Episode 51 of AEW Dynamite kicked off from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville with a moderate crowd in attendance. After last night’s special edition of late night Dynamite, AEW was looking to keep the ball rolling. Let’s jump right into it.
Kip Sabian/Miro vs. Sonny Kiss/Joey Janela
The show opened with a small Kip promo about how “The Best Man” is here for his in-ring debut. This was the first match for Miro, the former Rusev in WWE, and he’s in killer shape. We got an inset promo from Kiss and Janela, and Joey referenced his former relationship to Penelope Ford. This was rightfully just a showcase for Miro, and he built up every time he was entering the match. Sabian has a decent heel presence, he just needs to use this as a vehicle to be presented better. The match seemed very long, but they kept all the offense on Sabian and kept Miro from bumping too much. Miro’s offense looked great, even though he seemed to jam his leg at one point. Miro won with the “Game Over”, his camel clutch. My mind is already wandering to where Miro’s first real feud goes.
Eddie Kingston is out quickly for a promo, as this was written into the show late into today. Lance Archer came into contact with someone who was exposed to Covid, so the six man tag was cancelled in favor of Kingston vs. Moxley for the AEW World Title later tonight. Kingston says he never lost the battle royal, and that plus his experience earns him this title shot. I love that they explained this. Kingson says he and Moxley go way back, but Moxley sold out to sports entertainment, while Kingston stayed fighting in the streets. Moxley comes out and referees break it up. Nice quick add on to put some good heat on the main event.
Evil Uno vs. Adam Page
Kenny Omega was out for commentary, and while he didn’t add anything special, he wasn’t offensive. He doesn’t have much personality though. This match fell into the trap that a lot of others did tonight: it was very long and the outcome only had one possible winner. The offense was fine, it just drug on too long and never gave us any sense that Uno could win. Uno sent the Dark Order to the back here, and they’re teasing an odd potential face turn here. Page wins with the Buckshot Lariat.
Matt Jackson has a backstage promo with Tony Schiavone, where he says the Bucks need to be better. Tony brings up FTR a few times, and that makes Matt angry. Matt breaks Tony’s phone. I just can’t buy the Bucks as heels, and all of their “heelish” antics have been very child-like and borderline silly for the past three weeks. I get the idea here, but they need to find new ways to put some edge on the Bucks for this to really work.
Orange Cassidy vs. Brodie Lee
This TNT Title Match is similar to Page/Uno, where it was long and Brodie was always going to win. The psychology was a bit offensive here. Brodie destroyed Cody in a squash in 3 minutes, yet he took forever and took a bunch of offense from a slacker comedy character. I wish the Jericho feud had evolved or matured the Cassidy character in some way. Cassidy took so much offense from the massive Brodie that it didn’t feel realistic for him to keep coming back. They’re also doing this thing where Brodie continually beats up his own guys, and that makes no sense during an important title match. This felt like a total dud. Brodie wins with the discus lariat. After the match, Cody returns (after a five week absence) and beats up on Five. It’s good to have Cody back. After a break, Brodie has an intense promo where he challenges Cody to a dog collar match. That stipulation comes from out of nowhere, but it fits the feud at least.
Matt Hardy and Private Party are out for a promo next. Hardy says he doesn’t know who attacked him, it was someone in a mask. He names a bunch of suspects, so we’re getting a mystery angle here. He starts to blame Jericho, so Inner Circle comes out. Sammy Guevara is back, and Jericho says he didn’t attack Hardy. Isiah Kassidy says he almost beat Jericho last week, and challenges him to a match next week. I like Jericho working with younger stars, but Kassidy hasn’t shown us any reason to get terribly excited about him as a single. It’ll be interesting to see who Hardy’s attacker is.
FTR and Tully Blachard are out for a promo next, and this show is formatted very strangely. We got a ton of long matches at the start, and now we have a litany of lumped together promos. Tully says that FTR’s title challenges will now be 20 minutes, and if they don’t get pinned, FTR wins. It’s a nod to the old NWA TV time limit matches, but 20 minutes is a long time. FTR faces SCU next week, and Best Friends come out. Best Friends want to fight FTR now, but they beg off. Best Friends look like the next title program for FTR.
Ivelisse/Diamonte vs. Thunder Rosa/Hikaru Shida
Intrigue was drummed up after last week when a rumor started that Ivelisse and Rosa got into an argument backstage, and reportedly shot on each other for real in their match last week. It’s surreal seeing Rosa as NWA champ tagging with Shida as AEW champ. This match was honestly a bit rough. Diamonte in particular was out of position a whole lot in this match. Rosa and Shida tried some cool double team maneuvers, but it felt like Rosa and Ivelisse went out of their way to avoid each other. Rosa has been red hot in AEW, but this just seemed long and a bit choppy overall. I hope Rosa continues to work in AEW. Shida wins with the running knee.
Jericho and MJF are backstage for another duel heel promo, much like the one they had a few weeks ago. They are trying to top each other by sucking up in a cheesy and grandstanding way. They address calling each other a loser, excusing it by saying they were talking about other people. This was a bit over the top, but it did fit the characters involved. A top heel alliance here would make sense down the road to protect each other.
Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston
Despite being on short notice, this tight brawl for the World Championship was the best thing on the show by far. The chops and strikes traded here could be heard in the rafters. These two channeled their old CZW roots, as it felt like an actual fight instead of choreographed spots. I don’t like putting Kingston in here to lose so early in his AEW run, but I understand that AEW was in a very tough spot with the Archer situation. This gritty match would make for a great PPV main event in a prolonged feud. Moxley gets a side choke (that even looks a bit illegal) and Kingston passes out. After the match, Lucha Bros attack Moxley. Darby Allin and Will Hobbs come to Mox’s aid, but Ricky Starks helps the heels lay out the faces to end the show.
Overall, this was one of the weaker Dynamites in a while. As I mentioned a few times, the matches were all VERY long and the outcomes were set up in an obvious fashion. The matches didn’t have a ton of heat, and the show was formatted very oddly tonight. The disbursement of matches to promos was weird, and there seemed to be a lack of energy from the roster tonight. With that said, Moxley/Kingston was excellent and Cody returning is a big deal. We’re only a few weeks out from the Anniversary show, so that should be a special outing.
