Written by Gino Lewis
Location: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise FL.
(C) Orange Cassidy def Bandido - Orange Cassidy out first. Bandido is dressed like Zorro. His entrance music is cool, not sure if I’ve heard it before. Both wrestlers received loud chants from the fans. Bandido was able to match Cassidy’s antics using his gun finger motion to block Orange putting his hands in his pockets. Cassidy eventually does pull it off. Therefore, gaining the advantage. Bandido drops Orange throat first on the barricade which led to be him being on offense for a few minutes. The crowd seems to be into the match. This isn’t the loudest crowd though. Bandido hit a huge dive as we went to a break.
Bandido still has the advantage when we get back. There’s a decent “this is awesome chant”. More antics from Orange after some hard chops from Bandido. Orange finally gains the advantage with a Michinoku Driver the announcers say he doesn’t use much. Orange hits a dive then quickly loses the advantage. Bandido hit a move I would describe as a slingshot one-armed Superplex from the outside followed by an awkward looking cutter. Louder this is awesome chants now. Bandido nails Cassidy with a one-armed press slam. His combination of power and high flying is impressive as he also hits an exquisite Frog splash. Orange kicked out at 2. Great near fall. The action has picked up. The crowd is really into it now. Bandido kicked out of the mousetrap which may have never happened before. Orange gets the advantage back after an Orange Punch with Bandido launched in the air then hits Beach Break for the win. Grade 3 ½ *
Sound match to open the show. It really picked up towards the end with a couple excellent near falls. After the match, Bandido handed the title to Cassidy who put his sunglasses on Bandido. It looks like they respect each other after their match. Renee Paquette is backstage with Adam Cole. Cole says he’s going to call out Chris Jericho. It looks like Cole might be in the role of the dumb or should I say courageous baby face who goes out there by himself and gets beat up all the time. Orange and Bandido show up. It looks like they are buddies now. I have to say this pairing is incredibly random and it could be amazing because of that.
After the break Renee is still backstage with Darby and Jungle Boy. Darby asked Jungle to get his back. They try to show each other respect until it gets heated. Darby says he has a match to get ready for and he’ll see Jungle Boy there out there tonight.
Jeff Jarrett def Dax Harwood – Not gonna lie, I'm kinda stoked for this match. I’ve always been a big JJ fan. Dax always has great matches. This could be good. Jeff is out by himself with none of his crew. For now. We start out with decent back and forth technical moves. Jarrett can still really go and finally gets enough of an advantage to do his strut. That only led to him taking his eyes off Harwood who took the advantage. This has been a back forth technical battle with both wrestlers hitting a lot of basic old school moves. Everything has looked crisp and sharp so far. Dax got a close near fall with a small package after some good mat wrestling. Nice short arm lariat from Dax. Late in the match, predictably Dutt is out. He distracts Dax leading to Jarrett hitting the stroke for the win. Grade 3 *
Good match. Not what we usually see in AEW. They had good chemistry in there. It’s not like we can expect Double J to have classic matches anymore, however, he looks great and still has it. I liked that Jarrent won. It helped this match that the outcome wasn’t obvious. It is clearly leading to something bigger down the road. Likely a tag title match at Double or Nothing. That’s good booking. AEW should make more matches like this.
Tony Khan is backstage for his important announcement. TK announces the Owen Hart tournament will kick off at DON and be held in Canada with matches at Forbidden Door and another show when AEW debuts in Calgary Owen's hometown. That is very cool if not really a game-changing announcement.
Wardlow def Jobber – SQUASH. After the match Arn has a mic and is wearing a sweet red Adidas track suit. Arn says Wardlow is AEW’s dynasty. Arn said some silly things about ripping an eye out and biting a finger off before being interrupted by Christian and Luchasaurus. Christian went to the top of the steps then backed away. Schaivone said he’s trying to play mind games. It’s a slow progression to the budding rivalry. I wouldn’t say it advanced things much. From the ramp to the ring as Taz said.
