AEW Dynamite 7/10/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that continues the proud tradition of half the roster busting out Sharpshooters in Calgary! Yes, it's that time of the year again — not just AEW running Calgary, but the finals of both the men's and women's Owen Hart Foundation Tournaments! As you might expect, the WINC staff has stuff to say about both these matches, as well as anything in between that particularly drew our ire or captured our hearts. That range of outcomes doesn't cover everything that happened on the program (sorry, MJF and Will Ospreay, nobody cared this week) but remember, you can always check out our "Dynamite" results page for a full account of the evening's events. For opinion and analysis of Wednesday's broadcast, however, you can't beat the loves and hates.

With that in mind, how did we feel about Bryan Danielson taking down "Hangman" Adam Page in the men's finals? More viscerally, how deep and emotional were our feelings about Mariah May winning the women's finals and then turning on Toni Storm so hard she did a legit crimson mask? And most importantly, how amazing is Mercedes Mone finally officially turning heel on a scale of 10 to also 10? Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 7/10/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

Five years ago, the very first AEW All Out. It's main-evented by "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Chris Jericho, with the winner becoming the first AEW World Champion. Page is the young, homegrown star; Jericho is the older veteran who made his name in WWE. Jericho wins. It's fine; Jericho is the bigger star at a time when the company needs a recognizable public face, and Page isn't ready.

Three years later, Double or Nothing 2022. Page has won the world title (from Kenny Omega, who has also never wrestled in WWE) but is now up against CM Punk, challenging for a world championship for the first time since failing to regain his WWE Heavyweight title from The Rock at Elimination Chamber 2013. Page is the young, homegrown star; Punk is the older veteran who made his name in WWE. Punk wins. It's fine (in front of the cameras, at least); Punk is the bigger star whose return to wrestling has electrified AEW, while Page's title run has widely been considered underwhelming.

Two years later, the July 10, 2024 episode of "AEW Dynamite." Since losing the title to Punk, Page has rejoined The Elite, entered into a blood feud with Swerve Strickland, and turned heel, with the mustache to prove it. He's The Elite's entry into the men's Owen Hart Cup, with the winner getting a main event world title match against Strickland at Wembley Stadium (a few days before the five-year anniversary of that first All Out). Page has made it clear that he doesn't care about The Elite's plans — he just wants Swerve. To that end, he's made it to the finals of The Owen, where he has to renew hostilities with Bryan Danielson, a living legend who's wrapping up his wrestling career and has never won the AEW world title. At 32, Page is still the young, homegrown star; despite his work before and since, Danielson is still the older veteran who made is name in WWE. But now it's Hangman's time. Entering his physical prime, he's doing some of the best character and in-ring work of his career. He's the world champion's biggest rival, poised to main event one of AEW's biggest shows in a world title match, and potentially to win, establishing him as the top-level star he was always meant to be.

Bryan Danielson wins.

I don't care how much you love Bryan Danielson and want to see him win one last world title. I also love Bryan Danielson and would love to see him win one last world title. That doesn't make this good booking. Tony Khan had the opportunity to main event Wembley Stadium with his two best young stars in the next act of the hottest long-term feud in the company. Instead, Page goes running back to The Elite while another ex-WWE guy gets his spot, because nostalgia. It is shortsighted ridiculous fanboy nonsense, and AEW fans deserve better.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

AEW has put on their fair share of tournaments over the years, but by far their biggest are the Owen Hart Foundation Tournaments. It's an annual tradition much of the fanbase has come to look forward to, and a great way for the company to launch a wrestler who is popular among the fan base into a top spot in the company. For that reason, it's disappointing to see both of the finals matches in the 2024 Men's and Women's Owen Hart Cups end with similar finishes.

Having Bryan Danielson counter a submission cinched in by "Hangman" Adam Page into a pinfall, and then to have Mariah May counter a move from Willow Nightingale into a pinfall later in the show, made both matches feel predictable in terms of a finish. Neither would be my personal preferred end for either match, but taken together they felt repetitive and unmemorable. There were so many other endings that were more straightforward could've been chosen, and in fact, would've made both May and Danielson look stronger.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

AEW is building to its biggest show of the year, AEW All In, which will emanate from Wembley Stadium, and is once again looking to draw a massive crowd. AEW is also building to Blood & Guts in two weeks, and according to the story, it's a battle for the soul of AEW. Because of these split builds, All In is getting obfuscated, and Blood & Guts is feeling what can only be described as "less than."

