AEW Dynamite: Fright Night was an amazing show. The theme for the event was Halloween but there weren’t many tricks, mainly treats. The first hour of the show was structured in a way we aren’t used to with AEW, with only one match taking place in Adam Cole and Buddy Matthews. The story of the match was able to carry it through when at times the action was lacking, understandably so as Cole has just come back from a lengthy injury. Three outstanding segments took place in the first half of the show, as all of them did a great job of advancing their respective stories further. Orange Cassidy produced one of his more personal promos in probably the most serious state we’ve seen him in, he is the perfect person to label as the leader of the baby face group going against Jon Moxley and his group of misfits. Kyle Fletcher dived into his past in a segment with his former Aussie Open tag team partner, Mark Davis. This helped immensely in terms of furthering the idea that Fletcher is outright delusional after his DIY haircut last week. The Young Bucks finally decided it was time for another team to take this tag team division forward, as they put on a classic with Private Party, finishing with Zay and Quen getting their long overdue moment in winning the AEW Tag Team titles. The inclusion of BCC throughout the show was very well done, everything felt connected on the show because of it which makes for a far easier watch for wrestling fans. The main event was the cherry on top of a very pleasurable cake, with Swerve and Shelton having a solid contest and the AEW debut of Bobby Lashley.
It is Spooky Season, and AEW are taking full advantage of it with Fright Night this week. There is a stacked card on tap for Dynamite, The Young Bucks defend their AEW Tag Team Titles against Private Party in a match with very high stakes. Swerve Strickland takes on the recently impressive, Shelton Benjamin. Adam Cole faces Buddy Matthews in his first match since returning from injury. Let’s get into the review!
MUST WATCH Orange Cassidy Segment
We kicked off Fright Night with a very personal and passionate Orange Cassidy promo. OC interrupted the opening package to the show, right when he’s about to see Chuck Taylor get his neck crushed by BCC. Cassidy said he needs to lead this group against Jon Moxley because they are the future of AEW, but they are also very young. He then finished by challenging Mox to an AEW World Championship match. OC made a lot of sense with what he was saying, my problem with this group challenging BCC is that although there are a lot of young and talented guys, they don’t have a leader which for me was part of the reason I couldn’t take them seriously. Now step up Orange Cassidy, who is in a position that he hasn’t been before and that is smack bang in the middle of the main event scene, which is long overdue.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.50 Stars
GREAT Adam Cole vs Buddy Matthews
Bit of ring rust was evident here, as expected considering Adam Cole has spent the better part of a year out injured. But an AC with ring rust, can still put on a better match than most. The story was the focal point in the bout, Buddy Matthews spent all match trying to bring out the ‘best of Adam Cole’ and by the end of their fight, he was able to do that as Adam hit two consecutive Panama Sunrises and the Last Shot to take home the win. We got a bit of a Black and Gold callback after the match, as Malakai Black made it clear he is AC’s next challenger.
