By Blake Lovell
The podcast currently has 20 episodes available.
In this episode of All Elite Daily, host Blake Lovell shares thoughts on the criticism of AEW having too many championships, why quantity isn't necessarily the issue, the recent booking of the TNT title and Women's title, potential options for the new All Atlantic title, and much more.
In this AEW Dynamite 6/8/22 review, I share thoughts on Jon Moxley vs. Kyle O'Reilly in the main event and the continued build to Forbidden Door.
You can listen above or via your favorite podcast app or read the show notes below. The main highlights are also available via the transcript below.
Show Notes
For more AEW discussion, you can follow me on Twitter @wrestleblake.
Transcript
It is the AEW Dynamite 6/8/22 review, as that's the focus on this episode of All Elite Daily.
And as we said going into it, a lot of the talk would be surrounding the two big matches that we're going to take place on Dynamite. That involved the Battle Royale to determine who would face Jon Moxley in the main event, and as expected, it is going to be Jon Moxley headed to Forbidden Door to take on the winner of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Hirooki Goto.
But a lot of other noteworthy stuff came out of AEW Dynamite. One, in particular, is actually going to be the focus of our Friday episode. We'll get to that here in just a second. But let's start with the main theme, which was the Interim AEW World Championship and look at the possibilities.
That's where we start things off by looking at the Casino Battle Royale. There were a lot of things about the battle royale that stood out. I think one of the things immediately was something that we talked about - the injury situation for AEW right now. That is looking at guys like CM Punk, of course, who is out. Bryan Danielson has been sidelined for at least a week or two now. Adam Cole, as we've said before, is expected not to wrestle until Forbidden Door. Then as we will also discuss, they had a different direction for Wardlow.
So some of your top stars were not in this Battle Royale. And I think that made it kind of interesting from the standpoint of going back to the AEW rankings. I've said from the start, I think rankings are a good idea. But there are many times when they limit you more than help you.
I think this is one of those situations where people have been ingrained to pay attention to these rankings. But yet, when you have a Battle Royale like this, you don't really feel like there's a lot of people in here necessarily that are at the top of those rankings.
Eddie Kingston, I thought, had the biggest reaction of anyone. And I think there is money to be made there with an eventual Eddie Kingston title run. I don't know when that's gonna happen. But you want to talk about what I think would probably be one of the biggest pops that AEW could have from its fan base right now - I think that would be the moment that Eddie Kingston wins a world championship. But that's a story for another podcast.
You did have Kingston, you had Darby Allin, you had Rey Fenix, you had Swerve and Keith Lee. They had their interaction and there was Swerve eliminating Lee. I don't know what that means moving forward for their their team, but that was something that was notable in there as well. Konosuke Takeshita was in there. He was involved. And again, he's someone who I think has come in and impressed. I think he's done a good job.
There were other guys that were in there. Wheeler Yuta got a good reaction. Andrade was the final entrant. And I thought at that point, Andrade would actually be the one that would win. I did start to believe that because I think that would have made sense. But it just didn't happen.
And they decided instead to go with Kyle O'Reilly, who I've said, I think is really one of the most underrated guys in wrestling in terms of his in-ring ability. Everyone knows that Kyle O'Reilly can go in the ring, but he hasn't necessarily always gotten that main event opportunity. We know what he accomplished in NXT. Recency bias is a thing, and I think with O'Reilly, the way he finished his run in NXT, was just sort of the cool character and all this other stuff he was playing. It just did not feel like what fans wanted from Kyle O'Reilly.
But when you look at what he's done in AEW thus far, he's had a hell of a run. He looked great in that match, most recently, at Double or Nothing against Darby Allin. I thought that was a fantastic match for one that was just thrown together, seemingly out of nowhere to put on pay-per-view. I thought it was really good.
So O'Reilly winning was basically nothing more than it's just a means to an end. Yes, perhaps if you loaded this Battle Royale up a bit more with what felt like top challengers, maybe you could have made it a little more appealing to put some doubt in people's minds that it wasn't going to be Jon Moxley winning the main event. But I mean, like it or not, once O'Reilly won, it made it very clear that it's gonna be Jon Moxley winning.
