By Jake Barnett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@barnettjake)
AEW Dynamite (Episode 183)
Long Island, New York at UBS Arena
Aired live April 5, 2023 on TBS
[Hour One] Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Taz joined on commentary to start the show…
Ricky Starks made his entrance for the opening match. Jay White’s music hit and surprised Ricky, who was then attacked by both Jay White and Juice Robinson. Both men abused Ricky from opposite directions, and Excalibur framed it as a setup by Bullet Club. Ricky showed some signs of life, but the numbers were too much and Jay White finished him off with a Blade Runner. Juice and Jay flashed some Bullet Club finger guns and celebrated before leaving the ring. The match was called off as a no contest, and referees assisted Ricky Starks with leaving the ring…
The announce team plugged Tony Khan’s major announcement, and FTR will challenge the Gunns with their careers on the line. A video package then aired of the return to the ring of Adam Cole…
Chris Jericho was then interviewed by Tony Schiavone backstage. Jericho said he was happy to have Adam Cole back, but he took issue with Adam Cole’s celebration with streamers and his girlfriend Britt Baker.
Jericho said he disrespected Garcia and punked him out by celebrating excessively. Jericho said it showed a lack of respect, which caused Keith Lee to approach from off screen. He told Jericho he was a poster child for disrespect, and commented that he’s had wars with Adam Cole that earned a mutual respect between the two. Lee then leaned in very close to Jericho and said he would teach him a thing or two about respect next week…
In the arena, The House of Black made their entrance for a Trios Title Match. They will face Orange Cassidy and Best Friends next…[c]
My Take: Cool to see Jay White find a landing place. He’s a top tier talent and has huge potential. I hope they can break him away from old Bullet Club habits and have him establish himself as his own man, because that’s where I think he’d find the most success in AEW.
Trent’s Mom Sue dropped off Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Chuck Taylor in her van. They made their ring entrance for the Trios Title Match.
1. “House of Black” Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews (w/Julia Hart) vs. “Best Friends” Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta and Orange Cassidy for the AEW Trios Titles: Black and Beretta started the match and traded strikes. Excalibur hyped up Battle of the Belts coming up right after Rampage on Friday Night. Beretta landed a jumping knee strike and tagged in Taylor. Black managed to avoid a double team from Beretta and Taylor and make a tag to Brody King.
He dominated the match for a moment with some power moves and then made a tag to Buddy Matthews. Taylor landed a kick and scrambled to his corner to tag in Orange Cassidy. After some acrobatics Orange Cassidy went for a tornado DDT, but Matthews blocked it and gave him a snake eyes in the corner.
All six men ended up in the ring and House of Black quickly cleared Beretta and Taylor to the floor. King splashed Taylor into the barricade, and Cassidy got caught attempting a dive and slammed into the apron. Beretta tried a dive of his own and got the same treatment. Black and Matthews then picked up Beretta and threw him into a forearm shot from King…[c]
Cassidy took Malakai Black down with a cross body as the show returned. He then avoided a Brody King spear, which sent him through the ropes where he landed on Black and Matthews. Cassidy, Beretta, and Taylor landed a triple team chokeslam powerbomb combo onto Black for a near fall. The action broke down as Matthews landed a knee strike on Cassidy, King landed a Bossman Slam on Beretta, and then Taylor cleared Matthews and King from the ring.
Cassidy landed a Stundog Millionaire on Black and tagged out to Beretta. He entered the match and landed a lariat and a piledriver on Black. He then landed another one on Matthews. Beretta tried for a third piledriver on King but didn’t have the strength. After and Orange Punch, Beretta picked up King and gave him a piledriver for a near fall.
After a series of near falls, Taylor and Matthews were the legal men. Chuck attempted Sole Food, but Matthews shrugged it off and landed a stomp for the win.
“House of Black” Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews defeated “The Best Friends” Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Chuck Taylor at 12:01 to retain the AEW Trios Titles
Backstage, Christian Cage led Luchasaurus out of a smoky room wearing some kind of shoulder armor of sorts…
My Take: A solid trios match that the crowd was into. The stories that set up these matches continue to be really thin, which makes them feel more predictable than they should. I’m interested to see how they push Luchasaurus after his layoff and return as a singles act.
