AEW Dynamite: A swing and a miss before Grand Slam

A week before AEW’s annual Grand Slam show, Wednesday night’s episode of Dynamite was full of strikeouts, errors, and fouls. A very talky show bookended by acts that represent the worst of AEW (Orange Cassidy and the Young Bucks, respectively), there were no real hits on the show – and certainly no home runs. Let’s get to the recap and find out where this show went off base.

The show started off with scenes of the arrivals to the arena of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagloni, and Marina Shafir, and separately, Darby Allin.

Match 1: Orange Cassidy (w/ Kyle O’Reilly and Mark Briscoe) vs. Chris Jericho (w/ Big Bill and Bryan Keith)

I think Orange Cassidy is a pathetic joke, so when I’m not doing these recaps, I change the channel whenever his match is on. For the benefit of our faithful readers, I will suffer through them when I’m doing these recaps. But when he whiffed on an Orange Punch within the first minute of the match, I decided to pause it, and watch it later on fast-forward speed on the PVR. So here are the “highlights” if you can even call them that.

Jericho knocked OC to the floor and then wasted time by grabbing a camera from one of the ringside crew and filming OC on the ground. Later, they brawled in the timekeeper’s area and Jericho put OC through a table with a Sheik Suplex. The referee didn’t bother counting while they were on the floor, even though this went through half of a commercial Picture-in-Picture, because why even treat this seriously.

They exchanged crappy-looking forearms and both fell down, then continued the crappy-looking forearm exchange while on their knees. They went back-and-forth, with OC doing some lousy offense before getting locked in the Lion Tamer. After OC reached the ropes, Big Bill clocked him with a boot to the head from the outside. This led to a brawl on the floor between O’Reilly and Bill, and they fought their way to the back.

OC hit a trio of DDTs but Jericho kicked out. Jericho hit a Codebreaker, but OC kicked out. OC hit a Beach Break, but Jericho kicked out.Then Mark Briscoe and Bryan Keith brawled on the ring apron. As this went on, Jericho got a roll of quarters. OC stole them and instead of paying for some much-needed wrestling lessons, he hold onto them and hit Jericho with a loaded Orange Punch, and got the pin.

Strike one.

Winner: Orange Cassidy

They showed a video taken after last week’s show. PAC and Claudio Castagnoli sent a video message for Wheeler Yuta, saying that they had a Trios Championship defence next week, and they expected him to be there for it, despite how he felt about the rest of the Blackpool Combat Club turning on Bryan Danielson. Moxley and Marina joined them, and Mox said that they don’t care what Yuta feels about them, he has a responsibility to be a man and defend the titles with them and show them who he is.

They then showed a clip from this past weekend’s Collision where Yuta wrestled and seemed tormented by the BCC’s actions.

Cut to Alex Marvez in the back trying to get comments from Yuta, who said that he is a fighting champion and he will work with the BCC and defend the titles next week. He seemed out of sorts during this interview, confusing the name of next week’s show, and forgetting to carry his belt with him.

Match 2: HOOK vs. JD Ink

Roderick Strong joined the commentary desk for the next match, flanked by Mike Bennett and Matt Taven.

Ink is aptly-named, as virtually his entire body from the neck down is covered with tattoos. Perhaps he should have used some of money spent on tattoos and used them to buy wrestling lessons. Because he got squashed by HOOK, who threw him around a bit then submitted him.

This was all about hyping Strong’s match against HOOK for the FTW Championship next week.

Ball one. This was fine for what it was.

Winner: HOOK

In the back, Alex Marvez was with Private Party. They challenged PAC, Claudio, and Yuta to a Trios Championship match next week, saying they would find a partner. They also had some bad words for Moxley.

In the back, Renee Paquette was with Christian and the Patriarchy. He said that Nick Wayne would win a 4-way match later this week, and start Nick’s road to gold. Christian said his plan was for Nick and him to hold titles at the same time. They got distracted by Kip Sabian and confronted him. Christian said that if he saw Sabian again, Christian would put Kip in the ground next to Kip’s dead father.

