Mariah May Spoke For The First Time Since Turning Down AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm The Week Before.
This week’s show marked the 250th episode of AEW’s weekly television show Dynamite. Over its five-year run, All Elite Wrestling has seen more than its fair share of ups and downs. From breathtaking in-ring spectacles to shocking backstage drama, the company and its fans have truly experienced it all.
No professional wrestling company has competed with the WWE at this level since WCW, and AEW seems poised to quickly outlive its predecessor. Could this anniversary supershow live up to the company’s complicated legacy? With three massive title matches and the follow-up to one of the hottest stories of the year, AEW has stacked the odds in their favor.
Will Ospreay Vs. MJF International Championship
The legacy of All Elite Wrestling truly lies in its in-ring output. “Where the best wrestlers” have come to define this company for a reason. Across Dynamite’s 250 episodes, fans have come to expect a high standard from the show’s biggest matches.
This match more than exceeded that standard. MJF and Will Ospreay put on an epic wrestling match for nearly an hour.
MJF shocked the world by denying a time-limit draw and claiming the international championship by closing in at fifty-eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds. The match’s pace never dipped for a second despite its huge length. The two men exchanged slick sequences of counters and strikes from the opening bell.
MJF returned firmly to his wheelhouse and delivered an incredible heel performance. Friendman brutally targeted Ospreay’s knees and shoulder like a shark smelling blood in the water. Ospreay more than held up his end of the match with a performance that emphasized his shocking athleticism while maintaining a solid emotional core.
Ospreay sold the punishment he received expertly, getting the fans behind him as he pushed his broken body through the match. This was precisely the kind of match that made Dynamite special and exactly the match to open a huge anniversary show.
Rating: 5 Stars
Mariah May Promo
Following the incredible ending to last week’s Dynamite, many were hotly anticipating how the company would choose to follow up. Mariah May’s brutal betrayal of her mentor, Toni Storm, was one of the best moments in the show’s history, so this interview had some lofty expectations. The segment started well with May impersonating her mentor and fooling many in the audience.
After this, the promo quickly dipped due in no small part to an unenthusiastic crowd. May cut a long and deliberate promo slowly monologuing to the audience. This could have worked wonders for the feud in specific settings, as May lays out her motivations like a supervillain in a blockbuster film. Following a hot match in front of a tired crowd was not one of these settings.
May failed to engage the audience as they quickly began a storm of “what” chants that threw off any sense of momentum the segment had. While it could have been much worse, after last week’s amazing angle, this segment should have been much more entertaining.
Rating: 2 Stars
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Nyla Rose Vs. Mercedes Mone TBS Championship
Nyla Rose has been a consistent fan favorite since the very first episode of Dynamite. Her women’s championship match with Riho set an incredibly high standard and raised a bar that the AEW women’s division has often failed to meet.
In comparison, Mercedes has been the recent injection of life the women’s division has sorely needed. Despite only stepping into an AEW ring in the last few months she has already delivered multiple of the company’s best-ever performances. This match could have been a breathtaking clash of two generations of women’s wrestling over the 250 episodes of Dynamite.
Instead, the two women settled on simply having a very good match. The match’s odd babyface and heel dynamic was the major detractor to the match’s quality. Nyla Rose is a very likable character, but she struggled to gain sympathy from the audience against her much smaller opponent. Despite this, the work was generally snappy and exciting to watch. The two women’s styles meshed together well, leading to an entertaining, if not slightly disappointing, encounter.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Swerve Strickland Vs. Kazuchika Okada Champion VS Champion
Swerve Strickland has truly become the man in AEW. Even a few short years ago, this match would have been impossible to imagine. His meteoric rise, placing him on the same level in the fans’ eyes as one of the greatest of all time in Okada, is truly a testament to how well AEW has built its newest major star.
The in-ring work here was exactly as smooth as one familiar with these two wrestlers would expect. Swerve moves and flows like no other wrestler, making even his most basic moves impossible to look away from. Okada brought a level of character work that has made each of his AEW matches a delight to watch.
The continental champion wrestled this match like Swerve could not have been farther beneath him and presented himself as a god of professional wrestling. While the match steadily built to a gripping final stretch, it disappointingly ended in a DQ due to interference from the Elite. With what time they had, Swerve and Okada put together a delicious appetizer that prepared me for the inevitable four-course meal the two men would provide.
Rating: 4.75 Stars
Overall Rating
This week’s Dynamite was a very entertaining show. From top to bottom, each match is more than delivered. Where the show began to fall flat was everything that took place outside of the ring. Despite being an anniversary show, Dynamite felt slightly different from a typical week.
No fun throwbacks or fan service cameos were found, leaving the show feeling hollow. In addition, the Mariah May promo failed to live up to the lofty expectations set last week. The show’s ending felt like a celebration of Dynamite’s history as Team Elite and Team AEW battled before their blood and guts match last week.
Darby Allin descending from the rafters was a great feel-good moment and exactly the kind of thing the show could have used much more of to give it a real sense of character and reverence for what came before.
Show Rating: 3.75 Stars
AEW Dynamite 250 (2024) AEW Official Clip
Source: Dead Talk Live
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Author
Matt Keyser is a recent graduate of Cal State Fullerton University with a bachelor's in Communications-Journalism. He is a freelance entertainment reporter with a focus on film and television. As a former senior programming coordinator for the Newport Beach Film Festival, Matt's experience with critiquing narratives and documentaries has helped showcase his passion for television and cinema through his writing.