No one got any entrances. They just threw a graphic up on the screen telling us that this was a Double Jeopardy match, then rang the bell… and only then proceeded to try to explain it, while there was action going on in the ring.
In AEW, a Double Jeopardy match means that whoever wins gets a shot at the other wrestler’s title (and, if tag titles are involved, they get to pick their own partner). That’s the sort of thing that should be obvious in the case of a singles title, and when tag titles are involved, it only takes a little bit of build. Doing this as a random stipulation added to a match with no build makes this match feel irrelevant because no matter who wins, I can’t imagine either title switching hands. This just feels like a shortcut to get to a title match, and while I suppose I should be happy that they’re not just randomly throwing a title match out there and they are making someone earn it first for once, throwing this match with a fancy name and these stipulations out here randomly make sit feel like this is gussied up random #1 contendership match, and with the special name Tony is essentially trying to get a second cold title match out of this.
I fully realize that the above paragraph might make it seem like Tony can’t win in my eyes, but that’s not true at all. This match is passable booking to fill time, but if you want to do something that is actively good and exciting, you need to build it up first. These are the ROH World Champion and one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions. Why haven’t you used ROH TV to build this feud up at all? Other than last week’s random trios battle royale, the Lucha Bros. haven’t been on AEW OR ROH TV in an entire month!
Anyway, they did stuff. It was Claudio being strong when on offense and then being a base for a Luchador’s offense. The problem is that I’ve seen so many fancy Lucha flips on a weekly basis from AEW that nothing really stands out anymore (unless Komander is involved). Also, this was not just a first-time-ever singles match, but it was the first time these two have been in a match together that had fewer than eight people. This was such a waste of a match that could have created some actual excitement. If the Lucha Bros. didn’t have the ROH World Tag Team Titles (which I’m still not sure why they have them if they’re never on ROH), this would have been an excellent ROH World Title PPV main event to build to, but now they’ve just blown through it.
Claudio won cleanly here, setting up Wheeler YUTA getting pinned in a tag title match.
MIRO IS BACK!- He ignores Renee Paquette’s attempt to interview him, and goes right into Tony Khan’s office.
MJF PROMO/VIDEO PACKAGE ABOUT THE PPV MAIN EVENT- great
He compared the Four Pillars to the Beatles. Sammy was Ringo, Jungle Boy was George, Darby was John, and MJF was “the best,” Paul McCartney. That makes sense, as Paul is the only Beatle to sing a James Bond theme.
MOXLEY VS. OMEGA VIDEO PACKAGE- great
FTR, MARK BRISCOE, & CLOWNS SEGMENT- bad
FTR called Mark out to try to apologize to him. Instead, the Jarrett/Lethal faction came out, demanding an answer to their tag title challenge. FTR said they would give them a title shot if they admitted to using Mark Briscoe to get close to them. Mark came out and offered everyone alcohol, and also said that he talked to Tony Khan and Tony has made the tag title match official for the PPV, with Mark as the Special Guest Referee. When did Tony make this decision? It has to have been just now, because otherwise FTR and the TNA clowns should have been aware of it, right? His meeting with Miro must have been short, I guess.
Anyway, Sonjay spat the alcohol at Dax, blinding him. A fight started, and Dax accidentally piledrove Mark Briscoe. I’m sure Mark will be upset about his until he watches the clip and sees that it was clearly an accident, and that Sonjay started a fight when Mark was trying to calm things down, so unless Mark Briscoe is an idiot, this seems like it will accomplish the opposite of the takeaway that AEW seems to want us to have, which is that Mark will be angry at FTR and thus might screw them out of the titles.
RENEE PAQUETTE’S INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS JERICHO IS INTERRUPTED BY RODERICK STRONG- didn’t like it
Jericho has a restraining against Cole for an “unsafe working environment,” meaning that if Jericho is at the building, Cole can’t be there.
Roddy showed up and said that it was Jericho, not Cole, who is the coward. He challenges Jericho to a Falls Count Anywhere match next week. Jericho accepts, and then warns Roddy that Jericho has an army behind him. Roddy then reveals that he got a restraining order barring them from the building as well.
Two problems here:
1. On what grounds did Roddy get the JAS barred from the building?
2. And this one here is the real issue: Obviously the babyfaces’ plan was for Roddy to lure Jericho outside, where Cole could attack him because they wouldn’t technically be in the building anymore… but that same loophole applies to the JAS, too, so the only difference is instead of Roddy walking into an eight-on-three fight (including Anna Jay and Tay Melo with the JAS and Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter with the babyfaces), he’s now walking into an eight-on-four fight. Maybe it gets up to eight-on-seven if the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn jump in, but they’re still outnumbered.
