By Geno McGahee
Thanks to the Coronavirus, we saw an empty arena tonight for the AEW Dynamite show, but they filled the first row with good guys like SCU on one side and bad guys like MJF and Jake the Snake Roberts on the other. This was very old school stuff.
Cody Rhodes came out and brought out Kenny Omega and Matt Jackson to talk about unity and keeping the team together as they head into the WAR GAMES style match, BLOOD AND GUTS. With the three ready to go, they called out Hangman Adam Page and asked him if he was going to be part of the team, he raised his drink and let them know that he was in.
In the first match, The Best Friends took on The Lucha Bros. Orange Cassidy was there to support his good friends and even put on a headset to do some commentary but never said a word. I don’t think anyone expected him too. As always, he was hilarious.
After a low blow, The Lucha Bros. secured the win, leading to a challenge to a street fight on next week’s show. They will have a parking lot showdown, which should be a lot of fun.
The next match was a four way battle with some of the ladies of AEW, including former champion Riho, Kris Statlander, Hikaru Shida and Penelope Ford (With Kip Sabian). This was quite the match and Kip Sabian was hilarious, getting his ass kicked with regularity. I’ve liked Penelope Ford and her athleticism from jump, but she almost got pretty hurt missing a flying scissors on Statlander and falling hard on her back. To her credit, she shook it off and continued the show, but she will be sore in the morning.
Shida would win the match after a Riho assist in a very good and entertaining match.
The Jurassic Express without Marco Stunt (Thank God) took on the jobber tag team, The Butcher and the Blade. It was a good match and everything that you’d expect. I am always concerned about Luchasaurus. He was hurt before and seeing a big guy like him doing back flips doesn’t always seem like a good idea, I’d hate to see him get another injury.
Luchasaurus would get the win and the losses for the Butcher and the Blade, without the Bunny, continue. They may need another look.
The Dark Order came out and the great Evil Uno stated that the Exalted One is near, but that irritated Christopher Daniels. He got up and told Uno that he’s full of shit and that there is no Exalted One, and that’s when we got the reveal. Brodie Lee has arrived in AEW and beat the hell out of SCU and has become the head of the Dark Order. What a great pairing.
The Main Event was Santana, Ortiz and Jack Hager taking on Matt Jackson, Cody Rhodes and Hangman Page. Chris Jericho came out and all the bad guys sang his song, led by the hilarious Sammy Guevera. Even MJF joined in with the singing. I was laughing out loud during this segment. It was so funny.
Jericho was handling commentary and it was great stuff and the match was awesome as it always is with those involved. Ortiz is one of the best things AEW has going. His over-selling and hilarious Tiger Claw make him incredibly entertaining.
Hager was excellent as the strongman in the match and they spent a lot of time beating up Cody, but tables would turn and Jackson and Page put their differences aside to take on the Inner Circle, but a quick roll up by Santana would lead to a win for the Inner Circle and a great celebration by Chris Jericho, screaming “we did it!” Jericho has never been better.
After the match, Jericho made the decision that an audience would not be allowed at any other AEW event and that they had a great advantage at BLOOD AND GUTS in the double cage match because they had five guys and the Elite only had 4…or so they thought.
Suddenly a drone came out of nowhere and the piano began to play. In the rafters, Broken Matt Hardy stood, screaming “Delete!” Finally, Broken Matt is going to be allowed to flourish as he did in Impact. This was amazing and AEW hit it out of the park tonight with their show. This may have been their best show so far and I’m so happy to see Hardy back again! Broken Matt!
