AEW Dynamite: 12/11/2024 - 3 Things We Loved And Hated

Another "AEW Dynamite" has come and gone and in the midst of the December doldrums, the company did its best to fight off the winter blues with the fiery action of the Continental Classic, as well as a main event many months in the making.

Mariah May defended her AEW Women's Championship against friend-turned-enemy Mina Shirakawa, only for her celebration to be cut short. Two more Continental Classic Matches occurred. Enough of "what" happened, that's what the results page is for. Instead, let's break down the things the Wrestling Inc. Staff loved and hated from this week's AEW Dynamite.

I wrote about loving the fact that Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly were the two competitors going face-to-face for the right to challenge MJF for the "Dynamite" Diamond Ring at Worlds End last week. Still, this week, I'm even happier that AEW made the right decision and went with the right guy. I had myself convinced that it would be O'Reilly winning the match and going on to lose to MJF at the pay-per-view, in part to avenge Roderick Strong, and because I figured Cole would be the last of his gang to challenge the man he was feuding with in the first place.

The match itself wasn't too much to write home about on a show with two great Continental Classic matches, but it served its purpose to get to the best end result. Matt Taven and Mike Bennett coming out at the end and attempting to extend an olive branch between Cole and O'Reilly was a nice touch, but O'Reilly wasn't having any of it and just slid out of the ring and walked off following his loss. If this goes somewhere between him and Cole and the rest of the Undisputed Kingdom, so be it, but O'Reilly is involved in other storylines, like with the Corporation, so if this is put on the back burner for Cole to go into a longer program with MJF, which I think should be done, that's fine in my book.

I liked the fact that MJF was actually in the building tonight, though I thought we could have used a promo from him backstage or something after Cole took him out with a big super kick after he attempted to interfere in the match with the ring. He didn't get involved after the match either, and I'm assuming he slinked off back up the ramp, though I could have missed something there. While it wasn't as effective as it could have been, I'm glad MJF had at least some presence on the show tonight, so I won't be too picky about it. I'm hoping this means he'll be back to cut promos and trash-talk Cole before Worlds End in the upcoming weeks, or at least next week, to set things up further. This is a match that makes sense for Worlds End, and while the build could have been stronger, I'm assuming it's because of MJF's filming schedule, so I'll take what I can get. This was a small highlight of the show, and AEW getting it right (in my humble opinion) was something I enjoyed.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Here's the thing: if you're going to choose to do a wrestling-themed news show, then you better have some good news to back it up. Announcing a contract signing between Chris Jericho and Matt Cardona on ROH On HonorClub tomorrow night and an "AEW Rampage" match between Bryan Keith and Cardona doesn't exactly constitute said good news that you would expect.

I completely understand that the whole point of these New York Minute promos from Jericho is meant to bring more attention to the Ring of Honor brand and the Ring of Honor World Championship match between Jericho and Cardona at Final Battle. I also think that Jericho's ability to innovate new segments and gimmicks has been a major contributing factor as to why he's had such a successful career that's spanned several decades. With those two things being said, it feels as though there's no reason to do these promos in a news show format as they would be just as effective – if not more so – without it and it feels incredibly unnecessary. Combined with the fact that Jericho's only connections to New York are Final Battle being held in the Hammerstein Ballroom and being born on Long Island (despite being raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), it makes the entire thing feel nonsensical and random. It takes away from achieving the good promotion that a match between Jericho and Cardona should be receiving and almost pulls you out of it with how abrupt it feels with the flow of the rest of the show.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Man have I missed Bandido. A guy who in the late 2010s was poised to be the next breakout luchador, only for a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic ruining Ring of Honor to the point of near extinction, and a serious arm injury less than a year into his AEW run to stifle any momentum he could possibly build. But he is on his way back as "The Most Wanted," and this second vignette that aired on "AEW Dynamite" has not only got me excited to see him return, but this was just a load of fun nonsense.

Bandido rides on horseback into an abandoned town where a bunch of guys have been looking for him, and whoever catches him gets $100,000, even though the town he is riding into looks like it isn't even worth $100. The guys try and arrest him, to which Bandido surrenders, only for him to fight all four of these men while also looking like the most jacked man that has ever stepped foot in this dumpster of a town.

What follows is a fight sequence that wouldn't look out of place in the glory days of Lucha Underground. A four-on-one war where a luchador makes a group of tough guys look so foolish that it genuinely made me laugh out loud out of sheer joy. Ridiculous in the best possible way, filmed beautifully so that it looked professional enough to be on cable TV but cheesy enough to look like a Robert Rodriguez B-Movie, and made Bandido look like an absolute freak of nature. Oh, and to put the cherry on top of the cake, Bandido had the common courtesy to put his cape back on as he rode out of town.

