All Elite Wrestling was in Milwaukee this week for Dynamite with a star-studded card. Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, Riho, and Chris Jericho headlined a card that had banger written all over it. Various stories abound in AEW and the company is in an amazing spot with a little over a month until Double or Nothing. Revolution feels like it was just yesterday!
Anyway…how was this week’s episode?!
Let’s talk about it!
Swerve Strickland vs. Darby Allin
The first match of the night was a battle of Seattle boys, Darby Allin and Swerve Strickland. Swerve recently aligned himself with The Embassy, making the significant upgrade from Parker Boudroux and Tattoo Jones (Trench?) to Brian Cage and Prince Nana. This match was a great start to the evening as these two have a long history together.
The story of the match revolved around Swerve targeting Darby’s back to prevent the Coffin Drop. It’s a great strategy on the surface, but Swerve forgot one thing: Darby doesn’t care about pain. Swerve also hurt his own ankle on a stomp to the floor. So we had hurt back versus hurt ankle.
After Swerve spent all that time on Darby’s back, Darby retaliated by spending a lot of time targeting Swerve’s ankle. Darby doesn’t do limb work all that often, so this was a fun wrinkle to see. Do you know what else was fun to see? Darby hit a poisonrana from the apron to the floor. Swerve’s body contorted in such an uncomfortable way!
The ending of the match felt a little overbooked, but the pinfall was great. There was interruption nonsense from Prince Nana and Brian Cage, but Darby survived to lock in the Last Supper pinfall to beat Swerve Strickland in a creative way. The Last Supper is undefeated in AEW. Targeting Swerve’s ankle and then locking in that finisher was a stroke of genius.
4/5
Segments:
- Darby’s moment doesn’t last but five seconds as MJF comes to the ring immediately following the match. MJF proceeds to do what he normally does- berate the crowd, the locker room, and anyone in his vicinity—very standard MJF promo. Darby Allin, on the other hand, doesn’t speak much. This week he was very talkative as he questions MJF’s character and upbringing. All three of MJF’s new rivals have said this exact same thing, except MJF doesn’t care. The Salt of the Earth will be exactly that. Sting makes an awesome appearance too and shows why he’s still one of the best ever. This was a fantastic segment that made Darby look fantastic.
- Powerhouse Hobbs then proceeds to destroy Silas Young. Commentary made a big deal about Hobbs’s new car and you should have expected what came next. Wardlow destroyed Hobbs’s new car and both guys fought on the rampway. Aaron Solo took a hellacious powerbomb off the stage too. This was fine, I guess.
- Backstage Jay White and Juice talked about the storied history of the Bullet Club. They’ve created a new branch of the Bullet Club called Bullet Club Gold.
AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Buddy Matthews
Orange Cassidy stands head and shoulders above all AEW champions right now. Yes, MJF had the brilliant Iron Man match at Revolution, but Cassidy has won nineteen straight singles matches with the All-Atlantic/International title. This reign might be coming to its inevitable conclusion, but this stiff match against Buddy Matthews would not be the downfall of Freshly Squeezed.
AEW has built the last few weeks around Cassidy losing the ability to use his hand. It’s been targeted and injured over and over again over the last month and Cassidy has been hobbled and ineffective. Buddy attacked that hand with voracity in this match. This led to Orange Cassidy needing to use his versatility to win. The Beach Break was used, multiple diving DDTs in a row, and a weakened Orange Punch couldn’t put Buddy away. The punch had been diminished, which was such a cool way to do this story.
The ending was fantastic too. Buddy was playing possum to get the upper hand with his finisher, but Cassidy was able to sneak the victory with his signature mousetrap pinfall. Orange Cassidy managed to get one over on the House of Black member. This was incredibly well done. Both Darby Allin and Cassidy won in similar fashions, but having signature pinfalls are such a cool way to win. It’s unique.
