Welcome to this week’s edition of the AEW Dynamite review! All Elite Wrestling was in El Paso, TX this week for Dynamite. The electric crowd was treated to “Championship Fight Night” with four championship belts being defended in one form or another. The AEW Champion was in a rare match, Jaime Hayter had another title defense, the Elite were in action, and everyone’s favorite scissoring best friends defended their AEW Tag Team Championships. The fans in attendance and at home were in for a treat!
Let’s talk about it!
(We should also talk about how this should have been a Battle of the Belts…)
MJF vs. Konosuke Takeshita
MJF doesn’t wrestle often, but he reminds us about how good he is every time he does. The AEW World Champion battled Konosuke Takeshita in an eliminator match to open this week’s episode of Dynamite. This match was a strong start to a night dominated by the AEW Champion. It’s great to see how involved MJF is on a weekly basis throughout Dynamite. That’s how it should be! He’s the top dog and deserves the spotlight.
The story of this match, like most MJF matches, revolved around the champion being a scallywag. He took cover behind referee Paul Turner multiple times in this one, which allowed him to take advantage of Takeshita. MJF worked the shoulder of the Japanese sensation over and over, trying to whittle it down enough to lock in the Salt of the Earth armbar. An entire program has been written around that armbar being devastating.
Since Takeshita is amazing, it was only a matter of time before he made this interesting. They traded moves back and forth with perfect timing. There truly isn’t a ceiling above either of these guys.
At one point, both guys were on the top rope when Takeshita hit MJF with a lariat. Because MJF is otherworldly good at this, he landed on his feet. There’s no way to tell if he meant to do that, but it sure looked like it!
The match couldn’t last forever, obviously. MJF and Takeshita continued to batter each other until Takeshita missed a Senton Atomico. MJF took advantage with the Fujiwara Armbar to submit Takeshita. This was an amazing match!
4.5/5
- Samoa Joe had an awesome promo boasting about him being ROH TV Champion again. Joe and Wardlow are probably destined for Revolution.
Jaime Hayter vs. The Bunny
Up next was another title eliminator match between AEW Women’s Champion, Jaime Hayter, facing The Bunny. This was an okay match that showed that Bunny is underused, despite the wonky ending of this one. It could have been longer, but it might have ended quickly for a reason.
Hayter quickly dominated after using her strength, but the Bunny had some nice offense too. They fought back and forth on the outside for a while, which was nice. They got back in the ring, Hayter hit an exploder suplex, and the Hayterade out of nowhere for the victory. Bunny looked to be covering her face after the exploder, so she might have been in a lot of pain. Unfortunate ending to what could have been a good match.
2.5/5
Segments:
- Renee Paquette’s first backstage segment of the evening was with Saraya and Toni Storm. They call Leva Bates, of all people, to join them for this segment. *cue Admiral Ackbar* Saraya and Toni attack Leva, who is an AEW original, and spray paint two giant Ls on her.
- Lexi Nair wanted a word with MJF after his amazing match with Konosuke Takeshita. The AEW Champion is proud of how Takeshita fought, but he’s pissed off at people treating him like a scumbag (when the shoe fits!). MJF proceeds to cut a horrifying and intense promo about getting into a car accident with a high school girlfriend and switching her “lifeless body” into the driver’s seat. He’s proud of being a scumbag. It was such a good promo that apparently people called the cops on MJF. It’s still real to me too!
Garcia-Guevara Gauntlet
A lot of people claim that AEW does the “you must beat X amount of guys to face me” story. And they would be right; AEW does that a lot. What AEW doesn’t do is stop that story in its tracks with a loss. That’s what happened in the Garcia-Guevara Gauntlet that Ricky Starks needed to traverse. The Absolute One lost.
Starks needed to defeat ‘Cool Hand’ Angelo Parker, ‘Daddy Magic’ Matt Menard, Daniel Garcia, and Sammy Guevara all in a row. That would allow him the opportunity to face Chris Jericho. Not exactly sure why Starks would want this again, but Gauntlet Matches can be cool.
Starks beat Parker and Menard in fifteen seconds! He was off to a great start when Daniel Garcia and Guevara stepped up to the plate. Starks faced Garcia in a fun match that made me want to see these two in a full singles match. It ended abruptly, however, as a masked fan gave Starks a back elbow strike. HMM, I WONDER WHO IT COULD BE.
Daniel Garcia gets the pinfall victory over Ricky Starks and Chris Jericho unveils himself as the masked assailant, like nobody had any clue.
3/5
Segments:
- Renee was backstage with Billy Gunn and The Acclaimed. Billy said that he is staying in the back for a match he clearly has mixed feelings on.
