AEW officially celebrated 3 months on TNT with its 12th episode tonight, coming at us from Corpus Christi, Texas. Corpus Christi is generally known to be one of the more quiet, dead crowds of the wrestling circuit, but this episode of Dynamite seemed to keep them very engaged throughout. It’s the final episode of the year folks, so let’s ring the opening bell…
Lucha Bros vs. Kenny Omega/Adam Page
AEW pledged this week to kick off with a hot, commercial-free match to combat NXT’s World Title match on USA. This was pretty much just a spot-fest, and a rather choppy one at that. I’ve got to say, Pentagon Jr. is perhaps the most stale act in all of wrestling right now. Sure, his costume is cool and he’s athletic, but his weekly routine is repetitive and one dimensional. The glove trick and repeating “cero miedo” over and over again doesn’t do much for me. Page was on the floor for a lot of the match, playing into the recent tension between him and The Elite. He accidentally hit Omega with the Buckshot Lariat, and Omega got pinned with the package piledriver/double stomp combo.
Page and Omega started to shove, but they were interrupted by Pac on the big screen. Pac says he wants a rematch with Omega, and he seemingly kidnaps Omega’s friend, Michael Nakazawa in the back. Omega goes to rescue him and gets jumped by Lucha Bros. This is undoubtedly leading to Pac/Omega 3 and a Hangman heel turn.
Darby Allin/Cody vs. The Butcher and The Blade
They did a nice job on commentary playing up the story that Allin and Cody went to a draw at a previous PPV. Continuity means good storytelling, and AEW has that in places that WWE does not. Jim Ross was pretty lost all night, but particularly so in this match. The Butcher and The Blade are a really nice fit for the AEW tag division. Where a lot of the teams are spotty acrobats, B&B are methodical and have an old school, Revival feel to them. Darby Allin is poised to be the breakout star in wrestling in 2020. Cody wins with the springboard cutter. It’s a shame to have B&B lose in just their second match, but this did a great job of furthering the storyline between Cody and Darby. Very nice match.
We see a Jungle Boy training vignette. They played up the importance of tonight’s match with Jericho and got sympathy on Jack Perry.
Awesome Kong vs. Miranda Alize
Alize is from Title Match Wrestling, known for some of her intergender work. But this was a very quick squash to make the Nightmare Collective seem more dangerous. Brandi does a nice inset promo about wanting Kris Statlander to join, and we see the bald man hiding his face. The bald man has already been revealed by insiders online, but I wish it were Killer Kross (officially released today by Impact Wrestling) who was in this group. Kong wins with the Implant Buster, and they slice off a lock of Alize’s hair.
We get a brief sit-down with Jungle Boy talking to JR. Jungle Boy says Jericho is a legend, but he doesn’t fear him.
Jungle Boy vs. Chris Jericho
We see a great camera shot of Jungle Boy’s family at ringside, again boosting the magnitude of this match. If this show served one person tonight, it was Jungle Boy. The story here was classic, but well done. Jungle Boy got off to a hot start, using his youthful exuberance and quickness to get the advantage. Then the veteran Jericho controlled the ring, as the undersized underdog tried to hang on. This was a 10 minute time limit match, and it went to a draw as Jungle Boy held on inside the Liontamer for about 90 seconds. Then Jericho asked for more time, but ran away when Jungle Boy got back on offense. While this doesn’t hurt Jericho one bit, it does wonders for Jungle Boy to take Jericho to the limit. There’s still money in Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus as a top tag team, but both of those parties have major singles pushes ahead down the road. They kept Luchasaurus vs. Jake Hager going as well. After the match, Jericho tells Moxley that he has a surprise for him in two weeks and hopes he’ll join the Inner Circle.
SCU has a short promo backstage, saying everyone is calling the Young Bucks the best tag team, and overlooking them. The Lucha Bros show up and say Chris Daniels doesn’t have it anymore. Daniels walks off dejected, playing up a possible confidence loss angle.
Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander
This is a number one contendership match, where the winner will face Riho in two weeks for the championship. AEW has really strapped the rocket to Statlander, who has won 3 matches in 3 weeks since being signed. This was a decent encounter, but it lagged as it ran long and the competitors got winded. Jim Ross really took a bit away from this match, as he continually tried to explain himself calling Statlander “big” and “large”. He was trying so hard to be politically correct, that it took his focus off of the match. The two no-sold each other early, and scrambled to get back on track. There was some hard hitting and some quality reversals, but it never quite clicked. Baker is getting very good at transitioning into her Lockjaw finisher, but the rest of her signature moves just don’t look smooth. Statlander wins with a NASTY looking Big Bang Theory, where it looked like she dropped Baker right on her head.
Brandi comes out and asks if Statlander is joining the Nightmare Collective. After she says no, Brandi blindsides her with a heel to the eye. Statlander will play a great foil for Brandi’s group, and I think it’s time to pull the trigger on a new Women’s Champion on January 1st.
Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard are backstage, and they are still looking for the right partner for Spears. Spears could easily run as a top singles heel, but I fear he may get lost in the fray of the deep tag team division. They could either do an “opposites attract” angle and put him with Joey Janela/Jimmy Havok, or they could bring in someone from outside the company (maybe a PJ Black).
SCU vs. Young Bucks- Tag Team Championship
This was another spotfest match, but unlike the opener, it was a lot smoother and showcased transitions well. The story here was that SCU wanted to show that they were as good as the Bucks. This one was on warp speed from the start, and featured a ton of quick tandem offense. SCU got the win with SCU-Later. After the match, the Dark Order attacked both teams. A ton of masked goons came out, and John Silver and Alex Reynolds joined the crew. Silver and Reynolds are CZW and Evolve vets who have been jobbing lately on AEW Dark. The Elite (minus Adam Page) run out to try and help, but the numbers of the Dark Order help them stand tall. I really like this act after the macabre cult vignettes, but sadly it may be too late to save them in live audiences’ eyes.
All in all, this was a bit underwhelming. For their final show of 2019, nothing big really happened. There were no cliffhangers or surprises, and the promo work was at a minimum. They did great work with Jungle Boy and the Cody tag match was awesome, but other than that, it was just a wrestling show (that felt longer than normal). Still, even on a weaker note, AEW is closing out a landmark debut year. I look forward to seeing them start on 1/1/20 with some hot angles and fresh faces. As next week is Christmas Day, AEW and myself will be seeing you in the new year. I wish you all a festive and safe holiday season, a Merry Christmas, and a year full of blessings ahead.
