AEW Dynamite
Episode 56
Dynamite Anniversary Show
#AEWDynamite
Original Air Date: October 14, 2020
Event Date: October 14, 2020
(aired live on TNT & the FITE app)
City: Jacksonville, FL
Venue: Daily’s Place
Commentary: Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Eddie Kingston (5)
Ring Announcer: Justin Roberts
Intro Video
“Dynamite” by No One Hero
Match 1
AEW World Tag Team Title Match
Best Friends vs FTR (AEW Tag Champs) w/ Tully Blanchard
(referee: Rick Knox)
Result: Dax Harwood pins Chuck Taylor after Cash Wheeler hits Chuck in the head with a title belt
Time: 16:32
Match Thoughts
Good match. I enjoyed the first half of the match a lot more than the second half, but I still liked the match overall. The first half of the match had FTR isolated Trent and doing well to cut Chuck Taylor out of the match. Best Friends would get some moments where it looked like they might be making a comeback only to have FTR cut them back down. The later parts of the match had a bit too much that felt like obvious story points or shenanigans, including Trent running into Kip Sabian’s “game cabinet” and referee Rick Knox being in the unusually perfectly wrong position right at the end of the match so he would conveniently miss some blatant cheating.
Ring Area
After the match, Miro runs out and attacks Trent and Chuck Taylor. Miro destroys Best Friends, then Kip Sabian joins Miro as Penelope Ford watches.
Match 2
Lee Johnson & Sean Maluta vs “”Superbad” Kip Sabian w/ Penelope Ford & Miro
(referee: Bryce Remsburg)
Result: Miro submits Sean Maluta with Game Over
Time: 1:52
Match Thoughts
Squash. Miro destroyed Maluta, Sabian did one splash, and Johnson never tagged in.
Ring Area
After the match, Kip Sabian vents about how furious he is that Best Friends broke his most prized possession. Miro is also angry about the game cabinet.
Backstage
Lance Archer is beating up Jon Moxley in a hallway. After a few seconds, officials finally arrive to usher Archer away from the champ.
Ring Area
MJF heads to the ring with Wardlow. MJF insults the audience. Then he calls Chris Jericho out, so Jericho comes out to the ring with the rest of the Inner Circle. MJF praises Jericho and points out the he and Jericho, despite both being the best, have never faced each other in an AEW ring. Why is that? Because they’re predators who have respect for each other. They’re going to have to adapt if they want to stay on top though, so MJF says he might want to join the Inner Circle.
Ortiz is tired of listening to MJF, and he says no one wants MJF n the Inner Circle. Jericho isn’t so quick to dismiss MJF though, and he invites MJF to join him for a steak dinner next week to talk about things. A date is made.
Video
Tony Schiavone interviews Britt Baker while they’re both getting massages. Reba/Rebel comes in with Baker’s list of role model rules, and Baker says the fifth rule of being a role model is to “be the baddest bitch on the block.” Baker then realizes that Schiavone is (probably) naked under his sheet while getting massaged, and she and Reba scream.
Schiavnoe then has a bad time as he gets his chest hair waxed.
Baker then continues to talk about her epic comeback that continues next week.
Match 3
TNT Title Match
Orange Cassidy vs “The American Nightmare” Cody (TNT Champ) w/ Brandi Rhodes, Arn Anderson
(referee: Paul Turner; watching in the crowd: Darby Allin)
Result: Time Limit Draw
Time: 20:00
Match Thoughts
Great match. This felt like it could have been a PPV match, not because of how great the action was (which, yes, was really great), but because of the way the match was paced. Cassidy started off with his usual laid-back attitude, and that did a good job of getting Cody aggravated. Cody was able to channel a lot of that aggravation into offense early in the match, but as the match went on it led him to make some rash decisions. Prior to Cody’s encounters with Brodie Lee, he was already looking like kind of a jerk in the ring sometimes, and I think his war with the Dark Order has pushed him even further in that direction. Cody took a few shortcuts in the match (like wrapping Cassidy’s legs around the ring post), while Cassidy fought a clean match even though he had opportunities to get dirty. The pace picked up and up as the match went longer, and by the time the clock became a factor, the tension in the ring was pretty high. That led to a tense and very well-timed finish that ended up settling nothing but helped progress both men’s characters in very good ways.
