TNT Championship: Scorpio Sky (c) vs. Wardlow
AND NEWWWWW!!!!!
Our first contest of the evening was the TNT Championship Street Fight between Scorpio Sky and Wardlow. The War Dog finally got his rematch against the TNT Champion after MJF screwed him out of his first shot. Now, this match was a “Street Fight,” but I assume AEW meant “No Disqualification.” There wasn’t much street fighting going on. This one was everything it needed to be, though.
Scorpio Sky was playing duck and move against the big man. He, Lambert, and a big group of American Top Team members did everything they could to overwhelm Wardlow. Scorpio Sky hit a low blow, Lambert tried distractions, and the gaggle of ATT goons beats up Wardlow. Nothing worked as Wardlow hit a monstrous Swanton Bomb to turn the tides in his favor. Despite Sky hitting Wardlow with the TNT belt, the Powerbomb Symphony started, finished, and culminated in the pinfall victory and crowning of a new TNT Champion!
Scorpio Sky’s reign as TNT Champion gets a bad rap because the majority of it was involved in garbage Sammy and Tay stuff. I hope Sky and Page have a nice program to heat both of them up again because Scorpio Sky can be very good. Dan Lambert and American Top Team don’t work for me, especially with how good Sky and Page can talk. I understand what Lambert is there for, but let’s switch this up a little.
Side rant over. This match was everything it needed to be! I’m happy for Wardlow and cannot wait to see where this goes.
3.25/5
Segments:
- Moxley was backstage for a promo up next. I’ll never get tired of Moxley promos because they’re always great. He said, “Blood and Guts is like Golfing on a Sunday for me.” That’s such a crazy line, but it fits his character perfectly. 2022 is shaping up to be the year of the Mox. I love it.
- Mark Sterling and Tony Nese have a beef with Swerve Strickland, which led them to disgruntled partner Keith Lee. They want ‘dangerous’ Swerve off the roster, but Keith stands by his partner. Big fan of this story, so far.
Christian Cage & Luchasaurus
Christian Cage was back to discuss his comments from last week and his new alignment with Luchasaurus. The Dinosaur with a Master’s degree has an awesome presentation now. It’s giving me early Kane vibes. The music, pyro, and aura are all about destruction and intimidation. That’s what early Kane was all about before Glenn Jacobs became a weird Politician spouting nonsense…
Cage is unapologetic for his words and actions from his previous promos, but it got so much worse after Matt Hardy decided to interrupt. “You make your brother sound like the sober one,” and “You’ll turn a blind eye to your brother and his issues, just so u can ride his coattails for one last run,” were almost too far in my eyes. Christian Cage is the utmost professional. He’s not going to say that unless he got approval. That makes it okay in my book.
Luchasaurus proceeds to destroy Matt Hardy, whom nobody comes to the rescue. Does anyone like Matt Hardy!? This was great and I cannot wait to see where this storyline goes. This week’s Dynamite was much more revolved around storylines than great matches.
- Claudio and Jake Hager were face to face following that intense segment. AEW is giving the fans what we want next week! WE THE PEOPLE.
The Butcher and the Blade vs. Swerve in Our Glory
Up next we had another match involving Swerve in our Glory taking on Butcher and the Blade. Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland have been climbing the ranks of the tag division, despite their issues after Swerve betrayed Keith Lee during the Casino Battle Royal a month ago. Unfortunately, this match never got off the ground for me. Something felt off in this one, but I’m not sure what. It felt awkward as nobody had good chemistry.
We had the usual Butcher, Blade, and Bunny nonsense to help themselves. It’s good to see Bunny on the Dynamite screen. I wish they would use her more. Thankfully, the match picked up after the Keith Lee hot tag. Lee and Swerve can’t seem to get on the same page, as Lee accidentally Pounced his teammate. I LOVED that. Despite the Pounce, Lee and Swerve hit their combo finishing move, which I LOVE, and finished the match off.
2.5/5
Segments:
- Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks don’t allow for any celebration, as they come out angry that Swerve in our Glory keep winning. Starks proceeds to name-drop the “greatest tag team around,” which prompted the Young Bucks to come out. The Bucks threw down a Triple Threat tag team match challenge.
- Eddie Kingston came down to the ring up next. He congratulated Wardlow for winning earlier, which was awesome. I love how AEW superstars are happy for each other. Makes it feel like reality. What doesn’t feel like reality is how much Kingston still wants Jericho to bleed. Kingston wants Jericho one on one again, which triggers Jericho to pop up on the big screen. Jericho commands Tay Conti to attack Ruby Soho. Not sure when Kingston and Soho became great friends, but I like this.
- All Elite Wrestling was in Rochester, New York this week. Everyone knows who called Rochester home: The late, great Brodie Lee. Dark Order came down to the ring to declare that “Dark Order is not dead.” That makes me very happy. Hopefully, we get some Dark Order storylines brewing now. QT Marshall interrupted as Brodie Jr took the microphone. Hangman came down to commence the easy beatdown of QT. This segment was nothing more than a feel-good segment for Rochester. I would NEVER complain about this. Brodie Jr deserves every single segment that AEW wants to give him.
Penta Oscuro vs. Rush
We had the Dynamite debut of Rush, a two-time Ring of Honor Champion, facing off against Penta Oscuro. This match was fun, as these guys had great chemistry. They’ve clearly fought each other numerous times. This match was a high pace with move after move after move, as Lucha Bros matches usually are. However, it was just another week with a Penta Oscuro loss. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
The match stayed high pace pretty much throughout. About halfway through the match, Penta hit a Tope con Hiro on Rush. Alex Abrahantes then took matters into his own hands, as he attacked Jose the Assistant ringside. This caused a mini brawl ringside, which allowed Rush to take control in the center of the ring. After a Rush powerslam and dual knee strikes, the pace slowed down as both men were down.
