6 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (October 25 - Results & Review)

MJF Vs The World, Kazuchika Okada's Dynamite debut, and Sting's scandalous gift...

Sting Ric Flair
AEW

Another week, another series of conversations about what AEW are doing wrong, despite there being plenty of people that think they're doing more than enough right.

All Elite Wrestling is for the hardcores, and regardless of if Tony Khan suddenly doesn't appreciate granular assessment or not, the fact remains that those that love it will love it hard and those that now don't will dig deep into their souls and personal fan experiences to try and locate specifically what it is that feels off. The match graphic drops - as evidenced by the unusually low hype levels for this week's main event - don't hit like they used to, and while the booking has been a victim of its own initial runaway successes, wrestling moves quickly and it's now being defined by its perceived failures.

Never has this been more apparent than in the criticism towards AEW World Heavyweight Champion MJF, specifically as relates to the comedic segments with Adam Cole, The Kingdom and The Acclaimed. Can funny equal money? Not judging by one too many soft domestic gates, but MJF has always hit different, and the hope was that if anybody could reverse course on a story that was losing its way, it'd be the 'Salt Of The Earth'.

He'd have even more to deal with than that by the end of this week's show.

Let's light the fuse...

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett