Wardlow/Jungle Boy
What a match to start a great show off with. I've been missing Wardlow so much recently-- seeing him in this tournament is very much welcomed. I long for him and MJF to be separated so that he can go on to be a cool nice guy who does cool nice things. AEW has really filled their "giant meat man" quota since the start of the year, and it would be nice to have another one besides Hobbs who's out there fighting for the people.
Wardlow tends to win quickly, but Jungle Boy decides right out of the gate just to piss him off, delivering a healthy smack to the face. This actually works for Jack here, as pissed off Wardlow is stupid Wardlow. Jungle Boy is able to systematically take out Wardlows legs and then assaults his back. He gets some good, healthy offence in before he gets too bold, I think, and goes right for the front. He should have stuck to the legs and just brought him down but he's young and cocky still.
Wardlow gets the upper hand here and despite a good show by Jungle Boy, eventually kills the hell out of him with an F10 into the ring, then ANOTHER nasty one to take the match.
It really is shocking how quick Wardlow is for such a big dude. He did a kip up at one point even, and the guy is like 7 feet tall.
Jungle Boy is so good, however, that despite any of this and all of Wardlow's offence, he really could have won the match had he played a little more defensively.
Eddie Kingston's 10.21 Post Show Promo
I don't know what to say about Eddie I haven't already. This promo is insane. It's ridiculous how good Eddie is. He's a shit bird heel who decked a man after an insane match with Lance Archer of all people and had his goons beat Mox down, and STILL comes off as sympathetic. He talks about how Mox left him behind for big money and "entertainment", and not wrestling.
I encourage you to watch this segment. It's worth your time. Eddie is untouchable.
Moxley Responds
Mox says no one was happier to have Eddie in AEW than he was. He says despite all his clamoring, and big talk, no one is to blame more for Eddie's failures than Eddie. He gets in his own way. Never does things right. Says he doesn't know who this new, whiny loser is. He accepts Eddie's demands for an I Quit match for Full Gear.
Too good.
Sonny Kiss/Kenny Omega
Sonny comes out, then Omega gets a whole brand new extremely involved introduction. Justin Roberts names all Kenny's achievements, says he's performed in North Carolina(!), Kenny gets choreographed ring girls dancing with brooms, he comes out, shakes Sonny's hand, V-Trigger, One-Winged Angel, 1,2,3. Kenny shrugs the match off, shakes Sonny's hand again and leaves. Kenny isn't playing around anymore.
Orange Cassidy gets "interviewed"
OC is... "excited" about his rematch with Cody and says he can't wait to do it in Cincinnati. Tony reminds him they aren't traveling anymore. This seems to come as a shock to OC.
Cody On Gains
Cody says he's been bulking up to be a true heavyweight contender. Says he's excited to watch the show tonight as a fan and for the OC rematch. Not much here.
Eddie-- WITH MORE!
They can promo off each other all night for all I care. Eddie is first hyping up the Lucha Bros match to come, then talks more shit to Mox. He says Moxley might embrace the darkness but he lives in it, was molded by it, etc. The I Quit match is on.
Pentagon/Rey Fenix
To be totally honest with you, there's no way I can explain this match written down that will convey exactly what happened here. The story was two brothers taking it a little too far with each other. It starts off friendly, you got the hugs, then Fenix gets some early offence in which irritates Pentagon. They get into some chops with each other and they are not playing around. They hit each other so hard I felt it. Viscerally. I'm surprised they didn't draw blood.
This match was like one of those WCW lucha/cruiserweight matches that would go for 6 minutes turned all the way up to main event status. I wish it was the main event. It sure felt like it.
For two people who are often accused of "not selling" and "no psychology", the story telling in this match was beautiful. Fenix fakes a serious injury to lure Penta in, only to go back on the attack. Penta tries to break Fenix's arm. Playing off of empathy for each other, Fenix eventually pulls some kind of insane move they called a destroyer but it was like-- this match was art. It was the best thing on the show bar none. Save, for maybe, a backstage segment yet to come. Wrestling wise this is as good as it gets dude. One of the best matches all year. Up there with the tag match from Revolution.
Cobana/Hangman
This bit starts with some of the Dark Order telling Colt he's not really their friend and that he needs to win this for Mr Brody. Colt talks about the Exalted One, says he's excited to get that win. John Silver goes off. Silver is nuts tonight, btw. He's so good.
