Welcome, everyone to the third edition of #MouthingOff (with MikeJC): Dynamite Weekly, the weekly review feature on AEW Dynamite here on SLTDWrestling.com. I will be giving my thoughts and opinions on all the highlights of the show as well as giving the “Remarkable Wrestler” of the week. So here are the highlights of the special Thursday, August 27th edition of AEW Dynamite.
Tag Team Gauntlet, Winning Team Gets an AEW Tag Team Championship Shot At All Out, #4 Natural Nightmares (Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall) vs. #3 Young Bucks
The first match of the gauntlet match saw a lot of back and forth action and a lot of signature moves. The Young Bucks worked a great match here against Rhodes and Marshall. There was a funny as well as entertaining spot early where Matt Jackson hit numerous armdrags in a row, and Dustin had to catch his breath. Marshall and Rhodes both showed a lot of athleticism in this match, Dustin even hit a destroyer at one point which is still amazing to most at Dustin’s age he just keeps getting better. The Young Bucks were too much for them, and they hit the BTE Trigger for the win, Young Bucks advance.
#3 Young Bucks vs. #2 Best Friends
This match was great, these two teams have great chemistry from working together so much in the past. There was a lot of tandem offence. One of the stories of the final match took place in this match as Chuck Taylor would hurt his knee in this one. Nick his a gruesome-looking spot later on when reversing a piledriver on the apron from Trent, into a German Suplex on the apron. The finish of this match came when The Young Bucks went to set up the Meltzer Driver, and of all people, Hangman Page held Nicks leg preventing him from springboarding in, leading to a roll-up by Trent for the pin and the win, Best Friends advance.
#2 Best Friends vs. #1 FTR
As soon as this third match of the gauntlet match began, FTR immediately targeted Chuck Taylor’s leg. They would double team Taylor majority of the match, as well as prevent Trent from tagging in or getting back on the apron to make a tag, eventually leading to Dax Harwood hitting an inverted figure four for a tap out, and the victory. FTR win and receive an AEW Tag Team Championship match at All Out.
Segment Rating: 7/10
This entire match from start to finish was very, very good. I enjoyed the action in the first two matches of the gauntlet a lot, and the final match really became about the long term story. After Hangman had cost The Young Bucks the match, he legitimately couldn’t look at them and he walked away.
Later they found him in the bar (of course), and he looked ashamed of himself, Matt and Nick were reasonably angry at him and Matt told him that back in November, Hangman wanted out of The Elite, and Matt says he gets his wish he’s out of The Elite. It’s clear to me this has a lot to do with Hangman’s interaction with FTR last week where he’s the only person they can trust, even though FTR claimed to have nothing to do with it. I’m very curious what Kenny Omega thinks about this, and what the future holds for his relationship with Hangman because of this. Every team had their time to shine as well. Also glad they are saving Young Bucks versus FTR for down the road for a huge match.
Also can’t wait for the Tag Team Championship match at All Out. Also, I hated Rick Knox in all three of these matches, I don’t know if he’s playing a role of the bad ref, but it was very evident here that it felt like he just didn’t care, and they say a good referee is a referee you don’t notice, so that should say everything because I noticed big time.
Lance Archer Shows Dominance/Team Taz Appears
Lance Archer had a sort of quick nothing match against Sean Maluta, which he won handily but that wasn’t the story of this segment. After the match, Jake Roberts got on the mic and discussed how Lance Archer will win the Casino Battle Royale (which they announced earlier). Team Taz came out, and Taz proclaimed that one of his guys will win the battle royale, and we get an intense staredown between Archer and Brian Cage. Darby Allin would also appear attacking his rival, Ricky Starks. These two brawl to the back, and Cage and Taz back away.
Segment Rating: 4/10
I didn’t love this segment but it was fine to set up the Casino Battle Royale, I don’t love they are doing that match on this show, they had a good idea with the ladder match at Double or Nothing and I’d rather see that again than see this style of battle royal that isn’t a great idea, to begin with. I’d love to see a singles match of Archer versus Cage down the line, I think that be a hell of a match. Jake, is not a great promo right now, he seems off his game, and I hope that changes soon. Taz is probably the best manager in wrestling right now.
