It’s Thursday, you know what that means. Last night’s Dynamite emanated from Columbus, Ohio and features The Young Bucks vs The Hardy’s, Blackpool Combat Club vs The Lucha Brothers, Shida vs Anna JAS in the main event and so much more. We break down all the good stuff and mid stuff below.
THE GOOD STUFF
The JAS all left Jericho’s traitor ass
One by one, the JAS told Jericho to politely eff off. The only one who even gave him an inkling of hope was Sammy Guevara. But he said he “might” be around if Jericho comes to his senses. Jericho in the all-red suit was a great touch, as he was truly the devil to all of them throughout this group’s inception. The group did not succeed on any large scale and each of them had to fight battles for Chris Jericho, rather than advancing their own young careers. Well done, Jericho as the forever Judas is such a great role and while he looked like he took it on the chin tonight, I have a feeling a more vicious Jericho is on the way.
Buffalo’s own Daniel Garcia with a proper send-off for the group.
Shida and Anna delivering on a fun, action-packed main event
The women’s 4-way at All In (presumably Shida, Storm, Saraya and Britt Baker) has a chance to steal the show. Between The Outcast’s involvement and one of the OG women’s title feuds in Shida/Baker, there are a lot of interesting directions they can the division coming out of ALL IN.
MJF and Adam Cole keep delivering the goods, baybay
This segment was incredible and the storytelling PLUS the acting makes this one of the best stories we’ve ever seen on AEW television. But we are finally seeing some of the cards at play. Last week, MJF agreed to give Cole a title match at ALL IN. But Cole says not winning tag gold with Max still eats at him. He wants to challenge for the ROH titles on ALL IN zero hour!
And at least to the audience, Cole has tipped his hand. I truly believe Cole has always been planning to turn on Max when the time is right. And right now it *seems* like Max is eating it all up. MJF accepts and now the BFFs have to take on the dangerous ROH tag champs, Aussie Open on the Zero Hour of ALL IN (free on YouTube, good call Tony).
But now the real question is how much has Max been playing all of us? Will he turn on Cole in the tag title match before Cole can turn on him? Or is he simply so enamored with being friends with Adam Cole that he’s lost his edge?
Chekov’s Roderick Strong showed up and whined like a jealous ex-girlfriend that Cole would want to win the titles with MJF and not him. The Kingdom, Cole’s former stable (Cole has been in a lot of factions and everyone loves him) came out to console poor ole Roddy. Surely they won’t have any impact on the ROH tag title match.
BCC vs Lucha Bros. Go out of your way to watch this match
Pentagon JR for my money is one of the best wrestlers in the world and Joker Penta is like a 98 overall. Unfortunately, Jon Moxley is a 99 overall savage and rolled him up for the win. This is far from over, as BCC mocked the Luchas and ripped off Penta’s mask while mocking the injured PAC, who is directly in the eye of Castagnoli following their title bout at ROH Death Before Dishonor. This isn’t close to being done yet.
Swerve is a Supervillain
Swerve Strickland and AR Fox came out to call out Darby Allin after viciously attacking 18-year-old prodigy Nick Wayne last week. Fox’s problem with Darby stems from the fact that Allin put in a good word for Wayne to join AEW when he was 16, but did no such thing for Fox. Fox’s jealousy led him straight to Swerve, who has discovered himself in the last year and is one of the best heels in all of wrestling.
Darby said don’t worry, I got shooters too.
IT’S STING.
STING AND DARBY VS SWERVE AND FOX IN A COFFIN MATCH AT ALL IN. LFG.
FTR. Young Bucks. Their third encounter takes place at ALL IN
The Young Bucks dispatched the Hardys and answered the challenge thrown down by FTR and it’s official. FTR-Young Bucks 3 at ALL IN for the AEW Tag Titles. My match of the year favorite.
Jack Perry and RVD delivered
Perry’s heel character grows every time he steps into the ring, as the boos get more vicious, the aesthetic of the new entrance music keeps growing. Perry looks so natural in this role. Nice touch wearing Jerry Lynn’s old gear as well. Of course, RVD had the pin but the ref was knocked out, so Jack ended up sneaking away with a win and Taz was PISSED. He said it was almost time for him to step in and do something about it. Wonder what friends Taz could call up?
THE MID STUFF
- The Bucks vs the Hardys was a fun nostalgia trip and they did a good job with this bout, but the Hardys can’t keep up with these tag teams anymore and it’s sad to see.
- Kenny Omega only appearing on Dynamite to say he’ll talk to us next week. How many weeks can we delay another Callis/Omega interaction!? Next week better be good. I’m hoping it’s Jericho/Takeshita vs Page/Omega.
- While I love the idea of the women’s 4-way title match, having a predictable tournament to get there seems lazy. Baker and Storm should’ve been given byes for being former champs and there should’ve been a match tonight to decide the final participant. But good on Tony for making sure Shida gets a title defense in before ALL IN.
Overall, Dynamite delivered in a lot of ways last night. Every story moved along, we have a few more match announcements for ALL IN and the A-story between MJF and Adam Cole continues to deliver on a high level. Also, the JAS segment was masterful.
Jericho is incredible at these emotional segments because he is incredible and getting you invested in the people in his orbit. Menard and Parker’s fire in their promos specifically stood out. I’m excited to see what the future holds for the rest of the JAS.
2 Responses
Someone big will be left off the ALL IN card and will have a huge impact at ALL OUT (I’m looking at you Hangman). Omega’s partner will be Ibushi, as the Golden Lovers reunite.
Rest assured, TK has something up his sleeve for Wembly.