AEW Dynamite: January 19, 2021
by Doc Allen
Live from the Sports & Entertainment Center in Washington D.C. Our hosts are Jim Ross, Tony Shiavone, and Excalibur.
Jon Moxley opens the show with his eagerly anticipated return from rehab. Fans greet him with loud "Moxley" and "welcome back" chants. One guy heckles him, and Moxley says "Go F yourself, get that guy out of here" uncensored on TBS. Moxley describes a black cloud that has followed him around his whole life, like a demon. Moxley says he carries more scars on his body than a typical person, but he also has the kind of scars you cannot see, and that makes him the person he is. If you want to judge Moxley, he'll do the same thing that he did to the demon, and shove all that sh!t up it's @ss. I hope the good people at TBS aren't watching this promo too closely. Moxley declares himself to be truly free. He's been through hell, so if anyone in AEW thinks they can do worse, well, he's thirsty for blood. Nice to see that sobriety hasn't taken away Moxley's edge.
MJF (with Wardlow) talks to the camera. He argues that CM Punk embarrassed the sport by gaining a "tainted pinfall victory" over Wardlow instead of taking the loss. MJF apologizes to Wardlow for losing his cool, HOWEVER, Wardlow really shouldn't have put his hands on him, so he has to dock his pay. Wardlow takes this on the chin. MJF is looking forward to watching the greatest accountabilibuddy ever, Shawn Spears, give PG Punk his first loss in AEW.
Adam Cole and AEW Women's Champion Dr. Britt Baker vs. Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander
Britt wants no part of Kris and makes an instant tag. Cassidy has a closed fist for Cole, but Britt returns. Cassidy gives her sloth kicks, and she stomps his foot, which he amusingly oversells. Kris makes a blind tag and slams Britt and boops her nose. Britt flees for a tag, and Cole menaces Kris, and doesn't see Cassidy's flying crossbody coming. Cole recovers with a pump kick, but Cassidy answers with a tornado DDT! Britt charges at OC, but Kris cuts her off with a delayed suplex. OC assists with a lazy shove, and the fans love it. Kris hits Britt with a pendulum moonsault while OC just kind of tumbles onto Cole. Cassidy and Statlander share a hug, allowing Cole and Britt to hit superkicks and share a kiss. Cute match so far. Back from commercials, Cassidy and Cole collide with double clotheslines. The women tag in and Kris gains the upper hand with a backbreaker. Blue Thunder Bomb by Statlander gets 2. Britt goes for a backslide pin, and swinging neckbreaker. The men tag in for an aggressive slugfest. OC surprises with Stun Dog Millionaire, Britt tags herself in to hit a curb stomp! Kris hits Britt with a second Blue Thunder Bomb for another 2 count. Cole shields Britt so Statlander hits them both with a 450 splash. Cassidy hits Cole with Beach Break for a hot nearfall. "This is awesome" chant. Cassidy is showing extra emotion and Cole slips away from an Orange Punch. Cassidy looks for a tope but Cole blocks with a superkick. Kris shoves OC out of harm's way of a Panama Sunrise, but Britt puts her down with a Destroyer onto the stage. Cole hits OC with Panama Sunrise, but Cassidy kicks out! Cole and Britt give each other Shocked 2 Count looks, and fetch the timekeeper's table. Cassidy misses an Orange Punch but knocks Britt through the table! Cole is irate and nails a nasty low blow and drops the Boom to win at 14:26. Match was a bit too cute for its own good at times and felt oddly overbooked after the break, but the crowd was really into it, and this feud might have longer legs than I thought, ***.Winners: Adam Cole and Britt Baker
Backstage interview with the Inner Circle. Jericho disrespects Eddie again, and earns some pushback from his friends. Eddie's ties to Santana and Ortiz go back far longer than Jericho.
Backstage interview with Adam Cole, who quickly kicks out Alex Marvez. Cole is irate about what Cassidy did to Britt. He's beaten Cassidy in every possible way, so he challenges Cassidy to a Lights Out match because he cannot stand to look at this stupid face any longer and will end his career.
