PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

FULL AEW DYNAMITE REPORT

It is Wednesday and this week Dynamite is at the Moda Center in Portland, OR. The commentary team is Tony Schiavone, Taz, and Excalibur.

We start off with MJF being interviewed by Tony Schiavone, and ADAM! Cole calls and tells him that he needs to pick Samoa Joe to defend the Ring of Honor Tag Team titles at Full Gear. Daniel Garcia then shows and MJF says that he sees a little bit of himself in Garcia and asks if he is getting the sports entertainer or a wrestler, and Garcia says it will be a wrestler.

Roderick Strong shows and says he can give MJF advice and MJF leaves, and when he starts to talk to ADAM!, Adam hangs up as well.  Roddy says it is time for him to show people who he is.

A LOT of stuff is introduced here for tonight’s show in a short time, and it still shows that MJF is under siege, which is a story I like.

MJF (AEW World Champion) vs Daniel Garcia w/Matt Menard and Angelo Parker

Odd that they have the Mark Briscoe vs Jay White as the main event, and MJF starts out the show, but we’ll see if they follow the blueprint of last week and have a story thread through the show. 

They keep up with the bit that Menard hates Garcia’s dancing. As the match goes on, it’s so clear that MJF controls the crowd as much as anyone in the business. The match is at the MJF slower pace than traditional AEW matches.  MJF pulls out a hammerlock DDT that just looked brutal, but MJF is good at making sure his stuff LOOKS good while being safe. He also made sure the DDT portion was obscured in front of the camera. 

MJF works on Garcia’s arm through the whole match so that he can use the Salt of the Earth arm bar, which he hasn’t pulled out in a while. Garcia taps to the arm bar.

Winner and still AEW Champion: MJF

After the match, MJF holds out a handshake and Garcia almost shakes hands, but Menard and Parker stop him. Having Garcia break from them will be a decent feud and get Garcia back on track, since I think the time with Jericho didn’t do much for him other than finding that his goofy dance makes the crowd laugh.

Darby Allin and Sting vs The Outrunners (Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd)

The Outrunners are a silly tag team, they look and wrestle as if they are a tag team in the 80’s, but AEW has not been using that gimmick in any way as they are carpenters for bigger tag teams. 

This match is a Sting spotlight, Darby is in some peril early on, but Sting is able to end it with the Scorpion Death Lock and a quick submission.  This was a way for the people in the crowd get to say they saw Sting live.  

My only thing is that for all of the things like this AEW does for the fans in attendance, the ticket sales are down, so I wonder if they should quit trying to play to the live crowd and spend more time thinking about what works best as a TV show. 

Winners: Darby Allin and Sting.

Tony Schiavone interviews Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida….in black and white. 

Toni just OWNS this entire segment, from her strange way of saying Tony Schiavone’s and Hikaru’s names, to her over the top character. Shida is a good foil here, being confused by the whole thing and just wanting to get to the match.

Swerve Strickland w/Prince Nana vs Penta

The story of the match is that Adam Page is not allowed at ringside during the match after Swerve has broken into his house, and penta is trying to get revenge for him.

OK, I guess. I didn’t know Page and Penta even had any interactions, but…

Both of these guys are great in the ring and they start off the match with a lot of high flying and complicated moves until Swerve takes over and just works over Penta. As they fight at ringside, Penta is able to recover and starts hitting big moves as they go to picture in picture. 

When they return from picture in picture the match has turned into more of a brawl. Penta can do the big Lucha moves, but he’s much better when he just fights like a big guy who can beat you up with some big flying stuff as an exclamation point after a series of attacks. Penta is abel to get a destroyer on the apron and then a double stomp off the top and Swerve is able to kick out at two. Swerve then reverses a tejaris that looked just brutal on Penta.

From here we move to finishing moves with near falls. Swerve gets an arm snap followed by the Swerve stomp for the pin and the win.

Winner: Swerve Strickland

Adam Page shows up with a chair after the match and goes after Swerve, and then hits a Deadeye off the stage. He is pulled off of Swerve by referees.

The match was the best actual match so far tonight, and while Penta did have to lose, he got a lot so that he still seems like a threat. I liked this whole segment. 

Alex Marvez is with Bullet Club Gold and Jay White mocks MJF’s promos. 

We then get a promo for the Don Callis family vs Jeircho, Kenny Omega and Paul Wight.

I wonder if the Toni Storm vs Hikaru Shida match will be in a black and white. 

Renee Paquette is with Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, and the Young Bucks show up to belly ache that Kenny is teaming with Jericho. Jericho argues with the Bucks and Kenny stays out fo it and just just looks emo about it. Jericho says that he and Omega can beat t he Bucks, and the Bucks say they should fight at Fell Gear.

Jericho says when he and Omega beat them, they get to take the Bucks guaranteed title shot. The Bucks say that if they win, Kenny can’t team with Jericho any more. 

Omega says he has beat them before and he's ready to do it again.

