All Elite Wrestling was hot off of one of their best PPVs ever, Revolution, this week. PPV fallout episodes of Dynamite are usually fun story-driven episodes. We were treated to two championship defenses, including one by one of the best champs AEW has right now. How would this week’s episode fare?
Let’s talk about it!
All-Atlantic Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Jay Lethal
The first match of the evening featured one of the best champions AEW has going currently, Orange Cassidy. He has been a dominant All-Atlantic Champion, defeating the likes of Wheeler Yuta, Luchasaurus, Rey Fenix, and even Japanese legend Katsuyori Shibata. Jay Lethal was one of those conquests as well, but he was also Cassidy’s last singles defeat, so this match technically was the rubber match. It was good and had a nice story too!
The entire match revolved around injuries to Cassidy’s knee and Lethal’s shoulder. They sent each other into consecutive ring posts and that affected the outcome of the entire match. Cassidy couldn’t push off the leg for the Orange Punch and Lethal kept grabbing at the shoulder.
It was easy to forget about Lethal’s shoulder because he punished Cassidy for the majority of the match. This included a nice Figure Four to rambunctious “Woos” from the crowd. It honestly felt like it was Lethal’s night to win the title after he reversed the Orange Punch into a beautiful cutter. That was until his shoulder buckled during the Lethal Injection.
Orange Cassidy pounced on the opportunity with an Orange Punch to pick up the victory. This was a great match with a simple story. It had perfect setup and execution. People give Jay Lethal a hard time because of his alleged past personal behavior, but he’ll always have a good match.
4/5
Match of the Night
Lethal was incredibly angry with himself about losing, so he wanted to attack Cassidy with his stolen Golden Globe. This was clearly a distraction because, all of a sudden, Cassidy was attacked by Jeff Jarrett with the Stroke and a nasty guitar shot to the knee.
Segments:
- Powerhouse Hobbs was backstage with Renee discussing Wardlow losing his gear. He thinks it’s unfortunate but is coming for Wardlow anyway.
- Ricky Starks down to the ring after that to discuss what’s next for him. Every person in a mile heard my scream as the Bullet Club music plays, but it was Juice Robinson that attacked Ricky Starks. Everyone figured it was Jay White. Juice is definitely cool, but Jay White would be amazing.
- Wardlow had a response promo because he’s pissed about real life events. If you aren’t aware, someone broke into his car and stole all his gear and the TNT Title. The Wardog wants to take it out on someone, so it might as well be Hobbs in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
- Renee was in the ring up next to ask Ruby Soho, “why.” Ruby responds that it should be obvious. This was an infamous “You People” promo as she blames the fans for never having her back, but it was a good version. She makes some valid points that nobody cared about her big wins because they came at the expense of fan favorites, Toni was technically an “interim” champion until she didn’t have the belt anymore, and people unfairly hate Saraya. Ruby is exactly what this faction needed.
Ruby Soho vs. Skye Blue
And then Ruby shows how good of a heel she can truly be by facing Skye Blue. It wasn’t a squash match by any means, but Ruby showed that she could have beaten her if she wasn’t being a cocky heel. She dominated most of the match.
Skye had a nice comeback sequence, but missed the Code Blue and received the ass end of a Destination Unknown. Ruby wins a good match.
3.25/5
And we still weren’t done with the women! Like or dislike this feud, nobody can argue that it hasn’t put a BUNCH of women on TV. Toni and Saraya came to the ring to attack Skye Blue, but Willow Nightingale tried to talk some sense into Ruby. The numbers game hit Willow like a ton of bricks and she and Skye are now proud members of the “L” club.
Segments:
- Hangman backstage with Renee. He isn’t happy with how black he had to get on Sunday. Whoa this is quietly intense. He’s finished with Moxley. That was fantastic.
- Backstage MJF promo from Revolution. I love this guy. His reign of terror continues and he claims he’s the most complete wrestler on the planet. Next week is his re-bar mitzvah and he’ll be celebrating in Winnipeg
- Schiavone in the ring with FTR. The crowd is LOVING them. They are sad from the past few months, but they’re back to take those titles from the Gunns.
