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From Jon Moxley's brilliant swerve at the end of the episode to DDP's in-ring brawl against MJF and his goons, this week's edition of AEW Dynamite (January 8, 2020) featured several contrasting moments.
The entire AEW team have been working on the weaker aspects of their show since the year began, and even though some of those weak points remain pretty apparent, AEW Dynamite is still a very enjoyable show to watch.
The show was worth sticking around for when the final segment of the night featuring Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho as well as some other members of The Inner Circle was pretty successful in sending a message to fans and critics alike.
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Here are a few interesting observations from this week's episode of AEW Dynamite (January 8, 2020).
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#3: The AEW Women's Division continues its poor display of promising ideas
Riho defended the AEW Women's World Championship against Kris Statlander in a pretty overbooked contest that failed to engage most fans throughout its entirety.
The Nightmare Collective's constant interferences were largely ignored by the referee. Also, there seems to be a slight disconnect between Riho's title reign and The Nightmare Collective's main purpose on the show.
Additionally, Dr. Luther's character seems quite silly, just like the portrayal of a faction like the Dark Order. It doesn't look good when there are more additions to The Nightmare Collective when most fans just want this angle to end.
I do appreciate that people in charge of AEW's Women's Division are trying out something unique, but the execution - even on the talent's part - hasn't been the best so far.
This is why I pointed out last week that there is a stark difference in quality between the show's top and mid-card storylines, and The Nightmare Collective's booking definitely needs to improve over the next few weeks.
#2: MJF made his segment with DDP even better than it should have been
A 63-year-old DDP is set to make an in-ring return on AEW Dynamite next week.
Diamond Dallas Page stormed into the ring after hearing MJF's remarks about Cody Rhodes. His previous confrontation with MJF and Wardlow led to last night's brawl, where DDP would stun the Butcher & the Blade with Diamond Cutters.
Just when MJF got the best of him, Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall would come out to make the save.
But aside from the 'big' announcement, MJF was the best part of this entire fiasco, whose antics made sure that fans wouldn't roll their eyes upon hearing DDP's constant plug-ins at the beginning of the segment.
As good as his projects are, the constant plug-ins always steal some focus away from the storyline at hand.
With MJF in the background, fans have someone to root against, and whether it was the low-blow or the fact that he was literally tweeting between DDP's promo, MJF made the entire segment better in the end.
But when you take a look at DDP, he is in tremendous shape for his age, and the man could still prove a point in the ring during next week's episode.
#1: Jon Moxley added an impressive twist to the most obvious conclusion at the end of the episode
Nobody believed that Jon Moxley would join The Inner Circle or any other faction for that matter.
This is because he has always been a lone wolf, and that characteristic isn't going to change anytime soon.
As expected, Moxley didn't join The Inner Circle last night. But there was a moment in between where Moxley made a fake transition over to AEW's most successful heel faction.
People were skeptical at first but Moxley made everyone believe that he was going to stay with The Inner Circle for the time being. All of them (Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley) celebrated together for an extended period after which the live audience turned on Moxley in unison.
After the ring cleared, Moxley finally revealed that he was just kidding around and wasn't really going to join a faction. But you have to applaud Jon Moxley for actually fooling an audience that already knew there was no way he would fall to the dark side.
All we know is that Moxley still has the keys to a very expensive Ford GT, and things might not end well for that automobile next week.
