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, March 31st edition of AEW Dynamite.
Christian Cage vs. Frankie Kazarian
AEW kicked off the singles debut of Christian Cage, not only that, his first singles match in seven years. I enjoyed the hell out of this match, Kazarian was the perfect opponent for Christian’s return. They have a history, they have a chemistry in the ring that showed right away when this match took place. I liked the early “rustiness” of Christian with Kazarian getting the upper hand throughout the first third of the match. It told the story well that Christian hadn’t been in a singles match in a while and needed to get back into the groove of it. That was made very evident when Kaz had an answer for everything, he maintained control with submissions.
When Christian finally turned it around he proved he’s still as good as he always was. Fighting back and showing resiliency through out kicking out of the Flux Capacitor a move he does on very rare occasion and probably shouldn’t be kicked out of, but it was here. As the action continues to pick up and Christian starts to fire up after hitting a tornado DDT and a Frog Splash for a near fall. They fight back and forth again and Christian goes for the Killswitch, but Kaz reverses and then Christian follows that by sending Kaz into the ring post, finally hitting the Killswitch for the victory.
Segment Rating 6.25/10
I loved this match it was a great way to start the show, it did the job and made Christian look good in his return singles action, they told the story in the ring without really having a story coming into it which is how it should be done. The history was there, the chemistry was there just a great match all around, can’t wait to see what Christian does next.
Exhibition Match: QT Marshall vs. Cody Rhodes
As soon as this was announced as an “exhibition match” I knew something was going to happen. I knew this was going to be a Bruno Sammartino/Larry Zbyszko-esque story and honestly, I don’t know how I feel about it. There’s really nothing to talk about as far as the match goes they were holds and tie-ups for a while and Cody was letting go of moves instead of following through every time he’d normally set up a big move. All of the Nightmare Family students as well as trainers Dustin Rhodes and Billy Gunn were at ringside and Arn Anderson served as the referee.
So the story here, when QT is out of the ring and Cody holds the rope open for them to continue the match and as he enters the ring he punches Arn Anderson in the face, QT leaves the ring and acts like he realized what he’s done is wrong and turns his back. Then three members of the Nightmare Family, Aaron Solow, Anthony Ogogo, and Nick Comoroto, attack the Nightmare Family from behind. Solow hit Dustin in the face with an edge of a chair which busted him open. Comoroto powerbombs Lee Johnson over the top rope on to the entrance ramp which looked nasty. Dustin then receives a piledriver from QT on the steel steps, Then Anthony Ogogo punches Cody hard in the gut with an uppercut while Solow and Comoroto held him. Then they brought Cody outside and laid his head on the steel steps and QT was going to hit him in the head with a chair, until Red Velvet comes out to make the save and talks QT out of it as the segment ends. Also after the match Jade attacked Red Velvet backstage after she had a promo earlier about their inevitable singles match.
Segment Rating: 5.25/10
I didn’t love this but I’m willing to keep an open mind for what happens next. I said last week I don’t feel like QT is big enough to be the heel here and I still find that to be true with leading a group, another group which is fine. I like the names involved, Ogogo hasn’t worked much at all on TV, and Solow and Comoroto are great so I think it will be good for them to have this spot but I’m not sold on QT as the leader and that’s what I need to wait and see where it goes.
Jon Moxley vs. Cezar Bononi
I get that Cezar Bononi is big, I get that Tony Khan seems to have some kind of fascination with him and giving him opportunities but if you saw a particular spot Cezar Bononi had with Luchasaurus on Dark a couple weeks ago you like me you wouldn’t want to see him on national television and I continue to not want that. This match was fine for what it was but there was numerous times early on where Bononi was clearly holding back in his offense and didn’t look good doing it. The best part of this match was Ryan Nemeth (who wasn’t in the match) taking a Paradigm Shift.
This match didn’t need a commercial break at all, it should have ended before the commercial break. Moxley looked good as always doing a lot of good looking transitions and submission moves (probably getting ready for his Bloodsport match on April 8th), the finish came when Moxley reversed a suplex into a rear naked choke for the pass out submission victory.
