Last week’s Dynamite was a decent show so let’s see if AEW can follow it up this week.
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur
Enmarket Arena, Savannah GA
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe started the show with an in ring promo, he said anyone who earns a title shot is going to earn a world of pain as he put the roster on notice.
Hook came out and interrupted Joe, he said he lost and Samoa Joe won last week and shook Joes hand and pulled Joe close talking some trash in his ear.
Joe called for security to remove Hook from his ring, Hook suplexed and choked out all the security and went out the ring. Joe sat down to do commentary for the next match.
Having Hook who looks way shorter and isn’t imposing dominate the security like this just doesn’t look realistic and comes across as far fetched.
I’ve said it before but I feel Hook is miscast in his current role as a badass, I just don’t buy him in this spot.
Singles Match
Adam “Hangman” Page vs Penta EL Zero Meido (with Alex Abrahantes)
Hangman has been gunning for the AEW World Championship lately getting in the face of Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland who also is after Joes Championship. It’s looking like it could be a triple threat match coming up at the next PPV.
Penta on the other hand has been very stop start, appearing on the show then disappearing for weeks on end. We have mainly seen him in tag team matches but tonight he is finally back to single’s competition.
This match was filled with a lot of questionable stuff, super kicking each other back and forth with very little effect, even Hangman’s dead eye finisher on the ring apron barely did anything to Penta who popped back up.
These guys had some crazy spots in this match but finally Hangman hit the Buckshot lariat to win in a hard fought contest.
Winner – Adam “Hangman” Page
Orange Cassidy is backstage with Renee, he said he would have gave Roderick Strong a shot at his International Championship last week but Roderick chose to wait for the Revolution PPV six weeks away.
He said he would keep doing what he does best and that’s wrestle. I know Cassidy’s gimmick is he is a slacker but this interview came across awkward to me.
Singles Match
Wardlow vs Trent Baretta
The Undisputed Kingdom came out to cheer on Wardlow as well as Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor cheering for Baretta.
I was expecting Wardlow to squash Baretta but it didn’t go down that way with Baretta throwing everything at Wardlow even resorting to using a chair behind the refs back.
Wardlow’s sheer power was too much Baretta in the end with the big man powerbombing Trent hard to the mat with his Last Ride style powerbomb that got him the three count.
Winner – Wardlow
After the match Trent and Cassidy seem to have a little disagreement about what I’m not sure.
Adam Copeland has a package next hyping his match against Minoru Suzuki.
It astounds me that AEW and more so Tony Kahn continues to cater to the niche core of fans that like New Japan and this style of wrestling, specifically a match like the main event tonight which has had no build or even any appearance from Suzuki on the show prior, This stuff normal wrestling fans will not care about because they don’t know this world.
I heard Adam Copeland asked for this match, I would have to question the use of Copeland in AEW, I feel he has not been used to maximize his star power on the show.
Deonna Purrazzo and Toni Storm sit down with Renee Paquette
Storm comes out with her entourage of Luther and Mariah May. I thought it was a nice touch how they had half the screen with Storm in black and White and Purrazzo in the color.
Purrazzo says she doesn’t want to face the current version of Storm, calling her a sham and wants her to dig deep and find the Storm she used to know.
Storm says you can blow it out your bumhole and throws a shoe, Purrazzo threw her shoe back at Storm, Purrazzo locks an armbar on Storm who escapes and scampers away with her flunkies.
Johnny TV and Taya Valkyrie have a backstage segment where they say they are pissed off. Tyra says that Deonna Purrazzo has cut the line and challenges her to a match next week.
Where have these two been? Haven’t seen either do anything meaningful on the show in months, I’m glad they have paired up the real life couple but I’m not confident AEW knows what to do with them.
Singles Match
Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana) vs Jeff Hardy (with Matt Hardy)
Finally we get to see Jeff Hardy on Dynamite, it’s been criminal that he has been relegated with his brother to the C show Rampage.
This is an intriguing match with two interesting individuals. Swerve has really excelled when paired with veterans such as Jeff Hardy.
Swerve mocked Jeff Hardy’s dance with Hardy taking exception to this clipping his legs off the apron then jumping off steps to fly through the air knocking Swerve over the guardrail.
Swerve ended up using these same steps on the outside to try inflict damage but got reversed into the Twist of Fate that got a “Holy Shit” chant from the crowd.
Back in the ring Hardy went for the Swanton but missed. Swerve hit his Stomp from the top ropes to put Hardy away in a great contest.
Winner – Swerve Strickland
Back from the ad break, Renee is with Hangman Page, they get interupted by Swerve and Prince Nana with Swerve and Hangman begin to argue, Renee says she has breaking news that their matches next week, each men will pick each others stipulations for their matches
Singles Match
Thunder Rosa vs Red Velvet
The returning Thunder Rosa was never going to lose this match especially to Red Velvet who finds herself in the role of putting people over most of the time.
The crowd was quiet for this match possibly as they also knew the outcome and I hear that there was a really low attendance for this show.
Rosa picks up the win with her Tijuana Bomb in a convincing victory.
Tony Schiavone is in the ring and calls out Sting who comes out with Darby Allin.
Allin grabs the mic and talks about the impact Sting has had on him and his career.
Allin says Sting has still got it and they would be dumbasses not to challenge Big Bill and Ricky Starks for the AEW tag teams titles. Allin hands Sting the mic and Sting says he is all in.
The Young Bucks are seen backstage watching the segment. Ricky Starks and Big Bill are backstage and accept the challenge from Allin and Sting.
AEW World Trios Championship Match
Mogul Embassy (with Prince Nana) vs The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass (c) (with The Bang Bang Gang)
Mogul Embassy lost their ROH trios championships last week and this week they are rewarded with an upgrade to challenge for the AEW Worlds Trios Championship, interesting logic.
Even when The Mogul Embassy had the ROH trios titles they still weren’t booked to be much of a threat and I was even surprised when they won them.
Nana tried some dirty tricks on the outside to slide a chair to assist his team but Jay White helped his new stable friends taking it off his hands. The Gunns grabbed Nana off the ring apron and slammed him through a table.
Daddy Ass and The Acclaimed dominated after this and picked up the win with their new group “The Bang Bang Scissor Gang” celebrating with them
Winner – Daddy Ass and The Acclaimed
Singles Match
Adam Copeland vs Minoru Suzuki
In my opinion this is where AEW lose the plot, this is suppose to be the main event, the commentary try to put this over as a dream match, even the crowd is chanting “Holy Shit”
The problem is only this fan base think this way, the rest of us don’t get it at all.
Seeing Adam Copeland and Suzuki hit each other with crappy forearms doesn’t look good. This isn’t Adam Copeland, he doesn’t normally do this stuff and it looks dumb.
This match was poor in my opinion with Copeland finally ending it with Christians finisher “The Killswitch” which was sold poorly by Suzuki.
The fans in attendance seemed to love it and this style but I don’t think this kind of stuff will increase viewership and I would go as far to say that it would lose viewers.
Adam Copeland tried to shake Suzuki’s hand after the match but he refused and left, Copeland reminded Christian Cage thet he is coming for him. Christian is seen backstage watching the monitor.
Kevs Thought’s – Really disappointing show
To follow up last week’s positive show. Swerve and Jeff Hardy had a great match but apart from that nothing happened.
This Undisputed Kingdom storyline seems to be dead in the water and The big signing of Adam Copeland is starting to fade fast with now weeks of meaningless tv involving him.
I don’t know what it’s going to take for AEW and in particular Tony Kahn to bring in some creative to this show, it sorely needs a shot in the arm.
