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 Saturday, October 16th edition of AEW Dynamite.
Dante Martin vs. Malakai Black
The show kicks off with CM Punk making his entrance to do commentary for presumably the whole show, but the first match of the night would Malakai Black taking on Dante Martin. Early on a lot of great back and forth trades of arm drags and athletic reversals by Dante. Malakai had an answer early for a lot of Dante’s high flying and would target the leg to prevent Dante from using springboard offense. I loved Dante’s ability to adapt to the multi-faceted offense of Black. Once again Malakai is telling the story in the ring, he’s a master at it and that’s one of the reasons I love him as a performer.
Malakai hit a great looking German Suplex for a near fall, and much later Dante hit a great looking Frankensteiner but he would accumulate more damage to the knee in the process. Dante hit a great double jump moonsault to a standing Malakai but he didn’t get all of it and Black would lock in a single crab as he did most of the match to work on that leg. Unfortunately Dante went to the well too many times trying to be flashy instead of being smart, which you can see on the face of Lio Rush who stared on in disappointment for Dante after he tried too many times to hit a springboard move with a hurt knee which would be Dante’s downfall. He would walk right into the spin kick by Malakai right after landing on the bad knee again to secure the victory for Malakai. After the match Black would seemingly give Dante a nod of approval for giving Malakai a run for his money.
Later in the night Tony Schiavone interviewed Lio and Dante. Lio said that all Dante has to do to succeed is listen to him and he didn’t do that tonight and Dante knows that, but going forward Dante has a new tag team partner and his name is Lio Rush, which seemed to surprise Dante.
Segment Rating: 6.25/10
This was a very good match that told the story of Dante Martin trying to be flashy too much with a bad knee and not being able to change up his offense of course that comes with experience which he doesn’t have yet. Malakai giving him the nod approval immediately makes me think they will meet again and it will be a much different much but way later down the line and that’s fine because they will have an even better match when that happens.
Inner Circle Reunites
The Inner Circle all come out together to the sounds of Judas as the fans sing the entire first verse and chorus which has become the norm. Santana gets on the mic first and talks about how fired up the crowd is two nights in a row, but as soon as he wants to continue he is interrupted by American Top Team. Dan Lambert yells at the fans for booing them even though ATT has brought so many championships home to Miami.
Jericho gets the fans to chant at Lambert and then turns his attention to Paige Van Zant, and says that Paige seems to show up every time Jericho is around assuming that she might be into him with her husband Austin Vanderford standing right there and that he expects Paige would want to slide into his DMs but Jericho said he wouldn’t even touch Paige with her husbands genitalia and then he mocks her Instagram game for some reason.
Jericho said the whole Inner Circle is back together and they want a 5 on 5 match with any members of ATT. Lambert interrupts again and says that the Men of the Year and ATT have bigger plans that involve championships. Then for some reason makes a horrible joke about the size of Jake Hager’s head. He then says that Guevara is the only Inner Circle member with championship and ATT will discuss a future match next week on their terms.
Scorpio gets on the mic and discusses how he’s pinned Jericho twice and then targets Guevara who cuts him off and says he will beat every single member of ATT on his own.
Segment Rating: 4/10
This wasn’t good, I didn’t like it at all. I don’t understand what is going on here. Inner Circle has lost every time they have met ATT and Men of the year in a regular tag match and then in a trios, so now they want a five on five that they will win even though they don’t need to win it. Scorpio will probably challenge Guevara for his title at some point and I guess that’s fine but I don’t need Jericho making Stephanie McMahon jokes from 2001 to Paige Van Zant at all, its not nostalgic its not needed at all. At the same time not a single person needs Lambert to say the things he says at all. None of this is needed and there’s no way of knowing if Jorge Masvidal who was on Rampage but not on this show, will get to have a match because of his UFC contract. I don’t care for this.
AAA Tag Team Championship: Lucha Bros. (c) vs. FTR
So for the week leading up to this we were told that Andrade El Idolo would have a “Masked Tag Team” to challenge the Lucha Bros. this week for the AAA Tag Team Titles. We are told the team is named Las Super Ranas a very clearly not Mexican tag team in full green body suits and masks. Early the Lucha Bros take control and spend most of the time going for the masks, and commentary would state that this is AEW rules because if the masks were removed in AAA rules it would result in a DQ. CM Punk immediately is questioning the identity of this tag team and eventually goes, “Do I have to say it, come on guys this is clearly FTR”, and Tony Schiavone would agree with him.
