This week’s Dynamite looks stacked once again. Two titles will be on the line (as of writing), MJF addresses the state of the industry, and a ten man tag team match (looks to) main events the show. After a successful return to form in last week’s Dynamite, as well as a big return for Sammy Guevara, will this week’s edition of AEW’s weekly TV show be able to keep the momentum going as we build towards All Out? Let’s get to it.
Well, would you look at that? A minute into the show and a prediction has already been proven wrong. The ten man tag is opening the show. The entire Inner Circle opens up as they are set to face the Best Friends, Orange Cassidy, and Jurassic Express, also being referred to as “Best Friends and Friends.” Chris Jericho looks to still being wearing the suit he wore when he Orange Cassidy dumped orange juice on the Inner Circle, convenient as that moment was.
The Inner Circle vs Best Friends and Friends
Jake Hager starts off the match with Orange Cassidy, one of the two smallest men in the match, between the match immediately turns into a big brawl. The Inner Circle rip off the apron skirt on the side of the ring opposite the stage. Both teams toss Marko Stunt back and forth in and out of the ring, and Luchasaurus follows with a splash onto all the men standing at ringside. Orange Cassidy is left alone in the ring and slowly teases a sloth-like dive before putting on his shades for a five man Best Friends Hug with his team.
Sammy Guevara jumps in to attack before the entirety of the opposing team takes him down and the match gets order again. Trent and Chris Jericho become the legal men as the Inner Circle takes advantage with more, frequent tags. The Inner Circle have the advantage over Trent for quite some time.
After finally getting some time to breathe, Trent gets the tag to Luchasaurus and the dinosaur man comes in to clean house. He gets into a sparring contest with Jake Hager, but Hager knocks him down with a lariat before O.C. (Orange Cassidy) comes in with a superman punch and the Best Friends take out Proud and Powerful. A marathon of finishers/signatures takes place, and Jericho grabs Floyd the bat to try and go after Luchasaurus. O.C. stops him and sends Jericho into the barricade.
Sammy Guevara and Luchasaurus are left in the ring, and, as Sammy goes for a top rope move, Matt Hardy’s music convenient plays. Matt sneaks up and pushes Sammy off the top rope, which gave Luchasaurus the advantage to hit a chokeslam and spinning roundhouse kick for the pin and the win. The Best Friends and Friend defeat the Inner Circle.
An aggressively good opener. So much for that big Sammy return, right? And very convenient that Matt Hardy’s music somehow played over the trons and speakers. Good win for the Best Friends, O.C., and Jurassic Express, but the match felt short and felt hindered by a weird finish.
Coming back from break, the commentators advertise the tornado tag team match between Moxley/Allin and Cage/Starks. The graphic says that this match is also a No Disqualification match. Cool.
Jon Moxley has another promo. He calls Ricky Starks a punk bitch for attacking him Allin from behind last week to lead to the 2-on-1 assault. Moxley says that he does not start fights, but always finishes them.
Advertised once more is the women’s match scheduled between Hikaru Shida and Diamante, which, even though different circumstances were advertised on Dark, is still a non-title match.
TNT Championship: Cody (c) vs Warhorse
“He weighs 4000 pounds of raw heavy metal, and he is here to rule ass.” Ok, so starting out with wrestling in a nutshell. For the first time since the open challenges began, Cody is wearing a weight belt that is red and says “open challenge.” Nice touch.
The match starts calm as Cody and Warhorse both back off from hard shots and follow with pats on each other. Quickly, they get themselves into a pure wrestling match with a couple arm drags and arm locks from Warhorse. As Warhorse keeps getting the advantage, Cody slides out of the ring to take a breather. The two continue their traditional wrestling holds before dueling runs off the ropes. Warhorse times a change of direction just right to catch Cody with a clothesline as the show goes to picture-in-picture.
Cody has a single leg crab on Warhorse as the show comes back from break. Warhorse easily gets to the ropes, but Cody tries a figure four before quickly getting the move turned around by Warhorse.
Cody rolls to the outside as Warhorse goes to the top rope. Warhorse notices, and does a diving double stop to the back of Cody’s head before rolling Cody back into the ring and hitting a “Macho Man like” elbow for a nearfall. Cody follows this with an Alabama Slam(a) and a jackknife cover for a two count. The two men trade cradles and rollups before Warhorse jams his knee off a dive attempt. Cody goes after the knee and locks in the figure four leglock for the submission victory. Cody defeats Warhorse to retain the TNT Championship.
Post match, two members of the Dark Order, presumably Alex Reynolds and John Silver attack Cody and Warhorse. As Arn Anderson attempts to fight them off, Matt Cardona makes a surprise appearance and helps Arn and Cody fight them off.
