It’s review time yet again! Dynamite was in Colorado this week for a great night of wrestling. This episode was flying high and hooked on fun. All Elite Wrestling has its fans addicted to its brand of professional wrestling and craving more and more content.
Weed.
All jokes aside, this week’s episode had stars up and down the card. Let’s talk about it!
AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Swerve Strickland
Orange Cassidy’s title reign has been brilliant. Forget about the matches for a second (which are amazing), and let’s focus on the story. He’s been champion since October and is 24-0 in defending the title. That’s incredible. What’s even more incredible is how he’s doing it. He’s become more and more desperate for every victory. His body breaking down has caused his finishing moves to be less effective, thus leading to finding alternative ways of winning matches.
Swerve and Cassidy had a fantastic match with all sorts of close falls. You could tell they had fought before because the chemistry was impeccable. There were so many big moves and great counters. Both guys kicked out of each other’s finishers too. It was such a good match.
And the ending! Swerve rolled Cassidy up and grabbed the tights, but then Cassidy reversed it and did the same thing. He resorted to cheating to beat Swerve Strickland. A babyface cheated and it made perfect sense. *chef’s kiss*
4.25/5
Match of the Night
After the match, the Mogul Embassy attacked Orange Cassidy, but Darby and Sting save the day. That’s a trio that hopefully has a Forbidden Door match.
Chaos vs. Blackpool Combat Club
Up next was a fun trios match between the newly reunited Best Friends and Rocky Romero to face AEW’s resident bullies, The Blackpool Combat Club. This match was a lot of fun. It went exactly as expected. There was high-paced action, both teams played their roles, and the Blackpool Combat Club came out on top by beating the hell out of their opponents.
Side note, if you haven’t seen Claudio hit Trent Baretta with an uppercut, go out of your way to find it. It was one of the coolest things that happened this week.
3/5
Segments:
- The first segment of the evening was a backstage segment with Hangman Page and the Young Bucks, or the now official trio Hungbucks! They challenged the Blackpool Combat Club to a trios match for next week, which was quickly accepted by Bryan Danielson.
- Everyone’s favorite AEW Champion arrived to argue with the Colorado crowd. The question of MJF’s Forbidden Door had been floated around. The big marquee matches didn’t include the AEW Champion, so who would be his next feud? That was quickly answered by Adam Cole. These two proceeded to have a phenomenal back-and-forth promo battle. Cole hasn’t been this fiery since he returned from injury, and it was great to see. MJF accepted Cole’s challenge for a fight for next week.
- A backstage segment with the Hardyz and Brother Zay to introduce the new member of their group, Ethan Page. Matt Hardy vowed to make Ethan a better man. This group is incredibly funny and, hopefully, gets consistent television time.
JungleHook vs. La Faccion de Ingobernables
One of the coolest tag teams in recent memory was in action next, JungleHook. They took on La Faccion Ingobernable members Preston Vance and Dralistico in a Texas Tornado Tag match. Was this style of match any different than any of the other multi-man matches in AEW? Nope. Still fun though!
This match was a lot quicker than originally thought, but the pace reflected that. Maybe that was intended to make it feel like a tornado. All four guys just went nuts with whatever they could find. Hook and Vance went into the crowd to fight for a while, which led to Preston Vance bleeding profusely after a chain punch to the head. Vance’s head was gushing like a fountain and painting every body and surface.
Everyone here had a great showing. They all came out better than before; especially Hook and Vance. Jack Perry finished this crazy match by locking Dralistico into the Snare Trap.
Hopefully, Junglehook sticks around.
3.75/5
Segments:
- Tony Khan was back AGAIN for another announcement up next. The first episode of Collision will have a main event between Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Samoa Joe versus CM Punk and FTR. Yes, that’s cool, but why is TK announcing Collision like this? Fifteen separate announcements for one debut show feels weird. Hopefully, that same energy happens with the other episodes of Collision. Personally, I’m worried about Collision, but that’s a topic for another day.
- Konosuke Takeshita quickly disposed of his opponent in a match to then have a repeat segment from last week with Don Callis. Those two are hated by everyone and it’s wonderful.
- Alex Marvez was backstage waiting for Christian Cage to get a comment on the ladder match at Double or Nothing. Cage is out for vengeance after Arn cost him the match, so he and Luchasaurus took it out on Brock Anderson. Cool.
TBS Championship: Kris Statlander (c) vs. Anna Jay A.S.
Up next was a TBS Championship match between Kris Statlander and Anna Jay. This match was the perfect example of what a television championship should be. It should be defended frequently against any and all challengers. Statlander has a permanent open challenge going right now, and that led to a great match that Anna Jay shined in a losing effort.
Anna Jay is improving, that’s undisputed (sorry Adam Cole). Chain wrestling was not expected in this match, but we got it! Anna did great in this match. She chained many moves together against the much stronger Statlander and almost even won with the Queenslayer. Anna improves with every match and she’ll have her time in the spotlight in the near future.
In the end, Statlander was too much. She finished the match with a lariat/backbreaker combo and a piledriver. Awesome match!
3.5/5
- Toni Storm was with Ruby Soho backstage to preview next week’s AEW Women’s Championship match between her and the winner of a 4-way match happening on Rampage. Her promos have hit another level. This was one short and incredible.
Ricky Starks vs. ‘Switchblade’ Jay White
And finally, it was main event time! This feud between Jay White and Ricky Starks has been going strong since Switchblade attacked Starks a couple of months ago. These two hate each other, and the result of this match to close out Dynamite won’t settle this feud. It was a great main-event match.
Jay White has truly rekindled the magic of New Japan Switchblade over the past few weeks. Between his cocky attitude, sparkling personality, and smooth ring work, Jay White has all the tools to become AEW Champion. Not to mention that he has one of the best Uranages around.
White and Starks had great chemistry here, and also throughout the whole feud. They had awesome transitions, counters, and the chops were breathtaking. Also, shoutout to Paul Turner here. White and Starks were fighting on the ramp, and Paul was screaming in their face to get the action back into the ring. That was a nice touch.
The ending of the match was a little too predictable, but still well done. Ricky Starks hit the RoChamBeau, except he hit Paul Turner with it as well. The referee was down and we all know what that means! Shenanigans are afoot!
The Gunns, of all people, attack Starks from behind with the 310 to Yuma, which allowed Jay White to hit the Blade Runner and finish the match. Whether or not The Gunns joined Bullet Club Gold is still a mystery! Good match though!
4/5
Overall
And that was this week’s episode of Dynamite! What did you think?
AEW is back in the groove. They have found a formula that keeps the stories rolling, while still having amazing matches every single week. AEW is simultaneously building towards Collision and Forbidden Door and keeping things fresh. It seems like they learned from last year’s frenetic June where everything felt rushed.
Great episode to continue AEW’s run of great episodes!
Verdict: 4.25/5