AEW Dynamite 10/23/24: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show where MOX WAS HERE — for like two seconds at the end of the episode, where he and the Blackpool Combat Club made most of AEW"s top young babyfaces look very stupid and managed the Herculean feat of beating up retired wrestler-turned-producer Chuck Taylor. Yes, you read that right — they took out Chuck Taylor. Be afraid.

Look, apologies for the sarcasm, but it was pretty universally agreed by the WINC staff this was not a very good episode of "Dynamite" this week. Still, we are sticking to our usual format and saying some nice things before getting into the show's broader issues. As a result, we might cover an even smaller out of total happenings than we usually do ... but that's not a problem for you, surely, because you already know that you can go check out our "Dynamite" results page if you need to know any of the specific things that happened Wednesday night. This column is about our opinions, be they positive or (mostly) negative. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 10/23/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite!"

This could very well be some wishful thinking, but even the potential for Ricochet to be in the Hurt Syndicate — heck, even seeing MVP deliver a business card to Ricochet — is something I loved on a show I didn't find to be very love-worthy. I know this might not be to everyone's taste, with AEW potentially putting together a stable of former WWE guys in the form of MVP, Shelton Benjamin, a (hopefully) soon-to-debut Bobby Lashley, and then possibly, Ricochet, but I quite like it. At this point, these guys don't feel like WWE guys to me anymore. MVP, Benjamin, and Ricochet have all flawlessly fit into the AEW machine, and I'm hopeful Lashley will as well.

This week, when we saw MVP give Ricochet his card and compliment his suit after Ricochet challenged International Champion Konosuke Takeshita to a face-to-face on "AEW Rampage," Ricochet had a strange look on his face. I couldn't tell if he was pondering it, or confused by it, or what, but the look didn't scream "disgust" to me, so that's enough for me to be hopeful we could see Ricochet in the Hurt Syndicate. Many fans, myself included, weren't thrilled with the way he was treated in WWE, with his incredible talent rarely being used correctly, and I think getting in with MVP's exciting new stable is something Ricochet needs to not be lost in the shuffle like he was at WWE. If MVP is looking to create a well-rounded stable, he already has his big guys in Benjamin and Lashley, with Benjamin's collegiate ability and Lashley's MMA background, and adding Ricochet as the high-flyer would be pretty neat. MVP also doesn't seem to be done giving out business cards like invitations, so AEW has the opportunity to include other talent to make the group more than just former WWE talent. Max Caster certainly seemed interested.

It may have just been a small thing on Wednesday's show, possibly even just a passing thing to keep the Hurt Syndicate in everyone's minds, but there was just something I liked about it that I can't explain. Maybe it was the look on Ricochet's face I couldn't place, or the hope that this epic talent won't get lost in the AEW shuffle of amazing wrestlers, but this short segment was something that worked for me.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Former WWE Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin seemed to be one of WWE's next big things in the 2000s, but he stalled out somewhere and ended up feeling like a shadow of himself for much of his WWE run, as if they were hoping to recapture the speedy, athletic glory of his 2000's heyday. For this reason, his match against Sammy Guevara felt like a revelation.

Benjamin slowed himself way down, taking advantage of the fact that outside WWE, he is a tremendously big man. Benjamin wrestled like his former roommate Brock Lesnar, tossing Guevara around with suplexes and seeming to relish the dissection of the ROH World Tag Team Champion, rather than merely trying to win. The match played like a minor riff on Lesnar's infamous 2014 match with John Cena, which saw him manhandle Cena similarly en route to winning the WWE Championship.

The match was long, Guevara hasn't had any heat since before the pandemic, and therefore it wasn't as dominant a showing as the Lesnar comparisons might make it seem, but Benjamin still felt like a different wrestler. No longer is he trying to recapture the springboards and swift moves of his youth, instead wrestling like the seasoned killer that MVP is presenting him as. Whatever The Hurt Syndicate is, it will likely not be a rehash of their WWE days if Benjamin is already committed to being a different wrestler. Who knows what the future holds for the group, but Benjamin's evolution gives me hope.

Written by Ross Berman

I'm pretty sure I've been saying AEW should do more squash matches on TV for actual years now (back in the day they only happened on "AEW Dark") and while I didn't really love anything "Dynamite" had to offer this week, I did love the mere existence of two matches on the show whose only purpose was to make their winners look bad-ass.

The trios squash involving House of Black was particularly well done, with the three jobbers charging one after another into the wood chipper, and I liked it as a backdrop to Buddy Murphy challenging Adam Cole. The other squash was a regular tag team match, and while I probably would have given the spot to people other than Brian Cage and Lance Archer, it was still nice to see two big dudes wreck shop for 60 seconds on AEW programming.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough: Variation in match length, match style, and if you want to put it in these terms, match quality, is essential to the operation of a compelling wrestling show. We're getting damn close to 2025; every match doesn't need to be a Takeover match anymore. Those days are over — if you ask William Regal, they were over five years ago, when he had top "WWE NXT" stars telling him about the need for a major stylistic change after Takeover: Portland, just before COVID hit and the world went haywire. AEW incorporating a double dose of squash matches on this episode is a potential sign of evolution from Tony Khan, and I hope we see more of them.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

