Well… after a long time coming, we’re finally getting the long-teased Desmond Wolfe vs. Lloyd Boner match.
Yes, Grand Slam from a much emptier Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York featured Bryan Danielson defending his World title against Nigel McGuiness, who made a surprise appearance at the All In Gauntlet match and is now a World Title contender despite not having wrestled in over a decade or so. Also, Darby Allin puts his World title shot on the line in a match against Jon Moxley for… some reason, and finally, Tony Khan gets a new neckbrace.
That last one is a lie, but we’re using the old meme banner for Dynamite, even though I actually thought that this was a great Dynamite show.
Truth be told, I don’t know why I’m doing the break for this one because I’ve very little to say about this show other than a couple cursory notes here and there. The key takeaways seem to be that Tony Khan now seems to be able to afford Final Countdown whenever because that’s all that Bryan Danielson seems to come out to these days, so clearly, they’re making his last hurrah feel special, as they should.
Danielson/McGuiness opened the show, with Danielson eventually winning via submission and forcing Nigel to thank him for being man enough to face him. So now hopefully, this gripe on commentary will no longer be a thing. But this was a really great match. Nigel looked fantastic for a guy who hadn’t been an active wrestler for over a decade and hopefully, he’ll considering donning the boots every so often because I think he can pull it off. Who knows? Maybe a World title is in his future long after Bryan calls it quits full-time.
Jon Moxley defeated Darby Allin in the main event to win the title shot against Danielson, which will take place at the next PPV, WrestleDream. I guess if this is a way to entice me to buy your next PPV, this is a way to do it, I suppose. Sucks for Darby that he’s getting sidelined (again), but at least you can say he avoided the inevitable fate of getting a big build-up, only to lose in a major match, and then be forgotten about afterwards in favor of whatever new toy TK picked up.
In other news, the Young Bucks retain their tag titles over Will Ospreay and some other dude whose name I don’t recall… Kyle something or other. It is a good match. This is followed by Mariah May retaining her Women’s title over Magical Girl Yuka, which was not so great, but blame that on the reality that nobody saw Yuka winning this thing. Also, MVP (yes, that MVP) offers Prince Nana (and by extension, Swerve, who presumably still has a needle in his mouth… or so I’m told) a deal of sorts. I’m guessing a certain All Mighty fellow is soon to follow? I don’t know if I should be intrigued or just roll my eyes at another former WWE’er showing up in AEW and getting the mild push before being neglected.
By the way, where the fuck is Miro?
Look, I’m not going to complain about this show all that much. The opening match and the main event were the only real highlights for me (and some stuff to be found in the middle) and that’s more than enough to give this show a thumbs up. Did it sell me on the next PPV? Not really, but we’ll see about the replay… maybe.
Will watch Impact later tonight… hopefully, get a quick musings in this weekend.
dtm666 