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 Wednesday, August 18th edition of AEW Dynamite.
Moxley & Kingston Attacked/Texas Tornado Tag Team Match: 2.0 vs. Sting & Darby Allin
Dynamite kicks off with Moxley’s music and as him and Eddie Kingston are making their entrance they are attacked by 2.0 and Daniel Garcia and Moxley gets hit with a pipe. Which leads us right into the opening match that was one hundred percent one sided. Sting and Darby take the fight to the outside immediately and up into the crowd and Darby walks one of the railings and dives onto 2.0 and Garcia, and Eddie Kingston would also re-emerge and isolate Daniel Garcia.
Darby gets double suplexed on wheel side of his skateboard and they bring a table in the ring as well. they put Sting on the top rope and double powerbomb him through the table, but Sting pops right back up and screams and beats his chest and turns it into a double Scorpion Death Drop and then locks in a Double Scorpion Death Lock and both members of 2.0 tap out.
Segment Rating 6.25/10
I liked this match because everyone played their role to perfection. Everyone looked good in the match and that includes Sting. Sting isn’t doing anything he can’t do, but there was one thing I didn’t like. I don’t like an almost 63 year old Sting no selling a powerbomb through a table, I know that’s the part where I’m supposed to suspend my disbelief but if that’s the case why is Moxley selling a steel pipe shot? That’s my only gripe, and the way you fix that is you just don’t do the table spot, have Sting fight out of it have Darby put one or both of them through the table, Sting don’t need to be taking table bumps. Also as I’ve mentioned in the past 2.0 and Daniel Garcia are great, and every week they are on they show why they should be. Also, also, this was Stings first match on TNT since March 2001, pretty cool.
Sammy Guevara vs. Shawn Spears
Before the match we get a clip from earlier in the night off air where Sammy Guevara invited his girlfriend Pam in the ring and he proposes to her. Shawn Spears does a backstage promo right after that and says that Pam is an honorary member of The Pinnacle because when you’re in The Pinnacle your always on top and she’s going to be on top of him.
Guevara makes his entrance to a tremendous ovation from his hometown, and Spears tries to get the upper hand by attacking before the match, and they brawl before the match and Tully gets involved as well and they hit a spike piledriver on Guevara before the match. As soon as the match begins Spears tries to do the spike piledriver again but the referee ejects Tully.
This match was physical, it was dramatic, it was so freaking good. One of the things I absolutely love about AEW, is they tell the story in the ring better then anyone. That’s what this match was, one of the big moments that I absolutely loved was they were standing on the top rope together exchanging shots and a tie up, and Spears just stops and flips off Guevara right to the face and Guevara responds with a huge cutter from the top rope to the ring, unbelievably cool.
They go back on the top and Spear hits a Death Valley Driver off the top for a near fall. Sammy continues to get a huge ovation from the crowd and at some point they set up a steel guard rail over the barricade and the ring and while fighting on the apron and Guevara answers back and hits a Death Valley Driver of his own onto the steel barricade. Guevara follows that up by getting back in the ring and hits the 630 moments later and gets another near fall. Shocking to me that anyone would ever kick out of a 630, but Guevara in shock himself pulls down his knee pad hits three consecutive knee strikes to Spears then hits the GTH to secure the victory. After the match Guevara celebrates by kissing his Fiancé.
Segment Rating 7.75/10
I absolutely loved this match, it was so freaking good and Guevara looked great in his home town as AEW continues the trend of people winning in their hometown here. Very happy for Guevara for proposing but I don’t think they needed to promote that as a major announcement, sure its absolutely major for him but when it’s connected to a wrestling show you expect the major announcement to be something wrestling related like he wants to face Miro or something (which is what I expected), also I don’t like the 630 being kicked out of, that’s a special move that not a lot of people can do and I don’t think anyone should kick out of it ever and like the One Winged Angel should be treated as such, so Spears kicking out there though it elevated the drama of the match that wasn’t the right move to do it on. Love Guevara winning love this match easily match of the night for me.
Dan Lambert Promo/Lance Archer Appears and Gets Beat Down
So Dan Lambert is in the ring and he cuts the same promo he cut the last time we saw him discussing how AEW is “the next stop on the cancel culture movement”, and that AEW is not the answer to fans “wrestling prayers”. He knew he needed backup so he he went to Dana White and got permission to bring some UFC talent here and he has Andrei Arlovski and Junior dos Santos with him as backup. Lambert challenges the locker room, and this brings out Lance Archer who is beelining for the ring but is attacked from behind by Scorpio Sky followed by Ethan Page. Lambert laughs from the ring as they beat down Archer.
