The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 09.11.24

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 09.11.24

Live from FLEXINGTON, KY. OUTRUNNERS WIN OR WE RIOT!

Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Taz

Jon Moxley joins us backstage at All Out to start, explaining why the BCC fractured and took out Bryan Danielson, which is basically that Jon is the one true king of the lands and Bryan’s way has failed.

Christian Cage joins Tony in the ring, explaining that Killswitch has finally discovered his purpose, as Christian’s monster. Also Christian will make Bryan Danielson’s suffocation look like a walk in the park, as he’ll beat him so badly that Brie Bella will wish she had CTE so she doesn’t have to remember it.

Meanwhile, Don Callis pitches a tag team deal to Will Ospreay, cashing in his favor so that Will can team with Kyle Fletcher and win the Casino Gauntlet match tonight. Will doesn’t really want it, but Kyle is sick of losing all the time and so Ospreay decides to do it for his friend.

TNT title: Jack Perry v. Lio Rush

I just noticed that Jack’s Khantron video features glass breaking. Jack jumps Rush in the corner to start, but Lio tosses Perry and teases a dive. Jack tries a draping DDT off the apron, but Lio counters to a moonsault, and Perry catches him and drops him on the apron as we take a break. Back with Action Andretti going after Perry and getting thrown out of the match. Rush with a small package for two and he puts Perry on the floor for a series of topes, and back in with a Spanish fly for two. Perry drops him on the middle buckle with a Snake Eyes for two and a dragon suplex, but Rush gets a poison rana to make the comeback, only to walk right into the knee strike for the pin at 8:39. Wasn’t much to this one. **

Meanwhile, Jack Perry jumps into his Scapegoat-Mobile and leaves.

Meanwhile, Hangman Page chats with Renee, and he would have burned down 1000 of Swerve’s houses if Swerve had 1000 houses. And anyone who stood in the way of him getting his revenge on Swerve will now be hunted down and hurt. But Jeff Jarrett stops by and tells him to look in the mirror, so Page tosses him into a pile of chairs because no one asked Jeff for his opinion. I’m still gonna need that Memphis street fight between them.

Private Party & Komander are out for a match, but the new BCC hits the ring and destroys both them and the jobbers. Pac declares that diplomacy has failed and the company is now theirs. Marina’s spectacular hair is the true breakout star of these segments.

Meanwhile, the Learning Tree has custody of Orange’s backpack in the quest to reclaim his $7000 debt, and he found something very interesting in the backpack that will be revealed later.

Ricochet v. Sammy Guevara

Apparently Sammy and Dustin Rhodes are ROH tag team champions now, which is a thing that I had not known about, or to be more accurate, I had likely known about it but care so little about the ROH tag team titles that I forgot immediately. They trade rollups to start and go to a stalemate, but Ric dropkicks him to the floor and follows with a dive. They fight up the ramp and Sammy goes up the tunnel and moonsaults him off that as we take a break. Back with Sammy holding a chinlock and dropkicking Ricochet to the floor for his own dive. But then Ricochet moves the front row fans aside and does a double jump somersault off the railing, and back in for a shooting star press that gets two. Ric throws the kicks, but he tries a fireman’s carry slam a Sammy counters into a destroyer and follows with a springboard cutter for two. Sammy tries the GTH, but Ricochet flips out and puts him down with kicks and finishes with the Vertigo slam at 11:05. Well they certainly meshed well! ****. Afterwards, the Beast Mortos hits the ring and lays out Ricochet to set up the next thing, but Sammy makes the save and strikes a new alliance of flippy guys.

Meanwhile, Kazuchika Okada discusses his tough defense at All Out, but Don Callis stops by and points out that he didn’t pin Takeshita.

Darby Allin joins us, so can finally have his conversation with Jon Moxley. Darby talks about how much he respected Jon growing up, but now Jon is becoming the people he hated. So Moxley demands that Darby hand over his title shot because Bryan Danielson is “predisposed”, so now they’ll have a match at Grand Slam for the title shot instead of Darby wrestling for the World title.

Meanwhile, Nigel McGuinness interrupts Christopher Daniels and wants to see Tony Khan, NOW.

