AEW Dynamite Review (9/2/20) - The Go Home Show for All Out

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Updated:: Sep 3, 2020
Original:: Sep 3, 2020

In less than 3 days time, the second annual All Out pay-per-view will be setting in right before our eyes. This episode of AEW Dynamite was back on it's normal schedule. Featuring some pay-per-view caliber matches and some beautiful storytelling it has left us in complete excitement for what is to come on Saturday.

Here are my opinions & biggest takeaways for this week's AEW Dynamite!

With a returning Excalibur joining Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone on commentary, Santana & Ortiz open the show, facing off with the Best Friends in a match that they've been boiling up to for the last month. The match doesn't begin right away as the Best Friends attack Santana and Ortiz as they were making their entrance.The Best Friends got the worse end of the deal trying to attack the Inner Circle members: Trent getting choked out by a t-shirt and Chuck Taylor getting thrown off the ramp through the steel chair structure that he had set up.The bell finally tolls, the match starting with Trent and Santana in the ring. Chuck Taylor wasn't there for the tag, which put a lot of pressure on Trent who held his own for the most part. Once Chuck is up for the tag, he's able to pull off a Tope Con Giro to the outside where he threw Santana and Ortiz. Chuck is able to keep on the offensive until he tags Trent back in.The match takes a turn when Santana keeps Trent standing on the apron and Ortiz knocks him off onto the steel steps below. Santana gets Trent back in the ring quickly, but Chuck pulls Ortiz off the apron to prevent a tag. Trent takes advantage of this, hitting a Crunchie on Santana. Trent goes for the pin, but there's a very questionable rope break that occurs.The match continues with Ortiz throwing Chuck Taylor into the crowd where he stays for the remainder of the match. Ortiz goes back to the ring and grabs a metal baton from underneath, hitting Trent with it in the back after Santana pushes him to the ropes. This shot was just out the ref's eyesight, but gives them an advantage. Santana makes the tag and the team hits their finisher, the "Street Sweeper" for the 3 count.Aside from the botched rope break, the match was beautifully conducted and they made this match feel as personal as they did outside of the ring. Proud & Powerful got a much needed win over the Best Friends. How soon do one of these teams become AEW Tag Team Champions? Hopefully soon!

The winners of this match will be facing each other at the All Out  pay-per-view.After last week's issues with Hangman Page, the Young Bucks had a completely different attitude heading into this match. This match had some more good tag team wrestling which comes as no surprise, but I feel this was pry the only realistic way they were gonna get the Bucks on the pay-per-view card after last weeks failed attempt at getting a Tag Team Title opportunity.This match further proved the Bucks' change in attitude when a "fan" was  in the audience holding a sign reading "Hangman, Drink My Beer" which Matt Jackson proceeded to tear up during the bout. Aside from the obvious storytelling this match provided, this match did still feel like a filler, as any of the other tag teams could have been utilized. Still, nonetheless, all four teams had an awesome showing. I was personally impressed by Jungle Boy and both members of Private Party as they took the brunt of all the action. Here's to seeing more of these three young stars.This match ends with the Matt blind tagging Luchasaurus, as Matt and Nick go into the ring hitting Marq Quen with the BTE-Trigger. Personally, I feel this ending means a lot more than it should, as the Bucks never finish their matches with it. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but could it mean that Omega sides with the Bucks when push comes to shove? Or the exact opposite?Instead of celebrating, the Jackson brothers head to the back leaving Jurassic Express by themselves.Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express is official for All Out.

Before the match, we get Jake Hager with his own camera crew approaching Orange Cassidy, telling him it'd be smart to be out there for Jericho's match. He began digging through his bag.It's time for the match. Janela and Jericho make their entrances, then out comes Orange Cassidy. He sits ringside, the backpack he had in the earlier segment in hand. Jericho takes off his jacket, revealing that he was wearing an Orange Cassidy t-shirt. This match itself was ultimately a squash match, enhancing Jericho for the Mimosa Mayhem match at All Out.The match ends with Joey Janela tapping out to a Lion Tamer. Jericho proceeds to expose the top turnbuckle. He slams Janela's face into the exposed turnbuckle, then executes numerous blows to his head with his bare fist. It opened up the cut and left Janela's face covered in blood. The Demo God wiped Janela's blood on the Orange Cassidy tee he was wearing, ripped it off and threw it at Orange Cassidy who sat a few feet away.Orange charged to the ring seconds after, backpack in hand, but Hager immediately got involved. Sonny makes the save, aiding Janela, taking out Jericho. After Hager planted Sonny, this allowed Orange to get the upper hand on Jericho. Before he could execute a Superman Punch, Hager pulled Jericho out of the ring. Orange then reveals the bottle of Bubbly he had in his backpack, opening it and spilling it out as he gives the two a thumbs down as the bubbly spills out of the bottle in his other hand.I'm excited to see where this Mimosa Mayhem goes, as this is a stipulation we have yet to see. I have no doubt that it's gonna be a fun spin on what we've already gotten from these two. More Inner Circle Mayhem!Sammy Guevara goes out with his poster boards, saying Hardy himself will be "DELETED". Schiavone makes it clear that the Broken Rules match on Sunday will determine if Matt Hardy stays in AEW or meets a broken end.

