Episode 27 of AEW Dynamite came to us again from an “undisclosed location” as the social distancing of the worldwide pandemic continues. The rumors are swirling that AEW has wisely taped weeks and weeks of TNT programming in case they happen to get shut down. They had several wrestlers around the ring to act as an audience, including a ton of enhancement talent from the past few weeks of AEW Dark tapings. Tony Schiavone was with Chris Jericho on commentary this week, and it was pretty solid. Jericho stammered over phrasing, but it worked pretty well for his cocky heel character. Let’s jump into the action.
Jake Roberts opened the show with another famous promo in a dark background. His manipulation of language and low tone really makes his promos some of the best in the entire company. He says that anyone who gets in the ring with Lance Archer is instantly done and they have no chance. He puts Archer over like a million bucks here.
Lance Archer vs. Alan Engles
Archer gets a quick squash for his second consecutive win. We don’t know much about Engles at all here, but this is a power showcase for the “Murderhawk”. He hits the Blackout for the win. His intensity shined from quick bell to quick bell.
Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida
This was a match-up of two of the top five ranked ladies in the women’s division. It started a bit slow, but really picked up about a third of the way in. It was given a lot of time to develop, and it really benefited from the length. Baker has come on more and more every week as a character since her heel turn, and this was the first time it felt like she’d put it all together. She not only played to the crowd and added to her arsenal here, but she looked a whole lot smoother in the ring. What Shida lacks in character, she makes up for as the smoothest Joshi import in AEW. Baker uses the camera to call out to Tony Schiavone, as they continue their cute odd-couple relationship. Shida hit something that likely broke Baker’s nose here, as she was bleeding profusely. Britt gave a heel smile as her mouth cavern filled with blood, almost like a Gangrel entrance. Shida wins with the sliding knee in one of AEW’s better women’s matches.
Backstage, we get a promo with Kenny Omega and Michael Nakazawa. They talk about their time teaming in DDT in Japan, and say they should be called the Best Friends. The actual Best Friends enter and are offended by this. The two teams will square off for the right to see who the real Best Friends are, tonight. Not much of substance here.
AEW has Excalibur narrate their top five rankings for each division. Aside from the main men’s division, everyone except the top two contenders in each division have near even records. It’s better booking than WWE, but everyone is still too close to 50-50 to make themselves feel special.
Then we get the first of two Jon Moxley/Jake Hager packages. They show both men training to prepare for their no holds barred match next week for the AEW World Title. Both of these packages did a great job hyping the match. They showed Hager as a dangerous two-sport athlete and showed Moxley as an ever-ready warrior who would do whatever it takes to retain his belt. This match should be a barnburner.
We see the first of two packages hyping up tonight’s Spears vs. Cody main event. It did a wonderful job of not only hyping up the importance of the new TNT Title, but also recapping the brutal history between Spears and Cody. The packages and promos were truly the star of tonight’s show.
Kenny Omega/Michael Nakazawa vs. Best Friends
This match was pretty much thrown together without stakes to eat up a lot of time on the show. Omega and Nakazawa used a lot of their old comedic double team moves that were likely a nice nod to all of the DDT fans out there. Nakazawa did his trademark baby oil spots, and then he and Orange Cassidy did some comedy with OC’s glasses. This went on for far too long, but the commentary was quite good throughout this match. Best Friends get the win over Nakazawa with Storm Zero.
We get another Brodie Lee promo where he’s clearly spoofing Vince McMahon. Brodie shows up and dresses down two of the Dark Order creepers because they aren’t wearing ties. He says if you aren’t dressed properly, you won’t feel like a star. This is another take on Vince McMahon’s theories about airport superstars and wearing ties. While I love Brodie and he’s very well spoken, I’d like for his gimmick to go more toward the dark and dangerous cult-exploits of the Dark Order, and less toward taking shots at his former boss. At first it was funny, and now it’s a big watered down and feels petty. Brodie is tremendous, and can’t do more than this.
Britt Baker has a promo backstage, and her face is still mangled. She says Shida is a cheater and gets in a good line about her teeth still looking great. She’s the best character in the women’s division, by far.
Matt “Damascus” Hardy is backstage for a broken promo. He has that unique delivery that may be silly, but is still believable from his lips. He has Vanguard-1 burn Jericho’s T-shirt. He calls Jericho a “hole of the ass” and breaks down all the Inner Circle members. He challenges Jericho to come to the Hardy compound for an Elite Deletion Match.
Brodie Lee vs. Lee Johnson
Lee Johnson stood out this week on AEW Dark as he faced his former trainer, QT Marshall. He’s a solid looking athlete, and he made the most out of his bumps this week against Brodie. Brodie Lee gets an excellent squash here with a variety of moves, and he wins with the discus lariat. Afterward, he stares down Marko Stunt, who seemingly smirks at him. Stunt just got killed last week by Archer, so I don’t think we need it again by Lee. Also, having this 4 foot, 100 pound guy smirking at your new monster with the dark gimmick is pretty silly. Bad booking after the match here.
Shawn Spears vs. Cody
This main event is your first 1st round match in the TNT Title Tournament. These two heated rivals showed off good chemistry. I’ll say it again, Spears is the most underused talent that AEW has right now. He added a lot to his offense for this match, and Cody had great fire on his comeback. This match told a good story, even if they did use a lot of weapons. Jericho smartly got them out of the lapse of logic by saying that Aubrey Edwards was relaxing the rules because the tournament was so important. I’d like to have seen Spears get a big win here due to Archer’s interference, but I feel like we may see that in the next round against Darby Allin. Good match that Cody wins due to a pinfall from a figure four leglock.
Overall, this was a decent show. You could tell they were filling for time by doubling up on hype packages and lengthening matches, but given the limited crew and circumstances, they are doing good work with what they have. Archer and Brodie Lee continued their dominance, Hardy hit on another good promo, and several packages were used to hype upcoming work. Britt Baker had a breakout match tonight, and the main event delivered. Overall, AEW is taking an awkwardly tragic time and using it to produce solid shows. I’ll see you all at the next opening bell! Stay safe!
