It’s Dynamite time!
All Elite Wrestling is in New Orleans this week with an amazing card of great matches. This year has been consistently good to great every week, and this card promises to keep that trend. Did All Elite Wrestling recreate Mardi Gras with this week’s Dynamite? Or was the show a Mardi Gras hangover?
Let’s find out!
Penta Oscuro vs. CM Punk
Our first match of the evening was a really cool and fresh pairing between CM Punk and Penta Oscuro. Keep starting out Dynamite with these hot matches, AEW! You could feel the crowd energy immediately, which really made this out of nowhere fight feel special. The pro wrestling ability of CM Punk is also special…
This back and forth battle was pretty even to start until Punk tried to hit a big avalanche Hurricanrana. The Best in the World missed the move, but immediately started to grab his knee like he injured it. It initially looked like the move was botched, but he continued to nurse the knee throughout the rest of the match. Regardless of botch or not, Punk’s ability to put a question mark on it really shows how good he is.
The rest of the match was pretty straightforward. Punk eventually caught Penta trying to go for a big move and hit the GTS out of nowhere. Really solid match to start a fun night!
3.5/5
- Earlier in the day, the Jericho Appreciation Society arrived on their private jet. Eddie Kingston promised them to always watch their backs, and that promised was kept. Eddie, Santana, and Ortiz beat up Matt Menard and Angelo Parker, dropped them off at the feet of Jericho, and drove away. Fun little segment right there. I’ve enjoyed these segments from earlier in the day.
AEW Tag Team Championship: Jurassic Express (c) vs. reDRagon
In what is becoming a Dynamite norm, up next was an amazing tag match that gets crowned Match of the Night for me. It was a surprising result, to say the least, but I loved this match from start to finish, and Jurassic Express have become one of my favorite tag teams in AEW.
The story of the match revolved around reDRagon’s unbelievable ability to cohesively dominate and Jurassic Express’s ability to overcome. This was an amazing back and forth affair with both teams trading move after move after move. The energy never dissipated here.
Both teams told a really great story because I thought reDRagon was going to win. They kept targeting the knee of Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy’s shoulder. The champs ended up overcoming by eventually hitting the Thoracic Express for the victory. The challengers will get there time in the spotlight, surely, but they’ll have to try again sometime down the line.
4/5
Match of the Night
All Elite Wrestling’s tag team division is the best ever and it’s not close. Give me this every single week! FTR also came out and teased fighting reDRagon again. YES PLEASE!
Segments:
- Blackpool Combat Club was backstage with Tony Schiavone talking about their upcoming trios debut against the Gunn Club. Regal and Danielson were jazzed up about their newest edition of Wheeler Yuta, and Moxley was Moxley. He couldn’t wait to beat Gunn Club’s ass.
- Everyone asked for it and Tony Khan delivered. Toni Storm will take on Jaime Hayter in the first round of the Owen Hart tournament.
MJF vs. Shawn Dean
Up next was one of my favorite things on the entire evening. MJF wanted to teach Shawn Dean a lesson because he’s continuously been a thorn in the butt of the Pinnacle in 2022. While technically this was a match, I’m treating this like a segment and not actually grading it. There was no match to grade here. Just amazing story work by all involved.
The match started and it wasn’t long before MJF deceived the Captain to take control of the match. It also didn’t take long for the Wardlow chants and teases to start. Everyone except MJF knew what was coming! After MJF continued the beatdown outside the ring, Wardlow dressed as an AEW crew member in the crowd, surprised the Salt of the Earth. Wardlow proceeded to destroy fifteen or so security guys until they finally overwhelmed him again, except MJF was stuck on the rampway with the referee at a nine count. MJF begged and pleaded for Bryce Remsburg to stop, but he didn’t and Shawn Dean picks up another victory over MJF!
This was beautiful story telling here. AEW has perfectly played the slow game with Wardlow. He gets closer and closer to destroying MJF every single week. We get a taste of perfection until it’s ripped away at the last moment. But when that moment finally comes, the fans will ignite.
- A quick Darby Allin interlude video package followed that brilliance. Apparently next week will be Andrade and Darby in a coffin match. Cool.
Eddie Kingston/Santana/Ortiz vs. Jericho Appreciation Society
Up next we had a match between the Jericho Appreciation Society and Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz (I’m abbreviating KSO). I couldn’t help but think I had seen this match before. It was a fairly simple one.
Jericho and the JAS were cocky and getting under Kingston’s skin, which then would allow the JAS to take advantage. Eventually Kingston got the hot tag, Santana hit an Eddie Guerrero tribute 3 Amigos and Frog Splash, but that was about it for “KSO” and their offense. The numbers of the JAS overwhelmed, Jericho smacked Kingston with his bat, and Daniel Garcia rolled Kingston up for the victory.
This match was fine, I guess. It felt a little all over the place. I couldn’t get into this one.
3.25/5
The JAS continued the beatdown after the match. The 5 on 3 continues to get the best of “KSO.” I’m sure Kingston will find two more friends to even the odds.
