AEW Dynamite 11/01/23: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that, for better or for worse (or for way, way better) apparently is not featuring Ric Flair on a weekly basis. But while Wednesday's episode was entirely free of Horsemen, it did feature three championship matches, a rare Paul Wight appearance, and MJF's search for friendship — which ended with heartwarming scissoring!

Other stuff happened on the episode, too, but we're not going to talk about all of that here, mostly because we already covered the whole shebang on our live coverage/results page. What we're going to talk about here is how the WINC writing and editorial staff felt about these developments. Did we thrill at the latest round of intra-Elite dramatics? DId we buy into Adam Copeland finally hitting Christian with a Spear?  And most importantly, what did we think of Tony Khan's big announcement? It's time for three things we hated and three things we loved about the 11/1/2023 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

At this point, when Tony Khan announces that he has an announcement, the bar of expectations shouldn't just be lowered, it should be dropped completely. Or perhaps bashed over the head of the beholder. I knew I'd hate this because I knew it wouldn't be anything to get excited about. The only thing I was hoping for to maybe make things better was Khan in the ring with a live mic, but nope, no dice there. Instead, the big announcement was that tickets for next year's All In go on sale ... A MONTH FROM TODAY!

But it's okay, you don't actually have to wait that long. You can get the best tickets early.

"But how early, Tony? Can I get them RIGHT NOW?"

Nigel McGuinness tells us that we can indeed pre-register right now.

"Great! Surely, I'll be able to scratch Cousin Francis off the Christmas list and get him a ticket to All In, what? Maybe tomorrow?"

Nope! Pre-registration allows you to jump the line and get your ticket(s) on ... NOVEMBER 27TH!

So, to recap, the announcement (billed as "important," though Tony himself called it "huge" on X), was that you can pre-register now for tickets that go on sale in a month (or possibly four days earlier) for a show that's like 39 weeks away. Thrilling. At this point, the announcement announcements have jumped the shark and are only setting things up for failure and disappointment. I'm going to pre-register now, just to ride this wave for the next 270something days.

AEW has a problem with complicating stories — not only in the overarching storylines, but also in the matches, which can end up so convoluted that it can be hard for the actual beats of the match to imprint on the audience. Orange Cassidy and Claudio Castagnoli did not have that problem on Wednesday.

Early in the match, Castagnoli injured Cassidy's arm. The injury nearly cost Cassidy the match, but the AEW International Champion was able to sneak out the victory against Castagnoli. The story is one that Cassidy has told countless times before, but something about the natural chemistry between Cassidy and Castagnoli brought the rote text to life. Castagnoli, all braun and ego, is a natural foil to the wily, humble Orange Cassidy. Even in these hot-headed days that have seen him knocking shoulders with Jon Moxley, Cassidy has a genuine, laid-back "cool" to him that is in stark contrast to Castagnoli's aggressive, neo-classical attitude. Cassidy escaping the match with a rollup has me convinced that this will not be the last time the two CHIKARA alumni tangle in an AEW ring, though Cassidy will have his hands full with Castagnoli's Blackpool Combat Club comrade Jon Moxley at AEW Full Gear.

So much of AEW programming has become a convoluted, "Saved By The Bell" style Saturday morning cartoon that the AEW International title match was a refreshingly aggressive, grown-up change of pace from what was otherwise a pretty pitiful "AEW Dynamite." Fewer stories about the power of friendship, please; more stories about guys who want to beat each other up.

Drama in professional wrestling factions has been around since the beginning of time, and despite it being an admittedly overdone trope, I, for one, am usually on board with it. However, in the case of The Elite, it's happened one too many times in AEW, and it seems as though there is no intention of changing that anytime soon.

The Golden Jets (Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega) were joined by Renee Paquette and The Young Bucks in Omega's locker room. Matt Jackson brought up the fact that he felt as though The Elite were splintering from one another and questioned Jericho's presence. Omega reassured The Bucks that their partnership was simply the result of the mutual goal of taking down The Don Callis Family, and Matt was quick to warn Omega that Jericho would turn his back on him before storming off with his brother.

Given that the whole "drama within The Elite" thing feels so played out at this point, it would be nice to see the members of the group be involved in storylines outside of each other. With Adam Page's ongoing program with Swerve Strickland (my personal favorite thing going in AEW right now), it would have made more sense to make the Bucks' feud with The Mogul Embassy a true side story to Strickland vs. Page, with the Bucks losing the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship on a bigger stage (such as Full Gear) instead of on a relatively unmemorable episode of "Dynamite".

