Week 18 of AEW Dynamite came to us from another proud wrestling town, Huntsville, Alabama. They’ve been ahead of NXT pretty consistently in the ratings, with NXT gaining a bit of ground last week. With a lot of hype for this show surrounding the main event angle, let’s get right to the opening bell.
Jon Moxley vs. Ortiz
We kicked off hot and heavy, with the number one contender for the World Title taking on Chris Jericho’s henchman, Ortiz. Jericho was on commentary, and this week, AEW used camera cuts to the crowd singing his “Judas” theme. This was a well-paced and fun opener. Ortiz always has a lot of energy, and he manages to mix his funny facials/mannerisms in with his wrestling. He got to unleash some new things in his arsenal here. The former Proud and Powerful did a nice job stacking the deck against Mox with old school tactics, but Moxley won with the Paradigm Shift. After the match, Santana attacked, but got laid out as well. Moxley took Jericho’s ritzy car keys, and went “an eye for an eye”, stabbing Santana in the eye and going away through the crowd. This continues an intense build for Jericho/Moxley at Revolution.
Best Friends vs. SCU
This was a pretty standard tag match, where nothing truly stood out. SCU are the number one Tag Title contenders, so it never felt like they’d lose to an under-card comedy team. This was just a collection of spots, but nothing overly terrible. At one point, all four men were down, and Orange Cassidy laid down and posed among them. They’re doing the best they can to keep the Cassidy act creative. SCU gets the win with a move that wasn’t their finish, so points for that. SCU faces Page and Omega for the belts next week.
Dark Order comes out to jump SCU after the match. They want to recruit Orange Cassidy for some reason (why they’d want a guy whose gimmick is that he’s lazy, I have no clue), but after he turns them down, he gets jumped too. Daniels comes out, and the Order backs off.
MJF cuts a small promo package about why he’s whipping and humiliating Cody tonight. AEW did an excellent job of making this angle feel like a major event. They also had Taz and Dustin Rhodes talk about the savage importance of it as well. Great small touches.
Britt Baker vs. Yuka Sakazaki
Yuka has had one or two tag team matches on AEW’s early shows, but this is her Dynamite debut. Baker is coming off of two weeks of solid heel promos to breathe some life back into her character. I don’t want to pile on the meager AEW Women’s division here, but this was a mess. Sakazaki seems to have zero character other than the fact that she wears baggy genie pants, and she feels like simply another tiny Japanese Joshi wrestler with nothing special to her. My apologies to the Joshi fans out there, I just simply don’t get the need or connectivity on a national U.S. network here. Sakazaki botched a headscissors, then a springboard seated senton, then a light-hugging springboard dive. Baker didn’t fare any better here in the ring. This was sloppy from bell to bell. Sakazaki beats the newly heel Baker, who needed a win. Baker then attacks and seemingly rips a tooth out of Sakazaki’s mouth. Dud.
Lucha Bros/Butcher and Blade vs. The Elite
As a match, this was nothing more than a collection of spots. Sometimes crisp and cool, other times very highly choreographed looking. The amount of leg slaps in this match were distracting, and the amount of times that guys were waiting for spots to be done to them looked terribly phony. On the good side, the story arc came from Adam Page, who separated himself from the Bucks and Omega. Not only did he stay on the outside when the Elite did their triple-teams, but he also tagged himself in and wouldn’t tag back out. Lucha Bros pinned him with the Package Piledriver/Double Stomp combo, and his partners were furious that he didn’t listen. That’s the nuance that truly worked in this match.
Kenny Omega was in the ring for an interview with Tony Schiavone, but Pac came up in the back with Riho. Pac wants his match with Omega, and vaguely threatens to hurt Riho (Omega’s real-life girlfriend). Omega accepts the match with Pac, even though Riho just stands there when she could’ve ran away. Nyla Rose attacks Riho and (kinda) powerbombs her through a table. Nyla Rose vs. Riho is next week, and Omega vs. Pac is in three weeks.
Darby Allin has a vaguely brilliant macabre package, where he’s selling the effects of the skateboard attack from the Inner Circle, and then uses a flamethrower to light a cutout of Jericho/Guevara on fire. We need more dark character work like this for Darby.
Kip Sabian vs. Joey Janela
I’d rather they have saved this well-build showdown for the Revolution PPV, but given the finish, we may get a rematch there. I really enjoyed this, since it came with a long-running story behind it. Janela is a really good bumper, and that was showcased for the heel Sabian, who worked the crowd well. The Alabama faithful were really starting to get behind Janela here. Good back and forth match, that saw Sabian win with a roll up, pulling the tights. This feud should continue and bring more ferocity with each encounter.
The Inner Circle cuts a quick promo, where Jericho chastises Moxley for going after another man’s eye (ironic brilliance). Santana says he’ll get revenge on Moxley next week, one-on-one. Moxley having to go through the Inner Circle as they build to his clash with Jericho gives each week more purpose.
The Bucks confront Adam Page in the back for not tagging out in their match earlier, as Omega once again tries to play peacemaker. The Bucks take Page’s beer away, then he chugs from a pitcher. Silly, but harmless.
The main event this week was the masterfully tense MJF/Cody whipping segment. MJF says he wants to use Cody’s belt to whip him. The last 20 minutes of this show was not only an elocution on how to build a feud/segment outside of a match, but also a great way to put sympathy on Cody and heat on MJF. The heels came out to cheer on Cody’s beating, while Cody’s friends/family came out to coach Cody through the pain. They touched every emotion as they slowly built each individual lash and added stakes to each strike. Cody came off as tenacious and empathetic, while MJF came off as a putrid, smarmy, reprobate. The sound of the snapping of the strap and the look of the red welted battle scars engaged every sense to involve the crowd in this spectacle. In the end, Cody survived the ten lashes and MJF kicked him low and ran away. This was perhaps my favorite segment in Dynamite history.
This show was quite a mixed bag overall. Some of the matches were just spotfests, even more so than usual. There were a ton of leaps in logic and phony looking moments on this broadcast. Baker/Sakazaki was absolutely awful. But with that said, Moxley looks like a badass as he continues to tear up the Inner Circle. Adam Page breaks down week by week. Sabian/Janela had a nice peak to their feud. And the near perfect main event segment made Cody into an absolute hero. So while this show had some low lows, it seemed to hit new heights as well. I’ll see you all next week!
