Proust Arena AT VBC, Huntsville, AL
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Taz
Hangman Adam Page comes down to the ring on a crutch, hobbling to the ring. Hangman has been a really angry guy lately but this was more of a humble Adam Page as he said that he would not be able to compete at Revolution this Sunday.
Swerve came out to the ring with Prince Nana, he says it’s an unfortunate injury to Adam Page and funny enough after these two having the most heated rivalry, Swerve seemed sincere.
Swerve said it’s his destiny to win the AEW World Heavyweight Championship.
Samoa Joe comes out with mic in hand and said that Swerve and Hangman look like they are trying to hug it out.
Joe said that both men were hungry accomplished wrestlers but the only reason why they were hungry was because he was starving their asses and there was no meals come dinner time with him as champion.
He said it didn’t matter if it was one man or both he was whipping their asses.
Swerve responded to Joe angrily, saying who he was, a man that he will do anything it takes to win the World Championship.
Hangman used his crutch from behind and belted Swerve with it. He had been faking the injury and pretty much swerved Swerve Strickland. Joe looked on, enjoying what he seen.
I Praise AEW here for starting the show with one of the most important feuds for the PPV Revolution and having a talking segment, normally it’s always a match, so it was good to finally get an actual feud and promo to start of proceedings.
Next was from earlier today as the Young Bucks arrived at the stadium in a limo and went straight backstage to talk to Renee Paquette who asked them about it being Sting’s last ever Dynamite as an active competitor.
Matt Jackson responds backhandedly with praising comments for Sting. Both The Bucks have Baseball bats and ask the cameraman to follow them.
Six Man Tag Team Match
Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley) vs Eddie Kingston and FTR
FTR and The team of Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley have already faced each other in a long match last week and now they are here again wrestling each other in a six man, I feel this match at Revolution is already getting a little bit of the case of we have “seen this before”.
Danielson really acted like a heel in this match, he had his big shit eating grin on his face for a lot of the match as he looked at the frustrated Eddie Kingston. Danielson used lots of less than admirable tactics in this match.
Kingston started to clean house until Danielson cut off his tracks with a running drop kick.
All men brawled all over the ring untill it came down to Danielson and Kingston with Danielson hitting Kingston right in the face with the running knees, he then kicked Kingston’s head in with some stiff kicks and locked him in a leg chokehold with Kingston passing out.
Winner – Blackpool Combat Club
A package is shown of the story and history of the relationship between Chris Jericho and Atlantis Jr who is Jericho’s opponent tonight. Chris Jericho had a relationship with Atlantis Jr’s father back when he first started. This was a nice touch before the match to give us something to tell the story as sometimes AEW are guilty of showing nothing and assuming everyone is a super fan.
Chris Jericho is backstage with Renee, he said he is repaying the favor Atlantis Sr gave him 30 years ago, he said he is going to show Atlantis JR a few things about the wrestling business and in violence. Jericho finishes the promo in Spanish.
Tony Schiavone is in the ring and introduces Will Ospreay. Osprey says his obligations to New Japan Pro Wrestling are done and now he ready for full time work. He names all the people he has beat until Don Callis and his family come out and head down to the ring.
Callis brags about the Don Callis family and how powerful they are. Callis pits Ospreay and Takeshita against each other and they shake hands, it gets a little spicy between the two, Ospreay doesn’t seem that he is fully committed to The Don Callis Family.
Renee Paquette is conducting an interview with Eddie Kingston and is interrupted by The Young Bucks who are still looking for Sting, they act completely obnoxious and talk about giving fines for dress code implying Eddie Kingston dresses like a slob.
I’m not going to argue with The Bucks, I actually agree with them that he could use better attire.
AEW International Championship match
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Nick Wayne (with Christian Cage, Shayna Wayne and Killswitch)
Nick Wayne has really found himself in a good spot under the learning tree of Christian Cage, tonight he wore a “Christian is my father” tshirt.
Wayne has improved with his confidence and the way he carries himself. He is essentially still a rookie but has come on in leaps and bounds under the Christian Cage learning tree.
Christian interfered in the match giving Nick Wayne the advantage until the referee caught Christian on the apron and ejected him, Shayna and Killswitch to the back.
Nick Wayne was now on his own with the winner facing Roderick Strong at Revolution. Cassidy hit the beach break with Wayne narrowly kicking out.
The Kingdom came out of the crowd to distract Cassidy with Wayne hitting the Dragon suplex pin from behind with Cassidy barely kicking out.
Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero came out to take care of the Kingdom, Nick Wayne tried to remove the top turnbuckle. Daniel Garcia came down the ramp to confront Nick Wayne who then turned around and got a big Orange Punch from Cassidy who got the pin fall.
Winner – Orange Cassidy
After the match, Roderick Strong jumped Cassidy with the rest of Cassidy’s crew in the “Best Friends” chasing Strong away.
Renee is backstage with The Bang Bang Scissor Gang, Renee talks about their chemistry together, they make another match for Collision but this time it will be Austin Gunn and The Acclaimed in a trios match.
I like how Billy Gunn brought up Max Caster’s botched rap on Collision with Caster commenting “Do you think anyone noticed?”
This Bang Bang Scissor Gang group needs something to do, it feels like they have been put together and now they don’t know what to do with them.
I think originally it was to join forces to combat against The Undisputed Kingdom but with that storyline looking like it’s dead in the water these guys seem like they are in limbo.
Singles Match
Kris Statlander (with Stokley Hathaway and Willow Nightingale) vs Skye Blue (with Julia Heart)
All the women involved here have an issue with one another at some point in the last couple of months but nothing has really been explained as to why besides Julia Heart who has been a heel the entire time.
Kris Statlander showed incredible strength pressing Sky Blue over her head on the outside and threw her into the front row, the row was filled with guys (most probably indi wrestlers) who acted like they got shot with a bullet.
To be fair if Skye Blue got thrown on top of you it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
Once again in AEW, which is a regular occurrence, Kris Statlander hit a German Suplex on the hard bit of the ring apron to Skye Blue. Willow Nightingale got in Julia Heart’s face with Blue using this argument to push Statlander into the post.
In the ring Skye Blue hit a Canadian Destroyer to Statlander that almost put her away. Stokley Hathaway had a chain in his hand and motioned for Statlander to use it, the referee seen this.
Statlander was angry that Hathaway would even suggest this. This error from Hathaway allowed Julia Heart to come in the ring and hit Statlander with the TBS championship behind the referee’s back.
Skye Blue took the assist from Heart by hitting her Code Blue finisher and picking up the big win.
Winner – Skye Blue
I liked how there was a few moving parts in this match and it wasn’t predictable who was going to win.
Backstage The Young Bucks are in pursuit of Sting and were outside his dressing room, they opened the door but it had no one in there except a bunch of black baseball bats hanging from the ceiling, Sting was playing some mind games with The Bucks who were now looking a little stunned.
Singles Match
Chris “Lion Heart” Jericho vs Atlantis Jr (with Atlantis Snr)
We got some backstory earlier regarding this match which helped the cause a little. It was Jericho who requested this match to repay Atlantis Jr’s dad from when he started.
Jericho was dressed in his old Lion Heart attire which made him famous in Mexico.
It was obvious Jericho was going to win this match, the finish came with Jericho locking in the Walls of Jericho, Atlantis Jr never submitted but his dad threw in the white towel from the outside.
Winner – Chris Jericho
The Young Bucks came out to the ring with white baseball bats in hand. There was a bunch of people in the crowd with Sting masks on, The Young Bucks targeted them and pulled the mask off one of the guys, it was Darby Allin to The Bucks surprise who forearmed Nick Jackson and began to assault The Bucks.
The numbers game caught up to Allin as The Bucks beat him down with baseball bats. Ric Flairs music hit with The Bucks motioning for Flair to come help them with it looking like they struck a deal with him last week.
They handed Flair the baseball bat, the dirtiest player in the game pulled one on them and thumbed Nick Jackson in the eyes and punched Matt Jackson. This didn’t last long as The Bucks put the boots to Flair on the floor.
Stings music hit as The Bucks began to walk towards the entrance ramp to confront him with The baseball bats.
Sting pulled one over on them as he dropped from the rafters just like he used to in WCW all those years ago. The Bucks turned around and went for Sting who had his trademark bat in hand.
Sting cleaned house and took out both The Bucks with Darby Allin hitting a Coffin Drop on both of them. Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop on Matt Jackson as the crowd erupted.
Both of The Bucks scoured away up the ramp as the telecast went off the air setting up this big tag match for Revolution.
Kev’s thoughts –
Pretty solid Dynamite, it started off with The World Title feud with Joe, Swerve and Hangman and ended the show with Sting, Darby and The Bucks. The two main feuds for The Revolution PPV.
I liked how the Bucks looking for Sting was threaded throughout the show.
There was less wrestling than normal on this show and more emphasis on building the feuds for the PPV, I know AEW hardcores will be upset with the less wrestling part but this show was much more digestible and flowed way better.
