All Elite Wrestling Dynamite, 4/27/2022

We’re in lovely Philadelphia for tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite. There’s some exciting matches on the card tonight, let’s see if they hold up to the scrutiny that is me, watching some wrestling.

JR has welcomed us, Cult of Personality has hit, and CM Punk makes a beeline for the announcer’s table. He’s ready to get to this possibly once in a lifetime matchup between two of the best tag team wrestlers on the planet today, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR. Both are wearing pink and black themed gear, as this contest is an Owen Hart tournament qualifier. Dax went the extra mile with the Hitman style boots. We begin with cordial classic wrestling, lots of reversals and arm drags. An accidental eye poke by Dax provides the first break in the action, as Cash slaps Dax’s hand away several times as Harwood tries to apologize. The next segment gets a little rougher, with some nasty chops from both sides leading up to a piledriver from Cash onto Dax, which gets a two count. Harwood has been working Wheeler’s knee after a spill outside led to an injury, but when he gets Dax set up for the Sharpshooter he looks to the crowd, questioning the need to further injure his friend and risk hurting both their friendship and their ability to defend the AAA and Ring of Honor tag team championships the two of them hold. That hesitation leads to Cash trying for a rollup, but Dax is able to reverse that into a pinfall victory. After the match, the two belt champs embrace. This is just fantastic, old school wrestling. Two guys who love the business and clearly love the legacy of Owen Hart, carrying on that style of match for another generation of fans to appreciate. 

Dax Harwood wins by pinfall, about twenty minutes in.

We won’t see Hangman Adam Page tonight, as he tweeted earlier that his “face was full of COVID snot”, but we do get the announcement that Page and CM Punk will face off at Double or Nothing for the AEW World Championship!

CM Punk then gets the microphone, asking us to walk and talk with him. He puts FTR over, and gives us his spiel about how he came to AEW to see if he’s still got it. He’ll put that to the test at the PPV, and he may not beat Page but he’ll damn sure know he was in a fight. 

Dan Lambert and Scorpio Sky had a short segment next to hype the main event, a ladder match between Sky and Guevara for the TNT championship.

The Blackpool Combat Club is just so fucking cool. They also happen to have a match next, with manager/head recruiter/British specialist William Regal joining Wheeler Yuta in the entrance tunnel on his way to the announcer’s table. Danielson, Yuta, and Moxley will be engaging the already-in-ring trio of The Factory - Nick Comorato, Aaron Solo, and QT Marshall. This was quick, brutal, and exactly what it needed to be. Wheeler Yuta is being treated like a star by both AEW booking and the fans, what with this being his hometown. Some good use of the huge Comorato tossing Yuta around, while Regal tells us it’s “exactly what he needs, he needs to be thrown around by huge, horrible men!” The closing image of both Danielson and Mox keeping their opponents in submission holds while Yuta applies the pin, with all six men in ring, is a fantastic visual and keeps the BCC’s impressive pedigree alive.

Yuta gets the pinfall victory for Blackpool Combat Club at about ten minutes.

Interview segment with Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker (DMD), and Toni Storm is next, with Hayter and Storm set to meet in the upcoming Owen Hart Tournament, Women’s Edition. Some aggressive banter leads to Ruby Soho stepping on screen to offer Storm some backup. I like the idea of Storm and Soho as buddies, they have good complimentary styles. This is a tag match waiting to happen, but for now, Hayter and Baker walk off after baiting Toni Storm to do so. Ruby is quick to point this out after the heels are off screen.

Another quick interview next, this one with the members of Jurassic Express and mentor Christian Cage. Jungle Boy accepts responsibility for his recent loss to Kyle O’Reilly in their Owen Hart tournament qualifier, and Christian is quick to point out that that is some loser talk. He quickly segues into that being a “teachable moment”, and issues an open challenge. A challenge that, apparently, Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs were within earshot of, as they join the trio onscreen to aggressively accept.

We’re back in the arena, as Lance Archer and Jake Roberts would like to remind us that everybody dies. MJF and Shawn Spears are taking up valuable revenue again by sitting in a fancy booth, and seem to have paired concession stand popcorn with white wine, which doesn’t sound appetizing to me. They give us the same talking points we’ve gotten the last few weeks, building this MJF vs his employee Wardlow feud - MJF says Wardlow is a piggy, he doesn’t deserve entrance music, fans should not be singing or chanting as Wardlow enters the arena, etc. I kinda dig the pseudo-Goldberg vibes of Wardlow being led to and from the ring in handcuffs by security. I do not, however, dig Archers’ floppy left boot. It looks uncomfortable. Wardlow starts the match using the wrong CAW moveset, as he busts out a hurricanrana near the beginning of the match after Archer launched himself off the apron with a senton while Wardlow was getting uncuffed. We then got some BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPIN MEAT, as is the parlance of our time. Archer had a chokeslam attempt blocked, tried an iron claw, but that didn’t work either. We did get a nice Old-School style rope walk into a moonsault press by Archer, though. The Murderhawk got a two count from a chokeslam after, but his attempt at the Blackout finisher was reversed. A series of headbutts from Wardlow, followed by a symphony of no less than four powerbombs, was enough to put Archer down for the three count. 

Wardlow with the pinfall victory after about six minutes. 

