‘AEW Dynamite’ Lit up Charlotte, North Carolina

Amanda S
15 Min Read

Wednesday night’s airing of AEW Dynamite took us on quite a ride and gave us a lot of information. In case you missed it, or you just need a refresher, here’s a match-by-match breakdown of the show.

Image Courtesy of ‘AEW Dynamite’

PAC versus Trent:

Trent was accompanied to the ring by Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy, a stark juxtaposition to his lone wolf opponent. The first few moments of the match gave no indication on who might have the upper hand, but after putting Trent on the mat, PAC exited the ring to seemingly confront Orange Cassidy. PAC stared him down but ultimately dove back into the ring as Trent momentarily dove out. Trent was able to use his slight size advantage to practically bulldoze PAC but couldn’t gain any momentum from the move as PAC rolled out of the ring, followed by Trent, and threw his opponent into the security railing twice.

The match continued outside the ring in PAC’s favor, moving onto the entrance ramp before he decided to climb back into the ring to leap over the top rope and further injure his opponent. PAC continued his attack, making several pin and submission attempts until Trent rolled out of the ring and Orange Cassidy rolled in, blocking PAC’s path to the ropes. This interruption earned Cassidy a kick to the face, effectively pulverizing the poor Orange. While our attention was focused on what was happening in the ring, Trent had recovered well enough to jump back in and go on the offensive. Turnabout truly is fair play. The match once again spilled outside the ring, where PAC reversed Trent’s move so quickly we couldn’t even tell what move he might be attempting. PAC’s Brain Buster left both men laid out ringside as the countout began. PAC slowly made his way to his feet, rolled his opponent into the ring, and climbed to the top rope, performing his signature Black Arrow. He quickly went for a pin, but the count was, for seemingly no reason, stopped at two. This ultimately made no difference as PAC transitioned into the Brutalizer, forcing Trent to lose consciousness.

Image Courtesy of Cody Rhodes via Instagram

Cody’s Announcement:

The arena went dark, Cody rose from the floor, fireworks shot into the air, and I got goosebumps. He was joined in the ring by broadcaster Tony Schiavone, who led him into his much anticipated announcement. Cody spoke about the arrival of Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle to AEW. He spoke about searching for people like them to match up with the likes of the Young Bucks, Adam Page, Kenny Omega, himself, and Dustin Rhodes. He spoke about his upcoming match at Full Gear against Chris Jericho, a point which sent us diving head first into what this was all about:

“. . .when I hear the same criticism attached to my name for being management and being in a title match, I can’t not hear it. With that said, I am announcing that if I do not defeat— if I do not defeat Chris Jericho at Full Gear, I will never challenge for the AEW World Championship again.”

He then went on to address Jericho’s name-calling, saying:

“You’ve taken to calling my lot entitled millennials and called me an entitled millennial bitch. . . you call me an entitled millennial, well I call you a carny succubus, because the dirty secret about you, the dirty secret is you need this generation more than it needs you, and you’ve surrounded yourself with impressionable youth. This isn’t about my dad, this isn’t about the dead; it’s about the living. It’s about my mother. It’s about my sister. It’s about my wife. It’s about the 14 years it took me to go from undesirable to un-goddamn-deniable!”

Mic. Drop.

Image Courtesy of Scott Lesh via @isiahkassidy on Instagram

Dark Order versus Private Party:

Grayson looked like he’d been shot out of a canon at the start of the match, attacking Quen and quickly driving him into the corner where Uno tagged himself into the match. After a bit of two-on-one action, Grayson was tagged back into the match, and Quen began to fight off both opponents before tagging Kassidy in, but Uno pulled his partner out of the ring before Kassidy could really get into the swing of things. Uno attempted to serve as a distraction long enough for Grayson to sneak up behind his opponent, but his heavy footsteps gave him away. Despite this giveaway, Dark Order was able to maintain their domination of the match. When we returned from the commercial break, Uno had Kassidy on the mat but walked away to taunt Quen, giving Kassidy the time to slam his opponent to the mat and tag in his partner. Initially, it seemed that Quen would also be no match for Dark Order, but he soon began to single-handedly dominate the match, taking out both opponents with near ease. We, as wrestling fans, know this tactic very rarely works out for long, and it was no different this time as Grayson, the legal man, was able to fight his way back into the match before tagging his partner. The match tempo changed quickly as bodies and tags began to fly. Kassidy took Uno out of the match before spinning around to catch Grayson flying off the top turnbuckle, thanks to Quen, and hitting him with a DDT then pinning him. So, what does this mean? Before the match kicked off, it was announced that the winner of this match would go on to face SCU and The Lucha Brothers in a three-way, tag-team match Saturday night at Full Gear.