Match 3: Serena Deeb and Mariah May vs. Queen Aminata and Yuka Sakazaki

Wow, the crowd was dead for the introductions of this one – not a good sign, since they seem to be trying to build Sakazaki as the next contender for Mariah’s Women’s Championship.

Deeb wasn’t impressed when she tried to make the tag to May after getting owned by Yuka and Aminata, only to find that May wasn’t in the corner but rather standing on the ground, posing with her title belt. She was further unimpressed when May tagged in blindly after Deeb took control.

After a PiP break, Deeb lost the advantage to Yuka, who was on fire, taking out both Deeb and May, including using May as a weapon on Deeb, suplexing the champ onto her partner. She punctuated that with a Springboard Cross Body to the floor, taking out both her opponents and her partner. She hit a Magical Girl Splash (Springboard Superfly) onto Deeb, but May broke the cover by smashing Yuka with the championship belt, getting her team disqualified in the process.

After the match, May whipped Yuka with the title belt and then trash-talked Yuka before posing with the title.

Ball two. It wasn’t particularly good while it lasted, but at least this was short.

Winners, by disqualification: Queen Aminata and Yuka Sakazaki

They showed a video package with Mina Shirakawa giving a message to Mariah May, saying that she is coming for Mariah. But not in a good way.

They announced that Bryan Danielson will take on Nigel McGuinness at Grand Slam next week if Bryan is cleared to compete. They then tried to show a video package about their feud, but they had technical difficulties, and had to re-start it. This was good, and an effective use of their historical ROH footage in their possession.

BCC beat up everyone

Moxley, Marina, and Claudio made their way to the ring through the crowd. Before they could get there, they were attacked by Private Party, but Moxley no-sold the attack, and then Mox, Claudio, and Marina beat up both members of Private Party. The beatings continued until Komander ran in, but he also got dusted by Mox and crew, who also took out Alex the Assistant for good measure.

Mox grabbed a hammer from a toolbox under the ring, and then cut a promo on Private Party before smashing Isiah’s hand with the hammer. After that, Claudio was attacked by Darby Allin who came flying in with a skateboard to Claudio’s back. Allin and Moxley then hit the ring and started jawing at one another. Allin took a swing at Moxley with the skateboard, but Moxley ducked and rolled out of the ring. Allin grabbed a mic and said he would beat Moxley next week at Grand Slam, where Allin will put up his AEW World Championship shot. Allin said that after he beat Moxley, he would then go on to challenge the World Champion at Wrestle Dream.

Strike two. This whole BCC turn has been badly (or, rather, not) explained. Private Party got punked out and beaten up by a woman. Komander looked like an idiot. And Allin didn’t look particularly good either, choosing to yell at Moxley even though he had him cornered in the ring.

A video package of Jack Perry aired. It wasn’t said, but it would appear that “scape” is a synonym for “not the”.

Match 4: Ricochet vs. The Beast Mortos

Is this Rampage? Because why else would this match be on TV?

Mortos used his power early on, but Ricochet eventually cooled down that momentum with a Flying Dive to the floor, a Springboard Splash, and a Running Shooting Star Press. Mortos has some quickness himself, though, and the two of them did some fancy gymnastics.

A neat spot saw Mortos catch Ricochet in a Flying Dive and Powerbomb him onto the ring apron. Mortos then took and held control during a PiP commercial break. When we got back, there was more gymnastics, leading to Ricochet to take over, hitting a 450-Splash for two.

They went up top where Mortos Press-Slammed Ricochet to the mat for a near-fall. Ricochet then reversed a move and hit a Crucifix Bomb before putting Mortos down shortly thereafter with a Reverse DDT BackSlam for the 1-2-3.

Ball three. This was fine. Ricochet’s momentum to earn an International Championship match against Will Ospreay continues. It’s still too early to say if Mortos is being underutilized in this locker room. I think so, but could hear arguments either way.

