AEW New Year's Smash - Night 1 & 2 (Jan. 6 & Jan. 13, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

New Year's Smash is an ongoing series of professional wrestling television special episodes produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The events will take place on January 6 and 13, 2021 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida and will be broadcast on TNT as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite. Night 1 aired live on January 6, while Night 2 will be pre-recorded on January 7 and air on January 13.

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Night 1 (January 6)

Results

8-man Tag Team Match

The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) and SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) defeated The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) and The Hybrid 2 (Angelico and Jack Evans)

It took one week and The Acclaimed are already referring people drawing comparisons to Thuganomics/Word Life era John Cena rapping to the ring. Their rhymes are getting better, but boy are they not capitalizing on this. We've seen these guys talk shit for weeks now and continue failing to get a win over anyone - at least not on Dynamite. AEW Dark could have two dozen matches and I still couldn't care enough to watch that show every week when next to nothing on that show is ever referred on Dynamite the next day. So again I ask... Why should me or anyone for that matter care about wins/loses on Dark?

This match itself was just like any other Young Bucks match in this company up to this point. A lot of guys doing spots just to do them. Guys crowded up at ringside to catch someone else doing dives back to back. The biggest offender of this was the finish, where one of the Bucks took forever and a day to line up his moonsault out of the ring during the Meltzer Driver while his brother stood there like a complete dumb ass holding their opponent in the Tombstone Piledriver position until Daniels hit the BME to complete the maneuver. 

After this match, we are reminded of the stipulation that SoCal Uncensored put upon themselves on an episode of AEW Dark, whereas if they suffer one more loss, they are done as a tag team. I'm guessing that Daniels is looking to retire as he's easily more banged up than some of his other ex-TNA/IMPACT Wrestling brothers (AJ Styles, Frankie Kazarian, Samoa Joe, Chris Sabin, etc.) are. He could easily step into the role of a much needed road agent/trainer for talent on AEW while Kazarian steps up into a singles run. I could see him getting at least one run with the TNT Championship, only to lose it to another member of SCU, namely Scropio Sky. 

Singles Match

Wardlow defeated Jake Hager

It's no secret that I think that the former Jack Swagger AKA Jake Hager is a charisma vaccuum. He was the worst thing about the Season 4 finale of Lucha Underground - if his matches didn't stink up that season enough. Hager is the goddamn fucking definition of BORING in the dictionary when it comes to wrestling matches. I rather watch paint dry than see him or Baron Corbin on my television. 

On the other side of things, Wardlow shows a lot of promise, but now isn't the time to pull the trigger on him blowing up on his allies and/or turning on MJF when we've barely even had a year for their business relationship. 

As for this match, this was a lot better than it needed to be, especially in comparison to other powerhouse vs. powerhouse matches on both shows this week. I thought this match had a rocky start, but it came together by the time it was over. 

I thought the F-10 from Wardlow in the finish ruled too. 

Singles Match

Cody Rhodes (with Snoop Dogg) defeated Matt Sydal

Cody Rhodes gave Arn Anderson the night off to allow Snoop Dogg to serve as his "coach" for this match to promote that The Go Big Show for the TNT Network, where both Cody and Snoop are acting as judges.

I don't know what was going on with this match, but Cody came out here wrestling the former Evan Bourne like this was one of their matches on the main event of WWE Superstars or something. Sydal is one of their newer talents, yes, but I thought Cody gave him a little too much offense - as usual. 

I swear, the people in this company need to start being selfish in terms of trying to be 50/50 in terms of how much they give their opponents in matches. You devalue your talents and strip them of what made them special in the first goddamn place when you present everyone at the same equal footing. Eventually you're going to have to have your top guys running through talent and of course that's going to hurt feelings of some of your midcarders and low-tier talents, but hell, let's be real here. There's talents on that roster who should just be happy to have a job in this company when they shouldn't be doing nothing but looking at the lights every week and nothing else. 

This match ended up being an excuse just to get Serpentico and Dr. Luther involved, only for Sydal and Cody to team-up against them. This exchange ended with Snoop Dogg giving Serpentico the most pathetic Diving Splash from the top rope that I've ever seen. 

You know it's bad when even Sasha Banks went on Twitter and called her cousin out for disrespecting the family like that. 

New AEW TNT Championship design that debuted tonight during the official weigh-ins. 

Either before or after the Cody/Sydal match, they held weigh-ins for the TNT Championship match that is allegedly headlining Night 2 between Darby Allin and Brian Cage. I had to laugh at Taz's comment about Darby only weighed as much as he did because he had on his heavy emo belt buckle and all of his other shit on. Any idiot can tell that he looks like he weighs at least 120-130 lbs. tops. Anywhere else but in wrestling that this would be a weight class mismatch in terms of sizing these guys up for a fight. 

I'm expecting a clusterfuck of a finish during Night 2 as I don't see Darby losing the title this soon. At least, I hope not. Then again, you don't want to beat Cage too much.

Singles Match for the AEW Women's World Championship

Hikaru Shida (c) defeated Abadon

 

This was easily the worst thing on the entire show. In AEW's defense though, this match was airing during the tail end of Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez's last woman standing match on NXT's New Year's Evil special, and it was bloody obvious which was the better match of the two if you were switching channels back and forth. 

For the record, I never thought Abadon was very good when I saw her matches prior to coming to AEW and after the fact following her debut on AEW Dark. That fact sticks out like a sore thumb here as well. I will admit that the biting spot here made more sense for Abadon than it did for Shayna Baszler last year. The only saving grace here is that this match didn't overstay its welcome. Abadon got her spots in but Shida fired up on her comeback and hit her signature Running Knee. Thanks for comin', Abadon. 

Singles Match for the AEW World Championship

Kenny Omega (c) (with Don Callis) defeated Rey Fenix

This match was the easiest best thing out of Night 1 of this two-week special event. It was definitely worth the wait too after being postponed for safety concerns - first during the eliminator tournament and then secondly last week following Brodie Lee's unfortunate demise. We got one hell of a tribute show from that delay and made this show feel even more special to boot. 

Any fan of Lucha Underground could fill you into how talented that Fenix and his brother Pentagon Jr. are in the squared circle, but this match was essentially a sampler platter of what he could do when he kicks it up a notch. With every match in this role as AEW World Champion, Kenny Omega is pulling out all of the stops too and finally reminding long-time fans of his work in New Japan why he is regarded as one of the best wrestlers in the world of his current generation. 

This match isn't without faults though. There was one Diving Corkscrew counter into a V-Trigger from Omega that didn't connect at all from the camera angle shown. That was an eye sore in an otherwise excellent main event. 

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Closing Thoughts

The most talked about things on this show were the Bullet Club "reunion" and the Omega/Fenix match. 

