AEW Dynamite 11/8 Review: A Little Bit of That Old Feeling

Brining us one step closer to Full Gear is the AEW Dynamite 11/8 episode featuring title bouts, new matches made for the PPV, and a curious cross promotion between AEW and SEGA, promoting a spin-off to the Yakuza series, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. 

Dynamite kicks off with an MJF promo backstage, hyping up tonight. It is immediately interrupted by MJF’s opponent, Daniel Garcia and 2-point-0. Shortly after they say their piece and leave, MJF is immediately interrupted again by ADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM! 

It’s Roderick Strong and The Kingdom rolling up to MJF and Adam Cole via Skype or something. Cole doesn’t seem to respond to Roddy’s tactics and disconnects the call as MJF leaves. Strong faces the camera and decides it will be time to show why he is the Wrestling Legend. 

MJF retains the AEW World Championship against Daniel Garcia

Solid opener of wrestling. We most certainly got the “professional wrestler” from Garcia, even with a couple of dance moves in. If not for the title bout, I could have believed Garcia would stand to win. The guy is a pro through and through. No spot-fest here, this would have fit right in with some of the wrestling of the 80’s and early-90s. Each man focused on wearing down a specific limb, Garcia working over MJF’s legs, while MJF bruised up Garcia’s arm which would be the path for a submission via Salt of the Earth. The post match saw MJF extend his hand to Garcia, but Minard and Parker prevented any sign of sportsmanship. 

MJF wrestling more often on television is a complete 180 from the guy we saw a year ago avoiding appearances and only showing up for PPVs. For someone who said they would never turn babyface, MJF seems to have embraced it pretty well. 

Sting & Darby Allin defeated the Outrunners (Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd)

Man, I really thought the Outrunners had a chance here. 

OK, I’m lying. Wish this would have been a bit more fun to watch, but this turned out to be a simple squash for Sting to pick up the win. 

Man, it would have been cool of Sting brought out his “surfer” bit just this one time. It would have fit. 

Pre-taped promo featuring Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida. How could you not enjoy this silliness? Shida tries to be serious while Storm is a complete loony toon.

I wonder if Shida will lose to Storm at Full Gear. The new gimmick is completely over with fans, to a point where I’d worry to see a live crowd turn on Shida. 

Swerve Strickland defeated Penta El Zero M

Wow. Insane match. Penta figuratively and literally destroyed Swerve with a Destroyer on the ring apron. Tons of back and forth with neither being the clear dominator until the very end when Swerve hit one signature move after another, Death Valley Driver, followed up with a gruesome looking arm-breaker, to his crushing double stomp off the top. 

Post-match is where things get nuts. “Hangman” Adam Page comes charging from the back, cracking Swerve repeatedly with a chair, then goes completely crazy, leaping off the ramp through tables on the floor with Deadeye. 

This is how you make a feud feel intensely personal. Swerve violates Page with a home invasion, the Page violates Swerve’s physical well-being by nearly killing him on live television. My gut tells me Page/Swerve II is going to be a bloody war. 

Young Bucks vs. Golden Jets backstage: Matt and Nick Jackson are fed up with Kenny Omega constantly reforming The Elite, only to abandon the group for other ventures. Jericho tells the Bucks they are nothing but spoiled brats, and challenge them to tag match at Full Gear. If the Bucks lose, they lose their upcoming tag team title shot. If the Bucks win, the Kenny must part with Jericho and return to the Elite. 

Things getting tense very quickly. I’m not sure where this will go. If Bucks win, Kenny will feel forced back into the fold. If Omega ad Jericho win, then Bucks turn heel yet again and Elite is no more, again. We’ve seen this played out, again, not sure what the gains/benefits will be. 

Samoa Joe retains the Ring of Honor TV Championship against Keith Lee

Big-time hoss fight, which appropriately earned lots of “meat” chants. I guess this is the thing now. Thanks Big E. 

