Tony Khan’s Booking Baffles Viewers

Wednesday October 25th saw the AEW Dynamite Debut of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest star, Kazuchika Okada. Okada teamed with Orange Cassidy to face Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli of the Blackpool Combat Club. Due to his affiliation with Ropongi Vice, Orange Cassidy is a part of Okada’s CHAOS faction in NJPW.

Cagesideseats.com described the action as follows:

“Danielson and Cassidy to start, Bryan taking him down, kicks, wristlock, bicep stomp, shoot kick to the spine! Arm wringer, back and forth, figure four headscissors from Dragon. Bryan with a leg kick, tag to Claudio, scoop and a slam! Okada tags in, working Castagnoli over just enough to go after Danielson!

Kazuchika and Claudio with a forearm exchange in the middle of the ring, moving to uppercuts, back to Orange and Dragon takes him out as we go to break!

Back from commercial, Cassidy ducks and blindsides Castagnoli to send him to the floor, crawling for the tag but Claudio runs around the ring and cuts him off! Karelin lift reversed, sunset flip, DDT connects! Tags made and it’s Danielson and Okada squaring off again!

Going chops for forearms, whip across, Okada ducks a lariat and takes Bryan out with a back elbow! Whip tothe corner, hip attack, front kick, DDT, cover for two! Scoop and a slam, planting him, cover for two! Danielson floats over, bicep stomp, chest kicks, taking him down into the LeBell Lock but Kazuchika gets out!

Duck the Rainmaker, Okada shrugging chops off and throwing hard right hands in return! Backflip up and over, off the ropes, duck the lariat, duck the Axe Bomber, both men go for lariats and both men are down and out! Castagnoli tags in, so does Cassidy, crossbody caught but Kazuchika completes it with a boot for a nearfall!

Lazy kicks from Orange, getting harder and more serious, stunning Claudio! Off the ropes, satellite DDT reversed into the Giant Swing reversed into a front chancery reversed into a suplex reversed into Stundog Millionaire! Satellite DDT connects… DANIELSON BREAKS IT UP!

Dragon takes Okada out with a dropkick, plancha from Cassidy, back inside, elbow pad off, Castagnoli gets to his feet but he’s got the Orange Punch scouted and reverses into the giant swing! Sharpshooter applied, Okada tries to break it up once and he shrugs it off, twice he breaks to attack and gets caught with the Reverse Neckbreaker!

Clear Danielson off the apron, bodyslam for Claudio, Kazuchika off the top with the elbow drop! Rainmaker snap zoom hug zoom out right back into the Best Friends snap zoom hug! Bryan blocks a Rainmaker, dropkick connects, wristlock, back elbows, Orange Punch sets it up… RAINMAKER!

Claudio back in, duck a Rainmaker, springboard corkscrew uppercut! SWISS DEATH TAKES ORANGE DOWN AND IT IS OVER!”

Kazuchika Okada tapped out to Bryan Danielson in the Forbidden Door PPV Main Event. This match not only makes him 0-2 on AEW television, but the person most expected to take the pin, Claudio Castagnoli, got the win for his team. Sadly, this adds to the growing concern that Tony Khan favors his personal picks over the good of story, continuity, and fan sentiment.

But that’s not all….

During this same show, we were treated to further story advancement for the AEW Full Gear PPV Main Event between MJF and “SwitchBlade” Jay White. However, AEW threw a curveball when we found out that Kenny Omega will challenge MJF for the AEW World Championship on AEW Collision, Saturday October 28th.

A Pay-Per-View Dream Match on AEW’s Secondary Show.

The justification for this is that MJF is only days from eclipsing Kenny Omega’s 346 day title reign. Omega wants to be the final obstacle to keep MJF from becoming the longest-reigning AEW World Champion.

Fans on social media immediately let it be known that they were more excited for MJF/Omega than MJF/White.

Honestly, if this match ends in anything other than pure shenanigans, color me shocked.