Segment Rating: 4/10
I don’t care for Dan Lambert at all, the stuff he said was cheesy and just not true at all. I get what he’s trying to do but it just doesn’t work, bringing two UFC guys who literally did nothing was a waste of time, and that’s all I have to say about Lambert. Scorpio and Ethan going after Archer is random but I’m glad they are doing something else with those guys and I guess this will lead to Archer probably facing each of them in singles and then Archer needing a partner for a tag match.
AEW Tag Team Championships: Young Bucks (c) vs. Jurassic Express
So before this, Christian was doing an interview and Don Callis interrupted and talked about how he got Christian his start in wrestling, Christian called Callis a Carny POS.
This match was another example of great storytelling in the ring throughout, I do have a criticism and that’s Rick Knox. He’s the worst referee in all of wrestling, and him being the ref of all of the Young Bucks matches and not taking charge at all. He’s getting distracted for like ten straight minutes not ejecting anyone at all, it’s ridiculous and it kind of happens with every ref but he’s the worst. I can’t stand that at all, it needs to stop.
The match was amazing, this crowd went crazy for Jungle Boy he is super over. Luchasaurus had a hell of a hot tag and looked great in there as well. The Young Bucks are to put it simply are the freakin’ Young Bucks. Plain and simple these two teams work amazingly together. I loved the superplex from Luchasaurus’ shoulders by Jungle Boy. A lot of great back and forth action, and then Kenny Omega comes out with a chair and hits Marko Stunt with it. Kenny gives the chair to Matt Jackson trying to use like he tried to on Rampage, Christian would come out and fight Omega to the back, and Jungle Boy would hit a brainbuster on the chair for a near fall that the crowd went crazy for.
Jurassic Express hits their double team finish but it’s broken up, they try to take out most of The Elite members and Jungle Boy goes back in and hits a backslide which is also broken up. The Bucks quickly hit the BTE Trigger, and get the victory as Luchasaurus doesn’t get there quick enough to break it.
After the match Gallows carries Christian out and drops him in the ring and all of The Elite continue the beat down with stomps to Jurassic Express and Christian and then Kenny hits the One Winged Angel on Christian to end the segment.
Also later the Bucks are being interviewed, and are informed there will be a tag team tournament featuring The Varsity Blonds, Private Party, The Lucha Bros, and Jurassic Express, and the winner of the tournament will face The Young Bucks in a Steel Cage match at All Out.
Segment Rating: 7/10
I like the tournament idea as Jurassic Express deserve the chance to earn another shot after all the shenanigans. Now as for all the Elite stuff with the constant beatdowns. If you watched New Japan Wrestling’s Resurgence show, I think this is leading to a big Bullet Club versus Elite show down. Jay White has been appearing on Impact, interacting with Kenny, The Good Brothers, and The Good Brothers had a stare down with Guerrillas of Destiny. It’s inevitable that it’s going to happen, because these beat downs by The Elite are getting out of hand. The story they have been telling remains very intriguing but I wasn’t expecting Omega to lose the Impact title and then keep the AAA Mega Championship that part of the story doesn’t make sense to me at all. We’ll see where it all goes from here. Also Kenny Omega with another CM Punk troll, wearing a shirt that says Chick Magnet, and there’s another reference to CM Punk in the next segment.
Paul Wight Makes an Announcement
So Paul Wight comes out for an interview with Tony Schiavone and Tony asks him how it felt to get in the ring last week and get physical and before he can get into it QT Marshall comes out with Solo and Comoroto and of course he starts off with “Houston we have a problem.”, yawn I don’t need that line in Houston at every wrestling show. Marshall warns Wight not to say anything he can’t backup, and says that in AEW we don’t build up things to not pay them off (the other CM Punk reference I mentioned earlier), unlike the first few years of Wight’s career.
Wight said he wouldn’t get the fans hopes up, and tells Marshall to get in the ring and fight him. Marshall said there’s a reason Wight was hired as a commentator, and shows pictures of Wight’s hip x-rays and giant scar. He mentions how Wight has had five hip surgeries in the last eighteen months alone. Wight says he’s not ashamed of that and it won’t limit him if he wants to get physical and mentions that he spoke to Tony Khan about having a match at All Out, and Marshall laughs and then Wight mentions he’s having that match with Marshall and Marshall gets wide eyed in shock to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 3/10
I don’t care about this at all. I don’t care to see Wight versus Marshall. QT Marshall is not interesting, I don’t care about him one bit. They aren’t doing anything with the guys in his group who need to be showcased. I just don’t care about this at all. I fully expected Wight to wrestle eventually but this isn’t the match I expected at all. This isn’t a pay-per-view match, this isn’t even a Dynamite match to me, this is a AEW Dark match at best and I can’t stand that it is taking up a PPV spot. This is just not needed.
