Atlanta Dynamite a real fan experience

COLLEGE PARK, GA – Though I’m an historian whose focus the last few years has been on the 1970s, it’s always good to take in a night of entertainment, especially when it’s the King of Sports — professional wrestling. That was the case last night at AEW Dynamite at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, just outside Atlanta.

I’m generally aware of the wrestlers and storylines in All Elite, but there may be some plot points and names of moves that I miss, so please forgive any such transgressions. Most of the available seats were occupied shortly after Dynamite began, though there was a bottleneck of fans waiting to enter the arena from the time doors opened until about 15 minutes before the live broadcast began. I arrived at my seat just in time to watch the last few minutes of a match taped for a future edition of Ring of Honor featuring hometown favorite AR Fox going to a time limit draw with Kevin Knight (an Atlanta native in his own right, but without nearly the local following of Fox).

Before Dynamite went live, we were greeted with an appearance by Tony Khan. He welcomed the crowd and promised us a great show. And I’ll be honest, he wasn’t lying. This was the first non-independent wrestling show I attended in about seven years, and I tried to go in as “just a fan.” No heavy analysis of workrate here; just a report on what happened, what I thought of it, and what the rest of the crowd thought.

Dynamite began with a backstage segment featuring Renee Paquette interviewing Jay White. Fans were quickly brought up to speed on the developments in White’s feud with the Death Riders, and Jon Moxley in particular. White said that in order to fight the Death Riders, he had to rely on people he usually wouldn’t rely on, explaining his recent alliance with FTR and Cope. On cue, the camera panned out to see the Death Riders slowly approaching White. A fight broke out, with FTR and Cope quickly joining the ranks to even up the sides.

The action spilled from backstage to the arena floor. The crowd did seem to be a little out of it as the fight continued in various sections of the arena and a little hard to keep track of. White ended up inside the ring. So did Yuta, though not for long. He was quickly laid to waste with a Blade Runner from Jay. White grabbed a hold of Moxley and was about to give him the same treatment when Claudio Castagnoli took Jay out with a kick to the head. As Claudio and Moxley double-teamed White, Cope made his way to the ring and leveled Claudio with a spear. The Death Riders soon retreated into the crowd. Cope challenged Moxley for a title match at Revolution, but Moxley said “no”. White then proposed a tag match with he and Cope vs Mox and Claudio for a future event (I couldn’t quite make out if he named a specific date or show).

Our first “sanctioned” match on Dynamite featured Will Ospreay taking on a member of the Don Callis Family. Ospreay got a huge reaction from the crowd. Callis got a reaction as well, an overwhelmingly negative one. To any kids reading this, the fans were chanting “HUG DON CALLIS”. To the adults reading, you can probably guess what the first word actually was. Callis introduced … Mark Davis. I will admit I’m not quite up to speed on the history of Callis/Davis/Ospreay, but I know Davis is a former partner of Kyle Fletcher, so I guess that means they’re back on the same side of the fence.

Much of the crowd was very amped for this match and for the reveal of Davis as Will’s opponent (there were chants of “You sold out”). I understand the overwhelming majority of AEW fans want to see longer matches where both wrestlers get their moments in the sun, but this sure seemed like a time where Ospreay could have used what they call a “shine match.” It was very good, but the result was a foregone conclusion, even if it took a somewhat long time to get there. But the fans were in for a treat after Ospreay took the victory, as he called out the man he’s going to team with at Grand Slam Australia, Kenny Omega. Kenny greeted the crowd and hyped up their upcoming bout against Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher. Konosuke and Kyle came out of the entranceway and feigned hitting the ring, but they (along with Callis) thought better of it and headed for higher ground.

Next up was The Hurt Syndicate, all three resplendent in sharp, snazzy suits. MVP took the mic and gave props to Private Party, but said that Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley were the champs now, and if anyone wanted a shot at the titles, they’d … He was interrupted by the music for The Gunns, making their return after an extended absence. The Gunns said they wanted to come into the ring and talk business with the Hurt Syndicate. MVP gave them props for being respectful, and invited them in. The Gunns explained that they are former AEW World Tag Team titles and have been waiting a long time for another shot at the titles, so they’re calling their shot. MVP said that next week, the Hurt Syndicate would defend the titles against … “a couple of ass boys.” The Gunns returning was a nice surprise, and the trio of MVP, Shelton, and Bobby were very well received by the crowd despite being heels.

