7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (June 8)

Will Ospreay opens the Forbidden Door, Jon Moxley chooses violence, and ANOTHER new belt?

Kyle O'Reilly Jon Moxley
AEW

Chaos.

That was perhaps the most succinct way to describe how things felt in AEW less than seven days removed from a pay-per-view that set out to conclude several long-running stories, one of which included the crowning of a brand new AEW World Heavyweight Champion.

Double Or Nothing's build had played to mixed responses, but the show got enough right on the night that CM Punk's crowning felt just as big a story as the outside-the-ring scandal that had engulfed his newest legacy rival Maxwell Jacob Friedman that same weekend. MJF's contract dispute didn't get in the way of him putting over former charge Wardlow, but it overshadowed just about everything else, and the electrifying worked shoot promo he cut on the following Dynamite dominated much of the conversation there too.

All until Friday evening when Punk and the company (in somewhat shambolic fashion) revealed that he was taking time off to injury and there'd be need for a new interim Champion. The news was clumsily handled, the follow-through even more so, but Dynamite sought to clean up the mess and set some sort of clearer course for June 26th's Forbidden Door pay-per-view.

Did it achieve those stated aims?

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 nearly 8 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 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, 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