Riho and Jamie Hayter made ring entrances for the next match…
2. Jamie Hayter (w/Britt Baker) vs. Riho for the AEW Women’s Championship: Riho rolled up Hayter early on for a two count. She then landed a huracanrana for a second two count. They then traded pinfall attempts back and forth with a series of two counts. Hayter gathered herself and landed a series of shoulder blocks. Riho fired back with a dropkick. Hayter went outside to collect herself, but Riho splashed her from the top rope to the floor.
Hayter used her power to gain control, landing a gut buster for a near fall. Both women ended up on the apron, and Hayter landed a kick to the head. After some back and forth, Hayter spiked Riho with a Uranage…[c]
Hayter dominated the break, but Riho charged back with a Tiger Feint Kick (619) and a top rope splash for a near fall. She then followed up with a series of Dragon Suplexes for a close near fall. Riho went up top but missed with a double stomp. Hayter popped up and landed an Ushigoroshi of sorts following by a seated lariat for a near fall.
Both women ended up on the top rope, and Hayter pulled Riho into the ring with a superplex. She picked Riho up again for a brainbuster, but it was reversed into a spike DDT. Both women got to their feet and traded punches. Hayter landed a heavy strike and stacked up Riho for another near fall cover.
Hayter picked up Riho and placed her on the top rope. She then turned her back to Riho to sit on the top rope, but Riho broke free and pulled her off the top rope with a huracanrana. She then followed up with a running double knee strike. Hayter got her leg on the ropes for a near fall. Riho landed some punches to the back of the head. Riho avoided a lariat and attempted a backslide, but Hayter stuffed it and landed a lariat for another close near fall. She followed up with a Hayterade Ripcord Lariat for the win.
Jamie Hayter defeated Riho at 12:03 to retain the AEW Women’s Championship
After the match, Hayter bowed and shook Riho’s hand while she recovered on the mat…
My Take: Hell of a match from Jamie Hayter and Riho. They worked very well together and had the audience the whole way. The JAS and Acclaimed thing is relatively harmless comedy but I’m still of the opinion that the JAS needs to go away.
Backstage, the Outcasts told Jamie Hayter not to get too comfortable with her title, because they were ready to take control of the division. Renee Paquette reminded them there were three of them and one title, and they said it was not her concern…
Back in the arena, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, and Jake Hager said it was a great day because The Acclaimed are joining the Jericho Appreciation Society.
“The Acclaimed” Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Daddy Ass walked out. Caster rapped about being back in Long Island and that Jericho was more full of shit than George Santos. Parker then announced that they would have an eight-man tag match on Rampage, with the four of them teaming together. There was no official response from The Acclaimed about whether they are joining the JAS… MJF is up next…[c]
A video package of MJF day in Oyster Bay, Long Island was shown. He got a key to the city and a plaque, and gave an interview to local news. We then got big band sounds from the Mike Rogers Band that played MJF into the arena like he was on a late night talk show. He walked out wearing a white Tuxedo and his signature scarf. He said they were celebrating the greatest day in the world and the most magical place on Earth, Long Island New York.
MJF then broke out some lounge music, and serenaded the crowd with “Pennies from Heaven” from the Bing Crosby film of the same name from the 1930s. Max made his way to the ring as he was singing and met Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino in the ring. The crowd booed loudly as Max begged them not to ruin this for him. Saladino delivered a boilerplate political speech and presented Max with the Key to Long Island.
The crowd booed the crap out of the guy anyway, and Max eventually broomed him from the ring. He said it was a great honor and prompted the crowd to say that he deserved it. Max then said there are others that don’t deserve it, namely Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, and Sammy Guevara. He said the only thing Jungle Boy will ever deserve is a girlfriend with a wandering eye and a tiny penis.
[Hour Two] Max then told some childhood stories. He explained he has ADHD and told a story about a teacher named Mrs. Benedict that would never cut him a break. She would tell other students not to be like him when he couldn’t answer questions on the board. Max explained that he would often daydream about wrestling, and told her as much when she asked where his brain went during her class. Mrs. Benedict told him that was highly unlikely, and now he wanted to let her know that her math was a little off.
