AEW Dynamite: Pillar talk

Jon Waldman

AEW Dynamite: Pillar talk

Dynamite continues the build to the next challenger for MJF as its feature attraction, while in Pittsburgh.

We start with Jungle Boy Jack Perry being interrupted by Sammy Guevara, whose entrance video is not JAS-related and is now an anime-style run. Before he can say much though, we’re joined by Darby Allin, who is sporting a tattoo along the left side of his head now. Allin tears into Guevara’s hero worship of Jericho before ripping into Perry, showing him to be the tweener of the lot.

Perry takes his turn hitting at the two, with his description of Sammy, not only being dead on, but being covered over. Guevara takes his turn on the trash talk soon after.

Once the three finish teeing off on each other, MJF makes his presence felt to a monster pop. Freedman takes a shot at the proverbial fifth pillar, Britt Baker, before announcing that there will be a “Pillars Tournament”, with the winner getting a shot at the gold at the upcoming PPV, Double or Nothing. We find out that Darby Allin gets a bye through the first round while Perry and Guevara face off tonight, the winner will face Allin next week, and the winner there will square off against MJF.

The Outcasts vs. Jamie Hayter/Britt Baker

Soho and Storm are representing the heels tonight.

Baker starts out tearing apart her opposition single handedly before Saraya interferes and momentarily gives her girls the advantage. Doesn’t last long though.

Back in the ring, Storm gets a couple facewashes as the heel chicanery takes canter stage. Baker tries to even things up but fails, right in front of her parents.

Back from the PiP, the back-and-forth heat continues with Baker getting the nuclear tag in. Strong offence including the Thigh Slapper (aka Superkick). She then reverses a Storm Zero into a cover for two. More hoopla gives the faces plenty of tandem offence which leads to a close two count until Soho breaks things up. Heels take over effectively with help from a Saraya belt shot and a Storm Zero, getting two.

Outside, Storm and Saraya take out Hayter, victimizing her shoulder. Inside though, Baker nearly gets the Duke with the Panama Sunrise. Soon after, she gets the Lockjaw for the win. Good match with Baker looking amazing.

Winners: Hayter and Baker

Backstage, Wardlow chats with Renee Paquette. He introduces Arn Anderson

The Elite come out to the ring next. Omega starts the dialogue and calls out the Blackpool Combat Club. This leads to Brian Danielson appearing on the Khantron. It’s a distraction tactic, as the other BCC’ers attack. It’s a donnybrook very quickly with Thigh Slappers and dives a plenty as the two factions go to war. Elite seem to get the better of things for a bit before BCC takes over violently. The action goes too many ways to properly recap until Kenny Omega is isolated in the ring.

Danielson comes down to ringside, followed by Don Callis with a chair, but he quickly runs off. Omega is destroyed verbally by the Dragon who pulls out a screwdriver. As it turns out though, Callis was getting backup in the form of Takeshita who comes to Omega’s aid. Takeshita and Omega take apart the BCC who can’t reroup properly. I guess this is Golden Lovers 2.0?

Wardlow vs. Powerhouse Hobbs (TNT Championship Match)

Pure power to start between these hosses. Action spills out of the ring and into the AEW Galaxy S we head to PiP.

Even Steven action continues in the smaller screen but nothing particularly impressive to speak of. It feels like these two have faced off more than Miz and Dolph Ziggler, and not in a good way.

Back to full screen the boring continues, even with a Swanton by Wardlow. I just can’t get into either wrestler. If you can, all the power to you.

Warpig finally gets the advantage and tunes up the orchestra when some blond girl (I honestly don’t know who it is) gets on the apron, distracting while Cutie Marshall interferes. Cutie gets into the ring one too many times which leads to Uncle Arn coming in and mocking pulling out a Glock. Cutie escapes, only to meet Penta in the aisle who feeds him a Thighslapper. Cutie ends up back in the ring and gets DDT’d. The interruption was more over than the match, which says a lot about how ‘over’ both Superstars over.

Symphony of Bombs soon follows until the ref counts three.

DULL.

Winner and NEW TNT Champion: Wardlow

Post match, we get more emphasis on this being a Hoss belt with Luchasaurus coming out as the apparent next challenger.

Backstage, Paquette talks with Guevara until MJF comes into the picture. The two heels start to strategize.

Komander vs. Jay White

Elegant squash with Lucha theatrics thrown in for gits and shiggles.

Winner: Jay White

Post match, Shawn Spears attacks for seemingly no reason and eats a ton of offence before Ricky Starks comes out to even the odds. None of this makes sense.

Backstage, Paquette talks with FTR who shows the boys that Mark Briscoe was assaulted. The pair run to the trainer room to check on their friend who is surrounded by his supposed faction friends.

Back to the ring we go for the Chris Jericho / Adam Cole face to face.

The interaction feels very much like the Jericho/Shawn Michaels angle leading up to their WrestleMania 19 match, only with Jericho still being the heel.

Not surprisingly, the interaction turns to fisticuffs. Daniel Garcia comes out to hit hard, which eventually leads to Britt Baker coming out to even the odds. She slaps Jericho which leads to the Outcasts popping up out of nowhere to tear Baker apart. Garcia pulls out cuffs and secures Cole to the ropes. Garcia then gets Jericho a Kendo Stick, but he hands it off to Saraya who attacks Baker. This was effective but would have been more so if we didn’t know that Jamie Hayter was in the arena and could’ve helped Baker out.

JAS vs. The Acclaimed/Daddy Ass

Sudden start to the match as JAS breaks up The Acclaimed’s opening schtick.

The two fight through the PiP and we get Daddy Ass tagged in against Jake Hager. Decent action between the two. International object comes into play, and Cool Hand ends up being destroyed by The Acclaimed for the duke.

Winners: The Acclaimed / Daddy Ass

Sammy Guevara vs. Jungle Boy Jack Perry

Perry hits hard to start but turns his back on Guevara on the inside who hits a Tope Con Somethingorother. Perry retorts with more high-flyery. Both men are down soon after which lets us see Allin hanging out in the rafters.

More fast-paced action as the two show how equal they are. Thighslapper on the ring apron gives Perry the momentary advantage until Guevara uses the knee. Leads to a Spanish Fly to the floor in a moment of reckless stupidity before we head into PiP.

Guevara controls most of the smaller screen action but coming out Perry gets things evened up. More high risk outside before the action goes to the ring and Perry hits a Diving Destroyer for two. Even Steven action continues of the high-impact variety. Implant DDT by Guevara gets two.

Guevara goes for the GTH but it’s reversed. More back-and-forth as neither man’s moves can keep the other down. Match boils down to boo-yeah punches. Perry gets the better and gets the Snare Trap locked before Guevara can get to the ropes.

Amazing shot I have to highlight. Perry is on the turnbuckles when Guevara hits a 2K Dropkick (gamers know what I’m talking about) which sends Perry through a ringside table. Beautiful.

Perry tries to get back into the ring but the referee is distracted by Guevara, allowing MJF to pop up and clock Perry with his diamond ring. Perry is then counted out for the cheap win.

Winner: Sammy Guevara

Well done match with a well-hatched plan finishing the night.

Not a bad night of AEW action, but there were definitely low points.

Stay Classy y’all.

TOP PHOTO: Sammy Guevera and MJF. AEW photo

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