AEW Dynamite Episode 1 Recap
AEW Dynamite Episode 1
October 2, 2019
Capital One Arena
Washington, DC, USA
By Chris Flook
UnscriptedMC.com
@UnscriptedMC
We are LIVE! Welcome to the first ever episode of AEW Dynamite. I’m really excited to see the presentation, and if they follow through on their intent to be more of a sports presentation than an entertainment one.
Right away we go to a hype package for Sammy Guevara and Cody, like this is a PPV match that’s been building for months or something. I love this.
“The American Nightmare” Cody vs Sammy Guevara
Good heel/face heat for the entrances. I’m expecting a smart, hardcore crowd tonight. Basic chain wrestling to start, but with some modern twists, like Sammy doing a standing flip and landing on his feet instead of a typical somersault to avoid Cody’s monkey flip. They smartly play to the crowd a bit to take advantage of the freshness.
Sammy shows off his tumbling with a standing moonsault. Sammy with a slap to the face. Cody fires back with a Goldust uppercut, powerslam, and figure-4 leglock. Jim Ross underscores the importance of this match, instead of treating it like a throwaway curtain-jerker. Beautiful. Delayed gourdbuster by Cody for 2. Cody doing pushups. Hook kick by Guevara. Springboard cutter by Cody for a pair of 2-counts. Sammy with his own springboard cutter, but where he started on the apron and hit the top rope. Sammy back on the apron. Cody with a bicycle kick. Sammy pulls Brandy into the way of Cody’s tope suicida, but Cody is able to back off on it a bit. Loud “asshole” chants. Sammy goes for a top rope moonsault and lands on his feet, does the same with a standing moonsault, but then hits a running shooting star press for 2. Brandy slaps Sammy with her shoe from the outside and Cody hits a disaster kick for a great 2. Excellent sell by Sammy! Cody with a reverse superplex for 2. Hot crowd. Cody goes for a vertebreaker, Sammy escapes. Cody goes up top, but Sammy leaps to the top and hits a Spanish Fly for 2. Shooting star press off the top finds the knees, and Cody slaps on an inside cradle for 3!
“The American Nightmare” Cody over Sammy Guevara via inside cradle.
Great job to get Cody the win but get Sammy over as well despite the clean loss. Take notes, Vince. Sammy offers a handshake, which Cody accepts. Jericho Pearl-Harbors Cody and hits a codebreaker.
Back from a commercial, and Jericho is still attacking Cody. Jericho powerbombs Cody onto two chairs that were opened and set up.
Brandon Cutler vs MJF
MJF elicits more loud “asshole” chants as he cuts a promo on the way to the ring. MJF has incredible presence in the ring. He reminds me of Patrick Mahomes running while looking behind him to see if the ref had thrown a flag. MJF slaps him around a bit until Cutler hits a modified slingshot sunset flip. MJF regains control and Tony Schiavone calls MJF a “prick.” Jim Ross references TV-14. MJF with a hammerlock bodyslam. The ref misses some shenanigans from MJF and he slaps on the Salt of the Earth armbar for the tapout.
MJF over Brandon Cutler via Salt of the Earth.
Back from the break and Jay & Silent Bob are ringside. Kevin Smith is about ? the size he was back in the day, in case you haven’t seen him lately. Jack Evans and Angelico start jawing with them until Private Party saunters in through the crowd. Nothing comes of it.
SCU does a sketch with Daniels and Kazarian as Secret Service agents and Scorpio Sky as Barack Obama. Good impression by Sky! Tony Schiavone then interviews them live at the top of the ramp. The Lucha Bros interrupt them despite a security guard trying to restrain them. Penta spits something at them and they have a pull-apart brawl.
“Hangman” Adam Page vs PAC
The announcers are saying “bastard” as much as they can. Tony still has his same delivery from the Nitro days, but is clearly focusing more on analysis than hype. Jim Ross references PAC’s old nickname The Man That Gravity Forgot from when he was Neville in WWE.
Forearms back and forth to start. Jim Ross says that ads during matches will be picture-in-picture. Brilliant! Discus lariat by Page. Page whips PAC into the barricade outside the ring twice. Tope suicida by Page. Fallaway slam and standing shooting star press by Page. PAC escapes a vertical suplex and takes over. Asai moonsault to the outside by PAC. Spiral tap to the inside by PAC. Page ends up sitting in the corner and eats a shotgun dropkick. PAC to the top and eats a superkick. Avalanche-style fallaway slam, dropkick, and modified flapjack by Page. Earl Hebner with his infuriating 2-count hitch, giving away that it’s not the finish. PAC posts Page to the outside. Jim Ross promotes the picture-in-picture ad upcoming. This is clearly for American audiences, since TSN2 just goes to a normal commercial.
