There was a lot of positivity that transpired on the July 29 Dynamite event, Matt Cardona (formerly Zack Ryder) made his surprise debut in AEW after being officially released from any contractual obligations with WWE on July 15. In an interview with Chris Van Vliet a couple months ago, he informed wrestling fans that he was told about his WWE release in April (right after Wrestlemania). Cardona expressed that he was simply happy to be free to experience his prime years in wrestling with whatever company he chose (although he is extremely grateful for his 15 years with WWE). Matt just turned 35, which is usually the time in a wrestlers’ journey for them to peak in terms of both understanding the psychology of appealing to wrestling fans along with obvious physical maturity; testosterone is a much slower acting hormone than estrogen.
Ricky Starks also stood out because he showed a significant amount of charisma on the mic, and it also grabbed the audience’s attention when Darby Allin put thumbtacks through Starks’ back. Something about this visual instantly grabs the attention of whoever is watching. A picture is truly worth a thousand words (as Cody experienced on July 22).
There was a lot of continuity with the exact time and people with whom Cardona debuted. He was the self-proclaimed Internet Champion of WWE in 2011 – and Warhorse is essentially the 2020 version of that because of his immense following on social media.
The Dark Order is receiving a significant amount of attention by becoming affiliated with three prominent tag teams – including having a match with the AEW World Tag Team Champions Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page. This comes after The Dark Order took a back seat on Dynamite for a couple months after Double or Nothing. This was when Mr. Brodie Lee last received an AEW World Championship match against Jon Moxley (which he obviously lost – Moxley is still Champion, but Maxwell Jacob Friedman had something to say about that).
I had no idea Mr. Brodie Lee was quite this talented on the microphone because he unfortunately never got the opportunity to talk very much in WWE.
The women’s division in AEW appears to be hitting its stride after a process that lasted about five months to establish its stars, but they now have an abundance of capable women in the ring who are also familiar to the audience.
MJF stood out from the rest of the pack on July 29. Tony Khan might want to strap a rocket ship to this 24-year-old “prodigy” as MJF calls himself and see how high the company can go with Maxwell Jacob Friedman as the face. It takes a certain aura which cannot be taught to be able to command an audience like that at such a young age.
That was the biggest stage MJF has received since Revolution on February 29 in his grudge match with Cody (despite the fact that it was not the main event of Dynamite or the top of the hour segment). This kid might be able to draw more than Jon Moxley simply because he talks more; I personally have always been more of a fan of heel champions because they tend to draw more interest and get people talking more about the product.
If MJF does indeed become AEW World Champion, and if I were Tony Khan I would happily consider it, his career would take a similar trajectory to Randy Orton in WWE. Randy became the youngest World Champion in WWE history in 2004; turns out he lacked the maturity necessary to be a champion at the young age of 24. Nonetheless, even if MJF doesn’t win the title right now, he will still be a many-time world champion over the next couple of decades. He is the perfect man to play the Maxwell Jacob Friedman character so convincingly.
As far as this particular segment goes, it was absolutely genius to orchestrate for MJF to conduct this segment as if it was a political press conference (State of the Industry Address), especially given that there is an election scheduled to take place toward the end of 2020 (Dictator Jon is almost guaranteed to get over just like Chris Jericho a few weeks ago calling himself the Demo God).