AEW Dynamite Left Me Speechless

AEW Dynamite delivered one of the most entertaining episodes of the year, and I'm breaking down everything that made this show feel so special!

From MJF surviving a brutal AEW World Championship defense against RUSH, to the return of Mercedes Moné as the Owen Hart Tournament wild card, this episode felt important from start to finish. The show also featured a major Owen Hart Tournament showdown between Will Ospreay and Mark Davis, with Ospreay fighting through chaos and adversity to move one step closer to a championship opportunity at All In.

We'll also talk about Kevin Knight's shocking alignment with Don Callis, the fallout from the JetSpeed split, Mark Briscoe stepping up as a challenger to MJF, and why this entire episode felt like AEW had momentum rolling all night long. Whether it was the matches, the stories, the surprises, or the energy of the crowd, this Dynamite had a little bit of everything.

Do you think this was one of the best episodes of AEW Dynamite we've seen all year? Let me know your favorite moment in the comments and don't forget to like, subscribe, and join the conversation!

#AEW #AEWDynamite #MJF #MercedesMone #WillOspreay


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

WWE fanboy here that is slowly becoming an AEW fanboy. I watched Dynamite yesterday. I want to talk about what I liked and what I didn't like. And then I've got a lot of hot takes. So let's get going. And that's a good sign. I'm glad I got a lot more hot takes this week than last because that shows me that there is a need for more AEW content on YouTube and in particularly this channel. So if you want more AEW content, well then all you gotta do is tell your other sickos out there that Russell Chop is doing AEW content on Thursdays. And if if these Thursdays' videos take off, well, maybe I'll do a Friday video as well. The more views and subscribers and AEW people I get, the more AEW content I do. That is a deal we will make with each other. So help me out and help the channel grow. Alright, so I gotta say this. The things that I really, really liked about this show is that we're five minutes in and we're already starting a like a title match. We have a promo with MJF and Rouge, and we're suddenly in a half an hour banger of a match, and it's like I I was shocked. I didn't see like how did they even get in the building? I thought I thought we had to watch for 10 minutes wrestlers walking in smiling and with coffee. I thought that was how the wrestling shows started. And and I do love I do love WWE, but but you will find out that just because I love something doesn't mean I won't necessarily take a shot at it. And I'm gonna do that to AEW too. When AEW does something ridiculous, I'm gonna make fun of them as well. You know what? Because because when you love someone, you make fun of them. That's what you do. Yeah, like what kind of friend would you be if you didn't make fun of somebody when they did something stupid? And WWE having their wrestlers walk in every single week? That's stupid. But I'm so glad that AEW doesn't do that. And we just we just started. We just started and it went a half an hour. I was so like, I was so unprepared for such a huge segment that I had to go to the bathroom the entire time because I was like, oh yeah, the show's about to start. I have about 15 minutes before the action actually starts. So I could probably just go to the bathroom the moment, the moment they welcome us. And no, I couldn't. No, I couldn't. I'm like watching, I'm watching this awesome match, and I'm like, oh, I gotta pee. I gotta pee. I you think I would have known because at double or nothing, I actually walked away, and that was when Kyle Fletcher turned on to Kesha. So I I missed that at Double or Nothing because I was like, ah, yeah, we're we're done with the main part of this story. And then and then today I had to pee the whole time, but it was worth holding it because it was good. It was it was fantastic. Another thing I liked about this show is I actually watched this week with the commercials. I wanted to I wanted to compare AEW with commercials, and I have nothing against commercials. I know the company needs to make money so they can pay the wrestlers. Companies need to profit, but I do feel at a certain point profit becomes pure greed. And so I wanted to watch AEW with commercials this week, and I I watched it, and honestly, I barely noticed. I barely noticed because of the because of the tempo, the flow, the action, the everything of AEW, like compared to a WWE show, which is predominantly commercials nowadays. That's just a side note. I loved the MJF Roosh match. The only thing I would say is with Roosh, towards the end, right? He gets him in like the label lock, I think. And Roosh is very like, I'm not gonna tap out. He even gives MJF the finger, and then he like