Written by Brian McNamara
The Elite & FTR vs. Brodie Lee, The Dark Order & Colt Cabana
AEW Dynamite 8/5 starts directly with a massive twelve-man tag match. There’s a lot of folks here and the ring and ringside can feel a little tight at times during the match. For the first part of the match, the Elite and FTR work a great showcase match, with everyone getting in some good, quick moves and easily handling the Dark Order lackeys. There’s some strong quick-tag work as well, that demonstrates the Elite’s superior ring-skill that feels organic to the teams and match. A run of quick tags culminates in a triple suplex from four members of the Elite against the three of the minions. The match is fun and frenetic, if it is a little hard to follow at times with all the action and activity. Some of the minions are a little sloppy, missing moves or tags that don’t seem to amount to anything for any clear story purpose.
The match changes direction sharply when Dax injures his knee and briefly the entire Elite/FTR team leaves ringside to attend to the injured party. This leaves Kenny Omega to the whims of the Dark Order for a short time before the Young Bucks come back, but Hangman is conspicuously absent. The Dark Order is able to capitalize on the unbalanced teams and put their opponents through their paces. This continues until Hangman finally makes his way back out to level the playing field. Hangman and Brodie briefly square up and we get some good offense between them before they’re broken up. The Elite rally, poised to take the lead, but Dark Order are able to snatch a win with superior numbers and some well-placed holds on the ringside. In all, a strong start to the night and a good way to lay a lot of groundwork for future matches while making everyone look good.
Winners: The Dark Order & Colt Cabana
AEW Dynamite 8/5 returns from break as Moxley gives a great promo backstage that pretty cannily puts Darby Allin over by comparing Darby to the Young Mox. It’s a nice, level promo that capitalizes on the history of Moxley while also laying clear that Darby is in Mox’s league. He talks about not wanting to be the one to end Darby’s promising career. “When it’s time to stay down, just stay down,” he admonishes. It’s a great, natural promo that lays out who Moxley is and who Darby is. Solid work.
Santana & Ortiz vs. Best Friends
This was a very solid match from bell to bell. There weren’t as many stand out moments, but the whole flow and feel of the match was great. It started out with arm drags and some athletic tumbling and quickly moved into the power. While Trent and Chuck definitely seemed to be the stronger team throughout, Santana and Ortiz are such gifted performers that even their losing efforts can be strong. This was a just a great, classic tag match with two strong teams. It did feel like there were maybe some missing stakes, but Trent and Chuck were able to pick up the win.
Winners: Best Friends
We get a brief “campaign update” from MJF, a cute, quick comedy bit where MJF can talk about his upcoming match with Moxley and take the time to act like Darby winning the title is no big deal.
Matt Hardy is in the ring to talk about his role – and roles in AEW. He discusses wanting to show the AEW fans the Multiverse of Matt Hardy, all his selves and all his iterations. He talks about listening to the fans, though, and wanting to focus on being Matt Hardy. Matt talks up Private Party and offers to help them out whenever they need it. He then talks about giving Sammy Guevara advice to stay away from Jericho and then talks about thetime Sammy snuck up on him.
As you may guess, Sammy G. has again snuck up on Matt Hardy to attack him. The two trade blows through the ring and all over the ring area. Matt setups a table, but Sammy knocks him out and lays him on the table. Sammy then lawn darts an open chair at Matt Hardy and it tags Matt in the head, busting him open. Sammy climbs the stage and dives onto Matt Hardy who is covered in the proverbial scarlet mask. Before we can even settle on the image of the bloody Matt Hardy, we cut to the backstage area where Santana and Ortize have attacked Trent’s Mom’s Van! This is clearly a step too far!
Cody Rhodes & Matt Cardona vs. The Dark Order (John Silver & Alex )
The King of Long Island makes his AEW in-ring debut tagging with Cody. The match gets off to a good start. Our two low tier Dark Order minions are perhaps an odd size matchup for Cody and Cardona – especially Cardona who towers over the two opponents. Cody takes a bit of a drubbing after a brief tag in chrome Matt and his favoring his ribs. He takes a few splashes and strikes to the chest from his opponents who dominate much of the match, punishing Cody while Matt looks on waiting for the hot tag. Matt gets the tag and is able to get momentum back for his team. John Silver is impressive and not just a palette swapped Daniel Bryan. He and Cody take a rough bump to the outside and Cardona picks up his debut win with his newly christened “Radio Silence.” Now that AEW is doing picture-in-picture a lot of the time, this match was probably a lot longer than it needed to be and the amount of time Cody, a champion, was held down by the minions stretched credulity, but a good debut for the Broski who looks like a veritable giant compared to everyone in this match.
