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Welcome to the #AEWeekly review discussion where PWM contributors reflect on the highlights of the last week in AEW. The eligibility week always includes the most recent episode of Dynamite, but is more flexible in terms of Collision and Rampage, to account for busy folks not always being 100% caught up, so can include this week OR last week’s episode.
This week’s contributors are Tim [@TimmayMan] covering match of the week, Sergei [@SergeiAlderman] covering interview, Saul [@SaulKiloh] exploring a key story beat, Peter [@PeterEdge7] with the moment of the week, Sam P. [@BigBadaBruce] with Throwback of the week, and Joe [@GoodVsBadGuys] giving us the MVP of the week.
A page of links to prior installments may be found here: #AEWeekly
MJF X Will Ospreay
"Leaving the audience (and the workers) breathless..."
by Tim.
I would have thought that this week’s match of the week was a no-brainer. Take two top stars, have them compete for a title, go above and beyond in drama and physicality, and put it on television for the masses to enjoy. Boom, you got a multi-starred stew going of a certified mat classic. So why is online discourse so weird? For that question, I have no answer. I talked last week how some fans have allowed their fandom to turn toxic from which nothing is ever allowed to be good anymore. Everything gets broken down to a level where enjoying it is impossible. Fandom gets handed a beautifully plated cheeseburger, and they in turn take time deconstructing it until it goes cold. The buns are peeled back, the lettuce examined, the sauce scraped off and put under a microscope, while the cheese goes cold and the onions wilt. They then take a bite and declare it sub-par.
This article isn’t for that. We’re getting a hot cheeseburger and we’re devouring it like a man that’s gone hungry over a harsh winter. MJF and Will Ospreay are incredible performers, and one hot summer night in Little Rock they showed the world why. It feels like many people sleep on MJF as an in-ring worker, this could be the consequence of being so good on the mic, but Maxwell can go when the bell rings. In between the counters and the big moves, MJF adds that extra flair with facial reactions and embellishments that add to the match. It’s too bad that the moniker of “The Total Package” has already been taken in wrestling history because this nickname would fit MJF perfectly. As for Ospreay there’s not much more I can add that hasn’t been said already. He is one of the absolute best wrestlers on the planet.
The match itself was tremendous. Going into it we weren’t expecting a near hour-long bout. Had this been advertised as an Iron Man match the tempo would have been different, for both the workers and the fans. In an Iron Man match we’re conditioned to expect lots of stalling at the beginning and for pinfalls/submissions throughout. For MJF/Ospreay what fans got was a slow realization that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. The crowd in Little Rock was great—hot throughout and appreciative of the performers. Special shoutout to the young girl that got some shots into MJF’s midsection at the invite of Ospreay. The storytelling was solid, focusing on Ospreay’s dealing with an injured shoulder. As things got past the 40-minute mark I'm sure some in the crowd were foreseeing a 60-minute draw as AEW has gone this route in the past. There was some audible disappointment when MJF resorted to a loaded punch (via his diamond ring) to score a pinfall victory. Maybe people wanted a clean finish or maybe people wanted overtime. Hard to say, but reactions seemed mixed. Post-match saw trainers bringing oxygen to the new champion, which was a nice touch to sell what had just transpired.
For the 250th episode of Dynamite I’m glad that AEW took the opportunity to book something special. For comparison let’s check what WWF and WCW did for their respective flagship show’s anniversaries. For Nitro #250 we had around 27 minutes of action that included a sub-4-minute Battle Royal main event. Over at RAW #250 we barely got 26 minutes of action with a main event that ended in DQ after 43 seconds. While MJF and Ospreay weren’t the main event, their match will be remembered for a long, long time.
Thunder Rosa
"I am losing myself..."
by Sergei.
Sometimes it's very hard to pick the awardee for Interview otW because there are so many exceptional ones to choose between. But this week was the other sort: where nothing really stood out. Not that Dynamite wasn't just as great as it's been consistently since Forbidden Door. But this past week that greatness was mostly in-ring… or wordless great moments like Darby rappelling from the heavens. And the other shows were… very "B-" at best this week. I was counting on the social media exclusives to save me, and near the very end I finally found a spoken segment that inspired me, and from a surprising source: Thunder Rosa.
Not that Rosa isn't a reliably engaging and passionate interview. But since her return from her long injury hiatus, she hasn't exactly been thrilling or inspiring—on the mic or in the ring—like she had been (for me and many fans) during her first run. And, (except translated to kayfabe lack of success,) that's kinda what the interview is about! Icymi:
I very recently made the claim that the art of giving a great wrestling interview is not acting and that when it tries to be it usually sucks. But I am not afraid to admit it when I see a counter-example, and this promo was, at the very least, very acting-adjacent! Particularly toward the end—she comes across as very believably and naturalistically distraught, and it didn't come across as performative, cheesy, or mannered. I'm not sure if Rosa is genuinely feeling some distress about the recent direction of her career that she was able to draw upon? Or if she is simply a far more talented actor in the traditional sense—beyond the simple projections of confidence or passion or anger that are the bread and butter of a typical wrestling promo—than any of us likely would have guessed.
