AEW Dynamite was a solid show this week, with entertaining matches and segments. Nothing this week was especially groundbreaking or newsworthy, but it was a fun show from back to front. Ricochet/Mortos and the 6 man tag were particular highlights, though neither passed the 4.25 star requirement to raise the overall match rating. Segments and matches either ended or advanced stories, even if not always substantially, and the show was well structured enough to be an easy watch. Production had a number of key issues, including some promos being hard to hear and technical difficulties with video packages, which does knock my overall production grade, but that doesn’t change what was still a good enough show by AEW heading into a more blockbuster show next week.
Tonight on AEW Dynamite, The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada take on Will Ospreay, Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita in an all star 6 man tag. Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy also look to settle their feud as the two go one on one. Elsewhere on the card, Ricochet takes on The Beast Mortos and we hear from Jon Moxley. Let’s get at it!
GREAT Orange Cassidy vs Chris Jericho
Despite a slow start, this built to an exciting conclusion, and had some very innovative offence throughout. It is unsurprising that Jericho, in his older age, is working at a slower pace, which did take some of the steam of a hot start out in the middle, but it nonetheless made up for that in the unique offence performed by both men. A clever and decisive victory for OC, for what I pray is the end of this feud
Result: Orange Cassidy by Pinfall via Assisted Orange Punch
David Sheldon WR Star Rating – 3.5 Stars
Wheeler Yuta is ordered to defend his trios title alongside PAC and Claudio. There is a really solid promo from both men as well as Moxley, while Yuta is absent minded in the next segment. This is interesting storytelling, though I found the BCC more believable than Yuta.
United Empire is reforming for one night only as Callis pleads with Ospreay to team with Fletcher. Very fun team up
SQUASH Hook vs JD Ink
This continued to build Hook vs Roddy, as Hook quickly beat up the man with the silliest name I’ve heard in a long while getting easily destroyed.
Result: Hook by Submission via RedRum
Christian Cage further bullies Kip Sabian. This has to go somewhere otherwise poor Kip Sabian.
GOOD Mariah May and Serena Deeb vs Yuka Sakazaki and Queen Aminata
This is an amalgamation of several women’s feuds across primarily Rampage and Collision. This is entirely fine and well worked, and it’s very nice to see Yuka back on Dynamite. This match itself isn’t much, going only 8 minutes, ending in cheap disqualification and with little spectacular to shout about, but it is nice to see some new faces feuding on Dynamite.
Result: Aminata and Sakazaki by Disqualification
David Sheldon WR Star Rating: 3.25 Stars
Mina Shirakawa is coming back, which will hopefully further the story with Mariah.
A fantastic video package for Danielson/McGuiness, which is a terrific way to teach new viewers about the feud. Tech issues got in the way quite majorly of it starting, but it was outstanding once it got going.
GREAT BCC Promo
During the BCC’s entrance, they were attacked by Private Party, who had called out the BCC earlier in the show. They proved again ineffective though as they and Kommander were again beaten up, this time with Hammers. Darby made the save and looked awesome as usual, but while Moxley and Darby’s promo deliveries were excellent, and the selling of Private Party superb, it is such a shame to see them look so geekish in the wider picture considering the talent they have.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.5 Stars
GREAT The Beast Mortos vs Ricochet
A very very fun matchup here between Mortos and Ricochet. A good dynamic and strong innovation was all this needed, as the two threw bombs at each other. Mortos is a superb big luchador, able to match in speed and power, which makes him so dangerous. Ricochet has a great presentation in AEW, though I am still not sold on his finishing move, looking comparatively very weak to the rest of his offence and thus neutralising the impact of his finish.
Result: Ricochet by Pinfall via Vertigo
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.75 Stars
GREAT Hangman Page Promo
A simple but very effective promo for Hangman Page and Jeff Jarrett to further their feud and set up a rematch down the road. Hangman and Jarrett complement each other very well in an old school face/heel dynamic, while Jarrett continues to prove his aptitude in simple wrestling storytelling, proving sometimes the old tricks work best.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating: 3.75 Stars
In a promo with terrible audio acoustics, Ospreay and Ricochet announce their match for 2 weeks time. Terribly exciting news, though the audio made it very hard to hear.
AMAZING Kazuchika Okada and The Young Bucks vs Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher
This was a very entertaining 20+ minutes of quality action. The best of this match was Ospreay’s work against The Elite, though with the added talents of Takeshita and Fletcher there isn’t a bad worker in here. The match did follow a slightly samey formula early on, but once it hit its stride there was some superb wrestling to be seen. Nice to see the re-emergence of the Coriola as well, which I assume will play a big role in the match next week.
Result: Ospreay/Fletcher by Pinfall via Coriolis
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Overall…
AEW Dynamite was a solid show this week, with entertaining matches and segments. Nothing this week was especially groundbreaking or newsworthy, but it was a fun show from back to front. Ricochet/Mortos and the 6 man tag were particular highlights, though neither passed the 4.25 star requirement to raise the overall match rating. Segments and matches either ended or advanced stories, even if not always substantially, and the show was well structured enough to be an easy watch. Production had a number of key issues, including some promos being hard to hear and technical difficulties with video packages, which does knock my overall production grade, but that doesn’t change what was still a good enough show by AEW heading into a more blockbuster show next week.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.5/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling – September 18th 2024
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here :
1 Comment
That match was an absolute banger! The high spots were insane, and the crowd was eating up every moment. AEW just keeps raising the bar!