Backstage
Alex Marvez welcomes Lance Archer and Jake Roberts. As Roberts begins to speak, Jon Moxley attacks Archer from behind. Officials rush in and pull the two men apart.
Ring Area
At ringside, Tony Schiavone welcomes Matt Hardy and his family. Hardy is happy to be here, and he announces that he has been cleared to return to action. Suddenly, a video plays on the screen.
In the video Sammy Guevara burns photographs of Matt Hardy. After the video, Guevara (now backstage) reveals that he was the person who mysteriously attacked Hardy a few weeks ago. Angrily, Hardy says, now that he’s back, he knows what his first piece of business is going to be.
Ring Area
Tony Schiavone is in the ring with FTR, Tully Blanchard, Paul Turner, and Bryce Remsburg. Schiavone announces that there will be a four-way match next week to determine who will face FTR for the tag titles at Full Gear, and the four teams in the match will be chosen at random by pulling names from a tumbler. As teams wait on the stage, the following teams are chosen: Private Party, John Silver & Alex Reynolds, The Butcher & The Blade, and The Young Bucks. Those four teams enter the ring, and the losing teams head to the back.
The Young Bucks start a brawl by superkicking John Silver and The Blade. FTR, Blanchard, Schiavone, and the referees leave the ring as the remaining tag teams hit each other. The Young Bucks and Private Party end up alone in the ring together. Private Party thinks they’ve come to a truce with the Bucks, but Private Party get kicked in their faces.
Match 4
AEW Women’s Title Match
Big Swole vs Hikaru Shida (AEW Women’s Champ)
(referee: Aubrey Edwards)
Result: Hikaru Shida wins via pinfall after Tamashii and retains the title in her third defense
Time: 8:55
Match Thoughts
Very good match. There were a few moments where their timing might have been slightly out of sync or they didn’t quite get what it seemed like they were looking for, but overall this was a very entertaining and hard-fought match. The action started with some nice sequences of grappling before the fight went out to ringside. Swole hit Shida with a suplex on the floor, but Shida definitely got the better of the ringside battle with strikes and a suplex of her own. Back in the ring, the match was fairly even, but Shida started hitting harder moves closer together as time passed. This was another good title defense from Shida.
Video
Shawn Spears explains that Scorpio Sky stole a moment from him, and he intends to make Sky pay.
Ring Area
Eddie Kingston (with the Lucha Brothers) joins the commentary team for tonight’s main event.
Match 5
No DQ AEW World Title Match
Lance Archer w/ Jake Roberts vs Jon Moxley (AEW World Champ)
(referee: Bryce Remsburg)
Result: Jon Moxley wins via pinfall with a crucifix pin and retains the title in his eighth defense
Time: 12:48
Match Thoughts
Great match. Moxley started by hitting Archer with the Paradigm Shift, and the match went on from there to be a very hard-hitting brawl with weapons and furniture. Both of these men excel in these types of matches, so this was a lot of fun to watch. Also, regardless of the outcome, Archer’s status as a terrifying monster remained intact. That’s a tough feat to accomplish when you have a strong champ that you want to keep strong as well, but they did it well.
Ring Area
After the match, Archer attacks Moxley. Eddie Kingston has the Lucha Brothers attack Archer, so Rey Fenix hits Archer with a chair. Archer wants to beat up everyone, but Jake Roberts convinces Archer to head backstage with him instead.
In the ring, Eddie has the crowd cheer for Moxley. Kingston raises Moxley’s hand and says he’s proud of him for carrying AEW for a year. Kingston then surprises Moxley with a spinning backhand and puts him in a sleeper hold. With Moxley face down in the ring, Kingston reminds everyone that he never tapped to Moxley in their title match.
Show Impressions
This was a fun show. The highlights were definitely the TNT Title and the AEW World Title matches, but I enjoyed almost everything on this show. The MJF segment and the silly arcade cabinet shenanigans were the only things I wasn’t really into.
Match of the Night
Cody vs Orange Cassidy
The main event was great too, but I got more invested and more excited throughout the TNT Title match. Having Archer kick out of two Paradigm Shifts in quick succession (including one through a pair of tables) detracted a bit for me from that match, even though, yeah, it keeps his monster status intact. I understand it, but I just preferred the strong character work and increasingly tense action of Cody vs Cassidy.