Well…
Covid got me again. That pesky virus knocked me out last week and prevented me from writing about my favorite wrestling promotion. I’m back with a vengeance for this week’s edition of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite! AEW has strung together some fantastic shows containing likewise excellent matches, awesome segments, and compelling storylines through and through. This week’s episode looked no different with a #1 Contender’s match, an AEW Championship match, and everyone’s favorite Joshi. Did AEW continue its tremendous trend of shows this week?
Let’s talk about it!
Chris Jericho & Daniel Garcia vs. Wheeler Yuta & Claudio Castagnoli
Our first bout of the night was a tag match between Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli against the reunited Daniel Garcia and Chris Jericho. This match displayed everything that makes the Blackpool Combat Club great. Claudio Castagnoli is a one-man wrecking crew, and Wheeler Yuta can hang with literally anyone. Giving Claudio and Yuta a go at the tag team titles sounds like a great idea.
The story of this match revolved around Regal’s club being able to withstand anything Jericho’s goons threw at them. Jericho was able to grab the advantage with a kick because of Hager’s interference, but it wasn’t long until Claudio overcame that too. The intensity ramped up after Yuta got the hot tag and hit a cool spinning DDT with the help of Claudio. Jericho hit a codebreaker counter from nowhere, which he’s getting really good at hitting. I say it every single week, but Jericho continues to impress in the ring.
Unfortunately for Jericho and Garcia, Claudio also impresses with every appearance. And Claudio was unstoppable this week. Jericho unsuccessfully attempted to hit Claudio with Floyd the bat, which angered the Swiss Strongman. Claudio proceeded to neutralize every single member of the Jericho Appreciation Society in the ring and by ringside. This ultimately led to Claudio hitting the Gotch Style Neutralizer on Jericho for the victory. Fun match and a fantastic display of Claudio’s amazing abilities.
3.5/5
- Bryan Danielson backstage with Renee Paquette. He’s frustrated about a lot of things, but number one walks right back from the match he just had. Wheeler Yuta and Claudio had just won their match and immediately confronted Danielson about their interview tension from last week. The tension builds as they start pushing each other, but Claudio and Regal pull them apart. This was short and fantastic. The Blackpool Combat Club is fantastic, but adding some interweaving storylines makes me excited about where it’s going.
- Jericho Appreciation Society is backstage and angry about losing the match. Jericho issues an Open Challenge to anyone former Ring of Honor champion. Who could it be!?
#1 Contender: FTR vs. Swerve in Our Glory
FTR and Swerve in Our Glory took it upon themselves to decide who’s next in line for the Acclaimed’s AEW Tag Team Titles. There was a lot going on in this match because many on-looking parties had a vested interest in the outcome. The Acclaimed were on the rampway and the Gunn Club were at ringside dressed as FTR in a horrific outfit. The four people in the ring, however, obviously put on a fantastic match. These four guys could never give us a bad one.
Keith Lee is a freak of nature and sometimes he reminds us all. This monster of a man jumped over both Dax and Cash simultaneously soon after the bell rang. There wasn’t much of a story in this match outside of two teams trying to isolate the other team. Both teams were trading nice tandem moves off and on. Dax hit a picture-perfect German Suplex that would have made Takeshita proud on Swerve. Harwood continued to be amazing by hitting his Slingshot Power Bomb after a nice sequence.
Both teams continued to hit big move after big move. Swerve prevented the pinfall after the Big Rig, which then triggered the two main story beats from this match. The Gunn Club were offended that Cash Wheeler was sent into the barricade in front of them, so they decided to take Cash out while the referee’s back was turned. This wasn’t the last of the story either! Inside the ring, Keith Lee inadvertently hit Swerve, Dax couldn’t roll Keith up for the pin, and Swerve hit Dax with a low blow. This allowed Lee to hit the JACKHAMMER for the win.
4/5
This was a phenomenal match with layers. Will Keith Lee and Swerve ever stop hitting each other in matches? How does Keith Lee respond after watching his partner cheat to win again? Will the Gunns get the best of FTR?
Great stuff all around in this one.
Segments:
- Renee Paquette has apparently taken over Schiavone’s backstage job of being everywhere. She was backstage with Saraya in a fun reunion. This reunion was short lived as two words were spoken before Britt Baker interrupts and spews her vitriol towards Saraya. However, this interview felt different because Renee wasn’t having it. She stopped the fight before it started. Big fan of seeing Renee flex some backstage power!
- Another week. Another amazing MJF promo. He’s fully assumed the Devil persona with us fans being Devil Worshippers. Renee Paquette is interviewing him live and he’s bashing Jon Moxley before their match at Full Gear. He’s not going to use the Diamond Ring at Full Gear, which is a major character change. Stokely Hathaway interrupts MJF again, but the Salt of the Earth has one final ultimatum for The Firm leader. If Hathaway and The Firm touch Jon Moxley then they are fired.
- Newly signed Matt Taven and the Kingdom make another appearance. Taven and Wardlow for the TNT title on Rampage. That should be great. Taven has always flown under the radar as a fantastic performer.
Bryan Danielson vs. Sammy Guevara
Up next we had a good match between Bryan Danielson and Sammy Guevara. This writer is openly not a fan of Sammy Guevara, but can admit when he has a good match. I’m not a fan of his style or lack of character, but this match was able to display the best parts about him. Danielson kept breaking Guevara down until the young star would break out with a flurry of big moves.
