The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.18.22

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.18.22

“Title Tuesday”

Live from Cincinnati OH

Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Taz

World Trios title: Death Triangle v. Best Friends & Orange Cassidy

Orange Cassidy has a backpack for his new belt because carrying things is hard. For some reason TSN cut out the video package before Death Triangle’s entrance, which made for a weird cut. The Lucha Bros immediately double-team Chuck and catapult him into Trent in the corner after getting rid of Orange. They try the Fear Factor but Trent breaks that up, and then Death Triangle sends the Friends to the floor and hits them with triple dives. Back in the ring, Pac puts the boots to Cassidy and chokes him out, and they triple him with kicks as we take a break. Back with the babyfaces running wild and Trent tosses Pac, but the Lucha Bros jump him from behind. Orange tries to give them a double rana and Pac breaks that up with a dropkick. That sets up a triple-team into a german suplex from Pac for two. Meanwhile Fenix gets run into the post, allowing Best Friends to double-team Pac with the half and half and then it’s piledrivers for Penta, but they stop for a hug before hitting their anthill finisher, so that only gets two. This allows Pac to grab the hammer again, but Fenix is having none of that and Orange rolls up Pac for two. Pac with a german suplex and Orange hits the Punch for a double down, but they tag on both sides and Trent counters a destroyer into the Strong Zero on Penta for two. Fenix saves and hits the Friends with a double cutter, and then finishes Trent with a Rikishi Driver to retain at 11:44. A crazy Cornette Nightmare spotfest to kick off the show! ***1/2

Also if I was still drinking and I took a drink every time Excalibur said “looks to defend” in that opening match, I’d be pretty drunk right now.

Meanwhile, Hangman Page really wants that AEW World title.

Meanwhile, Britt and Jamie Hayter are pretty sure one of them is going to end up with the World title, and again TSN cut out a video package here.

AEW World Women’s title: Toni Storm v. Hikaru Shida

A sign in the crowd demands Women’s tag team belts. Great, now Tony Khan is booking the crowd signs, too. Toni grabs a headlock and they reverse off that until Shida gets a dropkick, but she goes to the apron and Toni uses the HIP ATTACK OF DOOM to send her to the floor. Kudos to Taz for the “Ribbon Champion” pun, which managed to crack up Tony. We take a break and return with Shida hitting a missile dropkick for two. They slug it out and Shida hits her with an enzuigiri, but she goes up and Storm cuts her off. Shida sends her down and hits a facebuster for two. Storm with another hip attack in the corner, but Shida counters a suplex with a falcon arrow for two. They trade rollups for two, but Storm gets a german suplex for two. Storm with a tornado DDT and she follows with the piledriver to finish at 8:49. This got really sloppy near the end so I’m wondering if one of them was hurt, but the finish was great. *** This brings out Dr. Britt Baker DMD and her crew for the beatdown, but Saraya makes the save, and then Riho randomly comes out in a dress and cleans house herself. Shida must have been hurt because she disappeared immediately to the back after the loss.

Meanwhile, War-Joe offers the Kingdom six million ways to die, and they still picked the wrong ones.

Meanwhile, FTR joins Renee backstage, and all they ever wanted to be was the best tag team in the world. And that means going after the AEW World tag team titles to complete their set. So this brings out Swerve and Keith, and Keith respectfully asks for a #1 contender’s match next week.

Meanwhile, Jay Lethal wants a rematch with Darby Allin, and apparently they know his weakness, which leads to a 2-on-1 beatdown where they trap Darby under the steel door backstage and then Lethal puts him in a figure-four out there.

William Regal joins Tony in the ring, but MJF immediately interrupts. So Regal immediately pulls out his trusty brass knuckles, but MJF is only here to talk, not fight. So he relates a story about getting a job out of wrestling school as an extra on a WWE show, and then having a tryout match where Regal was judging him. And then he got 3 minutes to cut a promo for Regal, but then he revealed that he was only 19 and so Regal couldn’t hire him. So Max sent Regal tapes of his progress every month, but by the third month Regal turned him away via email. In fact, he wanted to kill himself, but now it’s 2022 and Regal is just a sad old man who got fired and now attaches himself to talent like a “succubus”. And now MJF is the star who is about to become AEW World champion. And the crowd gives him a total babyface reaction for that promo, rightly so. So Regal points out that he got started at 16 and got the shit beat out of him every night for years, and he sent MJF that email to light a fire under his backside, and if that’s what he needed to become a star, then WONDERFUL. And he only uses the brass knuckles because he likes hitting people with them! Meanwhile Maxwell cheats when he doesn’t have to. So he turns his back and offers MJF a free shot with the ring if he’s such a badass like he says he is. And MJF doesn’t take the shot, which only disappoints Regal even more. This was absolutely incredible.

