All Elite Wrestling made its return to Canada this week in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Canadian crowd got to witness the homecoming of two of its most famous stars, Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, in action. They were also treated to a wonderful evening of wrestling television that only Dynamite can bring. How was the show in the grand scheme of things?
Let’s talk about it!
- It had been a while since AEW started Dynamite with a segment, but they chose the right week. AEW Champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, was having a birthday celebration to open Dynamite. This segment started in such a crazy way. MJF was having a “Re-Bar Mitzvah” in the center of the ring. Max danced, kissed scantily clad women, and got raised like a king on a throne. The fun ended early as all four “Pillars” of AEW, Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, and Sammy Guevara, came to the ring to challenge the champ. Everyone got their say on the microphone and the inevitable brawl ensued as Max went directly into his cake. This was great!
Hangman Adam Page, Evil Uno, & Stu Grayson vs. Blackpool Combat Club
The first match of the evening featured the return of Dark Order fan favorite, Stu Grayson. He and his old tag partner, Evil Uno, came to the aid of Hangman Adam Page to take on the Blackpool Combat Club in trios action. This was a fun match that continued the BCC’s trek down the dark side.
Most of this match revolved around the BCC being bullies again until Stu stepped up to run roughshod. He hasn’t been in an AEW ring in almost a year but looked like he hasn’t missed one single step. It’s easy to forget how good Stu is in the ring. His offense is very unorthodox.
Something else to note from this match was the character evolution that the BCC has taken. They are full heels now, cheating and everything. Hangman Adam Page was gaining momentum and about to hit the Buckshot Lariat until Wheeler Yuta hit him with the ring bell. This knocked Hangman out, but the Dark Order wouldn’t back down.
The Blackpool Combat Club neutralized Hangman and Evil Uno to isolate Stu Grayson against all three members. Moxley gets Stu Grayson to tap out to the Bulldog Choke to win the match and disappoint the Canadian crowd hoping to see their countrymen pick up the victory. This was fun and an interesting wrinkle of character development for Moxley, Claudio, and Yuta.
3.5/5
(How will Danielson feel about this?)
Segments:
- Juice Robinson’s backstage promo threatening all of the locker room was up next. His first target just happened to be Ricky Starks.
- AEW advertised a “TBS Open Challenge” for this week, but it wasn’t even a match. Hometown talent Nicole Matthews was destroyed by Jade Cargill in five seconds, except that wasn’t the end of the segment. Taya Valkyrie made her AEW debut to challenge Jade. Leila Gray decided to mess with Taya and met the receiving end of a Jaded from Taya. Jade’s own move looked better when someone else did it…
- Ricky Starks answered Juice Robinson up next. He simply says “Any time, any place.”
- QTV was up next, and it really surprised me. WWE has indoctrinated fans into thinking “TV” segments are going to be inside the ring, but this felt more like TMZ. It had quality production, was funny, and gave some fun character work for everyone. It also revealed that Aaron Solo was the one who broke into Wardlow’s car. QTV could be an interesting routine segment. Powerhouse Hobbs also sent out a TNT Open Challenge for Rampage.
International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Jeff Jarrett
Up next was the officially renamed International Championship being defended by Orange Cassidy against Jarrett in a ridiculous match with an equally ridiculous ending. It was fun though.
The story of this match revolved around Cassidy’s knee. Jay Lethal worked it over last week before Jarrett smashed his guitar on it too. Both of these attacks caused weakness so bad it was useless. The Orange Punch couldn’t be thrown because he pushes off of that leg.
Game Over Gimmicks is officially a Jeff Jarrett fan site. There will never be any Double J bashing around these parts! Jarrett has been fantastic in his role in AEW. This match was the perfect example of it. He had the moxie to taunt Cassidy, controlled the match with simple and effective moves, and even used the Sharpshooter in Canada to taunt the Bret Hart fans.
And then the ridiculous hit a breaking point, as so much happened to close the match. Orange Cassidy emulated Eddie Guerrero by being fake hit with a guitar, a ref bump, a new ref taking the guitar away, and then Jay Lethal materialized out of thin air to clunk Cassidy with the Golden Globe. Thankfully Orange Cassidy survived to hit the Orange Punch for the victory. Could have sworn Double J was winning here, but Cassidy’s reign has been great and should continue.
3.5/5
Segments:
- The Acclaimed had a fun new song. Simple and fun.
- The Outcasts came to the ring to berate the fans and the locker room some more. Saraya refers to AEW as her house once again, Toni Storm complains about being an “interim” champion again, and Ruby Soho tells the story of dogs peeing on their turf. They have been chastised by some imaginary force and are here to change AEW in their vision. Thankfully Jaime Hayter, Britt Baker, and a slew of other AEW Women’s talent come to chase them off. Riho especially had enough because she was carrying a lead pipe. Riho with a new edge would be cool to see.
- Angelo Parker and Matt Menard were backstage promoting a match for this Friday on Rampage.
- Rey Fenix was also promoting a match on Friday, as he answered Powerhouse Hobbs’s open challenge.
Trios Championship: House of Black (c) vs. The Elite vs. Jericho Appreciation Society
And just like that, it was main event time. The Trios titles were on the line as the House of Black were defending against two hometown heroes. Kenny Omega and the Elite challenged them, as well as Chris Jericho and the JAS. This was a good main event with an obvious story and a subtle one.
The obvious story here was Jericho and Omega. The Winnipeg boys haven’t shared a ring since the original Double or Nothing. So the crowd went wild every time these two got in the ring together. They fought against one another and even worked together against Brody King.
This brings up the subtle story that AEW is telling: Brody King is a monster. He dominates every single match he’s in, which means that the other teams need to gang up on him. Nobody has an answer for Brody King. Is AEW building Brody for a singles run?
Anyway, you know how this goes. It’s AEW. It’s the trios division. There was crazy action throughout that was pointless to play-by-play.
There was also a random cutaway toward the end of the match with the Blackpool Combat Club brawling with Hangman, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds. Apparently, Evil Uno needed a trip to the hospital after their match earlier. This was an odd cutaway, but the ending made it make sense.
When all was said and done, The House of Black reigned supreme once again. Brody King took the JAS out after Sammy Guevara took out the Elite, which caused Dante’s Inferno to win the match for the champs. Great match to end a fun evening.
4/5
Match of the Night
- But we were not done! This episode ended like it began, with a segment! All of a sudden, Hangman and the Dark Order came to the ring while brawling with the Blackpool Combat Club. The BCC took out Reynolds and Silver, but the Elite came to Hangman’s rescue. IT’S HAPPENING! Great way to end this episode.
OVERALL
And that was Dynamite for this week! What did you think!? Let me know!
This was an up and down episode. It started fantastically with the Pillars segment followed by the BCC/Hangman match, but the long segment breaks in between matches drug the pacing down a little. The segments weren’t bad at all, except maybe there could have been one less segment and another quick match or something.
That ending though! The trios match was great and the cliffhanger ending was perfection. What will Hangman, Bucks, and Kenny do next!? Will they makeup or not? It was so good!
AEW Dynamite is a blast to watch and the Elite makes the show better.
Verdict: 4/5