The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.25.20

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.25.20

Taped from Jacksonville, FL

Your hosts are Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone & Excalibur

Hangman “Lost His Phone For Six Weeks, Too Cheap To Buy Another One” Page v. John Silver

Silver offers a Thanksgiving fist bump, but Page doesn’t fall for it and puts him down with a shoulderblock. Silver comes back with armdrags and unleashes the GUNS while questioning the muscle tone on the Hangman. That ends badly for him, as Page chops him into the corner, but Silver gets his own, so Page hits him harder and puts him down. Silver goes with the “pat him on the ass” tactic to throw Page off his guard and goes up with a high cross for two. JR’s description of him as “human bowling ball” is pretty apt. Silver starts working Page over with some HARD kicks to the chest, but Page fires back with chops, so Silver puts him down with an elbow for two. They trade forearms and Silver gets a german suplex for two, but Hangman hits him with a springboard clothesline out of the corner and he puts Silver on the floor. He follows with a dive after Silver misses his own, and back in for a sliding lariat that gets two. They slug it out and Silver tries another high cross, but Page catches him and hits a fallaway slam and shooting star for two. Hangman tries the Buckshot, but Silver counters him with a rana for two and snaps off another german suplex. Brainbuster gets two. Silver pounds him with more kicks and Page is like BRING IT, so Silver does. Well he asked. Page catches him with a backslide, but Silver rolls into more kicks, and Page hits him with a lariat to escape and a powerbomb gets two. Buckshot lariat finishes at 9:44. Tremendous opener as Silver is just killing it in every chance he gets these days. ***1/2 Afterwards, the Dark Order hits the ring, but Evil Uno isn’t here to attack Hangman, but rather to recruit him away from the cult of the Elite, offering friendship.

Meanwhile, Kenny Omega has been reflecting on the contract signing from last week and his life over the past year, and now the Cleaner is back and everyone’s talking about him again. So tonight they’re gonna do the contract signing again. And also, after hearing Moxley talk about his childhood last week, he’s pretty sure that his dad could beat the shit out of Moxley’s dad. OK, I laughed hard at that one.

Powerhouse Hobbs v. Lee Johnson

Johnson tries some high flying, but Hobbs absolutely runs him over with a shoulderblock and tosses him. He follows with a clothesline on the floor and then chucks him into the railing like a sack of shit. Back in, World’s Strongest Slam finishes at 1:50. Sometimes you need a big squash to make a point, and this was that. Afterwards, Taz sends Hobbs off to celebrate and then complains about AEW not recognizing the FTW title, but management cuts the mic. So he bullies Justin Roberts into giving him the mic, but that one gets cut off as well, which brings out Cody from gorilla to get the hook. Cody promises to “run it up the flagpole” about recognizing the FTW title, but Taz snarks that “creative has nothing for him” and then Cody goes NUCLEAR by asking why Taz’s own son is training with him instead of Taz. Cody is such a smug bastard about it that Taz has no choice but to choke him out from behind and then leave with his son, who is apparently named Hook. This was great!

Meanwhile, Eddie Kingston expected this crap from Rey Fenix because “he likes to do the flippy stuff”, but thought better of Pac. But this brings out Moxley, and Kingston tells him that he didn’t do the attack last week, which seems to satisfy Jon.

Top Flight v. The Hybrid 2

Angelico controls Darius with an armbar on the mat, but Darius counters out and Angelico begs off. So they fight for the arm again and this time Darius uses some slick moves to take him down, and it’s over to Dante for the double-team and that gets two. TH2 regroups and double-teams him, but we take a break. Back with Darius running wild off a hot tag and he hits Angelico with an elbow in the corner and follows with a shotgun missile dropkick for two. Evans comes in and beats on Darius with elbows in the corner, but Dante makes a blind tag and they hit Evans with a double-team of a back suplex into a powerbomb for two. But everyone ends up on the apron and Evans lands on Angelico out there, followed by Top Flight hitting them with dives. Back in, a slingshot suplex on Evans into a frog splash from Dante gets two. Evans recovers with superkicks on the kids and TH2 gets a double-team splash on Dante as Angelico gets two. Angelico tries a buckle bomb, but Dante reverses into a Code Red for two. Evans yanks Darius out to the floor to get rid of him, however, and Angelico wraps up Dante into the inverted figure-four and he taps at 10:41. A heel beating seems imminent, but the Bucks make the save for their new proteges. ***

Meanwhile, Vickie and Nyla Rose don’t feel any particular sympathy for Brandi Rhodes’ arm injury.

