AEW Dynamite: October 27, 2021
by Samoa Rowe
Before I get started, I just want to take a moment to address a personal matter. I've been dealing with some health issues this past month, which has greatly impacted my ability to go about my normal routines, including my ability to stay up to watch and review wrestling. I don't know how long this will last. I never thought when Dynamite debuted, that I would largely keep up with weekly reviews for the first two full years. This might be a blessing in disguise, as historically DWS is driven by nostalgia and not modern wrestling, but AEW is largely what's kept me engaged.
Enough with all of that though. Happy Halloween HavoK!
Live from the sold out Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Our hosts are Jim Ross, Excalibur, and Tony Shiavone.
CM Punk vs. Bobby Fish
The Boston crowd missed the memo that "Happy CM Punk is boring" and chant loudly for him from the start of the broadcast until he starts feeling out Fish. Fish takes advantage of a clean break and begins picking away at Punk's leg. There's a surprising "Let's go, Bobby" dueling chant as Punk delivers knee strikes and a scoop slam. Fish blocks GTS and hits a slingshot senton. Punk answers with a tope suicida into the barricade. Fish leg sweeps Punk on the barricade and follows with a back suplex. Fish relentlessly shreds Punk's bad knee. Punk hits a desperation one legged flying elbow. Punk hobbles through a flurry of offense but Fish reverses GTS into a dragon screw. Low clothesline by Fish, Punk reverses into GTS and gets the pinfall at 13:00, despite Fish kicking out at 2.99999. You can certainly argue about whether that finish was botched or not, but it's not that important because this match rocked with physicality and smart psychology, ***½.Winner: CM Punk
Spooooky video promo with Malakai Black. He's not sweating his recent loss to Cody because he made Cody's family lose faith in him, divided the Nightmare Family, and made the fans hate him. The House always wins.
MJF (with Wardlow and Shawn Spears) vs. Bryce Donovan
MJF offers a handshake and predictably cheap shots. MJF hits a heat seeker and wins at 0:33 with a single finger on Bryce's chest. Good squash that allows time for MJF to talk on the mic.Winner: MJF
MJF endears himself to the fans by calling Boston a sh!thole. He sadly has to skip his post match session with the "rats" because he doesn't want to go anywhere near Boston's fat, disgusting women. He insinuates that he may have had intimate relations with the fans' mothers and shifts his attention to insulting Darby Allin. He's interrupted by Sting's entrance music, but it was just a rib. MJF laughs it up and the lights go out. This time, one of Darby's trademark creepy videos plays and the lights return for Sting to ambush the Pinnacle with his bat. A fan dressed as the Invisible Man is revealed to be Darby Allin, and he dismantles Spears with thumbtack skateboard while MJF flees to safety. Darby challenges MJF to a match at Full Gear and stands tall. Tremendous segment that should sell a few PPVs.
Tony Shiavone interviews AEW Women's Champion Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, and Rebel backstage. We learn that Britt walked out on a match on the Jericho Cruise, so now she must face Abadon in a Trick or Treat on Rampage. Britt has a few tricks up her sleeve, so it's on.
TNT Championship:
Sammy Guevara © vs. Ethan Page
Sammy clears Ethan from the ring and throws him through a production table. Back to the ring, Page shakes off the cobwebs and returns fire. Guevara back flips into a dropkick and poses for the fans. Snap suplex by Sammy gets 1. Page ends Sammy's hot streak with a top rope trip, and then hits a backbreaker across the buckles. That sets us up nicely for the picture-in-picture break. They return with Sammy shaking off a bad back and hitting a springboard cutter. Page walks into a standing Spanish Fly for 2. Sammy slowly but successfully nails a standing SSP to ringside! Ethan answers with an Iconoclasm off the buckles. Guevara leaps to meet Ethan on the top rope but gets slammed down. Ethan's twisting clothesline gets 2. Ethan looks for an avalanche Ego's Edge, but Sammy reverses into a SUPER RANA! Sammy misses the running SSP, but he recovers with a jackknife cover to win at 12:50! Great babyface exhibition for Sammy, he is blooming in this role, ***½.Winner and still TNT Champion: Sammy Guevara
Scorpio Sky arrives to help Ethan beat up Sammy, but Chris Jericho leads the Inner Circle troops for the rescue. For some reason, the fans singing "Judas" has Jericho looking extra emotional this week. He grabs the mic, puts over Sammy's win, respects Sky for beating him twice, and mocks Ethan for only being able to beat himself in hotel rooms. Jericho announces a Minneapolis Street Fight for Full Gear, pitting the Inner Circle against Men of the Year and America's Top Team. Oh, and pumpkin-headed dipsh!t, Dan Lambert, has to announce the ATT participants next week. Jericho sings some Aerosmith for the final kiss off.
