AEW Dynamite 5/22/24 kicks off with the team of Roderick Strong and Trent Barretta defeated Orange Cassidy and Will Ospreay. An intense match. When the story consists of everyone hating each other, it clicks. The intermittent brawls between rivals during wrestling in the ring were well timed and fun to watch. The interference from Matt Taven and Mike Bennett failed. However, Wardlow appears from out of nowhere to wreak havoc.
Man, this was fun to watch. They all did a great job of displaying sheer hate and violent intentions. Ospreay gets busted open after the match. Their respective matches on Sunday will be great.
I’m thinking Adam Cole will interfere. I feel like Ospreay winning the International Championship is too obvious a prediction. If he wins, who in the hell would defeat him, and would he hold it for years? He can’t lose clean, so he has to lose via interference. That would be more of a surprising result.
Don Callis left the announce table to get involved. While it does seem he is trying to align with Freshly Squeezed, I can’t help but wonder if Ospreay will leave the stable and it will be Trent who joins the Callis Family.
The Bang Bang Gang cut a promo ridiculing PAC. This prompts PAC to interrupt and introduce two of his buddies which features the return of Death Triangle with Alex Abrahantes in their corner. A brawl breaks out and we’ve got our Unified Trios Championship match for Double or Nothing.
Another fun match, but I’m not 100% feeling it. Ditching “Bullet Club Gold” in favor of retaining “Bang Bang Gang” seems a bit comedic, but perhaps it caters to their nonsensical and cynical approach. I doubt we’ll see a title change.
The EVPs instruct security to keep Darby Allin out of the building. Guess we’ll see him later on, won’t we?
Hook and Shibata won a Triple Threat Match. Great match involving “The Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith, but curious the direction this goes in. Shibata and Hook both lock on submissions, forcing Keith to tap. Due to referee Rick Knox declaring them both winners, Jericho taunts he’ll face them both at Double or Nothing. He manages to insert all his catchphrases.
I can’t get behind this. Can’t do it. My guess is Hook and Shibata will nail finishers on each other and Jericho will somehow steal the win.
Konosuke Takeshita MURDERS Matt Sydal
Ok, Sydal got a little offense in BUT HOLY CRAP Takeshita is a monster. They need to put him on TV more often. The guy has “IT” written all over him. The stuff he does is fantastic. He doesn’t have a set finishing move, it’s whatever he opts to end your existence with.
Post match, Mox confronts his opponent, mic in hand, and clobbers Takeshita with it. No words, just fight.
Being it’s booked as an “Eliminator Match” I fully expect Takeshita to win. He has to win. He wins, and then faces Mox again at Forbidden Door. Mox represents NJPW, and Takeshita repping AEW.
Swerve Strickland defeated Nick Wayne
Good match, lots of high flying risky stuff going on. Swerve gets the win, but is then ambushed by Dark Luchasaurus. But here comes the best part. Swerve manages to take out both Kanasaurus and Wayne, then chases Christian Cage out of the arena. Cage attempts to carjack and flee, but is cut off by another car…
… Driven by PRINCE NANA! HE”S BACK! Despite Swerve mauling his challenger for Sunday, Christian manages to run away. Damn that was a great segment. I can’t wait to watch and see how Swerve creatively defeats Cage on Sunday.
Malakai Black defeated Kyle O’Reilly
This was a fight. A straight-up fight. Put these two in the Octagon and let ‘em go. One of the best shoot-style wrestling matches I have seen in a very long time, and it has been a long time.
Although he took a loss, this match should certainly elevate O’Reilly significantly as a legitimate potential high-tier wrestler on television. For Malakai to come out of this appear to have escaped certain defeat says a lot.
Post match, we got some Brood-level creepshow, as the lights flicker red, and as they turn back on, buckets of blood dump from the ceiling right onto Black. Copeland appears on the big screen, maniacally laughing.
Holy crud. That was awesome.
AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm & Mariah May defeated Saraya and Haley Cameron
I’m here just for Storm and May. Saraya and Cameron are portrayed here as a cohesive tag team, which realistically could have won had there been some shenanigans. Saraya’s brother was at ringside, he could have interfered and affected the outcome.
Instead, post match, Serena Deeb hit the ring and beat up both women.
Here is something very curious. Deeb gets a majority face reaction from the live crowd. Toni Storm naturally turned face thanks to her shtick. Will the Vegas crowd turn on Storm? Will Deeb be the one to dethrone the glamorous gal? Tune in next time to find out!
Main Event of Dynamite 5/23/24: Bryan Danielson defeated Satnam Singh by Disqualification
Boy, oh boy, do I have some thoughts about this. I am not a fan of Satnam. I will never be. But, I had to agree with a good brother in that Singh is better than the Great Khali. Satnam at least did a few wrestling moves. There was one open handed chop to the chest which sounded like a cannon blasted. This was probably his best match. Danielson helped make him look good. This was a bit awkward overall, but it wasn’t about Danielson conquering a giant or some cliche trope, it’s about Team Jarrett collecting the bounty and being paid off by the EVPs. Danielson is nearly beaten senseless while the EVPs attempt to put him on the injured list. Okada comes out, Jack Perry comes out, and all seems lost until…
… a car pulls up outside, and it’s Tony Khan dropping off Darby Allin. He storms to ringside brandishing a freakin’ FLAMETHROWER.
I am not making this up. Nick Jackson is thrown through a table, cut up badly in the process. He screams like a hokey villain in defeat.
That’s certainly a memorable way to close a show. Until a month from now when most of us will forget it happened.
As a go-home show for Dynamite heading into Double or Nothing it did pretty well. Last week was a solid set up also, in some ways some storylines fared better last week than this week. However, a few more matches filled out an already exciting lineup. All major players were featured this week, and I imagine Collision will tie up any loose ends before the PPV.