Result: Adam Cole by Pinfall via Last Shot
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.50 Stars
GREAT Kyle Fletcher Segment
Kyle Fletcher appeared with his fresh trim, and he was looking for Will Ospreay, but although he didn’t find Ospreay, he was shocked by a piece of his past as ½ of Aussie Open, Mark Davis made his return. Davis said he doesn’t recognise the man standing in front of him anymore, questioning why Kyle turned on someone that was like a brother to him, while turning down the opportunity to be in the Don Callis Family. It is clear that this is leading to Fletcher vs Davis, but I love that AEW have included Fletcher’s past history in this story as it isn’t something that should be ignored.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.75 Stars
AMAZING Jon Moxley Segment
Jon Moxley and his group finally showed up on Dynamite to answer Orange Cassidy’s challenge. Mox said that he manipulated OC into challenging him for the AEW World Title, he removed the ‘dead weight’ that is Chuck Taylor. Then in an interesting plot twist, Moxley told OC to come down to the ring or he would crush Wheeler Yuta’s neck. Then of course Cassidy came out to help, and the people that have been fighting with the BCC since their reign of terror started, also came out to the ring and much like the past couple weeks, a brawl then started. Mox’s promo was very good, this new character of his might be some of his best work honestly. This is also the most I’ve cared about Yuta’s character as well, some great development on his side of things.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.25 Stars
MUST WATCH Young Bucks vs Private Party – AEW Tag Team Championships
The best booking decision AEW has made when it comes to the tag team division in months. They saw the Young Bucks’ title reign was getting stale, and pulled the trigger just at the right time on a fresh and exciting team in Private Party to lead this tag team division now and hopefully revitalise it. The story of the tension between Isaiah Kassidy and Marq Quen is what took this match up a notch, Zay having second thoughts about tagging in after Quen accidentally made him bleed with the ring bell, but then eventually overcoming the hesitation was a brilliant touch, and a great moment in terms of storytelling. The reslilance and determination shown by Zay was another highlight of this bout, doing all he can to stay in this match to the point where he was literally on his last legs. Fully deserved moment for these two men, this is something they have worked incredibly hard to achieve, so you can’t be anything but happy for them.
Result: Private Party by Pinfall via Hurricanrana into Cutter
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.75 Stars
AVERAGE TV Time with Chris Jericho
Following his ROH World Championship win, Chris Jericho took it upon himself to educate us that he is going to take the title to new heights. But in doing so, he referenced a match rating that was given to him that has no importance on the show or the way it is run whatsoever, while trying to make it sound like some sort of achievement. This could’ve easily been left off the show.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 2.75 Stars
AVERAGE Kamille vs Kris Statlander
AEW advertised this as a battle of the giants encounter, although it was a pretty decently wrestled match, the crowd didn’t seem to be interested in it at all. The lack of atmosphere really hurt the match, but unfortunately if the build up doesn’t interest fans then they aren’t going to make any noise.
Result: Kris Statlander by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 2.75 Stars
GREAT Swerve Strickland vs Shelton Benjamin
Our main event for this week, it started off with a slow pace and the architectect of that was Shelton Benjamin. Then as the bout went on, we started to once again see some of Shelton’s outstanding athleticism, he has really been treated like a big deal in AEW which has been great to see. Swerve was typical him in the ring, everything he did was smooth and there weren’t any noticeable mistakes on his end. After the match, we got the AEW debut of Bobby Lashley as the Hurt Syndicate stood strong to end Dynamite.
Result: Swerve Strickland by Pinfall via Swerve Stomp
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.5 Stars
Overall…
AEW Dynamite: Fright Night was an amazing show. The theme for the event was Halloween but there weren’t many tricks, mainly treats. The first hour of the show was structured in a way we aren’t used to with AEW, with only one match taking place in Adam Cole and Buddy Matthews. The story of the match was able to carry it through when at times the action was lacking, understandably so as Cole has just come back from a lengthy injury. Three outstanding segments took place in the first half of the show, as all of them did a great job of advancing their respective stories further. Orange Cassidy produced one of his more personal promos in probably the most serious state we’ve seen him in, he is the perfect person to label as the leader of the baby face group going against Jon Moxley and his group of misfits. Kyle Fletcher dived into his past in a segment with his former Aussie Open tag team partner, Mark Davis. This helped immensely in terms of furthering the idea that Fletcher is outright delusional after his DIY haircut last week. The Young Bucks finally decided it was time for another team to take this tag team division forward, as they put on a classic with Private Party, finishing with Zay and Quen getting their long overdue moment in winning the AEW Tag Team titles. The inclusion of BCC throughout the show was very well done, everything felt connected on the show because of it which makes for a far easier watch for wrestling fans. The main event was the cherry on top of a very pleasurable cake, with Swerve and Shelton having a solid contest and the AEW debut of Bobby Lashley.
Matches: 0.75/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere/Crowd/Commentary: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.75/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here