Renee Paquette was stationed outside Mercedes Mone’s dressing room, hoping to get a word with the CEO. Enter Harley Cameron and her puppet of Mercedes. She did a little trash talking on the TBS Champion, but unbeknownst to her Mercedes had come out of her dressing room and walked up behind Harley. Mercedes sarcastically congratulated Harley for getting a victory on a recent episode of Collision. I had thought they already announced these two for an upcoming match, but this interview segment didn’t seem to acknowledge that. Though again, I’m not 100% up to speed on all things AEW. I hope they don’t overexpose Harley given the positive reaction to her lately. She’s fantastic and the crowd loved it, but I could easily see them going to the well more often than they should. I know some people are wanting them to pull the trigger on her right now, and while I normally am in agreement with giving the fans what they seem to want (even if that means changing long-term plans), I still think “less is more” when it comes to Harley Cameron. For now, at least.

Renee Paquette next interviewed Hangman Page. When asked if he had any regrets about ending the career of Christopher Daniels, Page said “nope”. The camera then panned to Max Caster, who said Hangman should do the same thing to Anthony Bowens, or perhaps even Billy Gunn. Hangman said he doesn’t see Bowens or Billy, but he does see someone (referring to Caster). Max quickly hightailed it out of there, and Page then took off after him.

The Hounds of Hell made their entrance for a tag team match with Takeshita and Fletcher. The fans were super into the Hounds, with many of them barking. This was a fantastic match, and the crowd was super into it. It kind of sucks that one team had to lose this match (and based on the booking, who that team was should have been fairly obvious). It opened with some nice back and forth wrestling between Buddy Matthews and Kyle Fletcher. Business picked up as all four men brawled on the floor. Brody King demolished the heels with a couple of cross-body splashes while the two were seated in chairs next to one another. Back in the ring, the old “double team one babyface while the ref is distracted trying to get the other babyface out of the ring” sequence led to the tides turning in the match. When the Hounds regained the advantage, Buddy looked ready to put Fletcher away when Kazuchika Okada’s music hit. Buddy was distracted, allowing Fletcher to briefly regain the advantage (Okada never came out; it was just an audio distraction). Towards the end, it seemed that Takeshita mistimed a spot where he was going to break up a pinfall, and it the ref was forced to hold up a three count while waiting. But they quickly recovered and got the crowd back into it, with the heels double-teaming Brody and finally knocking the big man down, with Fletcher pinning him for the victory.

Samoa Joe and Hook were shown backstage approaching Christian’s dressing room. They busted open the door and found Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian, but no Christian. While they could simply have left, they decided to “leave a message” the only way they know how: violence. They assaulted Nick and Kip, as the camera quickly panned to Christian and Mother Wayne peering through the door briefly, then turning away. As Joe and Hook left, Christian was again seeing hiding just out of view, and once the coast was clear, he walked to his dressing room and exclaimed “hey guys, what happened?’ in a funny spot.

An aside: I have no idea if some of these backstage segments were pre-taped or not at previous shows, but I sure hope they didn’t fly in all of these people just for the backstage stuff. I know they’ve got a great TV rights deal, but it sure seems like wasteful spending to me.

Maxwell Jacob Friedman made his way to the ring next to do one of the things he does best … talk. He mocked Jeff Jarrett, said that AEW didn’t stand for All Elder Wrestling, and then called Double J a “carny schmuck.” Out of nowhere, Max Caster ran out and ran into the ring. Turns out he was trying to get away from Hangman Page, who was still chasing him. Page’s music played, and he quickly came out to the ring to try and get Caster. He very briefly stood face to face with MJF, but then continued on and chased after Caster, who had bolted out of the ring and up through the crowd. MJF continued his wonderful brand of trash talk, but he was interrupted by Dustin Rhodes’ music. Dustin came to the ring and said he’s the last of a dying breed, and he’s been through hell and back over the course of his career and life. He said as a former addict, he’s seen the devil, and MJF was not the devil no matter what he thinks of himself. He then said he was better than MJF, which didn’t sit well with young Maxwell. MJF told Dustin that despite all of his achievements over the course of his 35 years in wrestling, he now finds himself living in the shadow of his baby brother. Dustin responded by attacking MJF, and it led to a pull-apart brawl. As one batch of security guards led MJF up the entranceway while another batch kept Dustin in the ring, MJF broke free and slid under the ropes. Dustin broke free as well, but before the two could start throwing punches again, Friedman nailed Rhodes with a kick to the nether regions. They’ve got fans wanting to see MJF vs not only Jarrett, but now Dustin as well. And of course, down the road, it sure seems like he’s heading towards a showdown with Page.