They come in for the entrances, Page gets a lot of chants tonight for "Cowboy STUFF" since they're trying to downplay the shit's for TNT while they have a smaller crowd.
This match is not as fast as Hangman's. It's a lot of pretty brutal stuff-- at one point Colt hits Hangman who was climbing the turnbuckle and knocks him off onto the ring apron. It looked nasty, he hit so hard. Cabana then jumps off the ring onto him.
There's a lot more of this heavy hitting stuff as Hangman tries to go for the Buckshot. Colt keeps reversing or dodging it, outsmarting Page. Finally, Hangman is able to fake him out, get the lariat, and win the match.
Unexpectedly, Dark Order comes out to take Colt out, a rare show of in-group unity from them. Perhaps they were as impressed with Colt's performance as we all were. He put up a crazy fight. This match was way more snug than it seemed like it would be.
Sammy Threatens Matt
Sammy is back with another promo about how he's gonna end Matt's career. It appears to be setting up a cinematic match considering how it looks. Hopefully neither of them dies. This feud is cursed.
Taz on Hobbs/Allin.
Taz wants Hobbs decision on joining Team Taz QUICKLY, or it won't end well for him. They also whine some about Darby, saying he's spoiled, he gets everything he wants. Starks calls him a face painted bitch.
Le Dinner Debonair
This is... if not the best backstage segment of all time, one of the very very tip top contenders. They fight about their restaurant orders for a bit, then Jericho says he's tired of how rude MJF is to everyone. If he wants into Inner Circle, why isn't he trying to be nice? To be courteous? That's when all the sudden it turns INTO A FULL FLEDGED PERFORMANCE OF ME AND MY SHADOW.
SHOWGIRLS, DANCING, SINGING.
I have never been happier. Watch it.
Britt Baker/Kilynn King
I sure hope they sign Kilynn soon. Seriously. She's put the work in the past few months so much. She's at every taping. She's good.
This is a pretty even match at the start, for the most part. Kilynn gets some offence in, Britt does as well, going back and forth. Kilynn sneaks out of a lockjaw attempt, but in the end Britt is able to hit her with a DDT, a curb stomp, a fishermans suplex, and then gets the lockjaw to win. No promo here, but they do announce a womens match for next week in a rare move.
Darby And Steve-O.
Darby says Ricky is a dead man. To prove he's tough, he slides down a half pipe in a body bag. Darby being Darby.
Tag Team Contender Match with Bucks/Private Party/Butcher and Blade/Silver&Reynolds(DO)
Like all the multi tag team matches, this descends into chaos relatively quickly. Highlights here are Silver killing everyone after the best hot tag of his career, young bucks fighting off 3 close pins (then everyone else all clambering into the ring to stop theirs), some GREAT offence by Marq Quen, and really not that much from Butcher and Blade. The Bunny is back. They play the clip from Dark on the show at least.
I know this isn't really the place for it but-- what happened here? This Bunny/Nightmare Family thing was a storyline running for about 6 months, over almost the whole COVID era. It went nowhere. Bunny rejoins B&B halfway through QT's match and he barely even notices. I figured they would have some kind of cool end to this, but it just ends with a big fat nothing. Does QT even care? Eddie said Blade needed to get his house in order, but I assumed we'd SEE that. She's out there tonight just being same ol' Bunny. She even seemed to be more of a face after Brandi got all heel after getting her action figure. It's just weird and bad. Missed opportunity. Maybe it'll lead to something in the future but as far as the present in concerned, this whole angle is squandered to nothing.
Back to the tag match-- Reynolds gets knocked OUT at one point when Private Party do a Hardy Bros style double flying move onto him. I mean hands up, fencing position, cold cut salami dude was dead weight. No one seemed to notice even though Doc was out there banging on the mat. Blade literally drug him to the corner and tagged himself in and they just whipped his ass out of there.
Despite the chaos and the full blown unfollowable mess it was, the story was basically the Bucks getting their win back from Private Party. It's fine, but it wasn't very great either. Bucks Vs. FTR for Full Gear is real though.
Then, in the definite for sure worst segment of the match, we get a good ol' fashioned beat down. Tully comes out disguised and helps FTR smack down the young bucks and just about break Matt's leg. It goes on for too long with a lot of vamping. The end. Tully did get a sick move in though to keep up with Arn lol
Good:
Bad:
FTR/Best Friends
No hope for an upset here. I was having issues with my stream and missed... most of this match to be totally honest. I really didn't even see enough to know how I felt about it. I saw Trent fighting alone, the arcade cabinet spot that seemed incredibly misplaced, the finish and the Miro stuff. For the record, why would FTR save the best friends from a count out if they're going to cheat to win anyway? What are they doing? I don't know. Let's just move on. Miro comes in afterwards and beats up Best Friends because FTR threw them through their cabinet.
Miro & Kip/Lee Johnson & Sean Maluta
So this was disappointing. Lee Johnson has been largely fighting in Dark for months it feels like, and I thought here he was going to kind of get the same chance Will Hobbs got-- to kind of show off for a bit. He got a theme and everything-- ultimately for nothing as this was just a chance for Miro to stomp around and get a camel clutch in.
What the hell is this? And now Miro/Kip are feuding with Best Friends while Penelope continues to do nothing and What the fuck is going on with the wedding. I know I said this last week-- but what is happening here? What IS this? I truly do not understand and it does not feel like a normal Dynamite storyline to me. I am so baffled by this every single week.
Lance attacks Moxley
Lance jumps Moxley backstage, just to get us ready for the main event later. Nothing else really happens here.
MJF Makes An Announcement
In a very, very, very long promo, MJF says, finally, that he would like to join the Inner Circle. Jericho tells him they need to have a steak dinner. MJF, also, finally gives Sammy his jacket which is sized for someone about 3x as big as Lance Archer. These two really have great chemistry together, and it's hard to tell which one of them is getting something over on the other at any particular time. Does Jericho know MJF is just feeding his ego to get into the group? Does MJF know Jericho might know? Hard to say. I'm happy to have more of this.
Britt Baker Update
In my favorite segment of the show, my OTP Baker/Tony are at a spa together discussing her latest rule, which ultimately leads to an announcement of Britt getting a match next week to start her big comeback. Tony also gets a chest wax!
Tony and Britt have, since the moment Britt really turned heel, had the absolute best chemistry. It's out of nowhere, goofy, and just makes me happy. I love them. Britt has really, truly grown as a wrestler over the last year. She's improved more than anyone else on the show in my opinion. They clearly want to get the belt onto her at some point, perhaps with this very run.
Cody/Orange Cassidy
This match was great if not KIND OF disappointing to me. Orange Cassidy, back to his old tricks, ducks and dodges Cody at first before a real match breaks out. Newly Blonde-Again Cody plays heel again as he did with Sonny Kiss back in their TNT title match, doing the pushups, attacking OC's leg on the post, being an asshole. Arn screams at him throughout the match, to no real avail.
I may be wrong, but I don't think Cody ever gets the Cross-Rhodes on OC, and OC never gets the Orange Punch on Cody, but they land almost all of their Not-Quite-Finishers on each other. OC has a huge, fiery comeback at the end and gets Cody pinned, gets a 1, gets a 2, then the match time expires. It's a draw. Cody's second, the first being against Darby, who coincidentally is in the stands watching this. Darby seems to applaud OC for his effort... or perhaps Cody for his. Hard to say. Darby has a complicated relationship with Cody. They've fought three times and despite Darby killing himself to win, just never could.
OC is getting a rematch with Cody soon, so hopefully he gets the win there.
There's some great stuff early on in this match when Dark Order looks to interfere, only to get kicked from the arena. They really are such a great group now. Seeing them all mad while getting shoved out of the match was, oofh, chefs kiss.
Moxley gets a hit on Lance
Same thing. Just another tease for the main event.
Matt Hardy is cleared
Matt gives a short promo, saying he's cleared to enter the ring once more when he's interrupted by a video from Sammy. Sammy says it was he that attacked Matt several weeks ago, taking him off his legs and further injuring him. He says he's not quitting until Matt doesn't come back. He's gonna finish what he started at All Out.
Matt says he had given up Sammy, but this time he'll finish it.
Fatal 4-Way Setup.
A bunch of tag teams are here, they're going to have a 4 way tag match to determine the number one tag contenders. Winner next week will face FTR. They draw names-- Private Party, John Silver/Alex Reynolds, Butcher and Blade... and the Young Bucks.
Matt and Nick come in, deliver some super kicks to Silver/Alex and B&B, make nice with Private Party before kicking their heads off, and it's clear there's gonna be some heat next week. A big brawl happens and we go to commercial.
Shida/Swole
Once more our champion fights for nothing more than her honor as there is absolutely no buildup whatsoever to this match. Swole is the number one contender now, after beating Britt back in the Dental Office brawl from All Out and everyone else having lost to Shida already.
In a surprisingly energetic and hard hitting match, Swole gets the upperhand more than once, only to fall victim to the falcon arrow and her finisher. The fans love this match and are very into it-- often in AEW this can be an energetic lull but not tonight. Everyone is all in, Shida looks fantastic, Swole does too despite some looseness here and there. Shida wins.
On the side, Nyla watches on, perhaps jealous that since she teamed up with Vickie Guerrero back in June or July, she's been on the show for a grand total of about 6 minutes. This is, I believe, Shida's 18th singles win in a row.
Spears talks about Scorpio
Shawn is upset with Scorpio-- he interrupted his match on Late Night Dynamite and feels like Scorpio stole his moment. He says its time he got that moment back.
These are two really great wrestlers, in my opinion, who almost never have anything to really do except for losing matches, so to see them fighting against each other should be a really great moment for them to shine. I'm torn though! I'd like to see both of them get a win really. Scorpio seems so forgotten a lot of the time, and seeing Shawn on Dynamite basically never even happens anymore. This dude has been in I think three pay per views, but just now seems to be aimless ever since he abandoned his search for a tag team partner.
Lance/Mox
Eddie comes out to run commentary on this match with Fenix/Pentagon. This thing is a firecracker, and at only ~15 minutes, wow.
Lance comes out with a new entrance, throwing a crew member through glass and emerging with a somewhat new look, a little reminiscent of his NJPW gear with the punk military helmet and Lemmy beard. His music is also new, and, personally, I hate it to death and back. His old song ruled ass. This... is weak.
Mox comes out, looking mad as shit. The match has been made No-DQ by Khan because of course it has. Mox hits the ring and IMMEDIATELY hits the paradigm shift on Lance, goes for the pin, and doesn't get it. This sort of sets Mox spiraling for awhile as Lance just DESTROYS him. Lance gets some tables set up outside the ring, while they fight around it reminiscent of the Mimosa Mayhem match. It feels like whoever goes through those tables is gonna lose the match.
After Lance pounds on Mox for awhile, John eventually gets the upperhand. He blasts Lance with a chair shot to the head. He gets some more offence in, throwing Lance out of the ring. Lance gets a trash can, unbeknownst to John, and when Mox comes in for the tope suicida, Lance is there to bash his skull in. More intense violence happens, BOTH of them go through the tables. Mox hits the Paradigm Shift on Lance again-- BUT ARCHER KICKS OUT! Lance hits the Blackout-- BUT MOX KICKS OUT! Lance tries a pinning move on Mox but Mox reverses, using Lances own weight against him. 1, 2, 3. Mox retains.
Eddie, who has been largely derisive of both Lance and Mox, rushes in and Fenix hits Archer with a chair. Lance retreats, knowing he's outnumbers, while Eddie tells Mox that he's not mad. He's here to celebrate the champion. Of course... he eventually manages to get the choke on Moxley. Now they're even. Eddie dumps the title on an unconscious Moxley to end the show.
Pros:
Cons:
Grade: B-
Brian Cage/Will Hobbs
Will went from just losing on Dark to everybody to a dude you could meaningfully see wearing the AEW belt in like 4 weeks. No kidding. He's so good. He's been beaten by DO trios, OC, Ricky, Dark Order again in a tag, Scorpio, Shawn, and Darby, but it's really easy to forget that now that he just looks so damn good. His flying forearm/elbow strike he does is insane, it looks like he just floats off the ground.
Anyway, this match was great. When AEW first started, there really wasn't a lot of these giant dudes hossing around, but then all the sudden they just blew the roster up with them, and now it feels like they own a lot of ground in the show that people like Shawn Spears would have occupied. This isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing, it's just a difference. I suppose it depends on your tastes.
But Cage and Hobbs went at it and hard, kind of like the Mox/Butcher match last week (or Mox/Eddie the week before). They killed each other, Will hit Cage with his new finisher, a spinebuster called The Last Will And Testament which is metal as hell, but Cage kicked out. A little disappointing to see it immediately lose some zest after just winning with it on Dark this week, but Cage is a big tough dude so it makes sense if anyone would do it.
