AEW Weekly BreakDown Week July 15-21 (UPDATES TO COME)

 Written By: Danny Albers 

MJF and Will Ospreay began the show in a battle for the AEW International Championship. Things started with MJF jumping into the crowd and taunting the AEW faithful in Little Rock. Him and Ospreay tried to one-up each other by doing their own rendition of Ric Flair’s famous strut. This match went back and forth. At first it went from counters and quick action to a personal affair where both men were trying to hit devastating moves to end each other's career. MJF cheated to beat Ospreay after these two went nearly half the length of the entire show. I was pretty shocked as I expected this might be a time limit draw. But it’s interesting to see Ospreay lose a second straight match. I think it’s smart booking on AEW to not have Ospreay run through the roster. He’s jumping up in competition now with AEW, and the crowd is behind right now. So you don’t want to downplay the roster and turn the crowd against him by running through people. He’s facing challenges and he’s being humbled a bit right now. This continues the feud with him and MJF which will be a great featured match for All In. 

The next match was Mercedes Mone defending the TBS Championship against Nyla Rose. Mercedes seems aligned with The Elite right now, having a friendly backstage segment with The Bucks. I did not like the booking of this match. Nyla Rose is a beast and she’s a former women’s champion. This match should have gone a little bit longer, and I felt like Nyla should have gotten more offense and time of control in this match. Right now, Mercedes is booked so strongly in this match, they are never going to be able to change the narrative of her to the fans. 

Mariah May came out and mocked Toni Storm. She was dressed as the “Timeless” character. She mocked Toni Storm in the ring, and said that she loved when Toni was covered in blood screaming her name. She said that all the fans knew that it would end like this, it was only Toni who wasn’t in on it. I like that they didn’t have Toni interrupt Mariah, and that they gave her the entire time to talk. This match is turning into a blood feud, and it went from goofy lesbian love to a serious conflict. I love how personal the feud is getting between these two former friends. The final match was the promoted Swerve Strickland VS Kazuchika Okada. This wasn’t going to get a clear finish because it’s way too big of a match for a Dynamite. Instead, things broke down pretty quickly with The Elite members and The Acclaimed and Mark Briscoe getting involved to promote Blood & Guts. It was a fantastic show, and they kept it a small card so each match could get its time. 

Show Grade: B+

Rampage 7/19 

The night opened up with The Undisputed Kingdom versus The Conglomeration. But Tomohiro Ishii was the third member of the team. These teams have been feuding for the last couple weeks. To do this match on a Rampage doesn’t feel like the right time to do this match. Orange Cassidy was the standout from this team. He pinned Matt Taven to get the win. Shortly after, Kyle Fletcher attacked Don Callis came out, signaling for Kyle Fletcher to attack Orange from behind. Mark Brscoe came down to the ring and fought off Fletcher. This allowed Roderick Strong, Briscoes opponent at Death Before Dishonor to come in and hit him with a high knee. In the second match, Big Bill and Chris Jericho faced The Outrunners. Jericho stood on the apron while Big Bill destroyed the Outrunner. Jericho was seen playing with his phone and admiring the work of his big friend. The fans were not with this match at all. I know we’ve talked about it a lot but the fans are not with Chris Jericho right now, and it’s one thing to make someone a heel, but this is spiting the people who are paying to come to your show. Jericho’s opponent Minoru Suzuki made an appearance against The Butcher. The Butcher got squashed in this match by Suzuki, even though The Butcher is a bit larger than Suzuki. Suzuki taking on Chris Jericho is a fight based solely on name and reputation. Other than that aspect, is there anyone who thinks that is going to be a good match? Kris Statlander squashed a local competitor named Syndi Winnell. The night ended with The Lucha Brothers taking on Private Party. This was a good competitive match that saw the Lucha Bros win by pin. The announce team said they were the number one contenders without saying it. When is Private Party going to get a tag team run? They’re an AEW original, and haven’t touched tag team gold. A solid night of action for Rampage on a Friday Night that featured some competitive matches  

Show Grade: C

Collision 7/20

AEW did a live show from the ESports Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The arena did the stars no favors. The audio for promos was awful, and the layout was bizarre. We kicked off the show with Darby Allin returning and facing The Beast Mortos. The Beast Mortos is a huge dude, and I feel like if you can convince him to drop the ridiculous mask he could have some potential. Darby picked up an impressive victory, and he called out Jack Perry for All In. For some reason AEW keeps hitting us with the same matches over and over again. Darby Allin is a cool wrestler, but he’s on every important match for AEW at the pay per views. I don’t think anyone was hoping for a Darby Allin VS Jack Perry TNT Title match. For shows like All In, people want something special. Something that they’ve never seen before. 

Skye Blue faced Hikaru Shida in the next match. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of action from this before Skye Blue was injured from an outside maneuver. It looked like a serious knee or leg injury. Kyle Fletcher posted a picture of his real-life girlfriend Blue with a cast on what appeared to be her ankle, but no official announcement has been made on her injury. After Shida was announced as the winner, we jumped right into Tony Nese and Rey Fenix. They gave Tony Nese time to work and showcase his ability in this match, even though Rey Fenix picked up the victory. Fenix has been getting wins solo and with his brother, the Lucha Brothers seem like they are going to get a push. 

Roderick Strong came out to face Tomohiro Ishii. Strong looked a little under the weather or unmotivated in this match. It didn’t help that this was a hard hitting match. Ishii looks really great at this stage in his career. AEW apparently has him for the rest of the summer, so it will be interesting to see how they utilize the Japanese star. AEW debuted Hologram, an unknown luchador that nobody has heard of. They didn’t do a great job showcasing him here, putting him in with Gringo Loco and ending the match right away. They’ve also done no promotional video packages on him. Why should the Dallas area and people tune into the program on Saturday night to watch someone they don’t know. 

We finally got the Lumberjack match between Deonna Purrazzo and Thunder Rosa. Deonna Purazzo beat Thunder Rosa for the third time in a row. This has to end with Purazzo getting a championship run after beating a former AEW Women’s champion. Even though the match wasn’t a clean win, as Taya Valkyrie helped Deonna cheat to win, it’s interesting that they’re putting Rosa through the ringer. Is there any truth or substance to Rosa choosing to take time away and acting more injured than she really is? A criticism that was brought to life from the behind the scene show by Britt Baker. The main event was between Bang Bang Gang and The Patriarchy. AEW closed the show with a bang (no pun intended). Nick Wayne was a stand out in this match, as Christian did a lot more playcalling. Mother Wayne got involved and sprayed Juice Robinson in the eyes with something, allowing Killswitch to get the pinfall victory, and to win the titles for The Patriarchy. 

Show Grade: C+