The match escalated towards a conclusion as Penta hit the Fear Factor, but Andrade puts Rush’s leg on the ropes as the referee counted. The referee was distracted by scolding Andrade, which allowed Rush to rip Penta’s mask off and hit him with a low blow. The former Ring of Honor champion picks up the victory. Good match with a cool ending, despite the overuse of Penta and Rey getting unmasked. That keeps happening. Why don’t they tighten them or something?
3.5/5
- Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal are facing off at ROH Death Before Dishonor. I’m enjoying the interplay between Lethal, Dutt, and Satnam Singh.
- Mark Sterling and Tony Nese were backstage again attempting to get support for their legal action against Swerve Strickland. They confront Orange Cassidy to sign their petition, but he had Danhausen do the talking for him. This was hilarious and caused a match on Rampage between Nese and Cassidy.
The Acclaimed & Gunn Club vs. Ruffin It & Fuego del Sol
Up next wasn’t really a match. It was only to set up what happened after the bell. I’m happy to see Bowens healthy and in action for the first time. The Acclaimed and Gunn Club were taking on “Ruffin it,” Leon Ruff and Bear Country, with Fuego del Sol. We knew something was up because Austin Gunn grabbed the microphone from Max Caster before he could start his rap. HOW RUDE. The match was short and sweet. Austin Gunn stole the pinfall after Max Caster hit the Mic Drop.
2.5/5
What really mattered, is what happened after the bell. The Acclaimed were angry about the recent actions of the Gunn Club, which looked as though this fun faction would split up. They did, however, it was the Gunn Club destroying the Acclaimed with Daddy Gunn’s help. I enjoyed this faction and wished they would have stayed together for longer, but I like this angle. This story has my attention.
Thunderstorm vs. Nyla Rose & Marina Shafir
The following match was between Nyla Rose and Marina Shafir, versus the debuting team of Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm; aptly named Thunderstorm. It’s a little obvious that Rosa and Storm are on a collision course in the future, but I want more of these two together. They worked together brilliantly. This match was also pretty good! Nothing special and a little short, but gave me teases of what Thunderstorm has the capabilities of.
The newly formed team worked together instantly, hitting tandem moves right off the bat. Rosa and Storm used quick tags to isolate Shafir from her partner. It wasn’t until Nyla hit Storm with an umbrella that Shafir and Nyla were able to take advantage. I have no idea why it just occurred to me that storms bring rain, which is why Nyla brought an umbrella. I feel dumb.
But once Thunder Rosa got her hot tag the match escalated to the finish. Toni Storm hit her hip attack, which led to a nice double-team finishing move. It was an assisted Fire Thunder Driver, which looked pretty cool. Good match!
3.25/5
Let’s give some credit to AEW and Marina Shafir. She’s still green, but putting her in a tag team with Nyla Rose gives her an opportunity for growth where she’s not under the microscope constantly. Making her a singles monster probably wasn’t the best idea, but there’s an opportunity here. She has a unique offense.
Segments:
- Jade Cargill was backstage with Kiera Hogan and Stokely Hathaway up next. She was not happy with Stokely and his apparent plan to include Leila Grey in the Baddies. Cut the shit, Stokely.
- FTR had a fast promo after that, as they were donned in their three titles and talking about the next revitalized Ring of Honor PPV, Death Before Dishonor. FTR has laid the challenge for a rematch against the Briscoes. Their first encounter is on my short list for Match of the Year. I’m excited for the rematch.
AEW Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Brody King
And we finally reached the main event! This week’s main event saw newly crowned AEW Interim Champion, Jon Moxley, make his first defense against Royal Rampage winner, Brody King. This match was a hard-hitting affair that easily makes Match of the Night. The match was great.
William Regal was on commentary for this match and made Brody King feel like someone to fear. He emphasized the fact that Brody dominated the Royal Rampage and towered over Moxley. Regal made this match feel more than a simple Championship defense. Everyone knew Moxley wasn’t losing, but putting over Brody like that was fantastic.
It also helped when Brody started out the match dominating the newly crowned Champion. Moxley doesn’t get brutalized too often, but Brody outmatched him for a good portion. Brody’s brute strength and athleticism were on full display here. Moxley needed to use his veteran smarts to get the upper hand. They fought back and forth for a while until Brody tried to choke Moxley out similar to how he did Darby Allin last week. I hope he keeps using that choke to finish fights.
Moxley finally outlasted Brody by hitting the Paradigm Shift, hammer elbows, and the referee called it after the Bulldog Choke. The perfect way to finish the match and still protect Brody. Moxley needed to choke him out instead of pinning him. Great stuff to finish off a fun night of Dynamite.
3.75/5
Match of the Night
Overall
And that was Dynamite for this week! What did you think about this show!?
I thought this week’s episode was good, but not great. I always have a blast watching Dynamite, except this one just didn’t hit the highs for me. Most of everything was good from start to finish. Wasn’t a huge fan of the Swerve, Keith Lee, and Butcher/Blade match, but everything else was good. The storylines, however, make me incredibly excited to see where this goes. I am loving every storyline in AEW right now, which has never happened. Wednesdays and Fridays are weekly holidays!
Verdict: 3.75/5