One of the most important skills for cutting a wrestling promo is the ability to project credible unwarranted confidence. After all, the wrestler already knows if they are going to be losing the match, but they can't let that show—in their voice or words or face—at all, to help build intrigue about the outcome. But these post-match interviews are a WHOLE different animal. Sometimes they can still be a "promo" in the traditional sense—by focusing on promoting a rematch, or shifting fire to demanding a match from someone who interfered. But when the focus isn't on some future revenge, but squarely on the loss that just occured, you get to see performers painting with some really different colors from what is usual in pro wrestling. From the silent self-recriminations of Jeff Jarrett, to the authentic uncertainty of Daniel Garcia, to the openhearted good-sportsmanship of Kyle O'Reilly or the philosophical stoicism of Eddie Kingston. But the deep despair and loss of confidence and even identity of Thunder Rosa might be the most interesting of the bunch, and I greatly hope this ends up leading somewhere for her character and for her storyline going forward….
Ospreay's Hesitation
"A Painting is Formed by Multiple Strokes..."
by Saul.
Ask ANYONE in the #AEWeekly group chat—I was sure that Ospreay would be victorious on Dynamite 250, and go onto face PAC at Wembley. It would’ve been the most contentious conflict involving competitors from England since “The Second English Civil War”. It might’ve been as ferocious as English tacticos arguing about if Palmer should’ve started over Foden and talking about how they could’ve done a better job than Gareth Southgate (they couldn’t). However, much like England in the Euros Final, Ospreay put up a decent fight but lost in the closing moments of the match.
There’s been an interesting pattern with the finishes involving the Billy Goat. Starting with his match at Forbidden Door against Swerve, continued with his title defence against Garcia and now repeated in his loss to MJF. The critical moment in each finish involved the loser having the opportunity to fully vanquish their opponent with a brutal or illegal maneuver, but eventually deciding against it. In every case, hesitation cost dearly.
A few weeks ago, Ospreay lost his World Championship match because he didn’t use a foreign object. Now he’s lost his International Title, in part due to MJF not repeating the mistakes of the Billy Goat or Danny Garcia, using any means necessary to become champion. You could argue this is what normally happens in wrestling. The faces don’t cheat, which may occasionally cost them but they keep their morals intact. Heels are often ultimate opportunists, leaving them with negative karma but also commonly with championship gold. However, to have such a specific repeated motif like this involving one wrestler is interesting.
The lesson is clear: win by any means necessary and being a good guy makes you a dork. If AEW is where the best wrestle, this will be the defining difference that’ll decide who is the best of the best. Or at the very least, have your identity crisis before your championship match. Decide whether or not you're willing to use weapons, don’t pick one up and then pause for minutes to ponder the moral questions while your opponent recovers. If you have decided to not use the Tiger Driver, then just don’t use it. Go into your move-set and remove it from your arsenal. There’ll be hundreds of other moves to equip as a strong grapple, I promise.
Anyway, Ospreay is in bad form as AEW heads towards London. Having just sacked Don Callis, maybe he hires the recently out of work Gareth Southgate to manage him? Anyway, I’m not sure how to end this, and I’m unsure where Ospreay goes from here. A rematch with MJF is complicated by a certain bastard having earned an International Title match and having already called his shot. Maybe his immediate future lies elsewhere? It’s all up in the air!
As the PPV name suggests, you have to go ALL IN to be victorious. You have to go ALL IN to ensure a marquee matchup on the biggest show of the year. In summary, you must go ALL IN. Perhaps these losses will have taught Will this simple lesson (and maybe someone should’ve told Southgate! BOOYAH!)
Kazuchika Okada
"When a man sees Mercedes dance...”
by Peter.
I laughed at the Kazuchika Okada being smitten for Mercedes Mone dancing moment on this past week's episode of Dynamite.
Yes, you can judge me.
For those who haven't seen it, Okada whispers in Matt Jackson's ear and gets him to ask Mercedes to do the CEO dance which Mone does and then gives a borderline contemptuous "got to go" as her prompt to leave. Okada then gets all hot and bothered (I mean, we are in the middle of a heatwave)
Seriously though, who saw Kazuchika Okada get thirsty for TAFKA Sasha Banks in the pro wrestling canon in the summer of 2016 when he was in the midst of his GOAT title reign and Mercedes was seen as the frontrunner of the women's wrestling revolution.
