AEW Dynamite 5/20 might have been one of the more important shows in the short history of the series.
Why?
Outside of the premiere episode, this show had to sell the Double or Nothing PPV. Double or Nothing is essentially the one-year anniversary of the company, and frankly the build has not been the best. Is this AEW’s fault? No. It’s hard to build a mega-card when 70% of your roster wasn’t available to you, and you had no idea whether they would be until a few weeks ago.
So putting on a show of this magnitude with such little time and hyping it to the fans isn’t exactly an easy task. Hell, you literally got three members of your main event back on the show on this very episode.
And let’s face it, last week’s episode of Dynamite, while fun from an in-ring perspective, it didn’t do much to move the needle. This week, the hard sell had to happen.
And it did on nearly every front.
The biggest sell, and what’s going to get the most eyes on the prize, is the return of The Young Bucks and Hangman Page. There was no guarantee these three would make it back to AEW — especially since it’s been almost two months to day since we last saw them in an AEW ring. The Bucks leaping off the stands in TIAA Stadium, and Hangman doing a 100 yard dash clothesline (in cowboy boots) was the type of pulse-raising ridiculousness needed for The Elite vs. Inner Circle “Stadium Stampede” match. Hopefully, this will be a “cinematic” pre-taped match where you can have a wonderfully edited load of ridiculousness put in this match. If it’s anything like the Omega/Hardy vs. Le Sex Gods match from a few weeks ago, then we’re in for a real treat.
Not to be forgotten, perennial AEW main eventer Sammy Guevara and “Broken” Matt Hardy had a terrific match. This was easily one of Matt Hardy’s best singles matches that I can remember in years, and according to Fightful, his first singles win since the Andre the Giant Battle Royal in 2018.
MJF vs. Jungle Boy was sold on the sheer fact MJF is one of the best and brightest heels in the wrestling business today. His despicable and sometimes humorous destruction of Marko Stunt (the Spike Dudley of AEW) was the perfect reminder (in-ring wise) why we want to see Jungle Boy beat (spoilers: he’s probably not) the “Long Island Loud Mouth.”
The confrontation between Jake “The Snake” Roberts and “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson was a strong way to promote Lance Archer vs. Cody. It kept the two men a part after last week’s brawl, and it added an element that Jake and Arn might get into it. Listen, I don’t want to see them wrestle, but a few stiff punches thrown between two salty vets is never a bad thing. Also, we got the information that “Iron” Mike Tyson might just get involved, and Lance Archer isn’t afraid to brawl with him.
Rey Fenix and Orange Cassidy had an absolute, hands down Match of the Night. Fenix showed more of a ground-oriented vicious style and that makes sense given his affiliation with PAC. Cassidy showed, while he’s still all the LOLs, he’s an absolute stud in the ring. The ending segment had all our hearts in our mouths with Fenix splatting on the matt.
Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander versus Nyla Rose and Britt Baker was unfortunate, mostly because Britt Baker might be out for Double or Nothing due to a freak accident in the ring. Her status is unknown at this time and hopefully she’s fine. If all is good, then this match set up two strong women’s matches for DoN.
The big question remains though is Jon Moxley vs. Mr. Brodie Lee. Mox and Ten (Preston Vance) had a pretty solid match, and Vance definitely has big time upside. However, I’m not sure I’m 100% sold on the title match. I think the build has been fine, but nothing on the level of previous Mox matches. I think these two will have a very good in-ring match at the PPV but is the drama there?
Finally, and yes this review is wildly out of order, I enjoyed Shawn Spears “SSN” segment and I think maybe they’ve found something for Spears being a sarcastic, trolly douchebag. His match with Dustin Rhodes will be solid, and I think this was a nice way to build it.
Overall, AEW Dynamite 5/20 did the best job it could to sell Double or Nothing this Saturday. Really fun matches, and good storytelling.