Up next was the introduction of Mariah May, who was joining the commentary team for the next bout. Out came Queen Aminata, and then Justin Roberts introduced Toni Storm “playing the part of Mariah May.” Toni came out to Mariah’s music, dressed as Mariah, and wearing a wig. The match was quite good, though similar to Ospreay-Davis, it would have benefitted by being a tad shorter. A decent number of fans were cheering and chanting for Aminata at times during the match, but as with most of the matches tonight, the winner was probably never in doubt. Toni won with Mayday, Mariah’s finisher.

Renee Paquette then entered the ring to interview Toni, but Toni said to call her Mariah. This raised the ire of the real Mariah, who left her spot at the broadcast table and got up on the apron. After some jawing, Mariah got back down and left the ringside area. Guess we’ll all have to wait ten more days to see these two fight at Grand Slam Australia.

Backstage, Dustin Rhodes challenged MJF to a match next week on a special Tuesday night edition of Dynamite emanating from Austin, Texas. Wait a second, hasn’t “Tuesday in Texas” been done before in wrestling?

After a recap of the wild brawl involving Powerhouse Hobbs and Big Bill from a recent episode of Collision, next up was a live edition of “New York Minute” with Chris Jericho, Big Bill, and Bryan Keith. They acknowledged that a bounty had been placed on Bandido, and Jericho offered to double the $100,000 bounty if Bryan Keith were able to collect it. Big Bill then talked smack about Powerhouse Hobbs, and I think you can guess what happened next. Out came Hobbs, and as he went for Bill, The Outrunners ran out and brawled with Jericho and Keith. Security got involved, and Bill isolated a member of security on the arena floor while Hobbs had another member of security on the other side of the arena floor. Bill chokeslammed the security guard, while Hobbs likewise did something drastic to *his* security guard (from my vantagepoint, I couldn’t see what it was). The two then entered the ring and started brawling, the action soon spilling out to the floor and up and over the announcer’s table. Hey, we might not have had a lot of matches tonight, but we still had a lot of action going in between the bouts. Even with all the cuts to backstage segments, I don’t think the crowd felt let down, as they still got to see most of the top stars in the company in some fashion.

While in commercial, they gave away two tickets to All In. Justin Roberts found two fans who said they were planning on going but didn’t have tickets yet and had them play Rock Paper Scissors with the winner (a fan named Cortez) getting the tickets.

It was time for the main event, the heavily hyped Swerve Strickland versus Ricochet match. The crowd exploded when Swerve’s music hit. Swerve came out wearing the Embassy robe that he only wears on certain occasions (like when WWE would have Finn Balor do his “Demon” entrance for big matches), but Ricochet attacked him on the floor. This was everything it needed to be, and the fans in attendance loved every minute of it. The match was a compelling combination of high-risk maneuvers and brawling, which was appropriate given the heated nature of the feud so far. I know some of you are wanting a blow by blow, but I just wanted to watch these two guys fight. I never could have imagined Ricochet excelling as a heel as he has done here, and Swerve has earned his spot as one of the very top guys in the company. Towards the end, both men kicked out of big moves from the other, including Ricochet kicking out after a Swerve Stomp. When Strickland went for the move a second time a few sequences later, Ricochet was ready, holding up his fists so Strickland landed groin first on them for a unique variation of a low blow. Ricochet then hit the Spirit Gun and stole the victory. Adding insult to injury, Ricochet grabbed the Embassy robe from Prince Nana after the match and put it on. I guess that means we haven’t seen the last of these two, and that is perfectly fine by me.

TOP PHOTO: Will Ospreay at AEW Dynamite at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia, on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Photo by Al Getz

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Dynamite: Swerve and Ricochet square off; Toni Storm puts on a performance