RENEE PAQUETTE CAMPS OUT OUTSIDE OF TONY KHAN’S OFFICE, WHERE HE IS STILL MEETING WITH MIRO- Um… so when did he meet with Mark Briscoe? Or did he book a tag title match and then just not tell either the challengers or the champions?
THUNDER ROSA WALKS BY, SAVING US FROM A BORING SEGMENT OF RENEE JUST STANDING THERE- Thunder Rosa, too, is now going into Tony’s office. PLEASE don’t tell me we’re doing a stable of disgruntled wrestlers that Punk will lead.
SAMMY GUEVARA VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- great
They had Jericho and Tay talking, too. Sammy came off like a complete and total babyface here.
RENEE PAQUETTE GETS A WORD WITH TONY KHAN- He says he will have more announcements next week, because there are more stars looking for chances. He teased that this would be another TV show, which we all pretty much knew about anyway. He also subtly teased that he would announce Punk returning.
AEW INTERNATIONAL TITLE MATCH: Orange Cassidy(c) vs. Daniel Garcia- 7.75/10
This match was set up last week, when OC’s team beat Garcia’s team in a tag team match. Because that’s definitely how sports work, right Tony? Like when you Jacksonville Jaguars played for the AFC Championship after losing their divisional playoff game to the Chiefs.
Garcia worked over OC’s hand a lot. OC rolled him up out of a submission to get the win. The announcers attributed the loss to Garcia screwing around and “sports entertaining.”
OUTCASTS PROMO- fine
They want a trios match next week against Baker, Hayter, and a third person. We were told it can’t be Hikaru Shida because she is in Japan.
TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS CHRISTIAN CAGE (& LUCHASAURUS)- excellent
Speaking of not being at Dynamite, we are told that Arn Anderson and Wardlow are both not here. Okay. Fine. They’re entitled to days off, I guess. Tony Schiavone asks Christian how he can just name himself the #1 contender to the TNT Title. That would theoretically not be a stupid question, except that Wardlow said last week that he wanted an “open challenge.” Yeah, he said he wanted to face Luchasaurs, but if the only guy he wanted to face was Luchasaurus, he should have just said “Luchasaurus, come out here and get a title shot!”
Christian tells Tony that he got this title shot because he walked into Tony Khan’s office and said he wanted one. Christian cut an excellent promo on Arn and Wardlow. I did laugh when he said that Arn was nothing but “Ric Flair’s lapdog” and instead of booing the insult, the fans responded by woooooing because they heard Flair’s name.
DARBY ALLIN VIDEO PACKAGE AND PROMO- very good
Sting talked, too.
NO HOLDS BARRED MATCH: Anna Jay vs. Julia Hart- 6/10
These two had a singles match and then have been attacking each other for weeks. Have they actually cut promos on each other? My notes show that there was a video package before their first match, but that was five weeks ago. Why should I care who wins between these two heels if you don’t tell me what is at stake for the characters and how a win or a loss might affect their personal journeys?
During this match, we would learn that they both think the other has joined a cult. How about you HAVE THEM F*CKING SAY THAT ON TV?!
According to Excalibur, these two used to be best friends. I don’t think we ever saw them interact before this feud started. That happens way too often in AEW (not that once wouldn’t be too often if you’re actually a competent storyteller, but you know what I mean). With Anna Jay it’s actually even funnier, because not only did she have this best friend for years that we never knew was her best friend, but this comes just a few weeks after we learned that she also has a boyfriend who we have seen on the same TV show as her for years and never once have we even seen a hint that they knew each other’s names on TV.
Anna jumped Julia from behind. They used weapons. Especially chairs. Julia won cleanly.
RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS BEST FRIENDS & BANDIDO & ORANGE CASSIDY- bad
This was idiotic comedy. They didn’t know that they need to pick a rule. They decided that “all spooky witches are barred from ringside.” So that’s… Julia Hart, Isla Dawn, Alba Fyre, Alexa Bliss, Katrina from Lucha Underground, Rosemary, Su Yung, the villain from the fourth season of True Blood, and the Proctor Family. Okay. Boy, are they going to feel dumb when they lose via interference from Melissa Joan Hart. Or they’ll just feel stupid when Julia Hart interferes anyway and the referee does nothing about it, as regularly happens in AEW when people are supposedly bared from ringside.