- MJF was backstage now and obviously pissed off. Every obstacle put in front of Wardlow has been destroyed, so he’s adjusting his strategy. We’re getting Wardlow versus the Butcher next week.
Marina Shafir vs. Skye Blue
Up next was the Dynamite debut of Marina Shafir taking on young upstart Skye Blue. AEW has presented Shafir very well as an MMA killer who should instill terror into her opponents, except her next big opponent, Jade Cargill, doesn’t seem to care. If Jade was only looking at this match, I can’t say I blame her all that much. This squash was fine, but I didn’t really feel this one.
Marina dominated Skye Blue for most of the match. Skye fought back a little, but Marina didn’t need to expel much energy to finish her off with an Arm Triangle. This was fine, a little sloppy, but it did what it needed to. The crowd was dead silent for it though.
2.5/5
Segments:
- Lexy Nair is backstage again trying to get some sort of interview with that handsome devil, HOOK. Interruption number 5000 of the year happens when Tony Nese and Mark Sterling decide they cannot stand HOOK for some reason. And Danhausen continues to unsuccessfully curse HOOK. Something fun is going to happen here, I can feel it. I’m guessing that Danhausen and HOOK are going to team up, instead of fight.
- Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky, and Dan Lambert were backstage tearing down Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti again. I guess we’re getting Sky and Guevara for the TNT championship again. Not exactly sure why Sammy gets another shot, but whatever. Never had any issue with Sammy’s in-ring work.
Keith Lee & Swerve vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs
Up next was a really fun tag match between hometown boy Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs taking on Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland. These four singles stalwarts put on a creative show that almost put this tag match in Match of the Night considerations. I really dug this match.
The story of this match revolved around which team could work better together. Could the newly formed friendship between Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland overcome the longstanding Team Taz bond between Starks and Hobbs?
Inevitably they could not, but they sure got creative in trying! At one point, Swerve hit a moonsault off of Keith Lee’s chest! That was my favorite moment of the whole night! It was incredibly awesome. Even Keith Lee couldn’t help himself from popping in the middle of the ring.
The ending sequence of the match was a little confusing, however. All four guys were trading big move after big move until Ricky Starks seemingly got rocked by a big hit from Keith Lee. Something triggered Taz to come down to the ring at one point as well, who helped distract Keith Lee into a massive Spinebuster for the pinfall. Great match, but I’d assume Ricky Starks would have gotten the pinfall if he was right. Maybe I read too much into his body language.
3.75/5
- The interruptions continue as Nyla Rose interrupts Thunder Rosa again after one whole sentence. This one was fun because Nyla gets a cake shoved into her face, they brawl, and Nyla screams, “I love cake….and violence!” Nyla is consistently hilarious and deserves to get screen time without Vicki Guerrero.
RoH TV Championship: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Samoa Joe
AND NEW!!!!
And finally we arrived to the main event. This match between two legendary stalwarts of Pro Wrestling was everything I had hoped it would be. It was simple, fun, and yet so brutal. Both guys decided to finish off a fun night of wrestling with a competition to see who could hit the hardest. The jury is still out.
The story of the match was simple: hit me harder than I can hit you. Joe and Suzuki stood toe to toe and chopped each other until both of their chests looked like raw ground beef. They eventually switched to elbow strikes, but this interaction lasted five minutes! I couldn’t get enough! Both guys took their turns with submission holds, with Suzuki unsuccessfully setting up his Gotch style piledriver with a sleeper hold multiple times.
Everything came down to Samoa Joe finally getting the best of the Japanese legend. Suzuki tried setting up a top rope armbar, but Joe countered it for a finishing Muscle Buster for the pinfall. Samoa Joe is Ring of Honor TV Champion.
This match was nothing crazy except two dudes having a fight. I quite enjoyed how simple it was on AEW television. A very different kind of match, albeit still very good.
3.75/5
- Unfortunately, the match wasn’t the last thing that happened on Dynamite this week. Joe barely celebrated when Sanjay Dutt and Jay Lethal, who were at ringside, promised him a present. The lights go off, come back on, and standing in the center of the ring was a massive skyscraping giant. I remember the news that Satnam Singh signed with AEW, but commentary needed to remind us fans who he was. Lethal, Singh, and Dutt beat the crap out of Joe for awhile as the show goes off air.
I enjoyed this closing segment more during my re-watch. AEW did themselves a disservice by doing the lights off for a guy nobody would know.
Verdict
And that was Dynamite this week. An unsatisfying ending to an overall fun show. This week’s episode was fun, but I felt something was off. Maybe I expected a lot more after seeing the pre-show card or the unsatisfying ending to the show soured the whole thing. Endings are usually how people remember something.
As I say every week, Dynamite is bundles of fun that never tires me. The fun I have is all that matters. I rate the show on a 5 point scale, but I cannot think of a time where Dynamite was bad. My favorite parts of the night were MJF and Wardlow, the tag match, and Team Taz/Lee & Swerve. AEW has found a great formula for fun Dynamites.
Overall: 3.75/5