Standing spinebuster by Page. Pop-up powerbomb by Page. Top rope moonsault to the outside by Page to a standing PAC. Page misses a buckshot lariat. Low blow by PAC that Hebner misses. PAC hits the Black Arrow to Page’s back and then locks in the Brutalizer for the submission.
PAC over “Hangman” Adam Page via Brutalizer.
Dr. Britt Baker is out as a guest commentator.
Nyla Rose vs Riho (AEW Women’s Championship Match)
Nyla throws Riho around and hits a splash. Riho bridges out. STF by Rose. Riho makes the ropes. I’m not sure I would have done that spot, it’s ridiculous from the middle of the ring. Riho hits the ropes and eats a back elbow. Riho fires back with a high knee. Rose to the outside. Riho with a flying body press from the top to the outside, easily caught by Rose and turned into a backbreaker. Rose sets up Riho on a pile of chairs and misses a cannonball from the apron, eliciting “holy shit” chants. Riho with a double stomp from the steel steps. Back in the ring, Riho comes off the top for 2. Riho puts on a half-assed LeBell Lock as we go to break. Hey Riho, the one good thing about such a ludicrous size mismatch is you should be able to apply your holds strongly and I don’t think your opponent will resent you too much.
Riho tried to backdrop out of a piledriver/powerbomb setup but they botch it. Riho with punches but Rose shrugs them off. Riho with a cradle that the crowd thought was 3. Big pop and palpable disappointment. Rose with a DVD for an epic 2.9. Excellent near falls here. Northern lights superplex by Riho for 2! Double knees to the back of the head by Riho, and then to the face for 3! Match was OK early but picked up huge at the end.
Riho over Nyla Rose via double knees to the face to win the inaugural AEW Women’s Championship.
Michael Nakazawa tries to interview Riho but Rose attacks. She gives Nakazawa what Schiavone calls a double-clutch Liger bomb, since she nearly botched it but then showed impressive power to muscle him up and deliver it properly.
MAIN EVENT: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) & Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho & Santana & Ortiz
Jericho pretends he wants Omega but then bails. Omega with a Kotaro Krusher on Santana and a Frankensteiner on Ortiz. Jericho with a liontamer but it’s broken up. Superkick party! Tope con hilo by Nick.
Jon Moxley hits the ring to attack Omega. They brawl in the crowd. The match continues in the ring as a handicap match instead of being a DQ. Omega with a mop shot to Moxley. You know, because he’s The Cleaner. Moxley rams Omega’s head into a door repeatedly. Moxley with a wild brainbuster-style Dirty Deeds through a glass coffee table in the lobby! Great spot.
Back from the break and back in the ring, Matt Jackson hits a spear on Ortiz. Santana rips Nick off the apron. Double teams by Santana & Ortiz. Lionsault by Jericho misses Matt, or eats knees, hard to tell. Matt with a nice twisting somersault cutter off the top. Locomotion northern lights suplexes by Matt, getting two guys on the third one. Nick comes in and is a house of fire with his usual spots. He runs all over the arena hitting moves on all three guys. They go for the Meltzer Driver but Jericho hits a codebreaker. Jericho hits the Judas Effect on Matt for 3 and the win.
Chris Jericho [O] & Santana & Ortiz over The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson [X] & Nick Jackson) & Kenny Omega via Judas Effect.
Cody runs out for the save. Sammy Guevara runs out and kick Cody low. Dustin Rhodes makes the save. Jake Hager then runs in! I figured they’d have some sort of surprise appearance. They predictably announce him as “the undefeated MMA fighter.” Loud “we the people” chant! That’s funny. There’s nothing like a smart wrestling crowd. Hager hits Dustin with his gut wrench powerbomb onto a table. Jericho hits a Judas Effect on Cody.
Final Thoughts: What a breath of fresh air. This is more like it. The two hours flew by and there was no filler. I hope AEW can help lapsed fans (including me) rediscover their love of professional wrestling. Great effort all around, and I’m looking forward to next week!
PS: RIP Rick Bognar, 1970-2019. He was my professional wrestling trainer and in recent years was really working hard on being a life coach. We were trying to align our schedules in recent months so we could interview each other on our podcasts, but we weren’t able to make it work. You think you have all the time in the world.