Pantoja’s AEW Dynamite Review 8.31.22

AEW Dynamite

August 31st, 2022 | Now Arena in Chicago, Illinois

Jon Moxley opened the show one week after squashing CM Punk. The Chicago crowd gave him a mixed reaction. Someone in the crowd had a “just enjoy wrestling” sign and I agree. You won’t like everything but why focus on the bad? Anyway, Moxley said they’re likely still scraping Punk off the mat in Cleveland and that he had 57 more minutes in him but Punk didn’t, making him more of the modern 60-minute man. He called out Punk’s fragile body and ego before leaving an open contract on the mat for someone to sign to face him at All Out. I’d have liked to have several roster members try for it but instead we just got Ace Steel, Punk’s friend, and trainer, picking it up.

Chris Jericho was interviewed backstage and promised to beat Bryan Danielson at the PPV. Daniel Garcia showed up to pledge his allegiance to the JAS. However, he added that while he believes Jericho will win on Sunday, he doesn’t need to attack anyone from behind or cheat because he’s the GOAT.

Bryan Danielson (28-5-2) vs. Jake Hager (19-15)

This makes sense since Hager was part of the tandem move that led to Danielson submitting at the last PPV. Jericho and Regal joined commentary. This match followed the David vs. Goliath formula with Hager being a monster and doing things like a spinebuster through the timekeeper’s table. AEW loves them a table spot. Danielson takes a good beating and he did just that here to make Hager’s heat segment better than it otherwise would be. He’s not the most interesting of wrestlers so Danielson had to be on point here for this to work and he was. Following a break, Danielson got going on offense with the missile dropkick, submission attempts, and stiff kicks. Hager got to the ropes to survive a crossface but fell to the Busaiku Knee shortly after in 10:46. About as good as you’ll get from Hager and Danielson was his usual great self. [***¼]

2.0 hit the ring to jump Danielson until Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta made the save. That left Jericho to try and hit Danielson with a chair, only for Daniel Garcia to stop him. Their argument allowed Danielson to hit Jericho with the knee as well, leaving Garcia distraught as Danielson smiled.

The Wingmen had picket signs in the ring as they demanded more time on AEW TV. W. Morrisey interrupted and beat them up, joining Stokely Hathaway’s crew. None of this interested me as I never got the Morrisey appeal and the roster is already beyond crowded. Hathaway threatened Tony Schiavone when he tried to get answers.

Don Callis interrupted Will Ospreay’s interview backstage to put him over but say he’ll fall to a One Winged Angel.

Britt Baker (38-13) and Jamie Hayter (9-7) vs. Hikaru Shida and Toni Storm

This women’s match at All Out feels pretty weak and I wasn’t excited for Rosa/Storm either. I love Hayter but with a 9-7 record, why is she in this and not people who are ranked higher? Do the rankings even matter? I liked the start of this match with Hayter vs. Shida. They did the power vs. speed thing and could have a really good singles match if they got the chance. I’d be all for that over Britt having yet another singles program that matters. After a commercial, Shida got the hot tag and laid into everyone. This match seemed designed to establish her again since she has barely been on TV in months. She scored the win with a spinning head kick on Britt in 7:34. That was a fun little tag. [**¾]

A video package aired to hype Kip Sabian’s return.

A video package aired to hype the House of Black against Miro, Darby Allin, and Sting.

CM Punk now came out to address the Chicago faithful. As he discussed his injury, he randomly called out a dude in the audience for being fat and never getting screwed. That felt out of place. Punk continued to discuss that he let everyone down and was somber throughout. Ace Steele came out and you could already tell this was going to be a segment that the live crowd dug but might not work for others. I always watch with a casual fan and having never seen Steele before, this didn’t mean anything to her. Steele put over their relationship and hyped up Punk about getting back up to fight. He even slapped him and demanded he sign the contract. I’ve seen people who loved and hated this segment but I’m somewhere in the middle. That got Punk to cut a passionate promo about how Moxley isn’t man enough to be the one to kill him. He ran into the crowd and signed the contract with the fans. It wasn’t anything new but was well done though it likely won’t mean as much if you don’t know about their history.

We got a sit down where Jim Ross spoke with Jungle Boy and Christian Cage. Apparently, Christian has an elbow injury. He promised to make JB a has been at 25 despite the injury. JB said he loved him as a mentor only for Christian to say he never cared about him. This Sunday, JB said he’ll be fighting Jack Perry, not Jungle Boy.