Winner: Cody Rhodes and Matt Cardona
Backstage, Trent and Chuck call out Santana and Ortize for their attack on Trent’s Mom’s van. They call for a rematch and demand an apology to Sue – on speaker phone. A good bit!
Sammy Guervara comes out with cue cards and delivers a promo with the cards during the picture-in-picture. Another good bit!
The Debate: Orange Cassidy vs. Chris Jericho
Our surprise moderator for the debate is revealed to be… none other than Eric Bischoff. A surprise but something rumored for a bit. Interesting energy he brings to this. Like a strange elder statesmen of the carnival circuit.
Jericho is given a question about why he and Orange dislike each other and Jerciho takes the time to quip about Orange not being dressed for the occasion. This prompts Orange to produce a clip-on tie from his pocket and don it. An electric moment.
Jericho is surprisingly good at the “debate format” and is able to do some good promo work and spin it into a promo. Bischoff throws Orange a non-wrestling debate question that he answers with practiced aplomb. A good little moment. Also, a pro-wrestling show with a larger audience frankly talking about sea levels rising is an interesting moment.
Jericho’s stunned reaction is a work of art. Jericho is a master in promo-craft and the debate goes back to behind his forte. He gets meta and refers to Orange as the embodiment of the entitled “smarks.” As we close in, Orange breaks his stoic character and delivers a great little promo talking about how this moment designed to embarrass him doesn’t embarrass him because he doesn’t care about it, or Jericho, but he does care about the match next week. It’s good stuff. Bischoff declares Orange the winner, Jericho balks and sets Hager – who appears to be morphing into Biff Tannen – on him and then lays him out with the Judas Effect. The Best Friends run out to make the save. In all, the debate segment worked? It was fun and played to both Jericho and Orange’s strengths.
Winner: Orange Cassidy
At ringside, Dr. Britt Baker says she’ll face Big Swole after she beats an opponent of her choosing and the good dentist picks… Reba, from her entourage.
Big Swole vs. Reba
A quick squash for Swole. Nothing special, although Reba attempts a moonsault. Swole deserved better and this deserved more time.
Winner: Big Swole
AEW Championship March: Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin
Darby comes to ring side wearing a Moxley paper mask with one eye cutout. It’s really cool. Moxley rips it off his face after the bell and is treated to slap to the face. Moxley just straight up jabs him in the face and bloodies the skater boy. The match is mostly strong strikes before Moxley is able to get him down. Moxley puts him in a submission hold demanding he tap out but darby, face down on the mat, lifts his hands and gives a double middle finger to the ref and Mox. They battle back and forth some aggressive and stiff shots. Wardlow comes down to the ring and distracts the ref long enough for MJF to run in and smash Moxley with the AEW championship. Moxley is busted open by the belt and Darby – who didn’t see the interference – goes for a coffin drop. Moxley kicks out. Now, the bloody Moxley is emboldened and puts Dabry through his paces. Darby goes for another coffin drop but Moxley locks in a sleeper. They wrestle to the ground but Darby won’t give up, won’t tap out. Moxley delivers a piledriver and Darby just crumples. Finally Moxley gathers himself in the corner, crosses himself and then delivers a vicious Death Rider.
Winner: Jon Moxley
After the match, blood and sweat pouring off his face, Moxley cradles the felled Darby Allin, a modern Pieta, and whispers in his leaving, a trail of blood on the goth skater’s ear. It’s an amazingly effective visual. Mox does great work selling how tough and relentless Darby was. This is the good stuff right here.
In all, a great episode of Dynamite. AEW Dynamite 8/5 was wrestling-forward. The biggest missed opportunity of the night was Big Swole’s match. Everything felt right, it all moved. The increased use of picture-in-picture during breaks also makes the wrestling feel more real, more sport-like. Perhaps the show lacked a throughline or cohesive narrative, but the debate segment carried much of the promotional weight of the evening. I wish maybe some of the matches were paced a little differently but overall a solidly entertaining evening of grappling.