Rene is backstage with MJF and Sammy Guevara. Nice to see Renee getting a decent amount of airtime. I like these backstage segments. They kiss each other on the forehead lol. They laugh and say they don’t care that they are ruining the main event of DON. Sammy got MJF a matching vest. MJF gives Sammy a scarf, and they hug. This was pretty funny. Sammy and MJF work well together. I have a feeling we will see that a lot over the next decade.
RJ City is backstage! YES!! He’s great. Check out Hey-Ew if you haven’t seen it. His sarcastic dry humor is fantastic. He says something about Takeshita and Omega and gets attacked from behind by the Blackpool Combat Club. WTF, lol! Mox says it’s gonna be a big night for the BCC they have some scars to leave. I guess you can’t even say the name of someone in the Eilte without getting your ass kicked. That’s pretty bad ass!
Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevara – I'm surprised this match is placed here on the card. It makes me wonder what the main event is going to be. MJF is out to join the commentary team with limited edition Kaylin and Kaylin pickles. It says MJF’s better than your dill aka classic dill and has a picture of MJF eating them at the press conference. It’s the first thing that comes up on Kaylin and Kaylin’s website. I might get some! MJF gives a pickle to Taz. Taz says he touched every pickle. That was funny. The action seems good at the start the match but it’s taking a back seat to MJF on commentary. MJF said look at Sammy’s traps and delts which is a nod to the late Bobby the Brain the Heenan. That was cool but I’d like it if they at least tried to call the match.
Headed into the break Sammy hit a huge springboard Moonsault to Darby on the outside. It looks like Darby is bleeding. Back from the break Sammy hit a cutter on Darby who dove through the ropes. Great move there. Sammy pulls out a table to the delight of the crowd. “We want tables” chant. Darby has Sammy on the table. Tay comes out for the distraction. Sammy hits a Spanish Fly from the top rope. Now Darby is on the table. MJF calls Tony a “fat old prick”. Ouch. Sammy nails Darby with a 630. The crowd is chanting holy shit. That was awesome, perfectly done by Sammy! MJF hits the ring after Darby beat the 10 count. MJF tosses a skateboard to Darby and Sammy flops on the mat in the famous Eddie Guerrero spot. I guess the ref hasn’t watched wrestling in 20 years because he fell for it and DQ’s Darby. LAME finish to an otherwise good match. It does fit the storyline. I see why this match wasn’t the main event now. Grade 3 ¼ *
After the match MJF and Sammy jump Darby then Jungle Boy makes the save. Tony Schivone is talking to Tony Khan on the headset and says, “Hell yeah, I’ll tell them”. Darby and Jungle aren’t getting along again. MJF berates Jungle and Darby until Tony interrupts and tells MJF “listen up you prick”. That was great. Tony talked to Sammy Guevara. He’s in the main event of Double or Nothing as a result of winning the 4 Pillars tournament. There is going to be a tag team match Jungle/Darby vs MJF/Guevara. It’s exactly what I predicted last week! I like it. Tony says if the faces win it’s a Pillars 4-way match at DON. The heels go nuts in true heel fashion. Jungle and Darby shake hands. They have to get along next week. The classic can they co-exist storyline. I don’t recall AEW doing that before. I think it’s working. Great storyline leading to the main event of DON! MJF is fired up backstage and ditches Sammy saying his empty vehicle is full. That was funny and shows he's just using Guevara.
