A stacked night of wrestling kicks off hard with Samoa Joe cutting a vicious promo on anyone brave or bold enough to earn their spot for the AEW World Championship. Joe references his opponent for last week, which brings out Hook who initially offers a respectful handshake and a warning, but Joe dismisses him by having “security” try to escort him away. Hook suplexes them all over the place to end the segment. Joe then joins commentary to watch as “Hangman” Adam Page defeats Penta El Zero M.
Page and Penta had a very enjoyable match. Page’s running Shooting Star Press remains impressive. Despite Penta being the opponent, the Hangman spent a good chunk of the match mouthing off with the AEW World Champion. Some enjoyable action, including Hangman dropping Penta with a jumping Death Valley Driver. Penta came back with what looked like a twisting DVD of his own later on. A very nice counter of Hangman’s Buckshot turned into a Made in Japan driver which Page kicked out of, much to Joe’s frustration. Page winning seemed inevitable but fun nonetheless.
Joe on commentary is very entertaining. Anyone notice how a lot of Ring of Honor wrestlers are also naturally good at the table?
The initial segment appeared a tad too quick. I get the purpose was to establish Hook as more than a one-off opponent, but Joe essentially dismissing him seemed to squash any hope for a potential rematch.
Backstage: Matthew and Nicholas Jackson are walking around, again demanding to be called by their passport ID names. They confuse Top Flight with some awkward banter about showing up late when they were there long before the Bucks showed up. Not entirely sure what the purpose of the segment was.
The Jackson boys reappear for a brief moment during the Sting/Darby Allin segment, making a comment about time in the production area. Again, not wholly certain what the purpose of it was.
I get it, they are likely leaning into the social media commentary and feeding the trolls as one would say. However, I hope there is more to this strange persona change than meets the eye, otherwise, I fear this will lose its novelty really quickly.
Wardlow w/ Undisputed Kingdom defeated Trent Barretta w/ Best Friends
This wasn’t pretty, but Trent had not just a decent amount of offense, it was the type of offense he had. Tornado DDT and a crushing Piledriver! Of course Wardlow wasn’t going to lose, but hell, the match was long enough to earn a picture-in-picture commercial break.
Announced for Collision: Bryan Danielson vs. Yuji Nagata. Well, holy crap.
Interview segment with Renee Paquette, Deonna Purrazzo and Toni Storm. It quickly breaks down into a fight. But the best part was how they managed to split the camera were Toni remained in black and white while Purrazzo was in color. Mostly referencing their past, with the reveal of identical tattoos. Interesting angle. Now, with the return of rankings, I imagine Deonna will have to “earn” her shot rather than calling out for it. I like this feud, but I hope it isn’t rushed, and rather they allow it to breathe for a few months.
Interesting segment: Taya Valkyrie and Johnny TV call out Deonna Purrazzo to a match on Dynamite next week.
Swerve Strickland defeated Jeff Hardy
Jeff displayed a healthy amount of offense, but perhaps a bit too much as Swerve would inevitably take control, hit the finishers and win the match. Much like the Hangman/Penta match, while entertaining, never a question as to who would come out the victor.
Unlike his last match against Darby Allin, this time around Jeff did not seem to display much of a heel turn, the only notable spot was pulling Swerve’s belt early on in a pinfall attempt.
Backstage, Hangman and Swerve had a heated exchange as Renee announced next week in a “Dealer’s Choice” stipulation, each one would choose the opponent for the other next week. Could be interesting. Swerve could face Wardlow and Hangman could face Jon Moxley.
Thunder Rosa defeated Red Velvet
Good match with both making their first appearances on Dynamite in 2024. Obviously Rosa would go over in order to hype her plans to challenge for the TBS Championship in the future.
Sting and Darby Allin segment in the ring:
As Sting winds down his career, Darby Allin takes a trip down memory lane when they first paired up. Allin pushes the proven fact to Sting of “You still got it” and wants one run at the AEW World Tag Team Championships. Sting, full of pride in his protege, agrees and they will challenge AEW World Tag Team Champions Ricky Starks and Big Bill in two week on Dynamite.
I still hate the name “Big Bill.”
The Acclaimed retain the AEW Trios Championships against Mogul Embassy
Fun match. Glad to see Bowens, Caster, and Gunn on Dynamite. Lots of exchanges and some pretty impressive actions. The closing moments felt like an intense build, with the exclamation point made with Caster’s beautiful Mic Drop Elbow.
Notable moment when a chair was about to come into play by Bishop Kaun, but Jay White made the save. Looks like Bang Bang Scissor Gang are on the same page!
Adam Copeland defeated Minoru Suzuki
KAZE NI MARE!!
My only complaint is this didn’t get more time. The inevitable striking contests often played out in Suzuki’s favor… As they ALWAYS SHOULD. Before the match, Copeland must have said “hit me as hard as you can” to which I have no doubt Suzuki replied “You bet I will!” There were a few moments where it legit appeared Copeland was knocked senseless, and that clutch sleeper towards the end, I swear Copeland’s face was turning purple.
There was a small part believing Suzuki could have won, but I guess it was not meant to be. Sometimes with these open challenges, a loss for Copeland would be an interesting surprise.
The attempt at respect after the match did not go as Copeland planned, as his handshake was met with a growl. Seems fitting.
The final two matches of the show delivered, although to be fair, the Trios Championship match would have benefit from about five more minutes.
All in all, good show tonight and it appears Collision is being propped to be another headturner, as Bryan Danielson will face Yuji Nagata and the main event will feature FTR and Daniel Garcia vs. The House of Black in a Steel Cage.
