Dynamite is coming off Revolution and it should be an interesting night, to say the least.
Orange Cassidy vs. Jay Lethal (All-Atlantic Championship Match)
I’m really, REALLY tired of Cassidy’s gimmick. I’d be less offended if he wasn’t a champ, but then again pretty much everyone in AEW has a belt these days.
Speaking of wrestlers I’m tired of, Lethal is up there. I say this honestly – from TNA on, I haven’t understood what people see in him. This is your chance, oh IWC, educate me.
Some mysterious voice gets on the loudspeaker before the bell rings. Uncle Howdy invasion!
Chain wrestling to start, which is all well and good in theory…
Cassidy gets a clutch for two then kicks the Lethal Injection away, but Lethal gets the ADV in any case. Decent action as the fans give Lethal the John Cena treatment. Lethal hasn’t gone for a pinfall, which is actually a nice change of pace from the predicable kickouts.
Back from PiP, Lethal is still solidly in control until Cassidy gets some counters in. He’s… well, I’d say Hulking up but that’s too enthusiastic… he’s Virgiling up?
The Cena treatment continues for Lethal and I still agree with the latter.
Superplex attempt by Lethal is blocked and Cassidy punches out before hitting the Diving DDT and then a second DDT variant, which gets two. Cassidy takes off the elbow pad and goes for a move but his run is interrupted by his painful leg. Lethal goes for the Figure Four and locks it in… kinda. No one can slag Miz ever again, because the hold is looser than untied shoes.
Out to the apron the injured men go and Cassidy’s “offence” irritates me. This isn’t indieriffic, it’s inbelievable.
Lethal goes for the Figure four again, but a cradle reversal gets two. Lethal Combination is hit and Jay heads to the top for the Savage Elbow but meets knees. RKO by Lethal gets two. Tony calls this a kick-ass match. I call it something else.
Lethal Injection attempt goes haywire because of a bad arm, and Cassidy hits the Superman Punch (no I won’t call it that other thing) for the duke. This pretty much ate up the first 20 minutes of Dynamite when it deserved five at most. Bleh.
Winner: Orange Cassidy
Post match, Lethal threatens to use his stolen Golden Globe to take out Cassidy, but is stopped by the ref. Jeff Jarrett sneaks into the ring from behind and hits The Stroke on Cassidy. He then breaks his guitar across Cassidy’s knee. Okay then.
We go to footage of Wardlow’s car being broken into from Twitter. Yep, it’s a work. God this is bad.
Renee Paquette talks with Powerhouse Hobbs, who cuts a very decent promo on Wardlow.
Back to the ring we go for a Ricky Starks promo. He’s cutting a decent promo until the Bullet Club sounder and logo go off, and Juice Robinson attacks. Apparently Robinson is still 4 Life, and honestly I didn’t know he ever was…
Backstage, Wardlow talks about the theft and the upcoming match, which he wants to be Falls Count Anywhere and Anything Goes.
Paquette is in the ring to interview Ruby Soho and the rest of the Riott Squa… I mean WWE girl…. I mean her associates. Saraya and Toni Storm hang back though to let Soho have the spotlight.
Soho pulls the usual “it’s the fans’ fault” shtick we’ve seen over and over, but she does a hell of a job in cutting this promo.
The promo leads into…
Skye Blue vs. Ruby Soho
Skye Blue. Comic Book Guy, what say you? “Worst. Ringname. Ever.” Thank you Comic Book Guy.
Soho dominates early and I’ll give her full marks – she turne dthe crowd fully. Now they need to change the music to eliminate the pop completely.
Soho plays up as a bully well, STO gets 2 heading into PiP.
Back from break, this elongated squash continues.
Blue fires up and gets a couple shots in, including a basement Enziguri that is pretty cool. Cross Body from the second rope gets her two.
Soho reverses virtually everything and then his Sister Abigail for the duke.
Winner: Ruby Soho
Post match, Saraya and Storm come out with the green paint. They start their artwork until Willow Nightingale (another wrestler I just can’t understand why is popular) tries to talk sense into Soho. She gets laid out just as badly.
Backstage, Paquette talks with Adam Page. If this isn’t a conflict of interest…
Page, in much gorier words, says the rivalry with Mox is over.
In the ring, Schiavone interviews FTR. Cash leads the charge in this amazing promo Dax keeps it going. This one NEEDS to be re-watched.
Backstage we go and Paquette is with Jade Cargill and the… Baddie. She calls out the best Canada wrestler that we have up here. Hmm… I can think of a couple names who could get a shot… given that it’s in Winnipeg, Sarah Stock comes to the front of mind.
JAS vs. Top Flight / AR Fox
Speaking of Winnipeggers…
Fox and Jericho start things off. Fox gets some beautiful offence in but we need to hear more about his story so he can get more of the fans behind him.
Heels gain the advantage and get a tranquilo moment. Faces get back in charge and the annoying posing continues once the heels takeover, heading into PiP.
Back from break, the faces regain control with Fox hitting a cool RKO out of a somersault. Fox gets more cool offence on Guevara and Jericho and later hits a double RKO on both Guevara and Garcia. In contrast to Cassidy, THIS is indieriffic.
One of the Top Flight brothers gets a standing Spanish Fly on Jericho for two. an Enziguri gets two which leads to a donnybrook. JAS members get hit all over the place, leaving Jericho and one of the Martin bros. Jericho tries for the Walls but it gets reversed into a roll-up for two. Jericho distracts Aubrey while Hager scores with the bat. Jericho then hits the…ugh… Judas Effect for the duke.
Schmoz match with AR Fox looking most impressive.
Winners: JAS
After the match, JAS gets on the mic. They declare themselves the number one contenders for the Trios Championships with Jericho calling out the House of Black. The Elite appear instead. Omega starts to cut a good promo until Don Callis interrupts. The Winnipeg feud is called out and seems to be ignited for next week until The House of Black appears on the Jaguartron. Suddenly they appear in person and challenge both teams for next week. Well, we were close to getting the Condello Cup match.
Backstage, Tony Khan confirms Orange Cassidy vs. Jeff Jarrett next week, while rebranding said belt as the AEW International Championship.
Back from break, we get an emotional Bryan Danielson from an apparent post-match interview at Revolution. He says he’s going home, in what very much felt like a retirement speech. We’ll see if that’s indeed the case.
Jon Moxley / Claudio Castagnoli vs. Dark Order
What’s the over-under on pints of blood spilled for this one…
Starts as a Tornado Tag format. Mox throws Reynolds through the ringside barrier so they can abuse John Silver.
Silver fights back while Reynolds finally gets back on the apron. Suplex reversal sequence finishes in favour of Silver, but Mox keeps Silver in the ring.
Reynolds eventually gets tagged in and is a house of fire. No pin attempts, which, again, is fine by me. BCC again get the advantage as we go into PiP.
Back from the break and we start to get more from Dark Order. Silver gets impressive offence, including a held German, but the offence just feels a bit goofy given how Silver has had a lot of comedy in his work.
Double team series on Mox is reversed into a Sleeper and then a Half Nelson Suplex on Reynolds. A front face lock is up next and Reynolds is fading into tap city. I think it’s a first for Mox – no blood.
Winners: Blackpool Combat Club
Post-match, Mox locks a Read Naked Choke in on Reynolds until Silver intervenes. Silver is dumped outside while Mox locks in another submission on Reynolds. Evil Uno finally comes out and fires off on Mox, but Uyta, who was at ringside previously, attacks hard.
Hangman Page then comes out to break things up. He doesn’t attack, and only Castagnoli takes a shot at Page. Quickly, BCC jumps all over Page like a pack of scalded dogs. Refs come into break things up but Yuta gets more shots in on Evil Uno. It takes a while but the two sides are finally separated.
Backstage, The Acclaimed are talking it up until the JAS comes in and offers to team up. Acclaimed balks at the offer and walk off.
Wardlow vs. Powerhouse Hobbs (TNT Championship Match, Falls Count Anywhere Match)
Match starts in the parking lot. Hobbs uses the comically-large ring to attack early. They fight by a car and a keg gets involved. Hobbs suplexes Wardlow onto the hood of a victimized car, and then gets back dropped onto the windshield… for two. Plastic crates get involved as we head into PiP.
As we emerge from commercials, the combatants get to ringside.
Wardlow tries a Simmons Spinebuster to no avail, and Hobbs hits a quarter-turn Spinebuster to the same result. Battle continues evenly. F5 from Wardlow gets two.
Another Spinebuster from Hobbs leads into a second, and a two count.
Back outside, Wardlow goes through the guardrail, allowing Hobbs the chance to get a table ready. Wardlow attacks with water and lays Hobbs out on said table, heads to the top, and drives Hobbs through with a Swanton. It gets two.
Powerbomb to the walkway, but Wardlow can’t follow up properly. They head to the announce area, which brings out QT Marshall (?!?!?!?!) who attacks Wardlow with a chair, including a headshot (in this day and age?!? REALLY?). Oh, and look what’s in the background – the TNT Championship. WORK!
Wardlow is them powerbombed to the egg carton staging by Marshall and Hobbs. Ten count is on and Wardlow can’t answer. Hobbs is your new champ.
Winner… and NEW TNT Champion: Powerhouse Hobbs
Well, this was an episode. There was some good action and some newsworthy pieces. The storytelling is getting better at AEW which means good things longterm.
Until next time, stay classy.