sticks his tongue out in defiance. You know, and that's cool. That's cool. That good way to build up your guy even in defeat, but then almost instantly he just passed out. It was like a little comical to me that he just like, you know, just kind of like he had narc narcolepsy real quick, just out. So I I wish the struggle would have just lasted about like 10 more seconds, but that's a very minor gripe. And I also oh I loved MJF coming out in an El Matador uh costume because you know, this feud between these, this mini feud is probably over, but like it was such a small, like two to three week feud, but for MJF to go all out just to do an El Matador costume for this two to three week feud, I appreciated that. The next best thing of the night was the ending. We end with Will Ospreay versus Mark Davis. Last week I said he reminded me of an Arn Anderson, some really normal looking dude that is just really high on the mid-card. I'm going to someone got mad at me for that too. And then somebody actually said that was a brilliant comparison. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. Oh man, joys have nuts, moms don't. Alright, so sorry, sometimes I break into song too, by the way. Hi, I'm Russell Chop, pleased to meet you. We're gonna have to start to getting to know each other and all of our little quarks. So, anyways, because I I think I'm sticking around as an AEW fan. So, anyways, we have Mark Briscoe. Oh, I wanted to add to the Mark Briscoe comparison. He's like Aren't Anderson in JBL's body, like just this big, this big dude that has wicked clotheslines. No way did I feel at any point that Will Ospreay was gonna lose. In fact, um, John Moxley, hey, look at me. I said John Moxley, not Dean Ambrose. I now know John Moxley is John Moxley and not as Dean Ambrose. So we have John Moxley before is like, man, I'm getting tired of all these factions. And I'm like, dude, you're a faction. These factions probably formed because of you. I thought that was funny though. And he's like, we got you, we got your pack. And one thing that I liked, so I did a live stream, and Danny Garcia, I think that's his name, was kind of like hyping up Will Osprey. And I am not, I don't really know who Danny Garcia is. Everybody was telling me how he's being wasted in the Death Riders, but the little bit that I saw of him yesterday, I really enjoyed him because he was like, he was making the most of his minutes in that he was not he was not the main character. He didn't even really have lines, probably, but he made sure that his body language, he was like, he was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, agreeing with everything Moxley was doing. I actually like Danny Garcia in this segment. But so we go, we have the match. No way, no how do I believe that Osprey is gonna lose until this match had I I said this in my my stream too, like I felt like this match had no right to be as good as it was. Now, I knew it was gonna be a good match, but when I say when I say no right as good as it was, because eventually, like I think 800 people, I think 800 people got involved, and there were some people in the live stream they were like, this is being overbooked. Yes, it was, but I think it was like overbooked in the right kind of way. It reminded me of when they used to overbook like SmackDown in the ruthless aggression era or or the attitude era, and I know a lot of people are like, shut up with the attitude era, man. That's like 30 years ago. Get over it. Why would I get over it? That's like the best era of wrestling, ruthless aggression attitude era. Heck, Tony Khan is like I can see, I can literally see Tony Khan's booking based off of that that era. I loved that era, and Tony Khan was a fan of that era, and tonight I saw that. I I see that as a compliment that I'm comparing this this final segment on a random on a random dynamite. I asked, I was like, is this a go home show? Is this a go home show to a PLE? Why are we getting something this good? Like, WWE doesn't give us stuff this good on go home shows. And this is just a random, a random show. You don't know how many times I'm can I've been told, oh, you should lower your expectations for WWE because this is the summer lull. In WWE, you're told to lower your expectations for like six months because it's after WrestleMania. And I'm watching this TKO, not TKO, I'm watching this AEW show just going all out, throwing everything against the wall. This ending was like crazy insane, and all the good was it overbooked? Yeah, but overbooked doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, like it all made sense, it all made sense, and it just so reminded me of the chaos that was the the the right kind of chaos of the attitude era ruthless aggression era, and that is 100% a a compliment coming from Mawa. I know that AEW is where the best wrestle, because you know that's the