AEW Dynamite (Nov. 20th, 2019): Coughing Shifts... Or Something

Another week, another AEW show... and this one promises an ANNOUNCEMENT from Le Champion du AEW! How exciting.

By the way, for the few folks enjoying these write-ups for some reason, don't get to used to them because they'll be a thing of the past soon enough. Fact of the matter is while I like getting my thoughts on good shows up, I also like to just enjoy the shows without worrying about how to convey those thoughts afterwards. I'll keep up with these for the moment, but from then on, it's every so often.

But that is then, this is now...




Rey Fenix (one half of Lucha Bros) defeated Nick Jackson (one half of Young Bucks) in a really great opening match that involved dueling superkicks. Neat-o, but... hey, Bucks. You know you're the EVPs of the company, right? You CAN win a few matches every once in a while. I mean, it's cool that you're not following the old trope of "booker booking himself to win all the time", but you need a nice balance too.

Hikaru Shida (another Joshi in a line of them... not that I'm complaining) defeated Dr. Britt Baker DMD in a perfectly acceptable wrestling match that got hampered when Britt suffered a bit of a nosebleed. Maybe she needs a nose specialist... maybe she needs to talk to Adam. He migHt know a guy wHo specializes in tHat sort of thing.

We get a Dark Order recruitment video... well, it's not much, but at least there's some attempt at giving people a reason to care about the Dark Order. A pity it doesn't happen as often as I'd like it to.

Hangman Adam Page and MJF win the Dynamite Diamond Dozen Battle Royal gimmick thing where the idea is that you have a bunch of guys and it acts like a battle royal until two guys remain. And then next week, they'll have a match together to win a ring or something. So it's basically the old Gauntlet For the Gold gimmick from TNA, except the last part takes place some other time in an effort to get people to care about this sort of thing. Anyway, it's a battle royal only notable for Billy Gunn of all people being a dominant giant... because he was once a big star, he's a current producer, and he's the only "big guy" in the league. Cool. Let's never do this again, please.

Next segment is Le Champion Du AEW Chris Jericho apologizing for his temper tantrum last week (but gets Jake Hager to say "I'm sorry" in his place - what a guy) and then announces a celebration in Chicago next week. Out comes SCU, who brag about Scorpio Sky beating Jericho last week. Jericho then challenges Scorpio to a match, to which SCU replies that he'd need a month or two to prepare. Ever the sly one, Jericho challenges Sky to a match for next week, to which Sky replies it probably shouldn't be for the title. Ever the cunning one, Jericho decides to put the title on the line next week... and yes, this was reverse psychology on the part of SCU to get what they want and playing Jericho like a fiddle for caving. Then SCU and the Inner Circle start brawling, with SCU getting beat up a bit before the Jurassic Express (mini Marko, Jumpin' Jungle Jack Boy, and big dinosaur) runs off both sides and we get a face to face between Luchasaurus and Jake Hager, teasing a confrontation before Hager walks off...

And that leads us to Luchasaurus killing Peter Avalon in a really short match... and then presumably eats him... but the show doesn't show that part, so... I guess it doesn't count.

Private Party defeated Pride & Powerful in what was an odd little tag match... having your big heel tag team lose to a nothing tag team will do that to you. It was alright, but that threw me off a bit. Oh well. Spanish God Sammy runs in for the attack, but then out comes DUSTIN for the save. So, I guess he's all better now, eh? Cool.

Kenny Omega's path to redemption begins here... cool. Maybe he'll start winning matches from now on. Hey, Kenny. You know you're another EVP, right? It's okay to WIN matches every once in a while.

So Darby Allin has this video where he's carrying around a bodybag, he gets in it, and a bunch of guys come out carrying said bodybag to the ramp. Cute reference by Jim Ross comparing Darby to the "strange enigma"

And in the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Darby Allin in what I thought was a tremendous hard-hitting match. Darby catches Mox on the outside and they brawl in the crowd for a bit before the bell rings, at which point we get dueling "Let's go Darby" and "Let's go Moxley" chants... sounds like these guys are over with the kids, folks. The match was fun; both guys came in looking for a fight, both guys beat the crap out of each other, Mox stuffed Darby in the bodybag and then booed the ref for letting him out, and then we got a top-rope DDT from Mox to finish off Darby. Nice touch showing the fans with the Darby facepaint; clearly, people are taking a liking to this Darby kid and this was a good match in the sense that it made him look like a star even in defeat... that having been said, though, logic suggests we get to a point where Darby has to start winning matches and maybe even beat a top star or two to further cement his status as one. We've got time for that, though... so, no worries.

You know what? I'm done saying this was a good show. The battle royal might've been a dud, but everything else has been anywhere between fine and great. Next week should be fun, with a Scorpio Sky/Chris Jericho World title match. Looking forward to it.