The Lucha Bros. would succeed in removing the masks revealing it to be FTR. Right after a commercial break, Tony Schiavone would compare CM Punk to Tony Romo for being good at predicting who was under the masks. The match really starts to pick up after the FTR reveal and there’s some great action here between both teams. There was a great dive spot by the Lucha Bros. where Penta would hit a running dive through the ropes and Fenix would hit a huge dive off the top to the outside prompting a “This is awesome” chant. Fenix goes to capitalize but Tully Blanchard would cause a distraction giving Dax Harwood the opportunity to use one of the championships as a weapon and a big brainbuster by Dax for the three count and the victory to crown new champions.
After the match we catch up with FTR backstage with Andrade and MJF walks up and hugs FTR and Andrade asks how MJF would like to get paid cash or check and MJF says both. MJF says FTR was only on loan for one night and takes the money and leaves.
Segment Rating: 6.75/10
I loved this, it was not only a great way to continue this thing with Andrade and The Lucha Bros. and also plant seeds for more matches between The Lucha Bros. and FTR. The Andrade paying The Pinnacle to beat Lucha Bros. was great, and I don’t know why but CM Punk just knowing it’s FTR popped me even though I feel like I figured it out even before he said it. I’m intrigued where this will go especially since they announced the rematch between PAC and Andrade for next Friday on Rampage.
The Superkliq (Adam Cole & The Young Bucks) vs. The Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver & Alex Reynolds)
Earlier in the night Tony Schiavone was attempting to interview Jurassic Express but The Elite would attack them and attempt the powerbomb on Luchasaurus again and succeed this time through a table.
Now for this match, this was a very good match which had so much great action which is not surprising at all. The Bucks and Cole hit a lot of their usual spots and we saw the Dark Order members hit a bunch of great sequences of moves like they are known to do. I love the combination of moves that Silver and Reynolds do with the spinning elbow, followed by an enzuigiri, followed by a stunner, followed by a German suplex. Evil Uno even did a mandible claw with a sock as a tribute to Mick Foley surely.
The Young Bucks would go for their usual spot with Cole where Cole holds their opponent in a camel clutch and the Bucks run the ropes a few times before kissing Cole on both cheeks and following it up with a couple kicks to the head of their opponent. While the Bucks were attempting that move however Silver and Reynolds would intercept the Bucks and do the kiss spot and Cole would realize it and freak out. Silver and Reynolds try to capitalize but The Young Bucks come back in and clean house with super kicks, hit the BTE Trigger, and Cole would follow that up with Lower the Boom for the pinfall victory.
After the match Jungle Boy would enter the ring and go straight for Cole but get separated and Jungle Boy goes outside and gets a chair and the Bucks and Cole leave and leave Brandon Cutler alone in the ring. Cutler receives a shot to the back with the chair and then locking the Snare Trap and spraying the cool spray in Cutler’s eyes while doing it.
Segment Rating: 6.5/10
It seems to me that will probably be getting a rematch between Cole and Jungle Boy soon, because of everything that’s happened over the past few weeks and I’m fine with that. This was a very fun match and no interaction between Hangman and any of The Elite tonight or Page and Dark Order was odd to me but I guess there’s still time for that to build to Full Gear so we’ll see. The Dark Order story is not fully healed until Hangman reconciles with them and that’s going to be a big moment.
MJF Trashes Darby and Sting Shows Up
MJF comes out assuming he’s having a match with Darby tonight despite it never being announced to be taking place tonight. MJF gets offended that Justin Roberts didn’t introduce him and then does his own overexaggerated introduction. He talks about how Darby mentioned that MJF can’t break him mentally but Darby isn’t here, so he thinks he did.
MJF acts like he was unaware of Darby being attacked last week since the people who attacked him were masked and they never actually revealed it was The Pinnacle. So since he expected to have a match tonight so he asks Wardlow to bring out the referee so he does. MJF tells the ref to start counting out Darby and declare him the winner. As the ref is counting and gets to nine the lights go out and Sting’s music hits.
Sting enters the ring and MJF pushes Wardlow into Sting who hits Wardlow with the bat to the gut. MJF runs to the back to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 5.75/10
This was a good segment because of how good MJF is at garnering heat, and this was another great promo by him, him having plausible deniability for the Darby attack last week paid off here since they never took the masks off, that’s what AEW is great at, they have an answer for pretty much everything and don’t treat fans like they don’t know what’s going on. I can’t wait to see MJF versus Darby but it seems on the way there Sting has something to say before Darby returns and how that plays out intrigues me because obviously it will be the thing that draws Darby back. Very excited to see where this goes.
Kiera Hogan vs. Penelope Ford
This match was fine as it started slow and it was a little rough but it definitely picked up over time. They used this match to talk about the TBS Championship tournament and how a win could get either competitor a spot in the tournament.