AEW has quickly made me a fan of International Champion Konosuke Takeshita, even more so than I was before, so, I ask one question, especially after his debut in Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling over the weekend. Where the heck was he on this "Dynamite?" If AEW is going to go the extra mile to show me footage of his championship defense in the new promotion, where he was confronted by another super hot AEW star, why wouldn't he be on the show tonight with something to say? Of course, it could always be due to travel or personal issues, but I'm talking aside from that, because if that were the case, I rather AEW not mention anything at all about the champion this week and save it for a time Takeshita could actually be there in person. Last week on "Dynamite," Takeshita had a pretty fire promo where he said that anyone who wants the International Championship should come take it from him. But, if he's not at the show, that vaguely open challenge isn't really doing much for anyone.

For those who missed it on Saturday's episode of "AEW Collision," Ricochet called out Takeshita, saying that wherever he was in the world, Ricochet would show up, too, alluding to the fact he'd be at MLP to confront the champion following his title defense. That was fun and exciting, but Ricochet calling out a missing Takeshita to go face-to-face on Friday's "AEW Rampage" is super lame. I get that AEW and Tony Khan are trying to keep momentum going for "Rampage" ahead of it no longer being a part of its lineup with WBD moving forward next year, so maybe they could shop it elsewhere, but honestly, just let "Rampage" die at this point and give me the good stuff on your flagship show of "Dynamite." Or even entice me to tune in on a Saturday for "Collision." Especially after so many fans had been clamoring for Takeshita to get a big push and win a championship following his appearance in the G1 Climax, his first time competing in it, this seems pretty lackluster following his championship win at WrestleDream. You want to keep him hot moving forward, especially in a feud with Ricochet, so put it on a show where people are going to see it and continue to be invested.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, and Marina Shafir have been built up as threats in AEW over the course of the past few weeks. Moxley winning the AEW World Championship and putting an end to Bryan Danielson's career at WrestleDream was a shocking and memorable moment that fans won't forget anytime soon, but the problem is that the company has yet to fully follow through on the angle as was made glaringly apparent tonight.

Much of "Dynamite" tonight was dedicated to having several babyface members of the roster waiting outside the Maverik Arena for the arrival of Moxley, Yuta, Castagnoli, PAC, and Shafir in order to get one step ahead of him. Instead of choosing to go with the much more obvious angle of the five competitors arriving and taking out everyone, AEW instead chose to have Moxley, Castagnoli, and PAC take out Private Party and attack Chuck Taylor as Shafir distracted everyone else. It was a moment that felt incredibly underwhelming especially for the closing moments of the show, and did nothing to get anyone over, cement the idea in fans minds that Moxley, Yuta, Castagnoli, PAC, and Shafir were a threat to everyone on the roster, or further any sort of storyline. Moxley is in desperate need of a challenger that is willing to stand up to him and his allies rather than half setting up Orange Cassidy to become more involved in the storyline through an attack on Taylor that felt completely random.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

At WrestleDream, Jon Moxley set himself up to be the Omega-level villain in AEW, elevating the Blackpool Combat Club to make The Elite's villainy look like child's play as they savagely broke Bryan Danielson to take his World Championship and his career in one fell swoop. However, it appears the "American Dragon" is but a figment of our collective imagination, a mirage of professional wrestling excellence that was ironically just a dream. That would make more sense than him existing, main eventing a couple of WrestleMania events, and winning a handful of titles everywhere it mattered only to not be mentioned after he was effectively forced into retirement, right? RIGHT?

Somehow in the weeks that have passed the story has turned into a drama of AEW original babyfaces standing against a supposed assault on the company – although the company continues to be the same AEW we know, love, tolerate, or despise – which has yet to get out of its violence for the sake of violence stage. Just why are the babyfaces standing against the BCC doing so? While they went out to "save" Danielson in Tacoma, none of them has specifically said what he was supposed to have meant to them and how they felt about his attack. It just comes off that they're going back-and-forth with the BCC because they were assigned to, with no rhyme or reason to either of the faction's actions as of late. It's like Danielson never existed, as if the attack on him was genuine and he has since entered witness protection, but that's a cardinal issue considering Danielson was the catalyst for everything that has happened.

He isn't going to be on the show, I am fully aware of that, but that doesn't mean we just move on from the story as if it never happened. It makes it seem as though Danielson was what kept this story grounded, and now he is not there we're running on autopilot until Orange Cassidy and/or Darby Allin steps up to take the title. This was an ambitious enough angle when it started, promising a litany of options for the narrative to run, but now we're stuck with the BCC coming in after The Elite has softened their enemies up, and it's starting to feel no different in its coding to a Premier Athletes feud: "You are bad guys and we will fight you because of that," and vice versa. The only character in the story that has been working their character arc in this story is Orange Cassidy, and even he doesn't really seem to care about Danielson. Rather, Chuck Taylor — now part of the production crew — was fed to the BCC to provide him something to work with. It all just leaves me questioning how you can fumble the pay-off to retiring the "American Dragon" so badly already.

Written by Max Everett