At the very least, you get a good main event and I felt the main event was great. These two were gonna beat the hell out of each other. They did, and it was a fantastic main event.
That was just sort of the role that this Battle Royale served was to get Jon Moxley from point A to point B and this served its purpose no matter who won. It was good for O'Reilly, I think gives him a little bit more of a push. He's beaten Darby Allin, he's won this Battle Royale. He's been someone that Tony Khan has certainly put a lot of faith in and yeah, he's delivering in the ring. So it was nice to see Kyle O'Reilly kind of getting some recognition here.
But again, it's like, how many battle royals do you really look back on and say, "Oh, that was just a great battle royal that is so memorable." There's not a ton. Battle royals are what they are.
I'm not a huge fan of the Casino Battle Royale style. I don't love the concept. You're just putting a lot of guys in the ring. And that's what you did here. When you don't have the star power you would expect maybe going in just based on the rankings, it just becomes a battle royal. There was not a lot of memorable stuff coming out of it.....
Is Eric Bischoff right about MJF being "without peer" in the world of pro wrestling?
You can listen above or via your favorite podcast app or read the show notes below. The main highlights are also available via the transcript below.
Show Notes
For more AEW discussion, you can follow me on Twitter @wrestleblake.
Transcript
Today's main topic on All Elite Daily surrounds MJF, who has been the biggest talking point in AEW recently outside of probably CM Punk winning the AEW World title and then having to take some time off due to his injury.
But MJF undoubtedly has been a huge topic based on the events of the past several weeks. That goes back to him missing the meet and greet at the Fan Fest. Many people were wondering if he was going to show up for Double or Nothing and his match with Wardlow.
Then it's the fallout from that, with him cutting the promo on AEW and Tony Khan. And then AEW took the next step by sending out all these messages to advertisers and sponsors to pull anything associated with MJF to have to really play up the situation that's going on.
That led to Eric Bischoff, who on his recent edition of the Strictly Business podcast he does on AdFreeShows, weighed in with some thoughts on MJF.
Here's what Bischoff had to say:
"In my opinion, MJF is without peer. He is so good. There are a handful, one or two people in WWE, who are capable of catching up to that, but there aren't many. He is in a universe all his own, in my opinion."
He goes on to talk about the MJF storyline itself:
"Where's this one going to go? I have no idea if it's real, if it's not, if it's scripted. I have an opinion. And it was probably something that started out as a very, very real thing. And then they woke up one day, and then both of them were painted into a corner and it was like, how the hell do we get out of this? That's just an opinion. I don't know if I'm right or wrong, don't care, actually. Because the journey and the potential for this journey is off the frickin' charts. In my opinion, it'll be the first time that situation has existed in AEW."
Everyone will have different opinions on what they think of Eric Bischoff's analysis. But, I mean, he is right on the money here.
MJF has really has become someone just like Eric Bischoff has said, that is without peer. There's no one else I think that is on MJF's level in terms of the believability and the ability to put all of this together the way that he has in this character, and sort of package it in a way that is presented as never knowing if it's real, or if it's not. I think he has been able to kind of blur that line so well as a character.
Now, we can certainly take that much further if we're specifically focusing on the recent situation. I am also of the opinion that this is something that I think started out as a pretty real, drama-filled development in terms of the whole meet and greet and all this other stuff.
Could we be wrong? Could we all eventually find out that this was all been a big ruse from the beginning? You could go all the way back to MJF interview with Ariel Helwani. That reportedly did not sit well with AEW because they weren't the ones that set it up. There are so many different things that we've seen over the past six months or so that had been reported regarding the relationship with MJF and AEW, and specifically, Tony Khan. I think that it is something that has a very real tint to it.
But where do we now officially draw the line of what's real? What's not real? I think it's become more clear, and especially in the past week, since they did what they did on Dynamite by having MJF come out and cut the promo.
There was a big belief and and I was one that thought this way, that after MJF was stretchered out at Double or Nothing, that could be it. Right? Like I thought that could be it for him in AEW. Would it be the last time we see him in AEW based on all the drama that had played out the previous 24 hours? But he immediately comes back, and he's back on Dynamite several days later.
