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It is Wednesday and AEW Dynamite is this year’s Fight For The Fallen and is at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, NC. Our commentary team is Excalibur and Tony Schiavone. Taz is not on the show tonight as he is still recovering from knee surgery. I am watching this on MAX so I can let people know what is shown during commercials.
New opening song for tonight “I’m So Excited” by the Pointer Sisters. I REALLY hope this is a one time thing and it is not a good song to get you hyped up for the show.
We start with a rundown of the card, and then we go to a promo from Mox after the PPV Saturday night. He says he saved the company in the past and he will destroy the title before he lets anyone else touch it again.
We then get a promo from Rated FTR and they are coming from the Death Riders.
Orange Cassidy vs Adam Page
Cassidy has fully transitioned to a serious wrestler, who doesn’t do his normal “slacker” gimmicks to start, He and Page go at each other with hard shots and brawling around the ring after Page takes over inside the ring. Page works to try to get the crowd to boo him, even flipping the double bird to the crowd after tossing Cassidy into the barricade.
When they go to picture in picture on TBS, I get commercials as well on MAX, just no picture in picture. And yes, I have the “commercial free” package on MAX since I get it as part of my HBO subscription.
Page sets for the buckshot when they return from commercial, and Cassidy drops to the mat and rolls to the floor. They brawl on the floor and Cassidy does the same thing, this time waving as he rolls away. From here, he does the pockets bit, and it’s clear that it is the signal for Cassidy’s comeback. Cassidy hits three Orange Punches, but Page hits the Buckshot Lariat this time for the pin and the win.
Winner: Adam Page
Page attacks Cassidy after the match and hits a pair of Deadeyes on Cassidy. Referees come from the back and Christopher Daniels comes to the ring and Page attacks him as well. Page goes to the back yelling at Daniels to stay out of his business.
Jay White is in the back and says his plan worked ALMOST perfectly, but Wheeler Yuta cost him his moment. He says he still has a path to Moxley at Maximum Carnage and tonight he will go through two former champions to get to Moxley.
The Acclaimed (Max Caster and Anthony Bowens) vs The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin)
We get an inset where they argue about how Max cost him his match and Max says hitting him with a belt against Jericho when they were supposed to cut a promo about this match.
MVP joins commentary and Lashley just beats down Max Caster and takes time to glare at Bowens. MVP says that the offer to Max Caster has been retracted since he took too long to reply, and Lashley and Benjamin don’t want him on the team.
This match is really a simple story. Caster gets his ass beat and Bowens lets him take it because Caster goes on and on about how he is the best wrestler in the world. Caster taps out to the Hurt Lock from Lashley and Bowens stays on the floor.
Winners: The Hurt Syndicate
We get a promo from Swerve where he says he was distracted but he is going to be back on track for 2025, and tonight’s three-way is the start of that.
Jamie Hayter vs Julia Hart
Hayter is a wrestler who comes off as a bit of a cypher to me. She’s good in the ring, a good hand, but the only thing that stands out about her is her accent. AEW has done nothing since she returned to make us know anything about her, or make her into a character of any kind. Julia Hart, who has been out for a while, was connected to the House of Black in a solid way, making her a fan favorite despite being a heel.
The buildup to this has done NOTHING for either performer. I don’t know why Hart is going after Hayter and I don’t know why I should want Hayter to win.
The match itself is a solid TV match with Hart working well, Hayter showing strength. Hart brings an arrow into the ring to distract the ref and then sprays Hayter with black mist for the pin and the win. In the end, it was a match to let us know what Hart will be like in this incarnation, and Hayter was the tomato can she was shooting.
Winner: Julia Hart
There were a LOT of ads for Anytime Fitness, so they are probably showing those ads in the place of the local cable ads or PSAs dropped in if the commercial time isn’t sold. So no ads for male supplements and Kars for Kids, but we do get commercials. There was a spot where MAX said the show would return after this ad break that lasted about 15 seconds. They also have a small “AD” in the corner during all ads.
So, if you were thinking you would get the commentary and full screen during ad breaks like you used to get in the TrillerTV airings, you don’t, which is a shame.
We get a promo from Kazuchika Okada after showing Kenny Omega’s return and a LOT of stuff from All In. Okada tells Omega to stay out of his business.
Mercedes Mone has something to say and comes to the ring with her TBS Title belt. In the ring is a bottle of champagne and has a package to show how great her return to wrestling has been. She then says she is coming for Mina Shirakawa’s Rev Pro championship at Wrestle Dynasty.
Next was a promo for the charities they raised money for with this show.
We get a promo from Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong about how the Undisputed Kingdom is reunited and can go for any titles in the company.
