What should have been AEW Blood ‘N’ Guts in Newark, was still a fine show down in Jacksonville, FL. AEW Dynamite Empty Arena saw some solid singles matches tonight, accompanied by some entertaining guest commentary. Overall a good show to satisfy us until next week, however the element of predictability slightly tarnished what I considered a good show.
If you have not been watching the Jackson Boys’ Youtube show, Being the Elite, go watch it. Funny stuff.
The first match saw Cody defeat Jimmy Havoc in a nice opener. Kenny Omega on guest commentary. Some nice big spots like a super lariat and a top rope reverse superplex were pretty awesome, but it was the multiple Cross-Rhodes which earned the fall for Cody. Glad to see Havoc back on Dynamite, hopefully he will earn some more air-time.
After the match, Jake “The Snake” Roberts dares Cody to challenge his new charge, Lance Archer. At first I was skeptical of using more mouthpieces in the company, however I recall fondly my early days of watching WWF and WCW where there were managers aplenty. Snake as the voice of Archer comes off better than anticipated, and hopefully this sticks for some time.
Darby Allin defeated Kip Sabian in a good match. I enjoyed the ring dynamic, and I raised an eyebrow when guest commentator Cody compared Allin to Sting. Allin is hot stock for AEW, Sabian is as well, but he can stew a bit more before his push.
Jake Hager defeated some dude, Chico Adams? Sounds like a jobber from the ’90s. Hager won the match easily, and the jobber was saved from further pain by AEW World Champion, Jon Moxley. Looks like Hager will be the next contender, as it seems Jericho is moving on to his next feud…
The empty arena isn’t horrible, but man, does not matter which company, a silent arena has an effect.
Brodie Lee defeated QT Marshall – An expected outcome, but better to see Brodie already stepping in the ring and wasting no time wrestling, and defeating those who have been or are perceived to be on the losing side. This could make the Dark Order a hell of a lot more interesting in the coming weeks.
Kenny Omega retained the AAA Mega Championship against Sammy Guevara in an awesome, however predictable match. Sometimes a match hits a point where you suspend knowledge of how this business works and believe for a moment, we could see a title change of another company on a weekly television program. But not tonight and this was an issue, predictability. I didn’t really think the Spanish God would win the title, but maybe earn some sort of DQ or Count Out win. However, this was a long and well-drawn match which, in my not-so-humble opinion, spotlighted Omega putting over Sammy G. big time. BIG TIME. Sammy is a future star, hopefully he will be able to have a long and injury-free career. He took some hard hits from Omega, such as multiple V-Triggers, but he came back with some gorgeous offense of his own. Some of the offense, might have offended as he smooched a cardboard cut-out of Brandi Rhodes. That was funny. Also funny how everyone rags on Cody.
Chris Jericho face-to-face with Woken Broken Bork Bork Matt Damascus Hardy Har Har
I’m having fun here, because this is what Matt and Chris are doing. This segment being pre-taped, mostly, I think, had some hilarious moments. Initially, Jericho cut a promo on an encroaching Vanguard-1, even to the extent of offering membership into the Inner Circle to the suspicious drone. Brilliant. Hardy appeared to teleport around the empty arena, nice tape-and-cut job post-production crew. But the real story came from a great mic factory of history. Both talked history, working long years, enough to try to convince the other to align with their affiliated stable. Matt was able to insert his wacky tone while also being serious and factual about his long career in other company waters along with Jericho. This seemed to be a story of legacy and continuing the long legacy in their own way.
The end of the segment saw Hardy cut down Jericho, but was jumped by Sammy Guevara until Cody and Kenny saved Matt to close the show. Interesting way, have Hardy being the one to strike first, chasing off Sammy and Jericho.
Good show, but the matches, save one, were predictable. Darby Allin vs. Kip Sabian could have gone either way, but everyone else was an easy call. QT Marshall was an easy loss, since he’s the sort one could predict being lured by Dark Order. No way the AAA Mega Championship was changing hands on Dynamite, and Havoc had no chance of being booked to go over Cody.
However, despite this and the usual horrible timing of commercial breaks, the show was entertaining and damn that closing segment was uber-satisfying.
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