The show opens with Dasha talking to Jericho. Jericho is there with Hager and Santana, talking up Hager's most recent MMA fight. Hagers face is a mess, and Jericho talks about how tough he and Santana are.
On cue, MJF and Wardlow walk up. The crowd tonight is VERY audible, which is wonderful. The crowd pops for Wardlow. He's gonna be such a great dude when he gets away from MJF.
MJF apologizes for the tension last week, says he just wants to join, to be friends. Jericho says he's worried that MJF might be, well.... too soft. Immediately the crowd starts chanting SOFT SOFT SOFT SOFT. MJF tells him to just watch, and heads out.
MJF & Wardlow/Sammy & Ortiz
Jericho comes out to the now somewhat traditional singalong to Judas and joins the booth to call the show with our regular team tonight.
MJF and Wardlow come out next, and the crowd is still pretty hype for wardlow, alternating chants of WE WANT WARDLOW and SOFT SOFT SOFT SOFT.
Sammy and Ortiz come out next-- PnP isn't fighting the match together because only Sammy and Ortiz have really put up any resistance to MJF joining IC.
The match gets underway, and-- this is a little thing I love that MJF always does. He always starts in the ring and then immediately tags out as soon as the match starts. He's so rotten. I hate him. It's perfect.
Wardlow jumps in to some cheers to start with Ortiz. Curiously, Inner Circle is basically playing the part of the faces of this match. Even though Wardlow and MJF are both playing as the heels here, MJF is the only one who really gets booed. But he works with it so well. You can tell MJF has missed being antagonizing of the crowd as he gets tons of little shots in to the audience as the match goes on.
Ortiz immediately tries to take Wardlow off his feet, perhaps seeing how effective its been for Jungle Boy and Page the past couple of weeks. (We've really been spoiled with Wardlow matches recently. I love him).
However, despite Ortiz' early push, Wardlow gets a massive slam down on him and tags to MJF. MJF gets some work in, not too much, tagging wardlow back in while they work Ortiz in the corner. Sammy gets the tag in here-- and its HOT. The crowd cheers him even, and Sammy does some real work.
Sammy hits a big move on MJF but Wardlow breaks the pin.
Eventually, Sammy ends up on the outside with Ortiz tagged in. Sammy flips off serpentico, who he was disguised as for his big return before All Out, only to have it be Matt Hardy this time! That wiley serpentico. Never who he appears to be. Matt returns his ill fated chair shot that Sammy gave him, putting him out and the crowd gives us a much earned and very much missed DELETE! Ortiz, all alone, eventually succumbs to the brute force of MJF and Wardlow, with MJF getting a submission finish.
MJF then guns for Jericho at the commentators desk, knocking him clear through the backdrop. They fight for awhile before they're separated, but Jericho is actually quite pleased about this. Maybe he wasn't... quite right about how soft MJF is. Their romance/feud continues.
Tony Schiavone with Kenny
Tony's talking to Omega about his upcoming match with Page. In a weird aside I thought would lead to something, but didn't (yet?), Kenny says its not his house, and, also, not his dog who he's petting. This is dropped for now.
Omega says to Tony that maybe it was obvious to everyone that he would be facing Page at Full Gear, but it wasn't obvious to him. He says he had good money on Wardlow, simultaneously putting over the big man and burying Page in a gentle way as he so often does. He says, again, that he has won some of the most prestigious wrestling tournaments of all time, not quite name-dropping NJPW, but close, and then asks the audience who think will win.
Trent/Miro
Miro's singles debut is tonight versus Trent?. At some point prior to this Excalibur had a web chat with Miro and Trent, where Trent reminded Miro he was once his apprentice, and will treat him as such, which leads to some discussion by the commentators about the Japanese words and "Young Boy" phrasing.
Miro absolutely wrecks Trent for 99% of this match. At last it seems he is freed from the confines of mediocre tag team action and is able to just be the Eastern European force of destruction he really looks to be.
Trent just gets his shit rocked for so long. Eventually Chuck Taylor and Kip get into it, heading backstage. Penelope goes to help but OC blocks the way. Penelope smacks the sunglasses right off of OC but he just puts hers on, only to then immediately get jumped himself by the Dark Order, especially Silver who is just really coming into himself the last few weeks.
Silver did an interview a week or so ago where Tony Khan, who had been watching him on BTE, called him into his office. He said, I'm really pissed at you man. How come you're not being this guy on Dynamite? And ever since then it looks like Silver is really just on it-- additionally, Dark Order has been even better as well, with more of their members getting unique looks and more time in the sun. They are certainly not the putty patrol they used to be.
Eventually, throughout all this, Trent does get a little offence in, but it's much too little too late. Miro shrugs off his chops and his big moves and gets the Game Over cross face on, getting a second submission win for the night.