I think I understand the criticism on this part - MJF really not selling any of the injuries, or any of the effects of being powerbombed a gazillion times by Wardlow. But I think now you're starting to see it certainly go into that territory of people understanding that we're definitely in storyline mode here. Otherwise, they're not going to give him MJF a live microphone on AEW Dynamite.
But there are a lot of people who are going to look at this and say, "Oh, my goodness, like how real is this thing? And how deep does this run in terms of the dispute between MJF and Tony Khan?"
There are no other storylines in wrestling that we've seen recently that match this in terms of reality. This is where, again, Eric Bischoff's comments - I think this is where he's spot on with this one because I don't think there's anyone right now who can rival what MJF can contribute from just a character standpoint.
Bischoff mentioned WWE, and there are some other things that you could point out when it comes to pure star power. Is MJF the biggest wrestling star in the world? No. But has he become one of the most real wrestling stars in the world in terms of not really ever knowing where that line is at? I think absolutely.
He feels like the top guy in the business when it comes to old school heel tactics and mannerisms, the way he presents himself, and the way he delivers the dialogue.
Sure, we can make the comparisons to a Roman Reigns, but Reigns is much different than MJF. They're much different in how they're presented on television. This is not an AEW vs. WWE thing, but I think you have to have that conversation.....
Did AEW miss an opportunity with Britt Baker winning the women's Owen Hart Cup?
You can listen above or via your favorite podcast app or read the show notes below. The main highlights are also available via the transcript below.
Show Notes
For more AEW discussion, you can follow me on Twitter @wrestleblake.
Transcript
We're back here with thoughts on a couple of AEW topics, and we start off with a notable topic that I know was a bit more notable coming out of Double or Nothing and the Owen Hart Cup.
Did AEW get the winners, right?
A lot of people had thoughts on Adam Cole winning the men's side and Britt Baker winning the women's side of the Owen Hart Cup. In this episode, we're gonna focus specifically on the latter part of that with Britt Baker because Renee Paquette, who on latest episode of The Sessions, said something that I think a lot of people agree with.
Here's what she had to say: "I think when Tony Storm didn't go over Britt on their way to the tournament, and then to have Ruby also lose, it would have been nice to have one of those women in that spot. Like I'm saying, Britt is fucking great. There's no denying that. I think she's fantastic. I think she's head and shoulders at the top of that division. But to spread some of that love around as they're bulking up that division. These women are stars. Tony storm is a star, Ruby Soho is a star. She's amazing. Kris Statlander is on her way up as well."
So that was Renee's quote. I think if you asked a lot of different people, and you saw this on social media, that quote is not unlike what I think became the popular opinion for people coming out of the Owen Hart Cup. Could you use it to sort of catapult someone into that upper echelon of the AEW women's division?
You could have certainly made the same argument on the men's side. I didn't have as big of a problem with Adam Cole winning the men's side. Baker winning the women's side, I think it was a little bit of a different situation.
The thing with AEW's women's division is this. It's been a hot topic since the company started. It didn't get off to the best of starts in terms of just the overall depth of the roster, and now, you are starting to add some depth. When you actually pull up the roster page now for the AEW women's division, you see a lot of potential. It's not just that small group anymore that you had for a while there where it seemed like they were filtering in the same people in and out.
Due to the WWE releases, you've had a lot of new people come into the company. Most recently, that's Athena. There have been others as well. Of course, Jade Cargill has come onto the scene and been a superstar for AEW thus far. You've had new additions elsewhere, whether it's someone like Jamie Hayter, or Mercedes Martinez comes in. You've got Paige VanZant kind of getting started there. We talked about Ruby Soho, Toni Storm - they're in that group. So you have a lot of different options.
That's why I think, doing it the way they did it, having Britt Baker win the tournament - there's no doubt Britt Baker is the top star in the AEW women's division. That could lead into a whole different conversation about how they're treating Baker versus their world champion Thunder Rosa.
But for the Owen Hart Cup, it is something where I think when you saw the visual after it was all over with, clearly, Tony Khan decided that he wanted to go the route of having Britt Baker and Adam Cole standing there with Martha Hart to sort of celebrate this big occasion. It was the first-ever tournament. But beyond that, beyond the visual, I think that there were a lot of other directions you could have gone to sell fans on someone else getting that spot and making this that launching point for them in the AEW women's division.
Now, that's not me taking anything away from Britt Baker.
Again, to me, she has clearly been the number one star in their division over the past however long now. She's been the biggest star in the division. She still is to this point. But I think that's where you have that opportunity, whether it is Toni Storm, as Renee Paquette said, getting the win over Baker in that semifinal match. Maybe that's the direction they should have gone. And then that could have set up a lot of different possibilities.
Maybe you throw someone like Jamie Hayter in there and do something with that where she gets that push forward because, I think I've said this from the start - Jamie Hayter clearly has all the potential to be a top star in the AEW women's division. Putting her with Britt Baker has certainly helped in terms of giving her that exposure. So maybe you do something there.
Maybe you just go the route of having Ruby Soho beat Baker in the finals. Or again, you could also talk about Kris Statlander, who got a huge ovation in that semifinal match against Ruby Soho. There are a lot of different directions you could have gone in to maybe give fans the sense that you were really pushing someone forward.
The issue perhaps is that immediately coming out and Double or Nothing, of course, they had the tag team match where Soho actually gets the pin on Baker, as though that's supposed to sort of make up for it. I don't think that works in this scenario. That's not of the same level - pinning someone on Dynamite - as this Owen Hart Cup that had been pushed for months and months and months. It's just a much different sell to fans.
So I don't really think it does a whole lot just for Ruby Soho to get a pin on Britt Baker in that manner because it didn't come in that one-on-one match with everything on the line with a shot at being the inaugural Owen Hart Cup winner.
It is something where to me it feels like a missed opportunity, where you could have gone a different direction and really established someone else in that division, even though there are a lot of women that are established now as really good competitors.
Athena coming in, she's going to be established. So are Hayter and Statlander. Nyla Rose has kind of been established and she has been there since the start. There are other options as well. Riho and Serena Deeb are in that group.
I could have gone probably with four different people aside from Britt Baker in this tournament. I could have made the case for Jamie Hayter to possibly win and then have a semifinal match there between Hayter and Baker. You can kind of go all the way with that if you think the timing is right, but clearly AEW did not think the timing was right to do that.
Or, again, you have Toni Storm beat Baker, take Storm to the finals, and maybe she wins the whole thing. The same for Ruby. I think those three plus Kris Statlander, who I think if I'm looking at it in the way they're setting it up right now, could be the person that will challenge Jade Cargill next.
Statlander is probably the person to take the TBS title off of Cargill. I don't see anyone else that I would probably put in that position right now. Statlander, with this new sort of character, this new edge, I think she's the one to put in that spot to do that.
That's where you could have her win the Owen Hart Cup to make her even more of a threat going into a potential match against Jade Cargill........
Who should be the interim AEW World Champion after CM Punk's injury announcement?
In this episode of All Elite Daily, I discuss Punk's injury, the confusion surrounding the AEW World title situation, a potential Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi match at Forbidden Door, and much more.
You can listen above or via your favorite podcast app or read the show notes below. The main highlights are also available via the transcript below.
Show Notes
For more AEW discussion, you can follow me on Twitter @wrestleblake.
Transcript
We have a lot to discuss here on this episode, and it is the fallout from the surprise announcement on AEW Rampage.
CM Punk announced that he is currently dealing with an injury and will have to undergo surgery, which will lead to an Interim AEW World Champion.
Thus begins the AEW interim World Championship Eliminator series featuring several different steps. It will first start off with the battle royal, which will open up this Wednesday's AEW Dynamite Independence, Missouri. The winner of the battle royal goes on to face Jon Moxley later that night.
The winner of that match will go on to compete for the Interim AEW World title at Forbidden Door on June 26 in Chicago. And another wrinkle that was added is New Japan announcing that at Dominion, it's going to be Hiroshi Tanahashi going on one on one with Hirooki Goto in what is being described as another Eliminator Match. The winners meet at Forbidden Door.
There are a lot of moving parts with a sudden announcement like that because none of us expected it. But here's where things stand.
We can get the New Japan part of this out of the way first. It's going to be Hiroshi Tanahashi going up against someone from AEW, whether that's Jon Moxley or the winner of the Battle Royal. Love Goto, but it's not going to be him headlining Forbidden Door. It's going to be Tanahashi.