Match was alright, as are all of Cody’s matches. Personally, his wins are starting to look a bit easy, despite he and his opponents trying their best to turn off that narrative. The real story was in the post match; Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder) is back in wrestling. No matter how he was treated eslewhere, this is a huge appearance full stop. Great to see Cardona back on stateside wrestling television.
Coming back from the break, Tony Schiavone tries to promote All Out, but Jericho and the Inner Circle interrupt furiously. Sammy calls out Matt Hardy for costing him in the match. Jericho also announces that his rematch with Orange Cassidy will be taking place on the 8/12 edition of Dynamite. He also challenges Cassidy to a debate that he says will have a “special guest moderator” and will take place on the 8/5 edition of Dynamite. They close with Santana saying that Jericho smells like cat pee.
Maybe change your clothes once in a while? Just a suggestion.
Next, FTR’s contract signing is being presented, and Dax Harwood introduces Arn Anderson as their “tag team consultent.” Anderson reads over the contract, listing things like “AEW’s ten second double teaming rule” and the tag team rope. Cash Wheeler announces that the 8/12 edition of Dynamite will be tag team appreciation night. After signing the contracts, Hangman Page walks in to pour a drink with FTR, with his drink being the biggest out of the three because of course it was.
AEW World Tag Team Championship: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (c) vs Dark Order (Stu Grayson & Evil Uno)
Interestingly, the three matches that looked like possible main events have come back-to-back-to-back. Up next is the tag team title match, and Dark Order make their way to the ring before the show goes to break.
Before Kenny could complete his entrance, the Dark Order create a scuffle with Page and Kenny had to rush in to help his partner.
The champions have control over Stu Grayson. Evil Uno tries to help, but gets caught in the champs’ signature back and forth chop battle. Interesting, a shot of Colt Cabana at commentary is shown, and the commentators are questioning why Anna Jay is present with him. Could she be part of the Dark Order?
Hangman Page does a dive over the top rope into Grayson, but then gets thrown into the post and the barricade by Evil Uno as Mr. Brodie Lee watches on. Dark Order get Page back into the ring and take control. Just as Hangman Page starts to fight back with chops, the show goes into picture-in-picture.
Kenny Omega is in control of Grayson as the show comes back. Uno quickly tags in to try and take control of Omega, but Omega comes back as Page makes a blind tag. Grayson does a hurricanrana to Page to the outside, and Omega throws him into the corner as Grayson flies over the post. Both members of the Dark Order get back in the ring to hit Omega with an assisted powerbomb for a close fall.
Dark Order simultaneously hit a 450 splash (Grayson to Omega) and a cannonball (Uno to Page). They look to set up their finisher on Omega, but he gets out of it. Omega hits a snap dragon to Uno, but quickly gets a frog splash from Grayson before he gets a lariat from Page. Omega hits Uno with a rear V-Trigger for a two count. Page & Omega follow that up with the Last Call for the win. Kenny Omega & Hangman Page defeat the Dark Order to retain the Tag Team Titles.
Post match, Brodie Lee berates the two men and throws a stack of papers at Evil Uno before getting on the microphone. He says that the Dark Order has strength in numbers and that Hangman will pay. Multiple men in masks surround the Elite – the Young Bucks entered the ring during the promo – before FTR came out to help them fight off the masked men.
Ok title match. Finish felt quite sudden. It seemed clear that this would be when the Dark Order’s ineviatable tag team title win would be done, but that was not the case. Great post match, even if we have seem the likes of it quite a few times. Serviceable angle all around.
Following this is Britt Baker with something to say about Big Swole. Baker says that she will give Swole a shot at her, but only if Swole can beat an opponent of her choosing.
Hikaru Shida vs Diamante
Back from break, Diamante is already in the ring for her match against Hikaru Shida (a jobber entrance in the women’s division? Nooooooooo). Shida tries to start the match with a handshake, but Diamante shoves her face instead.
Diamante’s putting up an ok fight with the champion, countering the Falcon Arrow before getting caught with a knee strike. Shida attempts a superplex from the apron, but Diamante counters and hangs Shida over the top rope. Diamante holds the champ in the corner for Kojima-esque chops. She hits a wheelbarrow stunner on Shida for an unsuccessful pin.
Daimante gets a sloppy looking code red which gets Shida’s feet on the ropes. Shida hits a delayed Falcon Arrow, which Diamante (presumably the only person to do this) kicks out. Shida follows up with a run off the ropes and another running knee for the pinfall victory. Hikaru Shida defeats Diamante.
This was alright, but still does not feel like the best that AEW can give us. They may be low on resources due to current circumstances; however, this did not feel like a match to invest in, even if the match got plenty of time.
