Darby Allin has been steadily built up since the dawning of All Elite Wrestling, getting a glossy promo during the build to Fyter Fest, and allowed to show off his dazzling abilities in several stunt-filled hardcore matches, including the show-stealing "Cracker Barrel Clash" at All Out. It's clear as day to anyone with any knowledge of wrestling that Darby is destined for stardom, and the fact that he's already in the main event of Dynamite, challenging Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship, is proof positive that AEW has cottoned on to his gargantuan potential. However, with the company's next pay-per-view, Full Gear, less than a month away with a match between Jericho and Cody Rhodes already booked, the suspense of the result of the Darby/Jericho contest seems minimal. How would AEW handle their hottest property, in his first main event, in a match where the outcome felt so straight forward? Let's find out.
- AEW Dynamite #3 comes to you from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the grounds of Temple University, and the host venue of the Owls' basketball team. Jim Ross, Excalibur, and Tony Schiavone are on the call.
- Our opening contest is a first round match in the tournament to crown the inaugural AEW Tag Team Champions, as the Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent) take on Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels of SoCal Uncensored. Or at least, it was supposed to be Daniels and Kaz teaming up here tonight, but not if the Lucha Brothers have anything to say about that. Penta and Fenix, being the absolute bastards that they are, jump SCU during their entrance, and Daniels takes a Fear Factor (Package Piledriver) from Penta on the ramp. Daniels is quickly stretchered out, leaving Kazarian to tag instead with Scorpio Sky, and with SCU at a complete disadvantage, we get the opportunity to see Chuck and Trent work more heelishly than they have in the past. The duo take Kazarian apart with a variety of double team moves, and relish the pain that they're dishing out, getting the crowd to rally behind Sky. Scorpio getting the hot tag is where this match really heats up, as SCU make their comeback. Taylor accidentally takes out Trent with a dive, and Scorpio nails a gorgeous tope con hilo. Kazarian takes flight with a springboard leg drop, but gets taken out with Best Friends' impressive tandem Solefood/Half and Half suplex. Kazarian makes one more comeback, reversing a piledriver from Trent, backdropping Trent onto the apron, an impactful bump that got the biggest pop of the match. Kazarian and Sky then finish off Taylor with a powerbomb from Kazarian into a dropkick from Sky, with the latter's move not really connecting flush, a meek way to end an otherwise solid match.
- Ortiz and Santana wrestled their first match in AEW in the main event of the first episode of Dynamite, but have yet to actually compete as a duo, which they do here against Long Island natives John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Silver and Reynolds have important roles to play in AEW further down the line, but here they're just treated as enhancement talent, going down in just over 2 minutes to the proud Puerto Ricans. Before getting demolished, Silver does at least get to pop the crowd by flexing, before he's laid out with the Street Sweeper (combination of a simultaneous powerbomb and diving neckbreaker). After the match, Chris Jericho challenges the Young Bucks to a match at Full Gear on behalf of Santana and Ortiz, whom I guess weren't trusted to actually speak for themselves. The post-match segment was a little awkward, but the match did it's job to present Santana and Ortiz as a unique threat in the tag division.
- We then get a well produced video package detailing Cody Rhodes' drive to become AEW World Champion, with his wife Brandi, his actual friend Diamond Dallas Page, and his kayfabe friend MJF all putting over Cody's determination and commitment to being champion of the promotion he helped found. These Cody-influenced videos are always a treat, and this was no different, making sure the audience would still be invested in his match with Jericho, even though there wasn't any other part of this show dedicated to building hype for that encounter.
- The AEW Women's World Championship is on the line up next, as Riho defends against Dr. Britt Baker, one week after both women teamed up successfully on Dynamite. There isn't much heat to this one, as both women are clear cut babyfaces and don't have much reason to have any ill will towards the other, other than the tension over Riho's gold. AEW women's matches have been very hit-or-miss since the creation of the company, and unfortunately, this definitely fit more into the latter category. Riho was okay in this match, keeping the pace up and connecting well with her athletic offense, but Baker couldn't hold up her end, as the early exchanges meant to put her over as a smooth technician were sloppy as all hell. Things do clean up as the match goes on, and both women hook the audience with a few near falls, Baker getting very close to a title win with a superkick. Baker can't get the Lockjaw applied, though, and her fight to get her signature hold in costs her the gold, as Riho manages to get a leverage pin to retain.