Segment Rating: 4.75/10
as mentioned I felt this was too long, there’s no reason this shouldn’t have been a short squash match and I probably would have rated it longer, because long matches are not Bononi’s strong suit at all but to be fair I don’t know if wrestling is either. Also I don’t mean to be harsh I read on twitter Bononi is having a family issue recently and I feel for him there.
MJF’s Gifts to The Pinnacle/Inner Circle Returns and Attacks
The Pinnacle is backstage in their locker room, and he says he has some gifts for them, the first being a personal tailor, the second being he’s going to get them an interior decorator whose also going to take care of their bathroom. He opens the bathroom door and the Inner Circle is in there, he closes the door and says they have to leave. He then opens the exit and Jake Hager is on the other side and a brawl breaks out in the locker room and into the hall way and trainer’s room.
We see Sammy Guevara going after Shawn Spears, fighting him in the hall way slamming is face into the wall and hitting his inverted GTS and then slams a door into the head of Spears. Then we say Hager and Wardlow fighting into the trainers room. They are trading shots and Hager hits a chokeslam onto a massage table. Santana and Ortiz are fighting off FTR and Tully and they knock Tully down and bloody Cash and Dax with chair shots, and Santana has the blood all over his white tank top. Jericho and MJF are fighting in the locker room, they fight into the bathroom and Jericho puts MJF’s head in the toilet and then they continue fighting until Jericho slams his head into a glass Pepsi machine. The Inner Circle puts there logo back on their locker room and reclaim it.
Segment Rating: 6/10
I’m happy this wasn’t an in ring segment with the lights out then lights back on gimmick leading to the attack. AEW does that too much so this was different and it was good. I didn’t think it was too soon for the Inner Circle to return, I didn’t think it hurt The Pinnacle they will come back and this feud will absolutely go to an inevitable blood and guts match at Double or Nothing which will be a banger of a match.
Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers vs. Lucha Bros. & Laredo Kid
Before this match The Young Bucks were being interviewed, and it’s interrupted by Don Callis, he asks to talk to Matt Jackson alone and he berates Matt for breaking Kenny’s heart last week and explains how Kenny chose The Young Bucks and not AEW, and he’s repeating that over and over and says he doesn’t know how to get through to Matt so he slaps him. Matt grabs Callis by the collar but lets him go and Callis calls him soft and a shell of his former self, just counting money and not caring about his friends.
This was another great match, Laredo Kid has been a great addition to AEW taking the place of PAC for the time being and I hope when he comes back that Laredo Kid sticks around. Big props to Doc Gallows for turning up his game to keep up with all these guys the past couple weeks. Karl Anderson has been on fire recently with his work.
There’s a lot of great offense throughout, too much to keep track of but as mentioned but it comes down to Omega and Rey Fenix in the ring. Fenix misses a springboard move and eats a great looking V-Trigger, and then a One-Winged Angel for the victory.
Post match, while Kenny, The Good Brothers, and Callis are celebrating, Moxley comes out on the stage alone and once he gets their attention The Young Bucks come out and they go to start a brawl but Omega and The Good Brothers retreat and they announce a trios match between them for next week.
Segment Rating: 6.5/10
So this is primed for The Young Bucks to turn on Moxley next week. Will it happen? I’m not sure because AEW isn’t the type to go exactly where you expect. So I think they might delay it. I don’t know but I continue to be intrigued and also become very impatient to know where it’s going. PAC and Fenix are still owed their tag team championship match and that hasn’t been confirmed when it’s happening yet but I could totally see it happening after the eventual Young Bucks heel turn.
Hikaru Shida & Tay Conti vs. The Bunny & Nyla Rose
I had a gripe with this match and it’s that Tay Conti shouldn’t have been pinned, she’s next in line for a championship match with Shida, I get she’s been on a singles roll and that isn’t affected here but why not? A loss is a loss and her getting pinned in a pointless tag doesn’t help her at all. The Bunny didn’t need a win here, this match didn’t really need to happen. I like they are getting serious about the women’s division because they needed to for a while. This isn’t how to do it though.
