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 25th edition of AEW Dynamite.
Orange Cassidy vs. Matt Hardy
Dynamite kicks off with this match that to be honest I was not very excited about. There hasn’t been a lot going on here, just the Best Friends and HFO trading wins. It started like most Orange Cassidy matches with sloth style kicks which Matt Hardy would answer with the “Delete!” gesture. Orange would put his hands in his pockets and Matt Hardy would do it himself and then toss out money from his pockets. Orange fights it off and there’s some great back and forth action that ends up on the outside and Orange gets caught into a side effect after attempting a suicide dive.
This turned out to be a hell of a match as it picked up and Matt Hardy seemed to bust his nose at some point after a crossbody by Cassidy and the blood poured out all over his face and Orange Cassidy’s pants. Cassidy would hit the twist of fate himself towards the end for a near fall and would go for the Orange Punch but Matt Hardy would try to turn it into a twist of fate but Cassidy would fight out and Matt would go for his submission but Cassidy would turn it into a pin where he put his hands in his pockets for extra leverage to get the pinfall victory.
Segment Rating: 6/10
This match surprised me and it built up as it went on and got better as it went. I enjoyed it a lot. I sense a rematch because of the surprise finish but I could be wrong. I don’t know what the point of a rematch would be but the surprise pin seems like its setting that up.
Chris Jericho Challenges MJF Again…
I can’t believe this match is happening again. Jericho comes out and says everyone has been so happy the last week over everything that has happened here but he’s not happy over what happened last week, and he’s been wrapping his head around that he lost to MJF last week and he can’t wrap his head around it anymore and needs to beat MJF, and if he can’t do it at All Out then he won’t step foot into an AEW ring again and stay on commentary forever.
MJF comes out wearing a shirt that says MJF: 3 Jeriblow: 0. He says that he doesn’t think he needs to face Jericho again because he’s already beaten him three times and that this is starting to get embarrassing but he understands that Jericho wants the rub from the the young fastest rising star in AEW. He adds he already tapped out Jericho faster then someone listening to a Fozzy CD, but the idea of not only saying he tapped out Chris Jericho but also retired him intrigues him. He told Jericho to think about it because he’s stepping in the ring with someone whose mopped the floor with him three times and he’s better then him and he knows it.
Segment Rating: 5/10
This segment was fine I just don’t need this match again at all. They should have just had the match from last week at the pay-per-view but a fourth match between these two is just not needed. Also I think they kind of gave away whose going to win because Jericho has said on more then one occasion that he will not publicize his in ring retirement so remembering that just has me thinking Jericho will win and still not wrestle as much but will down the line.
AEW Tag Team Eliminator Tournament: Lucha Bros vs. The Varsity Blonds
This was a fun match with a lot of great action in it. Both teams looked great and I enjoyed this match a lot. Fenix looked great as per usual and he did all the great high flying offense he usually does. There was a great spot where he dives onto both Varsity Blonds while they are laid out on the outside of the ring. Pillman hit a great looking powerbomb on Fenix in the ring that could have been the finish but Fenix kicks out. The finish was great, Fenix hits a super kick on Pillman followed by another one by Penta, and then an in stereo kick by both the Bros and then they do a tandem Package Piledriver to secure the victory.
After the match Jurassic Express went in the ring and shook hands with the Lucha Bros to set up their finals match on Friday and The Young Bucks pushed Jurassic Express into The Lucha Bros. Penta and Luchasaurus kick the Bucks off the apron, and then Jungle Boy and Fenix hit suicide dives on them into The Good Brothers to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 6.25/10
I really enjoyed this match and that finals on Friday is gonna be really good. The Varsity Blonds will get there time in the future they are really good and will be champions one day, it’s not the right time for them. I’m unsure whose gonna win that match on Friday between the Lucha Bros and Jurassic Express but whoever it is they are going to have a hell of a match with The Young Bucks at All Out because they have had great matches with both these teams before.
Jamie Hayter vs. Red Velvet
Oh boy this was not a great match at all. It started off quick and it never slowed down. Red Velvet was all over the place she was like shot out of a cannon here and in a bad way. She seemed to get winded mid way through, she hit these consecutive suicide dives where she landed on Hayter that were scary looking. Britt would also get involved and attack Velvet when the ref was distracted. Then, I don’t know what was going through Velvet’s head at all here could be because she was winded, she goes for a standing moonsault but completely over shoots it and seems like she landed on her head it was bad.
Thankfully Hayter didn’t sell it like it hit her at all because it didn’t so good on her for that, hope Velvet is fine but after this Hayter would take control and nearly knock Velvet’s head off with a clothesline for the pinfall victory. After the match Britt would enter the ring and her and Hayter would continue attacking her but Kris Statlander would come out to make the save. It was announced tonight she will challenge Britt for the title at All Out.
