Welcome, everyone to the latest 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 Friday, June 18th edition of AEW Dynamite.
MMA Rules Cage Fight: Jake Hager vs. Wardlow
The opening match was this MMA rules match, and it wasn’t for me. An actual MMA fight in a wrestling environment just doesn’t work. You’re trying to make it look like a real fight with rounds and everything but still make it work for a wrestling show, and it just doesn’t. Jericho was Hager’s corner man and Shawn Spears was Wardlow’s corner man. They went into a round two where it looked like Wardlow was gonna catch Hager after an off the cage super man punch that rocked Hager for a second but Hager would eventually use his wrestling abilities to get into an arm triangle choke for the stoppage.
After the match, Shawn Spears got in the ring and attacked Hager which brought Jericho in the ring to help Hager. This brought out MJF who attacks Jericho and targets the injured elbow with the Fujiwara Armbar. Then MJF would get in the face of Dean Malenko who was at ringside, and he thought about punching Malenko but then he did it anyway. Sammy Guevara is out next and he gets a shot in on Spears before Wardlow and MJF bail as refs hold Guevara back for some reason.
Segment Rating: 4.5/10
As mentioned worked MMA doesn’t work. They proved that here. I would have preferred a wrestling match in an mma style cage it wouldn’t have felt as bad as this. Of course there was a brawl and it was announced that MJF versus Sammy Guevara will take place on June 30th, AEW’s return to live Wednesdays.
Handicap Match: Men of the Year vs. Darby Allin
This didn’t make much sense to me when it was announced and neither did the reasoning given as to why Darby didn’t find a partner. He claimed he needed to prove to himself that he could beat Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky without Sting. That was just stupid, he should have gotten a partner. Of course this was a factor in the match as for much of the early part of it Darby was being handled by his opponents. Until he turned it around for the time being after tying Ethan’s shows together. Darby used this to take advantage and bit a Coffin Drop but Page broke it up from outside.
Page would get his shoes untied and get back in the ring snd take advantage of the numbers in his team’s favor. Page would attempt a superplex but Darby fought it off by biting the hand of Page. This would be a short lived turn as Sky would get involved again and let Page hit the Ego’s Edge for the pinfall victory.
Segment Rating: 5.25/10
This didn’t need to be a handicap match to prolong the story, I didn’t agree with Darby insisting on going at this one alone and telling Sting to stay home it just didn’t make sense to me. That would backfire of course to give them a reason to probably have another tag match and for Darby to actually find a partner. I’m sure that will happen in the near future.
Orange Cassidy vs. Cezar Bononi
This match did exactly what it was supposed to do. Make Orange Cassidy look good while he’s looking for something to do at the moment. Bononi was dominate early, using his size to his advantage and he stable mates playing games with Cassidy at ringside, giving Cassidy a “makeover” putting gel in his hair and using spray tan on him. Cassidy would somehow get back into it after taking Ryan Nemeth’s jacket and The Best Friends would get in the ring and launch Cassidy over the top rope with a tope con hilo on top of all of Bononi’s group.
Cassidy would clean house and hit a stundog millionaire on Bononi and follow that up with an Orange Punch for the pinfall victory.
Segment Rating: 5/10
This match was pretty much exactly what I expected and was pretty much the kind of match you get on a Dynamite that didn’t really matter if I’m being honest.
Cody Rhodes & Brock Anderson vs. Aaron Solow & QT Marshall
This match worked for one reason it got Brock Anderson a win in his debut. That’s about the only thing that worked as Cody’s team won again and everything else about this continues to not work at all. The Factory is pointless because all they do is lose. Cody needs to turn heel and just stop whatever this is because nobody cares about it. It’s like he’s trying to bore the fans every week. Brock Anderson looked really good in his first match and he looks just like his dad hopefully he has a bright future ahead of him.
Segment Rating: 4.75/10
As mentioned this match did nothing for me except got Brock Anderson a win in his debut match. I fully expect someone to turn on someone, I was going as far as calling Anderson to turn on Cody in this match so that something would work out for The Factory, but of course The Factory lost again. Someone needs to turn on someone or they need to stop this feud completely because it just isn’t working with Cody winning all the time, it should be the exact opposite.
Penelope Ford vs. Julia Hart
I thought this was a fine match, but the chemistry was clearly not there at parts and they seemed to by tryinf to work it out in the ring and it showed when they slowed down to get to the next spot. Penelope would win after locking in a Muta Lock and getting the submission victory.
After the match, Miro would come out taunting Penelope about injuring Kip Sabian, and use that as an excuse to attack the Varsity Blonds which set up Brian Pillman Jr. getting a TNT Championship match on the 6/30 episode of Dynamite.
Segment Rating: 4.5/10
I didn’t hate this match the chemistry just wasn’t there. Both ladies have a ways to go in there in ring abilities and as mentioned it showed in the match. Julia Hart is only nineteen years old. She has so much time to get better and I’m sure she will. Penelope won probably just to set up the stuff with Miro which is fine and that should be a good match.
Trios Match: Penta El Zero Miedo, Kazarian, & Eddie Kingston vs. The Good Brothers & Matt Jackson
This was a great match as expected and I felt Kazarian especially worked his ass off in this one. There was a lot of great action here. Kazarian pulling out the Angels Wings in tribute to Daniels now that they are no longer a team was great. The early part of the match was all Kaz and the latter part was all Penta who was on fire late. The momentum would be stalled thanks to Nick Jackson who came in through the crowd and used cool spray in the face of Penta, and Karl Anderson would take advantage with a super cutter for the pinfall victory. The show closes as The Elite celebrate on the stage.
Segment Rating: 6/10
This was best match of the night by nobody’s surprise and I felt like it did it’s best to continue the story here with The Elite and everyone involved, that’s all I can say right now because where it’s going still seems unsure, but I’m willing to give it a chance because the long term story telling always pays off in AEW.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the Week is, Brock Anderson.
Brock Anderson gets the RWOW this week for having a great performance in his debut match, it’s not surprising considering he worked with his trainer and I hope he continues to get better and become as good if not better then his dad.
Overall
This might have been one of the roughest episodes of Dynamite in this small Friday era of the show. I’m hoping that will change when we are back to live shows on Wednesday, overall I give it a 5 out of 10. A lot of stuff on this show that didn’t really matter and that’s been a theme of these Friday shows. Next week we get a Saturday show and then four days later back to Wednesday’s for the foreseeable future. As far as things not rated on this show and its a lot, Kenny and Jungle Boy had a nice exchange backstage which led to Kenny goating Jungle Boy to hit him and Nakazawa would hit JB with the laptop and they bailed when JB fought back. Andrade El Idolo did a promo interview saying Vickie is a big for his career and they have a surprise. A Britt Baker interview that results in a tag match between Britt & Rebel versus Nyla and Vickie…oh no. As well as further Story telling between Matt Hardy and Christian, Team Taz calling out Hangman again and him responding. A lot of nothing throughout this show, a lot.
What are your thoughts on AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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