Episode 41 of AEW Dynamite was the Fight For the Fallen special, which raised money for Covid 19 research and survivors. Hats off to AEW and Tony Kahn for donating handsomely to a great cause. Tony Schiavone was out tonight, as his routine weekly Covid test results were delayed, so he was kept away as a precaution.
Cody vs. Sonny Kiss
This TNT Championship open challenge has become one of the must-see moments on Dynamite every time it happens. Kiss comes out with the Jacksonville cheerleaders for a special entrance. This match was an excellent opener, that really was the first time Kiss has done anything special in AEW. Cody came out more aggressively than normal, working more as a heel. They’re really building the new horsemen stable idea up, as Cody worked heel with many camera cuts to Tully Blanchard watching in the crowd. Kiss is a tremendous athlete, and his fast paced offense worked very smoothly against Cody’s counter wrestling. This was far better than expected, and was one of the night’s show-stealers. Cody wins with a Crossroads, but Arn seems upset. He’s got another open challenge next week, and with the ex-WWE 90 day no-compete clauses up by then, it could be a Zack Ryder or a Mike Bennett.
FTR vs. Lucha Bros
This would be considered a dream match for some. It started off pretty sloppily, as I felt that these two teams didn’t entirely click. Parts of this match really lended itself to the clash of styles, and other times it was a downright mess. The Lucha Bros are simply too repetitive, pose heavy, and choreographed for my liking, but this had nice moments among the roller coaster. FTR win with a small package after they unmask Fenix. Nice old school finish here. The Bucks come out and steal the truck keys from Butcher and Blade at ringside. Omega comes out with beer as a peace offering to FTR. FTR dumps the beer on Omega’s head. This looks to all be heading to a three team feud for the tag team titles.
Chris Jericho is out with the Inner Circle for a promo. He starts talking about how AEW beat NXT in the key demographic (18-49 year old viewers) and calls himself the “Demogod”. This feels like very desperate pandering to me. NXT has beaten AEW in total overnight viewership for three straight weeks, and this is their way to try to look superior. Jericho then talks about how he shut down Orange Cassidy for good. Cassidy saunters out into the crowd, and signals to the ring. A ton of orange juice falls from the sky and drenches the Inner Circle. Ortiz swims in it while Jericho yells about his $7,000 jacket. He asks for a towel to dry off, but the towel has Cassidy’s face on it. While they did their best to create a moment (ala the Brood or Austin’s beer truck or DX’s fecal moment), I think Cassidy is the wrong guy for this spot. They gave Cassidy a good match, and now Jericho should move on. I get that he’s popular, but he’s an undercard comedy jobber with a lazy gimmick. If Jericho wants to invest the time to give a rub to a younger guy, you have MJF, Darby Allen, Jungle Boy, among others in the locker room.
Jurassic Express is backstage, and Marko Stunt cuts a promo laughing at Jericho. Then Luchasaurus claims he’s centuries old. This came off like second rate comedy stuff that didn’t help them get over at all.
Jurassic Express vs. The Elite
Jericho was on commentary for this six man tag. Jericho heard Jurassic Express’ comments and it looks like he’ll be doing a feud with Marko Stunt as well. Man, Jericho is really trying to help the wrong talents find a mainstream audience here. Jericho was TREMENDOUS on commentary here, perhaps the best he’s been yet. As a match, this just felt like a lot of pre-planned stunts. They did a ton of flips and had to wait around to catch each other’s choreography. Omega gave way too much offense to Stunt, and that felt unrealistic. Luchasaurus has one of the coolest looks/costumes in the company, but his kick heavy style feels out of place and his leg-slapping is blatant. This had some cool death-defying sequences, but it never had that real competitive match feel. Omega pinned Stunt with the One-Winged Angel. During the match, we see shots of Adam Page drinking backstage. During one of the cuts, FTR comes up to drink with Page. It’s likely that FTR will try to get in Page’s head and cause him to split from Omega at some point. That’s a nice storytelling addition to their tension.
Hikaru Shida is backstage, and says AEW has a thin women’s roster lately. She’ll take on anyone who thinks they’re ready. This sounds kind of like an open challenge. In which case, I’d love to see ladies like Thunder Rosa, Allysin Kay, and Ivelisse come in for title shots. Speaking of Ivelisse, she and Diamante are having a match next week! I hope she gets signed.
Allie/Brandi Rhodes vs. Kenzie Page/MJ Jenkins
This is the first time we’ve seen the Nightmare Sisters continuing their Dark storyline on Dynamite. MJ Jenkins is a former WWE competitor who worked not only in the Mae Young Classic, but also formerly in Impact Wrestling. She’s a Dudley school graduate. Allie and Brandi are starting to bond, and they look decent here. Allie wins with the Nightmare on Helms Street. Clearly Allie is pretending to get in with the Rhodes family to poison and corrupt them, but they’re telling the story at a good pace.
They show a graphic saying that Nyla Rose will be out next week at Fight For The Fallen (which is this week) to make a big announcement about her manager. She then proceeds to come out next, to make that announcement. Major graphic/communication miscue there. Nyla comes out and says she’ll let her manager speak for herself, and Vickie Guerrero comes out. Vickie says they’ll destroy everyone and Nyla will be women’s champion. With Vickie being a big AEW fan, this felt fairly obvious. Nyla doesn’t really need a manager, but Vickie is good at getting heat. She’d just have been better served to manage someone who needed help with promos, like a Big Swole or Hikaru Shida.
Brian Cage vs. Jon Moxley
It was good to see this match get about 17 minutes. It had a big fight feel, and was very physical throughout. The same knocks I gave to the two tag team matches earlier, showed why I loved this main event. Everything was laid in rough, everything was sold thoroughly, and it felt like a real fight. Moxley went right after Cage’s surgically repaired arm, just like he said he’d do in an earlier promo. They worked in Cage’s pre-AEW injury very well, as Moxley used submissions to neutralize the stronger man. In turn, Cage used high impact offense (like a german suplex on the guardrail and a suplex on a chair) to attack Moxley’s back. He put Moxley’s back through a car windshield weeks earlier, so that was a nice bit of continuity and psychology. They even explained that Moxley’s Paradigm Shift DDT wouldn’t affect Cage as much because of his thick neck and shoulders, so he kicked out. That makes Cage look like a monster, while protecting Moxley’s finishing move. Moxley locks in a cross armbreaker, and Cage refuses to tap, so Taz throws in the (orange) towel. Taz does the right thing to save his client’s long term health, while Cage looks like a beast for not giving up. Great booking here. In the end, Darby Allin comes out and hits Cage with a skateboard for injuring him earlier.
Overall, this was quite a roller coaster show. It was book-ended by two tremendous title matches that you should go out of your way to see, but the hour and fifteen minutes between them was lackluster. For people who like spot wrestling, they’ll love the middle, and this will feel like the perfect show for the modern fan. While I was let down by the pacing of the earlier stuff, this show gets a thumbs up for Cody/Kiss and Moxley/Cage being bangers alone.
