This week, a lot of AEW fans were reminded that AEW is a business and sometimes must do business things when a handful of folks were released. Obviously I never want to see anyone lose a job (well... not good people, at least), but I suppose that's how the business works? I don't know. I don't run a business and I'm not a billionaire, so I don't know why it's necessary to release half a dozen people who obviously weren't making millions every year.

The release that sucks the most, probably, is Dasha because she was a welcome change in ring announcers especially when the other main ring announcer in AEW was named during Speaking Out for exchanging gross messages with a minor. Pretty shitty!

Tony Khan has been pretty quiet on Twitter since the releases dropped, which is unusually for the terminally online owner of AEW.

Adam Copeland, on the other hand, was pretty vocal in his weird show-opening promo in which he went on and on about how great wrestling is, how great AEW is, and how great Tony Khan is. This felt as much like weird damage control for the company whose owner once commented that he wanted to honor contracts rather than doing mass releases as much as it felt like veiled shots at CM Punk after his Ariel Helwani interview earlier in the week.

Either way, oddball start to the show that felt a little too heavy-handed for me.

A battle of Ospreays Hobbsesess Wills

In the long-standing tradition of "Don Callis Family Members Beating The Shit Out of Each Other", Will Hobbs and Will Ospreay beat the shit out of each other.

Will Hobbs is just fantastic. He's come so far since first appearing in AEW and I hope the company is smart enough to know what they have in him, because whenever his contract comes up I have to imagine other companies will be making plays for him. Hobbs is a guy you can rely on to have great matches and deliver cool promos. He should have a belt around his waist sooner than later.

Ospreay walked away with the win and will march onward to Dynasty and Bryan Danielson. It's going to be tough to top Ospreay/Takeshita as a match of the year contender, but if anyone can pull it off it's Ospreay/Danielson. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Ospreay become AEW World Champion at All In in London, but I'd also be perfectly happy with him having a non-title match on the show just so future-champ Swerve can have a more lengthy reign.

Post-match, Hobbs shoved away Callis and Ospreay before letting a cooler head prevail rather than getting into it any more with Ospreay. Callis has been riding a fine line with Ospreay in the Callis Family – on commentary, he puts him over everyone else in the group and has clearly made him into the golden boy of the group. It will be interesting to see if anything more comes from this in regards to Takeshita or Hobbs.

Hey, it's something for Shane Taylor Promotions to do!

I'm on record as not being into anything Chris Jericho has done for the past several months. Something has changed and it feels as though he's beginning to overstay his welcome a bit. This storyline with Hook feels like this playing out on-screen so at least there's a bit of self-awareness going on.

Still, I'd just as much rather see Hook doing anything at all outside of the orbit of Chris Jericho.

Hook announced to Jericho that he got them a match for Collision, and shortly thereafter we found out that the opponents would be Shane Taylor Promotions – the titular Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty.

I love STP. I hope this is the beginning of something cool finally happening with them long-term. This Jericho/Hook thing feels like it's served well by Jericho letting his team down and eating the fall in a tap match, so let's see Shane Taylor pin Jericho or Moriarty tap Jericho out on Saturday night.

Otherwise, the Lionhook thing simply feels like a placeholder to me until they figure out something more interesting for Hook to do.

Please get to the end of Bullet Club Gold/The Acclaimed sooner

This Billy Gunn/Jay White match was maybe one of the least enjoyable watches I can remember in recent memory. It went on far too long, made Jay White look like an absolute buffoon who couldn't keep up with a 60-year-old-man, and ended with a wet fart of a DQ.

This story has already gone on far too long and I just want to get to the part where BCG beat The Acclaimed for the Trios Titles so those belts can have some new life breathed into them. They've been complete afterthoughts ever since The Acclaimed won them which is incredibly depressing considering how amazing the Best of 7 Series for the Trios Titles was.

Please put me out of my misery.

The expectant Tag Team Title tournament finals loom nearer

The Young Bucks vs Trent Beretta & Orange Cassidy was a great match with some excellent near-falls toward the end. I bit on a couple of those pinfalls thinking that things could actually get shaken up in the tournament finals with a Best Friends win but, alas, it looks like we'll likely revisit some history with Bucks/FTR at Dynasty.

It feels weird to look at that match and be a little annoyed with it, because it's obviously going to be an incredible match. But, it's a match we've seen before between two teams who have already been Tag Team Champions in AEW. I'll still hold out hope for a Top Flight upset for a few more days.

After the match, the other shoe (or knee, I guess) dropped when Trent laid out Orange Cassidy with a running knee. Chuck Taylor didn't join in on a beating or anything, but he also didn't step in to reprimand Trent at all.

It's been discussed online for a while that Trent has been setup for a heel turn for some time, going back to when he and OC had a bit of dissension during OC's International Title reign. It's finally come to pass, and I think it'd only make sense for Chuck to make the turn with Trent.

This could breathe new life into Best Friends as a team while separating Cassidy from the group to see what he can do all by his lonesome.

Wrapping Up

Overall, an enjoyable episode of Dynamite with a solid build toward Dynasty in about three weeks. Some of that build has been predictable – The Bucks in the finals of the tag tournament and Thunder Rosa moving on to face Toni Storm for the Women's Title, for instance.

It's not that these stories and outcomes don't make sense, it's just that there are some more interesting options out there. Telling the story of Rosa coming back from injury to try and win back the belt she never lost is classic wrestling storytelling, but it would have also been a great story to see Mariah May upset Rosa and go on to face her idol at Dynasty instead.

Likewise, it would have been nice to see some new teams in the mix for the tag titles but it also is completely reasonable for The Young Bucks, revitalized with her characters and coming off of the Sting retirement, to find themselves in the tournament finals.

The match at the top of the card is where my focus is most. The contract signing was a beautiful stop on this feud. AEW hasn't run the contract signing trope into the ground just yet, and things are generally kept short and sweet enough to not make the announcement of a contract signing an eye-roll moment. Just quick, snappy promos and some action without wearing out its welcome.

That said, if Swerve Strickland doesn't walk out of Dynasty with the World Championship then I'll be at a loss for words. This is the easiest layup of the year. Samoa Joe has done wonders to bring glory back to the AEW World Title after the draining MJF reign, but the clock is ticking.

It's Swerve's House, baby.