3 things that went right on the June 22 episode of AEW: Dynamite

Leading into Forbidden Door, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) approached build to the pay-per-view like a college student who waited until the last minute to finish a term paper but had all this great research and empirical data to at least turn in B-plus work. This week’s episode of AEW: Dynamite represented the moment where everything finally came together.

The show, which served as the go-home edition of Dynamite for Forbidden Door, attempted to make up for a lean (by AEW’s high standards) promotional push for the inter-promotional supercard by announcing four more matches for the show and booking select New Japan Pro Wrestling stars to appear.

Overall, AEW turned in a strong effort this week, so look at which aspects of the show stood out the most.

These are three things that went right on the June 22 episode of AEW: Dynamite.

Christian Cage explains why he turned on Jungle Boy

Last week’s episode of Dynamite ended with Christian Cage’s long-awaited heel turn on Jungle Boy. We didn’t have to wait nearly as long to hear Cage’s explanation for his actions, and boy, this was some explanation from “The Instant Classic”.

Starting with him chastising the audience for making too much noise while he tried to speak (“I can stand here all night until you shut up”), Cage quickly reminded everyone how good he is as a heel.

His reasoning that Jungle Boy cost him money by eliminating him in the Casino Battle Royal last year and him using Jurassic Express (specifically Jungle Boy) to recoup that money and coast on their success until the well dried up made so much sense and highlighted how much of a jerk his character is.

We even got some intrigue at the end with Cage talking his way out of getting beat up by Luchasaurus, which played off of Cage checking on the big man after the ladder match before assaulting Jungle Boy. It leaves the door open for fans to speculate whether Luchasaurus will side with his tag partner or join Cage and presumably become his heater (which is what a weasely character like Cage could use).

The only knock on this segment is Cage bringing Jungle Boy’s late father, Luke Perry, into it, which was a step too far for the sake of heat. Other than that, it was a great way to kick off the Cage/Jungle Boy program.

Big brawl while Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi stare each other down

In the main event, we saw Forbidden Door opponents Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi team up to take on a common enemy in the form of Chris Jericho and Lance Archer, a match that aimed to showcase Moxley and Tanahashi while furthering the issues between the Blackpool Combat Club and the Jericho Appreciation Society.

The match was solid enough and ended with the right team going over — Moxley and Tanahashi won after Tanahashi hit the High Fly Flow on Archer — but that merely served as the pretense for what came after. Once Eddie Kingston emerged to attack Jericho, the big “get your backside to the box office” brawl commenced.

While the JAS, BCC, and the returning Minoru Suzuki traded punches at ringside, though, Moxley and Tanahashi didn’t take their eyes off of one another. This put over how focused the two are on their much-anticipated match and the desire to be interim AEW World Champion.

Orange Cassidy scores a clean pin before facing Will Ospreay

The primary goal of the Orange Cassidy and Roppongi Vice vs. Will Ospreay and Aussie Open match was to present Cassidy as a threat to Ospreay before they clash for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at Forbidden Door. AEW achieved this by having OC pin Kyle Fletcher with the Orange Punch.

The action that occurred before that was as great as you would expect given the participants. This felt very much like an NJPW preliminary tag match in the best possible way. The post-match staredown between the full United Empire, RPG Vice, Cassidy, and FTR also did enough to remind viewers of OC/Ospreay and the three-way tag title match. Both could steal the show.