It’s AEW Dynamite! You know what that means…
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ohhhhh!
Jungle Boy vs Kenny Omega! What else is there to say aside from this match was fucking great and everyone should see it? Just a fantastic thrilling main event that made Jungle Boy look strong in defeat, which is all we could realistically ask for.
Come on, how many of you guys bet actual money on Jungle Boy beating Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship? First, it’s not his time yet, second, that belt is reserved for Hangman Page.
Still, while we all knew Jungle Boy Jack wasn’t going to beat Kenny, the journey this match put us through was so good that I don’t think anyone was bothered by the predictable ending. Kenny took so much offense from Jungle Boy in this match, from poison-ranas to multiple suicide dives, and those great Snare Trap submission spots. I especially loved how Kenny had to pull Jungle Boy’s hair and rake his eyes to escape the second Snare Trap, paying off all those times Omega mentioned those luscious locks.
This main event capped off a great stick of Dynamite where pretty much everything was good. We got great matches like Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs and Matt Sydal vs. Dante Martin. All of the Inner Circle/Pinnacle segments were surprisingly good, getting me interested in this storyline I should be tired of. There wasn’t really anything “bad” in this episode.
While it was a good Dynamite, this wasn't a perfect episode. Like so many sticks of Dynamite, there was a lot of interference and group beatdowns. Most of them worked in the context of their stories but there was so much of them that it started to feel repetitive by the end.
Let’s start with the beatdown after the main event, which was good in theory and execution but suffered from being the last of many in this show. I liked Christian Cage saving Jungle Boy from Omega, which sets up Kenny vs. Christian again, and seeing him almost hit Matt Hardy with the Unprettier sold me a ticket to their eventual match. The Young Bucks taking away Christian’s chance to hit his move, leading to the third Twist of Fate three weeks in a row, is simple and effective booking.
What a WILD ending to Saturday Night #AEWDynamite! pic.twitter.com/ZvOwKmqzTW
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 27, 2021
Storyline-wise, it all makes sense and I didn’t hate it, but considering all the beatdowns before this it just felt uninspired as a show-ender.
The best beatdown this week was FTR giving Konan an assisted spike piledriver. Before that, we got an amazing promo from Konnan, who was so good it made me wish he was Santana and Ortiz’s mouthpiece again. Konnan burning Tully Blanchard with that Wal-Mart line about hiring greeters was great, but him bringing up how Tully needs to learn Spanish to speak with his grandkids was even better.
(In case you didn’t know Tully’s daughter Tessa Blanchard is dating Mexican wrestler Daga.)
Another beatdown I liked was when The Blade and TH2 beat up Orange Cassidy. Not even kidding. I don’t usually like romance angles in wrestling but seeing Cassidy get mad at Blade for shoving him and knocking over Statlander was good! Seeing TH2 hold up Cassidy while Blade knocked him out with brass knuckles was also good! They also explained how Trent had real-life neck surgery and how Chuck Taylor was with him so it made sense that they didn’t come out to save him.
All in all, this angle succeeded in what it set out to do; give Orange Cassidy some midcarders to feud with.
Still, that’s three beatdowns in one show. That’s two too many for one episode of wrestling.
Even with all of that, this was a good show but I really wish AEW would tone it down with all these interference/beatdown spots. They’re starting to feel like a crutch rather than a proper storytelling tool and it’s burning fans out on AEW.
Final Grade: B+
Bullet-Point Party
- Hangman Page beats Powerhouse Hobbs in a great opener: A very good match to start the show with a ton of power moves and strikes that made both guys look like tough sons of bitches. This also started the interference trend, like all AEW openers if we’re being honest, but at least Ricky Starks and Brian Cage interfering was a swerve on the Double or Nothing finish of Page vs Cage with Hobbs countering the Buckshot Lariat into an awesome spinebuster. Hangman eventually won with Dead Eye but that spinebuster almost made me think he was losing, good stuff.
- Matt Sydal defeats Dante Martin, sets up a feud with Andrade El Idolo: Vickie and Andrade appearing at the start only to have Matt interrupt was a bit contrived but it does set up a feud that could be excellent. It also helps that Matt won an awesome bout with Top Flight’s Dante Martin, who looked awesome throughout by bouncing all over the place with his floppy dips. Definitely check this out if you like seeing high-flyers do their shtick.
- Miro is God’s favorite champion and he threatens to kill Brian Pillman Jr. next week: Awesome promo. This is the Miro we should have gotten from day one.
- Ethan Page beats Bear Bronson, challenges Darby Allin to a Coffin match: This was more of a showcase for Ethan Page but that wasn’t a problem since he showed his strength by hitting his Ego’s Edge powerbomb on a big dude like Bear Bronson. Ethan’s intensity in the post-match promo was strong in its own right and I’m really looking forward to this Coffin match because of it.
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 for 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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