AEW Dynamite Review - May 13th, 2020

AEW Dynamite

May 13th, 2020

Jacksonville, FL

Jake "The Snake" Roberts accompanies Lance Archer to the ring. Good promo to start the show and it leads to Cody Rhodes in a fucking F-150 running into a barricade for no reason and getting out for a GOOD OL BRAWL. Jake is talking through the entire thing and some found it cringe (shout out Mike Klinsky) but I found it hilarious. "You're just a squirrel trying to get a nut" what Jake?

1) Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?) vs. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus)

This felt like every PWG Best Friends match. Which could be good or bad depending on who you are. But yeah. Fun stuff that was full of spots. And yeah.

Match rating - **3/4

2) Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander vs. Penelope Ford

So some of this ruled and some of it was disjointed as heck. But I enjoyed it for the most part. Shida looked amazing and gets the victory in route to facing Nyla Rose for the AEW Women's Title at Double or Nothing on May 23rd.

Match rating - **1/2

3) Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy vs. LAX (Santana & Ortiz)

Omega is the AEW king of this empty arena era of matches. And 2020 continues to see him as the in-ring MVP. He & Hardy click like they've been teaming for years, but I guess that's what you get when you put two tag team specialists together. None the less, this stems from LAX's interference in the street fight match last week and it... you guessed it - rules. Awesome hot tags and back & forth action. Sammy Guevara tries to run in and Hardy hits him with a twist of fate that Sammy made look insane. Lots of new combo moves from Omega & Hardy and they are able to overcome and get the win. Fuck yeah. So intrigued to see how they play this when Omega's partner and co-holder of the tag titles Hangman Page returns.

Match rating - ***1/2

4) MJF (w/ Wardlow) vs. Lee Johnson

Poor Lee Johnson. MJF is here in his first match in a whiiiile. He pretty much toys with and makes light of Johnson before finally submitting him. Post-match, MJF hypes up his match with Jungle Boy coming up at Double or Nothing on May 23rd. He also announces that he will meet Jungle Boy's stable mate Marko Stunt next week. Oh boy..

Also next week: Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara, face to face with Arn Anderson & Jake the Snake Roberts, + Jon Moxley vs. 10

Also at Double or Nothing - Private Party vs. Best Friends in a #1 Contender's Match for the tag titles yessssss.

5) Chris Jericho vs. Pineapple Pete/Suge D

Suge gets squashed here :/ post match Jericho and the Inner Circle challenged the Elite to a Stampede Stadium Match? Whatever that is. It's something new for Double or Nothing. Matt Hardy's flying aircraft Vanguard-1 shows up. Jericho cutting a promo to it is the funniest shit straight up. V1 says that the Elite accepts and Jericho proceeds to beat the hell out of it with a bat. Inner Circle leaves as Matt Hardy comes down to console the pieces of his broken vanguard.

6) Brodie Lee vs. Christopher Daniels

This had mixed reviews due to some thinking it went too long, but admittedly Daniels has way more in-ring credibility than Lee's past two opponents and the experience to boot so it makes sense to me. You can't job out Chris Daniels. So, yeah, this was solid. I enjoyed seeing old man Daniels struggle with Big Rig. Lee wins and his opponent for Double or Nothing, Jon Moxley shows up to get his title back.

Match rating - ***

Moxley clears house on the Dark Order and says Brodie's career will be over at Double or Nothing before it even starts.