Ultimately Cage is able to use his superior longevity and veteran moves to secure the win and retain the FTW belt. I hope they fight again soon. I would have likes to have seen Hobbs win, but he'll get his. This story isn't really about Hobbs ultimately, it's about Mox.
Ricky, who was on commentary with Taz during the match, goes to the ring to help Cage beat the shit out of Hobbs, but Taz stops them. Taz says to Hobbs, hey, two choices. Join team taz. we like you. do it. or B, we beat the hell out of you. Hobbs, importantly, does not get a chance to answer. Darby rolls up with his board and chases the goon squad out. I assume we'll hear Hobbs' answer soon, probably in the form of an F5.
Lance threatens Moxley
Lance does a promo, talking about New Japan(!) directly after Hiroshi Tanahashi (from New Japan!) congratulates Jericho on 30 years. Lance says he's learned a lot about Mox since their last fight, and this time he's prepared. He says Mox is blowing himself up fighting all these other randos and that it's only going to make beating him that much easier.
FTR/TH2
This starts with a weirdo WWE thing where the Bucks are looking behind their own backs at the monitor to watch FTR come into the ring. This is some bizarre thing they do on their shows for whatever reason, and they ham it up for laffs.
The last time TH2 was on Dynamite, they were fighting SCU on the 01.29.20 show for the belts. It's been a LONG time.
This match was kind of unfortunate, as Evans injures his leg early on and FTR works it for what felt like 2-3 hours. They just kill him over and over until Angelico is finally able to come in and try to make something happen. It doesn't feel as close as last week with FTR and SCU, nor as good, but TH2 looked fairly good together for being out for... nearly a full calendar year at this point. Angelico at one point gets BOTH members of FTR in a submission hold which was awesome, but eventually they just wear the dudes down and FTR pins doing the superplex/splash to retain the belt.
I think even though TH2 didn't look AWFUL here, it's clear they need some time together to get the rust off. Evans has been injured as well, so it's kind of a not great restart, but it happens.
Afterwards the bucks kill the cameraman and walk away. At least Nick is back this week!
Then, Best Friends come out with Dax/Cash in hot dog costumes, and Best Friends once more reaffirm that they are unbridled weenies. They say talked to THE KHAN backstage, and it's a done deal. Next week they're getting a shot at those belts and there's nothing FTR can do about it except cry. They fight for a bit before FTR, like usual, retreats. Best Friends are left in the ring with the belts, which they raise for a moment, but ultimately give back. They look good with them.
MJF is on screen for one of the Thank You Jericho bits for his 30 year celebration, and tells everyone that Jericho is his idol.
Brodie Lee/Cody
To be upfront with my biases here, I was pulling for Brodie. He's looked great as the TNT Champ, and I fully expected Dark Order to kind of be the center of attention for this Full Gear season, but it didn't really pan out as I expected.
To prepare for this match, I've been watching some dog collar matches I never got a chance to see. My personal favorite, and the one everyone always talks about, was the Piper/Valentine Starrcade '83 match. If you've seen it, you clearly saw the inspiration they were working from here. Now, to be fair, that's very much a classic Southern Style Wrasslin' match. Comparatively to the Lucha inspired work we see on AEW very frequently, it's very very slow, but much much harder hitting. Piper and Valentine were trying to kill each other in a boxing match with chokeholds. In this Lee/Cody match, it's much more about who can outgas the other and the blood is kind of incidental.
I should mention, Valentine was actually in the crowd for this. I just listened to a show he did with Piper about that collar match, so it's nice to see him.
They start right away pulling the chains which are much longer than the one Piper/Valentine had. They couldn't even make it to the corners pulling, but the chain just about covers the full length here. Cody/Lee start out largely wrestling around the chain. Some drops, kicks, body slams. Cody knocks the hell out of John Silver at ringside, blowing his head wide open.
They end up out of the ring where Brodie gets a chair and makes Silver sit in it to hold it down, but Cody kills Silver again. Anna Jay comes out to save him and he's out of the match. At this point the chain starts mattering a lot more, and Brodie starts really killing Cody. He busts Cody's head open, and then takes his hands and just scratches the wound, splitting it open further. Cody's bleeding pretty badly. Lee sets up a table, but ultimately Cody is able to overpower Lee and send him through it with a piledriver(!). Lee is busted open now, much worse than Cody is. Cody wails on Lee with the chain, delivering some punches here that definitely feel as intense as the ones Valentine and Piper hit each other with.
