AEW DYNAMITE
August 25, 2021, Milwaukee, WI
Commentary: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone & Excalibur
Orange Cassidy vs. Matt Hardy
Before the bell sounds, Matt and Orange exchange “deletes” and shin kicks. Matt sticks his hands in his pockets to pull out his big money. Orange rolls and kicks him to pocket a bill. Cassidy dives to the outside on Matt but Hardy catches him with a Side Effect. He rams OC’s head into the post before wrapping his body around the post. Matt goes in and takes a bow. Belly to back suplex. He does this several times before picking up his cash. Matt mocingly kicks OC before body slamming him down. He sends him into the adjacent corner and lays it in more. Matt hammer blows OC across the back via front chancery. Matt takes the bill out of Orange’s pocket. He receives “cheapskate” chants as he sends Orange into opposite corners. Orange leaps off top and goes for a Beach Break, but he can’t get him up. Matt goes for his Edge Bomb and nails it. Two count.
Matt readies for his Twist of Fate as Orange slowly gets up but OC rolls to the corner. Orange tosses Matt out. Tope. Back in the ring Orange hits a cross body before his signature twisting DDT. Two count. Matt is bleeding badly from the face. Hardy attempts a superplex and gets tossed off. Orange does a Swanton bomb with his hands in his pockets, before “deleting” Matt. He goes for a Twist of Fate, but Matt shoves him off. Matt nails his second rope elbow. Two count.
Matt goes for a TOF but Orange nails it instead. Two count. Orange goes for an Orange Punch, Matt ducks, Hardy goes for his Leech submission, but Orange pockets his hands and sits on top of Matt for the 1-2-3.
WINNER: Orange Cassidy
Malakai Black agrees with Arn. Brock is in over his head. He’s gonna give him a way out. He will willfully take a 10 count, apologize to “Mr. Black.” Brock will look at his dad and concede that he made a mistake and if anything goes different, he will take it out on Brock, Arn, Dustin and the entire Nightmare Family.
Back from break, “Judas” hits and out comes Chris Jericho. Crowd sings along which Jericho appreciates. He says this has been one of the biggest weeks in AEW history. Everybody has been celebrating except for him because he didn’t beat MJF in the fifth labour. For the third time he lost to MJF and even worse, he tapped out. He says it’s bothering him real, real bad. People ask why he put himself through such punishment? It’s who he is, it’s what he does. He is going nuts that he hasn’t beat MJF. He makes it known that he’ll keep chasing Max until it’s over. He doesn’t give a shit. Now he has a proposal for MJF as a way he could end this. Max doesn’t come out. He proposes one more match at All Out and he’s been thinking about this long and hard: if he can’t beat MJF, maybe he doesn’t belong in AEW anymore. Maybe he doesn’t deserve to be Le Champion anymore. If Jericho loses, he’ll go to the commentary table and never wrestle in AEW again. This is Max’s chance, what does he say? Out comes MJF finally.
MJF says he sees right through Jericho. He needed a rub from Max. Well guess what? Daddy’s all out of milk. After last week, tapping Jericho out faster than someone listening to a Fozzy CD, he’d never wrestle Jericho again. However, as cool as it is to say “I tapped out, Chris Jericho!” However, it would be historic to say “I ended Chris Jericho.” He accepts, BUT is Jericho sure he wants that match? He’s better than Chris and he knows it. End of segment as Jericho contemplates.
Varsity Blonds are backstage. They may not be blood family like the Lucha Bros, but their bond is strong.
AEW Tag Team Eliminator Semi-Finals
Lucha Bros. (w/ Alex Abrahantes) vs. Varsity Blonds (with Julia Hart)
After the two teams enter, The Young Bucks, The Good Brothers and Brandon Cutler come out to sit on the stage. Bell rings and Rey and Griff start. Griff has a good grip on Rey but Rey impessively eludes. Penta and Brian get tagged. Big “Miedo” chants. Brian and he exchange shots, but a thrust kick downs Brian. Brian returns it. Running hurricanrana by Pillman. Slingblade by Penta. We go to picture-in-picture.
Plenty of punishment has been doled out as Penta and Griff make their tags. Rey is on an athletic flurry against Pillman. Twisting cutter gets a near fall but Garrison makes a save. Pillman kicks Penta off of Garrison on the apron, but too much time causes the Varsity Blonds to pay as he tope dives on all three contestants. Pillman high stacks powerbombs. Rey in the ring, but Rey kicks out. Griff hits an elbow strike up top, Pillman covers, but the save is made. LBs hit stereo thrust kicks on Pillman. Assisted piledriver on Brian for the 1-2-3. Lucha Bros advance. They’ll be facing Jurassic Express in the finals.
WINNERS: Lucha Bros.
Post-match, Jurassic Express come out to respectfully shake hands with the Brothers. The Bucks come down to cause trouble between the two teams, but they end up both attacking The Bucks and The Good Brothers in a brief breeze of an alliance.
Andrade El Idolo and Chavo Guerrero cut a promo on PAC before All Out.
Jamie Hayter (with Britt Baker & Rebel) vs. Red Velvet
Red Velvet is quick to go on the attack. She dropkicks Hayter, but Hayter fires back with a fallaway slam. Hayter sends RV hard into the corner. Boot choke before some mudhole stomps. Swift suplex by Hayter. RV manages to dump Hayter who lands on her feet, but RV hits her with two topes. We go to break (a bit delayed actually, but it happens).
