AEW Dynamite 7/31/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show where we somehow still have four weeks to go until All In! With so many of Wembley's big matches already built, announced, and seemingly ready for a blow off, how will AEW fill the time between now and August 25? Well, it's possible they might just have to resort to episodes like this one, in which not a whole lot of things actually ... happened. But did that prevent the WINC staff from having opinions about it? Come on, you know us better than that by now.

As usual (and perhaps more than usual) we're not talking about the entire episode here, because this is a place for us to focus on our opinions about the stuff that stood out most to us, both positively and negatively. If you want the whole story on the whole episode, written much more objectively, be sure to check out our "Dynamite" results page. That's where you can find an overview of everything that went down. These, on the other hand, are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 7/31/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

There are right ways and wrong ways to generate investment from the audience in storylines and increase the tensions in professional wrestling. The storyline between MJF and Will Ospreay is becoming a prime example of the wrong way to do so. MJF and Ospreay had almost this exact same segment during last week's "Dynamite" as they did during this one, only in a slightly different font. Repeating almost the same thing feels like lazy writing, and makes things between the pair feel both stagnant and boring.

By himself, MJF is already an effective heel and has showed that time and time again in the past with the heat he's been able to generate purely from his character work and promos. It not only feels unnecessary to give him this new character that feels forced to a certain extent and have him turn the International Championship into the American Championship, but it also gets to be rather confusing every time Ospreay brings up the International Championship and speaks about it as an active title (even though technically it isn't). The storyline between MJF and Ospreay should be a simple one, but as the weeks go on, it's becoming more convoluted when it never needed to be in the first place. I can't help but almost feel as though it just seems as if the pair are doing anything that comes to mind and trying to make it stick.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

According to Cagematch, there have only been four challengers in AEW's long history of Eliminator matches that have picked up the victory in their contendership matches. Tonight, Kris Statlander added herself to that exclusive list with an upset victory over CMLL World Women's Champion Willow Nightingale, and while it is unfortunate that it had to come at Nightingale's expense, Statlander's landmark victory may suggest an upturn in the stakes of Eliminator matches.

The match itself was tasteful — not over the top, but good enough to provide a sample for their championship match. There was plenty of hard-hitting offense from both women, especially in the match's second act. The very close, 2.99 count following a 450 Splash from Statlander to Nightingale offered a type of in-ring drama that doesn't happen often in AEW television matches, let alone Eliminator matches. The entire match was better than most Eliminator matches; it beckoned the viewer to consider the possibly, however rare, that a challenger would actually come out victorious in their contendership match.

Then, Statlander actually won her Eliminator match. Granted, it was due to outside interference from Stokely Hathaway, but don't let that distract you from the fact that a challenger actually won their Eliminator match.

Eliminator matches have become meaningless as of late. Even in Nightingale's new CMLL World Women's Championship reign, Nightingale has had an Eliminator match against Deonna Purazzo — which, of course, Purazzo lost. Eliminator matches have become a sort of formality; they are a way to tease a championship defense, without actually delivering title defense-level matches. The disappointing outcome of a vast majority of these matches has become so routine, that very few people — if anybody — found a veritable reason to expect Statlander to come out with the win. Statlander broke ground with her Eliminator match win. She defied expectations, she stood out from the crowd, and her status as an outlier among the bleak statistic of Eliminator matches could suggest the advent of a new era, in which the championship game is intensified by its contenders.

There is also plenty to say about how this elevates Statlander, as a character. Despite her alliance with Hathaway, Statlander has fallen flat on most of her heel escapades. Part of this is due to her humanization — she was an alien, but now, she's just some woman. This Eliminator match win, however, works to negate that predisposition. She might not be as cool as an alien (anybody mortal seldom is), but she is one of five people who can say they've won their Eliminator match, out of however many Eliminator match challengers there have been. This loss may be disappointing for Nightingale — who has hauled the women's division on her back — but the wonders it could do for Statlander would outweigh the champion's loss.

Even if she doesn't bring home the CMLL World Women's Championship, she has the honor of being an Eliminator match victory. That may be more exclusive than the title itself.

Written by Angeline Phu

If you follow these columns every week, there's a pretty good chance you've seen us complain about a lack of time/matches/whatever for women's wrestling, both on AEW and WWE programming. We harp on it because we think it's important, and it frustrates us that it doesn't seem to be getting better. But if we're going to do that, we also do have to acknowledge when it gets better.

