This episode of Dynamite has been the talk of the town ever since it was announced on last week's late-night Collision that The Young Bucks would be airing backstage footage from All In.

Initially, I thought it would be some kind of gag as a way to build to Dynasty and the Tag Team Title match with FTR. But then news began to trickle out that it was the footage of the CM Punk/Jack Perry fight rather than a bait and switch or anything like that.

At that point, I began to feel conflicted. My first feeling was that it was a cheap, WCW-esque ratings ploy. It stunk of Eric Bischoff challenging Vince McMahon to fight him on pay-per-view, knowing full well that Vince would never show up.

I know this all kicked off because of CM Punk's comments during WrestleMania week, so perhaps the direct Bischoff comparison is off a hair or two since you could say Tony Khan was provoked. The entire Monday Night War was just one big provocation after another, though, so who the hell knows.

As the show begins and I watch Swerve Strickland tackle Samoa Joe through a table, I still feel a bit of unease at this footage airing. It still feels cheap. It could either be hilarious or massively stupid. It could have no affect on the company going forward or it could be a moment that makes AEW look like a buffoons. Time will tell.

Roll that beautiful bean footage

We got a "Countdown To The Young Bucks" graphic in the corner ala the "Countdown To Cody" from at least one episode of RAW after he returned to WWE. A funny little gag while also letting us know that the footage would be airing within the first hour of the show. For better or worse, we'd get it out of the way early on so we could just concentrate on the rest of the show without the footage looming overhead.

In a tiny room backstage, Nicholas and Matthew Jackson sat in front of a computer monitor ready to play the tape before giving some backstory. They spun The Incident into being the reason that they lost to FTR at All In because they had trouble focusing on the match after having to, as EVPs, worry about the entire show going down the tubes.

That's a nice way to spin things and make the story about FTR and The Bucks rather than specifically trying to stick it to CM Punk (who was, smartly, never named on-screen). This was also the most concrete confirmation that Jack Perry would be on his way back to AEW sooner rather than later and would be directly aligned with The Bucks.

Then there was the footage itself. I assumed that if they were showing this on TV, it would have to be wildly embarrassing for Punk – like his choke was easily escaped or he threw wild punches that look like shit. Instead, it was just embarrassing for him because it was a 45-year-old man confronting a 26-year-old man and then initiating a fight with this man, who also happened to be his coworker.

I think we all knew Punk was deranged and a crybaby shithead. I say this with no joy being a huge Punk fan for a lot of years. But, the truth is the truth.

After the footage aired, FTR gave a promo righting the ship and telling The Bucks that it was time to put the past in the past and focus on the future and the Tag Team Title match at Dynasty. They said that the future of AEW will be built on their backs, not The Bucks, before exiting.

Overall, if they had to air the footage (or felt like they had to air the footage) then I think this was the best way to do it. It gets it out there for the public to see while using it as a device to drive the Bucks/FTR match and the return of Jack Perry. And it puts to rest the question of what really happened, so then maybe we can all actually move past it.

It felt telling how over everything Tony Schiavone looked on commentary before and after this segment. He's experiences all of the pettiest of bullshit from his time in WCW and he read like someone who just wanted to put this all behind him/the company for good.

The slow unraveling of Chris Jericho and the rise of STP

Tonight, it finally felt like we got somewhere with this Chris Jericho/Hook story. It, so far, has not overstayed its welcome like a lot of Jericho's arcs have tended to do and I hope that remains the case.

In a backstage promo before their trios match, Katsuyori Shibata seemed nonplused at Jericho's claim that he and Hook "sit under the learning tree of Chris Jericho".

In their match, Jericho seemed similarly nonplused at Shibata being tagged into the match (and tagging himself into the match) when he felt like he should be Hook's number one dad. With Shibata looking to tag Hook into the match, Jericho pulled Hook off of the apron leading to an argument between the two on the floor.

Inside the ring, this gave STP the advantage leading to Lee Moriarty getting that big-ass pin on Shibata! A huge win on TV for Lee and a solid way to put the new STP trio on the map with Anthony Ogogo now in the group.

It has felt like for a while that the trigger would just never be pulled on Shane Taylor Promotions and I hope that this is Tony finally pulling the trigger on pushing these guys as serious competitors. Taylor and Moriarty over-deliver every time they're out there, and it will be interesting to see how Ogogo fares after having been gone for so long.

Post-match, Hook shoved Jericho away and tended to Shibata as a dejected Lionheart backed up the ramp.

Wrapping Up

This show felt a little all over the place. An hour in and we had just one match, which is unusual for AEW. In the end, not much to talk about other than the airing of the tape and some decent storyline movement.

I'm not a big fan of taking shots at WWE in promos, like the one we got at Ospreay this week responding to Triple H's comments that Ospreay wanted an easy career rather than the grind of WWE as well as Adam Copeland's RAH RAH speech last week. They just come off a little lame from where I'm sitting. I don't think I ever really liked that sort of shit, though, even back at the heights of the Monday Night War. Worry about your own house!

Airing tape of The Incident was fine because it was used as a way to advance storylines. It wasn't just "Fuck you, Punk – let's show everyone what you really did". It was part that, but also largely a way to put it behind everyone while moving along the Bucks/FTR feud and the impending return of Jack Perry.

This is maybe the fastest any Chris Jericho storyline has moved in AEW. We're already at a turning point with Jericho/Hook, possibly just one or two weeks away from a full-blown Jericho heel turn. Assuming the partnership between Hook and Shibata remains a constant, Jericho will need backup. Will it be yet another Sammy Guevara return, or will Jericho find someone else to aid him in his battles?

In general, not the most exciting Dynamite in recent memory but certainly not bad. It'd be very easy, in fact, to find a thousand worse episodes of professional wrestling television over the past twenty years. What stood out the most was how many video packages were used to build to Dynasty – a smart move, as in the past it has felt that PPVs weren't built to quite so blatantly with informative video packages rather than (or in addition to) in-ring action or promos.