AEW's foray onto national television got off to an astounding start, drawing well over a million viewers, while absolutely slaughtering NXT in the first week of the "Wednesday Night Wars", more than doubling NXT in the 18-34 demographic, a key result as that demo is what typically matters the most to advertisers. But that smashing success, and everything AEW had achieved to this point, does come with one major negative; the expectations were now set sky-high, and the new company would now be forced to find a way to match that hype on a weekly basis. There is a huge difference between planning a major supercard for months at a time, to then attempting to create a similarly appealing product each week, sometimes with only days to plan out an entire two hour show. Fortunately, it seemed like everyone involved in AEW had already considered this particular issue, and had multiple intriguing matches scheduled for the second episode of Dynamite already planned and being promoted. The one that was likely to receive the most attention was the clash between the Young Bucks and Private Party, two of the most exciting teams on the roster, which was set to open the show and the first round of the tag title tournament. Another tag match was also booked, this involving more mainstream names in Dustin Rhodes and AEW Champion Chris Jericho, who would be on opposite sides of the main event and teaming with two future stars in Hangman Page and Sammy Guevara. Finally, announced on the debut episode of Dark, we were promised another war between Darby Allin and Jimmy Havoc, each fresh off stunning the All Out crowd in the chaotic "Cracker Barrel Clash", battling to determine who would get a shot at Jericho's gold next week. Would these three matches, plus an appearance from Jon Moxley and the fallout from the formation of Jericho's new faction last week, be enough to help AEW avoid the sophomore slump?
- AEW Dynamite #2 comes to you from the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, the home of Boston University's prestigious hockey team, and the host of Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary 2013. Jim Ross, Excalibur, and Tony Schiavone are on the call.
- Our opening contest begins the tournament to crown the first AEW World Tag Team Champions, as the Young Bucks face Private Party. SCU and Angelico and Jack Evans are at ringside watching on, scouting these two potential opponents for later in the tournament. Both teams get right into the action after some brief chain wrestling, with Matt and Nick Jackson beginning to work on Isiah Kassidy's back, an important plot point in this one. Kassidy is able to make the hot tag to Marq Quen though, and Quen once again puts on a show, hitting three straight dives onto Matt and Nick, all without any assistance on the ropes. The crowd slowly loses their minds with each successful dive, and the match just never slows down from this point forward. The Young Bucks take back control with some superkicks, and pick Kassidy apart, Matt doing some significant damage by picking Kassidy up and racing up the ramp to hit a powerbomb on the steel. I know Matt and Nick can be a bit of a controversial team at times, especially for their action-packed, no-selling allowed spotfests, but there is a really quality old school heel tandem in there that they bring out occasionally, and it is by far the best version of them, in my opinion. We get more of that on this night, as they prevent another hot tag to Quen and continue to exploit Kassidy's bad back, which I thought Kassidy did a tremendous job selling, making sure to not just shake the damage off and go back to operating at full speed, despite still getting some offense in. Private Party manage to make one more comeback, and connect with the Gin and Juice on Nick, allowing Quen the time to hit his gorgeous Shooting Star Press to Matt. Shockingly, that's not enough to end it, and Matt appears to completely turn it around, catching Quen sliding to get him in Tombstone position, ready to hit the Meltzer Driver. But this time it's Kassidy who cuts-off Nick, after Nick did the same earlier to prevent a hot tag, and Quen rolls through to pin Matt for a three count. The result stuns the crowd, who clearly weren't expecting a Young Bucks loss, especially after Matt's kick out, and aren't sure how to react to this sudden upset. I thought this was a fantastic opener, both teams absolutely brought it, and this win significantly raised the stock of Private Party, who could clearly be a future cornerstone of AEW.
- Chris Jericho ushered in a brand new threat on last week's episode of Dynamite, adding Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager to an alliance that already included Ortiz and Santana. The five men all make an appearance here, with Jericho taking to the mic to hype up this new supergroup. Expectedly, Jericho does a great job putting over each man and their respective importance to him. Sammy is the ubertalented youngster with unlimited potential, Ortiz and Santana are maniac brawlers, and Hager is a legitimate mauler, an enforcer who dwarfs most of the rest of the roster. Jericho names all five of them "The Inner Circle", which makes absolutely no sense, as it implies that Jericho is somehow a part of his own "Inner Circle". I get this doesn't really matter, but the name really should be "Chris Jericho and his Inner Circle", not just a cumulative moniker for all five of them. Aside from the confusing name, this segment drew attention in the wrestling world for Jericho shooting down a "We the People" chant directed at Hager, decrying it as a "stupid idea from bad creative". I will say that it was smart for Jericho to immediately put a stop to that, Hager's his own man now and it wouldn't do for any potential new viewers to constantly be reminded of his work in the WWE while he's supposed to be carving out a new legacy in AEW. But taking such a vicious shot at the E's creative team seemed a little unwarranted to me, and just guarantees that most fans would completely overlook the formation of this new faction, an essential moments for the company's storylines moving forward, in favor of just debating about Jericho's barb. Jericho ends his promo with a mic drop, and the Inner Circle then head up to the stage to pose during the first commercial break of the night.
- Live action resumes with a number one contender's bout between Darby Allin and Jimmy Havoc, which was completed ignored by the champion in his promo from a few minutes ago, but oh well. Havoc spends a majority of the match punishing Darby, trying to take the Seattle native to his absolute limits. Havoc first focuses on Darby's hand, biting away at the digits, before escalating in violence, slamming Allin to the floor and driving him into the corner with a Japanese armdrag and then an exploder suplex. Allin makes a brief comeback to hit his twisting splash off a bottom rope spingboard, but Havoc gets back control by again biting at Darby's fingers. But all this work from Havoc just isn't enough to put Darby away, as his inhuman resistance to pain remains unmatched. Darby makes another comeback, connecting with a flip-over stunner, then hits the Coffin Drop to earn an AEW World Championship match. Nothing too special here, as while Havoc's offense is impressive in it's brutality, he's just not a particularly engaging personality. Special shout-out to a line on commentary from Excalibur, where he calls Darby a sadist and a masochist, and advises the audience at home that if they're unfamiliar with those terms, "please have safe search enabled". Brilliant.
- Up next is women's action, as new AEW Women's World Champion Riho teams up with Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., to battle Emi Sakura and Bea Priestley. Sakura is one of the most respected active Joshi wrestlers, and Riho was one of her many trainees, which combined with the budding rivalry between Baker and Priestley, carries the heat for this match. I was very impressed by Sakura's blend of unique athleticism and power, as she starts by going right after her protegee, tossing Riho by the hair then locking in the Romero Special before dumping Riho onto the canvas. Priestley, for her part, continues to be a nuisance, getting in a cheap shot on Baker and choking Riho in the corner. Baker and Priestley brawl on the outside, where Sakura gets involved to combine with Bea for a double suplex, then Riho wipes out the lot with a very impressive diving splash. During the commercial break, Riho keeps up the flow by dialing up a 619, but Priestley returns to dish out more punishment, nearly beating Baker with the shoulder capture suplex. Baker and Priestley land some soft blows on each other, as both are starting to gas, but Riho and Sakura both still have something left in the tank. Sakura turns a Vader Bomb into a senton, something I've never seen before, and Riho trades back with her roll-through double stomp. With Priestley still down following an earlier double stomp by Riho, Baker takes advantage of her rival's absence to nail Sakura with a ripcord elbow strike, then taps out the Japanese veteran with her combination Rings of Saturn/Mandible Claw hold. After the bell, Priestley throws some more meek strikes at Baker, who answers with some equally soft blows, and Riho intervenes to help separate both women. Each advancement of the Baker/Priestley feud seems to garner less and less interest from the crowd, as it really feels like both women have just exhausted their arsenal against the other and need someone new to work with.
- Another commercial break heralds the arrival of the Best Friends, who attempt to toss an interview over to Orange Cassidy, seated in the front row, but that goes nowhere as Shawn Spears makes his entrance to interrupt them. Spears attempts to cut a promo, but I have no clue what he's saying, as the sound hasn't been mixed properly, and the microphone only starts working after Tully Blanchard takes over. I'm not really sure what the point of any of this was.
- Spears is here to square off with Jon Moxley, who is wrestling his first official match in AEW, as the clash with Joey Janela at Fyter Fest was considered to be un-sanctioned, therefore not counting towards either man's singles record. I love the intensity Moxley brings to this match, immediately jawing with Spears before the bell rings, selling a chop from Spears like it nearly caved in his chest and later returning fire by attempting to leave his entire handprint on Spears' chest. As with Spears' match at All Out, this includes plenty of interference by Tully, who first gets involved by grabbing Moxley during that opening showdown, then later does far more damage by shoving Moxley into the steel steps. Spears, for his part, doesn't have much of interest to offer in this match, as his offense is almost entirely punches and kicks, and his punches and kicks don't look very good. Spears does add a brief moment of excitement by driving Moxley into the barricade with a Death Valley Driver, and gets some old-school heat by spitting water at Moxley during an ensuing ad break. Moxley takes the best Spears has to offer, kicking out of a chokebomb and the fireman's carry neckbreaker, and puts Spears away with the Paradigm Shift. After the match, Kenny Omega emerges brandishing a barbed wire bat and a barbed wire broom, tossing the bat to Moxley and challenging him to throw down right here and now. However, PAC, who was on commentary to decry the fact that Darby and Havoc were fighting for a title shot instead of him (he has a point, PAC has beaten Omega and Page completely clean), rams Omega in the back of the head with a chair. Moxley has the chance to cripple a helpless Omega, but elects to take the high road, expressing frustration at PAC for the cheap shot and just walking to the back. Between fighting a detestable heel in Spears and this moment after the match, it's clear that Moxley is leaning more towards the lighter end of the morality spectrum, though like most characters in AEW, nothing is ever completely clean cut with him.
- A commercial break sees ring announcer Justin Roberts address the live crowd, telling to remain in the arena for the two Dark matches to be filmed after the show, including the "Lights Out" match between Joey Janela and Kenny Omega, the announcement of which gets a cheer. That means only the first of the three Dark matches on the upcoming episode took place before Dynamite, so that'll be an important note for my next review.
- Main event time, as Hangman Page and Dustin Rhodes team up to battle the Inner Circle's Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara. Page is attempting to make up for not being present during last week's closing segment, and he, alongside Guevara, is the absolute gem of this match. Page brings the fire right away, nailing Sammy with an impactful clothesline in the corner, then sending Sammy flipping on a second one, before he then splashes Jericho on the outside, who was still recovering from an early assault by Rhodes. It seems like this match might be barreling towards a very abrupt conclusion as the faces continue to pulverize Guevara, Dustin sending the youngster flying with a release powerbomb and Page following up with his running shooting star press. But a distraction by Jericho allows the heels to take control during the final commercial break of the night, Sammy taking the air out of Page both literally and figuratively by dropping the cowboy on the top rope, gut-first. Jericho and Guevara take turns wearing down Page, Y2J drawing heat by flexing at Dustin following a vertical suplex, though Page finally works out of the predicament by countering a Lionsault and again sending Sammy tumbling with a discus lariat that got the best reaction out of the crowd thus far. Dustin takes to the skies to deliver a big crossbody to both heels, and Page gets an even bigger pop for a tremendous moonsault to Sammy on the outside. But Jericho's new alliance pays dividends, as Jake Hager interferes to run right over Page, then he saves Jericho from taking a Shattered Dreams, battering Dustin. Jericho takes advantage of the chaos to knock Dustin's lights out with the Judas Effect, scoring another win, but his night is far from over. Anarchy ensues as the heels start to triple team Dustin, though Page whittles down the numbers by laying out Hager after throwing a chair at the amateur wrestler. Dustin is still outnumbered, but the lights go out, and Cody Rhodes makes his first appearance of the night, as he and his blindingly white suit even things up. Sammy takes a Cross Rhodes, but again the faces fall behind as Ortiz and Santana run down. MJF follows them, and Jericho, Ortiz, and Santana give the "Salt of the Earth" a chance to join them, lifting up a battered Cody so MJF can lay in steel chair shots. Instead, Friedman cements his face status, hitting the trio with chair shots, but he's not allowed to be the conquering hero for long, as Jericho returns to nail a Codebreaker. The Young Bucks are out next, hitting a couple superkicks on Ortiz and Santana, before diving out of the ring to initiate a brawl, and the final man to join the fray is Darby Allin, skateboarding down the ramp to lay out Jericho in advance of their title match. This was some classic WCW shenanigans, basically even important babyface coming in to brawl with this one powerful faction, and it was so much fun. You can't do this every week, but it was a good way to follow up the utter decimation of the top good guys in last week's main event.
9/10
Even though the first episode of Dynamite had a stronger card, I thought this show was a much more enjoyable viewing experience. Every match had at least one standout performance, and the work of Hangman Page and Sammy Guevara in the main event, plus the opening tag match, ended up making this a very easy watch. I'm not sure if everyone is going to reach the end of this review, since it ended up far longer than I think most readers might be comfortable with, but that was only because there was just so much action packed into these two hours. When AEW is cooking, they can bring it a way that very few promotions can, and they were certainly brought some absolute fire in Boston on this night.
Next time on Henry's TV Reviews: AEW Dark #2, where Kenny Omega and Joey Janela engage in what is sure to be a brutal war. See you soon.
- Henry
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