AEW celebrated one month on the TNT airwaves last night, as they eminated from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with yours truly in attendance. This fourth edition of Dynamite packed in a hot crowd, and I hope it came off as well on television as it did sitting in the stands. Forgive me if I get things out of order here, as I’m going from memory. I won’t spoil the AEW Dark tapings, as they air this coming Tuesday, but here are the matches:
1. Sonny Kiss/Dustin Rhodes vs. The Librarian/QT Marshall
2. Allie vs. Sadie Gibbs vs. Penelope Ford vs. Emi Sakura
3. Jimmy Havok vs. Darby Allin vs. Jack Evans: Falls Count Anywhere (this one you don’t want to miss. Allin was incredibly over).
Tag Title Tourney: Private Party vs. Lucha Bros
The main show kicked off with this semi-final tournament match. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an absolute BELTER alert. This opening contest stole the show for the entire night. This was innovative, fast-paced, and had the audience in the palm of its hand. Private Party’s gimmick is very crowd friendly, and some of the bumps they took were insane. In spite of move difficulty, everything flowed well and seemed natural. Lucha Bros took the win with the package piledriver-double stomp combo, but this was the best AEW match since the week one opening tag match.
Tag Title Tourney: SCU vs. The Dark Order
These two teams had a really tough act to follow, but they handled it nicely. The crowd was really quiet for the first half of this match after the spots they had just seen, but these four did an excellent job to win them over in the second half. In the middle, Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle came through the crowd and headed up to a VIP Press Box at the top of the building. The Dark Order still hasn’t won people over with its vague gimmick, but they can really go in the ring. Stu Grayson’s intensity makes him a future star. Kazarian and Sky win with the SCU-Later. Now they go on next week to face the Lucha Bros in the finals to see who become the first ever AEW Tag Team Champions.
They played a “Wardlow is coming soon” vignette in front of his hometown crowd, to a nice pop. It was brief, and I’m not sure if it made air or not.
Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela
This was their second match in as many weeks, as Omega beat Janela last week on AEW Dark in a hardcore match. This normal contest paled in comparison to the former, especially coming off of two very good tag matches. The physicality was good here, and Janela did a nice job of selling the chops and knees from Omega. Kenny gets great height on his dives, but nobody really believed Janela could pull the upset here. Omega wins with the One-Winged Angel. It would’ve been nice if they’d have made the last two matches a minute or two shorter, and used that TV time to introduce Janela as a character.
Cody came out for a promo, and everything about him says “star”. The crowd really enjoyed the use of pyro here. Cody starts to talk, but is interrupted masterfully by Jericho with an airhorn. The two jaw-jack back and forth, and Jericho says Cody wouldn’t dare come up there since it was four on one (Jake Hager wasn’t at the show tonight, as he’s likely training for an MMA fight). Out comes Dustin Rhodes, MJF, and then DDP. Diamond Dallas Page was legitimately unexpected and got a huge pop. The faces went into the crowd and brawled with the Inner Circle out into the lobby. This was intense and had a real feel to it, even with Jericho comedically saying “but I paid for my ticket” over and over. You’d suspect an 8-man tag match is coming in the next week or two.
The Best Friends vs. The Young Bucks
You can see how tag team heavy this show has been over the past few weeks. They really want to push this tag revival mission in AEW. This was a fun showcase for the Bucks, who looked exceptionally smooth tonight. Some nasty suplexes in this one from Best Friends, and Orange Cassidy was very over for his pocket dive to the outside. The Young Bucks are victorious with “More Bang For Your Buck”, and then they accept Santana and Ortiz’ challenge for Full Gear.
Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter
They play a little “welcome home” package for Baker, the Pittsburgh native. She comes out to a thunderous ovation, complete with Steely McBeam, the Steelers mascot. She waves a Terrible Towel, and has the crowd all doing the same. Hayter was meant as enhancement talent for Britt, but she played a nice heel here. She played to the crowd quite a bit for heat, and her offense was physical. Baker eventually won with the Lockjaw. Backstage, they tried to interview Hayter, but she was attacked by Bea Priestley. I’d be surprised if we don’t see Baker vs. Priestley at Full Gear.
Jon Moxley vs. Pac
Pac got the loudest boos of the night, and Moxley was a fan favorite here. Another very physical match with a lot of brawling. Moxley hits the old Dirty Deeds (bulldog into DDT) on the apron. Pac’s height and form on his aerial work is something to behold. This went to the full time limit draw, but seemed very quick. These two were among the show stealers for the night, and TNT went off the air after the time limit expired. After they went dark, Pac attacked Moxley. Omega ran out to Save Moxley, and they ended in a staredown. Adam Page came out, and said at Full Gear, he and Pac will have a rematch. The top of this PPV card is really stacked.
I’m not sure what details I missed from the broadcasting standpoint, but this show was a total blast from the audience. The crowd loved it, it was lit/presented well, and the matches were a lot of fun. Go out of your way to see Private Party/Lucha Bros and Pac/Moxley. I look forward to seeing how the last two weeks of TV go before Full Gear.