Shawn Spears vs. CM Punk
MJF joins commentary, mostly just to keep Punk distracted. It doesn't work, Punk immediately hits GTS and wins at 0:11. Punk didn't break a sweat, and MJF barely had a chance to make himself comfortable.Winner: CM Punk
Punk deliberately turns his back to lure MJF into the ring for an ambush attempt. Punk turns around and grabs MJF by the scarf, but he bails out before anything can happen. Punk keeps the scarf as a trophy.
Billy Gunn greets Christian Cage, who can apparently show up whenever he wants to. Gunn wants Jurassic Park to give his boys a shot at the tag titles. Christian picks on Gunn for never gaining a statement win, so the Gunn Club jumps Christian and beats him into the steel door. Statement made?
TNT Champion Cody Rhodes comes to the ring to talk. There's a ladder standing in the ring, the crowd hates him. He talks about Punk's pipebomb promo, which laid out the road map for a revolution, and credits it for inspiring him to do things like leave for New Japan. Cody's point seems to be that he did the things that Punk couldn't do himself. Cody carried the weight of the anti-monopoly sentiment on his back, yet the fans jeer him. He won't turn because the fans cheered him when he needed it. Cody credits himself for building the Forbidden Door, which earns a "Cody" chant from some fans. Cody was gone for 2 weeks, and his friends almost restarted the Wednesday Night Wars against reDRagon (who just passed hip toss class), and Malakai Black brought in Brody King (we're not in the business of renaming people like Gunther McGiilbuddy, but if you come to AEW and call yourself Brody, you have balls). Cody doesn't feel his TNT title is secondary just because it doesn't have the word "World" in its name, and if you need proof, there's currently two champions. Since there's two champions and one title, why doesn't Sammy Guevara meet him at Beach Break in a ladder match? Great promo here, with lots to unpack.
Tony Shiavone is standing by with Anna Jay, John Silver, Mark Sterling, and TBS Champion Jade Cargill. Anna has accepted Jade's open challenge, and Silver says she has the guns to beat her. Anna just won a match with barbed wire wrapped around her arm and will do whatever it takes to win, will Jade? Jade simply offers that this is That B!tch's show.
The House of Black (Malakai Black and Brody King) vs. Varsity Blonds (Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison, with One Eyed Julia Hart)
King muscles Garrison into Black's corner for a quick tag. Griff gets dominated, but slips over King's back for a tag. Pillman hesitates entering the match with a springboard. Griff tries to talk some sense into Brian, and King runs past him to ram Griff into the steps. The HoB dominate Pillman and easily finish him with Dante's Inferno at 1:55. Proper squash, I am so happy this didn't extend through commercials.Winners: The House of Black
Black asks members of the House of Black in the audience to rise. Pac appears on the big screen. He sees things clearly now, despite being blinded, which means that he sees Black for the cretin that he is. Pac is beyond Black's reach and reveals a Justice tarot card. If you were expecting Pac to bow down and call Black master, you are wrong. Pac pulls down the blindfold and his eyes appear healed. Good little swerve that subverted my expectations.
Jake Roberts returns via video package to put over Lance Archer as Hangman Page's next challenger.
Brandon Cutler can't find the Young Bucks for their promo, instead finds Trent Berreta and Rocky Romero, who have reunited as Roppongi Vice. Rocky is feeling nostalgic after his latest tour of Japan, and wants them to beat the Bucks again for old time's sake. Brandon can turn off that stupid camera. Trent is a little nicer to Brandon than Rocky, which probably means that the Bucks are going to kill him.