Meanwhile, The Acclaimed defends the tag team titles against Woods & Nese on Rampage, with the Scissoring on the line.

Meanwhile, Renee sits down with Bryan Danielson & Wheeler Yuta, and Danielson puts over Daniel Garcia while Wheeler rolls his eyes with annoyance. Yuta is pretty sure that Garcia was just using Danielson all along and he’s kind of disgusted by it.

ROH World title: Chris Jericho v. Dalton Castle

Dalton’s entrance alone makes me wonder why HE’S not signed to a full time AEW deal outside of the ROH nonsense. Also kudos to Jake Hager for continuing to fearlessly rock that purple bucket hat. Sure it makes him look like he’s got a penis for a head, but it’s 2022 and that’s his choice. Dalton reaches into his tights and finds a middle finger for Jericho, so Chris runs him out of the ring and Dalton leads a parade of the Boys outside to pump himself up. Back in the ring, Dalton takes him down not once, not twice, but THRICE and then follows with a deadlift gut wrench suplex for two. Hager gets involved, so Castle tosses some Boys at him to take him out and we take a break. Back with them trading chops, but Castle misses a charge and lands on the floor. He fights back with a tope and the Boys swarm Hager at ringside and knocks the purple hat off, but he puts it back on while getting beat up. But the hat enrages him and fights them off. Back in the ring, Castle reverses the Walls into a bodyscissor submission, but Jericho reverses to the Walls. Dalton makes the ropes and comes back with a clothesline for two. They slug it out and Castle gets a german suplex for two. Jericho teases a Pedigree, but then Castle counters the codebreaker into the Bangarang for two. Castle fires up and throws forearms, but he walks into the Judas out of nowhere and gets pinned at 12:30. This was a nice mixture of wackiness that turned into a hell of a match at the end. ***3/4 After all the shitty injuries Dalton Castle has endured in his career he really deserves a shot at the bigtime now and I hope he gets it. Afterwards, Jericho continues his path of rage against ROH and goes after Ian at the desk, but Jerry Lynn makes the save, so Jericho piledrives him on the ramp instead.

Meanwhile, Christian Cage denies brainwashing Luchasaurus, and in fact he thinks that the dinosaur was actually the brains of the team all along.

I love the phrasing of the Preston Vance v. Rush match for Rampage, where Excalibur notes that they will “finally” meet as though it was Rush in that spot all along.

Meanwhile, Jade Cargill is coming to Rampage to hijack the show if she doesn’t get her belt back.

AEW World title: Jon Moxley v. Hangman Page

Hangman attacks him during the entrance and moonsaults him off the balcony, and we take a break. Back with Moxley bleeding as we start the match in the ring proper, and Page beats on the cut. Moxley takes him down with a figure-four, but Hangman slugs out of it and beats on Moxley with chops. So Moxley fires back with his own, but Page gets the fallaway slam and then walks into a cutter while showboating. They fight to the top and Moxley brings him down with a superplex for two. They fight over an armbar and Moxley wins that battle, but Page makes the ropes right away. They fight to the apron and Hangman hits him with the Deadeye out there as we take a break. Back with them fighting on the top rope, as Page brings him down with a fallaway slam off the top for two. They slug it out and Hangman puts him down with a lariat, but he tries another one and Moxley hits his own for a double down. Page appears to be in some trouble and the doctor checks on his neck and stops the match at 12:54. Had to figure they’d go with a non-finish of some sort, although if that wasn’t planned (which it certainly doesn’t appear it was) then I hope Page is OK. Match wasn’t really clicking very well leading up to that, but that hardly matters. And Page goes out on a stretcher while they run down the Rampage card. Then I guess we’ve still got time to kill, so Moxley does a promo and challenges MJF to come cash in his chip right now. And so MJF answers and brings a referee with him, still in his street clothes.

AEW World title: Jon Moxley v. MJF

Nope, no cash in tonight, as MJF has had it with excuses, so he changes his mind and instead cashes it in for Full Gear next month instead. And he’s going to earn it.

Well the main event kind of went horribly wrong but kudos to them for holding it together and shooting the big angle at the end to set up the next PPV. The rest of the show was pretty great, as it reminded me a lot of last Friday’s Rampage, with more of an emphasis on backstage interviews and storytelling between the matches. Hopefully that means TK is paying attention to all the criticisms and adjusting.

Get well soon, Hangman.