4.25/5
Match of the Night
Segments:
- Another awesome vignette with Christian Cage and Luchasaurus. Apparently, some things have changed. No word on who they’re targeting or what they’re up to. Knowing Cage, it’s going to be devious.
- Best Friends were backstage with Renee afterward. Orange Cassidy is still hurting from his match with Matthews. Chuck and Trent proceed to challenge Aussie Open to a match on Rampage.
- Ethan Page was in the ring up next talking about all the problems in the Firm. Way more than expected for a faction that’s only a few months old. The most pressing one that needed to be answered was how come Matt Hardy betrayed Ethan last week. Hardy put some sort of byline in the contract or something. This was boring and obvious. The Firm attacked Hardy and Kassidy, which triggered Hook for some help. The big news was that Jeff Hardy has made his return. I hope he is in good spirits and healthy!
- Kenny Omega sent a video up next, which thanked everyone for their support as the Elite was healing. The Blackpool Combat Club had been decimating everyone in the Elite, but hurting Don was a step too far. Kenny was incredibly intense in this promo. A much more serious version of Omega in that promo.
- Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli took on Brandon Cutler and Michael Nakazawa in a completely one-sided affair. It went exactly as assumed, but Nakazawa and Cutler did put up a little bit of a fight. Both Cutler and Nak ended up in pools of their own blood as the referee ended the dissection. Despite being called out that they were not there, The Elite made their triumphant return to beat up the BCC. This was a much more violent Kenny Omega as he almost stabbed Moxley’s face with a screwdriver. This angle and the whole feud are fantastic.
- Swerve, Nana, and Cage were backstage talking about Swerve’s loss earlier. They’re now called the Mogul Embassy, which is cool. It’s a lot better than Mogul Affiliates. Swerve mentioned needing to tie up loose ends, whatever that means.
Riho & Skye Blue vs. Ruby Soho & Toni Storm
It’s groundhog day in the women’s division, as this match and the following angle felt very familiar. This was a formulaic match with the babyfaces starting strong and holding the advantage until the Outcasts took over. Skye Blue and Riho worked well together, but Toni Storm eventually hit the hip attack and Storm Zero for the victory.
2.5/5
- Saraya, Storm, and Ruby spray painted an L on Riho and then gave her a triple powerbomb. Jaime Hayter and Britt Baker came down for the save and the angle ended. This feud needs some forward momentum with some sort of story change. They are treading water with slight variations week over week. The triple powerbomb was cool, though.
Keith Lee vs. Chris Jericho
And finally, it was the main event time. Keith Lee felt that Chris Jericho majorly disrespected Adam Cole, and it was his job to say something about it. Lee and Cole have mutual respect for each other, which is an interesting motivation. The match itself was…okay. Something about it felt off. The chemistry was missing.
The story, on the other hand, was great. Jericho used his savvy veteran nature to keep Lee from gaining momentum. That, and Daniel Garcia kept getting involved. This story evolved into Jericho hurting himself by countering Keith Lee’s moonsault by putting his knees up. The sheer size of the gargantuan man hurt Jericho, despite the savvy counter! Not sure if I’ve ever seen that before.
They fought back and forth for a little while. The chemistry never really improved, but the ending made some sense. This match was a better story than match. Swerve Strickland came from nowhere and hit Keith Lee in the head with some foreign object. This allowed Jericho to roll onto Lee for the victory. A good way for Jericho to pick up a victory over a new opponent.
3/5
The night finished as Adam Cole pulled a Jericho and checked on Keith Lee in a similar way as Jericho did with Garcia two weeks ago.
OVERALL
And that was Dynamite for this week! What did you think?
This was an average episode. The first half of the show was great with Darby/Swerve and Cassidy/Matthews, but everything else was hit or miss. The only other thing I enjoyed was the Elite’s return. Matt Jackson getting physical, despite his injured arm, was cool to see. Dynamite has a lot of cool stuff going for it right now. This episode just missed a little more than the past few.
Verdict: 3.5/5