Written by Mike Mueller
Once someone has a good routine in place, any disruption to that routine can be problematic. If you’ve found your groove, you don’t want to do anything to throw it off. The same can be true for a weekly TV show. Thanks to the start of the NHL season, AEW Dynamite was moved to Saturday for this week, and while it was still a great show overall, it didn’t seem to have the same level of consistency that we’ve grown to expect. This was a week of peaks and valleys, highs and lows. Let’s break down the roller coaster that was Saturday Night Dynamite 10/16.
HIGH: CM Punk on commentary for the whole night. Any time CM Punk has a microphone or a headset, the viewing audience is in for a treat. Punk’s effortless humor and charm were on full display throughout the evening. He made a few fantastic references, including complimenting Serena Deeb on her full head of hair (a brilliant Straight Edge Society callback), and quoting the infamous Jim Ross/Sycho Sid interview line of “We’re live pal!” To the newer fan, these references may have gone unnoticed, but they didn’t draw attention to themselves in a negative way. It was a “if you know, then you know” sort of thing, and it played brilliantly.
HIGH: Malakai Black vs. Dante Martin. This match was a major style clash, and it was either going to be brilliant or fall flat on its face. Fortunately for all of us, it was a huge success. The match told a consistent story beginning to end, with the more experienced Malakai Black taking away the left leg of the high flying Dante Martin. While it certainly didn’t “ground” the young superstar, it affected him just enough and ultimately Black got the victory because of it. Several high spots proved that there is quite literally nothing Dante Martin can’t do in a ring, and no disrespect to Darby Allin or Sting, but Malakai Black is Halloween personified. Fantastic opening match.
LOW: Every backstage segment turning into a brawl. I know it’s been done since the beginning of televised wrestling, but can we please get a reprieve from every backstage interview turning into a fight? AEW seems to be particularly egregious in this regard. Usually the first question doesn’t even get answered before a superstar is jumped from behind or interrupted. Jurassic Express, Serena Deeb, and Anna Jay all had their interview segments disrupted, and by the end of the night, I simply was over it.
HIGH: The Inner Circle/America’s Top Team promo. Say what you want about either of them, but there are two things that you absolutely can not deny: Chris Jericho knows how to work a crowd, and Dan Lambert has REAL heat. I’m talking 1970s “chase you out of the building and throw bricks at your car” kind of heat. This is something that cannot be manufactured no matter how hard someone tries. You either have it or you don’t, and Dan Lambert has it in spades. Even in his own hometown, Lambert was booed so loudly, you could barely hear what he was saying. It was great. Step aside Don Callis, you’ve been definitively replaced as AEW’s most hated talent.
HIGH: Las Super Ranas def. Lucha Brothers for the AAA tag team championship. There was so much speculation going into who Andrade’s mystery team would be. A lot of smart wrestling fans, including Le Editor in Chief, were speculating that it was going to be either Dragon Lee & Dralistico or El Hijo de Vikingo & Laredo Kid. To everybody’s surprise, it was…Las Super Ranas (The Super Frogs), a team that nobody has heard of and gave off some serious “Conquistadors” vibes.
Before they were even unmasked, it became apparent that this was actually FTR in disguise. This was initially a great disappointment, as most people felt we were going to see some new stars debuting in AEW. However, that disappointment quickly dissipated as these two teams put on an absolutely fantastic match and FTR came away with an astonishing upset victory. Their post-match stairway celebration harked back to the late ’80s, when heels would win a title and celebrate in the locker room with other random heels. MJF made an appearance and the whole thing hit that “nostalgia button” in just the right way. What could have been a disaster became a highly enjoyable segment.
LOW: Mox squashed Wheeler Yuta. I wasn’t expecting this to be a five star classic or anything, but I was hoping for something with a little more substance. Wheeler Yuta can go, and he was denied an opportunity to showcase anything as Mox beat him in what seemed like 30 seconds. It took you longer to read this paragraph than it took Mox to defeat Yuta. As a fan at home, I was let down. If I paid to be there in person, I’d be downright pissed.
HIGH: Superkliq defeated Dark Order’s Evil Uno, Silver, and Reynolds. This was an entertaining match, and while the finish may have been obvious, the journey there was a lot of fun. It’s great to see unity back in the Dark Order. When they’re on, they might be the best comedy act in all of wrestling. Lots of fun spots in the match, including a Mr. Socko throwback, and Silver and Reynolds doing the “cheek kiss” spot on Adam Cole, had me literally laughing out loud. While Superkliq got the victory, the last laugh went to Jungle Boy, who ran out to avenge the beatdown he received earlier in the evening. One Jungle Boy and a steel chair was enough to scare the entire Elite group away, and this just furthered my belief that Jungle Boy is a future AEW world champion. Best white meat babyface in a very long time; change my mind.
LOW: The Arn Anderson/Cody Rhodes segment did absolutely nothing for me. I’m not sure what the long term goal of this story is. Are we supposed to be rooting for Cody? Having pity on him? Waiting for him to learn his lesson? Waiting for him to turn heel? I don’t know where we are going with this, and it seems to just be dragging on. Hopefully Cody/Malakai Black III will give us some sort of resolution, but unless Arn Anderson is threatening to shoot somebody again, I’m ready for him to move on and finish this drawn out angle.
HIGH: MJF and Adam Page both cutting killer promo’s. MJF can do no wrong, and his arrogance and obnoxiousness were on full display as he took shots at Darby Allin, knowing full well Darby wasn’t in the building. However, much to our surprise, Sting was. Sting laid a baseball shot on Wardlow and MJF scurried away in typical fashion, but the segment was a success and definitely got me more excited for the upcoming MJF/Darby match.
Adam Page’s promo was…wow. Moments like this prove why he deserves to be the next face of the company. He’s believable, sincere, and most importantly, relatable. There’s a whiskey drinking anxious millennial cowboy in a lot of us AEW fans, and just like the Hangman, we too are afraid of letting our loved ones down. And while he probably won’t believe us when we tell him, Adam Page could never let us down. It was interesting to note that Hangman didn’t have his trademark whiskey in hand, which was a brilliant little detail showing that he’s taking his upcoming title match more seriously than anything else he’s done up to this point.
LOW: Penelope Ford defeated Kiera Hogan. There’s no nice way to say this: This match completely sucked the energy out of the arena. AEW’s women’s division is improving dramatically, but there’s still a lot of “green” talent that is having a very difficult time holding the audience’s attention. That being said, Kiera Hogan landed a beautiful superplex and Penelope Ford’s Muta Lock was absolutely perfect.
HIGH: Miro losing his faith in god. This was a wonderful “next step” in the evolution of Miro’s character. “God’s favorite champion” is without his title, and who else is he to blame but God himself? This adds another layer to his already complex character. “If you stay silent over my head, I’ll break necks under my foot.” GOOSEBUMPS!!!
HIGH: Bryan Danielson def. Bobby Fish. Of the few matches Bryan Danielson has had in AEW, this was probably the weakest match he’s had. That being said, it was still a fantastic match! It amazes me that, in this stage of his life, the American Dragon is continuing to put out some of the best matches of his entire career. After the insane match he had on Rampage against Suzuki, its pretty easy to “forgive” these two for a good-not-great main event.
HIGH: The bracket was announced for the World Title Eliminator tournament. If there’s two things I can’t get enough of in wrestling, its battle royals and tournaments. The first round matches are:
Mox vs. “10”
Orange Cassidy vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
Dustin Rhodes vs. Bryan Danielson
Lance Archer vs. Eddie Kingston
My “way too soon to make a pick” pick is Danielson over Mox in the finals.