Segment Rating: 3.75/10
This was not good and that’s very unfortunate because it could have been good. Red Velvet is usually good but today she just wasn’t and that sucks. I don’t think we’re gonna see her on Dynamite for a while after this and that’s fine she lost a title match and goes to the back of the line, but after this performance she might need to work on something else. Jamie Hayter is very good and I’m happy to see more of her in AEW going forward. Also very excited to see Statlander versus Baker at All Out.
CM Punk’s AEW Dynamite Debut
So if you haven’t been living under a rock since last Friday, CM Punk is back in wrestling and made his official debut on last Friday’s episode of Rampage in his home town in Chicago. It was a hell of a moment I loved every moment of it. Tonight was his Dynamite Debut and he was having so much fun in there you could tell he was having the time of his life.
Tony Schiavone asks him what brought him out of retirement but Punk responds that he can’t hear him because of how loud the chants are. When the crowd quiets down he asks him again and Punk says its, Penta, Fenix, Pillman Jr. and Jungle Boy, young guys that he can’t wait to get the ring with, but Darby Allin is first. He says that Darby is reckless like he’s tryin to end himself, and looks at Darby and many others and wonders if he can still go or if he still is “Best in the World” and if the answer is yes then it starts with Darby. He says when he looks at Darby he sees someone he’d be his favorite wrestler when he was fifteen. He also mentions that he’s retiring the “Voice of the Voiceless” moniker because in this company you have a voice and people in the back actually listen.
He says that he’s going to answer these questions then Darby is the guy to do it again. The fans break out into a huge “Yes!” chant in response to his question. Which makes Punk smile big and he goes “That’s someone else’s schtick and you might just need to be a little bit more patient okay?” which of course the crowd freaks out for and you could tell this was him riffing to pop the crowd even if he wasn’t supposed to say it, which was great. Then he adds September 5th is when he proves himself right when he beats Darby. Then makes a shout out to his wife to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 6.5/10
This was very good, if it isn’t evident enough I am a huge CM Punk fan and super happy that he is back in this company especially because you can tell already he’s having a blast and he’s going to feel creatively stimulated in AEW. I am looking forward to not only seeing him wrestle again seeing him wrestle again the people he listed among many, many others. It’s gonna be so much fun and I can’t wait to see his match with Darby that honestly I hope is the main event of the entire show. I don’t like there was no interaction with Darby Allin at all on this show though.
Darby Allin, Jon Moxley, & Eddie Kingston vs. The Wingmen (Cezar Bononi, JD Drake, & Ryan Nemeth)
Right before this match, Miro cuts a backstage promo, saying that he forgives Fuego Del Sol and ends it by calling out Eddie Kingston again.
I didn’t need this match at all, it was a fine match, nowhere near as good as the match with Daniel Garcia & 2.0 but still a fine match. The early part of the match was all Moxley’s team with a lot of brawling from that team . After a commercial Bononi takes control and tags in Drake who gets clocked by Moxley and tags in Kingston, they take control again and Darby tags in and hits Drake with a Code Red. Peter Avalon would grab his leg and Sting would back Avalon up into a beatdown by Moxley and Kingston.
While all The Wingmen are in the wing trying to work on Darby, Nemeth has a chair but drops and Moxley and Kingston go back in and charge at him sending Nemeth out of the ring, and Darby retakes control and hits a Coffin Drop on Drake to secure the victory for his team.
After the match Daniel Garcia runs down and starts stomping Darby but he’s chased off by Moxley and Kingston. Also later in the night Moxley cuts a promo backstage talking about his match at All Out and discusses how he got a contract for a match at All Out with someone from New Japan Pro Wrestling but he didn’t get the person he was expecting, he reveals the person who signed on the dotted line was Satoshi Kojima, and that September 5th will be the public execution of a Japanese legend.
Segment Rating: 5.25/10
This was a fine match but I didn’t need it. I don’t know why Kingston & Moxley have been teaming with Darby so much with no Six Man titles yet but I don’t need it anymore. Miro has been calling Kingston out for weeks and there’s been no answer so I expect we will get that soon. The Wingmen were fall guys here and that’s all they really are but JD Drake dressing like Roadkill from ECW was cool and he should keep that look. Also I don’t like that Moxley is facing Kojima because that’s not interesting to me, especially since Kojima has lost a lot in Impact already and there’s so many New Japan talents in America that Moxley could have faced that would have been better choices.
