“Well are ya ready to get into some cowboy shiznit here tonight on Dynamite!!” – Jim Ross
The full crowd was back this week and will be moving forward as AEW Dynamite returns to Wednesday nights.
Nature, are you healing?
Please let us know.
The World
The last few months at Daily’s Place have really leaned into pro wrestling’s worst instincts, an unfortunate collection of phoned-in wrestling tropes and ideas that week-by-week felt like AEW was heading back to the Bad Place that was Winter 2019 and not actually evolving and innovating as a wrestling company.
As they head back out on the road, it suddenly feels like they’re building simultaneously to like six big TV specials but it also felt — at least this week — like those shows are giving the wrestlers actual purpose and not the Forced Purpose that keeps appearing on Wednesday and Friday nights.
With The Pinnacle and Inner Circle rivalry split off, two strong angles (one involving Konnan!) got room to breathe. With Kenny Omega defending the World Title in the main event, The Elite workshop wasn’t all over the show. And with Cody Rhodes off this week, we didn’t have to worry about whatever that was going to be.
There was a good variety to the wrestling too that carried over into the world-building: a hard-fought victory, monstrous sunset flip, and brilliantly delivered low blow all put a bow on some quality wrestling.
Also, TNT Champion Evangelical Miro keeps getting scarier.
The Wrestling
Good variety, good wrestling — the main event was a serious piece of business and everything else over-delivered, even if most of it had interference too.
Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs – The end result was rarely in doubt, but they made sure everything before it rocked: Page looked like a star, Hobbs a beast, and every big spot was hit gorgeously – even the one where Page’s head collided with the post and began pouring blood. Hobbs’ spinebuster and escape on the first Buckshot Lariat were the moves of a guy that gets it.
Matt Sydal vs. Dante Martin – This type of match used to be called a spotfest until that word started to sound derogatory to something any good wrestling show could use. Young Dante Martin (20-years-old!) showed up against lessons-learned Matt Sydal and in addition to a bunch of fun exchanges Dante straight-up blew everybody’s mind doing an extra-high sunset flip in front of an actual sunset. Just FUN.
Ethan Page vs. Bear Bronson – Not convinced newcomer Ethan Page should’ve gotten tossed around so much by fellow newcomer Bear Bronson, but Page keeps impressing every week and got an epic slow-mo low blow out of it so maybe he knows better.
Kris Statlander vs. Bunny – With Britt Baker in a war of words with Vickie Guerrero, this was the second week in a row where a random women’s match prior to the main event just served as a setup for a different angle. It was also the second week in a row where the women involved delivered anyway — heck of a lineup here.
AEW World Title: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Jungle Boy – Arrogant champion vs. outmatched underdog… the simplest story can be the best match if supplemented with some high-quality WORK. In a match that felt exciting bell-to-bell, the Jungle Boy showed such growth and gave Omega such a challenge that the on-form live crowd and my cynical self bought into the possibility of a title change. Jack Perry moved up while Big Match Kenny made his return to the airwaves – four stars and maybe more.
The Entertainment
Konnan talked shit to Tully Blanchard and got laid out with a spike piledriver from FTR, all in one show. K-Dawg had plenty of one-liners to fire off for a face-off I never knew I wanted but loved watching. Fully prepared for revenge-seeking Santana & Ortiz, let’s goooo…
Sammy Guevara‘s “I should’ve been the star!’ promo on MJF was well-done, though so was him rescuing Chris Jericho prior — both back-to-back felt a little forced. Regardless — ass-kicker Sammy G, let’s goooo….
The Young Bucks dropped a pretty great 60-second promo mid-show, though it felt like one from a different team.
Taz getting so hot at Brian Cage not going along with his plan was a freaking delight, such a perfectly flustered “What the hell!?” for a scenario he keeps finding himself in.
My Favorite Things
- Konnan Spike Piledriver
- Hangman Page Pop
- Ethan Page Superplex
Room for Improvement
- Something about women’s wrestling
- Young Bucks should settle on an approach — don’t let a good bit get in the way of good TV.
- Heal Ricky Starks faster
Top 10 Dynamite Stars
- Miro (-)
- Kenny Omega (6)
- Hangman Page (4)
- Darby Allin (2)
- Britt Baker (-)
- Eddie Kingston (3)
- Sammy Guevara (10)
- Santana & Ortiz (9)
- Jungle Boy (NEW)
- Ethan Page (NEW)
5 to Keep an Eye on
- Hikaru Shida
- Riho
- Lee Johnson
- Wheeler Yuta
- Penelope Ford
