It’s the match that’s gotten tongues wagging this week… so what happened in an hour on Dynamite this week?
This one’s from the Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas – on a milestone episode of Dynamite.
AEW International Championship: MJF vs. Will Ospreay (c)
Don’t worry, I’m not doing move-for-move here. In the current era, mainstream US wrestling fans have by and large been conditioned on shorter matches, to the point where longer matches have typically been signposted, such as carrying the mantle of an Iron Man match. Of course there’s exceptions, with the Omega/Okada series topping out over the hour mark.
AEW’s already had some long matches in their relatively brief history – with MJF and Bryan Danielson holding that particular record with an iron man match that went into overtime at Revolution 2023… while Adam Page and Bryan Danielson went to an hour-long draw in December 2021.
Needless to say, they’re not for everyone. Without using the “casual” moniker, there’s a subset of fans that simply don’t have patience for long matches. There’s also a similar subset with the mindset that if you’re going to go long, everything has to exist for a reason and, more importantly, be consistently applied throughout. I’m not a nerd for selling, but there’s nothing worse than being invested in an aspect of a match only for it to vanish into thin air.
Digging into the old-school bad guy’s playbook at the start saw MJF head into the crowd to throw a drink at a fan, then rip up someone’s sign. Where’s the stunt granny for him to shove? A spot of “I know what you’re doing” gave way as the tempo begin to rise, with MJF landing the first big blow as he hurled Ospreay shoulder-first into the corner, only for Ospreay to get smart as MJF looked to play the same routines back-to-back.
Rolling back the years somewhat, a pair of missed moonsaults and a standing shooting star put Ospreay ahead inside the first ten minutes, but MJF’s back to the “I know what you’re going to do and I’ll avoid it” stuff as he went back to the neck and shoulders with a nice jumping piledriver.
Hey, there’s a back body drop!
That seemed to mark a change in focus from the neck to the knees of Ospreay, which led to Ospreay crumbling as he was whipped into the corner. The knee was weakened that quickly?! To his credit, MJF stayed on the knee, and again trolled Ospreay by rolling outside as he dragged himself towards a cover after an OsCutter.
A second OsCutter, this time on the apron is avoided as MJF backed off… and it’s yet another body part for MJF to target as he ran Ospreay into the steps during the ad break. Kicking away another handspring, then a butterfly shoulderbreaker and a Made in Japan keeps the focus on the shoulder, which looked to create an opening as Ospreay made a mini-comeback. Putting distance between the two sees MJF head into the crowd, and of course he’s followed as Ospreay enlisted the help of a kid to punch MJF.
Back to the ring, the pace slows a little as a table’s teased, while MJF continued to antagonise rivals past and present in Adam Cole and Daniel Garcia. Much like the “Secrets of Pro Wrestling” heeling, I wish that didn’t feel like it was a checkbox kinda thing…
Apron tombstone teases gave way to a Styles Clash on the edge of the ring from Ospreay, before a one-armed powerbomb took us into another break, which led to an overly-vocalised tease at a doctor’s stoppage. If you watch enough wrestling, you quickly learn that overdoing things like this can be just as offputting as not doing them at all… even if this particular set play was just to establish that Ospreay’s arm had been reset… and underscore his role here as an underdog.
Using the good arm, an Obvious Blade wiped out MJF for a near-fall, before another arm whip from MJF virtually undid the doctor’s earlier work… ahead of the most cinematic moment of the match as MJF’s “I am so smart” turned into him virtually going “S-M-R-T” as Ospreay’s Hidden Blade tope was caught beautifully.
A second Styles Clash, this time off the middle rope, may well have been fodder for the worst Twitter accounts to join dots from AJ’s recent comments about star ratings… especially as that was the cue for commentary to start singing the praises of the match that was still in play.
We’re off to another break via a flying elbow from the top rope through Ospreay on a table on the floor… returning with MJF using the ropes to cheat in an abdominal stretch. That’s a guilty pleasure spot of mine, but we’re about to head into the home stretch with MJF coming close after a powerbomb-onto-the-knee.
Unfortunately that’s where we start getting teases of the kind of shlock that’s really turned me off of MJF. A Kangaroo Kick’s avoided, as were a pair of top rope ‘ranas, before the pace went up again as both men began to swing for the fences, looking for the one thing to get the win… a top rope OsCutter and a Hidden Blade nearly does it, while a second one’s avoided as MJF collapsed.
An announcement that we’re in the final minute of the match led to Ospreay being “conflicted” at hitting the Tiger Driver ‘91… then a ref bump as MJF shoved off the champion… a right hand from MJF, coupled with the ref coming to to count the pin is our finish, all against a backdrop of the big screen ticking down the final few seconds. MJF’s the new champion, but you needed to wait for the post-match to see just what aided that punch, such was the rush at the finish.
Result: MJF pinned Will Ospreay to win the AEW Internatio1nal Championship in 59:58 (****½)
Post-match, AEW medics hit the ring with ice packs and oxygen tanks… I get it’s to put over the effort involved, but the oxygen felt corny as all hell. A needless callback to the Bryan Danielson match from last year, and really that’s part of the MJF jigsaw that I’m really finding off-putting. A lot of his stuff feels forced or at the very least, like it’s been done by rote. Do I prefer it over the MJF of last summer, which felt like a prolonged live WWE audition? Yes, but that’s not saying much – MJF’s still finding his feet in what works as a total package, and much like this match, there’s a lot of fine-tuning to be done.
A sixty minute match that’ll be remembered, but not as an all-timer that some are marking it as. To me, this was a good 30-40 minute outing with some extra fluff tacked onto it, and perhaps a lesson learned that as good as you can be on the mic, in-ring, the only thing that matters is getting reps.