Adam Cole’s In-Ring Debut
CM Punk came out to another huge reaction and will be the guest commentator for most of the night.
The New Jersey crowd were on fire all night and as the music of Adam Cole hit, he was made to feel like a very big star.
Adam Cole and Frankie Kazarian had a strong opening match. The crowd were on the side of Adam Cole, and it’s going to be hard for him to get heel reactions at least for now. It was a great opponent for Cole in his AEW debut as Frankie can work with almost anyone and allow them to shine.
There was a lot of back and forth spots until Cole hit the spectacular Panama Sunrise followed by the Last Shot knee. Post-match, we get story time with Adam Cole. Cole mentions three people he doesn’t like: Christian Cage, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus. He challenges them to a six-man tag match with The Young Bucks being his partners. He tells the world that the ‘Super Clique’ is back, and it’s later announced that the match will be official for Rampage Grand Slam next week.
Mr. Pillman, We Need to Talk
MJF came out and cut very heated promo as he heads into his match against Brian Pillman Jr. at Dynamite Grand Slam next week. MJF runs down the city of New Jersey and receives a ‘shut the f*ck up’ chant. He mentions how he is a religious man and wants to have a talk with the deceased late-great Brian Pillman.
At first, he looks up the sky, before looking down and insinuating that Brian Pillman is in hell. MJF trashes Brian Pillman and his family and starts running down Pillman Jr who comes out with a steel chair with an enraged look. MJF escapes the ring as Pillman Jr. took a shot at Wardlow before he regathered with MJF on the outside as Pillman stands tall in the ring.
It was another cutting promo from MJF. Between this one and the one last week, I feel that Pillman needs to get some satisfying revenge against MJF, however, I don’t see AEW having MJF lose again coming off the loss against Jericho. My assumption is that MJF will win by nefarious ways and Pillman will get the last word after the match where MJF will get his comeuppance.
After the segment we got a sit-down interview with Jim Ross and Brian Pillman Jr. Pillman sounded good and it continued to the build to his match against MJF. It’s been a big feud for Brian, and I think he has delivered in it so far. I look forward to the match and seeing what both men can do in the ring.
Dante Martin & Matt Sydal vs FTR
They had a fun tag team match that went about nine minutes. The team of Martin and Sydal gelled well and works until Dante’s brother returns from injury. Martin again got to stand out and show his impressive ariel skill.
Ultimately, the match was designed to give FTR a strong win and get them ready for their next match which will be set up later in the show while allowing Dante to showcase his skill and partner up with a veteran in Matt Sydal.
There’s an Enemy in the Midst
I’ve been saying it for a while, but I think Black’s entrance is my favorite in all of wrestling at the moment. The reaction he gets when the light goes out remind me a bit of The Undertaker during the Ministry of Darkness era.
Malakai enters the ring and tells the members of the House of Black to rise. He says that there is an enemy in the midst and turns his attention to actress Rosario Dawson. Black goes over to confront her, and she is shown wearing a Nightmare Family jacket.
Cody Rhodes makes his return to Dynamite and is coming down though the crowd. As Black is distracted, Dawson jumps on the back of him as Cody makes his way to Malakai and a brawl between the two breaks out.
They have an intense brawl that spills over into the AEW crowd and up the aisle.
It was a good segment and it added to the chaos of tonight’s show. The match will take place on next week’s Dynamite Grand Slam. I’m very confident that the match will be great, but it’ll be interesting to see who comes out as the winner. I personally don’t think Black should be losing anytime soon as they have something very special in him and he should be made to feel unstoppable.
Fat Faced Dipshit
Dan Lambert and friends along with the Men of the Year are out in the ring for another Dan Lambert style promo running down AEW and its crowd. He sounded great again as he criticized modern wrestling and made jokes about small men and oversized women.
Judas hits and out comes Chris Jericho and Jake Hager. Lambert tells the producers to cut the music off. They do but the crowd continue signing Judas in a cool moment. Chris Jericho calls Dan Lambert a ‘fat faced dipshit’ and challenges Lambert and his goons to a fight.