Mariah May v. Queen Aminata

They trade takedowns to start and slug it out with forearms, but Aminata hits a PK and misses a hip attack. Mariah chokes her out on the ropes and dropkicks her to the back to take over and we take a break. Back with the Queen rolling her up out of the corner and following with a snap suplex and a pair of german suplexes. Hip attack gets two. Mariah comes back with a draping DDT for two. Aminata with a slam for two. She goes up with a diving stomp, but May dropkicks her and hits a running knee strike and Storm Zero to finish at 8:20. Nice little match, not much heat. **1/2

The Young Bucks address the whiny people like myself who want to see a different tag team dominating the division, which is why they booked the Casino Gauntlet tonight.

The Learning Tree v. The Iron Savages

Jericho is working the match in his disgusting stained $7000 jacket, but quickly tags out to Big Bill, who is massively over as a babyface for some reason. So Bill has a meat showdown with Boulder and they trade collisions in the corner before Bill puts him down with a big boot. Over to Bryan Keith, who beats on Jameson in the corner and follows with a Diamond Dust, but Jericho comes in with the classic arrogant cover for the pin at 2:35. So the mystery item in the backpack was a picture of Orange with the Best Friends, but Jericho lets him know that there’s no friendships in wrestling and he wants his $7000. So Orange pops up on the screen and has Briscoe dump $7000 in pennies on Jericho’s car. That felt like one of those gags that was better on paper.

Nigel McGuinness joins us to celebrate the current injuries suffered by Bryan Danielson, and he’s offended that Bryan isn’t going to compete at Grand Slam. But even though Bryan is afraid of him, Tony Khan isn’t afraid to sign the match and Grand Slam will feature Nigel McGuinness v. Bryan Danielson to finally pay the months of trash talking.

Meanwhile, Hook has respect for Roderick Strong, but he’s sick of Roddy whining and challenges him to man up and challenge him for the FTW title.

Tag Team Casino Gauntlet:

We have FTR and Ospreay/Fletcher to start, and Ospreay goes for the Ozcutter quickly on Cash. Dax cuts him off and hits the slingshot powerbomb for two. Fletcher with a Michinoku Driver on Dax into a shooting star from Ospreay for two. FTR gets the Powerplex on Ospreay for two, but The Righteous are in at #3. They run wild and Dutch hits Cash with the spinning slam, as Vincent follows with a swanton for two. Flatliner on Ospreay gets two. Fletcher with a cutter on Dutch for two. The Kingdom is #4 and they double-team Ospreay as we take a break. Back with The Acclaimed at #5 as the ring is piling up, which is definitely a flaw with a tag team version of the Gauntlet. They double-team Bennett and send Taven to the floor with superkicks from Bowens. Fameasser on Dax clears the ring, but MXM Collection is #6 and they go after the Acclaimed and do some posing. They’re funny but they stick out like a sore thumb in this promotion. Everyone piles up for a giant suplex spot and we take another break. Back with everyone fighting on the floor, and Top Flight is #7. They run wild and clear the ring, as Dante DDTs Dutch, and then we get a showdown with Ospreay. They show off the gymnastics, but Taven pokes Dante in the eye to cut him off. FTR with the Shatter Machine on Bowens, but everyone dives onto them to save. And the OUTRUNNERS are #8 as the crowd goes crazy for them and everyone gets slammed. The FLEXING ELBOWDROP on Vincent clears the ring, but The Grizzled Young Vets are #9, and they immediately brawl into the back with FTR. Back in the ring, Mansoor tries a dive, but Turbo Floyd suplexes him onto the pile and back in for the double team powerslam for two. Vincent makes the save and crowd HATES that. Dante with a rana on Fletcher and he goes up with a frog splash, but he hits knees and Ospreay hits the Hidden Blade and puts Kyle on top for the win at 22:30. For me, this one didn’t work nearly as well as the singles version, and ended up just being too many people in the ring and too much chaos. Also it continues to devalue the titles when Ospreay is already International champion and is suddenly getting side-drained into a feud with the Bucks for the tag team titles out of nowhere. And again, when you beat Fletcher 8 million times in a row and then stick him into a title match, it does no one any favors. ***1/2.

I’d call this a good show, but not like a home run post-PPV show or anything. It was more concerned with setting up Grand Slam, which is guess they should because ticket sales have SUCKED for that show and they need to make it seem important again.