AEW Dynamite Review - June 11
With the NBA playoffs continuing its hold on TNT’s Wednesday night programming, All Elite Wrestling broadcast Dynamite for the third-consecutive Friday night. This time, the show reverted back to its pandemic-era setup without any live fans, as the ringside area was occupied by wrestlers and crew members. After last week’s fallout from Double or Nothing, this week’s episode continued a number of the show’s storylines and continued the build towards a stacked set of special episodes in July.
The show began with Matt Hardy in the ring, flanked by Jack Evans and Angélico of The Hybrid 2. He made disparaging remarks about Christian Cage, with whom he has been feuding since Double or Nothing’s Casino Battle Royale, before Cage came out for his match with Angélico. Cage and Angélico had a good match to kick off the show, with Angélico targeting the previously injured arm of Cage. TH2 rarely finds themselves on Dynamite, and Angelico’s unique style was a nice counter to Cage’s tried-and-true offense. Cage got the win after nailing Angélico with the Killswitch.
Hardy attacked Cage after the match, hitting him with the Twist of Fate, but before he could do any further damage he was run off by Jungle Boy. This story got more of the same stuff this week, but I will say Jungle Boy’s involvement does feel like somewhat of a disservice at this point considering he is simultaneously involved in a program for the AEW World Championship.
Cody Rhodes came out for a big announcement, and joining him was the coach of The Nightmare Family, Arn Anderson, along with his debuting son Brock Anderson. Brock was dressed like a frat guy who has unironically tweeted “It’s white boy summer,” and Rhodes congratulated him for joining the AEW roster and The Nightmare Family. QT Marshall came out and spouted his usual anti-Nightmare Family rhetoric, accusing Rhodes of neglecting his former trainees like Nick Comoroto and Anthony Ogogo. Marshall challenged Rhodes to a “South Beach Strap Match,” and while Rhodes was preparing to compete right then and there, Marshall blindsided Arn Anderson with his belt, prompting Brock to take him down and lay into him.
With Dynamite once again relegated to Friday night next week, the hope is that the AEW World Championship match will give the event a stronger atmosphere despite the weaker timeslot.
The strap match stipulation feels a bit random for this feud, but hopefully, it will inject some life into a story that hasn’t felt like it has been hitting its full potential.
Next up was a six-man tag team match pitting Eddie Kingston, Pac and Penta El Zero M against The Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler. Kingston’s history with Death Triangle’s Pac and Penta made for some great interactions between the trio, both in the pre-match promo that Kingston cut and throughout the contest. The Bucks forced Cutler into the match whenever things weren’t going their way early on, allowing the opposing trio to land some heavy offense on the significantly weaker member of their team.
All three of Kingston, Pac and Penta had sequences in the match where they caught fire and took out all of their opponents, while Kingston and Pac continued to put their complicated dynamic on display. Kingston at one point convinced Pac to sync up with him for simultaneous dives to the outside, showing that maybe not all love is lost between the two. With Penta down, Cutler was tagged in and attempted what was likely his first move of the match, but missed on a springboard elbow drop and was promptly backfisted by Kingston for the win.
As per usual with Young Bucks matches, they attacked their opponents afterward and were joined by Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows of The Good Brothers, but Frankie Kazarian continued his targeting of The Elite by coming out to equalize the fight and help fend off the attackers. The match was fun, but as with a number of the show’s angles, the post-match shenanigans felt very similar to what’s already been done by these guys.
A video package aired, introduced as being edited by Michael “Kurosawa,” presumably a pseudonym for Kenny Omega’s friend Michael Nakazawa, which clearly doctored footage of Omega’s defense of the AEW World Championship at Double or Nothing to paint Omega as the hero who overcame a company-wide attempt to sabotage his title reign. This was a good gag, with the “conspiracy” idea introduced by Don Callis last week amounting to little more than some false editing on Nakazawa’s part.