Alex Reynolds comes in at one point to help Lee, but Arn gives him a straight up spinebuster (holy shit) before getting hit by Lee and sent out of the ring. No one left to help either of these men now, just their own guts.
Cody hits Brodie with a Crossrhodes that Brodie IMMEDIATELY kicks out of, barely even a 1, and it looks like Lee is gonna have enough left to take this match, but ultimately Cody is able to avoid Lee's discus lariat, get the chain pulled TIGHT over Brodies whole face, punch him in the skill, hit the Cross Rhodes AND Final Cut, and win. Cody gets the belt back and cuts a hell of a promo right away saying he's not a bad guy. He's here for the people always. He says he's gonna start fighting again right away, next week, and then Orange Cassidy comes out as they ask who it will be. OC gives a thumbs up, Cody returns it, the match is on.
I was sad, really, to see Lee lose the belt back, but the match was incredible and it made Lee once more look unstoppable. His match with Mox and this are just, man. Mox had to put Brodie literally through the floor to kill him. I mean, literally, INTO and THROUGH the floor of the arena. You have to be at 100% to beat this man. Even losing he looks crazy strong.
Omega Talks
Omega comes out to talk about the tournament that's gonna happen, and he buries Page the whole time. He says in NJPW(!) he won all the tournaments he was in, he'll win them all here. Even a "Tag team guy" like Adam Page. What's funny, KENNY, is that you were the one that talked Adam into doing a tag team with you in the first place! Kenny keeps going on about Page, embarrassing himself, honestly. He says this is his best chance yet to win the title, and he's gonna clean house.
Swole/Deeb
I don't know much about Serena Deeb-- I know she was in WWE for awhile, but man is she good. She is so good. Her match with Thunder Rosa is still one of the best women's matches that have ever been on Dynamite-- and what's funny is that during that match, neither of those women were even signed to AEW!
This is Swole's first match in awhile, since the Tooth & Nail match at All Out which was... eh. This was a pretty great bit here, but like many of the women's matches, it just kind of happens. No real story to speak of, just Swole out getting a win over Deeb. It's pretty hard hitting, however, and moves very quickly. Fine stuff. Wish there was more to it.
To me it feels like the whole build up with Swole/Baker just kind of didn't help either of them that much. Baker looked really really great last week, but this week she's gone. I dunno. This is pretty typical of the AEW women's division though, so there's no use in pointing it out. You already know this.
Mox & The Reality Of Imminent Death
Moxley is in a bar just delivering a low-key, solemn promo about his imminent match with Lance. You should just watch this one. Mox calls Lance a wandering Samurai searching the earth for Mox to get his win over him. Mox accepts that losing to Lance wouldn't be the worst way to go, and someday he's gonna lose that belt. Says you don't beat lance, you survive him. Definitely catch this one.
Chaos Project/Jericho&Hager
IT'S MAIN EVENT DR LUTHER NIGHT. This is a pretty basic match, but the crowd loves Jericho. They're eating up everything he's doing, cheering like crazy. To NO ONES surprise, Hager and Serpentico do most of the work in this match, which is fine, Luther and Jericho are clearly not in their prime, but everyone gets some cool offense in. Luther even does a top rope dive even though it nearly kills him. Luther gets a hit in with Jericho's bat Floyd by intercepting a Guevara pass, but Jericho hits him with the Judas Effect to win.
Jericho goes to give a big speech, interrupted by MJF. He unveils a clown holding a present, which Jericho opens. It's a picture of MJF. He slams the frame over the clowns head, hits him with a Judas Effect, threatens MJF, then they laugh it off. Pass the champagne, SNL credits roll with an All Jericho cast, the end.
I kind of thought the MJF thing kind of killed the vibe that was going on because it was fuckin' weirdo shit tbh, but if it advances the story, okay, sure. Would have just liked more Jericho for the Jericho party imo.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall Grade: B+
Darby Allen/Ricky Starks
First of all, I'd just like to say I slept on Ricky. I saw him on NWA a few times and I never really paid him much attention. Honestly, I barely paid attention to him the first couple times he was on Dynamite. People raved about his match with Cody during the TNT Challenge era, but I just didn't see it. I don't know why exactly, but he just never did anything I thought was that great.
