As we enter the final week before AEW Dynamite’s debut episode, what are the superstars of All Elite Wrestling preparing for their big moment?

Chris Jericho Promo/AEW Fan Marketing

I love Jericho’s new ‘Le Champion’ gimmick, but he still sounds like he’s saying ‘Le Champignon’ and it makes it hard to listen to it without laughing because it sounds like he’s calling himself a mushroom.  However, that didn’t stop me from liking the post in hopes of getting an exclusive message next Wednesday.

Update

I did get a message, but it was an 8 second clip of Chris Jericho saying ‘Le Champion’ over and over and STILL sounding like that’s not what he’s saying. Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Also, thanks to my purchasing All Out, I got signed up for ‘AEW’s All Elite Fleet’ which is a weekly newsletter and access to exclusive content, which sounds like a fun way to keep the fanbase informed.

Cody Rhodes Promo

I find it a little…arrogant of Cody to cut a promo about his upcoming AEW World Championship match at Full Gear against Chris Jericho when Cody himself has said that he will take himself out of the title match if he loses to Sammy Guevara on October 2, but I did find it interesting that Cody admitted that everyone laughed at the Judas Effect, which is the natural reaction to a simple back elbow becoming someone’s finishing move, while still putting the move over.

Another thing I enjoyed was Cody calling out Jericho’s promo from last week in which he called Dusty Rhodes, who has been dead for four years, a SOB. I liked that Cody pushed back against that kind of heat and called it ‘lazy’ because it is, it’s a heat magnet, but it’s also lazy. Jericho being compared to Elvis Presley is a new one, but I still enjoyed it, though I’m not sure how many younger AEW fans know who Elvis was.

One of things I do not like about Cody is how he always seems to be talking down to whomever he’s talking to. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, but it’s irritating. That said, I love how he said that Jericho isn’t the reason for the ‘revolution’, the revolution was already happening with or without Jericho. Also, the little needling about the belt getting stolen was funny.

Being the Elite #171 – We Need to Talk About Kenny

The Young Bucks’ personal gym/trophy room is interesting. I wonder if it’s considered tacky to display all your belts. I also loved the Pro Wrestling Tees plug, nice way to show love to your t-shirt distributor. I hate to tell them, though, you don’t have to go to college to learn PhotoShop, though learning from someone with experience would help. I like how Matt isn’t terribly impressed with Nick’s t-shirt efforts, it makes their relationship seem more like how brothers actually are with each other, never mind tag teams that are also brothers. I also appreciate how Matt doesn’t want to hurt Nick’s feelings and just crosses his fingers to cover his lie.

SCU is starting to grow on my but the segment with the package revealing who their opponents are for the tag tournament, which is going to be Jurassic Express is so over the top, I’m glad they put in the laugh track because the acting was so bad. Don’t give up the wrestling, dudes.

Private Party acting like all these ‘celebrity’ fans are real is hilarious. I’m not great on a lot of social media, but even I know better than that. It’s funny, but also comes across as trying too hard to seem cool. I do love their confidence in taking on the Young Bucks.

I fully sympathize with the Bucks not being into their workout, happens to me all the time. Poor Brandon Cutler getting caught in the middle in an incredibly awkwardly acted segment was funny in it’s own way, but still a little awkward. I do think the point was to seem to light a fire under the Bucks’ asses and if that’s the case, I think it worked.

The Kenny Omega apology segment was really good. It definitely played up the really awkward celebrity apology thing, but at least Omega didn’t do one of those lame ass ‘I’m sorry if I offended anyone’ non-apologies. It didn’t seem terribly sincere and I don’t think it was meant to be, it was PR and it came across that way.

Now back to our regularly scheduled trip onto Kenny Omega’s Crazy Train! Choo-Choo! I loved the whole revelation that it was a PR thing because it keeps with the whole ‘Behind the Scenes’ shtick of the show. It also shows that Omega is truly his own biggest mark.

Seriously, though, I can see why this segment, as well as the interview that inspired it, generated so much buzz because this isn’t a great look if you’re trying to induce new fans to join your revolution. However, I also see what Omega was doing. Everyone’s buzzing about NXT competing directly with AEW and there’s a lot of buzz about SmackDown moving to Fox, so he did this segment to get everyone talking about him and All Elite Wrestling, whether it was good or bad, it was attention taken away from WWE.

Road to TNT #4 – The Final Push

So, in this episode, we get an in depth look at Brandon Cutler, who will be facing MJF on October 2. I haven’t been following AEW since the beginning but from this segment, I learned that Cutler is a long time friend of Matt and Nick Jackson, aka, Young Bucks, and his wrestling dream was put on hold because he wanted to have a family, which is admirable. His wife is a costume designer who also seems to work for AEW.

I LOVE the whole segment of Matt and Nick surprising Brandon with an AEW contract and not just because he was their friend, but because they and Tony Khan had seen him work so hard to come back to wrestling. I seriously had tears in my eyes. He’s also the guy in charge of AEW’s content. Also his wife’s first thought about moving out of their not great house for their kids once he got the contract was very sweet. I totally want to see him beat the trash out of MJF. I don’t know if he will but I want him to beat the smirk off of MJF’s face and embarrass him.

I’m okay with the Dynamite name, all jokes about ‘Good Times’ aside, and I even see the little joke in the name. One of the main ingredients of dynamite is NITRO glycerin. Yes, I’m a nerd, what do you want?

We get another run down of the card for the series premiere. No real surprises other than finding out that they aren’t going to save Hangman Page vs Pac for PPV, which I was hoping for, but we’ll see what happens on October 2.

We get a look at Riho vs Nyla Rose again. Kenny Omega had a lot to do with bringing the Joshi to AEW and he will be the first to tell you that, and it is justified, and also makes Omega look like an egomaniac. I’m not sure how Riho made the leap from wanting to do gymnastics to being a professional wrestler, but I’m glad for her.

I like how Nyla Rose makes the comparison between herself and Riho and how they’ve both been fighting since they were nine. Nyla has overcome poverty and is still fighting to be accepted by society as a bi-racial trans woman. I find it interesting that Riho’s training was more severe because she was small. I honestly think Nyla is going to destroy Riho on October 2, but I’m really pulling for Riho. I’m not sure what to make of Omega doing Mixed-Tag Matches with Riho to get her prepared for Nyla, but if it works, I’m down for it.

I’m not totally familiar with Conrad Thompson, I tend to lump him in with the dirt sheet guys like Meltzer and Satin. It was basically a standard card rundown, but it was interesting to hear two insiders talk about the card and the return of wrestling to TNT.

That’s it for Tiffany’s AEW Takes! Tune in Monday for RAW coverage.