OPEN HOUSE RULES MATCH FOR THE AEW TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP: House of Black(c) vs. Best Friends & Bandido- 5.75/10
These rules are:
- There is a 20 count on the floor, rather than AEW’s usual “ten” (you know…after the referee doesn’t count for the first three minutes they’re on the outside).
- Any 3 competitors can for a trio (um… isn’t that always a rule? Or did the default rules for trios matches in AEW specifically say that certain people weren’t allowed in trios matches?)
- No rope breaks
- Disqualifications are enforced (because there is nothing giving a set of rules, and then having a rule that points to one specific rule and says that only that rule will actually be enforced).
- Dealer’s choice (the challengers also get to pick a rule… so what’s to stop some heels from saying “the rule is that the first people to be named us and born on our birthdays win?”)
Also, in an unrevealed secret rule, it means they lower the house lights. Remember when TNA did that? They called it a Valley of Shadows match. I only remember it because it was set up by Decay kidnapping Gail Kim and threatening to murder her unless Beer Money gave them the match they wanted.
The House of Black won a short match with lots of flipping and stuff.
Excalibur claimed that the Open House rules supposedly favor the champions, but that really doesn’t seem true to me. These guys don’t use the outside more than anyone else, and it’s not like they have a bunch of submission that they use so the rope breaks thing is an advantage, either. Also, if these rules favor the champions, why did Tony let them defend their titles under these rules?
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
Orange Cassidy was attacked from behind by Kyle Fletcher, who wants
JUNGLE BOY VIDEO PACKAGE- decent
Christian got a line in, which I thought worked.
RICKY STARKS VS. JAY WHITE VIDEO PACKAGE- great
STEEL CAGE MATCH: Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega (w/Don Callis)- 8/10
They’re using a Hell in a Cell-style cage, which I don’t think AEW has used for a regular Steel Cage match before.
Bryan Danielson was on commentary for this match. Moxley attacked Omega in the aisle before they got into the cage. Claudio and YUTA also came out to attack Moxley. The Bucks took them out. Danielson didn’t get involved physically at all, even when his friends were getting beaten up. Why?
Anyway, we spent a long time watching people other than the guys in the main event cage match fight each other. It took forever for security to come out and get them away from ringside. Omega made his way into the cage. Where was Moxley, you ask? Well, for some unfathomable reason, the security guards were stopping one half of the cage match main event from entering the cage. Really.
Excalibur claimed that Moxley “has had his eyes locked on Kenny Omega ever since” the first Double or Nothing. Ah. That explains why after Omega and his friends screwed Moxley out of the world title in the main event of Revolution 2021 Moxley just ignored Omega for the next few years.
This was pretty great stuff until that V-Trigger through of the cage, at which point it became awesome… for about twenty seconds, at which point… uch.
Moxley grabbed a screwdriver. He was going to hit Kenny with it, but Don Callis took it away from him. Bryan Danielson made no move to save Moxley from this unfair situation. Omega hit Moxley with a V-Trigger and a One-Winged Angel and went for the pin… and with Omega seemingly about to win the match, Callis decided that this was a good time to stab him in the back. Literally. Well… not literally. He literally stabbed Omega in the face. With the screwdriver. Danielson looked shocked by this, so it wasn’t a plan.
Why did Callis do this? Yeah, I know. That’s supposed to be the hook for next week, but this is so Russo-Swerve-y that I’m past the point of caring.
Oh. And for the record, Omega and Moxley have now had four singles matches in AEW, and the only one that didn’t have a f*ck finish was the first one, which is the one we’re supposed to think doesn’t count.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
Callis went to stab Omega in the face again. The referees just stood there. This isn’t a wrestler we’re talking about. It’s manager Don Callis. And they wouldn’t even get involved to try to stop someone from being stabbed in the face. Fortunately for Omega, Callis did not try to murder him. He just kissed him on the forehead.
I really didn’t like the Jericho stuff or the way the main event went, and the wrestling was weaker than usual, but I thought this was a pretty darn great episode of Dynamite anyway. This was a little heavier than my ideal in terms of promos and especially video packages, but what they did with them here tonight is what I want to see! In particular the first three for the world title match were great, and watching them had me actually disappointed that they’ve wasted the past few weeks on this idiotic story that makes the company look bad, makes MJF look like an idiot, and turns Sammy into a babyface rather than just letting these guys beat other people while cutting promos on each other and then giving us these video packages.
Anyway, a great show from AEW, despite whatever that was with the ending. I don’t know if this new Will Washington fellow had anything to do with any of this, but if did, then he is a welcome addition to the booking team.