Hikaru Shida and Thunder Rosa Segment
This was a nice little video package hyping the match between the two at All Out I enjoyed it a lot though there’s not a lot to say about, Thunder Rosa said she wants to prove she is the best what better way than to win another championship, we all get sound bites from Billy Corgan, who talks about the appreciation to have this opportunity to showcase one of the NWA’s top talents, and we see the two women signing the contract and having an intense staredown.
Jon Moxley & MJF Contract Signing
MJF comes out with his team of security and talks about the history of contract signings in wrestling history and how they always end in a brawl. They trade insults, and MJF continues and talks about how he was wrong about Jon Moxley, he tells Jon that he’s really good and that Mike Tyson even said he “wouldn’t want to be in a dark alley with him”. MJF says but this match won’t be in a back alley it will be in a ring, and calls himself a wrestling prodigy.
He continues saying Jon is not a wrestler, he’s a goon, and that Moxley wants the match to go to the floor because of how he idolized hardcore wrestlers, but MJF great up idolizing legends and AEW deserves better. Moxley speaks and said he doesn’t need the Paradigm Shift to beat MJF, and he will sign the contract. MJF and his team laughed at this, and Moxley says he can’t believe they okay’ed page 17. MJF’s lawyer says there are only 16 pages. Moxley explains that on page 17 it states, that next week he gets a match against MJF’s lawyer and the Paradigm Shift is legal in that match, and if he doesn’t show up MJF loses his title opportunity at All Out.
Segment Rating: 5/10
I didn’t love this segment, because the emphasis on the Paradigm Shift being banned, kind of doesn’t make much sense, because MJF didn’t beat Brian Cage or Brodie Lee with that move, so he clearly doesn’t need that move to defend his championship. Also, MJF overselling the neck “injury” after only taking one, is just irritating to me. I’m excited to see the match though. I just haven’t loved the feud. Some of this stuff between them have felt more silly to me than the top tier feeling it should have. Including the match for next week.
Sonny Kiss, Joey Janela, Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison vs. The Butcher, The Blade & The Lucha Bros. (with Eddie Kingston)
This match was quick out the gate, and Sonny Kiss had possibly the best showing of everyone. A lot of strikes, hurricanrana, and he went for the diving split-legged leg drop but it missed. Janela later hit a death valley driver on Fenix, and Pentagon followed that with a package piledriver on Janela. Pillman Jr. then tags in with a load of energy but is hit by a Suplex-Powerbomb combo by The Butcher and The Blade, then The Lucha Bros. hit a draping double arm DDT/diving dropkick combo for the win.
Segment Rating: 5/10
This match had a bunch of action and gave everyone a little bit of a spotlight. This match furthered the relationship between The Butcher, The Blade, The Lucha Bros. and Eddie Kingston. After the match, Kingston got on the mic and said that the five of them will be in the Casino Battle Royale. I don’t know what the endgame is here, with this group, I’m intrigued but also wonder if down the line PAC will have something to do with it too considering he was in a group with The Lucha Bros. before he was unable to travel back to America.
Brodie Lee TNT Championship Celebration
The entire Dark Order comes out, holding a casket which they place at the top of the ramp. Evil Uno states that they bought five lawnmowers and a Yellow Mustang to celebrate Brodie Lee’s big win last week (I don’t get the relevance of the lawnmowers at all). They open the casket to reveal Preston “10” Vance, with a Nightmare Family family draped over him and a mockery of Cody’s horribly placed tattoo on his neck, he gets out throws the flag in the casket and they close it, signifying the end of the Nightmare Family.
They introduce the TNT Champion, Brodie Lee. He yells at Tony Schiavone to interview him in the ring. Brodie talks about the Dark Order being a laughing stock back in December and continues to say that The Nightmare Family is buried and there won’t be any more open challenges. He also officially welcomes Anna Jay to the Dark Order, declaring she is now 99. John Silver gets overexcited and called Brodie Lee “the man”, which pisses Brodie off and he punches him and tells him to get back in line.
All of this brings out Dustin Rhodes, and QT Marshall, who doesn’t stand a chance against the numbers of The Dark Order, then Scorpio Sky comes out to help, followed by Matt Cardona, while Brodie and Anna Jay leave.