He continued and told the crowd not to be like her (a stupid bitch), and then informed the crowd that if they are struggling in school they can be whatever they want to be, except him. He made sure to say he was only talking about Long Island kids, because he doesn’t talk to disgusting poors.
Max then offered to do an encore, but Jungle Boy jumped him before he could start by impersonating a member of the band. AEW officials separated them as Sammy Guevara made his entrance for the next match. Sammy picked up MJF’s title off the ground and held it up. Komander then made his ring entrance for the next match…
3. Komander vs. Sammy Guevara: There were some high flying back and forth early on. Komander landed a springboard move and Guevara splashed him on the floor a moment later…[c]
As the show returned Komander walked the ropes and landed a splash on Sammy out on the floor. He then landed a Phoenix Splash in the ring for a near fall. Komander went back up top and walked the ropes again for a Shooting Star Press but landed on Sammy’s Knees. Guevara went for a GTH but Komander avoided it and landed a kick to the chest. Darby Allin was shown in the crowd. Shortly after, Guevara landed a cutter and a GTH for the win.
Sammy Guevara defeated Komander at 7:44
After the match, Guevara cut a promo and said he did something the champ never does on TV, and that’s wrestle. He accused MJF of being a fraud and not building any of the foundation of AEW, instead taking advantage of others that did the work for him. He brought up Cody, The Inner Circle, The Pinnacle, Wardlow and others. Guevara said he doesn’t care if the crowd cheers or boos him, he loves AEW and met his wife there and he’s not going anywhere…[c]
My Take: That was a hell of a promo performance from MJF, who seems to relish being able to soak in the cheers from his own little bizarro world in Long Island. The Guevara and Komander match was fine, but I think this Four Pillars match setup is suffering heavily from predictability problems. Guevara being the hero of his own story is fine, but his delivery is still very rough.
Ethan Page was already in the ring. Hook made his ring entrance for the next match…
4. Hook vs. Ethan Page (w/Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy) for the FTW Title: Hook grabbed Page and landed a T-Bone Suplex. Page bailed to the floor. Hook followed and got pummeled. Page sent him into the ring post and the barricade before sending him back into the ring. Page taunted the crowd and called for a Twist of Fate as a tribute to Matt Hardy. Hook blocked it and landed a Twist of Fate of his own. Isaiah Kassidy jumped up on the apron, and Matt Hardy took the opportunity to blast Ethan Page with the FTW title. Hook applied the Redrum for the win.
Hook defeated Ethan Page at 1:44 to retain the FTW Title
After the match, Hardy left with Isiah Kassidy up the ramp. Hook followed them and fist bumped them both as he reached them…
Backstage, Nigel McGuinness was introduced as a new AEW broadcast member. He introduced Tony Khan for his announcement. Tony mentioned the original All In show before the formation of AEW. In that spirit, he announced a new version of AEW All In that will take place in London on Sunday, August 27th. He brought in Adam Cole to reveal the location, which turned out to be Wembley Stadium in London. He also said they would celebrate 100 years of Warner Brothers and 100 years of Wembley Stadium…
Jon Moxley made his entrance in the arena with Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta…[c]
My Take: That’s a huge announcement for AEW, but maybe more geared towards a press release than a big TV tease. It will be very interesting to see how many tickets they can move in London, as Wembley seats 90,000 for Soccer and probably more than that for Wrestling depending on the stage configuration. Hook and Ethan Page wasn’t much of anything, and the turn by Hardy was a surprise even to the announce team.
5. “Blackpool Combat Club” Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta (w/Bryan Danielson) vs. Three Jobbers: I apologize to the guys facing the Blackpool Combat Club, but the announce team didn’t communicate their names before the match. They landed a piledriver on the floor on one and a Boston Crab on another in the ring. Mercifully, Wheeler Yuta applied a crossface and got a quick tap.
Blackpool Combat Club won at 1:22
After the match, Bryan Danielson got in the ring with a microphone. He said he loved being home with his family, but he also loves professional wrestling. He loves Jon Moxley when he fishooks people, Claudio when he uppercuts people, and Yuta when he stretches people even though he’s a little shit sometimes. Danielson said these guys (referring to the jobbers) look like guys the EVPs would have hired, and called them amateurs. He called the Blackpool Combat Club the only professional wrestlers in the building.
