Holla holla holla! Nico’s here to talk about some tag team matches playa!
Okay, bad Teddy Long impression, I know, but man this episode had a lot of tag team matches. No joke, AEW Dynamite Episode Three: The One Where Tag Teams Tag Team had four tag team contests and two singles bouts, both of which were title matches. You know what the amazing part was? They didn’t make the show feel repetitive at all. Some of them even progressed a couple of storylines, proving that AEW is all thriller and almost-no filler.
It’s almost like tag team wrestling can be just as vital in telling stories as singles matches and should be treated with importance, Vince.
Moxley’s Got Moxy
The moment AEW announced that PAC and Jon Moxley would be teaming up to take on Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page, we knew there was going to be some sort of angle. Moxley didn’t like how PAC interfered in his gentleman’s barbed wire duel with Omega last week and that Bastard got in their way again when the two rivals wanted to go hardcore on each other, all because he didn’t want to get disqualified in a tag team match. Jerk.
Soon after, Moxley flipped two birds to PAC, gave him the Dirty Deeds Death Rider Paradigm Shift DDT, and left his tag team partner for dead in a very Steve Austin-like manner, leading to PAC’s first loss in AEW.
While I would rather they keep PAC undefeated, this was a pitch-perfect segment. Moxley looks like a badass for doing things his way, PAC was left alone to fend for himself against two main event talents, so no one is going to look at this loss as character-ruining, and the two babyfaces get a badly needed win. Omega and Page haven’t won a lot in AEW, to my utter shock, so they needed to give these beautiful boys something.
Because of these events, we’re getting Jon Moxley vs PAC next week and I cannot wait. Will PAC remain undefeated in singles competition? Tune in next week.
The Lucha Dicks
Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix are dicks. Earlier in the show, they took out Christopher Daniels with a Package Piledriver on the steel ramp before SCU’s match with The Best Friends, almost making him a literal Fallen Angel. Later on in their match against Jurassic Express, the two big luchadors bullied Marko Stunt a bunch, all because he’s short, looks like a kid, and does a stupid dance.
Okay, maybe Stunt deserved it. Stupid kid and his stupid dance.
It looks like we’re going to be getting SCU vs. The Lucha Brothers for the finals in the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament and that’s a great bout to end this on, especially with Scorpio Sky now filling in for Daniels. I actually want SCU to win because The Lucha Dicks started all this friction back in the first episode and attacked them from behind like cowards.
Wow. I want the bad guys to lose and the good guys to win. What an amazing concept in 2019.
To get smarky for a bit, SCU and The Lucha Bros are the most credible tag teams to hold these new belts now that The Young Bucks have been eliminated. If we do get this match in Full Gear, and all the build-up has been pointing us in that direction, then we are in for one hell of a title bout.
You Can’t Skateboard on The Walls (of Jericho)
Before I talk about how good this match was, why is he called Darby Allin and not Derby Allin? You skate in a derby and you're a wrestler, go all in and name yourself Derby Allin. So there. You get that one for free, Cody, Nick, and Matt.
Or is that where Darby Allin got his name from? I mean, he was a skater. Guess he didn’t want the pun to be too obvious LIKE A COWARD.
Anyway, the Philly Street Fight between DERBY Allin and Chris Jericho was pretty darn good. The stipulation helped cover some of Jericho’s weaknesses and allowed the two to get pretty creative. I particularly loved the final act of this match where Jericho thought he was going to get an easy win by taping Allin’s hands together but was caught off guard by the sk8er boi’s tricky feet-based offense.
In the end, the AEW World Champion put Allin in the Walls of Jericho and the skater, with his hands still tied up, was forced to surrender. This was a great finish, partly because it showed how sadistic Jericho can be and also because the champ used one of his good moves to win. Fuck the Judas Effect. Fuck it in a consensual way but never return its phone calls.
Three episodes in and AEW Dynamite has proven to be a consistently entertaining wrestling show. I’ll never give up on WWE—in fact, I’m picking up the horrible-looking WWE 2K20 next week—but for my wrestling sanity, I’ll stick with Dynamite and NXT until things get better. This episode gets an A for A good wrestling show.
Matches Announced for Next Week:
- Semi-Finals of the AEW Tag Team Championship Tournament: SCU (Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian) vs. The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson)
- Semi-Finals of the AEW Tag Team Championship Tournament: The Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix) vs. Private Party (Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy)
- Jon Moxley vs. PAC
- The Young Bucks in action
Elite Thoughts
- Luchasaurus was injured, which is why Marko Stunt ended up teaming with Jungle Boy. I was sad about not seeing the giant in action but Stunt performed admirably, even if the match went on a bit longer than it should.
- It was weird seeing The Best Friends play heel in their match against SCU, but the story called for it and we got an awesome opener.
- Riho is over. Like, really over. She might have gotten one of the best reactions of the night. Her title match against Britt Baker was good, if sloppy at a few points but it ended well.
- Santana and Ortiz had a decent enough squash match that made both men look good. Can’t wait to see them take on The Young Bucks in Full Gear.
- Jericho cut a promo putting over Santana and Ortiz but you could barely hear him over the two constantly shouting “WE'RE THE BEST!” over and over. That could have gone better.
- That Cody video package was great, though I thought MJF’s portion of the video could have been done better. Maybe it’s because he’s a throwback heel who loves insulting people but I couldn’t take him seriously and thought his promo needed work. He’s still young and will probably get better down the line.
Images from All Elite Wrestling
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