Just under a month away to AEW Revolution. The company appears to have found a formula and should stick with it as long as possible. Smaller venues, hot crowds, and well-paced and planned shows with mixes of promos, brawls, and of course, the thing we tune in for, wrestling.
First segment off the bat for AEW Dynamite 2/19/24 is a tense promo battle between MJF and “Hangman” Adam Page. Good grief this was a verbal bloodbath. Leave it to MJF to blur the lines between fiction and reality. Page didn’t hold back either. One of the best parts took place when MJF brought up Christopher Daniels, trying to use it to further stab Page in the heart. However, this appeared to backfire as Page cut a lengthy promo putting over Daniels as the guy who has been to every promotion in the world and without Daniels there would be no opportunities because of the doors he opened. Honestly, it sounded like a Hall of Fame speech in his honor.
The inevitable brawl broke loose but not long before security broke it up, with Daniels leading the charge.
MJF vs. Page is going to be a bloodbath.
The Opps defeated The Patriarchy
I wouldn’t call it a squash, but Joe, Shibata, and Hook looked absolutely menacing in the ring. Christian Cage tried getting shots in but was often thrown to the floor like a ragdoll. Sabian and Wayne tried valiantly to survive, but the trio proved too powerful. The trios name will grow over time. I would have preferred if they stuck with Joe’s music though. This new theme didn’t have the same impact.
AEW appears to build up a solid roster of trios, perhaps soon-to-be-challengers for the Trios Championships? I can see them as dominant as the Hurt Syndicate is for the tag team division.
Backstage: An unhappy Chris Jericho offers to defend the Ring of Honor World Championship against Bandido on Collision. Not expecting a title change, but can’t help but wonder if the Learning Tree has been burned down and something different will take its place.
Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Big Bill
Bigtime hoss fight. Plunder and pain. Blood and beatdowns. Both Bill and Hobbs excel at being able to have a wrestling match one week, then an absolute slugfest the next. It looked painful and both also excel with their facial expressions and behavior throughout. The smack talking, the displays of pain, or display of frustration and anger boiling over. The final spot saw Hobbs toss Bill off the stage and through barbed wire tables. Unable to get up at the count of ten, Bill lay defeated while even in victory Hobbs appeared dazed. Hope he didn’t get legit hurt.
Toni Storm
Another wonderful performance by the current, and possibly greatest AEW Women’s Champion to date. Her reign as champion rivals Hikaru Shida, a reign equally impressive in wrestling matches and in duration. Each brings their own unique level of stardom to the championship. This one you need to watch, for words fail to do justice. The innuendos were plentiful. Also, cheap plug for her role in the upcoming film, Queen of the Ring.
Curious though… Was there an implied challenge to Wendi Richter?
Segment: Willow attempts to talk to Renee about recent events, but yet gets attacked again by Marina Shafir. This marks the second time Shafir gets directly involved with another wrestler. As the Death Riders stormed the ring, Mox fuming about being challenged by Cope, but taking the spot to remind us all that he is the AEW World Champion and we will never see the belt again as long as he reigns. This brings out Copeland and White to intervene and attack the Riders. It is curious how two men are able to drive off the entire stable.
Cope promises he will eliminate each member of the Death Riders prior to his title match at Revolution. Strange that Jay White wasn’t given the opportunity to contribute to the promo. He’s just as valuable and doesn’t feel right for him to take a back seat.
Shafir vs. Willow could be something, but perhaps if Willow now joins Cope and White, this could become more interesting.
Announced: Momo Watanabe will challenge Mercedes Mone for the TBS Championship. Probably another win for Mone. Had the challenge been for the NJPW Strong or RevPro Women’s Championship, it would be believable for a title change.
Also announced, Gabe Kidd is coming to Collision. He will face The Butcher. YES. YES. YES.
Megan Bayne defeated Kris Statlander
What a fantastic match! This easily could have been the main event of the show as well. I don’t think I’ve ever used the phrase Female Hoss Fight before, so I’m glad these two women earned it for the first time. Statlander is truly a Workhorse for the women’s division, Megan Bayne is going to be a menacing force very quickly. I would describe this as an extremely well paced, well-fought match. Both executed perfect looking power slams, powerbombs, and an array of suplexes. The Finish was perfectly fine, having Penelope Ford interfere to assist with Bayne getting the win. Bayne looks dominating regardless and Statlander loses no stream.
The post match with Thunder Rosa coming in with a chair swinging wildly seemed oddly out of place. Maybe she was supposed to threaten with the chair from the entrance way? Or something? I dunno. Looked off.
Backstage, Max Caster is approached about his failure with the open challenge, however he says that those matches didn’t really count because he was not ready. He says the challenge will continue this week on collision and expects a better behaved opponent. This is getting comical.
Before the main event we get an intense segment in the ring, Ricochet gloating about his recent achievements. He is interrupted by Prince Nana who implores Ricochet to return the robe which has a 30-year history in his stable, The Embassy. without mentioning Jimmy Rave by name, Nana does mention individuals who have worn it throughout the years, including those who have passed on.
Of course Ricochet, the villain that he is now, refuses to return it, even stating that he’d rather destroy it than give it up. He puts Prince Nana in a very precarious position to fight but the Embassy Kingpin is unable to defend himself.
This is an interesting situation in which ricochet clearly has the upper hand, while Prince Nana tried to plead to his once kinder self. This should definitely lead to another confrontation between Swerve and Ricochet in the future. Given how much the history of The Embassy has been discussed lately, one would think a return of the stable would be in order. Maybe some more highlight reels during TV episodes.
Main Event: Orange Cassidy defeated Roderick Strong to become the #1 Contender to the AEW International Championship.
Stellar match. In tune with other matches, extremely well paced with no clear-cut way to predict a winner. This is the type of match AEW needs for main events, where predicting the outcome is extremely difficult. Also why I wish they would do more non-title matches to give fans the slight doubt for a challenger to defeat a champion. Cassidy sporting his friendlier demeanor, back to a white t-shirt, funny entrance video, but has not given up the more serious nature of his current style of wrestling. We did get a moment with the pockets, but not to long of one. Real comedy gold when Cassidy slipped out of the ring and gave Kyle O’Reilly a big hug, but then shied away from Adam Cole by putting his hand over his face, slinking back into the ring. Roddy and Cassidy sold near-perfectly for each other, but Cassidy managed to one-up Strong to gain the pinfall victory.
After the match, The Callis Family decided to attack, prompting Kenny Omega to make the save. Here is where it gets interesting. Cassidy is a viable contender, being a two-time International Champion. Omega is your “big name” who wants Takeshita at Revolution. Which is more important for Kenny, the grudge or the title? Interesting three-way stare down to close the show. Make one wonder what on Earth will they do next?
I know!
Bring Eddie Kingston back to beat up Mox.