Frankie Kazarian vs. Lance Archer (with Jake Roberts and Dan Lambert)
Archer takes Kaz down with a forearm smash. Kazarian dropkicks the knee, but Archer lariats the back of the head. Archer deliberately shows things down and picks Kazarian apart. Back from commercials, the match lumbers on despite Archer having hit a POUNCE during the break. Kazarian blocks a chokeslam and Blackout, and bites the forehead. Kazarian hits a missile dropkick and a springboard leg drop for 1. Kazarian's token offense continues with a knee to the spine, but Archer hits a proper chokeslam. Archer hits a Hellercoaster and Blackout to win at 10:02. Far too one sided to justify that length, this needed to be 3 ½ minutes, *.Winner: Lance Archer
Tony Shiavone asks Dan Lambert about his relationship with Roberts and Archer. Dan blows it off, and makes fun of Hangman Page for not being old enough to face Archer. Hangman is a fake East Coast Cowboy, watching Toy Story and playing video games inspired him to give hand j0bs to cows. Archer has no time for this cowboy sh!t and prepares a chokeslam for Kazarian onto a chair. AEW World Champion Adam Page arrives to save his friend and get into Archer's face. Page's slap to the face starts a brawl, and he smashes a cowboy boot into Archer. The Buckshot is blocked, so Page settles for clotheslining Archer over the ropes.
Backstage interview with Matt Sydal, Lee Moriarty, and Dante Martin. These guys have had the upper hand recently against Team Taz. Dante is happy to help his newfound brothers while his actual brother recovers.
Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks talk to the camera. Starks mocks Dante for having so many brothers, and says he must have a little brother complex. He's going to learn that no one is his friend the hard way.
Tony Shiavone interviews Kris Statlander and Red Velvet backstage. Kris seems too upset to speak, but they're interrupted by Leyla Hirsch anyway. Leyla calls Kris selfish and blames her for costing them all thousands of dollars. Velvet tries to play peacemaker, so Leyla knocks her down for always being on Statlander's side. Kris checks on Velvet, so Hirsch beats her up too.
Skye Blue vs. Serena Deeb
They lock up, Deeb hits a snapmare. Deeb hits a shoulder tackle, and chokes Blue in the rings before hitting a snap neckbreaker. Deeb catapults Blue's throat into the bottom rope. Swinging neckbreaker by Deeb earns applause and chants from the crowd. Deeb hits Detox and finishes with the Serenity Lock at 2:52. Great squash, this is what the Archer match needed to be.Winner: Serena Deeb
Men of the Year and
talk to the camera. Ethan Page isn't scared of Jon Moxley and wants to be his first opponent.
Video package for very special athlete, Hook. He's a killer, not to mention a cold-hearted, handsome devil.
We learn that Big Money Matt Hardy has sold 51% of the Hardy Family Office to Andrade El Idolo. Hardy will run operations while Andrade will be the president. They are now known as the AHFO, and will continue recruiting talent. Andrade has his eyes set on Darby Allin.
The Acclaimed run their own version of Darby's cryptic mind games video. "Sting" accidentally runs over "Darby" and it's SHOWTIME!
The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) vs. Sting and Darby Allin
The Acclaimed jump Sting and Allin during ring introductions and take a chair to Darby. They wrap a chair around Darby's neck and throw him into the ring post. Looks like Darby cannot compete, so the match starts as a handicap match. Sting gets a hot start with a flurry of punches. Sting sends The Acclaimed into the ring steps. Caster dropkicks Sting into an exposed buckle to send us to commercials, They return with Sting fighting back with a double clothesline. Scorpion Deathlock on Caster, but Bowens interrupts with a discus lariat and big boot. Bowens drops Sting with the boombox. Caster prepares an attack on the ring steps, but Darby flies in out of nowhere to knock him down! Darby gets the hot tag and hits a Coffin Drop onto the Acclaimed outside. Code Red on Caster gets 2. Darby puts Caster into a hanging guillotine choke, but Bowens tags in for a combination of strikes. Power slam by Bowens sets up the Mic Drop, but Sting breaks the pin. Sting clears the ring and then dives off the stage to put Caster through a table! Meanwhile, Darby hits a flipping stunner and Coffin Drop to win at 9:22. This was certainly a crowd-pleaser, **½.Winners: Sting and Darby Allin Final Thoughts: Another Dynamite that was light on great in-ring action, but heavy with angles and story developments. Beach Break should be a violent spectacle. It's nice to have Moxley and Cody back in the fold with fresh direction. This show is too eventful to skip, recommended.
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