Tony Shiavone talks to Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston backstage ahead of their Rampage match. Eddie says he works hard every day battling depression, which leads to anger, so you never know what he'll do in the ring. Eddie is done talking and listening to Bryan and storms off. Bryan says this is the Eddie Kingston that he wants to meet in the ring. Bryan is still better than Eddie and will beat him. All the promos tonight have been on fire.
Tony Shiavone talks to AEW Tag Team Champions Lucha Bros (with Alex Abrahantes). Alex translates Lucha Bros' promo, and basically FTR are dead meat at Full Gear.
TBS Championship Tournament - First Round:
Serena Deeb vs. Hikaru Shida
Shida has her broken 50 Wins trophy that Deeb smashed her with, in case we forgot (which, to be fair, I had). Shida takes it to Serena at the bell. Serena bonks her head against the ring post, Shida hauls her back for a second rope vertical suplex. They cut to commercials right before Deeb takes out the back of Shida's knee for the advantage. They return with Shida's regularly scheduled comeback. Shida shows some fire with a missile dropkick and delayed vertical suplex. Ax kick by Shida and then a straight jacket German suplex! Falcon Arrow and running kick by Shida can't put Deeb away. Deeb goes for Shida's bad knee but gets kicked through the ropes. Shida can't spring off of a chair, so she uses the ring steps instead. Deeb wraps Shida's legs around the ring post for an illegal Figure Four. Shida desperately hits a series of kicks, but Deeb pulls her into a half crab! Serena switches to an inverted Figure Four but Shida gets the ropes! Deeb misses a trophy shot, Shida stops herself from using it as a weapon, but Senera pokes the eyes for a great nearfall. Shida reverses the Detox into a roll-up to win at 10:55! Outstanding drama down the stretch, this is shaping up to be a night of ***½ matches.Winner: Hikaru Shida
Deeb is a bad loser and continues destroying Shida's bad knee with a chair. Referees and Jerry Lynn run in to save Shida from the Serenity Lock.
Tony Shiavone talks to Dante Martin and Lio Rush backstage. They were supposed to face the Sydal Brothers on Rampage, but since Mike is injured, we're getting Dante vs. Matt part 3. Rush isn't too bothered, his in-ring debut will come at the right time. Rush is a confident mentor and expects Dante to take Matt Sydal back to school.
AEW Championship Eliminator Tournament - First Round:
10 (with the Dark Order) vs. Jon Moxley
Moxley has his grumpy face on and hits an immediate German suplex. 10 blocks a second German, but Mox thrusts him into the steps and bites his way through his mask. 10 is bloodied but manages a pump kick. Moxley shakes it off and nails the Paradigm Shift to win at 2:05. Nasty and efficient bit of business for Mox, *½.Winner: Jon Moxley
Tony Shiavone talks to FTR (with Tully Blanchard) backstage. They've waited an entire year to get another shot at the AEW Tag Team Championship and are ready. Tully says they've hit the reset button and the Lucha Bros. have no idea what's coming for them.
