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From The Inner Circle brutalizing Jon Moxley to DDP's in-ring return, this week's edition of AEW Dynamite featured some contrasting moments.
Despite the promotion's ability to deliver entertaining episodes week after week, last night's edition of the show didn't connect well together as a two-hour Wrestling Entertainment program.
Several moments excelled in comparison to the rest of the episode. Moxley's arc was intriguing to follow throughout the night and DDP's in-ring return was entertaining as well.
But other bits, such as the entire women's division scenario, tend to affect the show's momentum negatively.
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On that note, here are a few interesting observations from this week's episode of AEW Dynamite (January 15, 2020).
#3: The Dark Order's booking has been optimistically flawed so far
During last night's show, a Dark Order vignette mentioned a few targeted new members such as Kenny Omega, Michael Nakazawa, Brandon Cutler, and Adam Page.
The faction's video promos have been promising so far, but their premise hasn't transitioned as smoothly in front of a live audience as one would have hoped.
It was a wise decision to scale things back when the company faced negative criticism upon pushing The Dark Order too early a few weeks ago.
Since then, the faction has been teasing their eventual ascension through ominous vignettes. This particular premise feels optimistic since we know that someone from The Elite might eventually betray their close-knit group of friends in the future.
But will The Dark Order's gimmick make a successful transition to in-ring action the second time around?
As promising as their vignettes are, the whole schtick does feel a little too silly at times. Their not-so-villainous presence reminds me of cheesy 'Power Rangers' antagonists and the premise does feel like that of a cheap CW Superhero show during several instances.
But AEW has made some improvements in this case, and that is promising news for fans of The Dark Order.
#2: MJF and Cody's storyline was booked smartly throughout the episode
While Cody Rhodes had to accept MJF's stipulations without letting ego mess up his revenge plans, MJF enjoyed another night of being a charismatic, unlikeable personality after sneaking a victory in a six-man Tag Team Match.
The confrontations involving the two men have been minimal up to this point. A huge reason why that is the case is simply that letting off MJF too easily right now only builds more heat that will eventually boil down when Cody gets his hands on him at the Revolution Pay-Per-View.
So when Cody had to bow down to MJF's stipulations last night, MJF built more heat by stealing a victory from DDP's (Diamond Dallas Page) team during the latter's comeback match.
This way, AEW has been slowly building towards a tipping point some time in the future without revealing the actual meat of the storyline as of now.
On the other hand, AEW has smartly compensated the lack of showdowns between MJF and Cody by allowing Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley to have physical altercations numerous times so far.
#1: Jon Moxley's 'one-eyed struggle' will be an interesting conflict on the road to an eventual showdown with Chris Jericho
What makes Jon Moxley's struggle to overcome The Inner Circle so interesting is that he doesn't have a faction like The Elite backing him during confrontations with Chris Jericho's goons.
He is a lone wolf, and sometimes walking alone can lead to disastrous consequences as we witnessed during last night's episode. Moxley ended up with an 'injured eye' in a brawl with Jericho and his cronies, and this means that his struggle against The Inner Circle will be even harder now.
Also, he has to face PAC before he can get his hands on Jericho again.
This interesting detour during AEW's Bash at the Beach-themed episodes adds more conflicts to Jon Moxley's road to the top.
This is even better because the fans get to witness the lengths a 'one-eyed' Moxley is willing to go to dethrone Jericho from his AEW World Title.
Lastly, PAC also has something worthwhile to do now. The man always seems to be on the edge of greatness, but his recent obsession with Kenny Omega hasn't developed into something concrete as of this moment.
Bash at the Beach is a reminder of WCW back in the day, and AEW has adopted the company's policy of intertwining storylines and factions while also focusing on what makes them unique in today's day and age of Professional Wrestling.
