The Headlines
I was big into this week. There’s a lot of place-setting going on, re-positioning needed, but overall this was a fun mesh between Big Time Wrestling Show and Good Old-Fashioned Wrestling Show – match after match with the only interruptions really being match build vignettes or promos as guys entered or walked to the back.
A lot was clicking….. stretcher thing and Women’s Title match aside. It’s not a re-invention of wrestling, but at some point getting back to some kind of basics is a re-invention. You had the Cody video treating his World Title challenge like the Super Bowl, a Tag Team Titles Tournament, and PAC snarling at people, but you also had Fenix bouncing off of the ropes like some superhero, Marko Stunt confounding the world, and Chris Jericho riding a skateboard in a World Championship match.
It is not a perfect wrestling show, but it is the new kind of wrestling show AEW was sold as.
Dum Dum’s Dynamite-ist
3. Scorpio Sky: As impressive a showing in-ring as anyone on this show, and he did it in socks.
2. PAC: THE BASTARD IS BACK
1. Darby Allin: The low-fi “DARBY ALLIN – SKULL – AEW CHAMP” logo, the “CHAMPION” body paint, the insane dives with his hands tied behind his back – this is the dude.
Fidelity Presents, The Low-Performing Portfolio of the Week
3. Stretchers in Wrestling: Don’t over-do it, brothers.
2. Jon Moxley’s Gear: Mox is over like the Pope, but the biker shorts gear worked for the Young Lion / MMA vibe of New Japan, not AEW DYNAMITE.
1. Britt Baker: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Have a crap title match with Riho in the middle of an otherwise hot show… everyone’s ashamed.
Thing of the Week: Tag Team Wrestling… four out of six matches on this show were tags, and they were good serious tags with a glut of fun teams who’d just be transparently useless in WWE.
Hot Take: I’m loving hot mess 2019 World Champion Chris Jericho, but at some point young death-defying Darby Allin selling for the old man starts to become ridiculous.
10 Questions
10. Where’s Wardlow?
9. What’s the reason Joey Janela hasn’t been on Dynamite yet?
8. Is the reason any of the reasons I’m thinking?
7. What is the issue with the OWE guys: 1) business, 2) visas, 3) CIMA, or 4) the fact that it’s called Oriental Wrestling Entertainment?
6. Is Darby Allin vs. MJF the match?
5. If they don’t over-expose him, can you imagine the heat when somebody really kicks Marko Stunt’s ass?
4. If they do over-expose him, can you imagine the heat when somebody really kicks Marko Stunt’s ass?
3. Moxley – heeeeeeeeeeeeeel or baaaaaaaaaabyfaaaaaaaace?
2. Jake Hager’s gonna suplex Darby Allin real bad, isn’t he?
1. Seriously, where’s Wardlow?
The Wrestling
The opening angle with The Lucha Bros interrupting S-C-YOOOUUUUUU!!!‘s entrance with an attack and package piledriver on poor Christopher Daniels‘ dome was a nice and chaotic start to the show, outside of Fenix‘s eternal wait for Scorpio Sky‘s save. The long pause in excitement for a Very Serious Stretcher Preparation wasn’t ideal though. I dig how real-time everything felt, but it didn’t work in the moment. It’s Week 3 god damnit, don’t go full stretcher just yet.
SCU vs. The Best Friends in Round 1 of the AEW Tag Team Title Tournament was a solid match outside of whatever Sky was trying to do for the double team finish. Best Friends should probably lean more into the gimmick and less into the 10-minute attempts at Motor City Machine Gun matches. Scorpio Sky was not just diving around but giving off serious star vibes, impressive as heck despite some Tweets he made previously that will cause me to approach everything he does with suspicion.
Santana & Ortiz had a fine squash match against a couple Local Competitors, a match type I’m glad will be present in AEW. Ortiz is CRAZY. Strong promo by that piece of shit Chris Jericho post-match too.
Loved the Cody build-up video for the AEW World Title match with Jericho, treating the production based on an inherent prestige brought on from the championship title like said title is actually important – what a company. “I knew we were gonna lose him for a period of time” is a great line for a video of a guy training for a title match, especially coming from his wife. This had Brandi, Cody’s Mom, DDP, JR, Tony S. CREDIBILITY, BABY. REAL SPORTS. YEAAAHHH!!!
Gosh, Britt Baker fumbling around on the mat, standing there waiting for a crossbody, and very clearly staying up a couple extra inches on a pinfall attempt so Riho could do a bridge out of that pinfall really did not work for me, brother. Nor did her Sling Blade, nor did her big boot that was more like a schmedium boot. Not a good AEW Women’s World Title match. Riho didn’t exactly lock in that single leg crab hold but other than that I can’t say there was much to work with here. Honestly, if they deliberately made the match story that Baker was so bad at executing her moves that even attempting to apply her regular submission was a failure and Riho took advantage with a pin, I’m All In. Otherwise, a big miss and a weak representation for the ladies on Wednesday night.
Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt, replacing the injured Luchasaurus, faced The Lucha Bros in a Quarter Final match of the AEW Tag Team Title Tournament. This match didn’t really have anybody in the right role – Jungle Boy was without his Dinosaur, and while Penta has a presence and Fenix is the most impressive flyer in the world, a lot of stuff I’ve seen them do AEW has not focused on those aspects and has been more about just going long and being Awesome and stuff.
Poor little Marko got no-sold until he started doing crazy shit, and it was some really crazy shit. He’s a little guy, he’s an impressive guy, and I look forward to seeing him settling into what feels like an obvious Mikey Whipwreck role eventually.
Jon Moxley talked! Out loud! It was pretty good!
Outside of the World Title match – wait, let me check that again – outside of MARKO STUNT, Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Jon Moxley & PAC was the most talked about thing on the show. And I’ve got to say: the Mox gear is bad, but all these guys have really boring gear outside of occasionally Kenny. Can we step this up please? I don’t expect PAC to be aesthetically pleasing but let’s get some more colors in here or at least things that make em look badass.
Anyways, match was pretty great. It felt like all four guys were like “ALRIGHT GOD DAMNIT CAN I WORK TONIGHT” and Billy Gunn or whoever was like, “Yeah go for it.” They got their stuff in, which included a wild bump from the top rope to the apron from Page, before Kenny and Mox brought barbed wire weapons into the ring and an outraged PAC threw Mox’s bat to the floor and screamed at him, which led to a middle finger and Dirty Deeds that dropped PAC. Kevin Owens may have the Stunner, but Jon Mox has got the middle finger and layout. Poor PAC was robbed here, but what a group of dudes. And Hangman Page.
On a night of fun tags, Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin for the AEW World Title was my favorite thing on the show. It was nothing complicated, simply old timer in goofball aging rockstar Chris Jericho gear opposite young mysterious spit-fire painted-up nutjob Darby Allin. It was the first time I can recall seeing Jericho work a completely unique, not-established new guy in an environment that didn’t feel completely sanitized, and it was very cool. I’m not even sure he took more than two or three bumps, but he made Darby look like a big deal and cut him off at what felt like all the right times.
They busted out Darby’s gimmick where his hands are tied behind his back too and while Week 3 might seem a little early I think you’ve got to showcase what you’ve got. The man hit a springboard moonsault, tope suicida, and a dive off the top with no hands. NO HANDS. Also, Jericho rode Darby’s skateboard a little bit. Did I mention Darby comes to the ring with a skateboard?
Official Star Rating
4 out of 5 Stars