I was so wrong. So he and Darby have been going back and forth since ~mid July, trading insane blows back and forth. Tonight was, and I hope this is true, not the end of this feud. If it is, that's fine, I accept it, but much like with MJF and Jungle Boy, I am left desperately wanting more.
This match was just mega hard hitting, they were slapping each other at one point and it was vicious. I think they've been trading real blows a lot. Like, I kind of feel like on some level they really do kind of hate each other. If they don't, it's wrestling magic. After a lot of very fun back and forth, Darby gets the pin with a coffin drop that looked like it nearly killed Ricky. Please give me more of this.
At one point Cage came out but got stopped by Hobbs while Ricky was on the outside. This was a little unnecessary but I think they just want to remind us that they're working together right now because the whole Archer/COVID thing happened. I don't mind it for that reason. I can see why it might annoy someone not looking at the storyline that way though.
Cody Accepts
Cody comes out-- and I think this is the first time in Jacksonville they've had him come out of the middle if I'm not mistaken. Obviously not the lift like they would use in the old live shows, but a comfortable feeling of the old times.
Cody does some weird thing about "going to hollywood" but feeling like he didn't belong there because Brodie beat him in three minutes. He says "no" to the dog collar match, walks away, then runs back to say "NO, AS IN NO REGRETS, NO AS IN NO LOOKING BACK, WE ENTER MUCH DIFFERENT THAN WE LEAVE, TNT TITLE, DOG COLLAR MATCH, NEXT WEEK, IIIII ACCEPT". Honestly fuck me that last bit was so intense. Then Brodie comes out and they brawl for like 10 minutes. At one point, Nyla grabs Kilynn and just beats the shit out of her for some reason. No idea what that was about, Kilynn isn't even signed. I wish she WAS. Maybe this is leading to a thing with her and Nyla? They didn't follow up on it tonight, maybe next week or on Dark.
Tony & FTR
Tony comes out to talk with FTR for a little but, FTR jabbers about Best Friends, saying they're not on their level etc. Some shots about the Young Bucks, saying they need to earn it and stop being Meltzer's pets. As they're going on, Matt comes up out of nowhere with "Nick"* and superkicks Tony Schiavone. Tony takes this like a fucking champ. Matt walks off and then FTR call them out, saying hey stop beating up randos, we're right here!
*Nick has not appeared in person besides a brief thing on BTE since two weeks ago. Hey may be sick or he may have just not been there last week for the live show and taping. Considering the COVID blow up a couple weeks ago, he may be out just for his families' sake. Unclear. It is not commented on nor really noticed by anyone so far.
Dasha With SCU
SCU basically say they're gonna get their title back. That's all really-- they see Shawn Spears outside the curtain who gives them an ominous "Good luck....". Since Tully got FTR Shawn hasn't had much to do. Wonder where he's going.
SCU/FTR
Kazarian put on a great show with Hangman two weeks ago, and now he's back with Scorpio for a "Brush with Greatness" as SCU calls it. Early on, they fake a hit from Christopher Daniels to get him thrown out by the ref. Degeneracy. CD is gone. SCU has this match under their control for like 95% of the time. There's some double-teaming from FTR towards the end, but Sky had the win once but Cash was distracting the ref.
Honestly, as someone who routinely does not care very much about SCU as a tag team (Scorpio is fine, not been given anything really spectacular since his bought with Scorpio and his little mini run with Cody), I thought they were spectacular in this match. They really brought out everything they had, and the ref counted Scorpio out DESPITE Tully pulling Scorpios leg off the rope AND his OTHER foot being ON the rope. FTR is the biggest bunch of weenies on earth.
I should mention-- Hangman was on commentary for this match but it was easy to forget this as he wasn't nearly as lively there as Omega had been. He mostly refuted Omega being done with their tag team, but then got shocked and saddened when he found out at the end that they were having an 8-man tournament to get the next heavyweight contender, and that Omega was in the first round. This was a double shot to Hangman. Not only has he been out there WINNING singles matches while Omega isn't even DOING anyway and he's in the first group of four, it also basically means, yes, he's done with the tag team. All hope is dead. Hangman walks away drunk and sad.
