June 26th, 2021
Daily’s Place - Jacksonville, FL
1) Hangman Adam Page vs. Powerhouse Will Hobbs
This felt like it was on its way to being as good as Page’s matches with Hobbs’ stablemate Brian Cage. A few small details kept it from that, though. It had the physicality, Page even got a gash on the back of his head that gave us our first taste of red of the night. It had the fire. Little things like them completely missing the best spot of the whole thing - Hobbs countering Page’s buckshot lariat into a spine buster - is part of what threw me off. It’s also worth noting, Ricky Starks tried to interfere, but Brian Cage stopped him. Page hits Hobbs with the dead eye for the win. This still rocked despite the minor flaws.
Match rating - ***
They air part of the video package from Road to Dynamite about Omega/Jungle Boy. I’m SO glad they did because damn that shit was too good to not. Half the Road to’s are so awesome and more of them deserve to be shown on the TV episodes, even in small portions like this.
The Young Bucks are backstage with Brandon Cutler. They list off all the people they’ve taken out and say that Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero M are next when they face them next week. Cutler compares them to.. table scraps. Matt says they will beat them because they are EVP’s - extremely violent people.
Tony Schiavone is here in the ring with Tully Blanchard and ohhhh hell that means it’s Konnan time!!!! This more than lived up to the hype with Konnan telling Tully, he will need to learn Spanish because he will have to speak to his grandkids one day and that after this is all over - Walmart will still be hiring greeters. Konnan goes to bring out Santana & Ortiz, but it’s FTR dressed in bandanas & masks. On the big screen, we see Santana & Ortiz laid out in the back. FTR reveal themselves and PILEDRIVE KONNAN. OUCH. God I am loving this FTR/LAX feud. ALSO Konnan came out to the old LAX TNA theme music!!! That made me mark out.
Dante Martin comes out for his match with Matt Sydal only to be interrupted by Vickie Guerrero & Andrade El Idolo. Vickie says they have a huge announcement, but Matt Sydal cuts them off and doesn’t allow them to steal the spotlight from he & Dante’s scheduled match. This was weird.
2) Matt Sydal (w/ Mike Sydal) vs. Dante Martin
I said it on Twitter, but I’ll say it again, Dante Martin made Matt Sydal time travel back to 2004-2006 here because this felt like the young Matt Sydal I saw for the first time in ROH and IWA MS during those years. God, this match was such a blast. Dante looked fantastic and Sydal adapted to match his craziness and crispness. Just enough to remind us how phenomenal of a wrestler he is. I could stand to watch these two wrestle again. Sydal wins when all is said and done.
Match rating - ***1/4
Christian tells Jungle Boy backstage to prove everyone wrong tonight.
Mark Sterling & Jade Cargill are here with ANOTHER pre tape. They’re giving everyone 10% off her new shirts on AEW Shop. BUT they’re almost out of XXL’s “which isn’t surprising knowing wrestling fans” OMFG. Jade rips up a Dark Order shirt to close the segment.
MJF is here backstage with Alex Marvez being a god. MJF says Dean Malenko should thank him for what he did. Jericho & Hager attack MJF, Spears, & Wardlow mid interview. The brawl comes out through the tunnel and the crowd loves it bc WHAT HAVE I NECOME!!! I won’t lie, I’ve been listening to Judas by Fozzy on Spotify.
Anyways, they brawl and shit into the ring. MJF holds Jericho while Wardlow beats him. That’s that shit I like. King Wardlow. Shawn Spears grabs a chair and SAMMY GUEVARA HITS THE RING FOR THE SAVE. Guevara gets a great pop and cleans house and swings the chair every damn where. Guevara gets the mic and says next week he will show everyone that they chose the wrong guy for the posters and action figures. Guevara says he will show MJF that he is the best ever and he knows it, a pun off MJF’s “I’m better than you and you know it.”
I had to step away from the TV for a few moments around this point of the show so the king Mike Klinsky is jumping in for the next few segments.
MIKE:
Excalibur sends us to the back for a promo from Miro. We get Miro vs Brian Pillman Jr. next week for the TNT championship, and boy oh boy, is Miro ready to destroy him. He says Pillman disrespected him, and that he will show him why Miro is “The Redeemer” and why he is God’s favorite champion. “So go ahead and lie to the world, tell them you’re not afraid. But we both know that the bravest thing you’ve ever done was thinking about attacking me… The stupidest was actually doing it.” Unscripted promos from Miro are truly what’s best for business.
3) Ethan Page (w/ Scorpio Sky) vs. Bear Bronson (w/ Bear Boulder)
Admittedly, this wasn’t a match that I was excited for. Bear Country does absolutely nothing for me, and Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky’s thing is lukewarm at best in my opinion. With that said, this was a blast. Bear Bronson damn near killed Scorpion up on a suicide dive, and I popped pretty hard for it. There was some good back and forth, some big spots, and the crowd was pretty into it the whole time. Ethan Page is pretty underrated in terms of his in-ring work — he’s so smooth and just… great. Page wins after a low blow into a MASSIVE Ego’s Edge.
