Welcome back, Ladies and Gentlemen to the 17th Volume of “Wrestling with Lenny”!
Today I want to introduce a new way of doing things! Don’t worry, the “Top Ten” isn’t going away, but I want to analyze individual shows from time to time, and this is how I am going to do it, by talking about “What We Saw”, “What We Learned”, and “What’s To Come”. Ready?! Let’s go!
In this edition, we are going to be analyzing the July 3rd, 2023 episode of AEW’s Dynamite:
What We Saw
The show kicked off with my brother Benny having a heart to heart with the crowd for the first time in literal years. Which isn’t hard to pull off when that was only, what, 10 shows ago for BWM Inc.? I kid (somewhat…they are doing a LOT better as of late).
Anyways, we get a peak into the mind of the youngest of us Mouse boys, Benny is bragging about the recent success of this company despite the fact that his daughter was the one behind the wheel the whole time. He pledges that this “revolution” has only begun and that he will continue to dominate as his company has the entire era.
I’ve been very critical of their ratings dominance throughout this era, but it’s only been because I have long held that BWM Inc. has benefited from being able to pull of more come-back shows than any other promotion in history. That kind of schedule allows for stacking of the card in such a way that would be unsustainable if the company had been in action consistently for 52 weeks or even 40 weeks a year for the past near-four years now.
However, PWI and WWE have a realistic chance at finally shutting Benny up with a ratings victory in the coming weeks as along as AEW remains consistent. Mickey has had more time than anyone else to do so, and it is long past time for Mmouse Enterprises to retake the damn reigns. Back to the show.
Next, we see Jimmy and Jey Uso steal the show against SCU in the AEW debut of both teams. SCU enters from WWE via the draft, and The Usos made history as the first tag team to ever be drafted in the first round. Leaving their deceiving mid-card status in PWI behind, the Usos kick off this new run with a bang, and I can’t help but be incredibly excited for what’s to come in the near future for the twins! There’s a reason why they were priority number one for Megan Mouse, and we are going to see it unfold very soon!
Orange Cassidy’s interview with Dave Matthews is cut short by the scarily enraged Brock Lesnar. Lesnar is so blindly angry about what happened at Starrcade that he accuses Dave of being Darby, pounces on Cassidy, and makes mince-meat out of security. Lesnar has had one of the most promising yet frustrating careers in the history of wrestling. I don’t blame him for his anger.
The man who stole my heart and was traded away comes out and forces Wardlow to defend his title for him against Ricky Starks. The work of a pure genius, I tell ya! Don’t be surprised if MJF retires with the title…I’m joking. I mean, that’s the way it should be, but Wardlow will likely somehow cost MJF as if Wardlow is an overgrown Don Sparking costing Sunfire the Deathmatch Championship!
While this therapy session involving Hogan and Nash was announced FIRST at Starrcade, it tragically feels like a lame attempt at copying the comedic genius on last week’s Raw that was William Zabka confusing his real identity with that of the character he plays in the Karate Kid Series and Cobra Kai: Johnny Lawrence. Even so, this segment was still a great way to advance the story of Nash and Hogan’s Odd Couple saga. Hogan promised Nash that he would be a better “Brother” without the assistance of cameras, and Nash promised to give him another shot. Good shit.
There’s a promising sign of things to come when the AEW Icon Athena Star meets Bianca Belair for the first time. Bianca – before she was drafted – was poised for one more shot at the PWI Women’s Title after Motivation X, but now she has been forced to hit the reset button (to a degree) after AEW nabbed her last month. Ultimately, this may work out in the best way possible for Belair as a story with Star could be the shot she needs to finally be taken 100% seriously by all the critics. Let’s go!
For what it was worth, the Dark Order (drafted from WWE) taking on the Lucha Brothers was a good match, but it paled in comparison to the opening tag team match. Penta and Fenix get a big win here over the former WWE Tag Team Champions and they are on to the next one!
Rousey’s interview with Frank Dutch sees Rousey promise to be on a new warpath, but she is caught off guard by Rhea Ripley – back in AEW after her second run in PWI -, and I am pretty sure I just broke the glass with how hard my nipples got from that! Ripley v. Rousey? Yes, please!!
Eric Bischoff is then confronted by Benny’s new bitch, Sami Zayn. We will talk at length about Zayn at a later time. The man who was left out of the draft after having been traded to AEW by WWE months earlier was on the short list of PWI’s top priorities. However, Mmouse Enterprises literally forgot to list the entire HCW roster this year and didn’t put up a fight about Zayn because we messed up on our part (due slightly to a miscommunication between Ted Brown and Mickey) and because PWI and HCW were able to benefit from a major deal after Starrcade with WWE. Likewise, that deal also seemed to keep WWE from expressing outrage at our mistake as we buckled and gave them the then-HCW Extreme Champion, Austin Theory.