The Deadly Draw Rules for the Women’s Tag Team Tournament are revealed next. The rules are as follows:
- The Tournament is a random draw.
- All competitors must draw a color.
- Matching colors will become a team.
- selections are final & cannot be appealed.
Dasha catches Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero as they go to draw a color for the tournament. Nyla draws purple, and Dasha reveals that the returning Ariane (FKA Cameron) is Nyla’s tag team partner in the tournament.
Nice! Great to see Ariane back in wrestling. Also, great to see a new face in the AEW Women’s Division. The team of Ariane & Nyla Rose looks like absolute fire (the good kind).
MJF is now coming out to address the state of the industry, which will take place after the break.
MJF berates the crowd and wrestling fans, as normal. He urges people at home to use the hashtags “MJF2020” and “NotMyChampion.” He states that he is not spotlighted two weeks in a row because someone on the roster does not want to be overlooked two weeks in a row. He berates the AEW Champion Jon Moxley for not being “new,” and says, again, that Mox is not his champion.
MJF goes on to berate the idea of wrestling in 2020 and the fans for influencing it. Basically, speaking for those in the 50+ demo that prefer traditional wrestling over high spot wrestling. He then talks about ratings and that Jon Moxley seems to be the draw for AEW’s ratings. MJF says he is the real reason for the ratings.
As MJF’s music signs him off, he challenges Jon Moxley for an AEW world title match at All Out.
Basically, it seems that MJF is saying, without saying it, that the world is the way it is because Moxley is the AEW World Champion. Good “presidential debate” style promo from the best promo man in the company. Really looking forward to Mox’s response to the “undefeated” one.
THE RUNTHROUGH
As usual before the main event, AEW runs down the card for next week.
- John Silver & Alex Reynolds of the Dark Order will face the team of Cody & the Debuting Matt Cardona.
- MJF gives another state of the industry update.
- FTR, the Young Bucks, Hangman Page, & Kenny Omega team to face Brodie Lee, 5, 10, Colt Cabana, Evil Uno, & Stu Grayson in a stacked 12 man tag team match.
- As announced, Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy will have a Debate on what will now be dubbed “AEW Super Wednesday.”
No DQ, Tornado Tag Match: Jon Moxley & Darby Allin vs Brian Cage & Ricky Starks
Main event time. Darby Allin’s music plays; however, something has gone wrong and he does not come out. Jon Moxley makes his entrance instead and arrives through the crowd area into the ring. A camera backstage shows Tazz standing with his team. Tazz puts over Brian Cage, as if he needs it, and Ricky Starks before giving Starks the mic.
As Cage & Starks make their entrance, Darby Allin appears from atop the entrance way and performs a coffin drop onto both men to start the match.
Brian Cage has a hold of Darby Allin as Jon Moxley performs a dive on the man who cannot move. Moxley and Cage battle over a trash can as the show goes to break.
Coming back, Cage and Starks double team Darby Allin with a german suplex/something else combo for a two count. As they go for another double team, Moxley throws a chair into the face of Starks. Mox fights off Cage before being hit with a big boot. Allin hits Cage with an over the shoulder stunner, but gets caught with a Starks Spear.
Cage is the first man back up and goes for a move on Moxley. Moxley gets a piledriver on Cage before transitioning into an armbar that gets broken up by Starks. Starks and Cage double team the world champion with an Alabama Slam on the trash bin, but Darby Allin breaks up the subsequent count. Moxley & Allin hit a Paradigm Shift/Coffin Drop combo on Cage for a two count. Allin grabs the bin and smashes Cage in the chest with it. He then grabs a skateboard with tacks attached. As Moxley has a hold of Cage with an armbar, Allin double stomps the skateboard into Starks back, bleeding very much so afterward, and covered him for the winning pinfall. Jon Moxley & Darby Allin defeat Ricky Starks & Brian Cage.
Post match, Tony Schiavone announces that a new match is signed for next week; Jon Moxley will put the AEW World Title on the line against Darby Allin.
Great main event. Thrilling and full of action to say the least. Still not the biggest fan of Brian Cage and I am glad he’s likely out of the main event picture for a while. Nice that Darby Allin is getting a title match next week; however, off what precedent is this match booked from? Tony said as he was announcing the match that Darby is the #5 ranked wrestler. So why is he being hot shotted to a title match?
I am not against this match or the idea of it. AEW brings up and uses the rankings; therefore, fans such as I are in a position to ask such questions.
Overall, not too bad an episode of Dynamite. It was not on par with the likes of previous episodes of this summer and did not feel like “best episode” worthy. Knowing AEW, they will recognize what took Dynamite from great to ok in this episode and work to build better shows from there.
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