A stipulation of no physicality hangs over the next segment, a conversation between the Jericho Appreciation Society (Jericho, the 2.0 guys, Daniel Garcia, and Jake Haggar) and Santana, Ortiz, and Eddie Kingston. Ortiz still has the stolen shoes from last week! There’s a LOT of WWE references sprinkled throughout the JAS’s diatribe, like “sports entertainers are best for business” and the “AEW Galaxy”. Middle fingers are exchanged, threats are made. Eddie basically threatening to murder Jericho while wearing a Bruiser Brody shirt was just perfection.

Another short video interview with Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti to hype their side of the upcoming TNT Championship ladder match, tonight’s main event. No Mark Henry to remind us of that later, though, as this is just Dynamite.

Back to the ring for Hikaru Shida and Serena Deeb, facing off in a Philly Street Fight to possibly end their long running feud. I kinda feel like if this IS the blowoff, maybe a video package showing the lengths these women have gone to injure each other leading up to this wouldn’t have hurt. But I digress. It’s a street fight - there’s some good chair spots, a lot of kendo stick action. Deeb catching Shida’s leg in the ring apron and smashing it with a chair was a neat bit. At the halfway mark, Serena finds what appears to be a giant bag of cocaine under the ring, which she uses to blind Hikaru Shida. This may backfire once that stuff kicks in, but for now Shida is not going to be able to see well with the powder in her eyes. She finds a kendo stick by touch, and nearly knocks Ref Aubrey’s head off while blindly swinging. She does eventually connect with Deeb, and after being knocked out of the ring ends up near a security guard. The kindly guard offers her a bottle, and now she’s visually repaired and ready to go. Shida’s Katana finisher is cut off with a chair shot to the knee, and although Shida hits an Avalanche (or is it super?) Falcon Arrow for two, Deeb hits the Detox onto the still-present chair. A little extra chair violence leads to Deeb locking in the Texas Cloverleaf for the submission victory at around ten minutes. She celebrates, but it still felt anticlimactic to me. We’ll see if this continues.

Serena Deeb wins by submission, around the 12 minute mark.

We’re in back with MJF, Spears, and an interviewer who is quickly asked to leave. MJF is on the phone, and offers whoever is on the other end six figures for one night’s work. He tells the camera that he’s got somebody bigger and smarter than Wardlow coming next week, and you can’t…teach…that. 

In the entrance, we have the members of the House of Black with the body of Fuego del Sol. They begin to remove his mask when the voice of Alex Abrahantes rings through the arena. He’s in his robes in the middle of the ring, and tells the House that removing a luchador’s mask is disrespectful. They approach the ring as Penta Oscuro’s music hits, followed by Pac. As the House of Black enters the ring, Abrahantes comes in through the entrance tunnel, and it’s revealed that the robed figure in the ring is a returning Rey Fenix! He trades a little offense with Buddy Murphy, and stands tall as we are finally gonna get this trios feud. Lots of trios lately, a belt can’t be too far behind, right?

Quick, respectful interview as Swerve Strickland and Darby Allen question which of them is the homeowner on Rampage, followed by a rundown of Friday’s show.

Ten man tag team action next, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it matchup between the Young Bucks, ReDragon, and Adam Cole versus Varsity Blondes, Lee Johnson, Dante Martin, and Brock Anderson. The good guys get no entrances, but that’s ok because that would have taken as long as the actual match, which was about five minutes of the Undisputed Elte showing off their movesets and new merch. It was a squash for a team of great heels that have eaten a lot of losses lately, so that’s fine by me. Plus at the end the Bucks even put on the new t-shirts, and we had a pretty cool pose with all five guys.

Undisputed Elite win by pinfall, clocked at around five minutes.

We quickly join a camera in the back area, as the JAS has beaten up Santana and Ortiz and Chris Jericho, sports entertainer, somehow uses sorcery to launch a fireball at a restrained Eddie Kingston’s perfectly manicured eyebrows. You ain’t pretty no more, Eddie!

Video package running down Rampage in two nights, featuring Samoa Joe and Trent Beretta vying for the Ring of Honor Television title. I’ll miss Trent, he seemed nice.

It’s now main event o clock, as we’re going TV time remaining for the TNT championship. Sammy’s entrance, featuring he and Tay Conti’s tongues, gets a lil reprimand from good ole JR. Some great spots in this, including fun springboards, a barbed wire coated ladder, and a Spanish Fly onto said ladder. Tay got involved, prompting Paige Van Zant to run out and attack her. Dan Lambert also ate a maneuver, but I can’t object to that guy getting attacked because he sucks. Both men climbing the ladder, Scorpio with Conti on his back and Sammy with Van Zant on his, led to a fun chicken fight on the top of the ladder. Both guys respectfully climbed down a few rungs for the mutual dismounts, which was thoughtful. They met again at the top of the ladder, and Sammy got the upper hand long enough to give a middle finger to Sky. Sky responded by biting the finger, and although Sammy managed to spring up to the top of the ladder once again, Scorpio Sky fought him off and became TNT champion for the second time. A great, fun ladder match with plenty of good spots and springy rope work! Kaz came out to congratulate Sky, as Ethan Page looked on warily. But Sky and Kaz shook hands, and I’m sure Kazarian is looking forward to the promised matchup between himself and his old SCU teammate.

Scorpio Sky wins the TNT championship, via ladder ascension and cummerbun retrieval.

TL;DR: Another great episode of Dynamite. The opening and closing matches are definitely worth a watch, the former for historical value and the latter for some fun ladder spots.