On the AEW side, there are really only a couple of different directions. And let's start with the one that I don't think is likely. But I think it's worth mentioning Tanahashi was the one who had the scheduled match against CM Punk at Forbidden Door. Tanahashi was not going to win that match, but could AEW go the route of putting the belt on Tanahashi if Punk's injury is a short-term thing?
I don't see it as likely. But again, if you're looking for something outside the box, it's something worth thinking about just because it was going to be Tanahashi as next in line for an AEW World Championship match. But Tanahashi actually becoming champion, I don't think that's realistic.
That leads us to some of the other possible scenarios. I think the most likely one is Jon Moxley being the interim AEW World Champion. Moxley has been wanting this match with Tanahashi, and I think Moxley is going to be the choice coming out of Dynamite no matter who he faces in the main event.
So, Moxley advances to Forbidden Door to headline that pay-per-view with Tanahashi and it gives you a match that has been building for a while. This is the perfect time to do it. And I think it'll be Moxley being the first two-time champion. That's the most likely route just because Moxley is someone that Tony Khan has turned to time and time again, in terms of putting him in all these big spots. He's someone AEW has leaned on a lot since the company started.
This is probably that scenario where you're comfortable with Moxley. He can kind of carry you moving forward until Punk returns. It gives you a big name and there are a lot of different ways you can go with that. How could that tie in with Bryan Danielson? Could Danielson try to get that title from Moxley their relationship? Eddie Kingston? Throw him in the mix. There are a lot of possibilities by putting Moxley in this particular role.
Beyond that, who are the options? There have been reports out there that Bryan Danielson is dealing with an injury and is reportedly going to be off for a couple of weeks perhaps. So that would likely not put him in this battle royal on Wednesday for that opportunity. I think you can count him out of the mix.
Adam Cole? I think it was Brian Alvarez who reported that Cole is expected to not wrestle until Forbidden Door. So that takes him perhaps out of the battle royal. He just won the Owen Hart Cup. He's ranked number four in the rankings. So those are all possibilities.
Meanwhile, who else is ranked in the in the top five in the rankings? You've Wardlow, who was the previous number one before Moxley moved to one, and he's at two now. Hangman Page, the former AEW World Champion is at three, and Jay Lethal at five.
I don't think Jay Lethal is going to be the guy to win it and face Moxley in the main event. But this is where I think you have a lot of different options. And I think now, the most intriguing part of this to me is not necessarily who's going on to become the champion, because like I said, I think my prediction right now is going to be Jon Moxley. And I don't think that's going to change. I think he's your Interim World Champion, unless they go the route of Tanahashi.
I would be more surprised it's on Tanahashi just because you don't know the logistics there of him carrying the title because you don't know when Punk is gonna be back. That's the big question. How long is this going to be? You've got to kind of put the belt on someone who's going to be a regular in AEW. And again, Moxley fits that description.
Beyond that, I don't think they're going back to Hangman. I just don't see that as something where you take the belt off of him and immediately you put it right back on him as the interim champion. I don't think that does a whole lot for him. And I just don't think that's the way they're gonna go here.
And then it's Wardlow, right? He comes off the highest point of his career, beating MJF at Double or Nothing. And then immediately on the next Dynamite, he is stuck into what looks like it'll be some sort of legal dispute with Mark Sterling. That's clearly a step down for Wardlow.
Could you put him in this battle royal? Have him win it? Sure you could. But here presents the problem. I don't think it's going to be Wardlow vs. Tanahashi in the main event of Forbidden Door, which means Wardlow would have to lose the Jon Moxley. Right now, I don't think you want Wardlow losing. He's coming off the highest point that he's had his entire career, and I don't think you want to put him in that spot to where even if he were to win the battle royal, he loses to Jon Moxley. So, I would not go that route.
I think I would keep Wardlow away from that spot. Unless you've got something pretty big planned or you do something that is going to negate that loss, which I just don't really see a lot of options outside of just a blatant interference. then I think that is not exactly something you want to get into right now with Wardlow.
Who are the other options? We'll go to the one first a lot of people are discussing, and that is MJF.
