This episode of Dynamite was certainly well book-ended with its main players, starting with a great promo and ending with a superb match. The rest of the show had fun matches but very little in the way of consequence, something sadly becoming a common theme on Saturday nights. It was an easy show to watch with the correct main event, and there was no bad in ring segment on the show, which keeps a high show structure, but I do dock points for Storytelling for a lack of progression through the show, and in truth the rating would’ve been even lower had it not been for Danielson/Cage. I also dock points for Production, which only really suffered in the opening segment. Depending on whether you were a US or UK viewer you had different issues. US viewers reported random screen changes making it look like a picture-in-picture, while UK viewers didn't hear most of the promo because of signal issues. Either way there must be more cohesion and care, especially for your opening segment. Overall, this was a mostly decent to good show, with a cracking main event. I just wish the cards were more consistent in giving those great matches a reason to matter.
Tonight on AEW Collision, Christian Cage defends the TNT Title against The American Dragon Bryan Danielson and we will hear from the Rated R Superstar Adam Copeland following his win over Luchasaurus this week on Dynamite. Let’s get at it!
AMAZING Christian Cage, Adam Copeland and Bryan Danielson Promo
Thank you FITE for making this promo almost entirely illegible due to transmission issues and forcing me to look it up online. Nevertheless this was an excellent promo, the highlight being Starks and Copeland jabbing at each other off the cuff. Great way to establish all the key players in the main event picture on Collision right now, and a fun security brawl to end it all. This was an excellent way to start the show, if only UK viewers could see it.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
MJF does charity work for Jewish hate. Very good stuff from MJF, curious to see if this was in any way related to what happened on Wednesday or just a one off piece for a charity.
GREAT Samoa Joe vs Willie Mack
Love me some Willie Mack, though I do for some reason subconsciously end up singing his name to the song ‘Jimmy Mack’ by Martha Reeves and The Vandellas over and over whenever he wrestles. Tangent aside, this was a Big E special, plenty of meat slapping for our viewing pleasure. There was one scary landing in here from a powerslam, and the lack of story obviously hinders it, but this was a lot of fun and Mack looked really good here. Had a great time with this
Result: Samoa Joe by Pinfall via Muscle Buster
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.5 Stars
CJ Perry cuts a great promo backstage, but can we please stop calling her hot and flexible. It doesn’t fit her character and just makes me feel a bit icky whenever it’s said. Anyway, Action Andretti could be a new client which will give him and her something to do at least.
Danhausen is coming back! Well at least I hope it is and wasn’t just a promo for his mask. I love Danhausen so much and I cannot wait to have him back on TV.
GOOD Christopher Daniels vs Juice Robinson
This was a good but standard tv match. Always nice to see Christopher Daniels on the TV and they did have good chemistry but it was slow in places, particularly near the start, and this didn’t have much more purpose other than to get Juice more over ahead of the Battle Royale next week, which it did nicely.
Result: Juice Robinson by Pinfall
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.25 Stars
GOOD Bullet Club Gold Promo
Good promo from Juice here calling out MJF for the ring. Just here to show a lot of disrespect for MJF and the ring and keep the plates rolling. It didn’t advance anything, but it was good stry filler
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.25 Stars
Dustin Rhodes wants the ring, I love Dustin but he ain’t winning it. Nice to see him though
Slightly confusing Nick Wayne promo here where he tells people he’ll tell them more on Dynamite about why he turned on Nick Wayne because the world wants to know, but we already know because he did a vignette last week. This whole segment, from content to delivery to logic, was quite rubbish.
SQUASH Kyle Fletcher vs Boulder
A very quick back and forth match which made Kyle Fletcher look very good, although he did completely miss a suicide dive to the outside. A bit of fun, but very short.
Result: Kyle Fletcher by Pinfall via Dragon Sleeper
Too Short To Rate
A fun mess of a segment happens next, in which The Acclaimed work on their people skills to catastrophic effect before the former JAS come in to challenge them for the trios titles. A very entertaining segment, though Matt Menard is in such a heavy caricature New York mode I thought he was going to break out into a West Side Story esque clicking frenzy or make someone an offer they couldn’t refuse.
GREAT Skye Blue vs Kris Statlander
Now I like this new outlook for Skye Blue. Makes both her and Julia Hart more interesting as the mist begins to corrupt her. A shame then I felt like that wasn’t incorporated into the match as well as it could’ve been, and only really played a factor in bursts. Either way though, this was a great match and the two women worked super well together. Really felt like a proper back and forth match between the two and I think this did a lot for both women.
Result: Kris Statlander by Pinfall via Saturday Night Fever
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.75 Stars
Kyle Fletcher wants to make a name for himself against Kenny Omega. Yes please I will have some of that thank you very much
Nice to see they remembered they had Rush and crew lying around backstage after disappearing for ages. Hopefully they can get some momentum in the next few weeks.
SQUASH Keith Lee vs Turbo Floyd
Keith Lee is great, Turbo Floyd is a silly name, Keith wins easily, no more said.
Result: Keith Lee by Pinfall via Spirit Bomb
I may have spoken too soon about Andretti, as he’s killed by Miro, who promises to do the same to anyone who pairs with CJ. This is a very exciting story with a lot of potential. Excited to see where it goes.
Nice storyline summisation of CMLL to new fans before Mistico takes on Rocky Romero on Rampage next week. Really appreciated that. Good work from AEW.
MUST WATCH Bryan Danielson vs Christian Cage- TNT Championship– Watch Match Here
This started good, then got better and better and better and better. Christians best match in AEW so far by a mile, this was an outstanding contest and one of the best matches of the year. The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is that it wasn’t the most innovative match, but I don’t care because this is pro wrestling at it’s finest. Excellent back and forth with some outstanding psychology and a brilliant crowd. This was a brilliant way to end the show and was easily the best match of the night.
Result: Christian Cage by Pinfall
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4.75 Stars
Overall…
This episode of Dynamite was certainly well book-ended with its main players, starting with a great promo and ending with a superb match. The rest of the show had fun matches but very little in the way of consequence, something sadly becoming a common theme on Saturday nights. It was an easy show to watch with the correct main event, and there was no bad in ring segment on the show, which keeps a high show structure, but I do dock points for Storytelling for a lack of progression through the show, and in truth the rating would’ve been even lower had it not been for Danielson/Cage. I also dock points for Production, which only really suffered in the opening segment. Depending on whether you were a US or UK viewer you had different issues. US viewers reported random screen changes making it look like a picture-in-picture, while UK viewers didnt hear most of the promo because of signal issues. Either way there must be more cohesion and care, especially for your opening segment. Overall, this was a mostly decent to good show, with a cracking main event. I just wish the cards were more consistent in giving those great matches a reason to matter.
Matches: 0.75/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.5/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.5/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling- October 14th 2023
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here:
