AEW Dynamite Review - June 5
Andrade El Idolo made his first appearance with All Elite Wrestling on the Friday, June 4 episode of Dynamite. (via All Elite Wrestling)
Andrade El Idolo made his first appearance with All Elite Wrestling on the Friday, June 4 episode of Dynamite. (Photo via Sports Illustrated/All Elite Wrestling)
After All Elite Wrestling brought in a full-capacity crowd at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida for last Sunday’s Double or Nothing, they aired their second-consecutive edition of Friday Night Dynamite with a live crowd. With three months until their next pay-per-view, All Out, AEW looked to continue the momentum created by last Sunday’s successful show.
To open the show, Pac and Penta El Zero Miedo of the Death Triangle took on the AEW World Tag Team Champions, the Young Bucks, in non-title action. Prior to the bell ringing, Frankie Kazarian attacked the Elite’s associate Michael Nakazawa who was in the front row. He was chased off by the Good Brothers, but the distraction allowed Pac and Penta to strike first against the Bucks.
Death Triangle controlled the action early, but the Young Bucks continued playing dirty to gain the advantage, utilizing Brandon Cutler and Rick Knox as shields and eventually winning the match thanks to Brandon Cutler smashing a camera into Pac’s ankle. After the bell rang, the Bucks continued to beat down on the duo but were chased off by Eddie Kingston. The match was a great way to kick off the show, with Pac and Pentagon really shining as a team.
After he was announced on Sunday to be joining AEW as a co-host on their upcoming Rampage show, WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry was then brought out to introduce himself to the fans. When Tony Schiavone asked if Henry plans to return to the ring, he gave an indecisive answer but hinted at a return. Suddenly, he was interrupted by Vickie Guerrero, who introduced the crowd to another familiar face: Andrade El Idolo, who was released by WWE in March. He proclaimed himself as the future face of AEW.
This segment felt a bit off for a few reasons. Henry didn’t have all that much to say in his first time with a microphone in AEW, and there were two entirely separate premises to the segment that had nothing to do with one another. It felt like AEW was in a rush to announce Andrade’s signing, and rather than make his introduction special they just threw him out there as soon as they could. The crowd was still pumped up for his debut, though, but overall he could have been implemented into the show much more effectively. Pairing him with Guerrero is interesting, as she has not had consistent time on Dynamite for quite a while now, but the pairing could turn out to be fruitful.
The second match of the night saw Cody Rhodes and Lee Johnson take on QT Marshall and Anthony Ogogo, the latest chapter in the feud between the Nightmare Family and the Factory. With Aaron Solow at ringside providing the distraction, the former boxer Ogogo was able to knock Rhodes out with an illegal closed-fist punch that allowed Marshall to steal the victory. Post-match, Marshall grabbed a mic and hyped himself up, targeting Schiavone at the commentary booth for not believing in him.
The match itself was pretty standard, but the important part was the continued build and protection of Ogogo’s punches. Marshall’s calling out of Schiavone after the match could be a setup for a future angle, but it could also just be him looking for heat.
The Inner Circle came out, fresh off of their victory over the Pinnacle in Double or Nothing’s Stadium Stampede main event. Jericho took a page out of Oprah’s book by giving the fans Stadium Stampede shirts under their chairs, and the members of the group took turns trash-talking the Pinnacle. They all emphasized one thing in particular: this rivalry isn’t over. Hager, a mixed martial artist competing at Bellator, challenged Wardlow to an MMA cage fight in two weeks, while Jericho promised that the feud wouldn’t end until he ruined the life and career of MJF.
After some rocky promos from Jericho recently, he showed here that he can still perform on the mic when he gets serious. It’s hard to think of a possible outcome to this rivalry that doesn’t see MJF come out on top, as he is still one of the company’s most promising young stars.
From backstage, the Best Friends discussed Double or Nothing’s three-way match for the AEW World Championship and accused Kenny Omega of playing dirty to keep his championship. In response, Don Callis said that people should instead focus on the “conspiracy to screw Kenny Omega out of the AEW World title” that he and Omega plan to expose next week on Dynamite. Omega also had words for his upcoming challenger Jungle Boy, discrediting him for his win in the Casino Battle Royale and poking fun at his moniker and his theme.
Omega will defend his championship against Jungle Boy on June 26.
