AEW: DynamiteNovember 17th, 2021
Norfolk, Virginia
Commentators - Excalibur, Jim Ross, & Tony Schiavone
ITS NATIONAL COWBOY SHIT DAY BABY
Before we get into the new AEW World Champion Hangman Page’s celebration, we cut to the SuperKliq in the back. Kenny Omega says Hangman was the better man and that he needs time away to figure some things out. Omega asks the Bucks to hold down the fort while he’s gone and Adam Cole thinks he’s talking to him so we get SOME AWKWARD TENSION AND FORESHADOWING!! ! The Bucks tell them to cut the camera feed.
Back to the arena, John Silver has the mic and the rest of the Dark Order is behind him. Silver says it’s time to celebrate National Cowboy Shit day and introduces the new AEW World Champion.. our kiNG HANGMAN ADAM PAGE :-)
Page cuts the best god damn celebratory babyface promo. This segment really just ruled. It’s such simple.. I hate to say it, but simple… WWE Raw style shit but it is never done in AEW and I’m happy they went with an opening segment like this for once. Don’t make us wait til the end of the night to hear from Hangman, we’ve already waited 3 days!!! So yeah. Hangman gets a lot of chants and says the AEW title carries a lot of weight and now is the time to start defending it. Before he can even get to Bryan Danielson, Danielson’s music hits and be congratulations Hangman, but immediately things turn a little sour. Danielson says he’s surprised it’s Page and not Omega standing in front of him. Hanger responds saying he shouldn’t be surprised because he beat him in less than 30 minutes, something Danielson couldn’t do!!! Danielson then pokes fun at Page being in cowboy boots and not wrestling gear. They tease wrestling tonight only for Bryan to sort of use the attire as a way to halfway weasel out, but also he already has a match tonight and it’s next! Awesome seg way.
1) Bryan Danielson vs. Evil Uno
Dan & Uno play the hits here. Uno is fast and busts out lucha shit flying around. Danielson just wants to kill him, stiff kicks and forearms. No bullshit whatsoever from Dragon. This was just a fantastic sprint all the way around. Danielson wins and after the match says he wants to face every single member of Dark Order before he gets to Hangman and the title shot so he can kick every single one of their heads in!!! AHHHH!!
Match rating - ***1/4
MJF clip from after his match at the PPV. He screams about being under appreciated for his in ring work and shit. Honestly was scary, he looked like he was gonna blow a gasket!
Eddie Kingston is backstage and he’s interrupted by 2.0 and Dan Garcia!!!! Hello kings! They poke fun at Eddie and Eddie starts shit with Daniel Garcia anD THEY GO NOSE TO NOSE AHHHH GIVE ME THIS SH IT NOW. Eddie is the best at getting you hyped for matches you had no anticipation for and doing so in literally like 60 seconds.
2) Tomohiro Ishii & Orange Cassidy (w/ Chuck Taylor, Kris Statlander, Rocky Romero, & Wheeler Yuta) vs. The Butcher & The Blade (w/ Matt Hardy & The Bunny)
Man wrestling in 2021 is so fucking crazy. Just seeing all this names in one match / segment on national f’n television… amazing. And this was everything it needed to be. Orange got all his stuff in and the dynamic of he & Ishii was perfect. Ishii certainly knows what it’s like to work with someone like him after all the tags he’s had with Yano. CHAOS really isn’t that important nowadays outside of having Okada in it, but it’s super cool to see the stable integrated into AEW television, their entrance here rocked. Ishii gets the hot tag and works some great spots with the Butcher and they built up their face off as a big deal which was cool. They give Ishii a second hot tag later which ruled even more. I thought he was gonna elbow Matt Hardy off the apron for a second which I was gonna pop for. Bunny slipped Blade the brass knucks off the distraction, but before he can use them, Rocky pulls him out of the ring. Hardy throws Rocky into the railing and ORANGE COMES SAILING OFF THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR ONTO HARDY AND BLADE. Crowd went off for that, this was so fun. Ishii nails Butcher with a brainbustaaaa for the victory.
Match rating - ***1/4
Backstage, Tony Schiavone is with Andrade El Idolo and FTR & Tully Blanchard. Andrade says it’s time to show Cody Rhodes his bad side. FTR also chimes in and says they were robbed at Full Gear. The three men propose an 8 man tag with them & Malakai vs. Cody/PAC/Lucha Bros.
Tay Conti, in a video package, says next time she faces Britt she WILL be champion. This cuts to the trio of queens - Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, & Rebel. Britt says she’s tired of carrying the women’s division and directs the spotlight to Jamie Hayter, the future first ever TBS Champion. Tony mentions Jamie has to get through Thunder Rosa first. Britt cuts him off and says we don’t mention her name during her interviews. Britt says Jamie will take out Rosa in route to the finals of the TBS tourney. That match is next week and I am more excited about it than any of the tournament matches so far. Rosa & Hayter might be the two best wrestlers in the division right now in my eyes.
3) Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose - TBS Title Tournament Match
These two always seem to cross paths. And when they do, the matches are always solid. This was no different and I liked the build up and how they touched on it in the match. Firstly, Nyla has never beaten Shida. Secondly, Shida tweaked her knee during the tag match both women were involved in on Saturday. Thirdly, Shida pinned Nyla in said tag match. Soooo yeah. They touch on all those things here and give us some nice false finishes. Nyla misses a senton off the top rope and eats shit. Shida goes for a kick off the opening and gets caught in a nasty standing stretch muffler and is forced to tap. Nyla advances in the tournament to face the winner of Statlander/Soho.
Match rating - ***
Malakai Black pre-tape on the 8 man tag coming up in Chicago next week.
MJF is here now. He mocks Darby some more then just starts gassing himself up. He says there’s no one in the locker room who can hold a candle to him. CM Punk comes out to a huge pop. The staredown between the two gets a “holy shit” chant. Punk doesn’t say a word and MJF extends his hand to introduce and Punk just laughs and walks off. Good shit! Punk didn’t even have to say a word and Excalibur explains the intent of what Punk did as it’s just to piss MJF off.
Backstage, Darby Allin says MJF didn’t break him and he isn’t taking time off. Darby wants the biggest and baddest that AEW has to offer. Up walks… Billy Gunn. He accepts Darby’s challenge and his sons laugh and one of them says “I like turtles” in reference to that viral video of that kid.. yeah.. idk. Fuck this though lmao.
Adam Cole is backstage and mad. He is tired of Christian Cage and Jurassic Express. Cole says he wants Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus and that he & Bobby Fish will face them on Rampage. Fish walks up and we get a terrible promo from him teasing saying “undisputed” and ugh I wanna throw up. This is ass cheeks.
4) Lio Rush & Dante Martin vs. The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens)
Oh man.. Dante Martin is such a great face in peril. Crowd is hot for him & Lio. So yeah this naturally builds to an AWESOME Lio hot tag after a commercial break. Lio gets a two count. Shit breaks down and ALL FOUR MEN ARE DOWN AND THE CROWD RISES TO THEIR FEET. Lovely little moment with Tony making me feel nostalgic as he hyped up how there’s still more to come even after this crazy fun tag. Dante hits some more wild stuff as they transition into the finish where Caster rolls out of a pin attempt only for Lio to come flying off the top rope and nail him for the three count.
Match rating - ***1/4
Team Taz comes out. Taz explains why they offered Dante Martin a contract to join Team Taz, saying it’s all business. Ricky Starks chimes in and says they will wait as long as they have to and mention how long they waited for Hobbs to come around and today is actually the one year anniversary of him joining them. I really hope Dante doesn’t even tease joining them, this tag team with Lio rocks so much.
Christian Cage is backstage with Jurassic Express. Jungle Boy has shaved the scruff off his face it seems and I’m kinda happy. OMG AS IM TYPING THIS HE MENTIONS HIS SCRUFF BEIN GONE HOLY HELL.
“Shit, I’ll eat thumbtacks for breakfast.”
Yea, Jungle Boy killed this. They basically are accepting Adam Cole’s challenge from earlier here.
ON RAMPAGE: Jade Cargill vs. Red Velvet and Darby Allin vs. Billy Gunn.
Great Jade/Velvet pre-tape with awesome promos from both. JADE GONNA BEAT THAT ASS.
NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO: Rosa/Hayter, Danielson/Cabana, and FTR/Andrade/Black v Lucha Bros/PAC/Cody.
5) Sammy Guevara (c) vs. Jay Lethal - TNT Title Match
Fucking hell. This is… something. What a PR nightmare we have in this main event. The work here is just fine. Honestly good. More than suffice. I enjoyed the hell out of it. They work a great story, but god damn bud. Think about how much charismatic talent and awesome atheletes were showcased throughout this show. Then, think about the fact that this is being billed as the pinnacle, no pun intended, of it all. I had calmed myself down to the point of enjoying this for the work alone, or at least trying to, then they showed 205 Live Superstar Tony Nese and I just could not LMAO. But truthfully it’s more funny to me than anything at this point. So, I won’t harp on it too much, I’ll save that for the podcast on Friday. But this match? It honestly was good. Sammy sold the ribs, they laid it out super well, the spots ruled. Just sucks both these dudes suck as humans, especially Jay. But here we are so yea. Guevara retains after a match that would probably even be rated slightly higher if it was different people and under different circumstances.
Match rating - ***1/2
The show closes with Chris Jericho, Santana, Ortiz, & Jake Hager joining their Inner Circle stablemate in the ring for a little celebration. They even embrace Jay Lethal as well.
Final thoughts: Alright y’all well that was a blast! First hour was phenomenal and second hour didn’t drop off by any means so fuck yeah. It’s nice to see what direction certain things and stats are heading after Full Gear and this was the exact mid-week pick me up that I needed. And for those who don’t know I’m a part of a podcast called Up and Over, this Friday we will be discussing last week’s Rampage, the Full Gear PPV in depth, AND tonight’s episode of Dynamite so make sure to follow us on all social media and give it a listen when it’s up! I’m super excited to talk about AEW and all these great shows they’ve been having recently. See y’all there! Thanks for reading <3
