wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s AEW Dynamite Review 10.27.21
Image Credit: AEW/Twitter
Loading...AEW Dynamite
October 27th, 2021 | Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts
I was kept pretty busy over the past two weekends so I didn’t have time for reviews but I’m back to cover Dynamite on a Wednesday.
Bobby Fish (3-2) vs. CM Punk (4-0)
It was Punk’s birthday the night before and Bobby’s tonight. Punk was back to wearing his long bois. Fish has had so many matches on TV already. Is this the oldest combo of wrestlers to ever have a match together in AEW? Anyway, this match continued the ongoing story that has been prevalent in all of CM Punk’s matches. He’s still not quite back at his peak and it has made it so he struggles. Here, Fish picked apart his knee, which made sense given his penchant for using the heel hook. Punk had to fight from behind and it’ll be interesting to see when that ultimately turns around for him. The comeback was interesting to watch and Fish blocked the GTS that had a chance to end things. As they started fighting for a backslide, Punk turned into the GTS. He covered after a few seconds, winning in 13:14 with Fish kicking out just after the three count. A really good match that told a strong story and I liked how Fish kicked out after the bell, signaling that this was close. [***½]
Malakai Black spoke and said he’s not fazed by a pinfall loss because he turned the Nightmare Family and the fans against Cody Rhodes. He said they aren’t done yet and boy is that disappointing. No more Cody/Malakai, please.
Bryce Donovan (0-0) vs. MJF (16-3)
Decent pop for Donovan but he lost to the Heatseeker in 0:34. [NR]
Post-match, we got a long-winded MJF promo and man, I really just cannot get into a lot of his stuff. It’s fine and is classic heel heat but no part of me connects with it. Anyway, he said he has next for the World Title after Full Gear, which brought out Sting after a bit of MJF trolling. A strange Darby Allin video played and Sting hit the ring with his bat. MJF bailed into the crowd where someone dressed as the Invisible Man revealed himself to be Darby in disguise. That was so dumb but it worked because wrestling is corny. Darby and Sting cleaned house. That segment started rough but picked up well enough with that reveal.
Backstage, Britt Baker spoke about learning that she must face Abadon on Rampage in a non-title match after walking out on a match with her on the Jericho Cruise. Gotta plug that Jericho stuff.
AEW TNT Championship: Sammy Guevara [c] (7-1 in 2021) vs. Ethan Page (21-3)
Sammy Guevara is a fun wrestler to watch but not someone who I’m interested in as champion. Thankfully, these two worked well as opponents because of their styles. Sammy is the exciting high flying babyface while Page is the prototypical great heel who gets under your skin. That made for some quality back and forth that the crowd was invested in. Sammy got worked over a bit before making the comeback with fire. The finish saw Sammy reverse a top rope Edge into a super rana before adding a jackknife pin to win in 10:58. A good match but not really anything ore. [***]
Now it was time to plug another feud I can’t get into as Scorpio Sky attacked and the Inner Circle made the save with music and pyro. That led to a promo where they set up an Inner Circle/Men of the Year street fight tag.
Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston were interviewed about the World Title Eliminator Tournament. Kingston’s promo was great as he was very serious about it all and he walked off before Bryan could respond. Bryan was happy about that though because this is the Eddie he wanted to face.
The Lucha Brothers issued a challenge for the AEW Tag Titles to FTR at Full Gear.
AEW TBS Title Tournament First Round: Hikaru Shida (20-3 in 2021) vs. Serena Deeb (7-1 in 2021)
Their match a few weeks ago was really good and prevented Shida from her 50th win. Here, Shida used that to fuel her, being aggressive from the opening bell. Deeb continued her trend of being vicious with her limb work, working over the leg to calm things down. There was no case here of anyone taking too much of an advantage though. That allowed this to feel different from a lot of the show with the women trading suplexes and strikes. Shida’s chair springboard was cut off and Deeb did the Bret Hart ring post Figure Four, which will always get a pop out of me. I loved the finish here. Deeb went to use the 50 win trophy as a weapon but Shida cut it off and teased doing it herself, which would’ve been a DQ. She stopped and Deeb tried a cheap rollup to win but Shida kicked out. After a bit more back and forth, they ended this with a SummerSlam 92 tribute of sorts as Shida countered a pin into one of her own to win in 11:00. A hell of a match again and I can’t wait for the tiebreaker. The women again steal the show and again only get one match on TV. [***¾]
Deeb attacked after the bell and wrenched on the leg with a half crab as officials tried to break things up.
Lio Rush said that Dante Martin will beat Matt Sydal on Rampage. The planned tag match is off since Mike Sydal is hurt so it’s a singles contest now.
World Title Eliminator Tournament Quarterfinals: Jon Moxley (40-4-1) vs. Preston Vance (32-4 in 2021)
Vance won 11 straight singles matches, while Moxley was out in a bad mood. Vance gave it his all but Moxley kicked his ass and busted him open. He won with the Paradigm Shift in 2:02. That was just what it needed to be. [NR]
FTR accepted the Lucha Brothers challenge.
Cody Rhodes came out for a surreal promo where he discussed the crowd reaction to him lately. He even spoke about not taking the easy way out and breaking his world title promise, said his wife is too hot for him and that his brother is better than him. He will not turn heel though. That brought out Andrade who dissed his neck tattoo and ran him down. The lights went out and Malakai Black hit the ring to spit mist at Cody. As they beat him up, PAC made the save and cleaned house. I’m down for a tag match as long as PAC doesn’t react positively to Cody. Be the bastard.
Rampage this Friday!
· Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston in the World Title Eliminator Tournament!
· Dante Martin vs. Matt Sydal!
· Abadon vs. Britt Baker in a Trick or Treat Match!
Dynamite next week!
· Cody Rhodes vs. Andrade El Idolo!
· Jamie Hayter vs. Anna Jay in the TBS Title Tournament!
· Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy in the World Title Eliminator!
Dark Order (0-0) vs. Super Elite (1-0)
Dark Order unit is Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Colt Cabana. They had Halloween costumes on, with Uno as Hangman Page, Grayson as Kratos,, Silver as Bambi, and Cabana as Brandon Cutler. The Super Elite were out as the Ghostbusters. Okay, so you basically know how this goes. The Super Elite have a formula for their big tags and that’s okay because it works and is fun. This was pretty wild with a bunch of enjoyable spots and was worked at a fast pace, made even more fun by how much I like some of the Dark Order members. Cabana took a group powerbomb onto the proton pack and then the Dark Order horse (one of the costumed people) was brought into the ring. He got beat up by the Elite, who believed he was Hangman. The mask came off and it was Brandon Cutler, tied up and gagged. The ring was cleared and then the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man who came out with the Elite unmasked and it’s Hangman! I chuckled at him beating up Matt Jackson while dressed that way. It allowed Silver to pin Matt in 13:00, capping a really fun main event. [***¼]