The match was fine there was a lot of back and forth here and they did another dive on the pile spot with Shida landing on all of the Dark Order and all of Matt Hardy’s group and they didn’t go down, until Conti followed up with a dive of her own.
The Bunny takes advantage of the situation and gets Conti back in the ring and Vickie Guerrero distracts the referee so Bunny uses a kendo stick then hits her finisher for the pinfall victory.
Segment Rating: 5/10
This match didn’t really help anyone and that’s rare in AEW, this match was unnecessary, this match was not great but I didn’t hate it, just didn’t need it. I don’t know where this goes at all and that’s fine I guess because I shouldn’t know but I hope it goes well.
Arcade Anarchy Tag Team Match: Miro & Kip Sabian vs. Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor
I loved this match and it wasn’t even for the wrestling. This wasn’t a great wrestling match, but it was super entertaining. Nobody knew what to expect when this was announced. I think we got something even better. There was wack-a-mole, a prize wall of weapons, arcade cabinets, fake token machines being thrown around it’s glorious just for the craziness of it.
Some highlights early saw Orange Cassidy slam Sabian’s head through the the wack-a-mole machine then hitting Sabian with the mallet numerous times, then Miro breaking the hammer off the machine and doing the same to Orange Cassidy. There’s a spot where Sabian powerbombed Chuck onto a pile of Legos. They tried to take Miro out of the match by smashing him with some weapons and through some machines before burying him under some machines. Back in the ring after hitting the beach break on Sabian for a near fall, he then hits the orange punch for another pin attempt but Penelope Ford breaks up the pin, she takes off her belt and chases Orange Cassidy over to a crane machine and we get our first return of the match, Kris Statlander pops up inside the crane machine and pushes out the plexiglass right into the face of Ford. Then they fight to the apron and Statlander hits a huge Michinoku Driver through an air hockey table.
Miro eventually gets back into it and takes out Orange and Chuck single handedly and they are down crawling towards the entrance where people usually make special entrances and a certain mini-van pulls up, It’s Sue and in the back is the returning Trent who emerges from the mini-van gets a kiss on the cheek from his mom and goes right for Miro. Miro eventually turns it around and is in control again and gets over to the mini-van but Trent would make the save again. They brawl until Miro picks up a fake tokens machine and attempts to throw it at Trent but he moves and spears Miro through a table. Chuck then hits a huge powerslam on Sabian off the stage through a table for the pinfall victory.
The Best Friends and Statlander all hug it out in the ring and celebrate and give Sue a thumbs up as she gives it back to close the show.
Segment Rating: 7/10
As I mentioned this isn’t a great wrestling match at all but the spectacle of it was great, the storytelling was great, all the returns were great. I love that Trent returned in the way that he did, I love that Statlander returned in the way that she did it was awesome. Some of the spots were not perfect by any means but all the fun in this match made it great for me. I’m happy this is over for good, I’m hopeful Miro will be a singles after this and next week he will turn on Sabian, I’m happy that now that Trent is back The Best Friends can go back to the tag division and Cassidy can go back to singles. All of this was very good. Now we finally get to see where all these people go from here.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this weeks episode of AEW Dynamite the Remarkable Wrestler of the Week is, Trent.
Trent gets the RWOW for his great return here that was very unexpected as nobody know when he’d be back from his injury I was truly surprised and every time they utilize his mom Sue and the mini-van to portray her dropping him off to “play with his friends” is amazing every time, and I’m just super happy he’s back.
Overall
This wasn’t the best episode of Dynamite by any means but it wasn’t a horrible episode either. Overall I give it a 5.8 out 10. There was some lows here but the highs were great. Great main event, great trios match, great storytelling with The Elite stuff and the Inner Circle/Pinnacle stuff. We’ll see how the stories continue to build and move forward from here.
What are your thoughts on AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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