I may have witnessed one of the best “Street Fight/Parking Lot Brawls” in wrestling history. I’m not alone as Mick Foley himself posted on social media, offering his praise to Best Friends and Santana & Ortiz.
Before we fast forward, let’s recap the rest of AEW Dynamite 9/16.
The Young Bucks continue to act like jerks
The scheduled match between New AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR and challengers Jurassic Express started off strangely when Matt and Nick came out and superkicked the referee. FTR seemed to get a laugh out of that. With a new ref, this title bout was underway. Cash and Dax have been wrestling as though they started in grade school. So fluid, so well together. The Express, too, keeps up the pace and causes the champions to quicken theirs. Maybe a tad too quick, because Luchasaurus winds up diving into the crowd which allows a questionable double-team to pin Jungle Boy for the win.
Hangman Adam Page defeated Frankie Kazarian
In case anyone forgot, Kazarian is a solid singles wrestler. All I could say is WOW on this one. These two guy might have put on a match of the year candidate. I felt like I was watching a Kazarian of old in Ring of Honor. Page and Kaz kept the match clean, solid, and one of the best mat-to-air-back-to-mat based matches I have seen. Kenny Omega on commentary, seems conflicted about whether he would ever team with Hangman again, but also seems to question whether The Elite is meant to stay alive. Interesting. Following a few close calls in Kazarian’s favor, Hangman walloped the Buckshot Lariat and earns the victory.
MJF defeats a jobber (“The Captain” Shawn Dean). Wardlow clears the ring, and Maxwell loses his cool on the mic. However, regaining his composure he takes a shot at everyone suddenly teaming up and manufacturing stables. He teases either joining or creating his own. Hmm.
Chris Jericho and Jake Hager defeated Private Party
With Jericho openly stating the new focus is on tag team wrestling, it would have been a bona-fide shocker if his duo lost. Private Party getting a win would have been huge. Regardless, another great match. What struck me the most was how Jericho took the brunt of the majority’s spots. Jericho sold it all. Isiah has the match won a few times, but commentary played up injury and inexperience as factors to the loss. I’d love to see Quen vs. Jericho one-on-one.
NWA Women’s Championship Match – Thunder Rosa retains against Ivelisse
Wow, this match impressed. If not for the Parking Lot Street Fight Brawl, this could have been the main event of the show. Love how the NWA Women’s Championship was on the line, and Ivelisse gave Rose a run for her money. I’m thinking Diamante and Ivelisse may be the next two top women’s wrestlers in AEW. Keep giving them high profile matches they seem to adapt very fast. After the match, Diamante attacked Rosa, brining Hikaru Shida in for the save.
Next week, you guessed it, the NWA and AEW Women’s Champions will TEAM UP against Diamante and Ivelisse.
In-ring promo: Lance Archer and Mox announce their tag team partners for next week’s six-man match.
Snake Roberts cuts some seriously creepy promos. Archer doesn’t like it, but Roberts brings out his new business partner Taz with Brian Cage and Ricky Starks. However, this is interrupted by Mox who antagonizes the trio to attack him. Enter… WILL FREAKIN’ HOBBS. Big man, chair in hand, cleans house. Mox says he’s got one more… Stares into the camera and says “Darby, I’ll calling you in!”
Hobbs is a bit green but I am 100% confident with a push and a lot of hard work, this guy will be a major force in AEW.
THE BEST! THE BEST! THE BEST! THE BEST!
AEW Dynamite 9/16 Main Event: Best Friends defeated Santana & Ortiz in a Parking Lot Street Fight Brawl
Normally the rally cry of Ortiz, but this is the rally cry of the match. Wow. From bell to bell, the one was great. It’s hard to describe a wrestling match taking place surrounded by a circle of cars, but they did it. In-between the tosses into windshields or suplexes on the roof of cars, was some interest wrestling offense. The major spots, Santana getting bloody within the first few minutes with an errant fall into a side mirror, later followed by more blood with Trent getting powerbombed into a windshield… WITH THE GLASS STUCK IN HIS BACK! Poor medical staff, they’ll have their work cut out for them.
It was not just the action, but the vicious verbal banter, the body language, and STORY being told during the match. No “going through the motions” or “insert spot here” type match, this was 100% a wrestling + fight. It seemed this might have been the end of the Best Friends, but before Santana could murder with a lead pipe, Orange Cassidy popped out of a car trunk, to clobber Santana with a metal chain, KO’ing him. This allowed Chuckie T to his a piledriver on one car, while Trent hit the Crunchie on Ortiz, through plywood on a flatbed, to win the match.
If that wasn’t enough, a horn honk was distinctly heard… It’s Sue, Trent’s mother, picking the boys up at dismissal, to drive them home in her minivan. But wait, there’s more! She rolls down her window, and flips the bird as they drive off.
Once again, AEW provides a FUN night of wrestling. There’s no need to elaborate further. I had fun watching, and I’m sure you did too.
