From the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, this event was sold out with a reported 13k crowd. A pretty big deal considering that this is one of AEW’s go-home shows before next week’s massive Athur Ashe Stadium show in New York. Nonetheless, pretty much this was primarily a build up show with a few bright spots and CM Punk doing commentary.
Adam Cole Vs. Frankie Kazarian
I was very much looking forward to this match because I have not really seen Adam Cole perform prior to this. Maybe a few glimpses of his NXT matches but I’ve read or heard elsewhere just how much of a star Adam Cole is (not to mention I’m subscribed to his Twitch channel). Frankie Kazarian pretty much is one of the best wrestlers for guys who can go to start with coming into AEW. Also, both have a little bit of history prior to Adam Cole being involved in WWE NXT so I felt this had some good potential.
Adam Cole’s is massively over, even though he’s positioned as a heel with The Elite. His key moments prior to getting into the ring received a massive pop and you can tell that he was buzzing. But once it was working time, all pretense of that was dropped as both guys worked a solid match. Clean finish with the Panama Sunrise followed up by the Last Shot.
Afterwards, it was storytime with Adam Cole bay bay. Pretty much talked about his upcoming match next week at Rampage against Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Christian Cage in a 6 man tag match with The Bucks as his partners. It’s clear he’s targeting Jungle Boy as the guy he wants to initially work with, which ought to be pretty good.
Lucha Brothers and Butcher & Blade Video Package
Lucha Bros mention some history of being family with the returning Butcher and the Blade. Apparently, this Friday on Rampage the Butcher and Blade are receiving a tag title shot, even though the Butcher probably only had one match since returning. Not only that but they’re ranked #1 somehow. WTF? I’m pretty sure there’s quite a few other tag teams that should be in that spot but this is all contrived.
Fuego del Sol & Sammy Guevara Backstage
Fuego is with Tony Schiavone and Guevara and surprisingly does NOT get interrupted. He manages to get through the interview in saying he bought a car and was willing to put it up against Miro this Friday for Rampage for the TNT title. Yeah, that’s not going to end well.
MJF Interview
Another great interview segment where he cuts down the NJ crowd. He says that he’s going to talk to a legend in Brian Pillman and makes a prayer for the sky before saying, “Who are we kidding?” and stomping the ground as if talking to the man in Hell. That was great. I’m sure if he wanted to, he could’ve communicated with quite a few people down there these days.
Anyway, he taunts Pillman whose music eventually plays and MJF gets Wardlow to intercept Pillman. Instead, Pillman comes in from behind with a chair and is about to smack MJF. But Wardlow comes in, gets smacked in the face with Pillman, charges, Pillman ducks for Wardlow to go over so that Pillman can recover the chair and we’re setup for next week’s Arthur Ashe Stadium match.
Much better segment than last week. Things felt placed a lot better and Pillman wasn’t outsmarted or made to look bad when Wardlow came in. Having that chair was good too.
Brian Pillman Jr Sitdown With JR
More time with Brian Pillman. I didn’t mind this segment but it felt redundant considering that Pillman just had a segment with MJF. The previous segment was enough to sell the match. This one would be good if they had another week to build the match or if it were on Rampage. Perhaps, Pillman will get a longer feud with MJF. If he does, then this type of segment should have been delayed in favor of giving more time for an additional match for this show.
Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Christian Cage Backstage Segment
Alex Marvez is with them and again I’m surprised that there’s no chaos for once. However, Jungle Boy is interrupted by Christian Cage so people just need to learn etiquette in AEW. Christian gets a few potshots at NXT in calling them “developmental” and “losing in the Wednesday wars” through knocking Adam Cole. Again, not a terrible segment but it felt slightly unnecessary since Adam Cole already proposed the match earlier. Easily 1-2 minutes could have been shaven off here.
Dante Martin / Matt Sydal Vs. FTR
Interesting match that wasn’t announced beforehand. This is helping to re-establish FTR as the best tag team around. Dante Martin is amazing in terms of the height he gets in his matches. Matt Sydal is good as that complimentary guy they can throw in because he can do a variety of things. Not a bad match with FTR getting the Big Rig for the win. Clean win people were with FTR in NJ. Good for them.
CM Punk Explains the Minoru Suzuki Incident
As stupid as the situation sounds on paper, it actually was a nice angle they worked in. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but the idea was that Suzuki’s song legit got cut off in Cincinnati. So now they’re working in his tweet about how he was upset by it and turning it into a bigger angle so he can have a re-match against Moxley and Eddie Kingston. Believe it or not this is one of the most original but great angles I’ve seen in a while just because it felt organic with a proud Japanese fighter with a big reputation in his country coming to the US and having his music cut off and being insulted. It’s simple, actually was a thing and they’re using it to build a bigger match. This is what wrestling is to me. And CM Punk did a great job explaining it.