Match rating - ***
Page grabs a mic and says he isn’t stupid, that he knows Darby Allin isn’t done with him, and that he isn’t done with Allin either. He wants to be the nail in Darby’s coffin… So why doesn’t he just put him in one? We’re getting Darby vs. Page in coffin match at AEW Road Rager in Miami on July 7th… Someone’s going to die.
Britt Baker cuts a bad bitch promo to build up next week’s tag team match against Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero. We love Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. in this household. We get a promo from Vickie and Nyla immediately after.
OK HI IT'S ETHAN I'M BACK THANK U MIKE I LOVE U
4) The Bunny (w/ The Blade) vs. Kris Statlander (w/ Orange Cassidy)
Here’s two women I’m a big fan of. There’s some good action in this with some stuff slaps and kicks being exchanged in the early going. Not to mention the awesome running dropkick from Bunny to Statlander on the floor, a sick blue thunder bomb from Statlander to Bunny, and a flying german off the second rope from Bunny to Statlander. Very back and forth contest here. Bunny tries to bring out the brass knucks, but Orange prevents her from using them. Statlander hits her finisher, the Big Bang Theory, for the victory as it plants Bunny’s head into the mat.
Match rating - **3/4
Pillman Jr addresses his TNT Title match with Miro next week, in response to Miro’s crazy promo earlier in the night. He says he’s not intimidated and is gonna check Miro’s ego and defeat him for the TNT Championship.
Eddie Kingston & Penta are backstage. They say the Bucks talk a lot about who they’ve ran over, but next week they will be the ones getting ran over.
5) Kenny Omega (c) vs. Jungle Boy - AEW World Title Match
This had the big match feel from the jump. The crowd is hot for Jungle Boy and you have each man’s unit on the apron working it like hell. So much so that Marko Stunt gets too riled up and enters the ring which prompts the ref to throw him & Luchasaurus out, but soon Anderson & Gallows get the same treatment as Don Callis wanders over to the commentary booth. It’s now clean cut one on one and they do a slow lock up where Omega works Jungle into the corner and plays with his hair as they break the hold. Love love love it. It’s the little things. Jungle tries to use his speed to pick things up, but Omega can tone that down when needed and he does. Jungle goes for a dive and Omega hides, then pulls Jungle Boy’s legs out from under the ropes and begins an assault outside the ring. During the commercial, we see Kenny suplex/throw Jungle Boy over the railing into the crowd. This is a clear attempt for a count out victory and another beautiful display of the details that make up Kenny’s current character. Things really pick up from here once we return from commercial as the crowd begins to feel like Jungle Boy may pull it off. Every near fall from here out gets an insane response. Jungle Boy fights with everything he’s got, eating all of Kenny’s offense and squeaking out of what looked like sure pinfalls, while also dishing out some nasty stuff of his own. He counters a V trigger into the snare trap which looked AWESOME and the crowd bites on it hard. Anderson & Gallows run down, but FRANKIE KAZARIAN is here along with Marko Stunt and Luchasaurus. They fight them off and this matches continues clean as a whistle. The two trade blows in the ring before they break out some more big guns. Omega hits a huge super plex for a near fall. Jungle Boy gets the snare trap in AGAIN and Omega uses the hair and raking the eyes to escape before nailing Jungle Boy with more v-triggers and a tiger driver for a two count. Omega then finally hits the One Winged Angel on his second or third attempt to do so in the match and that, of course, ends it. This was fantastic and a type of match we haven’t seen Kenny have in his reign so far. It was a simple story and worked clean with no interference or bullshit. It wasn’t a spotfest, it was just a wrestling match with a beloved underdog vs an overconfident champion. Jungle Boy is a special talent and looked phenomenal in defeat. As he lay there after taking the pin and Omega was looking at him, my subconscious was just thinking damn.. I can’t wait until the day Jungle Boy actually wins the big one cause he looked so valiant here and worked so hard. I can only imagine thousands of other people felt the same. This is one of those matches that elevates a young challenger, even in defeat. This will undoubtedly be looked back on years down the line and used as a massive step toward Jungle Boy’s continued rise to the top.
Match rating - ****1/4
Post match, Omega tries to hit Jungle Boy with the title belt to add insult to injury. Christian Cage runs down for the save. He goes at it with Kenny before Private Party & Matt Hardy run down. Christian fights them off, but The Young Bucks show up and super kick Christian. The Bucks, Omega, Hardy and Private Party all celebrate. Heels standing tall to close the show once again. I do like how it’s so easy to intertwine so many stories in AEW right now. Now give me some crazy multi mans involving these guys over the next few weeks! Thx!!!!
Alright y'all that's it for this week. Thanks to Mike again for filling in for a few segments. Follow him on twitter @mikexklinsky. Follow the blog @ThePWTruth. And here's what has been announced for Dynamite next week:
-Britt Baker & Rebel vs. Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero
-Miro (c) vs. Brian Pillman Jr - TNT Title Match
-The Young Bucks vs. Penta El Zero M & Eddie Kingston
-MJF vs. Sammy Guevara
ANDDD... ON JULY 7th at ROAD RAGER:
-Cody vs. QT Marshall - South Beach Strap Match
-Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page - Coffin Match
That reminds me that QT cut a promo at some point in this show and I think I missed it in the review.. OH WELL.
Goodnight!
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