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AEW Reviews

God and PAC – AEW Dynamite – December 16th, 2020 Review

ByM P Wilson

Dec 18, 2020 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

AEW Dynamite saw the new AEW World Champion determined to silence his critics and show that his eliminator tournament wins were no fluke. He sought to prove this by defeating an opponent who missed out on their original match.

Hangman Page, Alex Reynolds & John Silver vs Matt Hardy & Private Party

The Dark Order cronies came to the ring in cowboy garb much to Page’s chagrin. Hardy and Private Party were referred to as “the Hardy Party”. They clearly should have been “Private Hardy” but I guess this is amateur hour…

Marq Quen attempted to use his speed to start off the fight with Page but Page was able to match his speed and prevent him from getting an advantage. Despite Matt Hardy putting Page on the backfoot, an aid from the Dark Order boys allowed the three to stand tall in the ring.

Silver’s showboating left a gap in his team’s defence to allow the Hardy Party to take back control including a crazy clutch hold/shooting star press combo off the back of Silver. A counter to Hardy’s pinpoint elbow attempt allowed Silver to get the hot tag to Page who cleaned house with incredible grace and finished off his rally with a big lariat to Isiah Kassidy.

Both teams tagged out as Kassidy and Reynolds fired off an impressive rally of rebound attacks but a big neckbreaker from Reynolds only managed a two-count. The Dark Order cronies followed up with their amazing tag team sequence with the added detail of a powerbomb from Page in the middle of it. This was probably the most impressive sequence of the night.

Matt Hardy hit a Twist of Fate to the outside to Silver and sent Page over the barricade leaving Reynolds isolated in the ring. A hair-pull from Hardy allowed Private Party too hit the Gin and Juice. Despite Private Party doing the work, Hardy tagged himself back in to steal the pin.

A really strong opening match with two storylines developing in tandem, Page with the Dark Order and Hardy’s slow heel turn. That’s not even mentioning the fantastic tag team quality that demonstrates how diverse the talent in the tag division is in AEW.

Cody vs Angélico w/ Jack Evans

A cocky Angélico was able to use his wily speed and submission-based offence to keep Cody off base even going as far to cockily goad Cody while lying on his back.

After the break, Cody had started to mount a comeback after a stiff kick to Angélico’s chest and a great powerslam but Angélico’s impressive submission skills stopped Cody in his tracks. The hold secured all of Cody’s limbs leaving him needing to use his teeth to get the rope break.

A counter of the disaster kick allowed Angelico to slam Cody’s leg into the mat and lock in the Navarro death-lock but Cody managed to hold on and make the break.

Angelico attempted to keep up the pressure but Cody managed to fight back and hit a rebound Cody cutter to finally put Angélico away.

After the match, Team Taz came out and mocked Cody’s impending fatherhood, promising to put him on paternity leave.

Before they could begin their beat down, Sting came out and scared them away with his trademark bat.

This match really showed off how phenomenal Angélico is as an in-ring talent and I’d love to see him get a singles run in the future. Team Taz did look a little weak running from a 60-year-old man but it is Sting to be fair to them.

Eddie Kingston has two enemies in life

Kingston told the crew to cut his music for the 562nd time and went on to tell the crowd he didn’t care about any of them or their boos.

He went on to say he had two enemies in life, God and PAC. He wasn’t worried about PAC as he believed the injuries that he’d had inflicted would mean PAC was done as a competitor.

As Kingston moved on to the topic of Archer, the Murderhawk Monster ran to the ring and launched himself at Kingston.

The Butcher and The Blade attempted a save but were met with the full gang of Death Triangle who sent the Family members running.

Kingston managed to sneak away after a tag team beating from Archer and PAC as they argued with each other about who should get their hands on PAC.

Everyone in this feud is exciting to watch and can easily spin off into multiple matches and splinter feuds.

But really, we all know the real question here. Is Lancer Archer the fourth member of Death Triangle?

Best Friends, the Varsity Blondes, Top Flight vs The Inner Circle

Jericho started off by slapping around poor Brian Pillman Jr but he didn’t take long to make some slaps right back and launched himself at Jericho on the outside.

The Varsity Blondes put pressure onto Jericho forcing him to have to tag out to Sammy Guevara. As a response, in came Daunte Martin who managed to outpace Guevarra’s grounding attempts with a high-speed offence and keen tags to his brother.

Best Friends and Santana and Ortiz tagged their members in which escalated into a brawl with all the competitors followed by a big group hug from the faces after they cleared the ring.

MJF used some dastardly tactics drag Trent to the outside and allowing the Inner Circle to take him out behind the referee’s back going into the break.

The faces started a rally after a hot tag after the break with Daunte Martin hitting an impressive standing Spanish Fly followed by his brother, Darius Martin, landing a big dive to the outside hitting the remaining Inner Circle members.

Varsity Blondes had their turn cleaning house but Griff Garrison was stopped in his tracks by a sneaky bat strike from Jericho behind the referee’s back.

Jake Hager hit an F-10 on Garrison before allowing MJF to take the pin.

Top Flight got some heat back after the match as they saved the Varsity Blondes from a further beatdown.

A fun tag match that showed the Inner Circle are getting back onto the same page as well as showing off some of the newer tag teams in AEW.

SCU vs The Acclaimed

After the usually terrible rapping from Max Caster, including references to CD being an outdated format and Kazarian’s hair plugs, Kazarian fought back with a rap of his own. Kazarian was really funny and had much better burns than the Acclaimed have ever managed.

Kazarian remained in control for the majority of the opening of the match as he dispatched the offence of both Caster and Anthony Bowens. However, going into the break, the Acclaimed managed to stop Kazarian in his tracks and take the winds out his sails on the outside.

Coming back, Kazarian managed to break free of the Acclaimed and get the hot tag to Daniels who took out Caster with an STO and got a close two-count on Bowens with a Blue Thunder Bomb.

The Acclaimed stopped Daniels in his attempts to hit a moonsault but he managed to remain on the top rope and fight them off enough to hit a crossbody on Bowens. Sadly, a deflected roll-up attempt by Daniels would lead to Caster striking him with a boombox behind the referees back and allowed Bowens to hit Daniels with a pump-handle slam for the win.

After the match, the Acclaimed challenged the Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championships.

 

I’m not a massive fan of the Acclaimed. I feel that their gimmick isn’t great and feels like a decade out of date John Cena impersonation plus their ring work is fine but nothing exceptional. However, working as obnoxious heels is actually a good road for them and could hide some of their shortcomings.

Ivelisse & Diamanté vs Serena Deeb & Big Swole

Deeb started off firey, fighting off the offence of Ivelisse and driving her into her corner. Despite this, a guillotine to Swole from Ivelisse and Diamanté to hit a hanging German suplex to give them control of the match heading into the break.

After the break, Deeb fought back valiantly with a leg lock/suplex combination onto her opponents and locked in a figure four leg-lock onto Ivelisse but she managed to get to the rope to make the break.

Diamanté got a close two-count on Swole but she managed to fight back to lock in a Texas Cloverleaf onto Diamanté while Deeb ran interference on Ivelisse. Diamante had to tap out after Swole put intense pressure on Diamanté’s back.

After the match, Nyla Rose tried to blindside Deeb and Swole with Vicki Guerrero in toe but Red Velvet made the save with a chair in hand.

Good tag match between these women that used the veteran’s abilities of the other competitors to make Swole look like the hero of the match. Great stuff.

No Disqualification – AEW World Championship Eliminator match

Due to Joey Janela having to miss his eliminator match during the tournament for the AEW World Championship, he got his chance here with no rules to get in the way.

After the verbose entrance, we’ve come to expect from Kenny Omega, Janela brained him with a trash can. Before Janela could follow up with a chair, Omega fought back, set Janela on the chair and hit him with the Terminator Dive to the outside.

During this, Don Callis had been giving his own commentary on the match with a live microphone praising how great Omega was. Callis then gave a microphone to Omega who began commentating his own match, mocking Janela after hitting him with a trash can wielding moonsault, a trashcan laden double stomp and several hits with a cookie sheet.

Despite this onslaught, Janela countered the One-Winged Angel into a poison-rana. Sonny Kiss got a table set up on the outside for Janela as he scaled the top rope and landed a nasty leg drop through the table to Omega.

Sadly, a follow-up moonsault was dodged by Omega and met with a pair of vicious V-Triggers and finally a One-Winged Angel for the victory.

After the match, Death Triangle came out to the ring. PAC said despite their unfinished business, he had come out to talk about the injustice his friends had faced.

He referenced Rey Fénix not being able to continue in the tournament and questioned Omega calling himself the true champion. PAC then revealed he’d arranged with Tony Khan for Fénix to face Omega for the AEW World Championship to close out the show.

Overall an overall average night of AEW Dynamite but considering the overall quality of the shows, that’s no knock on its quality. Some great matches here tonight with the main event being a standout and some nice featuring of younger talent throughout.

All pictures and videos provided by AEW

By M P Wilson

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