Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: May 12, 2021
This was a very good episode of AEW Dynamite.
Jon Moxley (c) defeated Yuji Nagata
for the IWGP US Championship
Making his return to TNT after 23 years, Yuji Nagata came up short in his challenge for Jon Moxley’s IWGP US title in a very good match. Nagata is 53 years old, so he’s slower than he used to be but his technique is flawless. Moxley had to step his own game up and work a bit tighter. AEW should mix in more matches like this.
Good Inner Circle Promo
Good Inner Circle promo from Ortiz, Sammy Guevara, and Jake Hager, but this was my issue with the first big match between Pinnacle and Inner Circle being Blood and Guts. That should be the end, not the beginning. There is nothing they will do in a Stadium Stampede that will outdo B&G, except something even more legitimately dangerous.
He Talked for Five Minutes, But it Felt Like 20.
Cody Rhodes came out for a big announcement. He talked for five minutes but it felt like 20 as he did his best Sgt. Slaughter/Dusty Rhodes impersonation. He did all of this just to announce he’ll be facing Anthony Ogogo at the Double Or Nothing pay-per-view and calling himself “The American Dream”. He tried, bless his heart, but that shit was a mess.
The Young Bucks (c) defeated SCU
for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
A much better promo was cut by SCU–Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian–before their tag title match against the Young Bucks–Nick and Matt Jackson–where they put their careers as a team up against the tag titles. Excellent job by Excaliber in filling in the backstory and history with the two teams as they put on a very good tag match.
Probably should have laid off the blood after last week but this was a high-stakes match so it wasn’t out of line. I prefer heel Bucks as far as their matches go, but they do way too much mugging for the camera. I liked Ross calling them out. Instead of letting SCU have the moment in defeat, they cut to Moxley and Eddie Kingston wrecking the dressing room of the Elite and then come back to SCU. Stop this shit.
Good backstage confrontation with Christian Cage and Matt Sydal. That match will be good next week.
PAC vs Orange Cassidy
Ends in No Contest
To decide the Double or Nothing (DoN) challenger for Kenny Omega’s world title, PAC and Orange Cassidy wrestled to a no-contest. Apparently, OC got hurt doing a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor on PAC (the second person to get hurt in 3 days with this move) so he was legit knocked out. So they called an audible and had Omega interfere and take out PAC, trying to have both guys knocked out of the DoN title match. Nope. Now he’s facing both.
Didn’t Care About the Pinnacle Coronation.
I didn’t care anything about the Pinnacle coronation (not a champion in the whole group). I did laugh at Tully Blanchard having a Four Horsemen flashback and talking about the women and Dax pointing to his wedding band like “Why you making it hot, T?” Sometimes it feels like anything Jericho-related will be them trying to recreate some old shit from either Nitro or Raw.
Great Short Interview!
Great short interview with Ross and Dr. Britt Baker DMD as she’s set to face Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s World title.
Varsity Blonds being number one tag team contenders without beating anyone of note is just one more example of how they don’t know how to do rankings.
Main Event: Miro defeated Darby Allin (c)
for the TNT Championship
“The Best Man” Miro challenged for the TNT championship and beat the wheels off champion, Darby Allin, en route to a victory. Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky got in some more licks on Sting, furthering that subplot. Allin put up a good fight, looking like a tough champion but the much, much bigger, stronger Miro was too much. I did not like how long they were on the floor working that sleeper spot. The ref did a horrible job with the count to keep them moving. That is a thing they still haven’t fixed in a year. But otherwise, a great main event, crowning a new champ.
The Dark Order brings their useless selves out and we go to dark with Miro in a face-off with Lance Archer, who needs to go beat somebody–ANYBODY!!!
Thanks for reading!