Malakai Black Segment
He gets his introduction without the announcers saying anything. I know Jim Cornette mentioned that Malakai’s entrance is a vibe and that the announcers need to be silent to really establish the entire vibe. So here, they did just that (probably to see if Cornette was right). I have to say that without the announcers talking, it does give the entrance a far more atmospheric vibe since you can hear the song from start to finish and really experience Malakai’s entrance, almost like how the Undertaker would receive his.
Malakai is super over and has his followers. For his cult (known as the House of Black), he says that an intruder is in their midst and points to Rosario Dawson. That was a real surprise. As she comes over the barricade to confront him, Cody Rhodes makes his way down (now in a red suit) and as Malakai spots Cody, Rosario jumps on Malakai’s back until the point where Cody appears so he can throw her off (not too hard though) and the pair battle up the aisle way.
Not a bad segment. Apparently, the way this worked was that Cody knew Rosario and planned it with her. This is a pretty big deal that hearkens back to Cyndi Lauper and Mr T’s appearance in the WWF. It’s just more mainstream crossover with celebrities showing up on AEW and making them feel like a big deal. I think it’s a very intelligent move, again right out of McMahon’s playbook. Also, Cody wearing a red suit against Malakai’s black outfit make me believe Cody is taking on a devilish persona in order to fight Malakai next week.
Anna Jay & The Bunny Video Package
The setup is for their match on Friday’s Rampage. Not a knock against them but this should have been advertised on Dark or Elevation. Right now, AEW should be going balls out in promoting next week’s Arthur Ashe Stadium show and I don’t see this feud on either of next week’s shows. So it feels like this could have been accomplished in another manner and be cut in favor of another match on Dynamite (note: not a bias against women because I would have cut out the Pillman and Jurassic Express + Christian segment as well. Possibly the Lucha Bros vs Blade/Butcher match except that one will be for the titles. I think that 5 matches on a big go home show is pretty bad)
Dark Order Segment
So now we have not only the Bunny vs Anna Jay package but an entire Dark Order segment. Again, this whole thing could have been cut because nothing is leading to Arthur Ashe Stadium here. Keep the Dark Order fight to Dark/Elevation because it’s stupid. The only positive might be half the group splitting up and Anna Jay + Tay Conti permanently disassociating themselves with them so they can focus on being a tag team.
Dan Lambert + Chris Jericho Segment
Dan Lambert is a lot of fun. He knows his role very well and gets the reaction he wants. Today, he’s brought a lot more MMA fighters in addition to Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page. Jericho comes out and thankfully does not talk about MJF at all here. Instead, he blasts Lambert and puts over Jake Hager and himself as being legit. They do an old school type of promo to setup Scorpio Sky/Page vs Jericho/Hager for next week’s Rampage at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Thoughts from me: Are they really going to pull it off? So I wrote on one of Jim Cornette (and several other videos, possibly Eric Bischoff’s) about the ultimate angle that AEW can pull off especially with Bryan Danielson and CM Punk coming in after Dan Lambert did his Jim Cornette impression. The angle effectively takes the NJPW vs UWF war in the early 90s in trying to establish the idea of pro-wrestling vs shoot style. It was a huge inspiration for the NWO invasion angle but in the case of the NWO invasion angle, the WWF never really invaded for the interpromotional wars that many fans yearned to see for years. And it’s something McMahon would never do even if it meant great business for everyone (because McMahon pretty much is a winner-take-all person).
Here, they’re trying to establish something similar, although I do question whether or not Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page should be positioned with Dan Lambert and the “legit” fighters just because they act like bozos rather than being serious in an angle like this. Nonetheless, I do think that with Jake Hager, at least, they have been trying to find something for him to do and this would be a good way of establishing him.
But to get the angle over you need a big name. I suggested guys like Kenny Omega and the Bucks because they’re the top of the card. Obviously at this juncture, it won’t happen because both are involved in some money feuds. Yet since Chris Jericho finished up with MJF, he’s the perfect person to get an angle like this over because you need someone to sell a major injury. I don’t think Ethan Page nor Scorpio Sky are going to be the ones to pull off the injury part (they’ll probably lose here). But if at Arthur Ashe Stadium, they get those legit MMA people to come in and put on a hold that Jericho can sell as a legit break (like his arm or leg) where EMT, paramedics, referees and other staff come out to check up on him, then the angle can get over.
