It’s Monday morning (okay, not quite, but usually it will be), and you know what that means! It’s time for the AEW weekly roundup, so let’s start with…
The Big POPs!
Dynamite
Brody King and Darby Allin start Dynamite HOT with a coffin match that ends up being a masterpiece in brutality. Darby begins the bloodshed with a thumbtack covered skateboard, which tears open Brody’s forehead. The blood on King’s gray war paint was a stunning visual. As the match wears on, Brody’s blood is EVERYWHERE. The shenanigans were aplenty as House of Black showed up to beat up Darby. After HoB wipes out Allin, Sting does the classic coffin match surprise spot, hiding in the casket to pop out at the bad guys. Once the outsiders are vanquished, Darby is able to get the upper hand and he chokes out King who perfectly falls into the coffin and makes the lid close.
Madison Rayne debuts in AEW with a TBS title match. Seems a bit of a line jump, but good for her. Jade retains the belt after a sloppy match, but Cargill goes over clean to make the victory over a veteran more meaningful. The celebration is short lived, though, because Athena sneaks up behind Jade and gets a couple shots in before the Baddies escape.
Jon Moxley makes a point that he doesn’t like the “interim” label on his title. Foreshadowing anyone? Anyway, he takes on Chris Jericho–that’s “Lionheart” Chris Jericho, by the way–for that interim title in our main event. The last survivor of the Hart dungeon brings both the technique and the brutality in this one. Early in the match, Jericho tears out Moxley’s earring, making the (interim) champ bleed all over the place. We also get a plethora of submissions to invoke the Hart dungeon legacy. In fact, one of the spots is the ringpost figure four that Bret Hart made famous. I loved the way they clearly defined the difference between the Walls of Jericho and the Liontamer. That was always tough for WWE. Jericho used just about every finisher from throughout his career, but Moxley caught him in a rear choke for the win.
After the match, Jericho’s Appreciation Society attacked, which drew out the Blackpool Combat Club for some scuffling. But we weren’t done yet. AEW (non-interim) World Champion CM Punk made his return to help clear the ring. The two champs stood toe to toe (while we watched Moxley’s ear bleed some more). This is setting up the reunification match, which will likely happen at All Out.
Rampage
The Gunn Club is undergoing some tough love sessions as Billy tries to get his kids to move past the distractions and focus on gold. But this week, they have to take on Erick Redbeard and (this reporter’s favorite wrestler) Danhausen, who make up the team of BeardHausen. A video package reminds us that earlier in the week, Stokely Hathaway was trying to recruit the Gunns, much to Billy’s dismay. This match was dominated by BeardHausen, but distractions would prove to be too much for this reporter’s favorite wrestler, as Danhausen would take a Famasser to give the Gunns the victory. Post match, Billy berated the boys for their effort and Stokely was once again at ringside to make his offer known.
Sonny Kiss made a welcome return to TV in a match against Parker Boudreaux, which ended badly for Kiss, but later in the night, Parker and the Trustbusters would see the Concrete Rose again. After the match between Orange Cassidy and Ari Daivari, Boudreaux took out the Best Friends, and Sonny came out to apparently make the save, but instead she turned on Orange Cassidy and joined the Trustbusters. This is an intriguing faction and I am very interested in seeing how this develops.
The Cheap POPs
Dynamite
A great lucha tag match between Andrade/Rush and the Lucha Bros, but there were no real stakes as it ends up just being a way to promote the upcoming Trios tourney match.
The Young Bucks will NOT be the Hung Bucks after all, as Adam Page chooses his Dark friends over his Elite friends. Sounds like the Bucks have a real mess on their hands. They could really use a Cleaner.
Luchasaurus is the new Kane. It makes sense since Kane’s ideas are prehistoric. After his Dynamite match, Lucha does his Nia Jax impression, laying out former WWE punching bag Pat Buck. That guy just can’t find a safe job in this business.
The Hobbs-Starks thing is getting muddled, and adding The Factory in the mix isn’t helping. Starks needs to break away from this and move into a title picture soon. Hobbs was a good partner for Ricky, but not a good opponent.
Sonjay Dutt may need to talk to Danhausen about doing an inventory check under the ring.
Matt Menard has the stuff to be a great heel in this business. Keep an eye on Daddy Magic.
Rampage
Bryan Danielson and Daniel Garcia will go two-out-of-three falls on the next Dynamite, so they have a fiery promo to set it up. The match will be good, but once again there aren’t many stakes in this one.
Tay Conti is now Tay Melo after getting hitched to Sammy (Melo) Guevara. I’m sure Twitter is glad the trolls are losing the chance to make that awful pun with her last name now.
HOOK is fighting Jersey Shore guys now. As long as the matches are shoot fights I’m okay with that.
More AEW fun and games coming next week. Join me, won’t you?