Back from break the two women are duking it out. RV hits a casadora bulldog on Hayter. Red Velvet unintentionally misses a standing moonsault and Hayter hits a backbreaker and then a massive clothesline for the finish.
WINNER: Jamie Hayter
Post-match, the heels gang up on Red Velvet, but Kris Statlander comes in to stop it all. Her and Britt go at it before Britt bails.
We see The Dark Order backstage. They are a unit and all units face obstacles. Evil Uno first states they’re on the same page and that causes a snicker from Alex Reynolds who makes clear he’s not happy with Uno not helping Hangman. Uno tells Reynolds to go back in Silver’s shadow which he immediately regrets and apologizes for, but the damage was done as Reynolds walks off and everyone is not happy with Uno’s choice of words.
CM PUNK AEW DYNAMITE DEBUT
We see Tony Schiavone who introduces Punk to the ring. Crowd goes bezerk for him. He shakes Tony’s hand. He asks Punk what is the one thing that brought him to AEW if he had to choose. “I can’t hear you Tony.” Crowd is going NUTS. Tony repeats himself. He lists names of younger talent before naming the “one guy”: Darby Allin. He’s retiring the nickname “The Voice of The Voiceless” because these people have a voice and people backstage listen. He addresses Darby. He looks at Allin and he asks himself: can he go? Does he still have what it takes? He looks at Darby and he sees someone he’d like at 15 years old. He looks at Darby and he sees himself. He asks himself can he still be the Best In The World? “Yes” chants. Punk said that’s someone else’s schtick and you might have to be a little more patient. September 5 it’s less about proving the haters wrong and more about proving himself right. He closes out the promo by saying he loves his wife, April (AJ Lee).
We see Miro. He forgives Fuego for his sins, but he’s going after the original sinner in Eddie Kingston. “Bring me the Mad King before I burn this place to the ground.” Daaaaang.
Darby Allin (w/ Sting), Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. The Wingmen
JD Drake and Darby begin things. Drake tries tossing Darby around but Darby evades. Tag to Eddie Kingston and the “Eddie” chants begin. Nemeth tags in and gyrates before Kingston punishes him. Cezar gets tagged and Eddie tries knocking him down. Nothing doing. Knife edge chops. Mox tags himself in and Eddie and Mox double shoulder block him down.
Back from break, Mox back suplexes Bononi. Eddie and JD tagged in. He kitchen sinks him and uranages Drake. He goes for a back fist, but Nemeth meddles. Mox bites Drake up top and Darby avalanche bombs. Avalon trips up Darby. Sting pursues Peter and things unravel. Nemeth has a chair but Mox and Eddie take him out. Darby hits his flip-over cutter and then a Coffin Drop of JD Drake for the 1-2-3.
WINNERS: Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston & Jon Moxley
Post-match, Daniel Garcia runs in to attack Darby from behind until Sting and the crew chase him off.
Alex Marvez is with Tay Conti to talke the Buy-In Casino Battle Royale, but Bunny walks in and tries to tempt Tay into joining the HFO. Tay tears up her offer and gets slapped for it. Pull-apart backstage.
FTR cut a promo saying they’re ready for Santana & Ortiz. Cash Wheeler says you rub dirt on it and finish the job.
Back from break, Don Callis is with Kenny Omega and The Elite in the ring, but gets interrupted by Christian Cage to cut the BS. Cage airs old footage of Don Callis and Cage in Montreal. That affirms that Don Callis is a carny piece of shit. Kenny disagrees, it affirms that he was better at 10 years old than Cage was at 20. Cage cuts some lines against a chatty Callis before telling Kenny that he’s getting manipulated by Don now. They attack Christian until Kazarian comes out to ward them off.
Jon Moxley says he got a contract from New Japan and he got it from one man: Satochi Kojima. He’ll be facing Mox at All Out. At first he was pleased, then he felt insult. An old man thinks he can take him out? Mox says it’s going to be the public execution of Satochi Kojima. He bows.
The Gunn Club vs. The Factory
Paul Wight is on commentary as The Gunn Club duke it out with the bad guys who have their eyes on Wight. We go to break.
Back from break, The Gunn Club have the advantage. Billy collides with Comoroto on the outside. QT hits a flatliner on Colten and starts jaw-jacking with Wight. Wight gets up from commentary and Colten rolls QT up for the win.
WINNERS: The Gunn Club
Dan Lambert runs down all the softies in AEW both in the ring and in the stands. He wants to show him real men like the Men of the Year. Lambert pulls out all the digs in this promo.
Alex Marvez is with Arn Anderson. He reiterates how Brock is in over his head. Either he’ll go down with his son tonight. Good little promo.
Malakai Black vs. Brock Anderson (with Arn Anderson)
Brock takes Malakai down and punches away. A jumping knee strike changes it all. He corners Brock and kicks away at the youngster. Brock is down in the corner as An stares at Malakai. Black grabs Brock by the hair and drags him over to his dad, prompting Arn to throw in the towel, but An throws it down. Brock fights some more but Malakai hits him with an exploder suplex. Black Mass. Brock is out. “One more time” chants. 1-2-3.
WINNER: Malakai Black
Post-match, Arn gets in the ring to help Brock up, but Black comes in with a chair. Arn stares at him and challenges Black. Arn blocks a Black Mass. Malakai low blows Arn and then connects with a Black Mass. Both Andersons are out as Black sits on the top turnbuckle. Lee Johnson comes out and Black exits. End of show.