7 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (June 12 - Results & Review)

1. Killer Main Event With Rare Great Use Of A Familiar Trope

In something of an inverse to the trios match, if Will Ospreay and Fénix wrestled 50 matches together in an AEW ring, this would probably rank in the lower 25 quality-wise.

That's not to say it wasn't very good, even terrific - that take is more a reflection of the stratospheric standard Ospreay has set in 2024 thus far. Great as this was at certain moments, it didn't approach the level of his matches against Konosuke Takeshita and Bryan Danielson. To use a more fair comparison - this was a TV match, one that really didn't need two commercial breaks dragging down the blistering pace - it wasn't quite as good as Ospreay's war with Kyle Fletcher.

A match like this exists to do nothing less than blow your mind and managed that two or thee times. It was an anything you can do, I can do better deal. Fénix and Ospreay tried to wow the other with a stunning, never-before-seen counter to get inside one another's head and steal the psychological advantage. This sort of match has dated in general, even when the execution is phenomenal. Most of the counters are in fact familiar nowadays. This may scan as negative, but it's the reality of appraising a 2024 Will Ospreay match.

Still, when Fénix countered a warp-speed tornado DDT with a handstand kip-up, it was incredible. Absolutely incredible.

At the finish, Ospreay - looking in the direction of Swerve Strickland, who was at ringside - put Fénix away with the Swerve Stomp. The finisher theft trope ia very familiar, but it worked brilliantly here, For months - as has been pointed out in these reviews countless times - comparisons have been drawn between Ospreay and Swerve, two wrestlers vying for the Ace role with significant stylistic overlap.

This is now canon. You're meant to see them on even footing, you're meant to want to pay to see who is actually the better man.