Winner: Ricochet

A video package aired for Hangman Adam Page. He’s angry. He says he wants what he wants. In other news, water is wet.

Highlights were shown from last week’s 8-man tag team match. A 10-man tag match will take place next week sometime. FTR continues to be wasted in multi-man matches instead of chasing the Tag Team Titles. Sigh.

Adam Page interview

Tony Schiavone was in the ring, and he introduced Adam Page to the crowd. Tony said that Page would punish anyone who said anything good about Swerve Strickland. Page said that he’s taken care of Swerve Strickland. But he’s reminded of the time he was taken off of TV for injury. And that reminder comes in the form of the commentary from Schiavone.

He menaced Schiavone, who backed down and tried to make amends for whatever potential slight Page was talking about. Page started menacing Schiavone, but Jeff Jarrett hit the ring. Page was ready, though, and he sent Jarrett to the floor, and then followed him there, putting the hurt on Jarrett. Page was ready to hit the Buckshot Lariat, but a bunch of officials ran in and stopped him. With Security separating them, Jarrett and Page could only glare angrily at each other. Jarrett then grabbed a mic and said he would not allow Page to lay a finger on Schiavone. Jarrett said that if it was the last thing he did, he would kick Page’s ass.

Foul ball. This wasn’t a particularly good promo, but Jarrett can pretty much elevate everything. He might even make Page interesting.

In the back, Renee Paquette was with Ricochet. Before she could finish her question, Will Osprey came up to Ricochet and acknowledged that Ricochet is climbing his way to contention for the International Champion. Ricochet blathered on about the dynamic between the two of them, and then challenged Ospreay for a match in two weeks for Ospreay’s International Championship.

Match 5: Will Ospreay, Kyle Fletcher, and Konosuke Takeshita vs. the Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada

Don Callis came out with Fletcher and Takeshita, but joined the commentary team for the match.

What I said about Orange Cassidy earlier? Double that for the Young Bucks. And as much as I enjoy Don Callis on commentary, and like Takeshita in the ring, I just can’t even stomach watching the Bucks. So here are the “highlights” that I caught on double-speed on the PVR.

Ospreay and Okada tried to one-up each other. Then, Takeshita blindly tagged himself in, which Ospreay didn’t seem to like. But before we could see Takeshita and Okada go at it, the Young Bucks came in and it became a six-way brawl.

After a PiP break, Takeshita again tagged himself in, to Ospreay’s dismay, to get in the ring with Okada, and those sequences were pretty good, with Takeshita dominating, even hitting a Senton Splash for a near-fall. Again the Bucks came in, but they screwed up and ended up hitting Okada accidentally with kicks. This led to Team Callis hitting Triple Low Dropkicks on Okada, but the pinfall got broken up.

Takeshita absorbed some Superkicks but then got blind-sided with a cheap shot by Okada, who followed that up with a Neckbreaker Knee, taking us into another PiP break.

Back from the ads, and the Bucks were doing bad-looking moves on Takeshita as the referee did nothing to stop their 2-on-1 and sometimes 3-on-1 actions. Because apparently all of the referees were away they taught refereeing at referee school.

Takeshita eventually got loose from the Bucks and tagged in Ospreay who fared well until he also fell to the numbers game because the referee did nothing to enforce the rules.

Young Buck nonsense continued for a while longer until Ospreay and Fletcher regrouped and showed off some tag team mastery. Takeshita dodged a Rainmaker attempt and hit a Blue Thunder Bomb before hitting Okada with a Flying Bomb to the floor.

More Young Buck lameness ensued until Fletcher and Ospreay stopped that with a Flying Blade on one of them and Coriolis on the other to get the win.

The show ended with the Callis Crew celebrating their win. There was tension between Ospreay and Takeshita, but Callis seemed to get them to put that aside for the time being.

Strike three. This was full of the typical silly Young Bucks self-indulgence, and that will always be a strike.

To be fair, there were some saving graces, namely the Takeshita-Okada stuff and much of what Ospreay did. But the Bucks outweigh the good each and every time.