I get the understanding that this is sort of the "strike while the iron is hot" with MJF. His stock has never been higher given the promo he cut last week. But AEW has pretty much taken the stance that they are ridding themselves of MJF. I think they're really going all-in on this. Unless there is just something I'm not thinking of, I don't really see a scenario where you can bring him back the following week after the promo he cut on Tony Khan and put him in this battle royal with the opportunity to become the AEW World Champion.
I think you could make it work because again, the summer of MJF as a lot of people are calling it, would be must-see television because of the story involved. And knowing that Punk could come back and and all of a sudden, you have a guy that wants to leave the company going up against CM Punk. There are a lot of parallels you can draw there.
But I just think the timing is not the best based on what happened last week, because I don't think you can immediately go from what MJF did last week, and put him in that match the following week. I just don't think you can do it. That's the only issue I have with it unless there's just a perfect, compelling reason you can think of which, again, may just be slipping my mind.
I don't see it happening, so I think I'm going to discount that one. I would probably love it if you think about the possibilities. But right now, I'm not seeing how they get from Point A to Point B with that and have it make sense. But you never know. It's wrestling. We always say anything's possible in wrestling.
So, if you take MJF out of the equation, you start to go down the line. And that's where I think you look at guys like Eddie Kingston, who, I mean, if you put Eddie Kingston versus Jon Moxley in a main event on Dynamite, that would be something, right? That would be must-see in terms of knowing what Kingston has talked about time and time again, wanting to be a world champion. That's something you could do.
Beyond that, I think you're looking at a group of guys perhaps like a Darby Allin. If you keep going down the list, I'm looking at the roster here - I just don't see a lot of possibilities that I think that you're going to go with now.
Miro is one that is interesting. But again, Miro going on to face Moxley where Moxley beats Miro, which goes back into the question. You just brought Miro back. Do you want him to lose that quickly?
I just keep going back to it. I do not see another scenario outside of Moxley vs. Tanahashi at Forbidden Door. So, I think whoever wins the battle royal is going to take a loss in the main event. That's where - I know sometimes we overvalue what a loss means and all this other stuff, but I just think with guys like Wardlow and Miro right now, I just don't think you want those guys losing based on what you have going on before this whole Punk announcement.
Someone like Malakai Black, he could certainly be in the mix. I mean, could you go with a Samoa Joe? I think that's the roster that you're working with. Those are the options that you really look at here.
So, if I had to go with a group, I think that's it. I think it's probably the group of Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston, Miro, but again, I just don't know that Miro losing is the best route to go on that.
But I'll stick with my prediction. I think it's whoever wins the battle royal, Moxley is going to win that match, go on to face Tanahashi, and Moxley becomes the Interim AEW World Champion.
In this episode of All Elite Daily, host Blake Lovell shares his thoughts on Andrade El Idolo signing with AEW, the reaction to how AEW debuted him on Dynamite, expectations for Andrade in the company, and much more.
Follow Blake on Twitter: @wrestleblake
More AEW coverage: WrestleBlake.com
In this episode of All Elite Daily, host Blake Lovell shares his thoughts on AEW's current roster size, why it's important when discussing WWE releases, expectations for how AEW could reshuffle its roster once it returns to touring, and much more.
Follow Blake on Twitter: @wrestleblake
More AEW coverage: WrestleBlake.com
In this episode of All Elite Daily, host Blake Lovell shares his thoughts on how the latest round of WWE releases impacts AEW, whether Braun Strowman or Aleister Black could join the company, why Lana signing with AEW makes sense, and much more.
Follow Blake on Twitter: @wrestleblake
More AEW coverage: WrestleBlake.com
In this episode of All Elite Daily, host Blake Lovell discusses Mark Henry signing a multi-year deal with AEW, what Henry can bring to the roster, the recent trend of WWE legends leaving for AEW, and much more.
In this episode of All Elite Daily, host Blake Lovell shares his thoughts on AEW Double or Nothing, the incredible crowd, Britt Baker become AEW Women's Champion, the second edition of Stadium Stampede, and much more.
Follow Blake on Twitter: @wrestleblake
More AEW coverage: WrestleBlake.com
The podcast currently has 20 episodes available.