- The AEW Tag Team Championship tournament continues the Lucha Bros, this time in actual competition, taking on the Jurassic Express, kind of. Luchasaurus is currently on the shelf after going in for surgery, so Marko Stunt is filling in, and it's safe to say that Stunt doesn't have the same impact to a match that the big dinosaur had. Marko spent most of this match getting pulverized, a wise call as his offensive repertoire isn't especially impressive, and it was fun to watch Penta and Fenix get to commit sanctioned murder for 11 minutes. The highlight comes in a commercial break, when Penta tosses Stunt in the air to be obliterated by a superkick from Fenix on the way down, absolutely brutal. Jungle Boy does make a brief comeback, and gets a near fall with an impressive standing Shooting Star Press, but Penta shuts it down. He breaks out a callback to his Lucha Underground days, snapping Stunt's arm, and he and Fenix then advance in the tournament with the Zero Mercy (Fear Factor/Diving Double Foot Stomp combo). This was fine when they didn't try to pretend that Stunt was an actual threat.
- Multiple past and present feuds collide in the only non-tournament tag match of the night, as Jon Moxley and PAC team up to battle Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page. This one does take a few minutes to get going, as all four guys are obviously holding back to get through the commercial break scheduled to interrupt them. After that, though, the pace starts to pick up, and an incredible sequence begins after Omega hits Moxley and PAC with his snap Dragon suplex in turn. Moxley hits a dive onto Page and PAC, his own partner, and Page takes flight with a beautiful moonsault onto PAC and Moxley, a powerhouse like "Hangman" should not be able to fly that gracefully. PAC then gets destroyed by the two babyfaces, taking a Buckle Bomb from Omega, a discus elbow from Page, a powerbomb from Omega, then a standing moonsault from Page, holy smokes, those two guys are good. After Page and PAC fight to the outside, Moxley and Omega square off one more time, and quickly go for the barbed wire coated weapons, Moxley with his baseball bat and Omega with his broom. PAC is having none of this, though, as he doesn't want his partner to be disqualified, and snatches the bat away from Moxley. That's a big mistake, as Moxley, ever the violence machine, plants PAC with the Paradigm Shift, and the Geordie is then finished off with a Buckshot Lariat, V-Trigger, and Dead Eye, as Page gets a pin on PAC to make up for his loss on the first Dynamite. I love the entangling of the various different rivalries in this match, and when these guys want to go, there's very few better on Earth.
- Main event time, as Chris Jericho defends the AEW World Championship against Darby Allin in a "Philadelphia Street Fight". What kind of barbaric warfare does AEW think takes place in the streets of Philly? Well, apparently it includes a lot of rope breaks, which makes absolutely no sense to me, but what do I know, I've never been, there could just be wrestling ropes set up everywhere. Multiple times in this match, Darby escapes the Walls of Jericho by grabbing the bottom rope, and it aggravated me every time. Here's the thing, if you're going to have rope breaks in a no disqualification match, what happens if a wrestler doesn't abide by the break? If Jericho refuses to release the hold, he can't be disqualified, so does he just get arrested, or what? Make it make sense, man. Aside from the non-sensical rules, this was a perfectly enjoyable main event, albeit one that in no way lives up to the type of carnage Darby had gone through in the past, understandable given Jericho's age. Y2J is still a great entertainer despite his physical limitations, and he popped the crowd a few times with his shenanigans, including ringing the bell to declare himself the winner, and stealing Darby's skateboard to skate around outside the ring. Both men exchange some kendo stick shots, and Darby's hands end up taped behind him, Jericho seemingly finding a clever way to contain his challenger. Darby perseveres, though, and almost picks up the massive upset despite the disadvantage, taking flight to hit a moonsault and flipping dive to the outside, all without the usage of his hands. Darby survives a powerbomb onto his own skateboard from Jericho, and has a chance to win, with Jericho down, potentially in danger of losing should the Coffin Drop connect. But Jake Hager interferes before Darby can deliver the devastating blow, and the Walls of Jericho are applied one final time to get the victory. Afterward, Hager and Jericho are joined by Ortiz, Santana, and Sammy Guevara, as the other members of the Inner Circle have brought champagne with them to celebrate, but we never actually see that celebration take place as Dynamite just ends. I will say, there wasn't a ton of drama to this match, as there was no chance that Darby was getting the chance this quickly, and it would completely ruin the pay-per-view main event that had already been booked. It still had a few entertaining moments, but didn't do a whole lot to standout for any other AEW match, disappointing considering what it could've meant to a rising star like Darby.
7/10
This was the weakest episode of Dynamite thus far, which isn't to say it was bad or anything, just largely forgettable. The biggest highlight by some distance was the action in the fourth tag match, while most everything else was by the numbers. Not every episode of a weekly wrestling show needs to be a barnburner, and even a formulaic show by AEW standards still had a number of great moments.
- Henry
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