It's almost difficult to believe, but I assure you, it happened: On a single episode of "AEW Dynamite," two distinct storylines unfolded, and they were both entirely comprised of performers from the women's division. Will wonders never cease?

Now, did these two stories get different segments? No, of course not; following her title defense against Willow Nightingale, Hikaru Shida left the ring to chase Toni Storm to the back, leaving Nightingale in the ring to be confronted by Julia Hart. It didn't represent any major uptick in time allotted for the division on the broadcast, and naturally it occurred around 9:30pm EST, aka "Dynamite's' Designated Female Time. This wasn't some kind of major transformation. However, I have to give AEW at least a little bit of credit here — they have two clear stories that are unrelated to one another, tied them together with a quality match, and highlighted five women in the process. Yes, the blue mist spot went awry, which is unfortunate, and yes, I personally would have been more interested in a Skye Blue heel turn because it would have given her something resembling a personality. I can also see why the idea was to give Hart a powered-up rival in the form of Blue (who can do mist now) rather than just run Hart's own heel turn, beat for beat, with someone else. It's a choice that could definitely pay off in the long run, though I have my doubts about whether Blue can pull it off.

Anyway, the fact the bar has been set depressingly low doesn't negate the fact that "Dynamite" managed to jump very slightly over it this week. You can do it, Tony! What if next time, you gave them a whole other match?

Adam Copeland made a triumphant return from retirement in 2020 and continued to wrestle at a high level for WWE for the next three years, which is why I am so confused by the fact that he's being portrayed as an old man with a broken neck, who seemingly doesn't want to actually fight anyone, in AEW. Despite coming to AEW as its fresh new signing, talking about all the dream matches he could be having, the WWE Hall of Famer had to be goaded into his first match in weeks on Wednesday, and it's the kind of storytelling that makes anyone actually paying attention ask "Why the f*** did they sign this guy?"

Adam Copeland is not Sting. His debut in AEW was not the culmination of years of retirement and belief that his wrestling days were behind him. It was the culmination of months of people sitting on their hands between his "farewell" match in WWE and his inevitable AEW debut. What happened in the last couple of months that suddenly made Copeland so fragile? In his match against Luchasuarus, much of the match was spent selling the idea that this previously active wrestler was suddenly some kind of doomed figure, just one rogue bump away from shuffling off his mortal coil and scarring a generation of fans with his premature death at the hands of a literal dinosaur. What is the point of Adam Copeland, other than having a legally distinct version of Edge that apparently doesn't want to wrestle anybody? If he doesn't want to wrestle Christian, fine. Call out someone else, literally anyone else, I don't care, it's better than this half-baked aging-gunslinger Western that Copeland is currently trying to write.

What's worse is that between Roderick Strong, MJF's lingering issues from Samoa Joe, and others, Copeland is not even the only one in the company with a bad neck. Bryan Danielson and Saraya also work there, the three of them even took a photo about it. What the hell is going on in Jacksonville?

Sometimes AEW has a problem providing a hook that can work throughout the entire show, but that wasn't the case this time around. It was established at the very start that MJF needed three tag team partners, and he set out on his quest to get them ahead of the main event. It was simple storytelling, but it allowed fans to be constantly excited for the final segment of the show, which is something that should happen every week.

AEW kept cutting to MJF backstage as he ended up running into former foes and various people he had wronged. It started with trying to team with Kenny Omega, only for Chris Jericho to tell him where to go, after which he got into a confrontation with Wardlow. This was a particularly smart piece of booking, because whether people like the angle or not, the idea that lots of people want to be the world champion makes sense, and should happen every week.

MJF then almost picked Samoa Joe and Darby Allin, but didn't. All the while, The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass were constantly trying to win him over. Seeing MJF slowly get run down throughout the night to eventually choose The Acclaimed was a great bit, bringing four popular babyfaces together for the main event spot and giving Max Caster his big moment of finally winning over the champ. The storyline allowed MJF to be the central focus while also reminding fans that his history hasn't been forgotten. However, it simultaneously showcases the overall change in MJF's personality, because at the end of the night, he opened himself up to The Acclaimed by scissoring them. It proved that he is a different person than he was when he angered all of the people he had tried to team with before, putting in some interesting character development while having a storyline running throughout the entire show.