Cody Rhodes (with Arn Anderson) comes to the ring to talk. The Boston fans HATE his guts. Cody has a lot on his mind and acknowledges the boos. Cody hints that he considered giving Malakai Black a Pedigree before settling on a Tiger Driver ‘98. If Cody had hit the Pedigree, it would have lead to him sneering, abusing his EVP role, breaking his promise not to challenge for the World title, but that would all be too easy. The fans can boo him, but the truth is he's the man who built this bank. Cody chokes up asking fans to put themselves in his shoes (which he tosses into the crowd). Cody's wife is too hot for him, his brother is better than him, he barely deserves his daughter, and a father he'll never live to. The easy way out is not Cody's way, so he will not turn. Cody issues a public apology to Arn and everyone else in his life, but gets interrupted by Andrade El Idolo. Andrade doesn't care about the people and makes fun of Cody's neck tattoo (to a face pop). They're interrupted by a blackout and Malakai Black appearing to spray black mist into Cody's face. Andrade and Black put the boots to Cody and Arn, but Pac makes the save, teases a dive, and mocks Black's seated pose with double middle fingers in the air. The fans might not like Cody, but they appreciate Pac, so this segment ends with the desired effect.
The Dark Order (Stu Grayson, Evil Uno, John Silver, and Colt Cabana) vs. The Super Elite (AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Adam Cole, with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and Michael Nakazawa)
It's Halloween, so the Dark Order are decked out in mostly cowboy costumes (complete with a horse), except Grayson is rocking an excellent Kratos cosplay, Silver is Bambi (?), and Cabana appears to be Brandon Cutler. The Elite nerds are all dressed up as Ghostbusters, complete with proton packs, Nakazawa a baby, and presumably Cutler as the Stay Puft Man. Many Very Smart People on the Internet have told me that world champions don't do comedy, and my Attitude Era reviews suggest otherwise, but I digress.
Silver gets the better of Cole and poses. Cole returns fire, but Silver pulls over his Bambi hood to deliver a headbutt and back body drop. Cole rakes Cowboy Uno's eyes, and Omega enters the fight with his proton pack still on, and uses it as a shield against Uno's splash. Baby Nakazawa helps with a splash, and it looks like rules don't matter tonight. Uno sweeps Matt Jackson's leg and rides him like a cowboy. The Dark Order run through Matt, and Colt sprays him with cold spray. The Dark Order's group pose is interrupted, so they hit triple body slams, and resume posing! Now is as good a time as any for some commercials. They return with Kratos Grayson leaping off the Young Bucks for a crossbody and back flipping into a double knee strike. Cabana gets an awesome house cleaning sequence off of a hot tag, and tricks the Bucks into DDTing each other. Nick Jackson ends Colt's streak with a superkick. Silver goes supernova with a house cleaning sequence and hits Nick with a release German! Superkicks take Bambi down! The Elite swarm Bambi with triple superkicks, Grayson saves the match. Uno hands Nick's leg to the ref for a neckbreaker. The match totally breaks down and the ref takes an errant superkick! Matt low blows Grayson, the Dark Order sneak in but get ambushed by triple low blows! The Elite put their proton packs on to squash the Dark Order into smithereens. They powerbomb Cabana onto a pile of proton packs! The Stay Puft Man enters the ring while the other Dark Order guys fail to make a rescue. The Elite think the horse is Hangman Page and give him the BTE Trigger, but the horse is revealed to be a gagged Brandon Cutler! That means the Stay Puft Man is HANGMAN PAGE, Matt figures it out too late and eats a Buckshot Lariat! This is the coolest, dorkiest thing I've ever seen. Hangman puts Matt down with Deadeye, leaving him for Silver's Spin Doctor for the win at 13:01! Dark Order wins! If you can't have fun with this, why watch wrestling? ***½.
Winners: The Dark Order
Final Thoughts: This Halloween heavy show was just what the doctored ordered for me. The wrestling was varied and top notch. The promos were money. The main event provided a hilarious, yet awesome swerve, and provided a feelgood ending, all the while building up Omega vs. Page for Full Gear! This is one of the more triumphant episodes of Dynamite that I can remember.
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