And the angle you ultimately want (no pun intended on the UFC) is pro-wrestling vs shoot fighting. If done well, you can make this into something huge. I mean, you do have some legit people like Minoru Suzuki with his Pancrase background, Malakai Black who has been doing his kicks and submission based wrestling, Layla Hirsch and even CM Punk, who, although had lost in his MMA fight, still trained for it and could be the one involved as the top guy. This is the angle that can not only propel AEW to the top but kill the WWE by making fun of the WWE’s sports entertainment pose AS LONG AS AEW TAKES THE ANGLE SERIOUSLY. I cannot emphasize enough that the only way to make an angle like this work is through ensuring everyone involved becomes dead serious. It has to be shoot-esque and believable to the point where everyone involved needs to question if what they’re seeing is real or not. Pro-wrestling/AEW still can win but the way it’s executed needs to look real all the way through.
The Gunn Club Video Package
More filler that could have been cut for another match. I know it’s important to establish that they want a comeback but when you’re a week away from Arthur Ashe Stadium and only have 5 matches on your go home show, you need to be judicious on what airs. This was another thing that could’ve been saved for Dark or after Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Jade Cargill Vs. Leyla Hirsch
A real strange match to have on this show. Both women have been on Dark most of the time and Leyla had that NWA title match. They attempted to establish them having an issue when Jade tossed Leyla like garbage at the Battle Royale. Also, this is Leyla’s hometown so I guess they wanted to give her a moment on the big screen. But Tony Khan mentioned that not everyone would receive a hometown hero welcome.
I get why they’re protecting Jade but she’s just not good at all. Some people thought she blew up early on and my comment was if she spent more time on her in ring training rather than her abs alone, she might be good one day. When Jade got whipped into the turnbuckle, it looked awful because you could see her spin around in a cooperative manner. It would have been better for her to eat the turnbuckle, Leyla doing something like a Stinger Splash, turn Jade around then go for her knee instead of Jade slowly turning, falling to the ground and spreading her legs to accept Leyla.
Honestly, I wish Jade lost here because she needs to not become an unstoppable beast and learn to sell. Obviously, people are enamored about her looks and she’s probably one of the tallest in the division. But unless she’s getting experience outside of AEW, she needs to stay on Dark/Elevation and just get more matches until she’s ready. Also, she shouldn’t be given pure squashes all the time. That never helped Goldberg and he’s over-the-hill and struggling in the WWE at this stage. They have to start thinking about the long term when you have someone like her who isn’t improving at the rate they need.
Andrade El Idolo Package
This was stupid. Andrade is getting too much time to speak. I guess Chavo is gone already. Sad because Chavo is cool. Not sure what he’ll be doing or if he’ll stick around in AEW. I’m guessing Ric Flair will become Andrade’s manager and that they’ll save the moment for Arthur Ashe, maybe at Rampage since the ratings have been falling there for some time.
CM Punk Gets Punk’d Segment
All good things come to an end. So I guess Punk’s commentary mostly was to retain people throughout the Dynamite broadcast until this angle against Team Taz. Hobbs does a chokeslam on the announcer’s table and the table didn’t look like it broke. Punk might’ve been legitimately hurt there and I was concerned. Why didn’t they just have a better setup for a table elsewhere?
I mean outside of the table spot everything else looked fine.
Darby Allin Vs. Shawn Spears
This wasn’t a bad match actually. The moves seemed more deliberate and meaningful rather than both men going at 100 MPH. Move of the night was when Shawn was setup on the stairs and Darby torpedoed him through the ropes. It didn’t take too long to setup and Darby moves like a missile when he does that dive so I thought it was good. Darby got his Coffin Drop in right after which I thought worked because then he didn’t waste stunning Spears and went immediately to pin the guy with his finisher.
Shawn Spears rolled out while Sting celebrated in the ring with Darby. In turn, the newly pushed FTR came in to exact some revenge for Tully. and even delivered the old Brainbuster spike piledriver onto Sting. I cringed for Sting just because of his neck and back problems. Honestly, hope that Sting is okay. But they’re advertising Sting/Darby vs FTR for next week’s Arthur Ashe Stadium show on Dynamite. I wish they didn’t have to execute that spike piledriver onto Sting though.
Also, one other note was how Shawn and Tully tried to remove the facepaint from both Darby and Sting. I kinda wonder if we’ll see surfer dude Sting again? Although I know this would be impossible as an ask, but I’d love to hear his old WCW theme with Sting howling as surfer dude Sting just one more time.