I don't see how any casual fan who doesn't have any idea about any of these "insider" references with Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, and the Good Brothers would be excited about the reunion of their stable that didn't appear in this country in mainstream wrestling. I understand that AEW caters to the "smart mark/smark" modern day wrestling fans, but that's a niche audience to be building your entire show around without any sort of notion of growing that said audience. 

As for the people who are aware of the Bullet Club and their tenure from when all six of these guys were a part of it in New Japan Pro Wrestling, they have all of the reason in the world to be losing their minds at this. 

Sadly, it seems like New Japan isn't onboard with this at all as their Bullet Club never left and there's still some ill will between all of the members of the Elite leaving NJPW to start AEW. So who knows what AEW is going to call this faction since I doubt they will be able to get the legal rights to that in order. 

The tease for the Lucha Bros. against the Young Bucks was interesting as that's a match-up that could be very fun to watch, despite blowing their loads on this encounter during the early outings of AEW. The match between Omega and Fenix shows that both the Lucha Bros. and the members of the Elite still have another gear to shift into, so that could make for some great television in either case, especially if they are given enough time to work their magic in the ring. 

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Night 2 (January 13)

Results

Singles Match

Pac (with Lucha Brothers) def. Eddie Kingston (with The Butcher, The Blade, and The Bunny)

This was a great match for Kingston, especially since he didn't have to devolve into the hardcore wrestling spots with foreign objects and weapons. Pac was able to control the pacing here and it made for a great opener, especially in comparison to what NXT were doing over on the other channel at the same time. I have to question Pac still using the Red Arrow as his finish though when he should be getting that Brutalizer submission over more. One could argue that Kingston is too tough to ever give up for a submission win, but the Red Arrow should continue being protected. No one should be kicking out of that move, but at the same time, it's pretty stupid to do that move the slap on the submission immediately after it. He should be trying to end matches with either one or the other. 

On a side note, where does Lance Archer fit into all of this? I get that he's been helping out Death Triangle against Kingston, The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny), but isn't that a tad bit of overkill? Shouldn't he be helping out Darby or something to even the odds against Team Taz? It just seems rather odd that he keeps coming out here and clearing the ring while butting heads with both factions that are feuding with each other. 

Singles Match

Miro (with Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford) def. Chuck Taylor (with Orange Cassidy) by submission

Because Taylor lost, he will be Miro's butler until Sabian and Ford's wedding at Beach Break.

This was a complete waste of time. Does anyone care about seeing Chuck Taylor as Miro's butler? I guess that could make for some interesting comedy segments on a show that has far too much comedy/silliness, but whatever. I'm ready for this wedding between Kip and Penelope Ford to be over with. It feels like they have been dragging this out for months now. 

This was a throwaway segment, but merely served as a background to set up the Inner Circle's match for next week as they will compete against each other in a triple threat tornado tag team match to determine who will be the tag team that will represent the faction. If Santana and Ortiz don't win this then I don't know what to say about how they are booking those guys for over the past year. 

Six-man Tag Team Match
The Elite (Kenny Omega, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (with Don Callis) def. Danny Limelight and Varsity Blondes (Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison)

If you didn't see the swerve with the Good Brothers teaming up with Omega here coming a mile away, then you obviously haven't been paying attention over the last few weeks. They are teaming together at IMPACT Wrestling's Hard to Kill PPV over the weekend anyway so they had to draw interest into this pairing somehow on this show. 

This was an OKAY match, but nothing that that blew me away. Limelight definitely has some promise though, same for the Varsity Blondes. I'm confused about Pillman Jr. though. Is he still contracted to MLW too? I saw him on Fusion an hour before this episode of Dynamite aired live and it definitely threw me for a loop. He must be one of their few talents that are allowed to still work for MLW or at least finishing up dates for them before coming to AEW full-time. 

In either case, I didn't think this was much to write home about outside of keeping this "invasion" or rather partnership with IMPACT Wrestling alive, along with establishing that the Bullet Club (or whatever they are going to call this iteration of it in this company) is reunited. 

Tag Team Match
FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (with Tully Blanchard) def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt)

I'm sure it took every shred of willpower in the fiber of FTR's very beings not to go in here and stretch Marko Stunt out and beat the piss out of him in this match. Instead, FTR got a great tag team match out of him and Jungle Boy. I'm not too keen about Jungle Boy's new music like everyone else, but whatever floats your boat, Tony Khan. It's not my money you're wasting. 

Marko was able to get his stuff in and not look like there was blatantly obvious cooperation to set those spots up - a testament to FTR's professionalism and skill level to hide that technical aspect of the match while keeping this match believable for the most part. FTR was laying on the hits pretty snug but it still looked fucking awesome. Jungle Boy made a few good hot tags to keep things exciting, only for FTR to cut him off from Stunt completely until they were able to pick up the win. Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt could definitely learn a lot from working with them. I hope they came away from this match with something to up their game. Matches like this against opponents like FTR are only going to make them better, more rounded out performers instead of the laundry list of spot monkeys up and down the AEW roster.  

Jade Cargill reminds Cody that she and Shaq haven't forgotten about him and Brandi Rhodes.

This show saw the Dynamite debut of Britt Baker's Waiting Room segment that is a callback to talk shows like Piper's Pit, complete with its own backstage set. These segments have been regulated to AEW Dark for months now, but this is the first time that they decided to do this on an episode of Dynamite, with Cody Rhodes showing up as the special guest. Cody didn't get to say nothing at all, really, when this segment merely served as a platform to setup a match/feud between Jade Cargill and Red Velvet of all people. I guess since Velvet was Brandi's sidekick before she left on pregnancy leave, they are going to stick her into the spot as Jade's opponent in this feud since AEW still wants to do this thing between Shaq and Cody. 

Even back when I was following her muscle and fitness modeling work prior to signing with AEW, I thought Jade Cargill looked like a force of nature or that she just stepped off the page of a comic book. I wish her all of the best luck in this business to be a success. She definitely has looks down. ALL of those girls who came out of the back to try to stand between Jade and Velvet looked like small children in comparison to this woman. For her sake, I really hope she's as terrifying in the ring as she looks out of it. 

Singles Match for the NWA World Women's Championship

Serena Deeb (c) def. Tay Conti (with Anna Jay)

When Taynara Conti was in WWE as part of the NXT brand, I never saw what the big deal was about her from her matches that she would have as part of their programming. Among the roster of multi-talented women that they had at the time, it was easy to get lost in the shuffle. She should consider herself lucky for getting out of there when she did. I said it back during their Women's Tag Team Tournament during the fall that Tay Conti showed a lot of promise and tonight was more evidence of her growth since leaving WWE. Leaving that company and coming to AEW turned out to be a blessing in disguise for her AND Serena Deeb. Deeb seems to be having another career renaissance with her run as NWA World Women's Champion. She's been killing it left and right in her matches since coming into this company. She definitely brings out the best out of whoever she steps into the ring with. As a former WWE Performance Center coach, you can see her knack for that shining through in all of her matches. She's stated in a recent interview that she would love to serve as a trainer/coach/agent of sorts for AEW's Women's division. 

In my honest opinion, Tony Khan would be fucking stupid not to give her that position. She's definitely over-qualified for the role. 

Conti has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of from walking away from this encounter in defeat. I'm sure she's turned a lot of heads tonight and rightfully so. I would love to see her and Serena Deeb have another match or two down the road. This match was miles above and beyond that poor excuse of a women's wrestling match in Night 1 between Shida and Abadon. 

Singles Match for the AEW TNT Championship

Darby Allin (c) def. Brian Cage (with Ricky Starks and Hook)

The first two-thirds of this match was Brian Cage beating the piss out of Darby Allin, who somehow was hanging on and still managing to kick out of everything this dude was doing to him. It reminded me of how ugly that match between Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar was a few years ago was until Brock made one slip up that allowed Bryan to turn the tide into his favor for a comeback. The same thing happened here where Cage took a flat back bump onto the steel steps, which was beyond moronic for a guy who had a pretty nasty back/spinal injury prior to signing to this company. This allowed Darby to hit the Coffin Drop and ALMOST steal the win via count out. I would have been fine with the finish right there, but they had to squeeze in Sting's involvement as he came to Darby's aid when Team Taz was up to no good. Sting hit one of (at least 3 other members of Team Taz) with his baseball bat while the rest stood back looking awestruck as Darby rolls Cage up into a crucifix pin from the top rope for the victory. 

I honestly threw my hands up. The first two-thirds of this match was excellent, but the Sting stuff killed it for me for what was otherwise a great main event. If they don't want to beat Darby this soon for the TNT title, then that's fine, but don't boot this fucking match where you're going to have Cage lose clean AGAIN in another high profile title match. I swear, this company has no idea how to book monster heels. The only way they get over is if they win and if you're handing them losses left and right then it's going do nothing for them in the long haul. It doesn't matter how much of a big game you have their managers talking for them if the monster loses at every chance he has at a championship. 

I don't get what is the point of Team Taz talking a big game but never winning absolutely jack shit when it comes to the few occasions that they have matches on Dynamite? I could only laugh when Powerhouse (Will) Hobbs came casually strolling out of the entrance tunnel following the loss too. Where the fuck was he when everyone else was frozen in fear at Sting just standing there? Sting is only ONE guy. Is there some sort of no touch policy for him out of fear of hurting him again? If he can't even work angles in these small skirmishes/brawls, then what was the point of signing him outside of selling T-shirts? Don't give me that shit about this is the same as him going against the nWo all on his own. At least those guys tried to put up a fight. We've been at this for over a month now of Sting showing up and the entire half-dozen guys that make up Team Taz start running like this dude has a gun. 

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Closing Thoughts

In comparison to Night 1, Night 2 definitely had more noteworthy matches, but it had it's fair share of eye sores too. The NWA World Women's Championship match definitely delivered - as usual, along with the opener between Pac and Eddie Kingston, FTR vs. Jurassic Express' Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy, and the main event featuring Darby Allin defending the AEW TNT Championship against Brian Cage. 

I'm still interested to see how Jade Cargill's career is going to pan out while remaining lukewarm about this Bullet Club reunion of sorts as AEW continues to partner up with IMPACT Wrestling. As good as these NWA World Women's Championship matches have been over the past year, I can't help but wonder how long can NWA stay afloat to maintain this business relationship. Without any sort of television or internet platform, NWA is losing steam fast from the wealth of momentum they had at the start of 2020. Unfortunately, that's not AEW's burden to bear, despite they are profitting off the showcase of their excellent female talent, despite only it being limited to Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb (who isn't even contracted to that company). I have my fingers crossed that Thunder Rosa can pull out an excellent performance out of Britt Baker too instead of that crap we got between her and Big Swole last year. Ugh. 

What I'm not interested in? This utter stupidity that they have Miro involved with that is just as bad as the tail end of his WWE career before he got released, along with the hit or miss antics from the Inner Circle. I just want AEW to continue emphasizing the good stuff and put less focus on the bad. 

AEW Full Gear (Nov. 7, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Full Gear (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on November 7, 2020 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the second event in the Full Gear chronology.

Nine matches were contested at the event, including one on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Eddie Kingston in a "I quit" match to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship, Darby Allin defeated Cody Rhodes to win the AEW TNT Championship, and Kenny Omega defeated "Hangman" Adam Page in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match.

Singles Match for the NWA World Women's Championship

Serena Deeb (c) def. Allysin Kay by submission

Not a bad opener, almost thought that they weren't going to give the ladies time to get this in. Not a bad match to start things off with, but it felt like Kay and Deeb's styles weren't clicking at various points of the match. Deeb retains though and that's all what matters right?

Thunder Rosa stares down with Serena Deeb post-match. I saw a lot of reporters and podcasters that were quick to shoot down those rumors/reports about Rosa taking time off to train for her next MMA fight and I wouldn't be so quick to rule that out. She's still got two more fights left on her current MMA contract, but who says that she doesn't want to get this quick rematch out of the way before she starts training for said fight? Deeb could then have more bragging rights if she does retain but leave the door open for Rosa to come back with renewed vigor after the MMA bout. Look at how AEW promoted the hell out of Jake Hager's battle scars from his recent MMA victory on Dynamite. I'm sure NWA would love to get that kind of exposure for Thunder Rosa after her next fight. For those that aren't aware, NWA did an EXCELLENT video package chronicling Thunder Rosa's training up to her first fight. That would be great stuff on Dynamite if they keep this working relationship with NWA alive.

As for Allisyn Kay, she announced that she was a free agent and appears on this PPV in less than the span of a week. I think it's safe to assume that this was a tryout of sorts for AEW. They could use more seasoned women like Kay on their roster, especially those who are TV ready. I wouldn't see any harm in bringing her in full-time. 

AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match

Winner receives a future AEW World Championship match.

Kenny Omega def. "Hangman" Adam Page

The Cleaner came out to play tonight and was all business. At the end of the day though, it was another losing effort for Page in another big match opportunity. I will say this much - Adam Page did have Omega's number in terms of scouting his signatures, but when it was all said and done, he still fell victim to the One Winged Angel. Page ALMOST didn't get his head tucked down in time before he hit the canvas. That was scary to watch. Other than that, I was shocked to see them start off this show. I thought this was a great match to start off with right out of the gate. 

I don't shit on Kenny Omega as much as a lot of other wrestling critics do, but at the same time, I don't dick-ride him like Dave Meltzer and his followers do. I respect the guy's work from his tenure in New Japan, but Omega has diluted himself over the past year to bring himself down to the rest of the roster's level. One year later and the only thing that selflessness has done is lower his own stock. This was one of those rare occasions where Kenny Omega should have been selfless in terms of protecting his own star power and market value, especially being one of the last highly sought after free agents after leaving New Japan. We saw glimpses of his former glory here in terms of his performance. I hope people would quit sleeping on Adam Page too as he's got a lot of potential to be a top draw for this company too if he would distance himself from the BTE boys and establish his own identity - not one as the loner (read: pathetic and cowardly as how he's been portrayed for the last few months) drunk/alcoholic either. 

IMPACT Wrestling EVP Don Callis joined this match on commentary too. Could we see a working relationship between AEW and IMPACT? That would be interesting for sure.

Singles Match

Orange Cassidy def. John Silver

That Spinning Release Torture Rack should've been Silver's finish IMHO. I did get a good laugh at Silver ripping off Cassidy's pockets and acting like he was eating them. This match was pretty much what we've all come to expect out of an Orange Cassidy match. He got his silly shit in then got serious with his high spots. IMO this gimmick has ran its course. That being said, I didn't agree with the finish. If Silver is as over among the BTE crowd as people claim he is, then they should've given him a win here against Cassidy. Orange Cassidy can afford a loss with the Best Friends' laundry list of enemies on that roster running interference.

Silver's more impressive than I would've given him credit for as part of that awful Dark Order faction/gimmick though.

Singles Match for the AEW TNT Championship

Darby Allin def. Cody Rhodes (c) (with Arn Anderson)

I love this filter for the Darby/Cody package. Cody is in color while Darby's in black/white. Yes during the introductions they called him Cody RHODES.

This match was essentially the same as the last few Cody versus Darby matches but the finishing sequence was rather odd. It was even stranger that they wouldn't even show a replay either so I'm guessing a ref botch calling it prematurely. The narrative for this match had Cody working Darby's arm so he couldn't use it but the funny thing about that is that I was laughing that has nothing to do with how effective the Coffin Drop is. You could cut off both of his arms and Darby could hit that thing to the same amount of effectiveness. That being said, Darby didn't even beat Cody with the Coffin Drop, but with a goddamn roll-up instead. I thought it was pretty fucked up that the kid couldn't even get the win against Cody clean for the title. 

Team Taz attacks both men post-match, but Will Hobbs saves Darby from getting his arm smashed into a car door. I'll say this much though... If they are staying the course on turning Cody Rhodes heel, then they are definitely milking this for the perfect opportunity. 

Team Taz left Darby Allin for dead after that beatdown. Didn't even give him a chance to soak in that title win. 

After it was all said and done, I was just glad that Darby FINALLY got his win against Cody one year later, but the finish here seemed a little anti-climatic. I hope that's not the end of this story because where else is Cody going to go? He can't challenge for the World Championship and of course he's going to want his rematch. They gave him his rematch against Brodie Lee so fast when he came back calling for that, so I wouldn't be surprised if Cody ends up being the first three time Television Champion in 2021. At this stage, Cody Rhodes doesn't need that championship. It should be reserved for the young lions on that roster looking to rise to the next level. 

Singles Match for the AEW Women's World Championship

Hikaru Shida (c) def. Nyla Rose (with Vickie Guerrero)

Shida hurt her knee early on after Nyla blocked her signature Running Knee so that played into the match - but not much as Shida was pulling off power move after power move using her base/grounded strength to toss Nyla around back to back across this match. I swear I get pissed every time Nyla does that diving knee drop off the top rope to a rope hung opponent and people kick out of that shit. That should be her fucking finish.

I'm sure that I've mentioned it before but Shida's facials during these matches range from comical to downright awful. She looks like she's taking a shit more than she's in any pain from anything that her opponent is doing to her. 

Shida hit about 3-4 knees to Nyla in the end to retain, regardless of her "ailing" knee. I got a kick out of the fact that she's still rocking that Final Fantasy VII Remake Tifa cosplay ring gear. I was like "Gurl, it's time to give that shit a rest already."

New gear🆕　#AEWFullGear #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT #AEW pic.twitter.com/FPincjqXs0

— HIKARU SHIDA 志田 光 (@shidahikaru) November 8, 2020

New gear? That looks like the same shit she's wearing EVERY goddamn week to me. Someone should have tagged that image with the caption, "WRONG HOLE!" to describe her facials at points in this match. I found myself laughing hysterically at her facials more than being caught up in any sense of "drama" or potential danger that she was in. 

It seems like Nyla and Vickie are falling out post-match. If so, that's stupid when AEW barely gave them screen time after pairing them up. You know's bad when even Tony Khan had to address these criticisms during the post-show conference call. I know I'm not complaining about how well they have been promoting and working with NWA to showcase their NWA Women's Champion on their programming, but damn, it's making the AEW Women's Championship look like a complete afterthought. 

Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship

The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (c)

• Had The Young Bucks lost, they would have never challenged for the AEW World Tag Team Championship again.

• Tully Blanchard was barred from ringside.

It was your typical high profile tag team match in AEW - or rather in mainstream wrestling. I know most people will attempt to credit the Young Bucks having great match psychology during the opening portion of this match, but I hate to burst those bubbles, but let's see that from the Bucks when they aren't in the ring with FTR leading the direction of the match early on. To their credit, they took things slow and slowly built towards a crescendo, or rather multiple crescendos, as this match had a ton of peaks and valleys. There were a ton of excellent spots/sequences that would make for great finishes, but here they are transition spots or near-falls. FTR went on and on about "no flips just fists" for years now, but that proved to be their downfall at the end of the day. One of them went for the Bucks' Springboard 450 Splash, missed and ate a Super Kick from the ailing ankle of Matt Jackson for the win. Great action here, but I felt AEW shit the bed on the build completely and gave the finish away with that stipulation which was completely unnecessary.

The match itself lived up to the hype, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's any truth to these reports going about FTR's frustrations in this company. To say that AEW has so many high-profile tag team signed, but the only ones at the top of the mountain are the Young Bucks, FTR, and the Best Friends, tells you right there that these people don't know what the hell that they are doing booking wise. It blows my mind week-to-week trying to make sense why some of these tag teams are barely featured (if at all PERIOD) on Dynamite or have been regulated to performing on AEW Dark exclusively. Out of all of the tag teams that this company have signed, not mention the crapfest that was the build to this match, you're telling me that we couldn't have had a simply awesome build to this dream match? Instead, we got the Bucks acting like prima donna dicks (yet they are the babyfaces going into this match), whining and complaining week to week, only to press an injury (not a shoot either as apparently one of the Bucks has been dealing with it for quite some time now) to gain sympathy. What kind of ass-backwards booking is this? FTR barely got any mic time to promote this thing in the least. I know they aren't the best talkers from their WWE days, but they should have been given screen time to get something out there to drive the point home of this dream match. FTR left WWE to make this dream match a reality. For crying out loud, is it too much to ask for a coherent, spectacular build for this match?

