AEW Dynamite Review - September 4, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

MJF Attacked Daniel Garcia

The evolution of Garcia in 2024 has been great to see. He started the year as a dancing fool (with some credibility coming out of the Continental Classic), but the aggressive edge he's adapted as part of this program with MJF has been long overdue development for his character. He cut another strong promo here and MJF's attack on Garcia was well done. They've done an effective job of building up their match despite the quick turnaround between pay-per-views.

AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada def. Kyle Fletcher

The way AEW determines who's worthy of title shots sometimes is so weird. In this case, Fletcher beat Tomohiro Ishii on last Saturday's Collision and apparently that was enough to earn him this opportunity despite him losing to Ricochet on last week's Dynamite. By the way, whatever happened to Okada vs. Claudio Castagnoli after their original encounter ended in a time-limit draw? Fletcher had almost no chance of winning here, but it was a very fun match and they were given plenty of time.

Jamie Hayter def. Robyn Renegade

This was along the same lines as Hayter's match with Harley Cameron last week in that it was essentially a squash for Hayter, which is exactly what it needed to be. The Outcasts were shown watching from backstage. I thought we might get Hayter vs. Saraya at All Out, but it looks like they might be holding off on that unless the match is made official on Rampage or Collision this Friday.

Jon Moxley Addressed Darby Allin

Moxley's return was one of the highlights of last week's Dynamite and it had a lot of people talking. Unfortunately, this was a rather weak, vague follow-up. He addressed Allin, but that was about it. Why wouldn't Allin come out to respond? It's not as if he's absent from the AEW TV at the moment since we just saw him at All In. There was no explanation for why Marina Shafir is with him, either.

AEW Women's World Champion Mariah May def. Nyla Rose

This was billed as "Beauty vs. Native Beast". Clever. Rose is a random challenger for May, but a few former AEW women's champs have had their first title defenses against her in the past. It would also explain why Rose has won matches on Rampage in recent weeks. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it and the crowd being quiet indicated that they also knew the outcome was predictable, but it was a well-worked match for what it was.

Hikaru Shida Interrupted AEW TBS Champion and NJPW Strong Women's Champion Mercedes Mone

This was almost as brief as Moxley's promo from earlier in the episode. You'd think this segment would've gotten more time since Mone vs. Shida feels thrown together as it is. I appreciate that they acknowledged their last match from a month ago on Dynamite, but there wasn't much substance to this segment otherwise. Thankfully, their rematch practically sells itself because it's guaranteed to deliver.

AEW World Trios Champions Pac and Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta) def. The Conglomeration (Kyle O'Reilly and Orange Cassidy) and AEW International Champion Will Ospreay

Ospreay will be defending the AEW International Championship against Pac at All Out. That was the only reason this existed because the other members of the match have nothing to do with each other right now. However, I don't want to complain too much since it ended up being a blast of a match as you'd expect given the level of talent involved. The Elite facing off with Blackpool Combat Club afterward led to The Young Buck vs. Castagnoli and Yuta for the AEW World Tag Team Championship at All Out. Uhm, okay, then.

"Hangman" Adam Page Burned Down Swerve Strickland's Childhood Home

Page and Strickland were advertised as having a contract signing on this show, but Page was smart and didn't show up because he knows the match is going to happen, regardless. Finally, someone in wrestling with common sense! Instead, he went to Page's childhood home (footage aired of Strickland purchasing it that afternoon) and burned it to the ground. What an incredible visual. Their Steel Cage match (which now has the additional stipulation of being an Unsanctioned Lights Out match per Tony Khan) is far and away the most anticipated matchup this Saturday.

Overall Show

All In was an excellent event, but holding All Out less two weeks later simply isn't ideal. It's an improvement over last year (when they were one week apart) and some of the matches have storyline significance, but half of the card is just sort of there. That was evident on this go-home show, which lacked energy on the whole. The two hours were largely skippable, but the closing segment was fantastic, so check that out when you can.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews