It's a brand new season (however seasons work in a sport that never takes a break) and a brand new look for AEW Dynamite! I'm not too hot on the theme song; professional wrestling shows often have fairly terrible theme songs if produced in-house, and this one is no different. The original theme song also wasn't technically good, but it was fun to shout about lighting the fuse and doing a boom every week.

The new graphics are great, though! I never quite understood the use of red and blue for Dynamite considering Raw and Smackdown have used those colors forever. The original multicolor Dynamite was great because it was unique for a wrestling show which often rely on either a very basic color palette or no colors whatsoever. And the fonts! The fonts are nice. Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight.

I've never been a huge fan of the tunnels on the entrance. It reminds me a bit too much of old TNA. But, the overall set isn't bad. The massive curved screen is a nice touch, though I never disliked the giant wall of video that was being previously used.

The Bad

I saw a TikTok earlier about how you're never supposed to rub your eyes and, instead, should rub the areas around your eyes for the same effect because you won't damage your eyes that way. The bad news is that I keep catching myself rubbing my eyes before quickly switching to the safer method. Damn these out-of-season-seasonal allergies!

The In-Between

A little bit of imbalance hurt this week, with an opening promo that was solid but led to a bit of a nothing tag match as well as Chris Jericho turning to Hook as a source for his heat leaching.

The Redemption of Swerve Strickland

If folks still weren't sure the babyface turn of Swerve Strickland was happening, there can be no doubt after Dynamite. Swerve began the show with a solid babyface fire promo, promising to not let down all of the people who have supported him.

This Dynamite was severely under-booked, so when Samoa Joe came out to interrupt I was half-expecting Joe and Swerve for the title to happen tonight with Swerve taking the belt as a way to cement this "new season" of Dynamite.

That didn't happen, but we did end up with a tag team match of Matt Taven (I'M MATT TAVEN) and Mike Bennett taking on the unfriendly duo of Joe and Swerve. The match was fine and short; shorter than the talking segment that opened the show, in fact.

Nothing too interesting of note in the match, which Swerve won for his team. Post-match, Joe choked Swerve out while staring down his World Title challenger for next week, Wardlow, on the ramp.

My inclination at first was that Joe/Wardlow would wait until Dynasty, after which Swerve would become World Champion. I'm now thinking they're getting the Wardlow defense out of the way fast so they can have a solid four or five weeks to build to the Joe/Swerve match on PPV.

It's still Swerve's House in 2024.

Hook: Ruined By Jericho

Hook successfully defended the FTW Title against Brian Cage in what was an exceptionally fun mess of a match. Cage made Hook like a million bucks out there, putting Hook over in a way that I'm not sure Hook has been put over to this point.

Obviously, Hook has won tons of matches but something about the visual of him choking Cage out while laying in a pile of thumbtacks just stands out differently from what we've seen to this point.

After the match, the Gates of Agony attacked Hook which would have been fine had Hook's backup been somebody interesting. But, no. It was the heat vacuum Chris Jericho who is now going to leach onto Hook since Sammy Guevara is suspended.

This sucks. Jericho is so washed at this point and has overstayed his welcome, in my own humble opinion. He's always been one of my favorites back from his days in ECW, but his feuds in AEW have consistently felt like they've all gone on about six weeks too long.

I'm less than optimistic that he's not going to drag Hook down with him.

The Good

The debut we've all been waiting for finally happened with Kazuchika Okada making his first appearance as an AEW wrestler. And he broke the collective heart of the working class almost immediately.

A little bit of future planning

I've mentioned before how annoyed I get when AEW doesn't announce the lineups for Dynamite and Collision in advance. They used to be so incredibly good at it that it because a sore point when they fall off.

Tonight, we at least got some announcements for future Dynamites and essentially a full card for Collision, including Wardlow/Joe next week and Christian Cage/Adam Copeland at Dynamite in Toronto for the TNT Title in an I Quit Match.

While I'm not wholly thrilled about Copeland/Cage continuing with the TNT Title involved, I'm sure they'll have another excellent match. I do wish the belt had been shifted to Garcia at Revolution, but you can't win 'em all I guess.

Copeland as TNT Champion could at least open some doors for a young heel to rise up and take the championship from him. Or, if not specifically a young heel just someone who hasn't had a chance to shine as a singles wrestler yet – like a Jay White, Lee Moriarty, or Shane Taylor. Let's get wild with that shit.

While the match was already announced for Big Business, it was nice to get some promo time for Darby Allin vs Jay White – especially since we got a little bit more of a serious Jay White than what we've been getting in the Bang Bang Scissor Gang. There's no reason that match shouldn't be a show-stealer.

THE RAINMAKER IS ALL ELITE AND HE IS ALSO AN ASSHOLE

It has been rumored about for weeks and tonight it finally happened – Kazuchika Okada debuted on Dynamite as an official member of the AEW Roster.

He did so by saving Eddie Kingston from a 2-on-1 beatdown by The Young Bucks before showing his true colors and laying Eddie out with a Rainmaker.

What an asshole!

I'm ecstatic to have Okada in AEW and I didn't expect him to come in as a heel at all. It feels like fresh ground for Okada to walk upon and it breaks him out of the pack of other super over babyfaces having their time in the sun right now.

He motioned to Eddie that he'd be coming for at least one of the belts in his Continental Crown, but until we get there Eddie is going to need to rustle up a couple of friends so we can have some fun trios matches along the way.

A women's match upstaging the World Champion

Kris Statlander and Riho had, unsurprisingly, a great match which put Toni Storm vs Deonna Purrazzo from Revolution in the dust.

Statlander has been on another level since coming back from knee surgery, and Riho is... well, she's Riho. The two of them whipped the crowd into a bit of a frenzy by the end of the match, with Statlander edging on heelish tendencies as she repeatedly clotheslined and stomped Riho into the mat.

Once again, Stokely Hathaway passed a chain to Statlander as an easy out against Riho but Stat refused. For her morality, she was rolled up by Riho for a flash victory as Stokely looked on frustrated.

After the break, it was announced that Willow will face Riho next work – but she demanded to Stokely that they do things her way.

Another nice step in whatever the story will be for the Stat/Willow/Stokely trio. So far, only Willow has benefited from Stokely's interference and that was supposedly not Willow Approved. Statlander has twice refused Stokely's help leading to a loss.

Will we get to a point where one or both of them concede and adopt Stokely's nefarious methods?

A PPV mein event on television

On a night where Hook had what felt like a star-making match against Brian Cage, Kyle Fletcher had the same against Will Ospreay.

In Ospreay's first televised match as a member of the AEW roster, he showed why he's worth whatever amount of money Tony Khan is paying him. Just days after having a match of the year candidate against Takeshita, Ospreay churned out another MOTYC here against stablemate Fletcher.

Everybody knew Ospreay was winning. Nobody in their right mind would have picked Fletcher to win. But, there were moments when there were slivers of hope and doubt.

Not only was the match incredible, the smaller crowd still made this feel like a huge main event biting on every near fall and getting behind both men at different points in the match.

After a fantastic finishing sequence, Ospreay wiped out Fletcher with whatever the Hidden Blade is called when it's done directly to the opponent's face. As Ospreay tended to Fletcher after the match, Bryan Danielson appeared to stare lovingly and/or threateningly at Will as the show went off the air.

Danielson has a finite amount of time on his wrestling schedule before retirement, and Danielson/Ospreay main eventing an AEW show feels like a bucket list item for sure.

Wrapping Up

If this was a season premiere, it was as solid as any season premiere could have been. Great matches, a bunch of stories and feuds moved forward, and, of course, the debut of Kazuchika Okada. Big Business is next week with the expected debut of Mercedes Moné, putting us smack dab in the middle of one of the wildest stretches in company history. I will sadly miss next week's show live because I'll be watching Alkaline Trio and Worriers play music, but have fun without me.