I said it before and I'll say it again on here. I wish FTR did NOT come to this company. In my own selfishness, I wanted to see FTR do a run in the NWA before the global pandemic hit everything like a ton of bricks. Hell, I still have FTR versus The North over in IMPACT Wrestling  on my wishlist too. 

The Elite Deletion Match

Matt Hardy def. Sammy Guevara

Matt goes FULL Broken Hardy for this again. It was pretty much typically what you can expect from these Broken Universe matches if you've seen them in IMPACT. Craziness at the Hardy Compound with cameos galore, including Gangrel (WTF) and The Hurricane/Shane Helms. Santana & Ortiz and Private Party join in at some point too. There was even a cameo from Queen Rebecca and Senor Benjamin in the end.

I'm sure that I wasn't the only one to notice that Matt Hardy was really taking it easy in this match in terms of bumps. Even the spear out of the ring and through to the two tables during the finish looked like it was shot from multiple cuts spliced together to hide that they used a crash pad for safety. I thought it was in a little bit of bad taste to parody the near-fatal bump Matt Hardy took onto the concrete floor of the last PPV with Sammy Guevara taking it instead with a puddle of (clearly artificial) blood pooled behind his head. 

Out of all of the Broken Universe cinematic matches, I can't necessary say that this was my favorite one, but I can't say that this was the worst one either. My favorite one is still Tag Team Apocalypto back in IMPACT Wrestling while WWE drastically dropped the ball with this thing with the "Woken" Matt Hardy stuff. What hurt this "match" the most though is the fact that we have seen MULTIPLE cinematic matches throughout this year during this pandemic era of mainstream professional wrestling and it's not special anymore when Matt Hardy originally cooked up this concept. 

Singles Match

MJF (with Wardlow) def. Chris Jericho

Since MJF won, he and Wardlow are allowed to join The Inner Circle.

This was easily the worst thing on the card all night - for me at least. It wasn't because of the match quality - it was the fact that this match just seemed to drag on aimlessly until the finish. At this point in the show, we're closing in on midnight on a Saturday night on nearly FIVE hours on a goddamn PPV (including the Buy In preshow). Even WWE aren't clocking shows this long anymore. I get it though, AEW only does 4 PPVs a year and they are trying to give their fans their money's worth at $49.99, but still, you're asking a LOT of people on a Saturday night.

This was your run of the mill Jericho match in AEW, but MJF pulled a trick out of the late Eddie Guerrero's playbook to fool Ref Aubrey into thinking Jericho used the baseball bat (Floyd) to roll him up for the win. Meh at that finish. I couldn't care less either way as I don't see a benefit from MJF being part of the Inner Circle or not. Please point to me any benefit that anyone NOT named Chris Jericho has had in that group over the past year.

MJF was on fire in his feud with Moxley and now he's down to doing show-toons with Jericho. Sure, a win over Jericho is impressive on his resume but does it really mean much when Jericho already lost to Orange Cassidy SEVERAL times over the past few months?

"I quit" Match for the AEW World Championship

Jon Moxley (c) defeated Eddie Kingston

Moxley's post-WWE matches have only stood out to me when he was over in New Japan with a roster of workers who can compliment that hard-hitting brawler style that he's shooting for. This isn't a knock against American wrestlers in general, but most people stateside aren't going to work that style and it's a bad look to even try to when you obviously can't. Moxley himself isn't even necessarily great at it, hence why he masks his shortcomings with the assortment of hardcore stupidity that he sprinkles into almost all of these matches. 

Shout out to Eddie Kingston rocking the Misawa colors during this title match and congratulations to him headlining his first PPV main event for a major wrestling promotion. Let's hope that this isn't the first and only time we see him in this position. 

While I love that Eddie Kingston is getting this career resurgence of sorts here in AEW as a lot of people are seeing him for the first time on big platform. I thought he was great on the mic in IMPACT Wrestling - despite the fact that we've had a few choice words for each other on Twitter in the past for some of my criticisms back then. I thought he was a shout out talker on NWA Powerrr last year as well. He's always had the gift of gab; there's no doubting that. I'm just happy that he's got the attention of a lot more people - inside and outside of AEW. 

That being said though, he's a lot like Moxley, where his in-ring style isn't for everyone - me included. 

Moxley and Kingston were brawling at first but this match quickly devolved into a hardcore match like almost ALL of these Moxley matches have turned into. Not really a knock, but it's getting very redundant at this point. Like I said before, I wasn't really a big fan of Moxley matches when he was in WWE as Dean Ambrose and I still not too fond of him in this company either. They did have some interesting hardcore spots, including some rubbing alcohol after a bump into the thumbtacks. That was VERY creative there, even though I wouldn't be surprised if that was mere water in that bottle instead of rubbing alcohol, especially if they have to use that same ring again Wednesday night for Dynamite. Then again... Moxley and Kingston are so crazy, gangsta, or whatever you want to call it, that they really did use actual 90% proof rubbing alcohol. Seriously, how much does that go for nowadays during this pandemic?

The ending saw Moxley wrap his arm in barbwire and put on a seated choke on Kingston. Kingston did NOT say I QUIT, but the referee called it anyway to name Moxley the winner. Very strange finish to me. 

I was told on Twitter after the fact that Kingston did mutter the words to quit, just the cameras didn't catch the audio. I thought they would have had the referee with a microphone on his outfit that would have at least caught that, but oh well. I guess Kingston won't have another excuse to explain his shortcoming this time. 

Walking away from this match, I don't understand why so many people were shocked that Kingston didn't put Moxley away. I wasn't in the least. Kingston ended up being the replacement for Lance Archer, who was pegged to get a rematch against Moxley at this PPV before coming in contact with someone who had COVID-19, so he was pulled off the shows that were building to this PPV. This caused Tony Khan to pull an audible with Kingston in his place. All of that being said, I didn't think that they weren't going to take the title off of Moxley before we get the rubber match between Moxley and Kenny Omega. 

Speaking of which, Kenny Omega came out afterwards to stare down with Moxley to close the show and tease the match for the title next. I'm all for this as long as it's not another deathmatch like the last match between them was last year. 

Afterthoughts:

This was a solid show from start to finish. This show definitely made up for the debacle that was All Out roughly two months ago. More importantly, I'm glad no one got hurt this time around either. 

AEW Fight For The Fallen (July 15, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Fight for the Fallen was a professional wrestling television special episode produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the second event in the Fight for the Fallen chronology. The event took place on July 15, 2020 and was broadcast on TNT as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.

In June 2019, AEW stated that all of Fight for the Fallen's gate proceeds would be donated to victims of gun violence. AEW and event sponsor Farah & Farah, a personal injury law firm located in Jacksonville, Florida, raised more than $150,000 and the proceeds from the gate were donated to the Jacksonville Victim Assistance Advisory Council.