that's the catchphrase, right? But I think I think you aw fans are selling yourself short or selling yourself your product short when you only talk about the wrestling because I am watching AEW and I am seeing more, I am seeing more than just wrestling. The wrestling's great, don't get me wrong. I I actually am enjoying the wrestling a lot, a lot, a lot, but like I'm seeing characters, I'm seeing storylines, I'm seeing overbooked nonsense that is like good kind of nonsense. Like, uh I've seen a lot more than just wrestling. So, like, maybe add to that, we're the best wrestle, and you get everything else with it. Because this this was great. You bookend with an actual title match from MJF, your best, arguably your best character. He opens the show. That reminded me of when Triple H and Chris Jericho opened the show in the attitude era, and then we end, we end with that like complete, that complete chaos. That reminded me, that would remind me of when like Stone Cold Steve Austin would just come down and just hit everybody with a chair, or there was this one time where Edge, Edge, you know, Adam Copeland, he like he started this sequence on a smackdown where he where he missed a spear and then and then he got hit with a finisher, and then that guy got hit with a finisher, then that guy got hit, then that guy got hit, then that guy, that guy, that guy, and then when it was all said and done, it came full circle. Where the nonsense had gone so long that Edge had recovered, and then he finally hits a spear. That was on a SmackDown episode. So, like, I really enjoyed this, but what about the stuff in the middle? Because it's it's it's easy to start a good show hot and end a show hot. Honestly, you can do that because you end a show super hot or super good, you start it, and then you you can phone in the rest because it's like ah, they'll just go away with they'll just go away with that ending, but the rest of the show was pretty good too. You had that crazy what Leo Rush? Leo Rush, he's very unique character. You have Mark Briscoe. So Mark Briscoe cut a really passionate promo, making you connect with this everyday guy. So I I I I didn't know of Mark Briscoe. I know he's the Briscoe Brothers from Ring of Honor, but I've never actually seen one of his matches as a tag team. And I knew his brother had died as well. So that's that's all I really knew of this guy, and I've not been feeling this guy at all. He cut a passionate promo. Now, on one hand, it probably went a minute, maybe too too long, but on the other hand, I'm this pretty much a brand new AEW fan, right? I have seen AEW dynamites in the past, even last year, but like for the most part, very few. So, Mark Briscoe cutting this promo, it got me to get to know him. So, as somebody that has very little clue about who he is, coming off of double or nothing, which is a good starting point to get new fans invested in your product, for Mark Briscoe to say all that stuff was very effective for me, a new person. So, I mean, and there is a balance, you don't want to only cater to new people, you need to cater to both. But I will say, as a new person, I definitely appreciated getting to know the story that is Mark Briscoe. Because now, last week I did not want to see him go against MJF, other than the fact that I liked MJF kind of making fun of him. Now I I kind of want to see that, I really do. And on some levels, I kind of want to see him win the title. I don't know if I want to see him win the title from MJF, but I kind of want to see him win the title because of that like very personal story. And like last week, I did not want him to win the title at all. So I am interested in this. Kevin Knight versus Speedball. That was a good match. Speedball does some crazy kicks. Speedball is very much a goody two shoes, but I I'll say I liked him a little better this week than I did last week. So if on a scale of one to ten, last week speedball would have been a one. All right, so now he's a two. So still really low on if I like speedball or not, but I will say maybe, maybe in two months he'll be my favorite guy. With the jet, though, the jet, I like him. I like him. What is the name? Kevin Knight. I really like Kevin Knight, but I don't like that he went with Don Callis. I like Don Callis. I do. I actually really like Don Callis. He's funny. But I don't think the Knight, or no, the Knight, the Jet needed Don Callis. Maybe I'm wrong because I haven't seen too much of the product, but I feel like the knight would have been better on his own. I was really enjoying the limited uh just the interview from last week. I don't, I I wish, I wish Don Callis, who has a million people in his family, didn't pull the jet in. I don't want the jet to be overshadowed. I kind of wanted him to stand on his own two feet. So I didn't like that, but I liked their match. I also didn't like Takesha and