1.#1 Contender Tag Team Battle Royal ***1/4
2.Stratlander vs Shanna ***
3.Mox vs Cobb ***1/4
4.AEW Tag Titles: Elite(Omega,Page) (c) vs Lucha Bros ****1/2
5.Cage: Cody vs Wardlow ***1/4
Thoughts:
AEW is locked in right now and you can see it coming through loudly in their product.
The opener was a paradox in that it was both a clusterfuck battle royal and also a good match with nice story work mixed with strong action. They kicked the show off on a nice note. Just outside of must-see territory.
The right team won, too.
Up next, Shanna and Stratlander had a nice throwaway match with the latter coming off strong once again as they build her up. My love/hate relationship with JR was swinging right during this one, by the way.
Keeping the women's division as the focus, next we had a nice enough segment featuring Nyla, Stratlander, and Swole.
Following that, Cobb made his in-ring debut against Mox. The finish was a smart call, protecting Cobb while giving Mox the W before his title match. I though this was a fairly good outing from both and a decent showcase for Inner Circle's hired gun.
After, the Inner Circle attacked before they were cleared out by Dustin and a returning Darby. Allin is already one of the hottest names on the roster.
The semi-final blew past my expectations. Yea, I expected a great defense but this was actually just fucking amazing. They built this one up with a strong pace before hitting a beautiful crescendo. The little things and big things were all done right and I strongly recommend anyone who missed this one to stop what they're doing and to fix their sins.
After that amazing display, the Bucks, Omega, and Page had a moment...
A package promoting the new toy line went over very well in my house, with my kids getting really excited.
Closing the show...
Holy shit that's a big fucking cage...
Anyway, closing the show, Wardlow made his AEW debut in the promotion's first ever cage match against the uber-over, Cody! MJF's muscle looked good and they both worked an old-school style match that worked well and closed the episode on a high note. I mean, that moonsault deserves praise!
The Cody/MJF feud is working so well right now.
While the semi was the only one I truly recommend as a must-see, the entire episode as a whole came off amazingly. If you are just wanting the best wrestling, check out only the one match. If you are like me and are all in on the product, though...well, this was easily one of the best overall episodes of Dynamite and I'm once again left excited to see what's next!
Overall Rating: 85/100%