During Night 1 of Fyter Fest, it was announced that instead of airing on pay-per-view (PPV), the second Fight for the Fallen event would be broadcast as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite, on July 15, 2020. The show will be raising money for COVID-19 relief, which will be added to the $1 million already donated by Shahid Khan and Tony Khan. AEW launched an online donation drive and released a limited-edition Fight for the Fallen t-shirt on ShopAEW.com with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Florida’s First Coast Relief Fund and Feeding Northeast Florida.

On July 13, Chris Jericho was announced as appearing in a non-wrestling role at the event.

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Results:

Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship
Cody (c) (with Arn Anderson) def. Sonny Kiss

I had Monday Night Nitro flashbacks during Sonny Kiss' entrance with him dancing better than the cheerleaders accompanying him onstage. It was the inverse of Kimberly Page dancing with the rest of the Nitro Girls who actually knew how to dance professionally. This match wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was a standout performance for Sonny Kiss either. I've seen a lot better from him back when he was XOLicious in Lucha Underground and this match seemed like a far cry from that. Cody seems to be going harder into this heel turn instead of teasing it subtly whereas in this match he was easily the heel on offense for majority of this match with Kiss playing the part of the underdog. Kiss got some good spots in here and there, but ultimately came up short. This isn't a knock on the talents involved, but Cody's title defenses since winning the TNT title have been nothing but bland and boring to me. The longer they drag this out, the more I am adamant in my opinion that Cody shouldn't have beaten Lance Archer for it in the first place.

Orange Cassidy Dumps orange juice on the Inner Circle

Seriously... I wanted to slap the shit out of Ortiz flopping around like he was a fish out of water after this. This wasn't the Kurt Angle milk truck scene on the Alliance during the Invasion storyline, so I don't understand why he was overselling this to the point that it made this whole segment stupid.

I know that I knock the guys in The Elite for lowering their own stock values in this company, but Jesus Christ, Santana and Ortiz have absolutely no credibility anymore at this point. They came into this company as bad ass top tier tag team and now a year later, they are just another pair of goofs on this traveling circus. Chris Jericho is already a legend in this business. No matter what he does here, he'll still be welcomed back to WWE with open arms for his Hall of Fame induction. He knows that. He just wants to rub elbows with the Elite in this company and stay relevant in the modern wrestling bubble.

Call me crazy, but Orange Cassidy might be the smartest man in this entire company to get these guys to devalue their own worth in this business to put over Cassidy's to minimal effort from him.

Tag Team Match
FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) def. Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix)

This match was really rough around the edges at a lot of points of this match as it seemed like the Lucha Bros. were adamant about wrestling their type of match and weren't going to conform to doing anything but their type of match. It even looked like they started working stiff with FTR as I saw Cash and Dax were bleeding out of nowhere before the break. FTR returned the favor with a few stiff shots of their own as the tag team rules went out of the window. I did enjoy the finish here though with FTR snatching off Fenix's mask, forcing him to cower and cover up out of fear of getting his identity exposed thanks to how sacred the mask is in traditional lucha libre. This allowed FTR to pick up the win off a quick rollup shortly thereafter.

This should have been a great match on paper, but unfortunately the clash of styles and possible the language barrier held this match back from being a true spectacle.

Six-man Tag Team Match
The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, and Marko Stunt)

At this point, I think it should be said that AEW needs to stop doing this shit where they have to have everyone be "competitive" and equal across the board. It's damaging your talent long term, just like WWE's infamous 50/50 booking, where no one gets over, but everyone has to look good and have a chance. Tony Khan needs to take a hard look at his roster and determine who in the blue hell that he wants to push for the next year or so then deem who else on that roster is just coming in to get beat. This shit where everyone and their grandmother gets the "participation award" and is competitive with even your alleged main eventers and top stars is fucking comical.

I liked Marko Stunt back in MLW because when he would come in there, he got some shit in but ultimately, he got the bricks beat off of him like a drum. In this company, he's been in the ring with some of the top acts in this company and hanging with him as if they are equals. Just all kinds of no. This kid should be carrying their bags at best. Either that or getting shoved into a locker at every arena.

I know people want to come to the defense of Kenny Omega, but that's one guy who has completely devalued his own stock in the United States after coming to AEW - at least to the casual fans. The people who followed him in New Japan still have hope that he's going to show signs of that "Kenny Omega" again, but I'm not buying it. Here in AEW, he has been exposed to an extent. Kenny Omega doesn't have some of the best wrestlers in the world over in New Japan leading him through matches. He's been off to his own devices in AEW and it has been mediocre at best. Correction... I'll give him and Hangman that tag team match with the Young Bucks but that's about it. I get that he's in this "giving" mindset now that he's not main eventing in New Japan, but he's giving so much that it's devaluing his own stock. Think about it. Kenny Omega has nowhere near the amount of buzz and name value that his own stock had prior to signing to AEW. In the past year that followed, he's a shadow of his former self. Who knows, maybe he can turn things around and prove me wrong, but I don't give a flying fuck about this version of Kenny Omega.

Tag team match
The Nightmare Sisters (Allie and Brandi Rhodes) (with Dustin Rhodes) def. Kenzie Paige and MJ Jenkins

I dunno what the fuck this was supposed to be and nor do I care. I get that they have to keep the QT Marshall and Allie storyline going, despite the fact that he's at home recovering from COVID-19, but the formation of this tag team between Brandi Rhodes and Allie just feels like another "vanity project" much like the Nightmare Collective before this. They still haven't explained by Allie went back to being Allie instead of being The Bunny, who was managing The Butcher & The Blade. Like no one is pointing that out either. It's stuff like this that baffles me that gets a pass from the AEW loyalists and marks, but are VERY quick to point out stupidity everywhere else.

Singles match for the AEW World Championship
Jon Moxley (c) def. Brian Cage (with Taz) by technical submission

The longer I see Moxley with the title, the more I'm starting to side with WWE on their assessment that Moxley isn't very good as a World Champion. All of his title defenses to date have been stale and boring. This match was also hindered by the finish, where Taz threw in the towel. You're going to tell me that after Taz talked all of that shit to hype up this match, he didn't have a shred of confidence in Cage's skills to endure that hold and turn the match around into his favor? I wasn't too crazy about Cage's undefeated streak in the first place, but throwing him in there against Moxley for his second marquee/significant match on the roster just seemed like ass-backwards booking to me. They could have done this match down the road in a few months after Cage has accumulated a few more wins onto his resume. Beating Cage here took the wind right out of Cage's sails just like Lance Archer's loss to Cody for the TNT Championship did to him. Big guys get over by beating people in a convincing manner, not being beaten like it's trivial as if they are the same as every other guy on the roster.

Darby Allin would return following the match to attack Brian Cage with his skateboard to close the show. Why couldn't Darby just cost Cage the match if he was going to come out here and attack him anyway? All of this mess tacked onto the finish just felt like putting a hat on top of a hat.