Miro laid some insults into Trents mom earlier (never a good idea to bring Sue into things), and continues after the match as Kip and Penelope help him beat up Chuck and Trent. OC gets his lazy fall on Miro, gaining the upper hand for now as their music plays.
JR with Hangman
JR is having a sitdown with hangman who's back on his bullshit, drinking his problems away. JR brings this up, then gets to asking Hangman if he's nervous about facing Omega. Hangman hesitates, then says yeah. He is a little nervous.
He says he doesn't know what'll happen if he loses. Says he thought he'd be the first AEW Champ, and that he was the only one who believed that. And that everyone else was right. But this time he's sure. He's gonna get the win. But he's also gonna keep drinking his whiskey.
Team Taz is Big Mad
Taz is pissed. So are Cage and Starks. Taz says he's been trying to talk to Tony Khan all day but can't get anywhere. He says AEW is so big on their dumb rankings, but they don't seem to mean anything. He says Cage is ranked number one, and has no match. Starks has ten wins, and isn't even ON the rankings. He says the whole thing is screwed up. Calls out Cody, and says at Full Gear, their voice will be heard.
Private Party/Young Bucks
The Young Bucks have foolishly decided to take on a match right before Full Gear, even with Matt's leg being half broken from the FTR/Tully attack a couple weeks back. Not only that, it's against the team they're inexplicably always having to work extra hard to beat.
Private Party have the Bucks their first loss way back before Full Gear 1, when they got a surprise roll up during the Bucks' attempt at a Meltzer driver. They almost did it again a few weeks ago, and they even try here for a third time for the same maneuver.
Private Party puts on a much better match than normal, as the Bucks are at like 75% at best, and Matt gets worse throughout the night. It's clear to both of them about 2/3 of the way through the match that this was a bad idea. At one point Nick is getting his brains beat out by Cassidy and Quen, and can't find Matt for a tag.
It was a lucky BTE trigger from the Bucks that wins them the match, but the cost is massive. Nick is hurt, Matt is hurt worse, and here comes FTR to just end their dreams completely. They get Matt's leg back in the chair, when WHOA who comes out to save the day but HANGMAN, followed by OMEGA.
Tension is high in the ring as the Bucks ignore Hangman, and Omega and Hangman seem to get closer to fighting by the second after initially seeming cordial as we head to a merciful commercial break.
Eddie and Mox
The two contenders for the belt Saturday come to the ring to have some words with each other instead of at like the last few weeks. This stuff is incredibly emotional. Eddie says he gave up everything in his life just for the chance at this belt and sold his soul to be in AEW.
Mox lays into Eddie, getting in his head as Eddie gets tearful. Says they were always friends, says he made a promise to Eddie's mom to watch out for him, and now he has to break that promise.
This is another one you need to watch.
Pac is Back
FINALLY!!! Pac has been obsessively watching AEW in the months since COVID separated him from reality. He hasn't been coping well. In fact, it looks as though he might be even more angry and even more greasy than before. I love this man.
We're teased with Pac's IMMINENT return, but when or where we are not told. I hope it is soon. For my sake.
The Natural Nightmares
Alex Marvez is interviewing QT/Dustin, but they barely get a word in before the Bunny is out to twist the knife in QT's heart a little more, only to have B&B come in and totally wreck the others.
Red Velvet/Nyla Rose
Velvet, whose signing seems imminent at this point, comes out and does a quick match with Nyla. While not the Shida% speedrun that she had with Velvet (7 seconds), Nyla does kill her off pretty quickly. Vickie then comes out to taunt both Brandi (Chief Bullshit Officer) and Hikaru, doing some terrible Japanese at Shida and getting her face smashed in for the effort.
Cinderella
We get another promo package from Hangman/Omega using Cinderella's "Don't Know What You Got". I weep. It is high art. I love AEW.
Darby
Once more in his style Darby cuts a quiet promo on Cody who he is to face for the fourth time at Full Gear for the TNT belt. He drives a car into a man wearing a Cody mask.
Dark Order/Cody & Gunn Club
We cut to Darby in the stands where he's been for many weeks now watching Cody.
It's time for the main event, with Ten, Colt and Silver versus Austin, Billy and Cody. It's a pretty good showcase for Ten and Silver and Austin more than anything. Dark Order is here, still sans Brodie who has been missing since the dog collar match.
This is peak Dark Order, really. I love these guys so much.
As far as the match itself, it's nothing special really. Offence is split down the middle, with Austin Gunn getting his first win on Dynamite. Afterwards, OC attacks Silver, and then Cody cuts a promo on Darby. He says he was the only one in the whole company who saw any potential in Darby. He says he's here only to tell the truth. That Darby COULD be the face of the company, be he won't be, because he'll never have that belt, because he is not the Ace.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall: B+