Stop trying to make babyface Sammy Guevara happen

The May 17 Dynamite featured three matches and several interview segments designed to convince us Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin or Jungle Boy Jack Perry can take the AEW World title from Maxwell Jacob Friedman in the Pillars 4Way match at Double or Nothing.

It’s unlikely that these wins, words, video packages or anything else can convince audiences MJF is dropping the belt on that May 28 PPV, but you can’t blame them for trying. It would be promotional malpractice not to try to add suspense to one of the biggest matches on the card for Las Vegas, and to do whatever possible to elevate the three young challengers while they’re in this spotlight.

To do so, last night’s show featured Guevara, Allin & Perry setting aside their differences to focus on their common goal. It makes sense, as it means Max’s plans to divide them have failed and gives them a symbolic win heading into Double or Nothing. But it also means yet another attempt to present Guevara as an inspirational figure.

Look, I don’t know Guevara. Perhaps he has grown from his various public controversies as he says in that promo. But as most of his fellow Texans make pretty clear with their response to Sammy’s promo, audiences don’t want to cheer him. Why are we again trying to swim upstream and make it happen?

I’ll give AEW credit for addressing the fact Guevara was just gleefully doing MJF’s bidding a few weeks ago, giving us this scene where he says Allin helped convince him to stop being a follower...

... but couldn’t that have been accomplished with his still being a vain, arrogant jerk while he delivered the same message?

And maybe this good guy act is a tactic, and the Spanish God will revert to villainy (on his own or on MJF’s behalf) at the PPV. But the back-and-forth with Sammy’s alignment has made it so it’s not even that much fun to jeer him these days. There was a time not too long ago when this guy was getting Dominik Mysterio-esque (or, for an AEW example, Christian Cage-like) heat. But his shifting motivations have made it harder for people to care one way or the other.

AEW loves its shades of gray storytelling, and “everyone can decide who they like and who they don’t” presentation. Jungle Jack, for instance, has picked up more of an edge in this program after finally putting his mentor Cage down. Perry fought fire with fire on this episode, grabbing a handful of tights to beat RUSH.

But it’s doesn’t work for every character, nor does it best serve every performer. We want to boo the $#!+ out of Sammy Guevera, and the sooner AEW gives us consistent kayfabe reasons to do so, the better for us... and him.

Let us know what you think. While you’re on your way down to the comments section to do so, check out the highlights from the May 17 edition Dynamite below. We’ve put all the YouTube videos AEW has released as of this morning in a playlist, and since they don’t release everything that way at the same time, we’ve got Twitter clips of the other big moments and matches below that.

• Wardlow calls out Christian Cage to a brutal outcome
• Darby Allin & the AEW International Champ Orange Cassidy picks up the victory
• Will Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal become your new AEW World tag team champions?!
• The Outcasts played the numbers game against Britt Baker & Hikaru Shida
• Jungle Boy, Darby Allin & Sammy Guevara show respect before Double or Nothing

For complete results and the live blog for Dynamite click here. To read a complete recap & review of all the night’s events click here.