Meanwhile, FTR aren’t taking their loss to the Bucks very well.

Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian v. Chris Jericho & Jake Hager

SCU double-teams Jericho with arm-wringers, but the Inner Circle traps Kaz in the heel corner and Hager beats on him with shoulders. We take a break and return with Daniels playing face in peril, but Kaz gets a hot tag and hits Jericho with a springboard legdrop for two. He stops to dive onto Ortiz on the floor and has to run away from a beating as a result, and Jericho cheapshots him on the way in. Daniels comes in again but hits Hager with a dive, then goes up and gets a high cross on Jericho for two. Hager makes a blind tag and tries a suplex, but Daniels dives off the middle rope with a flatliner to set up the BME, which gets two. But then Kaz gets tied up with the ref, MJF hits Daniels with the ring, and the Judas Effect finishes at 11:00. They were working at a REALLY fast pace here, which is impressive for the age of everyone involved. **3/4 The Circle tries for the big beatdown afterwards, but Scorpio Sky saves with a chair.

Meanwhile, Miro and Kip have a new show about video games, but Orange Cassidy casually walks in and shuts off their Xbox! This prompts a brawl, as you’d expect, with the Best Friends getting involved and Miro taking out the camera man to end things.

Contract Signing, Take Two: Kenny doesn’t even make it to the ring after his introduction about the WRESTLING OBSERVER HALL OF FAME, but Moxley attacks him in the tunnel because last week’s attack did a “piss poor job” of taking him out, and now Kenny has to do something that no one has been able to do in 18 months: Beat him.

AEW Women’s title: Hikaru Shida v. Anna Jay

I like the UFC-style legend showing the names and colors of the wrestlers, actually. Jay quickly goes for the sleeper, but Shida escapes and slugs away in the corner, and follows with a backbreaker and low dropkick. Shida goes for the kneelift on the apron, but Jay hits her in the bad knee to block and runs her into the apron to take over. We take a break and return with Jay in control with a necksnap, but she gets a chair from a reluctant Tay Conti to distract the ref, and then hits Shida in the knee with a kendo stick for two. Slick! Shida tries the falcon arrow, but is unable to do the deal and Jay reverses for two. Shida comes back with a german suplex for two, however, and follows with the knee strike to retain at 7:09. Felt like most of the match happened during the break, but Jay looked really good here. ** But then Abadon makes a surprising return and LICKS THE BELT to mark for herself. That’s a no. Glad to see her back, though. But seriously…let’s not be licking stuff right now.

Meanwhile, Matt Hardy reminds us that if he can overcome overwhelming odds, so can we!

Meanwhile, Team Taz lets us know that Taz has left, and Cody has made it personal and now they’re coming to bust heads.

The Butcher and the Blade v. Pac & Rey Fenix

We quickly get the trainwreck spot on the floor, and back in where B&B double-team Pac and Butcher hits him with a gut wrench. Fenix comes in with a somersault into a dropkick for two and wraps up Blade with a submission on the mat while Eddie Kingston is hilarious on commentary, completely brushing off the split with Penta and then deliberately talking after Pac tells the crowd to quiet down. What a cad! Pac comes in and trades shots with Blade, but loses that battle. Butcher no-sells a cutter attempt from Fenix, but Pac hits him with a superkick and everyone is down while we take a break. Back with Fenix getting beaten by Butcher and a hotshot gets two while Kingston further endears himself to the announcers. Blade comes in and walks into a cutter from Fenix, and Pac gets the hot tag and hits everyone with kicks. He hits Blade with a northern lights suplex for two and goes up for a shooting star, but that misses and Blade gets a powerslam to bring Butcher back in again. Running lariat gets two. They double-team Pac with corner clotheslines and Blade gets a powerbomb for two, but Fenix saves and then gets a tag to make the comeback. Everyone brawls as Kingston leaves the announce desk to trip up Fenix, allowing Butcher and Blade to finish with their double-team neckbreaker at 13:00. Pac still seems a bit tentative but this was a solid main event. *** Afterwards, Kingston gives Pac a pair of DDTs onto a chair, but LANCE ARCHER makes the save?! But then, and this is impressive, the announcers actually EXPLAIN THE REASONING, pointing out that of course Kingston has been talking shit about Archer for ages ever since the battle royal where he wasn’t eliminated. That’s all we want as fans!

NEXT WEEK: Jon Moxley v. Kenny Omega for the AEW World title!

Hell of a deal, as once again the taped show blows away the live shows thanks to tight editing and sound sweetening. Hopefully they pull off the epic episode they’re trying for next week!