7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (1 June)

Hiroshi Tanahashi comes to AEW; CM Punk has a rough night; MJF cuts one hell of a "shoot" promo.

by Jamie Kennedy
MJF AEW Shoot
AEW

MJF just knocked that f*cker out of the park.

The "worked shoot" promo isn't easy to pull off, especially these days when fans are more in-tune with what's happening behind the scenes than ever before. Of course, the rumour mill does feed that beast to an extent, and Mr. Friedman (speaking as Mr. Friedman) used that to his advantage on Dynamite.

AEW produced a rough-around-the-edges but totally newsworthy episode on Wednesday night. Major debuts happened, build for Forbidden Door, Blood & Guts, Road Rager and more got some airtime, and Tony Khan even found time to usher back one of those ex-WWE stars MJF was complaining about during his expletive-laden tirade.

It's rare for AEW's product to rock more for angles/promos than matches, but this was one of those broadcasts. Being fair, some of the in-ring stuff did grab attention - Daniel Garcia, in particular, can be real proud of what he achieved here.

All Elite's main goal for Dynamite was to roll out of Double Or Nothing with some momentum, and they certainly managed that. Here's all the good and the bad from the company's latest.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.