AEW Dynamite 01/10/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that Mercedes Mone will absolutely, 100% appear on one of these days! Alas, it was not to be this Wednesday, as Tony Khan had some other plans in mind for the special "Homecoming" episode from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. We are very much not going to discuss every single one of those plans here, because that's what our live coverage/results page is for, but we are prepared you to give you our very strongest opinions about what all went down.

What did the WINC writing and editorial staff think about Samoa Joe confronting his various contenders, or the Young Bucks coming back, or Chris Jericho's music refusing to stop playing? The answers lie before you! These are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 1/10/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

AEW at its core is best known for providing incredible professional wrestling, and that's something that the opening match did in spades this week. Everybody knows what they're getting with Claudio Castagnoli and Adam Page — they're two proven commodities on the AEW roster who are always capable of delivering high-quality encounters. Therefore, it's not a surprise that putting them against each other led to a fantastic opening match.

Tony Khan is currently trying to reheat "Hangman" to the point where he can be seen as a threat to the AEW World Championship, so giving him big wins against credible wrestlers like Castagnoli is crucial. Having it be a clean win was important, particularly considering that later on in the sho,w Page confronted Samoa Joe and made it clear he's coming after the title. However, the loss didn't hurt Castagnoli either; he was competitive throughout the entire match, with the back-and-forth action being the high point of the entire show from a quality perspective.

The audience was engaged from start to finish as the two wrestlers utilized the entire ringside area, making the most of the unique Daily's Place setup, which once again highlights the talent of both men. They didn't jam-pack this contest with lots of finishers and near falls, either — instead, they told the story of building up to that point, with Page teasing the Buckshot Lariat several times only to be denied by Castagnoli. The pair proved that even without any backstory, it is still possible to engage a crowd with good wrestling, rather than a spot-fest of false finishes, which was refreshing to witness.

Written by Matthew Wilkinson

Sometimes the worst possible thing that can happen on a wrestling show is not an awful match or a disjointed promo. Instead, insulting the intelligence of the viewer should be looked at as a major no-no, and that's what we got Wednesday night when AEW decided to play Chris Jericho's entrance music throughout his run-in on Big Bill while defending tag partner Sammy Guevara from a post-match beating following a win over Ricky Starks.

Surely this was a half-brained attempt at drowning out the boos expected to be hurled toward Jericho, a continuation of fan backlash at Worlds End in response to rumors of skeletons in his closet, as per Haus of Wrestling's Nick Hausman, and an abhorrent comparison to disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein. The truth behind all of this has yet to come out, and Jericho himself has not responded to any of it. But the court of public opinion has already ruled, so I say either let them boo and deal with it like big boys and girls or take him off TV for a while. It's not like he's needed. Hell, for a company that needs all the positivity it can get, they're probably better off without the elder half of his awkwardly-if-not-inappropriately-named tag team.

Here's the thing that irks me most: We know what you're doing, AEW. And we know that you know that we know what you're doing. After all, you only cater toward the smartest of smart marks anyway, right? With that in mind, we're also aware that you've played music throughout entire matches before, but this isn't that. That just sucked. This makes me think that you think we're stupid. Shame on you for that.

Written by Jon Jordan

Adam Copeland was brought into AEW with great ceremony and immediately inserted himself in a bitter feud with his former friend Christian Cage. The two men had heated promo exchanges that were the highlight of AEW programming and found ways to work in the Jerry Springer antics of Christian, Nick Wayne, and Shayna Wayne. It even found a way to tie in the oft-overlooked Luchasaurus, now redubbed "Killswitch," in ways that have kept the ridiculous wrestling dinosaur thoroughly interesting and even sympathetic. At AEW World's End, Copeland won the TNT Championship and then was swiftly robbed by Killswitch and Christian's alliance. The former WWE Champion has seemingly taken the loss on the chin.

Now, the Greek drama between Nick, Shayna, and Christian is coalescing alongside Killswitch's growing frustration with the egomaniacal TNT Champion, and Adam Copeland is wearing non-descript black tights, having competitive matches with guys like Griff Garrison and wrestling in tribute matches to his fallen friend Brodie Lee. In all of these areas, Copeland easily could've overshadowed any of the other parts of his story, from Killswitch and The Waynes, to Garrison, to now Preston Vance, but he didn't, instead walking away like Bruce Banner at the end of the 1970s TV show "The Incredible Hulk."

There is a selflessness to the way Copeland has become just kind of "a dude" in AEW. With dominant former WWE stars like Jon Moxley nestling into the main event scene or the clout vampire Chris Jericho sucking dry any juice from the young talent in his orbit, it is kinda refreshing to see a WWE Hall of Famer show up to have competitive matches on "Collision" and give whatever heat he has to some already existing storylines. It's seemingly the platonic ideal of what a high-profile veteran like Copeland can do for young promotions like AEW. He is walking the walk where most veterans only talk the talk.

Written by Ross Berman

Look, I was a huge fan of Brodie Lee, and I loved AEW's tribute show after his passing, and I love that they continue to honor and remember him as often as they do. But doing it in this particular way was beyond strange to me.

So Preston Vance and Anna Jay were both highlighted on Wednesday's "Dynamite" as Lee's protégés, and they each scored the decisive fall in a pair of eight-person tag team matches. Which is ... pretty weird, considering it's been months since either was regularly featured on "Dynamite," and neither of them wins very often or is presented as terribly prominent. Vance is a lesser member of one of AEW's least important stables; Jay is one of the many former Jericho Appreciation Society members left creatively marooned by Chris Jericho's sudden babyface turn last year. They are lower midcarders at best, and I'm not saying that because I dislike them, I'm saying it because that's how they're used. And now they're teaming with people they have no creative ties to, working as babyfaces despite their characters' actual alignments, and picking up big wins on "Dynamite" because Tony Khan decided Daily's Place means we're honoring Brodie Lee?

That's just lazy booking, man. That's not how you write a TV show. That's not how any of this works. There are plenty of ways to do tributes in wrestling that do work, and none of them involve just pretending it's 2020 again. If you want to honor Brodie through his protégés, maybe try actually pushing them so we're not surprised and confused when they get TV time, instead of briefly and opportunistically capitalizing on their identities like they're Sonny Kiss during pride month.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

On the same day his interview with Sports Illustrated runs (in which, among other grown-ass man-isms, he says, "I really want to make a focus of getting the fans' attention back on the conflict in the ring, and a lot of the petty stuff needs to melt away") AEW World Champion Samoa Joe hit the ring, looking as dapper as can be, and showed that he and this title run is all business. If you're gonna be the championship-level representative of a company, it's not just an on-screen responsibility and in a time of sustained turmoil, you couldn't ask for a better candidate than Joe.

Joe referenced Adam Cole, still on the shelf with injury, calling him "a devil who made a bad business deal." That's fine. A great matchup to look forward to down the road. He also squared off against Swerve Strickland, who was interrupted by "Hangman" Adam Page, both of whom expressed their desire to challenge for the title as well. Also fine. Two more game contenders for Joe to smash (well, until Swerve smashes back, but that's just fine too). And before it was all over, he'd have to look HOOK in the eyes as well, who went nose-to-nose with the champ ahead of their match next week (yes, still taking place, on account of HOOK's 28-1 career record making it a logical challenge, despite online outrage that should have gone toward WWE's Jinder Mahal, as per the boss via TwitX). And that's all fine too. Jokes aside, HOOK is an up-and-coming popular talent that can only benefit from time in the ring with Joe.

But more than fine is this: Samoa Joe as AEW World Champion, for everything it represents. Professionalism and business that should resonate on screen and throughout the back. Surely, sans current injury/"Does he even still work here?" stuff with MJF, he'd still be the champion, and that's just fine too. But given the context and the climate, Joe's the man. As well he should be.

Written by Jon Jordan

If you had asked me if I would be shocked if Sting would team up with Darby Allin in his final ever match at AEW Revolution, I would've told you not at all. However, if you had asked me who I thought their opponents would be, I definitely would not have guessed The Young Bucks.

It came as no surprise that Matt and Nick Jackson appeared on tonight's show, between online speculation earlier Wednesday and "Hangman" Adam Page referencing The Elite in his promo segment with Swerve Strickland and Samoa Joe. The brothers appeared on the ramp to stare down "The Icon" and the former TNT Champion as they were being interviewed by Tony Schiavone following their win over the Don Callis Family in a Tornado Tag Team match. It all felt very random and odd, which was in no part helped by the fact that commentary made it abundantly clear that this was meant to be a tease and repeated that same sentiment at least three times.

One of the biggest criticisms when it comes to AEW over the years has been Tony Khan letting wrestlers book their own storylines, and in turn, those who hold power backstage putting themselves over to come off looking good. The Bucks certainly didn't do anything to disprove that, and in fact, made it look as though that's exactly what's been happening backstage.

Written by Olivia Quinlan