Adam Cole is next to call out Jericho. This should end well. Cole calls Jericho a son of a bitch and says he’s going to hurt Jericho. Jericho’s music hits as Cole was going to track him down. Jericho calls Cole a coward for doing nothing to help his wife who was getting beat down in front of him. Jericho sends out the Jericho Appreciation Society. Orange and Bandido try to make the save but the faces are still getting beat down. Until Roderick Strong shows up for the save! WHAT!! I was not expecting that. Strong cleaned house. He looks great! Cole and Strong embrace to end the segment. WOW! That was cool. I was not expecting that at all. My wife marked out! This will probably lead to a fatal 4-way soon between the unlikely alliance of Cole/Strong/Orange/Bandido against the JAS. Adding Strong to the program was not something I was expecting. I thought Cole was getting his ass kicked tonight. I liked this segment a lot. Hopefully O’Reilly is ready soon #Undisputed
A quick QTV segment. Hobbs pushes QT against the wall and tells him to fix it. QT says they’re going to “Plan B”.
(C) Jade Cargill def Taya Valkayre – I'm looking forward to this match. This has probably been Jade’s best program. Thanks to Jade’s “attorney” Smart Mark Sterling there is a stipulation that Taya can’t use her finisher that will probably play into the finish. It hasn’t been an epic feud although it’s interesting enough. I don’t see a title change but I do see it leading to another match due to the stipulation. Jade is 55-0. The action isn’t bad, but the crowd is quite early. Cargill hits a couple power moves including a Neckbreaker to the floor to gain the advantage going into the break. They go back and forth, and the moves look pretty good. Taya hits a blue thunder bomb. The crowd is perking up a bit. Jade hits a Superplex. Not too bad. A Canadian Destroyer from Jade. Pretty good-looking offense from Cargill. Taya escapes Jaded. Taya tries to hit her finisher but can’t. Jade gets weak looking roll up on Taya for the win. Another weak finish. I get why they did but it is hurting the action tonight. Grade 2 ¾ *
After the match Taya attempts to hit her finisher on Aubrey which is weird for a face but it’s broken up. Jade walks away with the title. We’ll see this again at DON. Baker and Hayter backstage now. Apparently Hayter went to the hospital last week. They tell the Outcasts it’s not over and they’re sending them to the morgue. Now it’s Switchblade’s time. There is a video package promoting a match for Rampage between Jay White/Juice Robinson vs Starks/Shawn Spears as predicted here last week. I like it! That’s a big match for Rampage. Excaliber almost gave himself a heart attack announcing matches for the next Dynamite. That was funny. They set up 2 matches tonight the 8-man team between JAS against Cole and Company and the 4 Pillars tag match. Main Event time.
Kenny Omega/Takeshita vs Butcher and the Blade – Kenny and Takeshita come out together but not together if that makes sense. You can tell they aren’t on the same page. Danielson is on commentary. He looks to be in more of mentor role for BCC at the moment. The faces are discombobulated, the heels get the advantage with the help of Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford. There was decent action but it was over fairly quickly when Takeshita nailed The Butcher with a knee strike for the win after Omega took out the heels with a dive. Grade 2 ½ *
The match was more of an angle with Danielson coming out and berating the Elite while screwing during up his promo. There is an attack from behind from Blackpool Combat Club. The Young Bucks come out and hit Super Kicks. Danielson gets Takeshita to stop up a screwdriver attack from Kenny. Which leads to BCC getting the advantage. Blackpool acts like Takeshita has joined them but he refuses. Yuta hits a low blow leading to Moxley cutting Takeshita open with the screwdriver to end the show. Good ending to the show. We don’t know where Takeshita loyalties will lie despite BCC kicking his ass. I still think he and Callis could join them like I said last week.
Grade 7.05 – I’d be lying if I said this was a strong episode of Dynamite. That’s more a testament to how great the show normally is. I enjoyed the show. There really wasn’t anything bad, but it was below average for Dynamite. There was good storyline development on this episode. Maybe not as much as the previous weeks. The match quality was down a bit. My highest rated match was 3 ½ stars. The match ratings were low this week and I think I might have been a little generous. This show may have had the weakest main event in Dynamite history. The post-match angle made the placement make sense. There’s just so much talent on the AEW roster that there should have been a better team than Butcher and Blade in the main event. I’m OK with shows like this to help develop storylines. AEW could use a banger of a match on an episode of Dynamite soon.
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