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.
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Cons:
Overall Grade: B+