Team Taz makes their way out to the ring to put both Darby Allin and Lance Archer on notice. But, returning the favor from last week, Jake Roberts and Lance Archer go out to interrupt them. The sequence continues when most of the Casino Battle Royal Entrants make their way out to the ring. Eddie Kingston comes out with the Lucha Bros, The Butcher and The Blade in tow. Seconds after, Shawn Spears comes out to watch.Chaos ensues after Darby's music hits and he attacks Starks for the second week in a row. The brawl continued for a few minutes until we come back from a commercial break.As much as I am excited for the Casino Battle Royale, I wish they could have focused more attention on the possible Archer/Cage feud that we all see coming out of this. Without giving my predictions away, there's one of two things that I think will come out of this that are very important in the coming weeks of Dynamite leading to the next pay-per-view. We're either going to get Archer vs. Brian Cage for the FTW Championship, or Lance Archer wins the Battle Royale and challenges the winner of Saturday's main event for the AEW World Championship. Either way, the outcome is good, but we got no focus on it and instead got a messy brawl to fill in time. It didn't exactly make me anymore excited for the Battle Royale. On the brighter side of the things, not all competitors have been announced which gives the match some element of surprise.

This match, for me personally, was match of the night by a far margin. I know we shouldn't praise AEW for finally giving the women more time on Dynamite, but this is definitely hard to ignore. Unfortunately, it was from two women who aren't even signed. Hopefully that changes. Thunder Rosa would make a great addition to a lacking division, no disrespect of course. She would easily bring a level of legitimacy to it, helping elevate the other women on the roster who haven't gotten the opportunity to showcase their talent on a larger scale. Serena Deeb would be another great acquisition with a lot of experience under her belt.Both women are fantastic competitors and it did a hell of a good job showing everyone just what Thunder Rosa can do in preparation for her title match against Hikaru Shida on Saturday. It wasn't a total squash match. Serena Deeb put up a good fight and made Rosa look great on both the offensive and defensive sides of the spectrum. Those unfamiliar with her work won't be going into All Out totally blind or unsure of what to expect and that's what makes me love this even more. I guess my only real critique here is that I wish we could have seen a lot more of Hikaru Shida the last few weeks, she is our women's champion after all. It would have been nice to have her at ringside or have her give a sort of fighting champion promo to help solidify what exactly they are fighting for. For sake of their opposing brands? Who's the better champion? Guess we will have to wait and find out if they provide any more build before the match.

Can Kenny Omega and Hangman Page get on the same page come All Out?The interview opened with Tony Schiavone pointing out that Hangman was missing from the fray, but Omega seemed very dismissive of it. Schiavone proceeded to ask Omega how he felt about Hangman being kicked out of the Elite and he placed blame on FTR getting into Hangman's head. He made it clear he was confident that they will pull out the victory on Saturday.Accompanied by Tully Blanchard, FTR comes down to the ring offering Omega some chocolate milk as a sign of good faith, of course, after mocking the fact that the two men that are the AEW World Tag Team Champions aren't a real tag team and that they are good "singles competitors".Amused, Omega told his opponents that if they were out there to single him out 3 on 1, they should just get it over with and not waste anymore show time. Out comes Hangman Page as they were about to throw down. They insist for Adam to explain to Omega how he got into his own head, not that they got into Hangman's head like Omega claimed. They wanted him to tell Omega how bad of a person he really was. Hangman was about to retaliate but Omega stops him saying, “Can’t you see? They’re still trying to get inside your head, Adam!” FTR grabbed the tag belts, but dropped them to the mat when Hangman told them to hand the belts over. He picks them up, watching the two get out of the ring. He reaches back to hand Omega his belt, only, he wasn't there. He remained on the outside, shaking his head.These two have spearheaded the, in my opinion, biggest storyline AEW has going. The Elite slowly crumbling has been over a year in the making and little things like Hangman staring into a broken mirror and Omega leaving him standing in the ring alone only continue to amplify why. THE ELITE IS NOT FINE!A Cinematic Match for the All Out Buy-In PreshowAfter a very determined Swole beat Rebel, Penelope Ford, and Britt Baker in a 3-on-1 Handicap match last week, Swole made it clear she wanted to face Britt Baker in a match at All Out.Rebel got Big Swole's attention mid-interview, pretending to be a pizza deliverer for Tony Schiavone. From behind, Britt Baker was able to Swole from behind, beating her down her with her crutches! Now beaten, Baker and Rebel smeared the pizza all over Swole's face.It was later confirmed that this "Tooth and Nail" match would be on the Buy-In pre-show, taking place at Britt's office, acting as a cinematic match to draw in viewers. The Buy-In will be free on YouTube.With the amount of build we've had for this match,I would have hoped they'd be put on the main card, but I digress. We will be getting two women's matches on the whole card and I have high hopes for all four ladies participating in All Out.