Meanwhile, Jungle Boy teamed up with Christian Cage to face off with Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen of the Private Party. Jungle Boy and Cage formed a temporary alliance during the Casino Battle Royale and worked together to eliminate the duo. Private Party now wrestles in slacks and button-downs, which I personally think is hilarious and should be permanent. The match itself was nothing special, with the highlight being Private Party’s taunting of Cage by mocking the “five-second poses” he became famous for when teaming with Edge in WWE.
The finish was sloppy, as Jungle Boy appeared to drop Quen on the top of his head from the top rope, but he quickly locked in an STF for the win. As Cage made his way down the ramp, he was blindsided with a Twist of Fate from Matt Hardy. Cage and Hardy will definitely face off in the near future, which should be a good tune-up for Cage before he likely enters the main event scene.
Darby Allin and Sting came out to the ring for an interview, and Sting opened by saying how important his match at Double or Nothing was to him and thanking the fans for their support. He was interrupted by Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page on the big screen, who praised Sting for his performance but took jabs at Allin, claiming that Sting has been carrying him ever since they paired up. They challenged Allin to find a different tag partner and prove them wrong. I like Page and Sky as a duo more and more each week, and their feud with Allin has been exciting to watch thus far.
With a seemingly random assortment of heels in the ring, Britt Baker came out to celebrate her AEW Women’s World Championship victory. She faked out the crowd with yet another Oprah-esque giveaway, this time offering coupons for burgers, but she instead had them all in the ring for herself. She invited Schiavone and her assistant Rebel to join her in enjoying the burgers that were stacked on a platter for some reason, but Nyla Rose stepped into the foreground and slapped the burgers out of their hands. She threw the rest of them out of the ring, and as she made her exit she popped some of the balloons tied to the ring post.
The stand-in bad guys and the burger fakeout all seemed to be intended to remind audiences that Baker is, in fact, a heel. Rose’s breaking up of the celebration was pretty funny, and that’s enough to get me invested in their inevitable title match.
Backstage, Pac and Penta confronted Kingston and told him they don’t want his help. Kingston responded, “The enemy of my enemy’s my friend,” before walking off. These three, along with Death Triangle’s third member, Rey Fénix, have plenty of history together, as Penta and Fénix were previously close allies of Kingston’s before Pac returned to re-form Death Triangle.
The Bunny and Red Velvet then faced off in a match that took place in picture-in-picture for longer than it did without commercials. The match was average, and Red Velvet picked up the win after ducking the Bunny’s attempt to hit her with the same brass knuckles she used on last week’s episode of Dark.
It was then announced that Evil Uno will challenge Miro for the TNT Championship on next week’s Dynamite, and Uno and Miro each cut promos to hype up the match. Uno rarely sees much shine in singles competition, and Miro’s hot streak should continue with an interesting matchup.
The show was bookended by Dustin Rhodes facing Nick Comoroto in a bull rope match, another faceoff between the Nightmare Family and the Factory. The match was intense from the start, with the two trading blows before the referee could even attach them with the rope, and Comoroto continued to impress as an intimidating big man. There was some creative usage of the bull rope as a weapon, as well as the attached cowbell, but things slowed down around the halfway point as Comoroto dominated through the commercial break.
Once again ringside to assist his Factory teammate, Solow set up a table for Comoroto to powerbomb Rhodes through outside the ring. When Solow attempted to pull the padding off of a turnbuckle, Colten Gunn of the Nightmare Family ran in to take him out of the equation. With Gunn’s distraction, Rhodes hit Comoroto with the Final Cut, but the bloodied Comoroto surprisingly kicked out at just a one-count. Despite this display of endurance, Rhodes put Comoroto away with a diving bulldog and a pin in which he wrapped the rope around Comoroto’s leg for added leverage.
The match was enjoyable and had some highlights, but felt like an underwhelming close to the show. In a match that saw someone go through a table and a finisher kick-out at one, a move as unexciting as Rhodes’ diving bulldog made for a pretty limp finish.
In all, AEW did a good job of following up Double or Nothing, though notable in absence were the Pinnacle and Jon Moxley. It did feel like there were more feuds extended than were begun following Sunday’s show, but they still put on an enjoyable episode. It’s possible that the Los Angeles Clippers simultaneously defeating the Dallas Mavericks did put me in a better mood, thus allowing me to enjoy the show more, but with Dynamite remaining in its temporary, less-than-ideal timeslot, AEW successfully maintained the show’s momentum.
