Reviews by Dave
Show air date: October 14, 2020
This week’s AEW Dynamite was better than last week but more because last week’s episode was so bad that it didn’t have much choice. I don’t think a single match lived up to expectations.
FTR (c) defeated Best Friends for the AEW World Tag Team Championships
Best Friends–Chuck Taylor and Trent–challenged for the World tag titles against FTR–Dash Harwood and Cash Wheeler–in what started off well and then fell apart at the end, from the stupid arcade game spot with Kip Sabian to the finish. A couple of things wrong from the outset: if the heel champs are going to get that much of the match, the faces have to win. Doubly so when the heel champs have a clear chance to win by count out and decide to show off. They should be penalized with a loss. They do a ref spot so bad it looked like it was straight off Raw and FTR retains.
Trent and Chuck hang out long enough for Miro to come out and mash their asses. This is where he should have made his debut because these last couple of weeks have been nothing.
Miro and Sabian then beat Lee Johnson and Sean Maluta in a squash match that was mostly Miro Hulk smashing both guys.
MJF Ask Jericho Out for Dinner
There’s a long segment where MJF (with Wardlow) calls out the Inner Circle and strongly hints he wants to join. This works a lot better if they had cut back on the comedy. The possible alliance of two top heel acts should be a big deal, not a joke even though it’s obvious we’re heading towards MJF-Jericho.
Dr. Britt Baker Returns to Dynamite
A much better segment followed with Dr. Britt Baker announcing her comeback during a spa day with Tony Schiavone. They spent more time on Baker’s “comeback” match than they did hyping up this week’s women’s title match and this isn’t even Baker’s first match since All Out.
Cody (c) defeated Orange Cassidy for the TNT Championship
When he’s put with a more experienced, high-level guy, Orange Cassidy can have really good matches. This wasn’t one as he went the time limit with TNT champion CODY. He didn’t beat the young man but Mr. Runnels made sure to whip out “Cody Cena” and blew off OC’s Break Beach finisher before the match was over. This just felt long for no reason.
What Happen to the Ranking System?
Yes, they have rankings but f–k that, let’s decide number one contenders by convoluted lotteries in a segment where the Young Bucks get to look strong over Private Party, Butcher and Blade (what happened to him getting his house in order?) and John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Whoopee.
Hikaru Shida defeated Big Swole for the AEW Women’s World Championship
Hikaru Shida successfully defended the Women’s World title against Big Swole in a match that just didn’t work. Even the ref was off, counting falls when the shoulders clearly aren’t down.
Main Event: Jon Moxley defeated Lance Archer for the AEW World Championship
After a couple of good backstage brawls that had AEW management make the title match a no DQ/no count out match, Jon Moxley successfully defended his World title against “The Murder Hawk” Lance Archer, who apparently can’t beat anyone but security guys. Not a bad brawl but at times too cute with the tables and chairs that ultimately didn’t play any role in the finish. The best part of both final title matches was the commentary (which is not a good sign) where Jim Ross, Schiavone, and Excalibur did well calling it and trying to cover mistakes.
Eddie Kingston was pretty good for the main event and afterward, he and his friends, the Lucha Bros, saved Moxley from a brutal post-match beating from Archer. He then hit his long time friend with a spinning back fist and puts him in a tough-looking rear-naked choke. Good finish but since Mox has already beaten Kingston, I don’t know if there’s any resurrecting that feud so soon.
Not their worst show but far from their best.