FTR (33-6-1) and Wardlow (57-8) vs. Ren Jones, Silas Young, and Victor Capri

I’ll never forgive Tony Khan for giving me the Motor City Machine Guns but teaming them with Jay Lethal. This was total domination with a Powerbomb Symphony to boot. It went 1:59. [NR]

Jon Moxley came back out for a quick promo to say that he’s fine with Punk going out on his shield. This didn’t feel needed and could’ve been done backstage.

Evil Uno was interviewed in his locker room that he would be replacing 10 in the Trios Tournament due to injury. Andrade came up to offer money for 10 to join them but Uno rejected it and they got beat up. That will mean something later.

Dante Martin (58-31) vs. Rey Fénix (63-33) vs. Rush (4-2) vs. Wheeler Yuta (29-21)

These four men were announced as half of the Casino Ladder Match field. That match will likely be wild and so was this one. There are times when I want a technical masterclass or a brawl or something with an engaging story in wrestling. Then there are times like this when I just want to have wild fun for about 10 minutes. They gave me just what I wanted, wrestling at a wild pace and doing some absurd offensive moves. Just like with the upcoming main event, there’s no way I would try to recap everything they did. It was just a lot of fun flips, dives, and athletic moves. Rush felt like the only guy to really bring any sort of personality to this so I wish we got more of that. I did love that we got to relive the Fénix/Martin pairing after their BANGER earlier this year. Fénix and Rush got taken out away from the ring, leaving Yuta to roll up Martin with the Seat Belt for the win in 7:57. That was the wacky, wild match I wanted. Sometimes, I like a good spotfest. [***½]

Backstage, John Silver and Alex Reynolds were interviewed about Evil Uno and 10 being out. They were down to fight 3-on-2 but Hangman Page showed up and said he’d be their partner if they needed it. That really made the result of the semifinals obvious as you set up Hangman Kenny sharing the ring again and there’s the Bucks/Hangman drama.

RAMPAGE!

· Best Friends vs. Hangman Page and the Dark Order in the Trios Tournament

· Swerve in Our Glory and Acclaimed will speak

· Ricky Starks vs. QT Marshall

· Jade Cargill and Athena interview

· Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo vs. Ortiz and Ruby Soho again

DYNAMITE NEXT WEEK!

· Wheeler Yuta vs. Daniel Garcia for the Pure Title (YES!)

ALL OUT!

· Tomohiro Ishii vs. Eddie Kingston

· Hook vs. Angelo Parker

· PAC vs. Kip Sabian (these three are pre-show matches)

· Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho

· Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Toni Storm

· House of Black vs. Miro, Darby Allin, and Sting

· Jade Cargill vs. Athena

· Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage

· Wardlow and FTR vs. Jay Lethal and MCMG

· Casino Ladder Match (Pentagon vs. Fénix vs. Andrade vs. Rush vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Dante Martin vs. Joker)

· Swerve in Our Glory vs. The Acclaimed

· Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

· Trios Title Finals

· CM Punk vs. Jon Moxley

AEW Trios Championship Tournament Semifinals: Aussie Open and Will Ospreay (7-3) vs. The Elite (

Maybe AEW saw my post about the United Empire’s record last week because this week it said: “all-time record” and not AEW. Kenny Omega got the overdone entrance again, complete with Justin Roberts roasting Ospreay. Willy was animated from the start, desperate to get his hands on Kenny. We got Kenny vs. Willy to start and I must say, I’m not the biggest Omega fan out there but I feel like he’s LEAGUES ahead of Ospreay. Willy hit the first big move with a twisting dive to the outside heading into the commercial break. Upon return, Aussie Open and the Young Bucks had strong exchanges. I’d be down a tag match between them. That just led to more from Kenny and Willy with the crowd going nuts for everything they do. Kenny casually avoiding the Space Flying Tiger and hitting a snap dragon suplex was sweet. That pissed off Will who removed Kenny’s shirt to expose his many bandages and bruises. That set up Kenny as the face in peril throughout a second commercial break. Upon returning, we got the hot tag for another wild section of this match. There were more big moves and close calls down the stretch here than possibly even last week. Speaking of last week, I mentioned that seeing guys hang around the ring waiting for sports hurt it for me but here, the production team messed things up as they missed a few big moves. Will also poorly timed a version of the Meltzer Driver where he clearly connected at the wrong time and of course, the camera caught that. In the end, Kenny was left alone with Kyle Fletcher and beat him with the V-Trigger and One Winged Angel in 18:53. An action-packed match with the thrown-in Will vs. Kenny story. Not a MOTYC but something great. [****¼]

A dejected Ospreay sat on the apron staring down Kenny. He’s apparently done with AEW for the foreseeable future, which I am not mad about.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

A strong go home show. The build for All Out has been strange, as were some aspects here but we got a really good night of wrestling with nothing bad and several bangers.