Segment Rating: 4/10
I didn’t love this segment because it wasn’t very memorable, the only thing I liked was the John Silver getting punched for getting too excited, that was hilarious. Everything else was kind of whatever. The acknowledgement of the lawnmowers made little to no sense and I don’t get why it was referenced at all. I don’t understand Colt Cabana kind of not changing his demeanour at all and also not caring about the brawls that usually take place in most Dark Order segments, he seems out of place and just happy to be on TV. They announce later there will be an Eight-man Tag match at All Out that doesn’t seem important at all. Also later in the night Evil Uno came out with Anna Jay holding a folder, and they walk over to Tay Conti and offer a spot in Dark Order and she accepts and hugs Anna Jay.
3-on-1 Handicap Match: Britt Baker, Rebel, and Penelope Ford vs. Big Swole
This match was bad, like really bad. Rebel’s character is that she doesn’t know how to wrestle (which she does but you couldn’t tell she’s playing a character in this match). They said Britt was in the match even though she’s still injured and in a wheelchair, Penelope Ford had zero chemistry with Big Swole. The entire match was kind of hard to watch, and it hurt that this was the only women’s match on this show, and it really showed the lack of talent in the women’s division.
Penelope dropped Swole early doing what looked like was supposed to be a Samoan drop. Rebel went up on the top rope the wrong way and delayed the bump on a frankensteiner. The finish came when Rebel and Penelope tried to used Britt’s crutch but Swole got a hold of the crutch and got the win.
Segment Rating: 2/10
This match was possibly the worst match in the history of AEW and I am not exaggerating that at all. The holes in the women’s division were made very, very evident here. AEW needs to sign some veteran women’s talent that can help bring some experience to the division. Something needs to change, now yes, Statlander, is injured, Britt Baker is injured and a lot of the top workers are unable to work because they can’t get to America.
There’s just not enough big names at all. That needs to change fast. This match made Big Swole vs. Britt Baker at All Out official, hopefully, Britt is cleared to actually work that match.
Tables Match: Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara
Matt Hardy goes after Sammy quick to start the match and brings it outside, and gives Sammy a receipt for the chair spot from two weeks ago by throwing an open chair at Sammy. Sammy is busted open and Matt hits a side effect on the apron. He then goes to elbow Sammy threw a table outside but Sammy moves and Matt goes through the table, which doesn’t end the match. Matt hits a great Twist of Fat spot while Sammy’s head is wedged in between a chair. Then Matt pulls out another table that says “Delete” on it, he lays Sammy on the table and goes to the top rope, but Sammy gets up and hits a superplex on the table to get the win.
Segment Rating: 6/10
This match was way too short, a lot of the action took place in the commercial break and that kind of hurt it because it felt like the match ended almost immediately after the commercial break ended. I feel bad for these guys cause it felt like they didn’t get enough time but the match still was not bad at all, and the feud probably isn’t over for sure, they probably wouldn’t want to end that on this match. I don’t know if they get a rematch in a regular singles match at All Out or wait to a later date to have that match to truly end the feud. I liked it for the most part.
Orange Cassidy/Chris Jericho Brawl
Immediately following the main event Orange Cassidy’s music hit and he went right for Jericho who was on commentary the entire night. They brawled on the stage getting on top of each other throwing punches which the refs tried to break up, and of course, Rick Knox barely did anything and then fell down. It was just a lot of brawling and no real spots in the brawl, Sammy Guevara sort of tried to help but didn’t really do anything.
Also, I just wanted to comment on Jericho’s commentary throughout the night, he had a lot of funny comments throughout the show, one that got me was him implying that he is the booker of AEW and that he has to pull backstage with his “I have the pencil” comment. He also does a good job of putting the talent over in the ring without making it all about him, even people are feuding with the Inner Circle.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the Week, or Wrestlers, is FTR.
FTR gets the nod from me for their psychology and storytelling in their match, during the gauntlet match. They took advantage of the Chuck Taylor injury, and it played to their advantage for the entire match, and nobody is better at that then them, and they earned a tag team championship match because of it.
Overall
So that’s everything on this special Thursday edition of AEW Dynamite on August 27th. Overall I give this show a 5 out of 10, but it was almost a 4. This certainly wasn’t the best show, with all the segments to set up the battle royal, The Dark Order segment which wasn’t great and that women’s handicap match that was legitimately bad. The tag team gauntlet match was the highlight of the show and after that, the tables match that didn’t get enough time.
What are your thoughts on Thursday Night AWE Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling
Follow Mouthing Off: @MikeJC821
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