But this moment has been the lightning rod for the discourse on Kazuchika's run so far in AEW. The man seen as the one of the best in the world has been synonymous so far in his run in AEW for the word bitch, fake crying and just one great match so far (PAC at Dynasty) and with the modern platforms to exercise opinions being what they are, the backlash from those who aren't shy to exercise those opinions has been loud and while it's very easy to mock those who have been critical of AEW and their agenda against the company, on this occasion, it's difficult to yell at them.
This Okada isn't the Okada that has won multiple WOTY awards, wrestled in the greatest matches that wrestling has ever seen and is a certain pick for Top 10 of all time lists. When the revelation that Kazuchika was leaving NJPW came out, had you seen Okada in a backstage skit where he was lusting over a female title holder in July, the first reaction would have been "damn it, Paul got his mittens on Kazuchika Okada" but it's happened on a Wednesday night. But the truth is, in a world where the most over acts in AEW are those that are basically them but with the knob turned up to 11, Okada is being himself turned up to 11.
If you read the Young Bucks book, Killing the Business, it tells of Okada's willingness to be a goofball, a running joke in their time together in NJPW was Okada's consistent habit of "borrowing" the Jackson's clothes and wearing them—something Kazuchika would do again upon seeing Matt and Nick for the first time in 3 and a half years when he appeared on AEW in 2022.
Upon typing the terms "Okada" and "goofball" into my Google in researching this write-up, the first search was a reddit thread about Okada and his personality away from the ring dated 2 year ago and in the comments were quotes like
"He's legitimately a 10-year-old trapped in a 6'3" athlete's body, lol"
"To paraphrase that one tweet once again, he is a man with the soul of a midcard goofball in the body of a once-in-a-generation talent"
Although it doesn't ACTUALLY mention being a midcard dork specifically, this is proabably the tweet in question, from Amy Nemmity:
Wednesday night, we saw the actual Okada turned up to 11. Does he, down the line, need to tweak things? Probably yeah, but as we've seen with Toni Storm and her Timeless gimmick, the Toni of November 2023 bears little resemblance to the Toni of the last two months.
What might be more concerning is that we're currently seeing Okada at 10 to 20% of what made him a Top 10 all-time wrestler. Could Kazuchika Okada end up being another of a list of guys who moved to the US from Japan and were a shell of the guy that had his prime years in Japan or maybe he's just figuring stuff out inside the ring as well as outside?... that's the hope anyway!
Besides, I laughed when Kazuchika got all hot and bothered at seeing Mercedes Mone dance. So did a lot of people on Twitter and so did people in the arena of you listen closely, so maybe it was a genuine great moment.
Anniversary Episodes
"???..."
by Sam P.
Samuel's Throwback section will be added within 24 hours or so.
Will Ospreay
"Heart of a youth movement..."
by Joe.
MJF is a generational talent. MJF has grown into a better in-ring performer than most fans would have guessed he possibly could based off his level of ability when AEW started in 2019. MJF is not someone who needs to be carried in the ring.
However, MJF X Ospreay does not hit its highest peaks without Will Ospreay’s insane athleticism. The timing & execution of the tope hidden blade will live on in GIFs forever. The dangerous feeling elicited from that ring apron Styles Clash could only be created by someone trusted to pull it off without injury. Pulling off a one-armed powerbomb while selling the shoulder injury required a hybrid of brute strength & believable acting. The impeccable body control to plant a kick to the side of MJF’s head from behind MJF’s body satisfyingly delivered during an MJF taunt without “shoot” concussing Max in the process. Right after MJF’s own incredibly athletically impressive landing out of Ospreay’s poisonrana, Ospreay used that body control & footwork to land even more cleanly & smoothly out of MJF’s hurricanrana attempt.
Now, let me reiterate that MJF was excellent in this match as well. MJF probably deserves slightly more of the credit for the character stuff like the brawl into the stands with the garbage can spot, the beer bash, and the “fan interaction”, in addition to creating the aforementioned taunt moments where he received comeuppance for his cockiness… but you simply cannot the reach the sustained & repeated heights of engagement & entertainment of an hour-long TV match without the very rare talents of Will Ospreay. And you can't maintain the crazy pace that didn't hint at the fact that the match would go long without Ospreay's superhuman cardio and endurance… What’s also very rare is finding a performer that has this much experience & credibility at such a young age. Being just 31, AEW can more confidently pour the resources of big spots and lots of TV Time to his character with the hope of reaping the rewards for more than a decade to come.
All of this makes Ospreay this week’s MVP, over performances from both MJF and Darby Allin,(across 2 shows) that would've earned them MVP almost any other week. Between the three of them, they constitute the heart of a main-event-ready youth movement that bodes very well for the long-term health of AEW.
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