I love this world, but I did not like this show.
The 17-episode run of Dynamite from Full Gear through Revolution was a genius run of wrestling TV, an expansion on top of the already-expansive world they developed through lockdown that created multiple avenues for greatness: Inner Circle drama, joshi puroresu, ladders, Sting, and maybe more than anything an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match in these United States of America between two of the crazier men in this business.
Exploding Barbed Wire World Title Death Match ends in dud explosion was a heck of a call though.
0. Riho & Thunder Rosa vs. Dr. Britt Baker & Maki Itoh w/ Rebel
Given that much of this show was built around anticipation, the surprise American debut of Maki Itoh (fresh off an 18-hour flight!) got the good vibes rolling immediately, a great combo genuine surprise, fan service, and pure insanity as Maki did her entire shtick live and in color. These four provide an incredible base for a women’s division and delivered plenty of attitude, color, and good wrestling exchanges… though like many things on the show, it felt like it ran too long to really get its’ points across. ***
1. AEW World Tag Team Title: The Young Bucks [c] vs. Chris Jericho & MJF w/ Wardlow
This kicked off the PPV just fine, with Matt and Nick having a pretty standard (and fine!) match of theirs with Jericho and MJF who were both game if not always able to keep up with everything. More fun than good, though it seemed to be trying hard to be good. ***1/4
2. Casino Tag Team Royale
Just read this: The Natural Nightmares, Angel “5” Angels & Preston “10” Vance, Santana & Ortiz, The Sydal Brothers, Evil Uno & Stu Grayson, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn, Peter Avalon & Cezar Bononi, Varsity Blonds, Bear Country, Jurassic Express, The Butcher & The Blade, PAC & Fenix, Private Party, SoCal Uncensored and John Silver & Alex Reynolds. Incredible!
The lineup here was outstanding, as if AEW’s primary concern has been amassing a roster of established (or at least gimmicked up) tag team acts in order to create a visual akin to Survivor Series and the 20-man tag team elimination matches. It might’ve actually been 10 guys too busy to end up any good, but the bits they went with worked like QT Marshall (kind of) turning on Dustin Rhodes and the Jungle Boy/Fenix/PAC/John Silver final four. Luchasaurus looks like a beast again, while Colten Gunn looks exactly like his dad. **1/2
3. AEW Women’s World Title: Hikaru Shida [c] vs. Ryo Mizunami
There was plenty of quality wrestling here but they just couldn’t keep the momentum going. Love a good chop, knee, suplex, near fall – these two rule at this. I liked the running knee just ending it out of nowhere too, but it took too long to get THERE and by then it was over. Nyla Rose and Britt Baker attack after the match then Thunder Rosa runs them off. Stories! ***
4. Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor vs. Miro & Kip Sabian w/ Penelope Ford
This was more angle than match, though the match went nearly 10 minutes itself. The angle also wasn’t very well-executed either, an awkward shift from backstage brawl to arena handicap match followed by Chuckie T’s weak “ring the damned bell” delivery followed by everyone waiting for what ended up just a very OK Orange Cassidy run-in. Miro looked like a beast here but it felt like a weak TV match. *3/4
5. Big Money Match: Hangman Page vs. Matt Hardy
A match that flashed me back to, of all things, The Big Show vs. Big Cass from SummerSlam 2017 where in the middle of the show, as Enzo Amore peered from above via Shark Cage, Cass worked over Big Show’s hand for 10 minutes. I didn’t want to go back there. Why did I go back there? The finish of this with The Dark Order helping out Hangman was awesome, but the delivery system (10 minutes of Matt Hardy working over the hand) was just boring. *1/2
6. Face of the Revolution Ladder Match: Cody Rhodes w/ Arn Anderson vs. Scorpio Sky vs. Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Lance Archer w/ Jake Roberts vs. Max Caster vs. Ethan Page
Money in the Bank and the multi-guy Ladder Match are both played out in WWE, though as seen here they do provide a way to put guys on the show in a semi-important match. I wish this just didn’t feel like those matches though. They spread out the big ladder bumps (Splash Mountain! Canadian Destroyer!) which makes sense, but the in-between just kept getting across that this was going on too long. Nobody felt actually showcased, even the debuting Ethan Page, as each big spot was followed by… decline. The Dynamite after this show gave everyone but Caster something way cooler to do and with way less screen time. **1/2
CHRISTIAN CAGE! I have no thoughts you haven’t seen somewhere. I like Christian Cage.
7. Street Fight: Sting & Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage & Ricky Starks w/ Taz
This ruled, the most impressive Cinematic Match since the Boneyard Match in that it hit all three beats: good wrestling layout, well-produced action scenes, and everybody looking cool as shit. Taz losing it on commentary was great too, so confident that his boys would win. Darby’s springboard off a brick wall and crash through pane glass door were special kinds of wrestling. ***1/2
8. Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match – AEW World Title: Kenny Omega [c] w/ Don Callis vs. Jon Moxley
This ruled for a long time, except for those iffy rope explosions. Something about those. Someone should’ve seen something coming after those, though maybe by the time they did it was too late. I don’t know. What I saw here for nearly 25 minutes was awesome, Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley doing the thing and having a legitimate Barbed Wire Match like it was 1995 and Ted Turner had a son into wrestling. Whenever one would get pushed into the barbed wire ropes, explosions bordering on firecrackers went off and it was cool… if not a situation where the actual explosion needed to be extra cool.
Crazier than the explosions was the barbed by god wire, Kenny and Mox making sure to get over the concept by pulling wire out of their torn flesh on your TV screen. It was incredible and made for one of the coolest vibes in American wrestling in a long time, like this crew was going to get away with all of it.
Then Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson ran out and helped Kenny win before the explosion timer went out, which was lame but vaguely acceptable considering what was about to come. Eddie Kingston stormed out and laid over his friend, fully aware of what was about to happen by proxy of his tape collection and possible YouTube viewing habits. I marked out, fully aware of what was about to happen by proxy of the same and also the fact that Eddie Kingston was again in a main event angle.
Then the explosion happened: it was sparklers and a few other assorted duds. At best, an embarrassing mistake. At worst… a bait-and-switch that even Dusty Rhodes and Vince McMahon couldn’t have thought up? It just sucked. I love feeling things in my wrestling, but the gut punch I got going from Eddie’s big save to JR and Tony trying to cover for the dud was not a thing I loved feeling. ***1/4
Happy Thoughts: I will happily write love letters to Tony Khan’s TV weekly, but this was another AEW PPV that ended with me thinking they may have a payoff problem. Classic TV and bad payoffs is a Rhodes Family hallmark, but AEW has created a ton of goodwill among their fanbase by just following through on things. Here, they didn’t deliver. There wasn’t a standout match until the Street Fight, which was awesome — the main event was heading there, and then it hit reverse. 2.0 / 5.0