Lambert says a city like Newark doesn’t deserve it and the match will happen next week on Rampage as Men of the Year go against Jericho and Hager. It was a fun segment that had the crowd involved and sets up a match for next week. Not sure if it’s going to lead to anything further other than the tag team match though.
Jade Cargill vs Layla Hirsch
This was the longest match that Jade has so far in AEW. Cargill looks like a star and the more time she gets in the ring, the better she is going to get. Leyla was fighting in the city she now calls home, and she was brilliant as the underdog trying to topple the Everest that is Jade.
Jade would eventually get the win and keep her undefeated streak going. It was a fine match that served its purpose in giving Jade another win and more time in the ring and allowing Leyla to wrestle in front of her audience while also looking good too.
Darby Allin vs Shawn Spears
They had a physical match and made it feel different than the other matches on the show. The steel stairs were utilized in the match for some creative moments, and there was a spot in the match that saw Shawn Spears grab a wet towel and wipe the face paint off Darby’s face.
Darby ended up getting the win with the Coffin Drop. I like that Shawn Spears tries to bring something different to his matches. I think he’s a good wrestler but is in a company of great wrestlers, but it’s cool seeing him try different things or tweak elements of his character to make him stand out more.
Post-match, FTR appear in the ring and jump Darby and Sting. Sting no sold a chair shot from Tully, but the distraction allows FTW to take advantage. They spike piledrive Sting and Tully wipes off Sting’s face paint in a spot similar to Spears in the match. Sting and Darby are left lying in the ring and a match is made for the two teams next week on Dynamite.
The American Dragon Challenges The Best Bout Machine
Bryan Danielson is out for an in-ring interview with Tony Schiavone but is immediately cut off by Don Callis and Kenny Omega. Callis runs down Danielson and says that he is in the house that Omega built.
Danielson tells Don to shut up and says that someday it’ll be about the title but for now it’s about who the best wrestler is. Danielson challenges Kenny to a match. Kenny eventually accepts it and we later find out that the match will be take place at Dynamite Grand Slam.
It was a great segment with a lot of fire. They’ve loaded up Dynamite and Rampage for next week and shows how spoiled we are as professional wrestling fans that we are getting Omega and Danielson on free TV.
The match itself should be amazing with Bryan Danielson most likely winning and possibly setting up a future World Title match.
Other Segments
Taz came out and confronted CM Punk on commentary. It was an ambush as Powerhouse Hobbs attacked Punk with Hook joining in for the numbers advantage. Hobbs slams Punk on the commentary table and a match between Hobbs and Punk is announced for Rampage Grand Slam.
Andrade El Idolo says that he doesn’t need Chavo’s help to win and can beat anyone including Pac.
Christian Cage, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus had a backstage segment responding to Adam Cole’s comments and challenge. Christian mentions how Adam Cole has been stuck in developmental for four years and that Cole will lose again like he lost the Wednesday night wars.
The Main Event
The final match on the night was between Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston against 2.0. It didn’t go too long, but it was a fun match with some brawling on the outside to begin with and then 2.0 getting the heat on Moxley until he got the tag to Kingston who came in and cleaned house. Mox and Kingston got the win with their lariat/half nelson combo.
Their celebration is cut short as Kaze Ni Nare hit. Minoru Suzuki comes out and I honestly thought they were going to cut off his song again thinking Dynamite would go off the air, but I was wrong and Newark got to sing along to the Kaze Ni Nare part. A brawl erupts between Suzuki and Moxley, as well as Kingston and Lance Archer as Dynamite went off the air.
Overall Thoughts: this was another stacked Dynamite like last week, but I felt like they did a great job at allowing each segment to breathe. CM Punk was great on commentary and added a lot of legitimacy while also being fun. They announced that Rampage will be two hours next week and we are essentially getting a four hour pay per view split over two nights. The card looks amazing, and the Dynamite portion has the potential to do Dynamite’s highest number.