- Backstage with Jade Cargill. 53-0. She’s challenging the best Canadian they can offer.
AR Fox & Top Flight vs. Jericho Appreciation Society
AEW’s Trios division is amazing. The Jericho Appreciation Society decided to try their hands at this new division and won a fun match against upstarts Top Flight and AR Fox. Jericho, Garcia, and Guevara had great chemistry as they fought off their fast paced opponents.
The match was fun, but nothing special. JAS isolated Dante Martin for a while, and then AR Fox went crazy after his hot tag. AR Fox’s Implosion Senton is one of my favorite moves right now. It’s very unique.
All in all, the Jericho Appreciation Society is still a bunch of goons that cheat to win. Jake Hager hit Darius Martin with Floyd the Bat to set up Jericho and the Judas Effect. Cannot complain about this at all.
3.25/5
Segments:
- Following the match, the JAS gathered in the center of the ring. This week was the one year anniversary of their formation, so they’ve deemed themselves the number one contender for the Trios titles. The Elite surprise everyone to argue that they still deserve a Trios title shot, despite losing at Revolution. The House of Black arrived to hand both teams a title shot next week in Winnipeg. Cool lights on/lights off thing going on here.
- Tony Khan popped up on Dynamite to make an announcement. Orange Cassidy versus Jeff Jarrett next week in Winnipeg for the AEW International Championship. That’s a much better name than All-Atlantic Championship.
- Next was another backstage promo from the other participant in the masterful Iron Man match. Danielson proceeded to cut an Emotional promo about being selfish and putting himself in front of his kids. “It’s time for me to go home?” What does that mean? There have been some otherworldly promos over the past couple of weeks.
John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli
Next was a fun tag match between the Blackpool Combat Club and the Dark Order. How amazing is it that Jon Moxley went to war at Revolution and had a match three days later? That guy is not human.
This was a fairly standard tag match; Isolation followed by a hot tag of high pace action and tandem moves by Silver and Reynolds. The story here revolved around how aggressive Moxley and Claudio were. The BCC has been showing evil tendencies of late, but they amped it up in this match. They were straight bullies here. Silver and Reynolds couldn’t sustain any momentum due to the greatness of Mox and Claudio.
Dark Order went for one of their signature combos, but Moxley stopped it to lock in an anaconda vice submission to submit Reynolds. Moxley adds another deadly submission to his repertoire. This was a good character-driven match.
3.25/5
All of a sudden. the Combat Club straight attacked Dark Order after the bell. Evil Uno and then Hangman came down for the save, but neither man could truly turn the tides of the brawl. Hangman and Mox clearly are not finished.
- The Acclaimed were backstage next talking about coming back for the Tag Championship once again. Daddy Magic and Angelo Parker offered them a spot in the JAS, to which obviously met with laughter. Even the Jericho Appreciation Society loves the Acclaimed.
TNT Championship: Wardlow (c) vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
ANDDDD NEWWWWW!!!!
And finally, we reached the main event of the evening. This match was changed into a falls count anywhere because Wardlow had his gear stolen. This match didn’t even make it to the ring as both started the brawl in the parking lot.
They used a car as their main weapon, which was fun, but this poor car got demolished by the two behemoths. Once they made it inside the arena, however, the match screeched to a halt. There were some fun spots, like both of them no-selling big moves, but overall It felt a little awkward. This awkwardness was amplified by the ending too.
They were brawling on the rampway until Wardlow hurt himself during a powerbomb attempt. QT Marshall popped up seemingly out of nowhere to hit Wardlow with a chair and help Hobbs finish Wardlow off. They hit a double powerbomb onto what could only be described as a cushion, and this cushion put Wardlow under a spell. Hobbs wins the Falls Count Anywhere match to become the new TNT Champion.
3.5/5
Overall
And that was Dynamite for this week! What did you think!?
Like most PPV fallout episodes, this week was flooded with storylines. Cassidy and Lethal took home Match of the Night with ease, but the stories were the fun parts of the evening. It’s exciting to see where they may go!
All in all, a fun evening of wrestling. Not the best show ever but still fun.
Verdict: 4/5