For years now, one of the major complaints about AEW from people concerned about women's wrestling has been that "AEW Dynamite" almost never includes more than one women's match in its two-hour runtime. Sometimes they do, but it's an anomaly and they go back to one women's match per show the following week. On last week's "Blood & Guts" episode, there were two women's matches — Britt Baker wrestled Hikaru Shida, and then Mariah May had a squash match. Fair enough. But then a funny thing happened. On this week's episode, there were two women's matches — Willow Nightingale wrestled Kris Statlander, and then Kamille had a squash match in her AEW in-ring debut. That makes two consecutive episodes of "Dynamite" with two women's matches. Pretty sure that's never happened before.

This is not to say that AEW's relationship with its women's division has now been completely fixed and we never need to mention it again. Both these episodes have included one match that went about 10 minutes and another match that went about 90 seconds, meaning we're still only talking about 11-12 minutes of ring time. But adding a second regular women's match, even if it's just a squash, means more TV time for more members of the division and more women's stories getting advanced. Between the Nightingale/Statlander match, the Kamille showcase followed by a Mercedes Mone promo, and the combination of a Mariah May backstage interview segment and a Toni Storm promo segment, there were three different women's storylines moving forward on this episode, and all things considered the division as a whole got a decent chunk of time. It's not total victory, but it's progress, and I hope it continues next week and the week after that.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

The last time I checked, trios matches had a set of rules that the wrestlers participating in them had to follow. The entire first half of the trios match between The Conglomeration and Roderick Strong, Rush, and The Beast Mortos made it seem as if the exact opposite were the case, with no one tagging in and everyone entering the ring as they pleased all the while the referee stood by and let it happen. I understand the point of having leniency in tag team and trios matches, but when it gets to the point of not having legal competitors, it makes things hard to watch and follow, thus making it less enjoyable.

AEW is no stranger to having random trios matches on their show, and while the events of Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor did play a role in the creation of this match in the first place, Roderick Strong, Rush, and The Beast Mortos were a random trio that was thrown together. Having them be the winners of the match made little sense to me, as AEW are trying to establish The Conglomeration as a legitimate faction. This match did nothing to help that along, and having them lose felt like a random choice especially when Roderick Strong, Rush, and The Beast Mortos can all afford to have a loss under their belts.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Grifters and obsessives will tell you that every match is important and they are all lying to you and/or themselves. There are some matches that just mean more than others. Sometimes that's because there's a very expensive title belt involved. Sometimes there's a crazy dramatic story building to the match. When you have both, the way AEW does with "Hangman" Page and AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland's deeply personal vendetta, it's very hard for anyone else to make a case that any other match could be more important.

This is the uphill battle that Bryan Danielson faced the minute he defeated Page in the finals of the Owen Hart Cup. Danielson is a tremendous wrestler, deserving of a world title match on such a big stage, but he just didn't have that extra "je nai se quoi" that would make it a more monumental match than Swerve and Hagman getting a showcase for their blood feud on AEW's biggest stage.

On Wednesday, not only did Swerve cut a chilling promo, promising to not only end Danielson's career but his ambulatory existence in general, but Danielson put some true skin in the game, promising to never wrestle again if he loses at All In. The title vs. career stipulation makes what is a great match on paper, into an actually must-see event.

Written by Ross Berman

One of the reasons I suspect some wrestling fans don't vibe with AEW is that wrestling is traditionally a variety show, and AEW tends to forget that, usually leaning hard into one specific thing that it does very well — that being long, competitive, high-workrate matches. The problem with that, in my opinion, is that every match being a long, competitive, high-workrate match has the effect of making long, competitive, high-workrate matches into something mundane rather than something special, and the same is true of Tony Khan's favorite match finishes.

"Hangman" Adam Page spent most of Wednesday night's main event beating the tar out of Darby Allin, just looking completely dominant throughout the contest. As we closed in on the finish, however, I already knew what was about to happen. Despite all the punishment taken by Allin, he was going to get Page into a flash rollup and steal the win. No, I'm not clairvoyant, Tony Khan just really is that predictable. There's a match like this every week, it feels like, with the heel dominating and the scrappy babyface somehow pulling it out. Hell, Adam Page literally just did this same match finish with Bryan Danielson three weeks ago. And yes, the heel dominating and the scrappy babyface somehow pulling it out is a great match finish — if it's used sparingly. Used as often as AEW uses it now (along with accompanying tropes like finisher kick-outs, kicking out at one, etc) strips the finish of what makes it special. It's magical precisely because it's rare; if it stops being rare, the magic goes away.

Beyond that, it's becoming actually criminal the way AEW is using Page. He's endured so many creative ups and downs over the course of his AEW career, and now he's finally evolved into the most complete version of his character, someone who actually deserves a world title run — and he just keeps losing to the real contenders. I'm not one of those people who predicts that AEW is going to flame out and die in the next three years, but if you can't identify and take advantage of talent doing their best work, I really don't know how you expect to grow.

Written by Miles Schneiderman