You know… I almost feel bad for posting this on a Friday midnight hour as opposed to a Thursday afternoon or evening… because twelve hours later, the Portrait Of Ruin video is going up and I feel that’s going to be the bigger deal than the second Dynamite I’ve watched in a row… which is quite an accomplishment, all things considered.
But yes, for those who missed it, Darby Allin’s defeat of MJF for the AEW championship, along with Double Or Nothing being a good chunk of time away, convinced me to give this AEW thing another shot until that show. And we’ll have to see if Tony Khan does a better job of filling his potholes than McSon-In-Law can. Right now, the odds are even.
Show opens with MJF coming and crying foul… his shoulders were up, Darby cheated, Aubrey’s a shitty referee… almost like Jericho warned us all those years ago… and now he’s demanding a rematch. Instead, he gets TNT Champion Kevin Knight, who offers to put his title up for grabs since Max has never had that. We tease a title match, but Max says no, we’ll do this next week. Oh well. This Knight fellow can cut a good promo.
Brody King kills Lio Rush in a quick little match, which is followed by a Hikaru Shida win over that Mina person (match was fine, crowd enjoyed themselves, Shida has been missed ’round these parts), and then we get a pretty fun Will Ospreay/Mark Davis match that ended with Davis piledriving Ospreay and the match ending due to doctor stoppage. Davis wants to do more damage, but Mox and his Death people come along and claim Ospreay… maybe he’s the newest member of the Dark Order or something. Those guys could use another member.
Are they even around these days?
Also, this thing where Ospreay is taking blows to the neck after neck surgery… Bryan Danielson did the same thing with his concussions and I didn’t care for that shit, either. Even Kenny and his getting hit in the diverticulitus rubs me the wrong way. Work that in once in a while, that’s fine. Make it a regular thing and I have to question any promotion that would let anyone in such a fragile state continue to compete when it’s pretty clear that they couldn’t handle it. Of all things to copy, the Danielson thing is not one that’s high on the fucking list.
Speaking of people who are around, Samoa Joe is back from another injury and returns the favor by killing another dude in quick fashion. After that, we see Jericho cutting a deal with the Hurt Business/Syndicate/whatever because that worked out so well for Max. And Darby cuts one final promo before his title defense against Tommaso Ciampa.
AEW World Champion Darby Allin defeated Tommaso Ciampa via Scorpion Deathlock submission to retain the title… and then out comes Brody King to issue a challenge for next week. Here’s how I see this Darby reign; take a guy who is willing to put his body under constant duress and pit him against a guy who is go to whatever lengths he can to get what he wants. Let them fight, as it were, and the result was a fun main event in a sort of car crash sort of way. Say what you will about Darby as champion and honestly, I don’t expect this run to last long… but if that means I get these crazy, fun main events as a result while it lasts, then I’m all for it. I’ve seen wrestling’s attempt at “cinema” and it was the drizzling fucking shits. I’m in the mood for some fun crazy shit. Could I question things? I can question plenty of things. But remember one thing…
Jack Perry once got set on fire and he came back to win a main event PPV match with a flying knee. On the same night. In the same match.
Please stop trying to inject reality into this thing because that ship has sailed ages ago and every time you do, it’s faker than wrestling.
Good show, AEW. See you next week.
dtm666 