You know, it’s kind of funny to see Dynamite turn a year old. When I agreed to review AEW Dynamite a year ago, I was a lapsed WWE fan who stuck with the product because a bunch of his favorites was there and they released yearly video games that were fun. WWE 2K19 still rules.
Cut to a year later, WWE 2K20 sucked harder than my imaginary waifu, I only keep up with WWE now through YouTube clips, maybe the occasional match, and I stan Hangman Page harder than most of the wrestlers on the RAW, SmackDown, and NXT roster. Most importantly, I’m now an AEW fan, I watch every week, and it’s been good for my wrestling brain.
I wanted to say “I’ve gone All Elite” but hardcore AEW fans probably say that and they suck harder than WWE 2K20. You all know who you are and you all know I'm right Elite-ists! (Please tell me they don't call themselves that.)
Just to be clear, AEW is not a perfect wrestling company. Hell, this wasn’t a perfect stick of Dynamite and it’s their one-year anniversary. Despite all the hype for the show’s being a big one-year celebration, it didn't feel special and felt more like a typical episode of Dynamite; business as usual, warts and all. You’d think that the company would want to milk some of that nostalgia more, especially since they temporarily uploaded the very first episode on their YouTube channel.
Then again, that’s always been the mission statement of Dynamite; move forward and push new talent. I wish they would give them a mega push—why didn’t Orange Cassidy beat Cody?—but at least the company is doing their best to make people look legitimate. A lot has changed since last year and some of the wrestlers are in better positions now than they were in 2019, which is saying a lot since no one likes 2020.
MJF, for example, doesn’t look out of place at all standing next to Chris Jericho and the fact that he can stand toe-to-toe with Le Champion on the microphone is impressive. The two heels also have continuity on their side since the story of MJF joining The Inner Circle has been teased since last year. Let's also not forget how Orange Cassidy would have beaten Cody in an excellent match had it not been for that 20-minute time limit, doing wonders for the guy who would've just put his hands in his pockets and take a beating a year ago. Big Swole wrestled Hikaru Shida to try winning her AEW Women’s World Championship and she wasn’t even signed to the company last October but she was booked strong, even if that match sucked as much as a hardcore AEW fan.
All of that goodness was capped off by Jon Moxley retaining his AEW World Championship against Lance Archer in a pretty good main event match. This is only Archer’s second loss and he didn’t really lose anything here since Moxley won by a surprise roll-up so he isn’t getting buried. Furthermore, Eddie Kingston is the guy taking on Moxley in the next pay-per-view! His promo after beating down Moxley was fire and the fact that he made me care for another match between these two after they already had one a few weeks ago with a clean finish shows how magnetic Kingston is on the microphone. I am so glad they hired this guy.
You know what I’m not glad about? MATT HARDY FEUDING WITH SAMMY GUEVARA AGAIN!
Do the bookers want Matt Hardy to die? Sammy’s usually not an unsafe worker but whenever these two get physical, Matt loses a year of his life. This isn’t one of those tirelessly long feuds like Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio or Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre (BOTH OF WHICH ARE STILL ONGOING) but a cursed one where nothing good happens and everyone looks bad in some way. The fact that they want it to continue after Hardy’s face was cut open by a chair and his head landed on concrete after a scary fall is insane.
Look at Hardy’s face. That’s the face of a man who is SCARED FOR HIS LIFE.
Christ, all that negativity is making me remember all the stuff I didn’t like about this episode. Like how the pace early on was too frantic, literally having us move from a Miro promo to a backstage brawl between Moxley and Archer within seconds, not letting us absorb what had happened prior. The way they announced a four-way match to determine contenders for the tag team championship was really rushed and not advertising this segment in advance made it feel like a last-minute addition. Oh right, Cody went back to being blonde when he looked so much better with black hair. I am somewhat used to this look for Cody but it doesn’t help how The Blade, Miro, and now, Lance Archer have the same hair color too. Why not try going ginger, ya nerds?
Also, that women’s match. Yeesh. I’m a fan of Big Swole but it's clear that she isn’t ready for these long matches and Hikaru Shida, who is very talented, had a difficult time carrying her here. This has been AEW’s biggest flaw for a whole year but they really need to hire more veteran women to help build up the division’s greener wrestlers. I don’t know why they didn’t give Nyla Rose a title shot instead since she’s a better worker and hasn’t even had her rematch for the championship yet.
Sorry. The Dynamite Anniversary show wasn’t great but it also wasn’t horrible. FTR vs. Best Friends, Cody vs. Orange Cassidy, and Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer were too good to make this show bad. Eddie Kingston’s promo, Britt Baker’s spa date with Tony Schiavone, and the Chris Jericho/MJF segment were also fun.
Final Grade: B-
Bulletpoint Party:
- Penta El Zero M and Joey Janela are the final entries in the Eight-Man Tournament to determine the next contender for the AEW World Championship: This is a stacked tourney as these two join Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Colt Cabana, Wardlow, Jungle Boy, and Rey Fenix. The fact that we’re getting a match between The Lucha Bros in the first round is crazy and I am excited as hell for this.
- FTR beat Best Friends to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championships: Very good opener here. It didn’t blow me away but the wrestling was good throughout and nothing was too bad here. My only complaint is that they used this match to set up another feud and that sort of gave away the ending to this match for veteran wrestling watchers like myself.
- Miro and Kip Sabian are mad about Best Friends wrecking their arcade cabinet: Not a great start to this feud but Best Friends have turned tap water into wine before with that amazing feud against The Inner Circle’s Santana and Ortiz.
- Orange Cassidy fought Cody to a tie, The American Nightmare retains his TNT Championship: Just a really good match here. Cody basically forced Cassidy to wrestle properly and he got more than he bargained for as The Freshly Squeezed one proved that his wins over Jericho were not a fluke. Unlike the Brodie Lee match, Cassidy used his lazy persona to mess with Cody’s head and it worked as he surprised him throughout this match over and over. I’m hoping—but not expecting—for a Cassidy win in two weeks since having him wrestle Darby Allin on pay-per-view could be excellent.
Images from AEW
Nico Parungo is a freelance contributor for Geeky PH and previously wrote for Epicstream. He provides weekly recaps of AEW Dynamite for Smark Henry and has contributed several reviews of PWR and MWF shows. When he isn't frustrated about the WWE, he's playing video games at home and is bugging his friends with glorious puns. He's new to the world of Twitter drama but is quickly getting hooked.
Nico Parungo is a freelance contributor for Geeky PH and previously wrote for Epicstream. He provides weekly recaps of AEW Dynamite for Smark Henry and has contributed several reviews of PWR and MWF shows. When he isn't frustrated about the WWE, he's playing video games at home and is bugging his friends with glorious puns. He's new to the world of Twitter drama but is quickly getting hooked.
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