Lee and Joe put on a great match, with Joe managing to outmaneuver Lee for the choke-out victory. While disappointing to see Keith Lee lose (on his birthday no less!), it cements Joe as the dominant TV champion. 

Until after the bell, when Joe announces he is vacating the ROH TV title, in order to focus purely on his quest to become AEW World Champion. If this is any indication, he might just be the guy to do it. My guess is with Cole once again out with injury and other top wrestlers either injured or involved in other programs, it would make sense to push Joe right to the top, and you know what? Joe would be a great AEW World Champion. It won’t be clean either. It’s fairly obvious we will see Wardlow cost MJF the title at some point, whether MJF loses to Jay White or to Joe. 

Backstage: Orange Cassidy cuts an unusually serious promo on Moxley. Damn, he’s more versatile than we thought!

The Gunns defeated the Bollywood Boyz in minutes

Easy win, then cut an arrogant promo calling themselves the next Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions. 

I’m not feeling this. I’d rather see an actual team from ROH challenge for the belts. 

Backstage: Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta respond to Cassidy. Mox simply wants blood. Yuta wants Hook. 

Not feeling the direction Yuta is going in. It feels like a step backwards. Yuta was already a “young boy” and I had thought earned his stripes. It feels like they’re treating him like a runt again. 

Mariah May is introduced as the newest signing to AEW. In 2018 she made her debut on NXT UK and since then has competed in many indy promotions such as CZW, RevPro, and most recently been part of Stardom. While in Stardom she had a number of matches against Guilia. Her looks might fool you, but she is one to be cautious around. She credits Toni Storm for coming to AEW and seems to really want to meet her. 

Julia Hart defeated Red Velvet

Velvet making her first appearance since injury, did pretty well for herself. This could have gone either way, but my guess is Hart winning keeps her story with Skye Blue fresh. Speaking of whom, confronted Hart after the bell, but was then backed up by Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale. Skye Blue did not seem so pleased by this. While Willow appears to have recovered from the poison mist, it appears Skye Blue has not. 

This feels like an inevitable heel turn for Blue. Keeping her babyface at this point doesn’t take this feud anywhere. This only will give Statlander another contender for a championship which at this point is becoming an afterthought. 

“Switchblade” Jay White defeated Mark Briscoe in the main event

Fan-freakin’-tastic match. True main event tonight. Briscoe and White were near-perfect. So many close calls, and I truly believed Briscoe could have won it clean. But, given the current angle, White losing would have been a bad call. Briscoe came so close so many times, but White found a way to keep it alive. White hits what appeared to be a straight-jacket-cradle-brainbuster to set up for the finishing blow. It looked brutal. Kudos to both on a great main event. Briscoe is going to be a workhorse, I’m sure he has no issue putting people over, but then again, the people want to see him with more W’s. 

Post-match, MJF blindsides the Bullet Club but fails to reclaim his championship belt. He cuts a promo which is interrupted by lights turning off, and we see some masked men taking apart The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. The devil’s mask flashes for a moment, then disappears. MJF rushes back to find his new friends down and out, Bowens certainly out as he was thrown through a glass window. 

Samoa Joe rolls up “Need a partner, partner?”

Besides my usual gripe of champions not having non-title matches and predictable outcomes, AEW Dynamite was a solid show tonight, the main event certainly was the highlight. Joe vacating was completely unexpected. However this is a good idea, to give someone else a chance to hold a championship. First person who comes to mind? Ethan Page.  

The tension between the Bucks and Golden Jets is interesting, but as I said earlier there doesn’t appear to be a clear path to it. Regardless of the outcome, what does it really accomplish? 

Full Gear is coming up fast. They are using all three of their shows to appropriately drive up hype for the PPV. Collision will feature the “Dream Team” of Sting, Darby Allin, and Adam Copeland against The Righteous and Lance Archer. This will be excellent. 

AEW Dynamite 11/8 is now on demand and streaming on the TBS app.