Team AEW seems to be coming together slowly in the two weeks before the two-ring steel cage match, while all the focus seems like it has been on The Elite. The heels' coup for AEW has felt toothless, with the group essentially restricted to whatever few minutes they get during programming — but they look more united than the random grab-bag of teammates that are signing up for Team AEW. It feels like the roster doesn't really care about Blood & Guts and is skipping ahead to All In, and also making it seem like there will be very little fallout from the Blood & Guts match.

What should feel like, for lack of a better term, a blood feud, is shaping up to be an exhibition match, and that feels like a woeful sentence to describe AEW's successor to War Games.

Written by Ross Berman

I have not been a huge fan of Chris Jericho's current "Learning Tree" gimmick with Bryan Keith and Big Bill, or their feud with Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, and HOOK (which anyone who reads our "Dynamite" loves and hates will surely know by now). I've found much of it to be boring, and I've felt as though it doesn't make for great television. That said, the Stampede Street Fight between Jericho and Joe was the most invested I've been in their storyline so far, and was much better than I was anticipating it would be.

Street fights have become a staple in storylines and feuds that have become so heated that wrestlers want nothing more than to get their hands on rivals, whether that be inside or outside of the ring. It can be hard to come up with innovative spots in a match type that's been done time after time over the years and is still being heavily utilized to this day. Yet somehow, Jericho and Joe managed to do it, from the use of horseshoes in the ring to Jericho sending Joe through drywall with a forklift and the match ending with stoppage from the ringside doctor rather than a referee (as is usually the case). It had the "big fight feel" and the high stakes that much of Jericho and Joe's program has lacked, and will hopefully be the first step in getting fans more invested in how things will play out from here, with Jericho now having taken out both HOOK and Joe.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Mercedes Mone has swagger; she has an attitude; quite frankly, she was born to be a heel. She's immensely resilient, a captivating presence, and a Disney+ star, but she's also a natural villain, and Wednesday was a wonderful example of that.

Mone's character has been subtly self-obsessed for much of her AEW tenure, but she's turned everything into overdrive since Dr. Britt Baker returned to tremendous applause. In Calgary, at Mone's third title celebration in just about a month, Mone called herself "The best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be," drawing the ire of AEW fans in Bret Hart's hometown on a night when both the opening match and the main event paid tribute to Hart's brother Owen. Shades of gray are wonderful for narrative fiction, especially on the page or on a long character-driven tv show, but in wrestling, you also need good vs. bad, nice vs. mean, whatever you want to call it — clean, delineated lines that make for a nice contrast. All Baker had to do on Wednesday was chase Mone out of the ring to get cheers from the Calgary crowd. Mone set her up perfectly, and if this week is a sign of things to come, Baker vs. Mone will be a simple, effective feud between two of AEW's most popular stars. In short: money.

Written by Ross Berman

I think it was pretty apparent to everyone that Mariah May was going to unseat Willow Nightingale as the Owen Cup Women's Tournament Champion this year and go on to face her mentor, "Timeless" Toni Storm, for the AEW Women's World Championship at All In at Wembley Stadium, but I'm not sure any AEW fan predicted that May would snap so early, in such brutal fashion. May defeating Nightingale was only the first "win" for her tonight; brutalizing Storm and even her butler, Luther, was the icing on the cake for a fantastic main event of "Dynamite." I honestly don't actually remember the last time a women's match main-evented an episode of "Dynamite" [editor's note: It was the March 13 episode, "Big Business," the night Mercedes Mone debuted] so this was quite the pleasant surprise, to start. I truly thought we'd be stuck with the Chris Jericho vs. Samoa Joe street fight to end the show, but in this case, I was more than happy to be wrong.

I don't mean to be "that person," but I put forth an honest thought when I say, when is the last time you remember Tony Khan putting forth a thought out women's storyline? I'm sure there have been a few since AEW's inception in 2019, but nothing as riveting, in my opinion, as May and Storm's friendship, or romance, orpartnership, however you'd like to phrase it. I genuinely adore both these characters, and both women have been absolutely crushing it, both in the ring and in the theatrical aspects of wrestling. May not just winning but turning on Storm made a lot of sense, because they can continue to work this angle for the next month, right up until All In. I don't think I'm the only person to believe May is going to be the woman to take the title off Storm, but I also don't see that as a bad thing. Storm has had an excellent run and has built up plenty of new talent, including and especially May, and I think she's done what she set out to do. Storm's character is something we've never seen in wrestling before, and it's her originality that will forever shine through in AEW. Now, it's May's time, and I am extremely excited to see what these two cook up in regards to storytelling in weeks to come. It's a great feeling to see women main event in AEW, and an even better one to be excited about a women's storyline in the company moving forward.

Written by Daisy Ruth