10 Things You Learn Re-Watching AEW Dynamite’s First Episode

Here are the non-wrestling segments from that first Dynamite in order. Vignette for Cody vs. Sammy > in-ring interview with Tony Schiavone that led to Chris Jericho's ambush on Cody > MJF's promo walking to the ring > the celeb interlude > SCU and Lucha Bros on the stage > Inner Circle coming together at the end.

That was it. Notice something? Whilst AEW did show some backstage footage of the roster talking here or there, there wasn’t even one actual formatted backstage promo. This was refreshing looking back, especially in the face of WWE’s forced style in late-2019 ("Please welcome my guest at this time...").

AEW eventually fell into that pattern too, but it was cool that pretty much everything presented on the Dynamite debut happened in front of the live crowd. That fed into the old school studio show feel, albeit one produced on a grander stage. It was at once nostalgic and yet different to the established norms over on WWE Raw and SmackDown.

Also, special word for JR, Schiavone and Excalibur as an announce trio. They were excellent together.