Penelope Ford vs. Thunder Rosa
This was Penelope Ford’s best match, her and Thunder Rosa work very well together. I enjoyed their back and forth. Thunder Rosa is already super over, but in Texas where she lives she’s even more over. They had a good match, Ford had a good moment where she reversed the Fire Thunder Driver into a small package and immediately turns it into a Muta Lock. They trade moves and Rosa hits a spinning Death Valley Driver, Ford hit a backstabber, and goes for the Muta Lock again, but Rosa countered it into a choke of her own to get a the tap out victory.
Segment Rating: 5.5/10
This was a fun match that gets Rosa another win as expected and Penelope looked good as well. Rosa continues to get built up to the eventual title show down she will have with Britt Baker down the line, we all know that’s going to happen and maybe Rosa beats her for the belt. We shall see.
MJF vs. Chris Jericho
So this is the final labor of Jericho. Jericho finally getting his hands on MJF and it honestly I fully expected MJF to lose to setup a rematch at All Out but this was great. First a complete goosebumps moment of the crowd fully singing Jericho’s theme even though a lot of people were looking at their phones while doing it. It was great since Jericho couldn’t use his theme because for some reason MJF thought that played a factor.
Early there’s a great moment outside as they are fighting MJF takes a camera from a camera man and points it at the crowd and flips them off and they flip him off back it was a great moment and then Jericho appears in front of the camera, and punches the camera, knocking MJF down. The crowd was super into this match the whole time cheering every single time Jericho would get the upper hand because they care so much to see MJF get beat up.
Fans go crazy for Jericho hitting a Lionsault since he doesn’t do it as often anymore. Jericho hits ten straight clotheslines in the corner and then a top rope frankensteiner, Jericho goes for a pin attempt but MJF turns it into a salt of the earth armbar and has it on for a pretty long time and gets to the ropes. They trade shots and eventually MJF hits the heat seeker. MJF hits a low blow when the ref isn’t looking and puts the Walls of Jericho on Chris Jericho, and Jericho gets to the ropes.
Jericho crawls to grab his bat while MJF puts on the diamond ring, the ref catches MJF and takes the ring from him. While the ref is getting rid of the ring Jericho hits MJF in the gut with the bat and goes for the Judas Effect after but he can’t use it or he gets DQed so he just stops and MJF locks in salt of the earth, Jericho tries to counter with a pin, but MJF turns it back into the armbar and gets the tap out victory.
Segment Rating: 6.5/10
This was a very good match that the crowd was super into, as I mentioned I fully expected Jericho to win here and then a rematch to happen at All Out but I’m completely fine with MJF winning and this being over. I’m done with Inner Circle versus Pinnacle, I’m ready for The Pinnacle to do something else, and for Inner Circle to go their separate ways because everyone in the group is being held back, especially the people that matter, Sammy Guevara, Santana & Ortiz. Jericho is doing commentary on Rampage and I’m completely okay with him doing that for now and not feuding with anyone for a long time. I could careless what Jake Hager does, he doesn’t do it for me at all and don’t care if he went back to MMA full time and never came back. Guevara is a star as mentioned earlier and it’s time for Santana & Ortiz to finally get in the title picture after All Out. No idea what’s next for MJF or Shawn Spears, but FTR aren’t done with Santana & Ortiz yet so they will eventually have their blow off match like the others did tonight and hopefully that will be the end.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the week is, Sammy Guevara.
It should be no surprise who the RWOW is this week Guevara had the best performance tonight, in his home town after proposing to his girlfriend, he is a bonafide star and proved it once again tonight not just with the stellar performance but the story he told in the ring while doing it.
Overall
Another great night of wrestling on AEW with some not so great talking segments, the wrestling is what kept me and that is what I love about AEW. Overall I give this episode of Dynamite a 5.7 out of 10. There was a lot of other segments that didn’t need a rating tonight, Jon Moxley with a stellar promo talking about his match with Daniel Garcia on Friday, Miro calling out Eddie Kingston, PAC accepting Andrade’s challenge for All Out and them presenting the contract to PAC, a vignette for Matt Hardy versus Orange Cassidy happening next week, Arn and Brock Anderson interview where Brock is announced to face Malakai Black next week, a pointless Team Taz/Brian Cage segment, Jade Cargill announcing she’s facing Kiera Hogan on Rampage on Friday, and Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter discussing their relationship and and announcing Hayter versus Red Velvet next week. All of that happened tonight and it’s crazy they fit all that in but all of it was just there. Hope everyone enjoys what is for sure happening Friday on Rampage.
What are your thoughts on this special AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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