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Closing Thoughts

After two weeks of Fyter Fest, I didn't think it was beneficial to do another "special" episode of Dynamite for the third week in a row. Even NXT went back to their normal routine this week; although, it was to their detriment not to mention that Keith Lee was putting both of his titles up for grabs. That being said, the show's profits were for a good cause, so I can't knock them in that regard.

From start to finish though? I can't say that I was overly impressed with this show. Much like a lot of modern wrestling these days, there's a lot of very talented athletes on this show, but in terms of the actual wrestling aspect and key component of this show, it's not very good as a concise and coherent package. You can rant and rave about the demographics and viewership ratings all you want, but this isn't a good wrestling show. It's a very mediocre one that a lot of people are too jaded and delusional to point out as such only because they either have a wrestling podcast/YouTube channel to keep viewers engaged/subscribed to or they are just that happy to have something that's NOT WWE and will make all of the excuses in the world that it's so much better and different. In reality, it's not - it's the exact same shit you see in the other company (WWE) on Mondays and Fridays with a different cast of characters. 

I'm just wondering when people are going to wake up and get fed up of having their intelligence insulted on a regular basis with these weekly wrestling broadcasts. 

AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 & Night 2 (July 1 and 8, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Fyter Fest was a series of professional wrestling television special episodes produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the second event in the Fyter Fest chronology. The two-week event took place on July 1 and 8, 2020. The event was broadcast on TNT as a two-part special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.

The main event of night 1 saw Kenny Omega and Adam Page successfully defended the AEW World Tag Team Championship against Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent). The main event of the second night was scheduled to be Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Championship against Brian Cage, but this match was postponed to the Fight for the Fallen event due to Moxley being exposed to the coronavirus disease 2019. Instead, in the main event of night 2, Chris Jericho defeated Orange Cassidy.

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Results:

Night 1

Tag Team Match

Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt) def. MJF and Wardlow

This was a great match to start things off for AEW, especially with what was airing in opposition over on NXT. My only issue with this match is the fact that I don't understand why they are forcing the issue with a possible split between Warlow and MJF. Those two haven't been paired up for even a year and they are already teasing this. Like c'mon, give this act a chance to breathe and grow some legs. It hasn't even been around long enough to make people care enough about the split. They want to tease splitting guys like this up, but just completely ignored the storyline where Adam Page and Kenny Omega were going to split up. I swear, the booking in this company is fucking asinine at times.

Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship
Hikaru Shida (c) def. Penelope Ford (with Kip Sabian)

For the record, I like both of these women as competitors and talents on this roster, but at the same time, I didn't think it was a great match at all. It was Penelope Ford's best outing on Dynamite to date though, but that's not saying much when she's only been competing in singles matches for a cup of coffee anyway. For the people who might get mad at me saying that this match wasn't very good, look at this way. This match was good by the low standards of the AEW Women's division, but as a women's wrestling match period, it was average at best.

Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship

Cody (c) (with Arn Anderson) def. Jake Hager (with Catalina Hager)

Jesus Christ, I keep forgetting how hot Hager's wife is. I remember seeing her from a few WWE Hall of Fame and red carpet events while he was part of the company but damn, she's a great accessory to his MMA fighter feel. Too bad Jake Hager comes out there dressed like he's a default Create-a-Wrestler in the next WWE 2K game. I didn't care about him in title matches in Lucha Underground and I sure as hell don't care to see him going for belts in AEW. Sue me, I'm still salty about him being the LAST Lucha Underground Champion in history before that company went under. Let's face facts though. Hager was a charisma vaccuum in WWE and nothing has changed since coming to AEW. The best role for him was being the silent enforcer for Chris Jericho. Now that the ship has sunk on that initial title reign for Jericho, there's little for the big man to do, especially when AEW has found themselves "killing time" for the best possible time to do the Jericho vs. Mike Tyson.

To be fair though, I'm going to admit that Cody brought out a decent match out of Hager here. Much like a lot of Cody's matches though, I didn't agree with the finish. Hager came off as a colossal dumb ass celebrating after the bell when Cody's music was playing, but one would think that he would lay into Cody and the rest of the Nightmare Family who came to celebrate with Cody instead of the referee. Instead, Hager lays out the referee and gets himself suspended.

With all of these various run-ins and questionable finishes to his matches, it bloody apparent that AEW is slowly itching towards a slow burn into a Cody heel turn within the coming months.

Tag Team Match

Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) (with Matt Hardy) def. The Inner Circle (Santana and Ortiz)

This wasn't good at all. The more I see of Santana and Ortiz in AEW, it seems like they are just phoning it in and not taking a single damn match serious - completely contradicting their performances as this no nonsense tag team (LAX) in IMPACT Wrestling. As for Private Party, I like the guys as athletes but every single match they have since their debut in this company is worse than the last. I hate to say it but they are getting exposed hard in this company and coming off greener than grass.

Tag team match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship

Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c) def. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent)

When Chucky T and Trent got dropped off by their "mom" in her station wagon, I immediately swapped back to NXT's main event because I knew there wasn't absolutely a snowball's chance in hell that Omega and Hangman were losing the tag titles to this losers. I couldn't believe these clowns made it that easy to choose which main event to watch. That was literally handing the ratings war over to NXT in my honest opinion.

I just couldn't believe that AEW would put these losers against the Tag champs in the main event slot against the highly anticipated dream match between Io Shirai and Sasha Banks over on NXT.

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Night 2

Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c) def. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) (with Matt Hardy)

At this point, I want to start chanting "SPOTS! SPOTS! SPOTS!" during Private Party's entrance theme instead of SHOTS! for their matches as that's all what it's going to come down to. For their sakes, I hope Matt Hardy is actually taking them under his wing and offering true mentorship like how Michael "PS" Hayes was for him and Jeff Hardy back in the early days of their WWF careers. How many times can Kenny Omega get moves off after stopping, shaking like The Ultimate Warrior, pointing to the ropes and running towards them without anyone stopping him? The more I see him do that, the stupider it looks to me. It was worse when one of the members of Private Party tried to do it too before Omega cut him off and got his in instead. There were a lot of flashy bits to this match - as to be expected with the talents involved - but that was the problem. It was all flash and little substance for much else in-between. It wasn't a bad match at all, but it was just lacking in terms it was a match between two guys just doing moves. I didn't get any sense of a conflict nor a narrative here. The important thing was that Omega and Page got the win though as they shouldn't be losing to any underneath tag teams in this division. This win just keeps them at the top of the food chain in that tag division.