Kassidy/Jericho
As predicted Jericho wins. Against all hope, it seems like this is one and done. I think Isiah is a fine wrestler who interests me zero percent. Jericho was barely in this match, Isiah carried a lot of it but ultimately got the Judas Effect and RIP.
What was good was that Jericho picked a fight with Luther, who rules in the memeiest way possible, and it looks like we're getting a Jericho/Luther match which FUCKING RULES.
Miro & Sabian on the bachelor party
Miro and Sabian talk about the bachelor party, and they recruit for some reason disgraced former Donkey Kong record holder Billy Mitchell helping. Weird bit but okay.
Dash W/ Best Friends & FTR
OC's match is next, Dasha is asking Best Friends some questions when FTR saunters up once more telling them they're midcard trash. BF's fake a punch and FTR look like giant weenies flinching like crazy, then OC just says "Weenies" and walks off into his match with 10.
Orange Cassidy/10
I continue to believe OC and the Dark Order is best possible pairing. Get BF's involved as a trio and this is money, baby.
I want to say this is a standard "OC Is Trying" match. He didn't do a lot of bits, just got down to business, did the swinging DDT, killed John Silver (who did the best friends hug with Alex and I think 5), then got him with the Orange Punch and followed up with this Beach Break move to finish the fight. I love this and hope it continues. Probably won't next week because of the dog collar match though.
MJF gives some jackets away
MJF and WARDDOG go into the Inner Circle dressing room to congratulate Jericho on his victory tonight (IE: continue his push to try and get into IC). He ODDLY ENOUGH doesn't have a jacket for Sammy. You can immediately see where this is going, or at least where they want us to think it's going. MJF is gonna slowly try to dog Sammy out of the IC and take his place. Honestly this bullshittery from MJF could be what finally breaks Inner Circle apart. We can hope. But MJF and Jericho do a repeat of their "Do you want me to join?" "ARE YOU ASKING TO JOIN?" bit from last year, then MJF says hey we'll come back to this. Sammy calls him a loser as he leaves but Jericho, pinky out with the champagne glass says "...no, maybe... he's not".
Baker/Red Velvet
Brit is back tonight, FINALLY, after getting injured right before, iirc, Double or Nothing. She's fighting Red Velvet who has been showing up a lot again lately. I hope that means she's getting signed along with Kilynn, I think they're both terrific. Better than Diamante and Ivelisse anyway, holy moly.
Brit, who was never really the most technically gifted wrestler before her injury (though she was on her way for sure), looks AMAZING out here tonight! Honestly this was one of her best matches on AEW ever! Shida beat Velvet in about 4 seconds flat a few months ago, so it's at least promising for Red Velvets' sake that she's out here like 10 minutes tonight.
Regardless, Brit is a total asshole to Velvet, winking into the camera, giving these awful smiles she does, and then just to remind us she's the worst, she beats Velvet with a curb stomp, gets the pin, THEN goes for her mandible claw attack (with glove) just to rub it in.
Great match. Truly excellent to see Brit Baker improving SOOO much in the ring. She's really great compared to when I started watching last year. The whole womens' division is much better, but her in particular.
Moxley/Butcher
To my ABSOLUTE delight-- well-- hang on, so Pentagon was kind of hinting he would be Moxleys challenger tonight, which I was stoked for, and then they pull a rope a dope on us with Butcher coming out for a cheap shot start to the match. I love Butcher, his whole gimmick just SPEAKS to me. So this is, okay-- I know, but to me this was like a better version of the Mox/Kingston fight from last week. Now, to be totally fair to Eddie, and I do think you have to be fair, Kingston had like 2 hours to prep for that fight. Archer's diagnosis and everything happened that fast. So I'm not dissing Eddie. At all. But this was just-- two giant dudes wailing on each other but also able to do some more flying stuff. Butcher worked Mox's leg to shreds, and Mox died on it tons. He couldn't get his Paradigm Shift nor a few other moves because he had no ground to stand on.
Butcher nearly had him a few times, REALLY put Mox through it. Eventually, Moxley got him in that choke he killed Brodie with (and Kingston too) and took him out via submission. I was really happy to see one of my favorites really get a chance to shine in a singles match. I loved it, it was good, gg.
Overall Grade: A-
Pros:
Cons:
THE AUDACITY ? #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/IHwWmRyxj5
— All Elite Wrestling on TNT (@AEWonTNT) September 24, 2020