- Renee apparently teleported to another backstage segment. This one is with Bryan Danielson and an obviously injured Takeshita. Someone shut the door behind Danielson, which was locked behind him. Rush and eventually, MJF, come down to the ring to start a count out for Bryan’s match with Rush. Despite MJF’s best efforts, Danielson makes it to the ring because of referee Aubrey Edwards’ slow count.
Rush vs. Bryan Danielson
Because Danielson was focused on getting to the ring, this allowed Rush the opportunity to attack. El Toro Blanco has been an amazing AEW signing, and this match was a perfect example. He’s charismatic, tough, and everything Andrade wishes he was in AEW. Still not sure what went wrong there.
Not long after the bell rung was Danielson covered in the proverbial crimson mask. Rush kicked Danielson upside the head, causing a gushing fountain of blood. Rush dominated Danielson for a while because of it.
Both guys started slapping the shit out of each other after a while. This turned into a downright brawl, including a headbutt battle! Danielson eventually got the win after TWO Busaiku knees. I think this was the first time the Busaiku knee was kicked out. Regardless, Danielson is the top contender and is on his way to Revolution! MJF and Danielson’s match at the PPV will be amazing.
This match was also amazing. Easily my match of the night.
4.5/5
Match of the Night
- MJF immediately comes down to the ring and attacks Danielson with the Diamond Ring and uses the Fujiwara Armbar.
- Backstage segment with the Impractical Jokers! Hey, that’s a fun crossover! They stole Jericho’s bat, Floyd. They’ve invited Jericho onto their show to come to try and take it back.
Trios Championship: The Elite (c) vs. Top Flight & AR Fox
The Elite’s trios run so far has been amazing, and Kenny Omega’s return has been nothing short of spectacular. His inevitable singles run will be amazing too, but hopefully this trio’s title run lasts a while so we can continue to see matches like this one against Top Flight and AR Fox.
The Elite and Top Flight are going to do their thing; go nuts with high flying action and amazing tag wrestling. The story here, and every match he’s in so far, is AR Fox. That guy can do no wrong and he has that inherent babyface spark. In the high flying wrestling world of 2023, AR Fox stands out. That’s hard to do.
There’s nothing much to say about the match itself. It was an amazing move after an amazing move. Both teams traded advantages a couple of times, with Top Flight almost scoring the upset after a Nose Dive.
Things stabilize after the Elite withstand a Top Flight barrage. AR Fox and Omega were left alone in the ring to duke it out, which meant The Cleaner got the best of Fox. Omega showed his versatility with a pinfall counter sequence and stole the victory from AR Fox. Fantastic match.
4/5
- Lexi Nair was backstage with Stokely Hathaway, who says there are no cracks in the Firm. But he is upset about how Hook has been a thorn in their side. El Diablo Guapo happened to be walking by and threatened Stokely. Hook isn’t a man of many words, but he’s great when he speaks.
AEW Tag Team Championship: The Acclaimed (c) vs. The Gunns
AND NEEWWW….
Yo Listen.
Yes, the Gunns are underrated. They are a great tag team together that does nothing spectacular, but everything adequately. Austin and Colten have hung around The Acclaimed since the champs’ rise to prominence, so it makes sense for them to be a thorn.
I think AEW jumped the gun, no pun intended.
The story of this match revolved around Billy Gunn. Daddy Ass had enough of both teams hating each other, so he stayed in the back for this fight. That is a good setup, in all honesty. All the Gunns have done is berate their father, but whatever. A father loves his children no matter what.
The match itself was pretty lackluster. Basic tag team wrestling with The Acclaimed starting strong until The Gunns use their nefarious distractions to isolate Max Caster. The match went a little haywire after Bowens received the hot tag.
After Bowens strung together a flurry of moves, he accidentally struck the referee with an elbow strike. This was exactly what the Gunns were hoping for, as they tried to use the belts to get the win. Daddy Ass came to save The Acclaimed, but he got nailed with a belt from behind too. The referee very slowly came to, and a weird pinning sequence happened between Bowens and Austin Gunn, which then led to Bowens getting knocked out with a belt behind a dazed referee. The Gunns steal the AEW Tag Team Championships.
3.25/5
The Acclaimed do not need the Tag Championships. They are SO OVER, but their reign was bogged down by Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, and The Gunns. Yes, there was a small FTR feud in there, but AEW killed their momentum after the Swerve/Keith Lee feud. Hopefully, they get their championships back at Revolution!
OVERALL
And that was Dynamite for this week! What did you think!?
This episode was all over the place. It hit some amazing highs, with the MJF/Takeshita, Elite/Top Flight, and Rush Danielson matches being amazing, but it also had a couple of wonky lows. Despite liking the different story AEW told with the gauntlet match, it could have been done differently. The entire episode was built around The Gunns and the Acclaimed, which also could have been done differently.
We’re not here to be biased negatively though. This episode was fun from start to finish! Those three matches killed it and made this episode a great one.
Verdict: 4.25/5