AEW Dynamite is owned by All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan, Shahid Khan, and TBS

We’re back with another week of AEW action, and we are creeping slowly but steadily back to relevance here on the site! We’re still a little bit behind, but the gap is growing closer just as we start to build towards the next AEW PPV. Will this be another solid episode full of great matches and interesting storylines as we head to the big event, or will my quest to catch up on the slow be an unending slog of tedium? Let’s find out!!

The episode begins with MJF and his cronies in The Pinnacle coming to the ring to celebrate his win last week against CM Punk. To say MJF is good at being a Heel is overwhelmingly redundant at this point, but he can still surprise you with how clever he can be in being a hateable tool. While everyone else comes down wearing suits and clutching drinks, he is carried out on a throne to an unimpressed and vocal crowd. After several minutes of milking his entrance, he finally starts talking about how he’s better than the best in the world and how the next step is obviously to crown him as AEW World Champion. Now I would have expected Adam Cole to come out since he made his intentions for the title clear on Rampage, but instead, it’s CM Punk who answers MJF’s tirade. Tony Schiavone is more than happy to meet him with a microphone, and Punk calls into question the win he had last week. More importantly though, he learned the lesson that no man is an island, and he brought some friends along to back him up this time; namely, Darby Allin and Sting who come out with baseball bats. Now this is where Punk gets clever, and this segment goes from good to great because he starts demanding a rematch… but NOT against MJF! Plot twist! He wants it against the person who was ACTUALLY responsible for his loss last week, namely Wardlow. This is brilliant because it’s an unexpected turn that puts The Pinnacle on their back foot while also hitting MJF right in his overinflated ego. In fact, it works so well that MJF proposes a different match and puts himself up as the prize; if Punk and a partner of his choosing can beat FTR tonight, then Punk can get a rematch against him. The catch is that Punk cannot choose Sting or Darby Allin as his partner; assuming of course that everyone in the back hates Punk as much as he does. Punk naturally accepts and leaves us in suspense as to who he will choose to be his partner. This was not just a solid Heel promo for MJF, but a great example of a Baby Face trying to get a rematch without looking desperate. Punk looks genuinely smart in the way that he’s manipulated MJF into giving him exactly what he wants, but MJF also doesn’t look like a total irrational fool because he managed to get the stipulation he wanted into the tag match, so both walk away with something which makes the feud that much more interesting!