Wardlow ushered a very reluctant Mark Sterling out to the ring for his match with Moxley. Once the bell tolls and both competitors are in the ring, Moxley gives Sterling the opportunity to strike him, only Sterling doesn't know how to. Moxley shows him how to properly make a fist, only for Sterling to swing, He misses. Moxley slaps him in return.Moxley offers him another free shot, but him ducking results in Sterling flying out through the ropes. Wardlow is obviously annoyed on the outside. The only sort of offense Sterling could execute was poking Moxley in his previously injured eye. He paid for it when he was once again knocked out of the ring, this time by a clothesline. They begin a fight in the crowd, Moxley starts to beat Sterling with his own shoe just after burying him aggressively under the metal barriers and chairs.Nonchalant, Moxley takes Sterling back to the ring, sitting down in a chair waitingfor Sterling to show some sort of life. Extending a hand to Sterling, Moxley instead pokes him in the eye as a form of payback and executes a Paradigm Shift for the 3-count. Both get what they want, MJF gets his match with Moxley at All Out, the Paradigm Shift banned, and Moxley got to dismantle MJF's attorney. Wardlow enters the ring and hits an F10 on an unsuspecting Moxley. Shortly after, MJF comes out, revealing he was fine all along. He throws aside his walker and neck brace and makes his way to the ring.He beats down the already weakened AEW Champion. Asking for his ring, Wardlow places it on his finger and sets Moxley up. A right hand with the ring to Moxley's head busts him open. MJF proceeds to bite Moxley's head further opening the wound. Blood now on MJF's hand, he wipes Moxley's blood all over his face. MJF stands and Wardlow hands him the belt. MJF places a foot on Moxley's throat and raises the belt high above his head.“This is the future right here!” MJF stands tall to close the show.Just some subtle things I want to point out, one being the fact that while MJF was beating down Moxley, Wardlow could not take his eyes off the AEW Championship. I missed that the first time watching the show. Watching a second time through, I was able to pick it up. AEW has always been good about planting the seeds, this time is no different.Wardlow has been fantastic during his time in AEW. That Lumberjack match with Luchasaurus is definitely a personal favorite, both men tearing the house down. This time last year, Wardlow's first hype video appeared on the first All Out pay-per-view. It's awesome to see the growth. I think we all know Wardlow vs. MJF is gonna be a fun one.As for Saturday, we will likely see Moxley retain. MJF is still young and I feel it would be too soon to pull the trigger on him. This though, doesn't change the fact that I personally believe that he is the future of AEW and he will continue to be one of the best heels they have. That is, unless we see The Cleaner make his long awaited return!Overall, this was an awesome go-home show for All Out and I have no doubt that there are going to be some mind boggling moments to set us up for the next big show.

Proud & Powerful def. Best Friends

With a returning Excalibur joining Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone on commentary, Santana & Ortiz open the show, facing off with the Best Friends in a match that they've been boiling up to for the last month. The match doesn't begin right away as the Best Friends attack Santana and Ortiz as they were making their entrance.

The Best Friends got the worse end of the deal trying to attack the Inner Circle members: Trent getting choked out by a t-shirt and Chuck Taylor getting thrown off the ramp through the steel chair structure that he had set up.

The bell finally tolls, the match starting with Trent and Santana in the ring. Chuck Taylor wasn't there for the tag, which put a lot of pressure on Trent who held his own for the most part. Once Chuck is up for the tag, he's able to pull off a Tope Con Giro to the outside where he threw Santana and Ortiz. Chuck is able to keep on the offensive until he tags Trent back in.

The match takes a turn when Santana keeps Trent standing on the apron and Ortiz knocks him off onto the steel steps below. Santana gets Trent back in the ring quickly, but Chuck pulls Ortiz off the apron to prevent a tag. Trent takes advantage of this, hitting a Crunchie on Santana. Trent goes for the pin, but there's a very questionable rope break that occurs.

The match continues with Ortiz throwing Chuck Taylor into the crowd where he stays for the remainder of the match. Ortiz goes back to the ring and grabs a metal baton from underneath, hitting Trent with it in the back after Santana pushes him to the ropes. This shot was just out the ref's eyesight, but gives them an advantage. Santana makes the tag and the team hits their finisher, the "Street Sweeper" for the 3 count.

Aside from the botched rope break, the match was beautifully conducted and they made this match feel as personal as they did outside of the ring. Proud & Powerful got a much needed win over the Best Friends. How soon do one of these teams become AEW Tag Team Champions? Hopefully soon!

Thanks for reading my review! Did I miss anything? Have any questions? Feel free to leave a comment below or contact me personally on Twitter, @brienutbutter ! Stay tuned for my AEW All Out (9/5/20) Predictions (Posted on my YouTube Channel on 9/4/20) and Review on September 6th!