Both ladies had their time to shine but there was some slow spots and even a bad looking arm drag early on but Penelope Ford would take advantage, but as time goes on Kiera Hogan starts to fire back and hits a string of great moves which wakes up the crowd for Kiera and even commentary put that over. Ford would fire back and hit a cutter that didn’t look bad at all and then locked in a Muta Lock for the submission victory.
After the match Ruby Soho would enter the ring and attack Penelope for what happened on Rampage last night and tossed Ford out of the ring after a series of punches to the face, and The Bunny would help Penelope up as Ruby looks on.
Segment Rating: 4.75/10
I’m kind of getting tired of the “oh you got nothing to do feud with Bunny and Penelope”, that happens a lot and now Ruby is doing it. I guess it’s fine and as long as it doesn’t last more then a week or two I’ll get over it quickly. Kiera needs to build some chemistry with people in AEW because she was amazing in Impact, her time in AEW will come.
Hangman Speaks
Hangman Page comes out to speak, and talks about starting AEW with his friends in The Elite but the thing is the business has changed them. He talks about things not going the way he had planned in AEW, he lost matches, titles and friends then he heard the “Cowboy Sh*t” chants and talks about what that meant to him.
Page talks about deciding to leave for a little while for the birth of his son and how that is “Cowboy Sh*t” and for the first time he really feels motivated and ready for this. He vows to show the true meaning of “Cowboy Sh*t” when he challenges Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at Full Gear.
Segment Rating: 7/10
This was a great babyface promo, Hangman is easily the most over face in the company and his time as champion is surely going to happen at Full Gear, this has been a great story built over two years of very precise detailed storytelling and I can’t wait for the culmination because Hangman deserves it big time.
Bryan Danielson vs. Bobby Fish
This was an amazing hard hitting technical match. This is my kind of wrestling match, both guys hat great strikes and sequences of moves and it shouldn’t be surprising really. Danielson and Fish are almost too good at wrestling and it shows when they work over a body part and tell the story in the ring. Both guys would target the leg of the other hitting a bunch of different submissions working on the leg. Fish would lock in a single leg crab but Danielson would fight out and turn it into an ankle lock and then transition that into a leg capture German suplex which looked nasty in a good way, I absolutely loved it.
They continue trading strikes and working each other’s legs, and Fish would shift the momentum after a great looking back driver, with the knee captured. Fish would hit the avalanche Falcon Arrow, and then lock in a knee bar but Bryan would also grab the leg at the same time and hit some brutal strikes on the ground and transitioning in a vicious heel hook which gets Bryan the submission victory.
Immediately after this match, they announced the the competitors of the World Title Eliminator Tournament, on one side is Preston “10” Vance versus Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy versus Powerhouse Hobbs, and on the other side of the bracket is Dustin Rhodes versus Bryan Danielson and Lance Archer versus Eddie Kingston. The finals of the tournament will take place at Full Gear and the first three matches will happen next week, one on Rampage and two on Dynamite.
Segment Rating: 7.25/10
This was such a good match and as I mentioned these are the kinds of matches I love, two very technically sound wrestlers just trading holds and strikes and making it look vicious on both sides. The winner was never in question but man did Fish put up a hell of a fight. Go out of your way to watch this match if you haven’t because it is worth the watch. The tournament seems a little predictable and if you seen the possibly leaked card for the Full Gear show that circulated this week you will know who’s in the finals but I’m not gonna mention that if you wanna know look it up.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the week is Bryan Danielson
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, Danielson gets the RWOW for this amazing main event match and his performance in it, Bryan is putting on classics with everyone and this one a day after an even better match with Minoru Suzuki which is also worth the watch.
Overall
This was a very good episode of AEW Dynamite a lot of great matches and promos to go with it, and one promo that is definitely skippable. Overall I give this Saturday edition of AEW Dynamite a 6 out of 10. As far as segments that didn’t get a rating there was a very, very quick match between Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta that was over before it even began when the bell rang and Moxley hit a clothesline and Paradigm Shift to end it just like that. Orange Cassidy looked disappointed and it was later revealed that Cassidy could face Moxley in round two of the World Title Eliminator Tournament. Miro did another great promo discussing his loss of the TNT Title and how that has effected his home life and relationship with God. A backstage interview with Anna Jay that was interrupted by Britt Baker talking about The Dark Order being losers and her being a loser by association which prompts a brawl between them setting up a match for next week on Rampage. An odd segment of the Nightmare family trainee’s being ashamed of who Cody has become recently and Arn and the trainee’s training Cody for a rematch with Malakai Black for next week and a great pep talk by Arn talking about his history with Cody’s dad. Also and interview with Serena Deeb that results in a brawl between her and Hikaru Shida. Next week should be interesting with the tournament matches and all the stories in place that are moving forward.
What are your thoughts on this special AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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