Has the dust actually settled? Nope! The fire burns as the aftermath from Revolution erupts before Dynamite starts! Toni Storm is attacked backstage, resulting in her being removed from her No Holds Barred match with Marina Shafir, replaced by Mina Shirakawa.
Live from Fresno, California! The show begins as it had before he left for surgery, Will Ospreay defeats Blake Christian in the opener. Good match to fire up the crowd. Ospreay looks so happy to be back. Blake put up a good resistance, but we all know he wasn’t going to win.
It occurred to me, today’s fans would not be able to handle a wrestling show from the eighties or early nineties. Imagine going to a show, get four to six matches where the majority are enhancement matches with jobbers and one or two with two main wrestlers against each other? Early days of RAW featured just that before gradually going to a format of featured wrestlers.
Ospreay grabs the mic post match, drops an F-Bomb in threatening Jon Moxley. This brings out the Death Riders and the Bang Bang Gang for their match. Ospreay however opts to attack Mox before his match.
Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta defeat Ace Austin and Juice Robinson
It does appear Mox has slid back fully into the heel role. Some less than favorable tactics utilized, while Juice opts for his crazy antics, resembling the Tasmanian Devil. Despite a valiant effort, Ace and Juice were not able to overcome interference and the barrage of attacks from Yuta and Mox.
Mox certainly was the aggressor while Yuta was mostly the fodder for his team. He looks funny without his hair. Feels similar to when Kurt Angle had his hair shaved, eventually we got used to his new look.
Shame the Bang Bang Gang continue to rack up Ls. Their last win against FTR was huge, surprised they wouldn’t be booked to capitalize, rather than it becoming regarded as a fluke.
Backstage promo: Kenny Omega challenges Swerve, “Let’s Get Dangerous” by having one more match with the World Championship contendership on the line.
I immediately thought of Darkwing Duck when he said it.
Gabe Kidd demanded Darby Allin meet him in the parking lot… This did not go as planned. Darby was ready, throwing Kidd in the trunk of his car, and drove it up a dumpster ramp, flipping it over!? As they both crawl out of the car, Darby throws Gabe on a trunk, wheeling it into the arena.
As they make it to ringside, the bell rings as Darby ties Kidd up in a straightjacket. Kidd competes the rest of the match tied up, and has a decent amount of offense. Both men get brutal and bloody. Darby has the match in hand, knocking Kidd into the coffin with a tope suicida, enough force knocking the lid shut, winning the fight.
After the bell, Darby says he will continue going until he either sees G-D or the AEW World Championship. Darby throwing his hat into the championship picture? It would give MJF a challenger while Omega and Swerve hash out their beef. I would hope MJF and Darby get more than a one-off. They have history, it would be a waste not to build a feud between them.
Promo featuring Jurassic Express: Fantastic. Shows Luchasaurus driving the bus, waiting impatiently as Perry grabs his championship belt and backpack. Some funny shorts as they travel to Fresno, meet up with the Bucks to hype up their trios match later tonight.
Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana in-ring promo: The Head of the Embassy turns hype man. He is sporting a medallion which says “Embassy Forever.” Swerve comes out to his new theme, looking meaner than ever. Swerve will accept Kenny’s offer, but says contendership is no good without “power.” The “power” he refers to is Omega’s role as EVP of AEW. He references a year ago how the Bucks prevented Swerve from winning a year ago. Swerve wants Kenny to put up his EVP role. Not only to be dethroned, but Swerve wants to be the EVP of AEW.
This is brilliant storytelling. Rewind to a year ago, Swerve was the babyface and the Bucks were heels, protecting Omega. Then he and Will Ospreay defeated the Young Bucks, removing them from their EVP status. Fast forward to the present. Roles reversed, but the quest remains the same. With the Bucks no longer EVPs, only Omega remains. Swerve doesn’t want to only remove Omega from power, he wants to claim the power.
Brilliant.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey defeated “Dunkzilla” Mark Davis
Good match with Davis trying to use his power moves to keep Bailey down, but the resilient youngster would not yield. Bailey’s speed and tenacity would prove to be the big man’s downfall, as the Ultima Weapon would write its conclusion. It doesn’t always seem believable a small guy could beat a bigger dude, but Bailey’s fiery spirit makes it believable. Fresh off a championship win, it makes sense, but wondering if a loss hurts Davis more than Speedball’s win.
Taped promo from MJF from after the PPV. He is a bloody, psychotic mess. MJF rejoices and gloats about continuing his path to being named the Greatest of all Time. His promo is brilliant. He comes off initially as sincere, gradually becoming unhinged, eyes bulging, blood continuing to spill all over. MJF is likely living up to his promise. If Ric Flair was in his prime today, he would be MJF.
Mina Shirakawa defeated Marina Shafir in a No Holds Barred Match
Decent contest. Started off a bit sluggishly, but gradually improved the longer it went. Mina gave the appearance of being slightly intimidated but with passionate anger towards Shafir. Weapons came out in the no holds barred match, which proved to be more useful to Shirakawa, blasting Marina with a champagne bottle, then hitting her own Storm Zero Piledriver for the shocking win.
With Storm “taken out” one might have thought this would be a way to give Shafir a redemption win without Storm taking a loss. No appearance from Rousey post-match either. Good for Mina, getting a win without any consequences. Not sure where this leads for Marina, taking two consecutive losses with no retribution.
The Young Bucks and AEW National Champion “Jungle” Jack Perry defeated Kazuchka Okada and Roppongi Vice
The final match of the night capped off a cool-down episode of Dynamite. A fun match Trios match. Nice to see Roppongi Vice square off with the Young Bucks. Okada and Perry squared off a bit. Lots of triple team synchronous action. The action continued pretty well-paced, not overly fast and chaotic. Bucks and Perry win after the BTE Trigger and diving knee strike.
After the match, the Bucks do a somber promo over their failure to defeat FTR. Matt talks about losing but a story about their father reminding them who they are. They declare intent to climb the ranks again to become champions. This is interrupted by Adam Copeland and Christian Cage who both returned as Revolution. They put over the Bucks. However Cope announces at Dynasty, it will be FTR vs. Cope & Cage for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. Cage makes an interesting comment about being the best tag team of their generation and yours, referring to the Bucks.
FTR interrupts to start a fight, but are immediately removed by the four in the ring. The Bucks leave C&C holding the belts to close the show.
Overall a good show. Seems to be the pattern, after an awesome PPV, they go back to some low-key, toned down episodes of Dynamite to gradually build up to bigger shows. Smart move, not to spoil fans and to give everyone a bit of breathing room.
Cope’s shirt still confuses me.
