AEW Dynamite was back for the first episode after their successful Double Or Nothing PPV this past Saturday, and they had plenty of vociferous wrestlers in the crowd to cheer on the action. The extra workers out there have really added a ton to the environment. Let’s jump right in to the anticipated action.
We opened with a backstage segment where the Inner Circle was talking to Alex Marvez. They made a bunch of championship shirts to commemorate their Stadium Stampede win from Saturday…except they lost. So they have a truckload of extra shirts now. Pretty funny opening segment, that fit the theme from Saturday’s match.
We get a promo where the Young Bucks are talking about teaming with Matt Hardy for the first time, and they ask to get a younger version of him. He shows off three different versions, but he settles on the mid 90s colorful jobber attire.
Private Party/Joey Janela vs. Young Bucks/Matt Hardy
This six man tag was just thrown together for no rhyme or reason, and you can tell that some of the wrestlers showed ill-effects from the stadium match. It was odd to see the Bucks carrying so much of the offense and taking such high risks after coming off of such a hellacious match. There were up and down moments here, but it felt disjointed and a bit sloppy. They had one of the Bucks accidentally kick Blade in the crowd, and this led to a Butcher/Blade vs. Bucks brawl. Marc Quen looked to have been legitimately injured with a leg issue. The Elite get the win, and Hardy (oddly) helps to carry Quen off.
After the match, Butcher and Blade hop in to beat up the Bucks again. Just as I’m thinking the Bucks could use a slower paced team to get the most out of them, FTR (the former Revival in WWE) drive up and stare the Bucks down. They attack Butcher and Blade, and walk off from the Bucks. Aside from the meaningless burial of Butcher and Blade, it is GREAT to see FTR in AEW. They’re a psychology-ridden throwback to classic teams, and they bring a much needed slower pacing to AEW’s tag team division. It’s a perfect fit for the best team in the world. Welcome to AEW, FTR.
Jon Moxley comes out for commentary to watch Brian Cage’s match, and he seems like he’s having fun tonight.
Brian Cage vs. Lee Johnson
For those who don’t know, Brian Cage debuted at the PPV and won the #1 contendership ladder match. He’s an athletic hoss with a million dollar body, who spent time in WWE developmental before thriving in PWG, Lucha Underground, and TNA Impact. His Dynamite debut is a quick squash win here, with his Drillclaw sit-out piledriver. Taz (managing Cage now) gets on the mic and says he wants Mox to bring it at Fyter Fest, because Cage will win the title. Cage is an excellent signing for AEW and a good fit with Taz.
Britt Baker comes out to the stage in a wheelchair (labeled the “roll model”) for an interview with Tony Schiavone. She has a crime-scene board and a bunch of slides about how her injury was on purpose, and all the different ladies that are to blame. She’s absolutely fabulous in the smarmy heel role and I feel like I repeat this weekly. She says she’ll be out until All Out (in September). I hope we get weekly promos from her in the meantime, because this was great, even in its awkwardness.
Christi Jaynes vs. Hikaru Shida
This was a glorified squash for the new champion Shida, but also a bit of a showcase for Jaynes (who had one other match on a previous episode of Dark). Jaynes was a bit slow in her execution, making some of the spots look convoluted. But she’s a very solid athlete and she has a star look to her, so she’s got a lot of potential. Shida’s shots here looked extremely soft. Average match, and Shida wins with the Falcon Arrow.
Cody is out for his first promo as the TNT Champion. This is energetic and spirited, and you can tell that this title means a lot to Cody. He says that for people that haven’t liked his in-ring work before, that they should judge him starting now, because he’s raising his game. He made it sound like he’ll be defending the title every week. Cody has his ear to the ground in pop culture, and he has a passion that few in wrestling have. This promo was gold. But they ran a side angle, where QT Marshall wouldn’t pay attention to Cody because he was smitten with Allie. I have problems with this. 1. Why break up Butcher/Blade from Allie with no fanfare? It hurts BOTH acts. 2. Why exactly is Allie back to being Allie again, and why does she like Marshall? 3. Don’t we all know that Allie is married to Blade in real life, and didn’t the commentators already acknowledge it? No logic here at all. But it didn’t hurt the promo.
SCU vs. Kip Sabian/Jimmy Havok
This was set up as a #1 contenders match for a tag title shot next week. I have more issues with the continuity here. Private Party and Best Friends just had a #1 contendership match on Saturday. Also, what qualifies either of these teams to be top contenders? This is the first time this combo of SCU has teamed in months. And Sabian/Havok have no signature tag team wins (they may have had zero wins at ALL as a team). This is supposed to be a “wins and losses matter” company. Decent match that got better as it went, and Sabian/Havok get their first meaningful win after Ford’s interference. Let’s see what they can do against the champs next week.
MJF cuts a fun promo backstage about how the office (aka Cody) is against him because he’s undefeated but hasn’t gotten a title shot. Good callback here.
TNT Contendership Battle Royal
A match like this really shows how thin AEW’s roster is. They’re top-heavy and have made great additions in the past 3 months, but the undercard is pretty rough. Winless, unseen competitors (not counting Dark) like Brandon Cutler, Luther, and Peter Avalon were in this. Geez. In the end, Jungle Boy outlasts MJF and Wardlow to get the first shot at Cody’s title. This will be the work-horse championship in AEW (like WWE’s Intercontinental Title used to be), and this is a great first match-up for that belt. Jungle Boy keeps getting meaningful reps against veterans and he’s already really good. Great result here.
To close the show, we had the Inner Circle’s pep rally, where they could get their heat back for losing on Saturday. They took turns giving each other gifts. They played up Guevara and Ortiz’ injuries, as well as previous gifts they gave each other. Jericho talks about Mike Tyson, and Tyson comes out with a crew of fighters (including some guys that looked pretty inebriated). They basically recreated the Tyson-Austin segment from 1998, where Jericho and Tyson shoved, and pandemonium broke out. Tyson is still in great shape, but he didn’t look like he cared at all here. He kept laughing and trying to lean into the mic. Points for a nice callback, but trying to run back an angle from 22 years prior with a laughing Tyson made it seem a bit more silly than serious. But it was a nice visual to close the show, and a potential Tyson vs. Jericho match could make some money.
Overall, this was a decent show. Not on the level of the past three weeks, and probably not as good as expected coming off of the PPV. But Cage made a nice TV debut, and the former Revival got a huge pop from the crowd. Logic was a big issue this week, but it’s nice to have some new additions, plus 90% of the roster back. There are some questions going forward to what’s next for some of the top contenders (Lee, Archer, and MJF).
