AEW Dynamite 10/18/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
MJF (Credit: AEW)
Here’s where we landed with this week’s Dynamite from Cincinnati. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 10/18/2022
Death Triangle def. Best Friends to retain the AEW Trios Championships: ★★★
Toni Storm def. Hikaru Shida to retain the AEW Interim Women’s World Championship: ★★
Chris Jericho def. Dalton Castle to retain the ROH World Championship: ★★
Jon Moxley def. “Hangman” Adam Page to retain the AEW World Championship: NR
Toni Storm retained (Credit: AEW)
Show Highlight—
MJF is a genius. MJF created another career highlight—again. We’ll discuss this promo again in greater depth on the site and podcast in the days to come—it merits it—but the CliffsNotes version, this was MJFs best promo since his brilliant villain’s origin story about bullying and his obsession with Punk. And similar to the backstory shared there, it blended real life, made MJF a sympathetic character, and left room for him to be good or evil, depending on how the narrative unravels. MJF’s fragile psyche is so all-or-nothing he can take one slight out on himself so severely it can bring up his own demise. And Regal was great here, his experience breaking into the business was so unimaginably harsh he can only see MJF for what MJF is—relatable to his generation notwithstanding—entitled and a victim. MJF is a natural talent so it has all come easy to him. At the end of the show, MJF announced that he’d challenge Moxley for the title, and declared, “for the first time in my miserable life I’m going to earn it.” How will MJF win the AEW World Championship? As a face or a heel? It’s the storyline of 2022.
What Worked—
Orange’s sack. I wonder what he’d do with the belt and he didn’t disappoint. So lazy he needs a backpack to carry his belt, genius. Imagine the storyline potential when OC lets his champion status go to his head. It’s going to be amazing television.
Swerve and Keith Lee’s dynamic. We spoke about this on our podcast, but I love the vintage Sting/Luger vibes these two have, with Swerve playing the Luger role of heelish tweener to Lee’s virtuous Sting who sees eventual redemption in his partner. In a nice touch, Swerve subtly shit on Dax’s nails that he painted for his daughter and subsequently shared on Twitter. This is a great pairing for FTR, and they seem to have a bevy of challengers in The Gunn Club and The Kingdom, so there’s no acceptable booking rationale for them to not be featured prominently on AEW television!
Danielson/Yuta. Yuta being viewed as a lesser in the BCC has teeth for an angle. Like any good plot, Yuta is completely justified in his assessment of Danielson’s poor optics.
ROH Final Battle PPV. According to sources, there’s a possible streaming deal for ROH and Tony hinted at such himself. A PPV gives ROH some sense of storyline purpose and on-air necessity. I did laugh when the PPV was announced for a Saturday, and Tony Schiavone, is if reading my mind and personally addressing me, was quick to interject that it wouldn’t interfere in my precious college football binge watching. I’m down for a 4:00PM est. start time!
Riho vs Jamie Hayter. There’s going to be so much anticipation and collective dread on those near-falls that Riho will go over. It’s almost as if this match is happening so Tony can prove he’s listening to the audience by booking Jamie to win.
No cash-in. Nice fake tease that gave the audience relief that they were not going to do the WWE Money In the Bank route. The announcers had been a little loose with the rules of when and how MJF could cash-in. All the more amazing that they were able to navigate and pull this off with the calamity going on.
What Didn’t Work—
See ya, stickmen. Now that Renee is in AEW, there’s no purpose for any other backstage reporters. She’s Gene Okerlund.
Jericho/Castle. It did pick up, but it was far too silly for far too long to take it seriously. The phony looking pulled punches between Hager and the Boys was as shitty as Dark Order’s infamous beatdown. And is it just me or does Jake Hager look like a real life member of Gorillaz with that hat? Whatever.
Anyways, why is Dalton Castle, a sports entertainer if there ever was one, not part of the JAS anyways? I get that we need to pat time with former ROH champions before this storyline concludes, but why Dalton, this soon into this storyline’s run, the best representative of ROH’s championship lineage of real wrestlers? I’m assuming Joe gets the nod at the PPV, but I can’t be the only one concerned they’d go with a supposedly medically cleared Nigel McGuinness with his history of health concerns.
Adam Page—
I wasn’t able to watch the show live and was spoiler-free into the next morning. All I got was a screen shot from Alex that MJF referenced something befalling Hangman. I wasn’t sure what that meant, and watching the match ignorant of what happened Wednesday evening, I was afraid Page was going to hurt himself at some point, especially during the moonsault off the stands.
We’ve come a long way in sports that we can finally stop minimizing the potential horrific consequences of concussions. I’m appreciative that AEW’s referee and doctor stopped the match immediately and AEW’s production team didn’t shoot Page once they knew it was a serious, serious injury. AEW showed they value the welfare of their performers and the rest of their lives more than completing a storyline for the next ten minutes.
Jericho and Castle (Credit: AEW)
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