Kenny Omega and Christian Cage Faceoff Again
Kenny comes out with Don Callis, Brandon Cutler, and Michael Nakazawa, and before they can really say anything Christian Cage comes out. Christian shows a clip of early in his career working with Don Callis and that’s the reason that Callis is a carny POS. Kenny chimes in and says that video proved that Kenny was better then Christian at ten years old then Christian was at age twenty seven.
Christian asks what’s weirder that Don Callis manipulated Kenny as a ten year old or that he’s still doing it now as an adult. Callis gets in Christian’s face and says that Kenny will prove what we’ve always known, that Christian Cage will always be second best. A Brawl breaks out and Kazarian came out to save Christian an runs off The Elite members.
Segment Rating: 5.5/10
This segment was also just fine, but I have less interest in this feud because I think it’s a foregone conclusion that Kenny is winning and I’ve already seen the match. I’d probably be more interested if I hadn’t seen them face already for the Impact Title. Sure it will be another great match but I don’t need to see it again. They announced a tag match for this Friday’s Rampage, Kenny and Cutler versus Christian and Kazarian so that should be interesting at least.
Gunn Club vs. The Factory
This match shouldn’t have been on this show, this was an AEW Dark match Dynamite and it was a huge waste of time. Paul Wight came out and didn’t commentary for the match. Most of it was back and forth action, there was nothing really of note in this match, Gunn Club was in control before the commercial, lost it during the commercial and QT would taunt Wight in the middle of the match and Wight would leave the broadcast position and get QT’s attention leaving it open for Colten Gunn to hit a roll up victory and that was just it.
Segment Rating: 2/10
Absolutely hate this, this is bad, and it shouldn’t have been on this show. QT gets pinned via distraction making him look dumb going into his pay-per-view match ON THE MAIN CARD, with Tall Paul, and it needs to be moved to the Buy-In and the announced Women’s Casino Battle Royale needs to be switched to the main card because as I’ve mentioned before Paul Wight versus QT Marshall barely deserves to be on Dynamite let alone a PPV main card. Him losing here is horrible, and the match with Paul should go exactly like this, bell rings, punch to the face, pin match over if it doesn’t the match is too long. Hate all of this, also just to add, Colten Gunn is 18-0 of course 98% of those are tag matches with his dad and brother but I guess that doesn’t really matter because there’s no real plans for him at the moment.
Malakai Black vs. Brock Anderson
I could not believe this was the main event. Because it went exactly as I expected, but actually it was longer then I expected. I expected, bell rings, kick to the face over. Instead we got Brock charging black with mounted punches and Black immediately turning it around Arn contemplating throwing the towel but Brock tells him not to and Black tells him to do it, Arn throws the towel down and Brock tries to fight back but can’t as Malakai hits a suplex and then the spin kick to the head and looks at Arn before get the pin for the win as fans chanted “one more time”.
After the match Arn would check on Brock and Black would leave the ring get a chair and re-enter, Arn challenges him to throw it away which he does and Black goes for the spin kick but Arn blocks it, then Black hits a low blow and hits the spin kick after. This brings out Lee Johnson to make the save to end the show.
Segment Rating: 5/10
This was middle of the road for me, Black is great at everything he does, I just don’t care to see Malakai take out all of the Nightmare Family leading to Cody’s return which clearly this is exactly where this is going. With this being the main event I fully expected some kind of surprise and Lee Johnson was not it, no disrespect to Lee Johnson he’s a very good worker but closing the show saving a rookie and a legend after a beating is not how you close out a show.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the week is, Orange Cassidy.
Cassidy gets the RWOW this week for his performance in the opener with Matt Hardy, he went out of his way to get me fully invested in a match I had no interest in at first. They had a hell of a match and Orange Cassidy especially looked amazing as he always does.
Overall
This was kind of a meh episode of Dynamite which is going to happen from time to time, they don’t have a track record of bad shows, or pointless things like a lot of this show and it’s fine because it’s not a regular thing at all. Overall I give this episode of Dynamite a 5 out of 10. A very middle of the road episode and rightfully so with the rating. There was other segments that didn’t get ratings, like Dan Lambert doing a promo with Scorpio and Ethan Page that really progressed nothing, a backstage fight between Tay Conti and The Bunny after The Bunny asked Tay to join HFO and ditch Dark Order, she refused and ripped up the contract and The Bunny slapped her to start the brawl. Dark Order had a backstage segment where they had a disagreement about Adam Page and Reynolds and Silver not agreeing with how Uno and Grayson have handled it, and Uno tells Reynolds to go back in Silver’s shadow, which he immediately regretted saying, and Reynolds tells Uno he might have one in his name but he’s not the leader and walks off. Next week is the last Dynamite before All Out so we will see how that plays out.
What are your thoughts on this special AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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