Roderick Strong vs Jay White vs Swerve Strickland - Winner is in the number one spot in the Casino Battle Royal next week
Cool match, but how did all of the other people get into the Battle Royal? I’m sure there will be some 2nd tier guys who will be in the match who didn’t have to win a match to get in.
They do a good job of having two in the ring at a time and having one on the outside. Strong and White work really well together, probably because of them having worked together in the past. We come back from the ad break and all three men hit the mat from the top turnbuckle. Swerve dominates after this, beating down Strong and then tossing him into White.
After Strong breaks up the pin, he and White get the spotlight. Next we get White and Swerve. Swerve does a cool bit where he runs the barricade to kick White. Right after this, Ricochet nails Swerve with scissors in the front row. Right after this, White rolls Strong into the ring for a Blade Runner, the pin, and the win.
Winner: Jay White
Swerve is busted open after the match and Ricochet stalks him at ringside. Prince Nana tries to save Swerve, but Ricochet drives him off and goes after Swerve again with the scissors. Ricochet rolls Swerve into the ring and grabs a chair. When Nana tries to stop him, Ricochet nails him with it.
Ricochet sits in the chair in the ring and taunts Swerve. He then sits Swerve in the chair and nails him with a Spirit Gun. The Undisputed Kingdom shows to drive him off and we see Ricochet’s shirt is covered in Swerve’s blood.
Alex Marvez is with Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, and Satnam Signh. Jeff Jarrett shows and they talk about his announcement without saying what the announcement is. Karen Jarrett then shows and gives a statement about how she supports him no matter what he wants.
We then get a Mariah May promo who says she had more matches than any other woman on the roster and made it look so easy you didn’t know how good it was. Now it’s time for the division to prove themselves to her.
Jeff Jarrett is on his way to the ring and he has an announcement for the world and he has his boots over his shoulder. He says it is sad to think about things coming to an end. He then talks about how his family started in wrestling in 1946. He gives a rundown of his family’s history in the wrestling business and how he dropped out of college to start wrestling. He talks about his creation of TNA and how it has produced some of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
He then teases retiring as the crowd chants no. He says he won’t ride off into the sunset, and instead he has signed his last wrestling contract and it is with AEW. He is going out with taking risks and is going for the AEW World title.
Next is a promo from Hook saying that he is still coming for Christian Cage and that match is a Maximum Carnage.
Powerhouse Hobbs vs The Already In The Ring Jon Cruz and Rob Killjoy
This squash match doesn’t last long, barely long enough for me to mention that Maximum carnage was the name of a 14 part crossover in all of the Spider-Man comics in the early 1990s that was so popular it was made into a video game that sold fairly well. Oh, and Hobbs slams one of his opponents on top of the other and covers both for the pin.
Winner: Powerhouse Hobbs
Alex is with Large William and Bryan Keith. They say that Chris Jericho isn’t coming here, but Rated FTR is right off camera and interrupts. William runs down North Carolina and Adam challenges them to a match on Collision this Saturday.
In the back, we get a recorded promo from MJF after the PPV. Hew then says that it is time for retribution and his title is benign paraded around in a briefcase. He says that Mox is calling himself a king, but what is a king to a God. He just wants his title back, and he will get it back come hell or high water.
Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta) w/Marina Shafir vs Rated FTR (Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, and Adam Copeland)
Adam Copeland is now going by Cope. Please make a note of it.
Wheeler and Dax start out and Dax takes over quickly. We then get Cope and Claudio. They fight evenly until Shafir shoves Cope into the ringpost when he is on the floor and we go to commercial. When we come back, there is a bit of stutter in the feed. Cope is the babyface in peril through the break and gets a big back body drop to take in Cash, who runs wild.
Cash clears the ring and works over Yuta, as is Yuta’s job. We then get Claudio and Dax in the ring for a bit and Dax looks strong as he fights him off before going back to working on Yuta. After a near fall on Yuta, Claudio is able to clear the ring again, allowing Yuta to get a splash and a near fall as we go to commercial again.
Dax has been the babyface in peril through this break, Dax is able to tag in Cope, who goes face to face with Mox, who hasn’t been in the ring for any extended period of time in the match. Cope and Mox fight into the crowd, and then fight back to the ringside area. Mox gets in the ring and tags in Yuta. Yuta mocks Cope by setting for a spear, and Cope is able to grab him for a Liger Bomb instead.
Mox and Claudio crotch Cope and from here it breaks down. The announcer’s desk is torn apart and Cope is placed on it for Mox. As Mox is setting up for the pile driver, Jay White hits Yuta with a Blade Runner. Cope turns the piledriver into a backdrop on Mox and then drives Mox through the barricade.
Claudio rolls Cope into the ring and FTR hits the Shatter Machine on Yuta. Cope hits Yuta with a spear for the pin and the win.
Winners: Rated FTR
Solid match where the hometown heroes and the returning Cope get a big win.
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