KB’s Review: Elite Company

Last week’s edition of AEW Dynamite was one of the most packed shows that the company has ever presented. The show was stacked up and down, with the huge World Title main event. That was only the big advertised part of the show though, as the night also featured a pretty big debut (which may have been rumored for the past few weeks but was still rather well done) to go with it. You don’t get that kind of a show very often and it certainly delivered.

It delivered well enough that I intentionally waited to see how things would fall out the next week with the followup to the two big stories. That’s what we’re going to be looking at today: Kenny Omega winning the AEW World Title and Sting making his debut with the company. I’m not trying to compare them or pick a winner between the two or anything like that. This is just a look at two unrelated stories which both deserve some attention and I couldn’t pick between the two of them.

We’ll go chronologically and look at Sting first. I have been a big Sting fan since as early as I can remember (literally actually, as Sting seeing the Black Scorpion at Clash of Champions in 1990 is the first concrete wrestling memory that I have and one of my earliest memories period) and I will always be glad to see him. Now that being said, I’m not sure about seeing him now, over thirty years after that Clash.

IT’S….a big return:

My concern is the same as everyone else: what in the world is Sting supposed to do now that he is 61 years old and broken down physically? You have to remember that Sting has looked old since Monday Nitro went off the air, ancient in Impact Wrestling, and then the less said about his WWE run the better. And remember: that WWE run was BEFORE his neck injury at Night of Champions 2015. As in five years ago, when he was only in his late 50s.

I think you’re getting the problem here. Sting cannot, and should not, be wrestling, but otherwise, what else is he supposed to do? He’s never been a manager or a full time commissioner or anything like that. Commentary……has he done it ten times in his life? And does he need to join the other half dozen commentators the company has? Sting just hasn’t spent a lot of his career doing anything but wrestling and that should be completely off the table at the moment given his age and health situations.

The likely answer would be either the cinematic match (which would suit him) or a rather large tag match, though I would be hesitant with the latter. That isn’t optimal, but it isn’t like Sting has many other uses aside from star power at the moment. It was cool seeing Sting show up as the surprise and hearing “IT’S STING” one more time, but what happens when the nostalgia has worn off a little bit? What can Sting do after that?

Well based on this week’s followup, the answer would seem to be talk, as Sting was back on the show for a chat with Cody, while also referencing Darby Allin. I’m not sure where either of those things are going, but what mattered here was how confident and polished Sting sounded. He has always been a heck of a talker, but this was the best that Sting has sounded in a good while (certainly better than he sounded in WWE).

I’m not sure what is next for Sting or the best thing he can do for AEW, but there has to be a place for someone with the kind of career and success that he has had over the years. Sting should not be wrestling (though he probably will be) but if they have to do it (and they will), the best thing that can be done is to find a way to keep him as safe and infrequent as possible. AEW could be smart enough to pull that off, and at least the first two appearances have worked out rather well.

Then there’s this one:

The big shock:

Then you have the show’s main event, which saw Omega become the third AEW World Champion. Ignoring the match itself (which was rather good), the big story was Impact Wrestling commentator Don Callis interfering to help Omega win the title. In the two interviews since then (which basically said the same thing), Callis talked about what a big screwjob it was and how they had this hue plan to set everything up and make Omega the champion.

The idea of the story is that Callis has known Omega since he was a kid and saw Omega become the biggest star in the world and redefining the wrestling world. Omega became Seven Star Kenny and now he needed to win the title on top of that. Therefore, they planned this for over a year with Callis being the final push to get Omega over the finish line to become the new champion.

Uh….that’s the big plan? Omega, who helps run the company and has been presented as the most talented wrestler in the world needed a master plan with the help of a former cult leader commentator to win the World Title in his first shot? The same Omega who been AAA Mega Champion for over a year, won the #1 contenders tournament on his own and hasn’t lost a singles match in over a year (not counting the seven and a half month Tag Team Title reign) suddenly needed help?

There is a story to be told with Omega losing his confidence and bring in Callis to make things better, but they seem to be going with a far, far bigger story and….I’m not buying it. That’s a bigger story than they needed and while it isn’t the worst thing in the world (or even bad), I could get more out of this being a bit more toned down rather than some big screwjob (Which wasn’t even that great in the first place, with a mic shot and then Omega hitting four V Triggers and the One Winged Angel. How much did he exactly need Callis there?).

And where are we going:

The other aspect of the whole thing is Omega appearing on Impact Wrestling and possibly maybe kind of sort of suggesting that he is going to go after various other World Titles in the process. If that is where this whole thing is going then it could be interesting, but it isn’t exactly clear where the story is going. That is the kind of thing that could go in a variety of different directions and I’m certainly intrigued. It’s too early to know where that is going though and now we need to wait and see where things are going.

That’s kind of the situation for the entire Omega deal at the moment. It is pretty clear that they have some big ideas for everything, but I’m not sure what that is going to be just yet. We will likely get a lot more details going forward over the next few weeks, but for now the best I can go with is being rather intrigued, and hoping that they don’t keep going with this big master plan. It’s Omega as champion with a good talker in his corner. Don’t try to make it so much bigger than it needs to be.

Last week was one of the most interesting nights that AEW has ever presented and there is a reason to be a lot more excited than usual about what the show has going on. I’m not sure what we are going to be seeing with the two stories going forward, but what matters is they have a good start going on. A lot of other companies can’t pull that off and AEW did it twice in one night. It might not be great, but it certainly puts them in elite company.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!