ANYWAYS! Zayn warns Bischoff of what’s to come (hey, that’s a segment later on in my column!), including a performance evaluation by Benny himself! Can’t wait!
The former WWE 24/7 Champion Chelsea Green put up a fight against Gail Kim and lost. This was a good match overall, but it was always clear that Kim – the most sought-after woman in industry history, along with the largest initial contract of any woman, ever – was going to win. PWI had secured her in the 2019 shadow draft and had exempted her in every draft since until this year. Management knew from the start that Kim was going to get picked by AEW, as BWM Inc. has absolutely wanted to get her contract. They just didn’t want to pay to get her into the big time! Anyways, I expect Kim to steal the show in AEW, and this is only getting started.
Finally, there was the Main Event! Chris Jericho taking on the newcomer Kenny Omega! This one had been anticipated for months (that’s days in BWM Inc. years), and the match itself did not disappoint. The shenanigans at the end were unsurprising and it guarantees more of the story will be told, but this match is a prime example of why AEW soundly defeated PWI on Monday. Just gold!
What We Learned
- Benny is still in control: Benny Mouse, one of the most consistent ratings draws in the history of the business, is back at the helm, and he will not be giving up power any time soon.
- The Tag Division finally matters: Outside of Mmouse Enterprises, Tag Divisions in the rest of the industry have long been an afterthought. Both WWE and AEW decided to change that with the draft, when they both came after PWI’s stacked division. Between the Usos making history in the draft and stealing the show on Dynamite to the underrated performance by the Lucha Brothers later on in the night, the Tag Division of AEW is looking better than ever!
- MJF/Wardlow is a dangerous pairing: Wardlow is the latest henchmen of Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and this pair looks like it has more staying power than MJF’s previous partnering with the iconic Vader. MJF will be TV Champion for a long while, and I sincerely think it will only end when Wardlow either fails or when he betrays MJF!
- Hogan is going to try: Nash has been the victim of Hogan’s old age and incompetence for the better part of the last 7 months. Hogan, though, is serious about fixing their broken friendship, and we are going to see if the odds will hold up to the power of Hulkamania!
- The Knockouts are on fire!: AEW had a great draft with the tag division and with the Knockouts! This past Monday saw the Knockouts featured prominently, though we didn’t see much of the Knockouts Champion (more on that later). Still, the debut of Gail Kim, and the build to Rousey v. Ripley as well as a Bianca/Star story has me feeling very good about the state of the division right now!
- Bischoff Under Fire: Eric Bischoff has to have the worst case of PTSD for anyone in management in Sports Entertainment. He made his big break in the 3rd Era under the tutelage of Jeff Murrey in the LWF, only to be forced to buy the company from Murrey when he jumped ship to UWA that summer. Then, his company failed and he disappeared for a long time, resurfacing this era to be mentally and verbally abused by Megan Mouse, and now he has to live in fear for what Benny is going to say this Monday? Poor guy!
- Don’t Mess With the Inner Circle: Jericho and his merry band of brutes has designs on controlling AEW’s future. Omega is the first major victim of their mission, and I believe he will be far from the last. Could this be Jericho’s last hurrah? Time will tell.
What’s To Come
Tomorrow, on Dynamite, we have a lot to look forward to, but the important bits are:
- The Performance Evaluation: Eric Bischoff’s career could be on the line again, and it is possible that Benny could send Eric packing back to wrestling purgatory almost exactly 19 years after LWF’s collapse did it to him before!
- Orange Cassidy v. Brock Lesnar: Lesnar is a beast, not a man, not a monster..just a beast. You know? That bridge between a man like Cassidy and a Monster like FRED? Yeah, that transition point is Lesnar himself. We are going to see a mauling here…unless Darby has something to say about it.
- More Hogan/Nash Drama: Hogan’s first test after the therapy session this past Monday will be the next time we see them on the screen. Will Hogan be a real bro, or will he just “Brother” his way into another ditch and be forced to jump off the big rig that is the Nash Semi Express?
- Sasha to Defend Her Title (v. Victoria): The Boss had an interesting Starrcade, to say the least. She successfully defended her title against the former EWA Knockout’s Champion and former PWI Star, Ember Moon, and then she was visited by the teleporting Wyatt-Possessed Alexa Bliss. Tomorrow, she puts her coveted gold on the line against the legendary Victoria. I am excited to see what goes down!
And that is all for this installment of “Wrestling with Lenny”. I will have to analyze WWE after I watch Smackdown from this past Friday and the events from this coming Monday. Can’t wait! See you soon!
World Of Wrestling: Murrey Universe 