AEW Dynamite - 13/05/19

Dynamite had a lot to look forward to going into the show, with Christopher Daniels slated to face off with The Exalted One, Brodie Lee in the main event, a Women’s division Fatal 4-Way match which had implications in the rankings and Le Champion Chris Jericho in action against the man he dubbed Pineapple Pete. Also, after last week’s brutal street fight between Le Sex Gods – Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara – and Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy, we would see the latter duo take on Inner Circle tag team Proud ‘n’ Powerful – Santana & Ortiz. Let’s see what happened when AEW lit the fuse...

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Lance Archer and Jake Roberts Open The Show

After what these two did last week, an apology was requested of Roberts for setting his snake on Brandi Rhodes. As usual, The Murderhawk Monster made his way to the ring by beating the tar out of an innocent bystander, setting the tone for what was about to come. Roberts said he would apologise to Brandi when she kissed his ass and claimed that setting foot in the ring meant that you were in No Man’s Land. He claimed that a woman’s best place is at home, cooking and looking after babies and that Cody's time was up and he could no longer hide behind his brother or any excuses. A loud revving sound drowned out Roberts as Cody arrived in his custom “Nightmare Family” pickup truck, running though some barricades and equipment before jumping out and making a beeline for the ring. Lance Archer met him en route and the two brawled briefly, with Cody taking the upper hand before going after Jake Roberts. Archer caught up with Cody and threw him over a barricade and through a table. Roberts jumped back on the mic, gloating how this was “our world” and egging on Archer to hurt his opponent at Double or Nothing. Cody managed to use Archers long braids to choke him, but Archer eventually put Cody down with a boot before hoisting him above his shoulders. Cody slipped out and Roberts called off the attack, telling Archer “not now” as they backed away. This match at the upcoming Pay Per View was already an interesting prospect, but this new personal touch has taken the heat to the next level.

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Jurassic Express v Best Friends

An awesome video package revolving around the AEW tag team division aired before this match and there was a lot of talk of rankings throughout, giving this fun tag bout a little more edge. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus took the fight to the more experienced team of Chuck Taylor and Trent, with Marko Stunt and Orange Cassidy supporting each team respectively – well, as much as Cassidy “supports” anything. There was a lot of back and forth in this match, with Luchasaurus’ strikes looking like they might turn the tide in favour of Jurassic Express, before Jungle Boy tagged in and Trent managed to take control. Chuck tried to help his best friend with a Superplex, but Jungle Boy managed to hit a dropkick on Trent taking him off of Chuck’s shoulders. The big turning point in this match came when Trent tried to hit a suicide dive on Luchasaurus but was cut off and almost hit with a Chokeslam. Chuck came to save his partner and they hit a suplex onto the ringside area before going for a Best Friends Hug. Jungle Boy saw his opening and hit a dive of his own, taking out both Chuck and Trent.

Once the action returned to the ring, with Jungle Boy and Chuck as the legal men, the match became very even again until Trent ran in and hit a running knee on Jungle Boy. This led the masked dinosaur back into the ring, hitting a Question Mark kick on Trent. Orange Cassidy finally came to life, trying to get his team back in the game but was annihilated by a flying kick by a returning Rey Fenix. Trent left the ring to help his boy and, as the referee tried to restore order, MJF jumped the barricade to attack his Double or Nothing opponent Jungle Boy, before rolling him into the ring and an Awful Waffle piledriver for a Best Friends win. After the bell, Wardlow assaulted Marko Stunt, ragdolling him into the metal railings and laughing at Luchasaurus as he stood over Marko to protect him from more harm. MJF is clearly willing to do what it takes to get the upper hand over Jungle Boy and using Wardlow to take out the rest of Jurassic Express is just smart business. Also, Luchasaurus against Wardlow in a battle of AEW’s big boys? Take my money!

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Penelope Ford v Kris Statlander v Dr Britt Baker v Hikaru Shida

This match had both personal and professional implications here, with the number one ranked Shida going straight at it with Britt Baker, with the Doctor wanting revenge for the broken nose Shida caused. The action was fast and furious in this one, with each woman getting to show off their strengths. Britt is really coming into her own as a douchebag heel, Statlander is a standout powerhouse among a physically smaller group of women, Ford has fantastic athleticism and Shida is one of the all-round best wrestlers AEW have on the books. Baker tried to apply the Lockjaw hold a few times throughout the match, only to be foiled by the other women, while Statlander’s power advantage led to a few occasions in which she was ganged up on by Baker and Ford. An awesome spot came towards the end of this match, where Statlander had Shida in position for the Big Bang Theory, only for Baker to superkick her from behind and Shida to roll her into a pinning situation. Baker saw this coming though and ran the ropes, hitting a knee on Shida and breaking up the pin. As the action broke down again, Baker and Statlander fought on the outside, with Britt eventually putting her opponent in the Lockjaw on the outside. Kris was visibly tapping out, but as it wasn’t in the ring, it didn’t matter. While all this was happening, Shida managed to hit Ford with a running knee and take the 1-2-3, retaining her number one ranking going into 12 weeks in a row. After the champion Nyla Rose raised her title in the face her main contender, it was announced that she would defend the strap at Double or Nothing. Later in the night, Nyla told Shida that she had brought her a gift and smashed her in the head with a kendo stick, leading to the decision to make the title match a no-disqualification bout.

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Santana & Ortiz v Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy

Proud ‘n’ Powerful jumped Omega on the ramp before the start of this match, taking a two-on-one advantage before Matt Hardy could make it to the ring. Once the Broken One made it to the ring, Omega managed to fight back as well but the Inner Circle members soon managed to isolate Omega again. They hit a double Northern Lights Suplex for a nearfall, but Omega managed to tag in Hardy after dropping Ortiz with a Snap Dragon Suplex. Hardy entered in full fight mode, yelling “DELETE” while smashing Santana’s head into the turnbuckles. Hardy managed a nearfall for his side, after hitting a Twist of Fate on Santana, but Ortiz made the save. Some fast paced, back and forth action followed until Hardy managed to lock in a beautiful Butterfly submission move, drawing a limping Sammy Guevara down to the ring to help his Inner Circle pals. He was using a chair for a crutch and wearing a neck brace, showing the results of last week’s vehicular assault. He looked to be going after Hardy, but Hardy countered and hit a vicious Twist of Fate (seriously, the way Sammy took that thing made me think he would really need that neck brace) before Omega hit the V-Trigger on Ortiz, knocking him into the waiting arms of Matt Hardy, who hit another Twist of Fate for the win.

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MJF v Lee Johnson

This was always going to be nothing more than a vehicle to show off MJF, but it worked perfectly for what it was. After MJF threw Johnson around for a bit, Johnson got riled up and slapped The Salt of the Earth in the face. This just enraged MJF and he began to go harder on Johnson. Knees

to the ribs, a powerbomb on the apron and a shoulder breaker led into MJF locking in the armbar for the win. MJF then called for his music to be cut, telling Jungle Boy that he needed a warm up match before their Pay Per View clash and that he would be facing Marko Stunt next week. Simple, effective douchebaggery from one of the best heels in the game right now.

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Pineapple Pete v Chris Jericho

Another match that was only ever going one way, Suge D has adopted the Pineapple Pete moniker bestowed up him by Le Champion because since he became Pineapple Pete “life has been so sweet”. Jericho was wearing a Pineapple Pete t-shirt, mocking his opponent, and opened the match by slapping him in the face. Pete came back with a surprising flurry of offence, hitting a splash on Jericho in the corner. As Pete went for another splash, Jericho burst forward and hit the Judas Effect elbow, wiping out Pete and ending the match. As the Inner Circle joined Jericho in the ring, Le Champion grabbed a mic and declared that he and the rest of the Bubbly Bunch were challenging the Elite to a match that they had created, the Stadium Stampede. He said that the Inner Circle would wait in the ring for a reply from the Elite, prompting the arrival of Vanguard 1, bringing with him the Inner Circle t-shirt that he had taken from Jericho before. After Vanguard 1 accepted the match on the Elite’s behalf, Jericho introduced the newest member of the Inner Circle, his baseball bat Floyd. Jericho quickly put Floyd to work, smashing Vanguard 1 repeatedly, before handing off to his stablemates, with each man taking turns to destroy the drone. Matt Hardy appeared from the backstage area, distraught that his friend had been completely destroyed at the hands of his enemies. The Inner Circle left Hardy in the ring, laughing as they went.

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Christopher Daniels v Brodie Lee

Daniels has been a target of the Dark Order for a long time, going against everything they stand for and even denying the existence of the Exalted One at all. Brodie Lee was here to prove to Daniels that he was very much real and very much capable of the kind of destruction that had been foretold. Striding to the ring surrounded by his minions from the Dark Order and in possession of Jon Moxley’s AEW World Championship, Brodie cut a very confident figure. He demanded that Dasha announce him as the world champion before the match and the confidence continued as the match started. Everything Daniels tried early on was just swatted away by the larger man, putting the Fallen Angel down with relative ease. Brodie stepped outside the ring to talk trash to Daniels’ SCU team mates – Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky – but was hit by a huge dive from Daniels. Brodie Lee took control again with hard hitting moves once they got back in the ring, but Daniels managed to turn the tide by countering a slam into a DDT. As Daniels climbed the ropes, perhaps looking for the BME, Dark Order member Ten jumped up on the ring apron and stopped the assault on his leader.

Kaz and Sky jumped the barrier to pull Ten down by his legs and started putting a beating on the masked servant. With the ref distracted by the melee on the outside, Brodie grabbed a chair and went after Daniels. The Fallen Angel countered, knocking the chair away from the Dark Order leader and managed to hit a chair shot himself before locking in the Koji Clutch. The rest of the Dark Order members stormed the ring at this point, but were fought off by SCU and Colt Cabana, allowing Daniels to hit the Angel’s Wings facebuster, but the Exalted One kicked out at just one. After a second attempt was countered, Daniels managed to take Brodie down for long enough to hit his trademark Best Moonsault Ever, but Brodie kicked out again. Daniels headed back to the top, looking to end the match, but a discuss lariat on the way down was enough to lay Daniels out for the count. The bell signalled the celebrations for the Dark Order and for Brodie to demand another world champion announcement, but the real world champion wanted his belt back and stormed the ring. Jon Moxley hit out at everyone he could get his hands on, taking down multiple members of the

Dark Order as Brodie Lee and Ten escaped with the World Title still in their possession. Mox grabbed the mic and told the Exalted One that, come the 23rd of May, he would pay for what he has done, and with interest.

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A strong showing in the ring tonight on Dynamite, with both the men’s and women’s champions looking strong and defiant of their challengers, while the Inner Circle look as brutal as ever and Matt Hardy’s psyche potentially collapsing even further. There were also a lot of talking points coming out of this show, heading into next week’s go home show for the Double or Nothing Pay Per View. What did you think of Dynamite this week? Who caught your eye? Who deserves a chance to push up the rankings? What matches would you like to see? Let me know your answers and any other thoughts down below!

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