Singles Match

Lance Archer (with Jake Roberts) def. Joey Janela (with Sonny Kiss)

I laughed my ass off at this and not in a good way either. Ever since Lance Archer has arrived into this company it has been painfully obvious that these people in charge don't have the slightest clue on what they are doing with him in terms of booking. He came in with a strong start, beating the piss and vinegar out of some job guys in a ring setup on a farm while his manager, Jake Roberts, watched. He immediately gets into a program with Cody for the TNT title with Jake tearing into Cody heavily with the promos and even dry humping Brandi Rhodes during one episode of Dynamite. In the plug for the PPV, Jake makes another promo for the match, in which it sounds like he's putting himself over for a match with Arn Anderson instead of building towards the matches with their two clients. At the PPV, Cody beats Archer for the TNT title like it's another walk in the park and absolutely nothing comes from the fact that Jake dry humped this man's wife. Cody didn't deliver a fired up promo nor demanded the life of Jake's first born child to be laid as sacrifice for the comeuppance. Cody just won the belt, showed up on Dynamite a few days after all smiles and moved onto his next program without even acknowledging Archer. Meanwhile, Archer has been left to wade through the pools of shit that is AEW's booking as he's been put in against almost every traveling goof that AEW has at their disposal from Marko Stunt to Joey Janela in this contest.

Can someone explain to me why that these matches aren't over in a minute flat? Instead, these matches are going on past a commercial or two! What the hell, man? I thought the point of these monster heels was to show their overwhelming strength with a few squash matches here and there. Stunt was at his best from the little that I saw of him in MLW prior to being on the AEW roster when he was getting the sin beat out of him by the heavy hitters on that roster. He would get a little offense in but he still got the bricks beat off of him. 

I just don't understand what is the fascination with having someone who is flat out god-awful at everything from presentation to in-ring ability in that which is Joey Janela. For some reason this company has Archer dragging this match out and trying to make it look competitive on top of that. I thought this should have been over the moment Archer came out carrying out Sonny Kiss like he was a corpse being laid out to the slaughter. He should've thrown Kiss into the ring and do the first bump as usual, hit his finish and should've called it a day. If they want to make Kiss and Janela into a tag team, fine, but fuck that noise about trying to act like Janela can hold a candle to the Murderhawk.

As for Sonny Kiss, I think he can get over on his own without being coupled with Joey Janela in a makeshift tag team/alliance. Being paired up with him is only going to bring him down long-term in my honest opinion.

Eight-Man Tag Team Match

The Butcher and The Blade and Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) def. FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)

On paper this should have been good, but I ultimately found this match hard to follow after the opening moments, especially when all four teams started getting involved at once. I honestly couldn't even tell you who was legal at points. I really hate being a Debbie Downer on stuff like this as I like a lot of these guys involved in this match, but once again, the action devolved into a lot of insane spots with not too much logic or reason behind them outside of looking cool. 

If I'm honest, I'm not too fond of how AEW has been setting up this FTR and Young Bucks feud. They debut FTR with them "saving" the Bucks then in the weeks that followed they are dicks to each other until they are reluctant to tag with each other to face the Lucha Bros. and The Butcher & The Blade. Don't forget that FTR beat the latter in a normal tag team match, so it's not like they couldn't handle them on their own. FTR has made it clear that they don't need anyone's help but the Bucks keep "brown nosing" with them to get into their good graces almost to suggest that they don't want to face FTR in any shape nor form. Smarter booking would have done the initial tease between the Bucks and FTR during the FTR and not even have both teams come in contact until after one or the other beat Hangman and Omega for the AEW Tag Team belts.

Handicap Match

Nyla Rose def. Kenzie Paige and KiLynn King

This was the squash match of pure domination that Nyla needed at the start of her run here in AEW rather than months after the fact since they've squandered her momentum. To be fair, she lost the AEW Women's Championship in against arguably the best woman on the roster, Hikaru Shida, and that wasn't a burial. Shida had to beat her in a gimmick match to get the job done, so Nyla still has her rematch clause to lean back on if that's a thing in AEW to get her back into the title conversation. 

Seriously though, who's decision was it to give Nyla a manager when she's one of the few women in this company who can cut consistently good promos? As of this posting (7/17/20), it has been revealed that Vickie Guerrero has been brought in to fill that role, even though I thought it was going to be Awesome Kong (only if she was done filming her scenes for the final season of GLOW on Netflix...) or Brandi Rhodes. 

Six-Man Tag Team Match

Colt Cabana and The Dark Order (Brodie Lee and Stu Grayson) def. SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky) 

We're quickly approaching the one year mark of AEW Dynamite on TNT and for some reason, we're still doing this Dark Order crap. AEW saw the light and axed that awful Nightmare Collective bullshit when people pointed out how stupid it was. Why can't they do the same with the Dark Order? The longer that Brodie Lee is associated with this faction, the more I can see why Vince McMahon had absolutely no faith in this guy. He is a charisma vacuum in this role as the leader of this group and comes off as exciting as watching paint dry. As for this match itself, it was fine since everyone involved are all capable workers, but it was just a nothing match. It was just here to kill time until the main event.

Chris Jericho (with Santana and Ortiz) def. Orange Cassidy (with Best Friends)

In all honesty, I don't flat out hate Orange Cassidy like a lot of old school wrestling fans and critics do. I get he's one of these niche gimmicks that was brought into this company that caters to the hardcore AEW audience and I don't have an issue with that. My issue is that I felt that Chris Jericho gave him a little too much here. With this gimmick, Cassidy should be an upper to midcard act at best. When he's hanging in there with main eventers like this is the headliner to WrestleMania then we have a problem. Too much, too fast. You don't have to blow your load at once with this guy, especially when the comedy aspect of his gimmick has a limited shelf life anyway. Jericho hit this guy with a baseball bat and multiple finishers and still wasn't able to put him away until some additional interference from Santana and Ortiz while Cassidy was left looking stronger since he had sent the Best Friends away to handle this on his own from the start. They made Ref Aubrey look like a colossal dumb ass calling the finish too when even Jim Ross is pointing out on commentary that she's laying in the same goddamn orange juice that Santana & Ortiz threw into Cassidy's face moments prior while she's making the count. I get this is filler until Jericho can resume the feud with Mike Tyson, but there has to be someone else he can tango with than Cassidy.

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Closing Thoughts

I just have to remind people who read that I'm not a podcaster/YouTuber who is desperately looking for views and subscribers to boost my channel. I'm not on Patreon, begging for my fans and followers to shove money up my ass either, so don't expect me to grade AEW on a curve. AEW has a lot of talented athletes and performers on their roster. There's no doubt about that. All I'm saying is that their booking leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of this comes across as the same level of booking that people were laughing at IMPACT Wrestling for doing a few years ago and even some of it is as bad and on par with some of the shit on Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown! over on a WWE on a regular basis. I can't help but to continue feeling that people constantly give AEW a pass on stupidity and poor decision-making because they are ANYTHING but WWE. 

I get that every company is struggling during this global pandemic and AEW is no different as Tony Khan has a lot of talent sidelined either by various injuries or barred from any sort of international travel right now. As a result, Tony Khan has limited resources to work with if the #SpeakingOut accusations didn't cripple his roster enough too.