The Opening
Dynamite kicked off with CM Punk coming out to join commentary. There was a huge Brodie chant before Adam Cole and Jungle Boy made their entrances.
The two had a great match. The sign of a good match is when it can become captivating enough where you forget about the person that was most likely going to win. There wasn’t any doubt that Adam Cole would lose, but there were some moments in the match that crowd bit into about a potential upset.
They traded a lot of offense and one of the key spots was when Jungle Boy locked Adam Cole into the Snare Trap, but Cole was able to survive and reach the ropes for the break. Cole would eventually hit The Boom for the win and keeps his undefeated streak alive.
Jungle Boy is still at a young age where I don’t think a loss hurts him too much, especially with the way they’ve been building him the ultimate underdog. He still comes off strong by going out and being competitive with some of the best. Adam Cole is feeling like a major star each week and shouldn’t be losing anytime soon.
As the match ended, The Elite made their way to the ring to celebrate with Cole. Karl Anderson puts over The Elite as the best in the business. Kenny speaks about the match against Bryan last week and how it’s being talked about as one of the best in Dynamite history. But Omega says that considering the match was a draw, and Bryan has no win on his record sheet, a rematch between the two isn’t happening.
Danielson comes out and calls the champ Kenny ‘No Balls’ Omega. He gets a ‘Kenny No Balls’ chant going and issues a challenge to any of The Elite for a match on Rampage. Omega dares him for a fight tonight, and Danielson not lacking intelligence, reveals that he has backup in Jurassic Express, Christian Cage and Frankie Kazarian.
The Elite and Bryan & Friends descend into a brawl which has The Elite bailing. A big eight-man tag team match between The Elite and Bryan Danielson, Jurassic Express and Christian is announced for next week’s Dynamite Anniversary show.
Cody Rhodes & Lee Johnson vs Matt Sydal & Dante Martin
It was a fun tag team match for its time. I like the team of Sydal and Martin with their similar styles and it works with Sydal being the veteran and Martin the upcomer. The crowd weren’t on the side of Cody again which was brought up and played a major part in the story of the match.
Lee Johnson and Dante were the two main focuses when it came to the in-ring action. The future is bright in AEW, and Johnson and Martin are two talents that have a lot of potential. Johnson would get win by pinning Dante Martin.
As the match ended, Cody went to call out Malakai Black again but Arn Anderson cuts in and tells him to shut up. Anderson brings up the destruction that Black has dished out at the Nightmare Family and how Black is a dangerous assassin. He says that Cody is the kind of person that would give up his car if he was be carjacked, while Arn would shoot the carjacker in the head. He ends it by saying that he won’t coach a loser like Cody and leaves with Lee Johnson.
I’m unsure exactly where they are heading with this Cody story, but Cody is usually great when he can sink his teeth into something deep. We might not be getting a complete Cody heel turn, but I feel like it’s setting up Cody to find more of a ruthlessness with the idea being that Arn has to allow Cody to be on his own to find that aggression.
Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston & Darby Allin vs Bear County & Anthony Greene
It was quick match with its purpose to give Mox, Eddie and Darby a win. I enjoyed the sight of Mox, Eddie, Darby and Sting coming out together through the crowd to ‘Wild Thing.’ Mox and Kingston got the win after hitting their finisher on Anthony Greene.
After the match Kingston brings in a Brodie Lee sign from the crowd. Sting ends up hitting Greene with the Scorpion Death Drop for a big ovation from the crowd.
Dark Order & Orange Cassidy vs Hardy Family Office
This wasn’t really about match quality but all about the emotion and showing respect to Brodie Lee. Sixteen people were involved in the match so there was a lot going on in a short time, but it all built to the key moment in the match.
As the Dark Order started to break down and no longer be on the same page, Amanda Huber (Brodie’s widow) and Negative 1, the son of Brodie, along Tay Conti and Anna Jay rallied to get the team back on track.
Amanda Huber came out looking like the pissed off mum about to scold her children for fighting against each other. She orders Uno to get back into the ring and for the Dark Order to get together again. They come together and they clean house and isolate Jora Johl as they hit their finishers on him for the win.
