Episode 52 of AEW Dynamite came to us once again from Jacksonville, and the crowd noise seemed more prevalent this week. Taz was on commentary in place of Tony Schiavone, more on him later. Let’s jump right into the opening bell.
Ricky Starks vs. Darby Allin
The show opened with a hot match that’s been building for a while. There was a black and white video package for Darby, where some man (likely a skater whom I don’t know) cut a promo saying Darby was ready to win. Then he tossed a body bag down a skate ramp. The match itself was a great opener, that would’ve been well served on PPV. It was athletic without lacking psychology. Starks has so much young Rocky Maivia in him, I say it weekly. He creates separation with little kicks, and is always finding small ways to pick at his opponent. Darby works Starks’ wrist here, and it’s a running theme for later in the match. The action is crisp and well-paced, and Darby wins with a Coffin Drop. During the match, Brian Cage and Will Hobbs come out and brawl with each other. We’re getting that match next week, and it has the potential to be as good as this one.
Cody comes out for a promo with Dasha Gonzalez. Dasha is such an upgrade over Alex Marvez in every conceivable way. Cody puts over Brodie by saying he’s embarrassed to get beat in three minutes, and ties it into how he left for that “Go Big Show” on TBS. He initially says no to the dog collar match, but comes back to the ring to accept. Good continuity, good verbiage, good fire. Brodie comes out and they get into a big pull apart brawl. Brandi comes out and dives on four Dark Order members, and they all fall. That looked extremely silly. But they’re continuing the thread with Brandi and Anna Jay, as they also brawled here. Good promo and good intense angle, Brandi stuff aside here.
FTR has a backstage promo with Tony Schiavone, where they say they gave the Best Friends an out by not fighting them last week. They call Best Friends a “backyard comedy team” (which couldn’t be more true, in my opinion). FTR has a pulse on what’s current, and that makes them a great promo. They say the Young Bucks have lost every shot they ever had in AEW, so the Bucks show up and do a badly faked superkick on Tony Schiavone. The Bucks walk away while FTR wants to fight. I get that they want the Bucks to look like out-of-control heel bullies here, but they just come off lame. They aren’t believable in this role, their attacks are always fake looking, and by running away from other heels, it doesn’t help anyone here. This is why Taz took Tony’s place on commentary tonight too. FTR are great, but the Bucks need direction.
SCU cut a promo saying Scorpio and Kazarian are ready to team tonight and take the titles. Shawn Spears is at the curtain to mock Scorpio Sky. Spears/Sky has all the makings of an excellent undercard feud.
SCU vs. FTR
FTR’s new gimmick is marketed as a 20 minute title challenge, and I hope that means that all of their matches won’t be going near 20 minutes each time. It hurts the match quality and makes things more predictable. This match as a whole was very solid, as all four are versed in the basics and FTR cut the ring off well as heels. The teams tried a few duel moves that weren’t in total synchronicity, but overall it was sharp. My one beef is that the ref kicked out Chris Daniels when FTR pretended he attacked them (awesome) but then didn’t do anything to Tully when he was blatantly caught cheating. We need more logic in wrestling sometimes. FTR wins when Tully holds down one of SCU’s feet.
Adam Page was on commentary for that last match, but was more of a quiet afterthought. The announcers say that there will be an 8 man tourney where the finalists face off at Full Gear, and the winner gets a title shot. I like competing for stakes and prizes, and I hope this is a vehicle for Page to cost Omega his shot. Page walks away angry when he hears Omega is in this tournament.
Isaiah Kassidy vs. Chris Jericho
This is another attempt to make another young talent feel like a star under Jericho’s light. It would be more impactful if Jericho had been booked better and taken less offense from silly opponents in the past. This is another fine but uneventful match. At one point, Luther (a choppy afterthought from AEW Dark) took a swipe at Jericho, and the announcers said they’re rivals from Stu Hart’s dungeon. Kassidy gets some nice roll-ups, and Jericho still bumps and rolls fluidly at his age. Jericho wins with a nice Judas Elbow counter. After the match, Jericho and Hager brawl outside with Luther and Serpentico. The booking of Jericho and Hager here is criminally wasteful.
We get a comedic vignette of Miro and Kip Sabian planning for Kip’s bachelor party. Miro wants to make Sabian’s party special, so they go to an arcade. Miro is sad that quarantine is hurting the party, so video game record holder Billy Mitchell shows up and offers to help. This is too silly for a badass with name value like Miro/Rusev to be doing in his first few weeks in the company. Another waste of a needle-moving talent here.
We get a Best Friends promo, where FTR interrupts. They poke fun at undercard comedy guys, and talk about Trent’s mom’s van. Orange Cassidy calls them weenies. Best Friends/Cassidy are extremely uncool and wouldn’t get over with a mass/casual audience for anything serious.
Orange Cassidy vs. Ten
It’s really sad to see how little AEW has done with Preston Vance since this impressive athlete joined AEW. He hit some nice offense here, but this was simply a bounce back match for Cassidy after his loss last week to Brodie. Dark Order does comedy shtick with Cassidy’s glasses, then they mock Best Friends’ hug. Dark Order is supposed to be a dangerous cult group led by a monster, not doing comedy and getting outsmarted by uncool undercard acts. Bad booking all around here. Cassidy wins with a modified kryptonite crunch called the “Beach Break”.
MJF and Wardlow go into Inner Circle’s locker room with jackets as a gift for Inner Circle, but they don’t bring one for Sammy Guevara. MJF and Jericho compliment each other, but Wardlow and Hager get face to face. This is entertaining with two of the best talkers in the business, but I’m curious about the direction. MJF doesn’t need to be in a faction, and Guevara wouldn’t work quite as well as a face. The Wardlow turn on MJF is also coming. This is interesting, but also a head-scratcher.
Britt Baker vs. Red Velvet
It’s so nice to see Baker back in her first official match after so long (aside from the skit dentist office match at All Out). This match is a showcase for her, and she’s very crisp here. Baker adds a few things on offense and plays to the camera, and Velvet has nice speed and bumping here. Velvet is great in this spot. Baker wins with a curb stomp, and then puts on the mandible claw after the match. Baker is a star, and her confidence has been sorely missed on this show.
Eddie Kingston cuts a good promo on his longtime friend, referee Bryce Remsburg, saying Bryce shouldn’t have called for the bell last week. Kingston didn’t submit against Moxley, so he got screwed. Kingston and his crew are about to attack Bryce for his transgression, when Mox comes out. Kingston says Mox defends his title against Butcher tonight.
Jon Moxley vs. The Butcher
This is a solid main event match where the size and styles of both men matched up well. Butcher is a little bit clunky in parts, which may be exposed by this being his first meaningful singles match in AEW. Butcher uses a lot of submissions on Moxley’s knee, but doesn’t really apply them right. Good variance and psychology here, but Butcher’s execution is really sloppy. Moxley wins a decent match as Butcher taps in the side choke.
Overall, the show moved fast this week. Good pacing and a hot start. The first hour was excellent, highlighted by a good opening match and an intense pull-apart brawl. It went downhill in the second hour, notably for the bad booking of Best Friends, Jericho/Hager and Dark Order. Kingston is doing great work, and it’s good to see his team in the main events lately. So this week is a mixed bag, but it’s a harmless watch with some nice highs. We’re two weeks away from Dynamite’s one year anniversary!
