AEW Dynamite was back on October 9th with its sophomore follow up to their TV debut last week. They had another sellout crowd in Boston, and this audience was just as hot as the first show. Coming off of their Wednesday Night Wars week one victory over NXT (AEW scored a 1.4 to NXT’s 0.8), they yearned to keep that momentum going. From a production standpoint, the camera crew missed a few outside dives tonight, and looked like they were on their heels a bit. They’ll need to tighten up when the action gets fast-paced. Also, this was the weakest night on commentary for the AEW announce team since they got rid of Alex Marvez. The whole team stammered a bit, but in particular, Jim Ross sounded downright lost at times. Let’s get to the action.
Young Bucks vs. Private Party
This was the opening match in the first round of the Tag Title Tournament. A nice video package preceded this, but the match itself was hot. We opened with some technical double-team action, and then broke down into a flashy spot barrage that the crowd loved. They let the match build before getting to the big moves, and everything felt crisp. At one point, Justin Roberts announced “10 minutes has gone by in this match”, to which Jim Ross replied “What was that?” The false finishes had the crowd buying in, and Private Party got the huge upset win with a flash roll-up. This was not only a fun match, but made Private Party feel like stars. They got a huge rub here from beating the more known team, and they are popular with the live crowds.
Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz, and Jake Hager are out for a promo. They’re now a faction called “Inner Circle”. Jericho masterfully tells the crowd why he chose each of the members of the group. When they get to Hager (the former Jack Swagger), the crowd chants “We the people”, to which Jericho says it was a stupid idea by bad creative, and it’s dead. They really made Hager feel like a monster here, and gave Guevara a big rub as well. Jericho works a crowd like nearly nobody can.
Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Havok
The winner of this match gets a World Title shot at Jericho next week, but they don’t give a reason why. Havok cuts a good dark promo before the match. Both of these two have hardcore, gritty characters, and have the potential to be special if AEW gives them the time to develop. Allin spends most of the match taking a beating. He personifies the “smaller guy with heart who gets beat down, but fights back” trope. Allin wins with a nice looking Coffin Drop. I hope he and Jericho get a lot of time to tell a story next week.
Bea Priestley/Sakura vs. Riho/Britt Baker
Bea Priestley is another character who is severely underrated. A punisher duo of her and Havok might be fun to watch down the line. This is a basic but solid match thats main purpose is to push forward the continuing heat between Baker and Priestley. Baker shines here, and her addition of the Rings of Saturn with Mandible Claw is a nice touch for the real-life dentist. Ross’ response to Baker winning with that move is “What the hell is going on here?” They announced that Baker will get a shot at Riho for the Women’s Title next week. With no buildup or heat, that feels like a hotshot move for no reason. Priestley likely costs Britt there.
Best Friends are asked about the Tag Title Tourney, and they point to Orange Cassidy behind them. A bit of a waste of promo time here that could’ve gone to a heel.
Shawn Spears vs. Jon Moxley
Spears has to be one of the most underrated guys in wrestling. This match could’ve been built as a main event for a future PPV, but the crowd is really behind Moxley here. Slower paced match than expected, but still a good, extremely physical brawl. Tully Blanchard gets involved a few times to garner some nice heat from the Boston faithful. Moxley wins with the Paradigm Shift. Kenny Omega comes down with a barbed wire broom and barbed wire bat, and rolls the bat to Moxley for a showdown. Before they can touch, Pac (who was solidly on commentary for the last match) attacks Omega with a chair from behind. This leaves Omega prone in front of Moxley, but Moxley honorably leaves without attacking. I’m guessing this leads to a Pac/Omega rematch down the road.
Jericho/Guevara vs. Dustin Rhodes/Adam Page
This was a nicely paced main event, that also helped Guevara to be in there with top talent. Everyone seemed to get nice spurts of offense in, but they let Jake Hager be the x-factor. After he runs interference, Jericho pins Dustin with the Judas Effect. After the match, all hell breaks loose. Inner Circle starts beating down the faces, then Cody appears to confront Jericho. Santana and Ortiz cut him off, so the Bucks run down to neutralize them. MJF comes in and saves Cody, and then Darby Allin skateboards down to take out Jericho.
This was EXTREMELY overbooked and felt like a mosh of random run-ins without any real time to tell stories. The casual audience is still figuring out these characters and alliances, and this was an information overload. Cody made sense, and Darby builds to next week, but the rest was just thrown in. It also felt mistimed, because a lot of guys stood around as Jericho eventually took the mic to kill the final minute or two.
Overall, it was a nice second episode. All the matches were good, with the opening tag match stealing the show. Inner Circle had a good official debut, and young talent (Allin, Guevara, Private Party) were given big spots and victories. The technical aspects still need to be solidified, and they still need to do more storyline arcs instead of just throwing random matches together. But it’s a fast two hour show of good wrestling, and we’re all better off for the competition.
