Coming off my favorite AEW pay-per-view so far in Full Gear, the company presented another episode of Dynamite last night with CEO Tony Khan promising to “shift the balance of professional wrestling”. With the first-ever Bunkhouse Match in AEW and a rematch between the Lucha Brothers, the company rode the momentum from Full Gear to put on another great episode of Dynamite.
#3 Team Taz Makes Their Mark
With every week that passes, I find myself wanting to see more and more of Team Taz. Headed by the legend himself Taz and featuring “The Machine” Brian Cage and “Absolute” Ricky Starks in the ring, this group is must-see TV every time they come out of the tunnel. This week, Cage found himself opening up the show against Matt Sydal in a fantastic opener. The wrestling world has seen plenty of “big guy versus little guy” matchups, but this match did a great job in making you think that Sydal could pull off the upset. The only thing that could have made this match better was if the FTW Championship was on the line, something that I’ve been calling for each and every week. If you’re going to have a title, why not defend it? Cage got the win here, and after the match, we see Starks grab the mic and declare that the next step is the TNT Championship. The group would make their presence known again in the next segment, attacking Cody Rhodes, before TNT Champion Darby Allin would make his way down from the rafters to even up the odds. Next week will see a tag match with Allin and Rhodes taking on Cage and Starks in what I fully expect to be a show-stealer. This was a great segment to start the show!
#2 A Brutal Bunkhouse Match
My biggest gripe with AEW Dark is the fact that it seems like a lot of the matches don’t matter when it comes to what happens on Dynamite, but we finally see some storyline progression here with this match. The Natural Nightmares challenged The Butcher and The Blade to this match after being attacked last week, and I really enjoyed it. A hardcore match of sorts, this Bunkhouse match allowed all four men (and The Bunny) to really go all out, bringing in ladders, tables and kendo sticks. The match was brutal with both QT Marshall and The Blade bleeding during the contest along with The Bunny going through a table. The reason I loved this match so much was that it was given time to tell a story, one that has been seen as an afterthought compared to the other stories going on in the company. I’m looking forward to seeing if these two teams will mix it up more in the coming weeks.
#1 The Bastard Returns
Talk about a main event! The emotion, the passion and the amazing wrestling ability from both Penta and Rey Fenix was shown in every moment of this match. These two brothers really showed what lucha libre wrestling is, putting on a 15 minute classic in the main event. Having Eddie Kingston on commentary talking about his relationship with the two and building up the fact that they all just love to fight was an excellent choice, and one that really added to the storytelling of this match. If you aren’t familiar with the lucha libre style of wrestling, I beg you to please go watch this match. An amazing classic that will surely go down as one of the best matches of the year. But then, after the match, we see “The Bastard” himself, PAC, return from a months long absence. He questions if Kingston thought he would be gone forever before heading to the ring. This is the kind of feud that will steal the show each and every night. I’m so excited to see PAC back and to see his eventual feud with Kingston because I promise you, it will be amazing.
And that wraps up my Top 3 for this week’s Dynamite. Be sure to check back next week for another edition of Tommy’s Top 3!
