AEW Dynamite 200 Review - August 2, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Chris Jericho and Konosuke Takeshita def. Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara)

Jericho Appreciation Society is finally getting interesting now that they're on the verge of breaking up. I hope all of this isn't a red herring because it would be the wrong move to keep them together. The focus was on Jericho getting his hands on his pupils, but so it worked in that respect and was a quality opener to boot. Takeshita was the afterthought here, but I do like the idea of him and Jericho being in a faction led by Don Callis.

Rob Van Dam Confronted FTW Champion Jack Perry

Anyone knows Jerry Lynn is aware that he retired long ago due to an injured neck and wouldn't get physical, so since he and Perry already went face-to-face last week, it seemed likely that Lynn would bring someone in who also had a history in ECW to fight Perry on his behalf. RVD was the strongest candidate considering he's still wrestling and the crowd gave him a great reaction. They'll meet for the FTW Championship next week.

Trent Beretta def. Penta El Zero Miedo and Jon Moxley in an Anything Goes Three-Way Match

It wouldn't be an AEW anniversary show without a bloody hardcore match involving Moxley. I'm okay with it given the circumstances, but as I always say, this sort of stuff would definitely mean more if AEW didn't do it almost weekly. Three-way matches are automatically No Disqualification, but they emphasized the Anything Goes stipulation because they wanted viewers to know they were going to get extreme. It was a war and the crowd ate it up, I'll say it that much. Beretta winning was quite the surprise, setting up Blackpool Combat Club vs. Best Friends and Orange Cassidy at Friday's Rampage.

AEW World Champion MJF Agreed to Defend Against Adam Cole at All In

This storyline with MJF and Cole continues to be the best thing going in AEW today. We all wondered what was next for them coming off their failure to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship last week on Collision and if MJF would finally turn on Cole (despite previously promising him a title shot regardless of the outcome of their match against FTR). Instead, he ended granting Cole a title shot for All In and they hugged to close the segment while Roderick Strong randomly went ballistic backstage. This was more excellent stuff from Cole and MJF. There's a lot of different directions they can go in from here.

The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) def. Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett and Satnam Singh

Sports Illustrated broke the news earlier today that The Elite have officially re-signed with AEW, so the timing worked out well with them being in action on the 200th edition of Dynamite. This didn't seem to have any storyline significance, but it was entertaining enough and the heel trio are a fine group of guys to beat. In their post-match promo, The Elite acknowledged re-signing and teased being on every AEW show going forward, including Collision. I don't think that was meant to indicate that a CM Punk program is imminent, but maybe eventually if they wanted to do what was best for business.

ROH World Tag Team Champions Aussie Open def. Komander and AAA Mega Champion El Hijo del Vikingo

Having the ROH World Tag Team Championship defended on a special Dynamite was so random. Those belts are defended more on AEW programming than they are on ROH TV at this point, which is comical. On the bright side, this was a blast as expected. Aussie Open are a terrific team and they had strong chemistry with Komander and Vikingo. Speaking of the latter duo, they're around a lot but have had zero direction. Would it be too much to ask to get something going with them? We see them so often that they no longer feel special.

Hikaru Shida def. Toni Storm to Win the AEW Women's World Championship

Would this match have been the main event had it not been for that fan sign last week about wanting the women's division to be booked better? I'm skeptical, but needless to say, they deserved the spot. Shida has won her last few matches, but all of those wins took place on Rampage. Her win over Nyla Rose last Friday wasn't even a number one contender's match, so I wish this had more of a story that was told on Dynamite. Otherwise, this was a great match. I didn't expect Shida to capture the championship, so that was a cool moment befitting of the 200th episode.

Overall Show

I was hoping this show would take a big step forward in building up the All In card. We had the AEW World Championship main event confirmed, so that was a plus, but that was about it. I fear Tony Khan will wait until the last minute as always. Ugh. That said, this was a fun 200th edition of Dynamite. They made it feel special with the throwback graphics and quick tribute video. The matches delivered and the crowd was hot throughout. The title change capped off the evening nicely, too. There was progression of some storylines, but we really should have a decent idea of what All In will consist of and that just isn't the case.

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