Episode 35 of AEW Dynamite came to us taped from their home base in Florida, coming off a very memorable show. They had a pair of landmark moments in the debut of FTR and the Jericho-Tyson showdown, which they milked heavily. I won’t include all of the recaps in this review, but they used a ton of them to fill out the runtime tonight.
Kip Sabian/Jimmy Havoc vs. Kenny Omega/Adam Page
As it’s become tradition on Dynamite, the tag title match opens the show here. This one started slow with the heels cutting off the ring and using striking offense to isolate Omega. It kicked into second gear after the first break, but it went way too long (over 15 minutes). One thing that really stood out here was the excellent selling from Page. It seemed like Havoc and Sabian caught some of Omega’s cartoonish pointing in this match, but Page was excellent. Once Penelope Ford was sent to the back, the challengers had no chance. The Buckshot/V-Trigger combo helps Page/Omega retain.
They show a piece of the EXCELLENT impassioned promo from Tully Blanchard this week, and I have no idea why they didn’t play the whole thing on this show. Then they go into a limo, where Tully gives Spears a glove and says that this is the missing piece to Spears’ success. It’s silly to make a glove so important, but anything that gets Spears in important angles here, I’m in favor of. Tully is one of the best talkers in AEW.
Brian Cage vs. Shawn Dean
This was another quick squash for “The Machine”. Cage shows off some nice suplexes and power moves, and wins with the Drillclaw. Taz gets on the mic and says Moxley snickering at them last week was disrespectful. Moxley comes out and says he’s not taking them lightly, but he’s also an entirely different beast. This was intense and well paced, and it adds a lot to the Cage/Moxley feud. AEW has done a lot to get Cage over quickly. Great segment.
Lance Archer is outside beating up a masked wrestler, and he says one loss won’t hurt him. He talks (well) for himself this time, saying he’s here to make sure everybody dies. He’s no Jake Roberts on the mic, but he’s also not bad on his own. It’ll be very interesting to see where they program him next.
Private Party is back in their bar area as Marq Quen says he’s healed from last week. “Team Extreme” era Matt Hardy comes back and says that they remind him of him and Jeff when they were younger. Hardy says he wants to help them out, and they mark out. In a way, it was a nice usage of the veteran Hardy to put over a young talented team. But to have them get overly excited at Hardy’s compliments made them feel a bit busch league compared to him. So this was a mixed bag, but it has room for growth. Hardy also tells Sammy Guevara he respects him here, so it seems Hardy is focused on putting over younger talent.
Colt Cabana vs. Chris Jericho
This first-time match-up of the well traveled veterans was a fun one. Cabana got his face busted open a bit with an errant punch, and then did a moonsault to the outside. Lots of solid counter-wrestling here, including Jericho countering Colt’s British flying pin into the Liontamer. Just solid wrestling all around. Jericho counter’s Colt’s artful dodger attempt (ala Nigel McGuinness in Ring of Honor) into the Judas elbow for the win. After the match, Jericho gets on the mic and calls for Mike Tyson, but gets Orange Cassidy. Cassidy dodges Jericho and Hager and escapes freely. It’s another case of a veteran working with a young guy, to build Jericho up for the Tyson PPV match. But in this case, Jericho and Cassidy are too many classes apart to make this believable for me.
They show a little “Rocky” training montage for Britt Baker in her “roll model” wheelchair. Tony Schiavone is there to cheer her on as she mocks her trainer. Tonight she’s at ringside in her “roles royce”. She’s got the hang of this falsely modest heel character, and they keep finding creative ways to keep her on TV during her injury. Great stuff.
Nyla Rose vs. Big Swole
This was Swole’s first match back in a while, and it was good to see a fresh face. This was mostly really crisp and physical. Nyla took a nasty spill tailbone first on the apron. As the match wound down, Swole got very tired and started to look a bit sloppy. But she’s gotten herself into phenomenal physical shape. Nyla wins with a sitout spinebuster. Swole talks to Schiavone afterward, and Britt Baker tries to rush to ringside in her wheelchair. Swole threatens her, and she backpedals away. I don’t know why they’re starting a feud for Baker when she can’t wrestle until September, but if it keeps her on TV, that’s fine by me.
Darby Allin does a brief backstage promo where he says even though he’s not medically cleared yet, he’ll have that last laugh. They could’ve gotten more mileage out of this if Darby was in his graveyard setting, but this was still a way to get him on the show.
Tony Schiavone (who’s busy tonight) sits down with FTR (the former Revival). They say FTR means whatever they want, and they name some teams they want to face. This leads up to them saying they’ll fight the Bucks to see who the best tag team is, soon. They were on their game here and spoke very well. The Butcher and The Blade came down and said they want revenge for last week, so they’re facing next week. This is a great mesh of styles and should be a great first opponent for FTR.
Colt Cabana has a promo backstage and says he’s doing well, but hasn’t been able to get the big wins. Brodie and the Dark Order spokesman come up and say they can help Colt win. They’re trying to recruit him, and while Cabana isn’t a natural fit for the group, he’s somewhat of a comedy guy with no real direction. So a more serious edge might make him a good candidate.
Cody vs. Jungle Boy
Cody’s first TNT Title defense main events the show, and they instantly make it seem like a huge deal. Cody always has chemistry with the smaller, younger guys, and this is no exception. Cody tried to take the legs out of the quicker opponent, and Jungle Boy used his agility to counter a lot and look for a flash pin. These two gelled very well, and Cody got busted open on the outside. They took a fall through a ringside table, and then ran short on time. Cody got the win (in a very fun match) with the Crossroads. They hugged after the match, and had a good first defense for Cody here.
Overall, this was a solid and focused show. My only gripe was the sheer amount of recaps and flashbacks they used to pad this show, but all of the new content was nice. They got a ton of talent on this episode, and used them in a lot of different venues/areas. It was a good second night for the TNT Title and FTR, and they seem to be taking a lot of new storylines as they get ready for Fyter Fest in the first two weeks of July.
