, it was an entertaining show. 

Rampage 6/7

A second week in a row that Rampage provided some solid in-ring action. The opening match showed Penta and The Butcher with no Blade. This felt like the first time I saw Penta win on AEW television in months. It was a minor win for Penta, but a step in the right direction. His brother Fenix won a # 1 contender match to face Will Ospreay. People forget, The Lucha Brothers are AEW originals, and were prominent single competitors before coming to AEW. Penta faced Kenny Omega in the main event of All In, the event that started the company. The fact that other talent is getting pushed over him feels like Tony Kahn doesn’t appreciate the Mexican superstar. The match feels clunky, but you have to be patient being that Butcher doesn’t really work singles matches, but despite injuries, Tony has to give his talent work. 

The Acclaimed faced off with two jobbers who looked like they rushed the Capital on January 6 according to Max Caster. I’m not sure what they’re doing with the Acclaimed, because they’ve been beating up jobbers, and a lot of Max’s promos sound very heel-like. The next match was Gates of Agony and Private Party. The only note I wrote here was how bad did AEW fuck up Private Party. The gimmick isn’t working, and they have to drop this stupid gimmick and get to just wrestling. These guys are way too talented to be dancing and moaning around the arena. They have the potential to be like the Street Profits, they’re that talented and athletic. And the Gates of Agony got the win, and I’m pretty happy about that. Gates of Agony always had an intimidating look to me. The guys had been presented as jobbers but looked like monsters. They are now starting to get some wins on TV and I think people are responding to it. Now get Brian Cage to start winning singles matches, and we might actually see this faction gain some importance. They came off like a strong tag team tonight and that’s a step in the right direction

Bang Bang Gang is reunited again. Even better, Jay White anointed Juice Robinson as a quarter of the Trios Champions with The Gunns (You read that right, Jay isn’t very good at match). The match was quick, but this faction looks so much better with Juice, and Jay being free to work singles matches is good. Another main event caliber guy is open. 

The final match was a treat. Mina Shirakawa and Serena Deeb faced off. And I like how they didn’t absolutely bury Deeb. She came out and worked an extremely competitive match with Mina. I saw some of the Japanese gimmicks don’t translate well to America, but I think Mina has a shot. The entrance is great, and her in ring work is really strong. She’s hard hitting and technically sound, and she is charismatic as hell. I don’t love the lesbian angle they’re doing with Mariah and Toni Storm, but it seems like they’re using this to work into the rift between Mariah and Toni. It’s a bit messy, but it at least has some direction and they’re working to elevate a younger talent which I can dig. 

Collision 6/8 

Collision capped off what was another stale week by AEW. MJF sparked a little more interest, and they’ve had some good matches, but nothing really feels important going towards Forbidden Door. Some of the decisions seem confusing to me, especially on this show. Let's take a look. 

FTR kicked off the show with Yuta and Claudio. This was a really fun match, and it was really competitive. The crowd was psyched for Yuta who’s getting some really great reactions from fans. He’s over right now, and rightfully, Yuta and Claudio finished the match in a time limit draw, which means this isn’t the last match. Here’s where I’m confused. FTR seemed to have just forgotten their issues with the Elite, and now, they seem to be locked into a feud with the guys that are part of the faction that helped them against the Elite. Are the Elite just going to be accepted as the bosses? And why not have the Bucks follow up and crash Collision to fuck up FTR in this match? You can then work Yuta and Claudio into this feud, and Yuta and Okada can face each other and Forbidden Door. There you go, your young talent getting a pay per view match that makes sense. 

Kris Statlander had her first singles match since turning heel with Robyn Renegade. This was a pretty fast match as it should be. Kris looked really great, and Stockley is putting her over. I hope they keep pushing her and get wins, when healthy she’s one of the best talents they got. AEW should hope her contract isn’t up soon, because WWE and her would be a perfect fit. Good match for Kris. 

We got the Johnny TV match that we’ve been getting weekly for the last 3-4 weeks. It seems like Johnny TV working with people he hasn’t wrestled before will be a normal segment on the show. But he’s losing all the matches. And he lost to a part time guy in his 50’s who won the match, and called out Jack Perry for hitting his boss? Johnny still looks like a star, so why is he not winning these matches and working to a potential title match. And for what, so Dustin can get a win, and then get buried by Jack Perry the following week? What are we doing? 

The best match and segment of the night was between Toni Storm and Lady Frost. Lady Frost looks great, but let’s drop the Batman villain gimmick. She looked just as talented as Tony in there, and had a competition with the women’s champion. So does this mean Frost will get a chance to win the ROH title, the show she’s on? You have to follow this up by rewarding Frost with a push. 

Daniel Garcia worked with Tate Mayfairs. For those who don’t know, Tate is from Progress Wrestling. They advertised this match, and nobody knew who the poor kid was. And this was basically a squash match. Remember what I said about other companies not letting their talent go work for AEW because they just get killed. Also, the fans were confused why this was getting pushed. 

Speaking of baby faces VS baby faces, AEW kept hitting us with this. Kyle O’ Reilly and Orange Cassidy worked a match. This could be a really fun rivalry between two top talents on the roster. Instead, you just had their first matchup free to the audience with no importance. AEW is famous for just putting big names stars in matches with each other, and making it mean nothing. Solid match, but that’s all I could think about. And Cassidy by Kyle O’ Reilly, and that marks the fourth straight loss for Kyle on AEW television. 

AEW’s booking continues to be bipolar and make no sense or have direction. They’re putting on matches with big talent and not making them important. They’re working feuds with baby faces VS baby faces while the top heels of the company aren’t really doing anything. And they’re pushing Ospreay and Strickland, two babyface champions against each other at the Pay Per View that’s supposed to be CMLL, NJPW, and AEW crossover.  Also, Swerve and Toni are your champions, and AEW is clearly making Will Ospreay and Mercedes more important than them. None of this makes sense.