Kyle Fletcher. Their story doesn't seem to like, yes, Kyle Fletcher came out and Takesha, Takesha took him out out of that too, but it was very small, very small. For as much impact that I felt that that turn at double or nothing was, I've been wanting to see more. Last week, I don't feel we saw enough of that, the the Takesha Kyle Fletcher thing. And this week I don't feel we had enough of the Takesha Kyle Fletcher thing. I am brand new and I was very much like, who's this Takesha guy? I like this Takesha guy. So like I instantly lashed on to Takesha, and now I've not really seen him. The way they're booking Kyle Fletcher and Takesha is how WWE books something. They get something red hot and then they just drip feed you, drip feed you, drip feed you. And you know what? I mean, it allows, it does allow the stories to be prolonged and drawn out, but I'm really digging how Tony Khan has been doing things, and it's not like it's not like he's shooting his shot too quick, but he's definitely not watering down the product just so he can make sure that this match can make it all the way to Wrestle Dream or something. Isn't that a that's an AWPLE in December or something? You know what I'm saying? So like I'm not like I I'm not like cashed out of Takesha, but I'm not as interested in as much in Takesha as I was two weeks ago, if that makes sense. And then I really like the war dogs, or no, not the war dogs, just the dogs. I think they're the dogs. I like the dogs, like the young bugs said the lame as just who let the dogs out. Don't don't don't do that. Don't do that, don't make that kind of joke. But I love the dogs stealing the gimmicks of of Edging Christian, they had the kazoos, they had the picture of the five-second pose. These guys are really good. I love these guys, and I haven't even seen a match of theirs yet, but I love these guys. I love their personality. They had Mad Dog 2, having mad, I think that was Mad Dog, but having like 40s and stuff. Oh gosh, that was that was good stuff right there. And then the young bucks came and challenged, like, yeah, yeah. If I was them, I'd make that part of their gimmick, just stealing everybody else's gimmick. However, that does bring me up to Tomasa Champa. It was kind of weird. They showed a clip of Tomasa Champa collision doing the thousand and four reasons why he hates Chris Jericho. In a bubble, that is really good. Because nobody's ever made fun of Jericho like that. Nobody's ever stolen that 1004 thing because that was a 1004 holds of Dean Malinko from back in WCW. So I popped out of that. You know, that was one of my favorite that's one of my favorite wrestling angles of all time or or skits segments, the 1004 holds. Armbar, arm bar, arm bar. So that was great. However, now that we have two characters or two, like you have the dogs, and you have Tomasa Champa actively stealing legend gimmicks, it's like you should only do one at a time, honestly. You should only do one at a time. I would probably prefer if Tomasa Champa didn't do that and let the dogs do it, because the dogs are really good at playing off each other, they're really, really good at playing off each other, and Tomasa Champa's just a psycho. So I think uh just let Tomasa Champa be a psycho on on Chris Jericho because like when he attacked him last week, that was that was fine. It was fine. I like that. Uh what else? What else? Oh, here's some two more things, two more things. Takesha, no, not Takesha, Tekla, Tekla. Who is this person? She is a nut job, and I love it. She is so crazy. So she's the world champion, I guess, and she has two people behind her, and Tekla, she walks, she she comes through the crowd, right? She comes through the crowd, and then she bypasses the ring and goes up the ramp. That is like, why would you do that? But when I say that, I mean that in the best way. That's just so like you must be a lunatic to go through the crowd and then go up the ramp and never go in the ring at all. Never seen that before. And so she is like, I got fired from stardom, and now we're we're doing a crossover with stardom. I want a stardom person to come to me so I can so I can kill you. I'm not I'm not declaring war, I'm clearing death. And then her her henchwomen, they get a ladder from the back, and she climbs up the ladder and just spits on the Titan Tron or whatever it is, where the name Stardom is. This person is a lunatic, and I love it. I don't need to see a match of hers. She has instantly become one of my favorites already. Like, very good first impression of Tecla. Like that the fact that she started up in the in the fans, didn't go in the ring. I love when on 37 years of watching wrestling, never seen that before, never seen that before. Tecla, like, that was great, that was beautiful. For you to get your henchwoman to get a ladder just so you could spit on the name. Like, she could have