AEW Dynamite Review - June 19, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

MJF def. Rush

I loved how this was announced a week in advance as being commercial-free. It was an excellent hook to start the show and they delivered a hell of a hard-hitting opener. This marked MJF's first match in almost six months, but he showed zero signs of ring rust. Rush is always impressive, and we'll see Don Callis potentially recruiting him does him any good. Post-match, Hechicero challenged MJF to a match at Forbidden Door, and although that gets MJF on the card in his hometown of Long Island, Hechicero is hardly a high-profile pay-per-view opponent for MJF.

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and AEW International Champion Swerve Strickland Went Face-to-Face

I was already looking forward to Strickland vs. Ospreay at Forbidden Door, but this verbal back-and-forth got me even more excited for it. They needed to knock it out of the park with their promos and both of them managed to do just that. This is despite both of them being babyfaces, by the way. The mic work was top-notch and I have no doubt their upcoming championship clash will be equally excellent.

Orange Cassidy, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Kyle O'Reilly and Dante Martin def. Roderick Strong, Zack Sabre Jr. and The Don Callis Family (ROH World Television Champion Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita)

Fletcher pinned Briscoe in last week's six-man tag team match, but nothing came out of it other than this rematch involving two more people. I guess they care about the Ring of Honor titles as little as the rest of us do. Nonetheless, this was another entertaining outing. Everyone worked hard and maintained a frantic pace throughout. This served as a nice preview of a few different matchups coming up at Forbidden Door.

The Acclaimed def. AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks in an AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Match

Funnily enough, I think the last time the challengers won an Eliminator match was three years ago on Dynamite when Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo beat the Bucks. It was refreshing to see The Acclaimed actually win here to set up a rematch for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. This was good stuff and easily the best thing I've seen from The Acclaimed in many months. I appreciate that they've been given more of an edge to make them feel like threats to The Elite.

The Outcasts and Anna Jay Attacked AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm, Artist of Stardom Champion Mina Shirakawa and Mariah May During an AEW Women's World Championship Contract Signing

AEW has done a strong job telling this story with Storm, May and Shirakawa over the last few months and getting fans familiar with her if they weren't already. May played her role the best of the three during the contract signing, which wasn't anything special, but they teased that May will have a decision to make at Forbidden Door as far as where her allegiance lies. The Outcasts and Jay (please don't tell me she's the newest member of the group) attacking them sets up a six-woman tag team match for next week's Dynamite.

Kris Statlander def. Nyla Rose in a Women's Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

Rose has been busy in ROH this year, but apparently she hasn't had a match on AEW TV since October. If that's accurate, the decision to put her in the women's Owen Hart Cup makes zero sense. I know she was an easy opponent for Statlander to beat in the first round, but the best of the best should be taking part in these things considering the stakes.Their match was fine. Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale in the semifinals is virtually guaranteed.

Daniel Garcia def. Rhett Titus

This was a straightforward squash for Garcia as it should have been. He's been gradually building momentum as of late, but I'm skeptical it will lead anywhere because it hasn't in the past and it hasn't been able to win when it has mattered most. The post-match chaos with MJF and Ospreay save Garcia from Cage of Agony was random, but it did plant the seeds for Ospreay vs. MJF down the road. What this has to do with Garcia, though, I have no idea.

Pac def. Claudio Castagnoli in a Men's Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

This was a rematch from ROH Death Before Dishonor last summer where they collided for the ROH World Championship. This was as well wrestled as that was, but even with the overrun, they didn't get a ton of time and it felt out of place in the main event slot. Bryan Danielson sat in on commentary, so it's clear we're getting Pac vs. Danielson in the semifinals once Danielson advances against Shingo Takagi next weekend.

Overall Show

This was a step up in quality from what we've been getting from Dynamite as of late. Nothing overly eventful happened, but there was solid wrestling and storyline progression throughout the night. The Forbidden Door card continues to take shape and the hype for it was well done on this episode. As I said last week, the builds for Forbidden Door, the Owen Hart Cup tournaments and All In happening simultaneously is smart and sends the message that AEW has a packed summer ahead.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews