AEW Dynamite saw Cody face a world-renowned indie star and the return of a Dynamite stalwart. Who were these mystery stars? Let’s find out.

TNT Championship match: Cody (c) vs Eddie Kingston

The surprise opponent for Cody’s TNT Championship was Eddie Kingston. He made his presence known instantly as he came out to the ramp and gave a fiery promo aimed at Cody. He lambasted him stating he knew nothing of grind due to his privileged upbringing and compared that to his own grind surrounded by alcoholics and drug addicts. He also told Cody he wanted a no disqualification match, which a fired-up Cody accepted.

Kingston blindsided Cody before the bell rang as the two quickly brawled to the outside. A series of loud chops to Cody echoed throughout the arena but this seemed to fire Cody up as he rallied a comeback and hit a suicide dive onto Kingston.

Despite taking back control after this, Kingston clearly was nursing the knee that Cody had been targeting throughout the match. Fighting through the pain, Kingston kept up his offence and cut off Cody’s attempt at regaining control with a cheeky low blow.

Taking full advantage of the no disqualification stipulation, Kingston grabbed a bag of thumbtacks and poured them into the centre of the ring. After some back and forth, Cody took the bump as Kingston dumped him onto the tacks with a devastating powerbomb.

The pain served to give Cody the adrenaline boost he needed as he took the fight back to Kingston with thunderous strikes until he softened up Kingston enough to lock in the Figure-Four leglock for a tap out victory.

A brutal and thrilling match that started hot with an absolutely stunning promo from Kingston. His promo was so good that I actually wanted him to best Cody just to ensure he would stick around. I really hope this isn’t the last we see of Kingston in AEW.

MJF w/ Wardlow vs Griff Garrison

MJF came out to the ring to celebrate his continued undefeated streak before he was set to face Griff Garrison. Garrison pointed out that MJF had lost his tag match at Fyter Fest to which MJF responded with a cheap shot.

Going into the break, MJF had Garrison on the backfoot as he followed up on his sneak attack by keeping Garrison crowded and focusing on taking out his legs.

MJF got a microphone and demanded Garrison tell him he was undefeated, beating his opponent into submission until he yielded and said it into the mic. A triumphant MJF was distracted long enough for Garrison to hit a surprise roll-up that nearly got the three-count.

However, MJF would continue his singles undefeated streak as he grabbed Garrison and demolished him with a Heat Seeker for the win.

The opening verbal sparring with Garrison was a mistake. Garrison seems to lack some natural charisma as it is but put him next to MJF and he looks about as charismatic as a pebble. The match was short but MJF looked positively villainous, so it did its job.

Taz addresses Brian Cage’s loss at Fight for the Fallen

Taz defended throwing in the towel for Cage at Fight for the Fallen as a business decision to protect Cage’s previously torn bicep from further damage.

Darby Allin came down to the ring to confront Cage but was attacked from behind by Ricky Starks, who had aligned himself with Cage on AEW Dark. Unfortunately, it seemed Allin was legitimately knocked loopy as his head rebounded on the ropes, which was scary to see. He seemed able to take the beatdown that came after from Cage and Starks though before he was saved by Moxley with his barbed wire bat.

It’s interesting to see if this will lead to an uneasy alliance with Allin and Moxley which is certainly a cool pairing.

The Young Bucks vs the Butcher and the Blade

The Young Bucks challenged The Butcher and The Blade to a Falls Count Anywhere match at the arena after finding Butcher and Blade chopping meat in the kitchen. I guess The Butcher and The Blade do the catering for the show too, it’s hard times during the pandemic after all.

 

What this match lacked in psychology, it made up for in hardcore spots. The teams slammed each other on steel trollies, threw raw meat at each other and lawn darted Nick Jackson into a semi-truck door with his own face on it.

When the teams finally made it to the ringside area, a misjudged dive to the outside from Blade saw him clatter into the barricades instead of Nick Jackson and Butcher hit a running crossbody to Matt Jackson, driving him through another table.

The Young Bucks would take the match in the end with dual dives from the entrance set to tables on the stage putting the Butcher and the Blade away.

This was a fun match full of crazy spots for the spot monkey viewers but I can imagine those looking for a more thoughtful wrestling style will feel this was lacking. A lot of fun if you turn your brain off and just watch the fireworks.

Lance Archer lays waste to the AEW locker room

Alex Marvez tried to have an interview with Archer and Jake Roberts but Archer wasn’t in the chatting mood. He dragged Marvez to the locker room and began laying waste to everyone inside and even lobbing a poor fellow into the ceiling tiles. All the while Roberts calmly told Marvez how they were tired of being ignored.

The juxtaposition between the calm explanations of Roberts and the violence of the Murderhawk was chilling. Archer looked terrifying here.

Ivelisse vs Diamanté

This match was given plenty of time to breath on the card as the pair took their time, sizing each other up with counter holds and strikes before Ivelisse opted to retreat to the outside. Ivelisse ducked to avoid an attempt at a diving strike from Diamante as the pair began beating each other with harsh chops on the outside.

The pair began to wear each other down with holds before getting back to striking at each other with a brutal chop exchange.

A German suplex from Diamanté got a close two-count but Ivelisse retaliated by countering an attack from Diamante into a clutch powerbomb.

Diamanté would end up stopping Ivelisse in her tracks with a surprise roll-up to take the win.

This was a perfect palette cleanser to the hardcore madness we saw in the last match and presented a vastly different style to what we’ve seen in the women’s division of AEW so far. I hope we see a lot more of these two performers.

Alan “5” Angels vs Hangman Page

Being part of the Dark Order didn’t seem to do much for the man who is now apparently 5 whole angels as Page was making swift work of him for most of the opening of the match.

As the show went to break the rest of the Dark Order appeared at the ramp giving Angels enough of a distraction to gain control for the first time during the match.

Angel’s speed seemed to be giving him an advantage but a bludgeoning lariat from Page started the cowboy’s comeback. A rolling elbow and a huge powerbomb were enough to give Page the win.

After the match, Brodie Lee came to speak to Page who noticeably had Colt Cabana following behind. The Exalted One noted that Page was without any support from his Elite brethren and stated the Dark Order could offer him a group that wouldn’t leave him on his own.

Hangman refused and Lee said Page would have to lie in the bed he made for himself as the remaining Dark Order members descended onto him and began to beat him down.

FTR came for the save throwing a cooler full of beers to scatter the Dark Order with Kenny Omega coming to the ring too, but far too late.

Interesting developments with Omega’s heelish acts last week and his lack of effort in helping out his partner. I’m intrigued to see where this goes when Evil Uno and Stu Grayson face Page and Omega for the AEW Tag Team Championships next week.

Jurassic Express vs Jake Hager and Chris Jericho w/ Santana and Ortiz

Jericho started out against Jungle Boy but a quick flurry from his opponent was enough for him to tag out to Hager.

Jungle Boy retorted by tagging in Luchasaurus as the two big men faced off once again. The pair laid into each other with hefty blows and swift kicks from Luchasaurus. Hager tried to keep Luchasaurus as grounded as possible with submission hold takedowns.

The two had to yield after knocking each other senseless and tagged out to their partners. Jungle Boy used his speed to take full advantage of his hot tag and ran circles around Jericho. A hurricanrana and an outside-in weren’t enough to stop the champ as Hager broke up the pin.

Coming out of the break, Jericho had managed to take back control as the Inner Circle members isolated Jungle Boy from his partner.

After an agonising amount of time for Jungle Boy, he finally managed to make the break after countering a double suplex from the Inner Circle into a double DDT.

The hot tag to Luchasaurus saw him laying waste to his opponents in the ring with his keen kicks and surprising agility.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the Jurassic Express’s night as a distracted referee didn’t see a surprise attack from Serpentico to allow Jericho to steal the win.

Why would Serpentico join the Inner Circle? Well turns out because it wasn’t Serpentico at all, it was actually the returning Sammy Guevara.

The Inner Circle, fully reunited, began to beatdown Jurassic Express before Orange Cassidy and Best Friends sent them packing to close out the show.

A frenetic tag match saw a nice surprise to cap it off now that Guevara is back from his sensitivity training and hopefully a better person for it.

AEW Dynamite had a match for everyone tonight from an indie legend throwing Cody through thumbtacks to a well-paced women’s match between two tremendous Puerto Rican talents. After watching Extreme Rules: The Horror Show, this is the exact kind of show needed to revive my faith in professional wrestling.

All pictures and videos provided by AEW

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