easily, she could have easily had a piece of paper and spit on that, right? She could have easily started in the back and came out with the ladder. She could have easily done so many things, but she went out of her way to just be unhinged. So Tecla, like I was laughing. I was I was having that it was such a trip. It was such a trip seeing that. And then uh Mercedes-Monet. Mercedes-Monet appeared too, and I like that. Uh, so I'm a big Sasha Banks fan. I know Mercedes Monet is her like her belt collector gimmick. So I I kind of watched her on social media because I'm a big Sasha Banks fan. I like Sasha. She was my favorite of the four horse women, even. And so like I was bummed when she left WWE, but I mad respect, mad respect for her doing that, because I believe she solidified her career. In WWE, she was never gonna be like considered the greatest. Because of Charlotte, it was always gonna be who's better, Charlotte or Charlotte or or Becky Lynch, and then and then the the really snooty WWE fans would have been like, actually Bailey, and no, no shade on any of those three, but I was almost like Sasha. But Sasha saying, I'm gonna leave WWE, go to the competition, and then actually do everything that she did as the belt collector, that makes her one of one. That makes her one of one. She was able to get over without the WWE machine behind her, and no shade again on on the other horse women. Good for them, you know, they're doing they're doing fine. But I just gotta say that like Mercedes Monet, it'll be hard to compare her. She's like she's in her own league, and I loved seeing her back yesterday. And it was really nice seeing that people actually liked her. I thought everybody hated her. And I like I like that people appreciated her her wrestling ability. I do hope she's a heel, though. She doesn't make a good babyface unless unless that's changed. But in WWE, she always sucked as a babyface, but as a heel, she was great. I love that she walked out with the belt too, because the belt's kind of a ceremony belt, but I guess she won last year, so it's like technically it is hers. And I think even Taz said something. He he's like, Well, you know, she is the reigning champion, so I guess it's kind of hers. I just like it. Yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that. I don't know if anything else happened yesterday. Someone said I should do a script or take better notes, and I don't know. I kind of like this, just I just kind of like tell you how I feel in the moment. And so you know it's real. Oh, MJF did a like an interview in a bath. A bathtub. That's funny. That's funny. That's there's my there's my whole like wrestling commentary. 37 years of wrestling knowledge, and here's my take on MJF in a bathtub. That's funny, but it is, it's funny, it's great. Good stuff there. Oh, Andrade also squashed somebody. And Andrade, yeah, he's cool. I like Andrade. He's definitely like, he's definitely a lot more confident now than he was in WWE. Definitely, because WWE is probably because they they write your promos in WWE, and that's the thing that I love about AEW. I heard that they don't let they don't write your promos, and I'm glad they don't. I hate written promos. Like, even if you even if your promo sucks, I'd rather hear a crappy promo that the wrestler created than a mediocre scripted promo from some guy in Hollywood who's writing something that he thinks that that wrestling fans want to hear. But yeah, so so that was that was dynamite yesterday. I'm gonna say that this was an excellent dynamite. Absolutely loved it. I'm gonna give it way better than SmackDown. Way better than SmackDown. Was it better than Raw? Raw was actually pretty good this week. Probably better than Raw. Probably better than Raw. Raw had like two good things and like a wibbly wobbly here and there. So not as good as the triple A show, though. That Grande versus Grande match, but like that was hard to beat. That was a 10. This was I would say nine. So I do chops, I do one out of ten chops. I give this show a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine chops. And you know, I was gonna do hot takes, but I kind of feel that maybe, maybe the my review went a little too long. I had really honestly I'd planned on doing a very short review and make it a 50-50 video, but like I couldn't help it. I loved this episode of Dynamite so much that I just kept wanting to talk about it. So I'll tell you this I'm gonna record hot takes right this second, and I'll just split the video up. I will release this this review today on Thursday, and then I'll release a hot take video tomorrow, tomorrow morning. Deal, deal, there we go. Look at that. Two like already doing more AEW content on this channel. So hook it up with the views and the subscriptions and the telling your friends. I appreciate every single one of you. Boys, girls, see ya bye.