The Pinnacle next made their way to the ring to respond to The Inner Circle’s comments from last week. They each took turns with the microphone, disparaging the corresponding members of the opposing faction. FTR called Santana and Ortiz footnotes in Chris Jericho’s legacy, while Shawn Spears threw a tantrum about being pinned by Sammy Guevara in the Stadium Stampede match. Wardlow cut a shockingly good promo on Jake Hager’s “obsession” with him before accepting his challenge for an MMA-style cage fight next week. Finally, MJF described how meeting his former idol, Jericho, left him disappointed, and he denied Jericho’s challenge to a match.
Jericho suddenly appeared on the big screen, and he threw some jabs at MJF before the camera panned to show The Inner Circle next to The Pinnacle’s limo holding blunt weapons. They smashed away at the car until Hager drove a forklift through the side of the car and lifted it off the ground. After dropping the limo, The Inner Circle rode off on the forklift, giving The Pinnacle the finger the whole way. The “smashing your opponent’s vehicle” idea has been done better before, but some good performances from The Pinnacle made this segment enjoyable.
After Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky challenged Darby Allin to find a new partner besides Sting to the team against them, Allin announced that he instead wanted to face the Men of the Year in a 2-on-1 handicap match. Sting tried to talk him out of it, but eventually agreed to Allin’s repeated requests to “just stay home.”
Miro next defended the TNT Championship against Evil Uno of The Dark Order. The championship has been defended frequently on episodes of Dynamite as of late, with Miro’s star continuing to rise with each successful defense. Uno had his teammates at ringside to cheer him on, but he was unable to gain much-sustained momentum, eventually succumbing to the Game Over submission. It was disappointing that this had to take place without fans in attendance, as the reaction that The Dark Order elicits would’ve greatly benefitted the match.
After a video package promoted an interview next week with the newly-signed Andrade El Idolo, Omega and Callis came out for an interview with Tony Schiavone. Callis continued his conspiratorial dialogue before labeling Jungle Boy, who will challenge for Omega’s championship next week, as a one-hit-wonder. Omega, alternatively, praised Jungle Boy, saying he has almost all of the makings of a star but is missing guts. Just as Callis finished his sentence, Jungle Boy came out, and Omega’s tone quickly changed from praiseworthy to insulting. Jungle Boy accused him of “talking too much,” and smartly avoided the cheap shot from Omega to start a brawl. With Jungle Boy in control of Omega, his partners from The Elite made the save, but Jungle Boy got the last laugh in a great segment to hype their upcoming battle.
We saw backstage promos from Jade Cargill and her representative Mark Sterling, as well as Page and Sky of Men of the Year, followed by Lance Archer absolutely destroying an under-matched opponent in Chandler Hopkins. Archer tossed the smaller competitor around, defeating him quickly in a match meant solely to show Archer’s domination.
In what might have been the best match of the night, Nyla Rose defeated Leyla Hirsch with a brutal-looking powerbomb from the top turnbuckle. I had not been impressed by Hirsch in her previous matches on Dynamite, but she performed exceptionally well here, with crisper offense in an engaging match. She and Rose worked well together, with neither dominating the contest. Rose’s win continued her build towards challenging for Britt Baker’s AEW Women’s Championship.
In a backstage interview, Baker responded to Rose’s actions last week, calling her a “jealous bitch” and saying that while the championship “makes” Rose, Baker “makes” the championship.
The show’s main event saw Adam Page and The Dark Order’s 10 take-ups on Team Taz’s Brian Cage and Powerhouse Hobbs. Cage and Hobbs make for an imposing duo, and despite good performances from all four competitors the match was simply okay. Late in the match, Ricky Starks tossed the FTW Championship belt into the ring for Cage to use as a weapon, but Cage declined, and an offended Starks slapped him in the face. Cage walked down Starks all the way into the back, essentially abandoning his partner who eventually took a ripcord cutter from 10 that led into a Buckshot Lariat from Page for the win. The show closed with Page and The Dark Order celebrating with drinks at the top of the stage.
Like last week’s episode, this edition of Dynamite felt like it suffered slightly from uniformity, as few stories were advanced all that much through the show’s events. The lack of a crowd also hurt this episode, but at the same time, nothing on the show was below average. With Dynamite once again relegated to Friday night next week, the hope is that the AEW World Championship match will give the event a stronger atmosphere despite the weaker timeslot.