Hangman Page walked down by himself and got worked over by Moxley, Claudio, and Wheeler. Bryan berated him while he was getting his ass whooped. He said he loved those guys, and while he was home he was teaching his kids a few things about fixing up a house. He had a screwdriver in his hand and said the house at All Elite Wrestling needed some cleanup too.
Bryan then took the screwdriver and gouged it into the forehead of Hangman Page, who screamed in pain. Bryan repeatedly screamed “AMATEURS”, and called Hangman an Amateur. He called The Blackpool Combat Club the only Professional Wrestlers in AEW and maybe American based on what he’s seen this week…[c]
My Take: Uh…..ok? Danielson is a great promo but this new angle might turn some people off. Screwdriver attacks? The Blackpool Combat Club has strayed a long way from it’s original premise. I don’t think it’s too late to pull it back, but I think Blood and Guts is best used in limited quantities.
FTR made their entrance. The Gunns then came out to Many Men by 50 cent…
6. Colten Gunn and Austin Gunn vs. “FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler in an AEW Tag Team Championship vs. Career Match: Wheeler and Colten started the match and battled to a stalemate early on. Wheeler gained an advantage with a drop toe hold and a leg drop. Harwood tagged in and landed a few quick shots. Colten rolled to the floor to escape. Wheeler tagged back in and attempted a baseball slide to the floor, but The Gunns avoided it.
The Gunns took over the match with a double team kick and lariat combo on Wheeler. They then isolated him in the heel corner with some strikes and a choke…[c]
Harwood got a hot tag as the show returned and he managed to get a couple of close near falls on Austin Gunn after a DDT and a lariat. Wheeler and Harwood attempted a spike piledriver, but Austin escaped and dumped Harwood from the ring. Wheeler was the legal man and they managed to land the spike piledriver after reversing out of the corner. Colten and Austin attempted 3:10 to Yuma, but Wheeler Blocked it.
FTR landed a Shatter Machine on Austin and covered, but Colten pulled the ref from the ring. The Gunns wanted the DQ, but the ref didn’t oblige. Dax and Austin traded roll ups and covers in the ring. Austin landed a low blow on Harwood, and the ref nearly DQ’d him, but Wheeler pleaded with the referee to stop. The referee agreed and the match continued. After a few minutes of belts sliding in and out of the ring and repeated interference, Dax jumped for a top rope headbutt and Austin hit him with a title belt.
A cover was made and Dax kicked out at 2.9. The Gunns went for another 3:10 to Yuma, but Wheeler jumped off the top rope and grabbed Colten with a sunset flip. Both FTR members covered both Gunns and covered for the win.
“FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler defeated Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn at 13:48 to win the AEW Tag Team Titles
FTR celebrated as the show ended…
My Take: Not the cleanest tag match in the world, but the crowd was into the near falls and went crazy when FTR got the win. Hopefully this is the reset the tag division needs to get back on track.
That’s how you open your first show after Wrestlemania…wait a minute…
MJF just got an ADD chant going. Good Lord this kid just has the rarest of abilities to own a crowd. Easily the best for an in ring performer since Austin and Rock were in their prime.
I would pay any amount of money asked to hear him and Heyman just trying to one up each other.
London is a “huge” announcement?
Yeah, my bullshit prediction was spot on. It’s a nice little moment, but just more Cocaine Tony overhyping things that will probably kill their rating next week.
The company’s first stadium show is a pretty big deal, but I don’t think anyone is surprised that you’re shitting all over it.
90,000. Or even 60,000 tickets in Wembley is a big task. I am assuming that Kahn had done some market research that says this is doable. I’m not an AEW fan but I’d also hate to see them do this and draw a sparse crowd like the last few world class parade of champion shows in Cowboys stadium
I assume that Punk HAS to come back for this. And they prob also need a big name (Goldberg?) to spark some additional intrigue
We’ll see, but I’m optimistic. The UK fans have been great over the years. TNA did really well with some impressive arena shows back in the day.
They’ll need Punk to fill that stadium
TNA also had a much bigger fanbase at their peak that AEW does.
The one thing working for AEW on this is the lack of previous shows there. If they can hype it well as a once in a lifetime event, and piggyback off the other stuff already happening there, they might be able to pull off a decent enough crowd. Even so, London isn’t nearly the “huge” announcement that was promised and trying to even get half of the capacity of Wembley filled seems like it’s way more than they’re capable of at the moment.
The London announcement is a huge announcement…for fans in London. For the rest of the world, it’s just another AEW PPV(I guess? Wasn’t real clear on that) and hardly any big deal. Generally speaking, fans don’t really care where events take place if it’s not near them(or not someplace they hate like Saudia Arabia, I suppose). I mean, it’s great for UK fans sure, but it makes absolutely no difference to much of the fanbase, so hyping this announcement as one of the most important announcements in history is just not the way it should have been done.
You are ignoring the stadium show aspect. If it were just a London PPV at the O2, then I would agree with you. But it’s the company’s first stadium event and that’s a big deal to me. In fact, it needed more fanfare than they gave it, which I’ll get into in my audio review and Hit List. But I want to know what an AEW stadium show will look like. What will they do from a production standpoint? Can they make it feel larger than life or will be underwhelming? What type of lineup will they put together for a show like this? I wouldn’t be asking any of those questions if this were an arena show regardless of the location.
And I’ve wanted this company to have its own WrestleMania style event (not that it can be WM obviously). This is as close as they’ve come and I hope they put pressure on themselves to make All In their biggest show annually. I’ve never known whether Double Or Nothing is meant to be bigger or lesser or equal to All Out. I really hope this is the start of AEW branding All In as its premier annual event.
London will be a nice homecoming for Sayara, and I imagine they’ll try to reel UK and New Japan wrestlers in to pad the card, but I don’t see them selling out Wembley.
The majority of their biggest stars are still former WWE wrestlers, the storytelling is still unfocused.
The return of Punk could move the needle, but what AEW characters and stories are people really invested in?
It’s a company of spot fests and acts, but no overall vision or cohesion.
It’s wild to watch the shameless pro AEW approach to this flop of an announcement from someone who is supposed to be unbiased. If you ever want to know why nobody in their right mind believes wrestling “journalists” the responses to the accurate critiques of the minor announcement are exhibit A. You would think Meltzer, Alvarez, Sapp, Keller, Powell, and the rest have an actual financial stake in the company with the way they’ll try to paint anything they can in the best possible light.
I found something more worthy of the big announcement hype than you did and took a moment to explain why. You don’t have to agree with my take, but you can’t handle any opposing viewpoints and immediately resort to playing the bias card. Sad.
Nah, Powell doesn’t hesitate to criticize AEW, he’s not some mindless shill. But I still think he’s wrong about this announcement though. Much of the audience literally doesn’t give 2 shits about WHERE AEW is booking their shows unless it affects them directly, and for them, stadium or arena, London or Berlin or Chicago, it makes no difference unless they live near enough to those areas to attend the show. For all but the most diehard AEW fanatics, or for the UK fans, this announcement is beyond underwhelming and should have been a press release at best.
Hell, even one of the guys over at the Torch barely even mentioned the announcement in his coverage of the show, it was like he didn’t know it was supposed to be something “important” either.
Well,I for one do care about the the show being in London mainly for how the show would actually look from a production standpoint like Jason mentioned.
Honestly, announcing Jay White or the video game release would have been bigger than the show announcement.
Like many here said, this only impacts a specific audience. Yes, it’s a good announcement – but Tony Khan has no idea how to differentiate how big these announcements are every time he makes them.
A soon to be 5 yr old company booking a 100 thousand seat stadium isn’t a big deal? Cmon how stupid can your hate get for this company. It’s a GIGANTIC deal.
I can’t wait to see the stories build for this ppv. I expect them to start right after double or nothing. Wow
Booking a 90k stadium is one thing. Selling those tickets when they’re struggling to fill 5k arenas some weeks is another.
If I was a coked up billionaire trust fund kid, I could pay money for something as ridiculous as booking Wembley Stadium, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got a product that can actually fill those seats.
The only thing working in their favor is the scarcity of having never put a show on there before. If they sell 1/3 of that capacity it’s a win for them. I’m sure they’ll paper it quite a bit to get even more people in if they can.