Bryan Danielson / Kenny Omega Interview
Tony Schiavone is in the ring with Bryan before not long after Kenny and Don Callis interrupt. Callis blabs on until Bryan shuts him up. He calls out Omega in challenging him for a match next week. He wants the old Omega back and basically it questioning Omega’s masculinity. Omega accepts emphatically and the crowd is going bananas.
Will we see it? A dead serious Kenny Omega? No more goofy, silly Kenny Omega but someone taking the upcoming match as though it were the most important thing in his life? I mean, this is going to be his biggest match ever. That New York crowd is going to go apeshit and they’re making the entire show (Dynamite and Rampage) a total of 4 hours next week. I can’t imagine the main event being anything less than 15 minutes with these two. It’s pretty much going to be the make-it or break-it moment for AEW with next week’s show and they’re really loading everything up.
Miro Video Package
The placement of this makes no sense for me even though it’s Miro’s response against Fuego for this week’s Rampage. It just felt like a downer compared to the fact that they announced Bryan Danielson vs Kenny Omega for next week. Again, they’re just cramming too much in just to promote this week’s Rampage at sacrificing more match time or setup for next week’s Arthur Ashe show.
Eddie Kingston / Jon Moxley Vs. 2point0
2.0/Garcia are getting a lot of TV time. I don’t mind but it’s just weird seeing them all the time everywhere. Not sure why 2.0 aren’t the ones getting the tag team title match on Rampage instead of the Butcher/Blade. Not much to write about this match since it was a mess.
The main point was the after birth where Suzuki-san got his music fully played so that “Kaze Ni Nare” could be shouted by the crowd. Then Lance Archer came from the back to attack Eddie Kingston while Suzuki faced Moxley. Pretty much a big brawl to end the night.
Final Thoughts
Overall, not a terrible show but 5 matches again on a go home show. There was just too many stupid talking segments that should have been cut or left on Dark/Elevation. AEW’s biggest show is next week and they did a reasonable job to set up a few matches but I think a variety of things should have been cut until after the Arthur Ashe Stadium show such as the Gunn Club, The Dark Order, redundant segments, etc.
Next you have Andrade already kicking out poor Chavo. My only feeling in this is that Ric Flair is going to replace Chavo and they’re saving him for Arthur Ashe Stadium next week. Because Rampage is doing a special 2 hour broadcast with just 3 matches announced, I’m guessing at least 2-3 more will be added after Dynamite finishes. So far Andrade is not on either card, so if Ric Flair does make an appearance, my bet will be for Rampage so that Friday can pop a rating.
Also, you have The Bunny vs the returning Anna Jay for Rampage this Friday. I don’t get it. Neither are over nor very good and this match leads to nothing for Arthur Ashe Stadium. I don’t mind either being on Dynamite nor Rampage but not for the go home show before their biggest event ever. I’m guessing that Rampage at the Arthur Ashe Stadium might have a tag match between Anna Jay/Tay Conti vs The Bunny/Penelope Ford. But outside of being eye candy, neither team really should be at that level just yet. Where’s Thunder Rosa? I’d prefer getting her on that card somehow.
The real deal I keep harping on is this upcoming Arthur Ashe Stadium show. I’ve been saying that AEW needs to treat this show as a near-PPV quality level show because of how from an attendance point of view, it will be their largest yet. At the same time, this show might be their highest viewed TV show that could be like the old Clash of Champions, the WWF Saturday Night Main Events or even that MSG show where Piper faced Hogan for the title at the height of the Rock-n-Wrestling Connection just before the inaugural Wrestlemania 1 show.
We already saw Rosario Dawson make an appearance on this night’s show. Chris Jericho did mention Mike Tyson so no idea if he’ll show up. But I do expect celebrities at this Arthur Ashe Show. To me this show will be the defining point in AEW’s history where they can make a major statement about being THE pro-wrestling promotion (especially with the WWE fully embracing the entertaining aspect) and creating a great feeling for the future of pro-wrestling.
I expect that many eyes will be on this show to see how seriously AEW is going to take their product not just from fans but insiders. All Out was the start of the game changer but the Arthur Ashe Stadium show to me is going to be the real statement because they can demonstrate on free TV what AEW is all about and why fans and wrestlers alike will want to make that promotion THE place to go. But again, this all impinges upon them not making any mistakes, trying to be serious, putting together a top tier show from top to bottom and leaving the fans with a positive impression, not just hardcore AEW ones, but new ones that I’m expecting will be curious in checking this show out.
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