Emanating from the great wrestling city of Calgary, …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Alberta, Canada… it’s AEW Dynamite and the finals of the Owen Hart tournaments, which will feature Bryan Danielson and ??? going at it in the mens tournament, while Willow Nightingale and ??? will battle it out in the bussoms tournament… what’s that? It’s not the…? Oh… well, okay, then… never mind…
On with the show, I guess…
Let’s get the tournament finals out of the way; the mens’ tournament is won by Bryan Danielson, who gets a title shot at All In against Swerve. And… well, here we go again, I guess. The match he had with Hangman Page was actually quite the banger (is that what the kids call it today?) and I like that they managed to get Jeff Jarrett involved in some official capacity, if you get my drift. So there you go, it’ll be Swerve vs. Danielson for the title at All In. And while I’m sure everyone is clamoring for Danielson to win the title and get a nice extended run with the title until Swerve gets it back at the Tacoma PPV – both being hometown guys and all – chances are Swerve retains and Danielson riding off into the sunset since, you know, he doesn’t want to win World titles. That’d be great and all, but… just belt the Dragon and be done with it. Swerve can win it back later. He’ll be fine.
Speaking of Swerve, he’ll be joining that Blood And Guts match on behalf of Team AEW, so there’s an incentive for Hangman to join the Elite; just so he can get his hands on Swerve. Which is probably a better place to continue that story than wasting an All In main event on a match we’ve seen countless times before. It’d be like booking John Cena vs. Randy Orton at Wrestlemania… I just gave them an idea, didn’t I?
The women’s tournament is won by Mariah May, who gets a title shot at All In against Timeless Toni. She then uses the pink Owen belt to beat up Timeless Toni, even though we did an angle weeks ago where she had a threesome with her and that Mina person. Mariah then does the dastardly thing of stabbing poor Timeless Toni’s bleeding head with the heel of a shoe. I’d go with the whole “heel turn using an actual heel” line, but everyone else is doing that line, so I’m not going to bother. Still, some actual forward progress with this storyline. Long overdue in my book.
Will Ospreay, disgusted by MJF’s treatment of Daniel Garcia after Will beat him in a good match that went back and forth in a vain attempt to convince people that Daniel Garcia is a credible challenger who doesn’t just get wins over numerous undercard goons to be propped up when he loses to a bigger star, challenges ol’ Maxwell to a match next week on Dynamite. MJF couldn’t be bothered to show up in Calgary (can’t say I blame him), but he does offer a video to accept Will’s challenge via telepathy of some sort, as if he knew Will would invariably make this challenge ahead of time. So that’ll be a one-off thing.
The less said about the Samoe Joe/Chris Jericho street fight, the better.
Not a bad show overall, though. There was a fun four-way match, Dr. Britt interrupted another generic Mercedes promo, and the Acclaimed did a video. Do I want to say that we’re back on track here or is this an isolated incident where we get one decent show in Calgary and next week is back to AEW’s current usual affairs? Who knows, but I’ll say this much. Swerve/Danielson has me excited about All In, a show that isn’t doing so hot in the numbers (unless you consider half of last year’s attendance “hot” in which case, have at it.)
But that’s in August. Blood and Guts is in two weeks, so that’s where I’ll be watching and writing up on.
Later.
dtm666 