Next up we got this spoofed masterpiece to add more fuel to the Jericho-Rhodes fire. I’ll just let the video speak for itself:

Here is the original version of this video:

Jamie Hayter and Emi Sakura versus Shanna and Riho:

Sakura and Riho kicked the physical match off with a bang, trading blows until Sakura began tossing Riho around the ring by her hair. The latter was able to use her acrobatic abilities to tag in her partner, who promptly took complete control of the match for the next several minutes. Unfortunately for Riho, she was tagged back into the match, and the momentum swung back to Sakura. For the first time in the match, Sakura tagged in her partner, who continued the physical domination of the current Women’s World Champion throughout the commercial break. Upon our return, Riho was once again able to user her acrobatics to make it to her corner and tag in her partner. Shanna was momentarily able to regain control of the match, but when she tried to take total control, Sakura was able to turn the tide. After several minutes of action and four near pinfalls from both Sakura and Hayter, Riho was finally tagged back in, and four more pinfall attempts were made in rapid succession, the final being the one that ended the match in favor of Hayter and Sakura. Emi Sakura was able to pin the champion Riho. Is this an indication of how their title match at Full Gear will go down?

Image Courtesy of Shawn Spears via Instagram

Brandon Cutler versus “The Chairman” Shawn Spears:

The match started with an impressive showing from Cutler, who was certainly not phased by Spears’ recent actions. Though before too long, Spears took control of the match when he swept Cutler off his feet on the apron (unfortunately for the latter, it wasn’t in a romantic way) and threw him into the security railing twice. Spears moved the match back to the ring and never took his foot off the accelerator, ending the match quickly after a death valley driver in our shortest bout of the night. Tully Blanchard, who had once again accompanied Spears to the ring, slid a steel chair under the ropes to be used to make the point that Spears is not someone to be messed with. Before he could even get the chair in position, though, “Bad Boy” Joey Janela came running down the ramp, forcing both Spears and Blanchard to retreat.

Image Courtesy of AEW

“Hangman” Adam Page and Kenny Omega versus Sammy Guevara and Chris Jericho:

Omega and Jericho started the match, but before either man laid hands on each other, Jericho tagged in Guevara, and the two grappled for several minutes with Omega, eventually coming out on top. With Guevara on the mat, reeling from multiple slaps to the back of his head followed by back-to-back chest slaps, then a few more slaps to cap it off, Omega tagged in Page. Guevara continued to find himself on the receiving end of some painfully loud slaps and slams until finally creating just enough space for himself to tag in Jericho, who was promptly kicked in the face. He was somehow, impressively, not fazed long and easily took over as the match aggressor. After being thrown into the corner of the ring, Page came sprinting back out and clotheslined Jericho, leaving both men sprawled out on the mat. They each slowly made their way to their respective corners and tagged in their partners simultaneously, with Omega winning that physical match-up. To escape the beatdown, Guevara rolled out of the ring as Jericho ran in, but immediately found himself flying right back out and landing next to his partner. As Omega ran across the ring to use the ropes to gain momentum, Inner Circle member Jake Hager, who had been at ringside the entire match, delivered a shot to the back of his head as we went into a commercial break. During the break, Jericho was tagged into the match and continued to dominate Omega. When we returned, we witnessed Omega flip over Jericho, leap across the ring, and tag Page. Page came flying in with a vengeance before PAC ran in out of nowhere and hit Page with a low blow, allowing Jericho to complete a pin.

With six minutes of airtime remaining, Jericho, Hager, and Guevara began beating the downed Page until Cody Rhodes came running down the ramp, sending Hager and Jericho scrambling to exit the ring. Guevara wasn’t aware of Rhodes arrival and paid the price for it, receiving an uppercut. As Hager and Jericho were backing up the ramp, MJF ran out with a steel chair, putting Hager out of commission before throwing Jericho into the ring with Cody. The crowd went even more wild when the camera showed Jon Moxley making his way into the arena, channeling The Walking Dead’s Negan. As our focus was on Moxley staring down Omega (his opponent at Full Gear), Jericho could be seen in the lower left corner of the screen jumping onto the apron behind Cody, preparing for an attack. At some point, as we watched Jericho, Hager, Cody, and MJF wail on each other. Back in the ring, Omega had found himself in possession of a barbed wire wrapped broom. As the Moxley and Omega stand-off teetered on the edge of violence, Inner Circle members Santana and Ortiz slid into the ring and knocked both men to the mat, stealing their weapons in the process. Before they could use them, Nick and Matt Jackson sprinted down the ramp and delivered a simultaneous Superkick. Bodies were flying in every direction during this all out brawl.

After that ending, only one thing is for certain: you do not want to miss Full Gear on November 9.

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