AEW Booms and Duds: Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy debut

https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1240442125973479424

Boom: patient, coherent storytelling

Each match and segment tonight continued what have been long-term stories or continued to setup what appear to be long-term stories.

Lucha Bros and Best Friends have had issues dating to late last year, not to mention the issues between PAC and Orange Cassidy. We’re likely to have a trios match at Double or Nothing at this rate.

The same goes for Jurassic Express and The Butcher and The Blade. Further, seeing that (kayfabe) MJF brought the latter to AEW by hiring them as his mercenaries (a trope AEW seems rather fond of), it made sense why they would converse with him at ringside during their match.

The women’s match saw a continuation of the budding Ford-Riho rivalry (Ford beat Riho on Dark this week) and another path crossing of Shida and Statlander. Riho is now 0-4 in her last four matches after being undefeated for so long; does she reemerge as a contender by defeating Ford, or does her tailspin continue? What about Ford if she beats Riho?

Statlander is treading water, but also someone without a clear path with Big Swole and Britt Baker seemingly locked into a feud. Where does Statlander go next?

Now that Shida is seemingly #1 contender, how will she be framed as a challenger for Women’s Champion Nyla Rose, particularly after Bea Priestly made her intentions for the title known last week?

Of course, the main event saw the continuation of what is now a six-month story between The Inner Circle and The Elite. The teases of friction between Page and Matt only for them to work seamlessly together should help create even more of a shocked reaction should one of them turn heel next week.

It also gave us this gem:

The main event also culminated in the second big debut of the night, but the first I’ll cover.