Dark Order celebrate together in the ring after the match and have a nice tribute moment for Brodie Lee which the crowd loved.
Penelope Ford & The Bunny vs Tay Conti & Anna Jay
It was a good match, but it seemed like the crowd weren’t into it that much. It felt like the end of the feud though as TayJay would get the win with Jay using the Queenslayer to defeat Ford.
TayJay celebrate together after the match with Negative 1 coming down to celebrate with his friends too. It felt like a continuation of the sixteen-man tag team match and another tribute to Brodie Lee while also wrapping up the feud against Ford and The Bunny.
The Four Pillars of AEW
MJF and Wardlow come down to the ring for an MJF promo. MJF brings up the four pillars of AEW and how he beat Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara, but quickly brushes over Darby as he has never beat him. MJF mentions how he should be the World Champion.
Darby interrupts and comes face to face with MJF. Maxwell compares Darby to a school shooter on a skateboard and tells him there’s nothing wrong with being the number two guy in the company, as that’s something Sting knows a lot about.
Darby responds by bringing up how as much as MJF likes to claim he is the best, he hasn’t held a championship yet in AEW. MJF goes into Darby’s personal life and reasoning why he is straight edge, and brings up the car accident that Darby and his uncle was in. Max says that it should’ve been Darby to die that day. Instead of getting physical, Darby remains calm and says he isn’t going to give Max the satisfaction of breaking him mentally. MJF seems interested in the challenge of trying to break Darby mentally and leaves him in the ring, but you know that he is going to get up to something devious over the next few weeks.
This was an excellent segment especially on the part of MJF. Some of his lines were very cutting and I could understand if some people didn’t like it. At one-point MJF compared Darby’s voice to Batman and there were Batman vibes with MJF playing the role of the sinister villain that is going to try his best to make our hero break mentally.
It has all the ingredients to be must watch television as the story unfolds and it’ll be interesting to see how they inject Sting and the rest of The Pinnacle into the feud.
Other Segments
Dan Lambert and Men of the Year had a promo. It was similar to the other Dan Lambert promos and kept the feud with Chris Jericho going who is still out injured from the Jorge Masvidal flying knee.
Hikaru Shida and Serena Deeb had a video package going back and forth to hype up a match for next week’s Dynamite. Hikaru will be looking for her 50th win. It’s simple but effective and adds an element to the match to make it more meaningful. The match itself though should be great and I hope that they are given a prominent position on the card whether it be the opener or the main event.
It’s announced that there will be a Casino Ladder match next week with the winner getting a shot for the AEW World Title.
Andrade interrupts The Lucha Brothers backstage and mentions how they haven’t defended their AAA Tag Team Titles for a while. He brings up how he knows some people that are interested in challenging for the titles.
The Main Event
The TNT title was on the line as Sammy Guevara tries to take the gold from the dominant Miro. It was a David vs Goliath type battle with the monster in Miro using his power to try and limit Sammy’s quickness.
There was a lot of action in the match and Sammy played a terrific babyface showing a lot of fire. The ending came when Miro started ripping off all the turnbuckle pads and leaving them exposed. Sammy’s best friend, Fuego Del Sol rushes down to the ring to distract Miro but Miro takes care of him.
It does allow Sammy to take advantage though and he sends Miro into the exposed turnbuckle. Sammy hits a tornado DDT, followed by the GTH and then the 630 splash to keep the beast down and be crowned the new TNT Champion.
It was a big moment in the career of Sammy Guevara. I thought the match could’ve gone either way which made it enjoyable to watch not knowing exactly who would win. But I think it’s a great choice to have Sammy win and it keeps the TNT title feeling fresh. I look forward to Sammy regularly defending in an open challenge like the Cody reign.
As for Miro, I don’t think the loss hurts him too much and he was protected in the finish. He’s also a character that feels so hot at the moment that I don’t think he necessarily needs a belt, and by dropping the TNT title he can start to move more towards the main event picture and be primed for a big 2022.
Final Thoughts: overall it was a great edition of Dynamite bookended with two very good matches. The beginning of the Darby and MJF feud was fun, where to next for Cody is intriguing, and the tribute to Brodie Lee in his hometown was beautifully done.