8 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (March 20 - Results & Review)

7. Mercedes Moné's Slow, Sure Start

Mercedes Moné started the show.

She didn't say a great deal, in truth, but the optics are more important here, She is being presented as a focal point of AEW programming. Sometimes, promotion is as simple and as necessary as that. WWE has applied this principle very effectively under Paul Levesque.

Moné introduce a video package of her run across NJPW and STARDOM. It told the somewhat embellished story that she was on fire before being injured by Willow Nightingale.

The lights went out. Julia Hart and Skye Blue motioned to attack her; Moné made them retreat, a bit too handily, before they returned armed with chairs. Those chairs were removed from them by Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander. Willow teased hitting Moné, who was wise to it, with hers. Moné walked off. Later in the show, Moné interrupted Willow and Stat's promo building their street fight with Hart and Blue on Rampage. Moné expressed her respect for Statlander but wanted little to do with Willow. Stokely Hathaway was decent value with his desperate and entirely ill-fated attempt to introduce himself to Mercedes.

It's hard to get a true read on all this. It's difficult to forecast where it's all going - Statlander's role in everything is ambiguous - which is good. However, as over as Moné is, there's a slight risk here of the Saraya Effect.

Willow is simply too likeable; if she turns full heel, it might drive a sentiment that Moné is the new star at the expense of talents with cult followings.