AEW Dynamite Review - June 26
AEW World Champion Kenny Omega successfully defended his title against Jungle Boy in the main event of Dynamite. (via Instagram)
After weeks of taping episodes of Dynamite to be aired on Friday nights at 10 p.m. EST, All Elite Wrestling held a live edition of Dynamite in primetime on Saturday, June 26. This was the first of two episodes of Dynamite in a five-day span, as the show will make its return to Wednesday nights starting June 30. The upcoming Wednesday episode will be the last regular Dynamite until August, as the company is quickly approaching its July slate that features four special events.
At the top of the show, we first saw a clip of Shawn Spears ambushing Sammy Guevara with a chair earlier in the day. Although the immediate cut to a pre-taped video felt like an odd shift in momentum, the show’s first live segment did not disappoint, as Powerhouse Hobbs faced off against “Hangman” Adam Page to open the card.
Hobbs showed off his skills in this match, dominating for long stretches while the crowd fervently supported Hangman. The top of Page’s head was cut open at one point, causing blood to leave red streaks in his hair and create a much more visceral image for the second half of the match.
Continuing the trend of Team Taz’s internal struggles, Ricky Starks and Hook came to ringside at one point where Starks offered Hobbs the FTW Championship belt to use. Brian Cage, who has been the honorary holder of the championship, came out and took back his belt before chasing Starks to the back. Despite the distraction, Hobbs regained the advantage, but Hangman was eventually able to take the upper hand and nail the Deadeye for the victory.
The match was a fantastic way to start the show, and Hangman’s win got the crowd on its feet.
After The Young Bucks cut a promo ahead of their tag team match with Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo this Wednesday, Tully Blanchard and Konnan had a war of words in the ring, the two wrestling legends representing FTR and Proud ‘n Powerful respectively. The two traded barbs until Konnan eventually called for Santana and Ortiz to come out. Blanchard quickly pointed to the big screen, where the duo was shown writhing in pain backstage, and the two men who came out to Konnan’s call took off their bandanas to reveal themselves as FTR.
FTR pounced on Konnan and delivered a brutal assisted piledriver. This is the second week in a row that members of The Pinnacle have attacked wrestling legends associated with The Inner Circle, so it appears that this will be a recurring theme with the stable.
As Dante Martin made his entrance for his match with Matt Sydal, he was interrupted by Vickie Guerrero who introduced Andrade El Idolo. Just as Guerrero was set to make a “big announcement,” she was interrupted in turn by Sydal. Andrade looked ready to fight Sydal, but Guerrero called him off; this is likely the match we’ll see for Andrade’s in-ring debut.
Sydal and Martin had an exciting, fast-paced match that looked like it could have gone either way at times. Martin is insanely talented for being just 20 years old, and pitting him against a veteran of a similar style did wonders for him. The two traded big moves until Sydal caught Martin with the Lightning Spiral, a judo-esque piledriver that looked absolutely brutal. While neither of these performers have seen consistent time on Dynamite as of late or been involved in any stories, this was a great showcase for both competitors and a very easy watch.
Backstage, Christian Cage gave Jungle Boy a pep talk ahead of his main event match with Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship. Keeping Christian relevant to this story was a good foreshadowing of the events of the show’s ending.
Jade Cargill and Mark Sterling promoted her new t-shirt in a short segment, and we were then brought to an interview with MJF, Wardlow and Shawn Spears of The Pinnacle. MJF talked trash about The Inner Circle and Dean Malenko, only for Chris Jericho and Jake Hager to crash the party and attack the trio.
The brawl spilled out to ringside, and eventually, Jericho and Hager were overwhelmed by the three-on-two disadvantage. Just as Spears reared back to slam a steel chair into Jericho’s arm, Guevara’s music hit and he ran out for the save. He fended off Spears and Wardlow, taking Spears’ chair and using it against them, as MJF retreated before Guevara got his hands on him. The brawl felt a little sluggish until Guevara came out, but the segment was well-suited to promote the upcoming match between Guevara and MJF.
Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager stood tall after their brawl with The Pinnacle. (Photo via All Elite Wrestling)
Up next was yet another backstage promo, this time from Miro, who thanked God for his strength and for his wife before turning his attention toward Brian Pillman Jr. Miro’s mic skills are on a different level as of late and combined with his intensity in the ring I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he is doing the best work of his career at the moment.
Unfortunately, the show’s momentum was stopped on a dime in the next segment, as Ethan Page took on Bear Bronson. Not to say that either competitor performed poorly, but the styles did not mesh well here and it resulted in an uneventful, boring match. Page is much better with smaller opponents, namely Darby Allin, and the match’s only highlight was Bronson’s suicide dive and Page landing an impressive Ego’s Edge for the win. Post-match, Page said that he and Allin are not finished with each other, and he challenged him to a Coffin Match on July 7. That match should hopefully conclude the program between the Men of the Year and Allin and Sting, and it should also be a great bout if previous matches between Page and Allin forecast their upcoming collision.
Following dueling promos between Britt Baker with Rebel and Guerrero with Nyla Rose promoting their upcoming tag team match, The Bunny took on Kris Statlander with The Blade and Orange Cassidy at ringside. Both competitors impressed here, but the match itself felt just average. The Blade attempted to sneak brass knuckles to The Bunny, but with the referee distracted Orange Cassidy snatched them away and put them in his pocket. Statlander took advantage and hit a piledriver for the victory.
After the bell, Blade attacked Cassidy, and Jack Evans and Angélico came out to join in on the beatdown. The Blade retrieved his brass knuckles from Cassidy’s pocket only to clock him with them on his hand. This continuation of the feud between members of the Hardy Family Office and Best Friends feels odd considering Matt Hardy’s own bigger problems, but with Trent officially sidelined this seems to be a vehicle to keep Cassidy on television.
We were then treated to another string of backstage interviews: first was QT Marshall trash-talking Brock Anderson and Cody Rhodes, followed by Pillman Jr. responding to Miro’s comments and promising to take the TNT Championship from him, and in the last segment before the show’s main event Kingston and Penta talked about their match with The Young Bucks with a future AEW Tag Team Championship shot on the line.
Kenny Omega and Jungle Boy put on a stellar match to close out the show with Omega’s championship on the line. (via All Elite Wrestling)
Closing the show was Omega’s world championship defense against Jungle Boy. Both competitors entered the match with their posse in tow, but both The Good Brothers and Jurassic Express were ejected by the referee immediately after the bell rang. This match lived up to the hype, with Jungle Boy playing the role of underdog to perfection and withstanding an exorbitant amount of punishment from Omega. Jungle Boy’s most convincing chances of winning came when he twice locked Omega in the Snare Trap submission, as both instances got the crowd riled up in the hopes of a tapout from Omega.
A slew of V-Trigger strikes from Omega often led to kickouts from Jungle Boy, but after the V-Trigger followed by a Tiger Driver couldn’t end the match, Omega finally nailed the One-Winged Angel for the victory. Omega’s reign as champion is at its best when he is in the ring, not outside of it. After his win, Omega lined up to hit Jungle Boy with the title, but Christian Cage ran out to make the save, as Jurassic Express and Frankie Kazarian were previously shown to be tied up with The Good Brothers.
Christian’s appearance inspired an ambush from Matt Hardy and Private Party, but he was able to fight them off as well. As he attempted to land the Killswitch on Hardy, The Young Bucks laid Christian out with superkicks. The show ended with Omega, the Bucks, Hardy and Private Party standing tall over Christian and Jungle Boy.
Despite being arguably over-reliant on backstage promos to advance stories this week, this episode of Dynamite was one of their more enjoyable in recent weeks. Bookended by intense opening and closing matches, the show’s only significant flaw was the Page and Bronson match dragging on longer than it had any right to. With that being said, Wednesday night’s show looks stacked and should be a great transition into AEW’s plans for July.