Most of the match was controlled by Danielson. He hit chops, and strikes, and manipulated all of Guevara’s joints with various holds. The difference in skill was apparent in this department. Guevara would try to strike back at the American Dragon, but couldn’t hold his own. Instead, Guevara did what he does best: hit flippy shit. Sammy hit a gorgeous moonsault onto Danielson, which allowed the Spanish God to take over for a while.
It didn’t last long, however, as Danielson caught Guevara in the Labelle Lock. Guevara escaped, missed the GTH, and got caught with a running knee and arm triangle of Danielson. American Dragon defeats Spanish God in a good match.
3.5/5
- Up next, Rey Fenix and Alex Abrahantes were backstage discussing the main event AEW championship match between brother Penta el Zero Miedo and Jon Moxley. The All-Atlantic Championship gets mentioned as well, which triggers Luchasaurus from nowhere, and then Orange Cassidy comes from the other side of nowhere to make a championship match for next week. That should be an amazing match! It’s cool that Orange Cassidy pops up to make random triple threat matches. Good stuff.
Riho vs. Jaime Hayter
Sometimes, you just know a match is going to be good. And sometimes, the match exceeds all of the anticipations. That’s what we got when Jaime Hayter and Riho squared off. Obviously, the story revolved around the massive size and strength difference, but Riho is used to that. She’s always the smaller competitor.
Riho started quickly with a flurry of her patented style of throwing all of her frame at her opponents. Hayter quickly turned it around with her impressive strength. She threw the smaller Riho around the ring and hit a couple of twisting snap suplexes into pin attempts that were different. The match evened out after Riho stomped Hayter directly into the sternum. They started trading move after move after move, which encompassed the smoothest Code Red from Riho that I’ve ever seen. Both ladies traded moves and looked phenomenal in doing so. Backbreakers and Snapdragons…oh my!
Riho is usually the sympathetic babyface that has to come from behind to win. Jaime Hayter usually dominates with a strong advantage in her matches. It turned out that power would win out in this one. Hayter stopped Riho’s momentum and eventually hit her with a huge Lariat for the victory in what was a phenomenal match.
4/5
- After the match, the current champ, Toni Storm, sends a message to Hayter and Britt that she’s still the champ. Are we getting a Toni Storm and Jaime Hayter match at Full Gear!? Yes please!
- Eddie Kingston was backstage with Renee Paquette up next. He doesn’t want to talk about the intervention from last week’s Rampage but is excited about his friends in the main event.
- Darby and Lethal have a promo package battle. Their match next week should be good and I’m excited to see who Lethal’s teased friend is.
AEW Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Penta el Zero Miedo
And just like that, it was main event time. Dynamite continues to fly by every single week on the back of great matches. This episode continued that trend with an entertaining main event. Jon Moxley successfully defended his AEW Championship against Penta el Zero Miedo in an incredibly physical match. This was Penta’s first ever singles championship match, which hopefully won’t be his last. The man with no fear shines every time he’s on screen.
Everyone knows how tough Jon Moxley is, but AEW fans might not be aware of the fact that Penta has his own history of violence. The Lucha Brother took it to the AEW Champion early and often in this match. He hit a beautiful Tope con Hiro to take the early advantage. He held that advantage, all while showing his sparkling personality, for a good while.
The AEW Champion isn’t one to stay down for long, however. Moxley evened the odds with an amazing Belly to Belly suplex into the turnbuckles. This led to an increase in pace with both guys trading big moves. Moxley used his Bulldog choke, but not to be outdone by Penta using his patented Arm Breaker. That Arm Breaker used to be how Penta finished matches and it still should be.
Despite using a hellacious DDT on the metal stairs and the King Kong Lariat, Moxley couldn’t put away the persistent Penta. The Luchador kept withstanding Moxley’s efforts and coming after the champion. One of the closest near falls you’d see happened after Penta hit the Package Piledriver. Everything came to a screeching halt as Moxley hit two Paradigm Shifts out of nowhere to retain his title in a fantastic match to close out a fantastic Dynamite.
4.25/5
Match of the Night
But we were not done! The Firm attacked Jon Moxley directly after the bell rang. MJF was not happy about this, but then The Firm attacked MJF too. Obviously this ends their relationship, but the story possibilities are incredibly intriguing. Excited to see where this goes!
OVERALL
And that was this week’s edition of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite! What did you think of the show?
AEW is on a roll. The trend of great episodes continued this week. There’s not even anything to say bad about this week’s episode. It was great! The slightly lower tier of matches is the tiniest of complaints that keep these Dynamites from perfection. Television matches are usually shorter matches used as story devices. That’s perfectly fine and has become a great system for AEW. This allows Dynamite to hammer home easily digestible matches and quick story beats. It’s great stuff!
Verdict: 4.25/5
We’re only three weeks away from Full Gear! Where does the time go!? The card is shaping up to be a great one, plus the possible return of the Elite! Wait…
I didn’t even talk about that! The first direct reference to the Elite was made by AEW this week! There was a video package that seemingly erased them from AEW’s existence. That means they’re showing up soon! Full Gear?! That’s exciting.