AEW used to rely on its fans being in the know about how long people were out with injury so that surprises could be, at the very least, a little bit expected. But these Bandido segments have all of a sudden turned him into someone that I cannot wait to see back in the ring, similar to how the Julia Hart vignettes have hyped both her return and her feud with Jamie Hayter. I don't know who he will face when he gets back, and quite frankly I think Hangman Page should be a little angry at the fact that someone else in AEW can ride a horse (WITH A CAPE ON NO LESS), but whoever Bandido faces when he eventually returns, I will most certainly be seated.

Written by Sam Palmer

The Continental Classic has been, as expected by many, very good thus far. Each league seems unpredictable to an extent, new stars are being made in Kyle Fletcher, and finals at Worlds End are shaping up to be very special indeed. With that said, this is the first result in the tournament that I personally feel missed the mark for a variety of reasons.

For starters, I have no problems with a David vs. Goliath story resulting in the plucky underdog getting an upset victory, but Brody King absolutely mauled Ricochet for 90% of the match. It got to the point where even the people in the building were routing for King because man, he looked like a killer, a genuine big man monster who could genuinely do well as a singles star (sorry Buddy and Malakai). AND YET...he lost, to a guy who he beat the snot out of for the entire match. It wasn't even just a schoolboy error either that led to the victory, Ricochet hit two of his "Ospreay's move, just with a different angle" move to get a clean, decisive victory. No struggle from a man who could have won the match about 15 different times.

However, the thing that actually frustrates me the most about this match aside from King looking a bit stupid in defeat is that there was a very interesting story opportunity that could have been explored.

Earlier in the night, Ricochet showed off the business card MVP gave him and made out like he's going to prove to The Hurt Syndicate that he's worth keeping an eye on. Now, beating someone like Brody King will have eyes on you, but the potential story of having MVP see Ricochet not do well in the C2 and recruit him to build him up as the next big member of his group would have been a great ark to explore. Put obstacles in his way, don't just hand him victories because he's just arrived in the company, especially victories that he shouldn't have logically gotten in the first place.

Like I said, it was a good match, it made Brody look fantastic, but the result was the first of the C2 that didn't sit right with me, especially considering what could have been done with a Ricochet loss. Also, Tony, push Brody King please, he's great.

Written by Sam Palmer

It truly felt like a night of saving the best for last when it came to Winter is Coming 2024, with Toni Storm making her surprise return as she was prior to being "Timeless." Mariah May and Mina Shirakawa put on a fantastic Women's Championship match in the main event, bringing forth credible moments of believability for the challenger as she rallied at several stages. That truly felt like a title bout where it could have gone either way, even if in actual fact the winner was always going to be May, and they both went out of their way to make use of the limited time they were given even with an overrun. But it was after May had retained her title that the best moment came, with Storm's old music hitting to a roar of realization from the crowd, and the former Women's Champion emerging – herself emotional at the reaction to her babyface return.

It's certainly a bold move to depart from the immensely popular "Timeless" gimmick but it does feel like the right decision at this stage. There is a chance to put the persona back in the locker and preserve it for as great as it was, and too often do we find ourselves maligning something for going on too long while simultaneously not realizing it until it's too late. But it's also a chance to move both characters and the plot forward, considering May was victorious when she came up against a Storm still reeling from betrayal. Now she will be coming against her rival without that psychological advantage, and there's a question about how different this iteration of Storm will be. It's left a hook to tune in for the next chapter, to understand how Storm will address things going forward, how May is going to respond to her return, and then there is also Thunder Rosa who sat front row for everything. Having felt for a while like May's title reign has needed an injection, having May vs. Shirakawa, then the return of hands-down the most compelling woman on the roster, and promising a renewal of one of the best rivalries in AEW history – if not the – was exactly the prescription needed.

Written by Max Everett

Whether you love him or you hate him, you have to admit that Will Ospreay was "special." A unique talent, who has been treated like a big deal for the past few years, and he's dressed the part. Decked out in massive robes and feathers, Ospreay's entrance attire has always been a spectacle, or at least it was.

Ospreay came into his Continental Classic win against Claudio Castagnoli dressed, for lack of a better term, like a dirt bike driver. There's something very "small time" about his new attire, from the pants that look sewn together oddly to the new logo on his chest that is less Punisher and more Georgia O'Keefe's period of painting cow skulls in the desert. It doesn't help that Ospreay lost to Kyle Fletcher at the most recent PPV, only for Fletcher to apparently need to cheat more overtly than he did against Ospreay in many of the matches that followed. As we head towards an inevitable rematch between the two somewhere in the Continental Classic semi-finals or finals, damage has been done to Ospreay's luster.

All of this is adding up to Ospreay having an uphill battle to AEW's main event scene. It seems like he was on the cusp last summer, and then stepped aside to give Bryan Danielson his moment, but more and more it is feeling like Ospreay may have missed his chance completely in doing so.

Written by Ross Berman