And the Bucks seem to have gone full heel. They flip more times the Charlotte Flair and Paul Wight combined.

Samoa Joe (Ring of Honor TV Champion) vs Keith Lee

Lee has been pushing this match as a sort of rebranding for him.  He sadly needs one because they just let his feud with Swerve Strickland fade away for some reason.  Now, we’re gonna get a hoss fight. And the crowd chants for him.

As the match goes, this is just a good, solid big man match with these guys just working each other over. They don’t need a lot of gimmicks, since it is a spectacle in and of itself. When they run the ropes, Lee is able to leap OVER Joe, and that is impressive. 

After the commercial break, Joe is able to lift Lee for a knee breaker as if he weighs nothing. Lee is incredibly over with the crowd as things go on, and AEW needs to capitalize on that.  He’s been on the sidelines and in unimportant matches for a long time and the crowd is still into him. Joe is able to win via referee stoppage when he locks on the Coquina clutch.

Winner and still ROH TV Champion: Samoa Joe

Joe grabs a mic after the match and says he is the best Ring of Honor TV champion of all time. He says he has vacated the championship because he’s hungry and wants the AEW World Championship.

In the back, Orange Cassidy says that Jon Moxley is the only person he has been thinking about since Mox took his title. He says the International Title doesn’t feel the same because he has to beat Mox to be the champion he needs to be.

The Gunns (Austin and Colton Gunn) w/Juice Robinson vs Already in the ring Bollywood Boys

This is a showcase for the Gunns so they can talk about MJF needing a partner when he defends the Ring of Honor tag team titles against The Gunns. The second move by the Gunns is the 3:10 to Yuma for the win.

Winners: The Gunns

The Gunns cut a promo about MJF not being a generational talent. They also make fun of Samoa Joe.  I don’t know, I wouldn't make fun of Joe even if he said it was OK, because he might change his mind. 

I am far more entertained by the fact that the Cardboard Jay White is now held together with tape and hope. 

MJF is watching backstage and Joe walks up behind him, smirking, and MJF takes off.

Mox then cuts a promo and says that Cassidy stepped into his territory and the Blackpool Combat Club are the alpha predators.

We then get a promo from Wardlow about why he wants to destroy MJF and he will do it when MJF least expects it.

Julia Hart vs Red Velvet

I love that Julia Hart sings along with her entrance music on her way to the ring. 

Red Velvet is billed as being “Straight out of your momma’s kitchen.”  And she wears an apron on her way to the ring.  I have to admit I don't get it.

Red Velvet looks good in the opening sequences of the match, not just when she is getting offense, but in how she makes Hart’s stuff look strong. Sadly, the match is fairly short and most of it is on the small picture in picture screen, since both of these women work well together. Hart gets the win with the moonsault from the top.

Winner: Julia Hart

This was Velvet’s first match back from unjust and it was clear she wanted to show she’s a team player and can work with anyone. I think she succeeded.

Hart attacks Velvet after the match and Skye Blue comes to the ring with new, darker gear and goes face to face with her. 

Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander show to stand by Blue. 

In the back RJ City is with the newest AEW signing Mariah May. She says that she is in AEW because she is a big fan on Toni Storm and butters up RJ because of it.

We then get a promo from Wardlow about why he wants to destroy MJF and he will do it when MJF least expects it.

Jay White w/Bullet Club Gold vs Mark Briscoe

I LOVE seeing Mark getting a main event on a cable TV show.  It never gets old.  And his promos since coming back have been GOLD. 

They lock up immediately instead of White using his stalling tactics. Mark wins the lock up struggle and shoves White out of the ring when he does. As the match starts, it’s clear that Mark is stronger than White and they showcase Mark since this is pretty much his big return match. White is able to take control by distracting the ref so that the rest of his crew can attack mark.

When they come back to full screen, White has been able to even up the odds with Mark trying to come back from behind after White built on the advantage he got from the outside interference. White is still showing that Mark is much stronger than him. Mark doesn’t have any ring rust that I can see, and he and White are just so smooth with their moves. 

They move to finishing moves and Juice Robinson brings so much to the show with how he overacts and screams out suggestions at ringside. The crowd is into each move on both sides as we get to the top of the hour and it looks like Dynamite will always be going over the top of the hour every week. 

White is able to get a clean win in the middle of the ring with the Blade Runner.  

Winner: Jay White

MJF ‘s music hits and comes in from the opposite side of the ring and used the Dynamite Diamond on everyone but Jay White, who he stalks. White bails out of the ring and MJF charges at him. MJF has a mic and says he hopes White has had fun playing dress up with the title. MJF says he will be the best AEW champion or die tying, so White will have to kill him to win. And MJF says he is fighting for ADAM! Cole and all of the people on the journey with him.

The lights go out and we see in the back the Men in Black are attacking The Acclaimed and Anthony Bowens is tossed through a glass window, and we see the Devil Mask. MJF runs to the back. 

As MJF sees the carnage, Samoa Joe says he is running out of friends.

 

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet