The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.21.26

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.21.26

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Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Taz

Eliminator match:  The Young Bucks v. Mark Davis & Jake Doyle

Doyle immediately starts smashing the Bucks and takes them to the floor for a beating out there.  They biel the Bucks into each other and Davis uses the BIG DUNKER to ram Matt into the railing while Doyle powerbombs Nick onto the timekeeper’s table and puts him through.  Into the ring with the battered Matt and they hit him with a double clothesline and double slam.  Davis with the piledriver NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE, BUT THRICE and that’s it at 2:53.  HOLY SHIT that was awesome.  That should have been a title match.  Glad to see Mark Davis getting a reward for that match at the PPV, and kudos to the Bucks for going out and getting demolished to make them stars.

Meanwhile, at WrestleDream, stuff happened.

Adam Copeland & Will Ospreay v. Kevin Knight & Kyle Fletcher

I love Adam mouthing “I hate you” at Don Callis while doing his entrance.  Just a nice personal touch.  Knight leads Copeland on a chase to start, but walks into a neckbreaker it’s over to Will.  He slugs it out with Fletcher and they trade shoulderblocks, but Ospreay backdrops him and puts him down with a high kick and standing moonsault for two.  Everyone slugs it out and the faces hit Knight with a double hiptoss, but the DCF hits Cope with the Doomsday Dropkick and we take a break.  Back with Ospreay hitting a springboard forearm after taking a beating, and it’s hot tag COPE.  He runs wild with a powerbomb on Knight, but gets suckered out to the floor and superkicked by Fletcher.  Back in the ring, Knight gets two from that. Fletcher with a Michinoku Driver for two.  Ospreay hits Knight with a dive outside, but Fletcher takes him out from the apron to cut off any potential tag.  So this brings out Okada for a staredown with Copeland as I guess that’s the next program, but Fletcher hits Copeland with the running boot, only for Adam to comes back with a Killswitch.  Knight springboards in, but Copeland spears him out of the air, only to miss another one and land on Okada’s belt headfirst.  And Fletcher finishes him with the brainbuster at 12:41 while Okada cackles on the floor.  What a dick.  The match ruled.  ***1/2.  This brings out the rest of the Family for a beatdown, but Darby and STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVEN Borden save with help from the Bucks.  And so we have our match for Blood & Guts.  I like that one.

Swerve Strickland v. Tome Filip

Swerve hits the jobber with a house call kick before the bell and then beats him down and finishes with the Vertebreaker at 0:30.

Orange Cassidy & Jay White v. Daniel Garcia & Wheeler Yuta

Garcia tries a sleeper on Orange but gets taken down, so it’s over to Yuta, who ties up Orange in a leglock on the mat.  I hear Yuta calls it “super intelligence” unironically.  He’s the worst.  They trade rollups and Orange runs wild, but Garcia pulls him to the floor and beats on him as we take a break.  Back with Orange hitting Garcia with a tope and fighting out of a piledriver in the ring, and that sets up the hot tag to White.  DDT on Yuta gets two.  The Riders double-team Jay in the corner and follow with a Hart Attack into the Dragon Tamer from Garcia, but Orange makes the save by annoying Daniel into breaking the hold.  Garcia with a neckbreaker on White and they try a Fastball special, but Jay gets the knees up and finishes Yuta with the Blade Runner at 9:00.  ***

Meanwhile, the new Trios champs chat with Renee, but Swerve bursts in and demands a rematch from Hangman, which naturally happens at Full Gear.  And it’s gonna be Texas Death.  But Hangman doesn’t want to drag his new friends into that kind of situation, so for now it’s a NO.

Meanwhile, Nick Wayne shows up in a limo and gets some pyro to celebrate beating Chris Jericho again.

Mercedes Mone joins Renee and she makes short jokes about Thekla and brushes her off, wanting to know who’s next.  So that brings out Marina Shafir, who now apparently wants to be part of the Women’s division and tells Mone not to be a pussy.  But Mone decides to walk away from a potential fight instead.

Continental title eliminator match:  Jon Moxley v. Roderick Strong

Strong tries for a takedown to start and sends Mox to the floor with a chop.  Back in the ring, Mox fires back with his own and takes him down with a hammerlock.  Roddy with a dropkick for two, but Mox slugs him down and takes out the knee on the apron.  Strong suplexes him onto the apron, THE HARDEST PART OF THE RING, as we take a break.  Back with Mox hitting a DDT and then sending him to the floor for a dive.  Back in the ring, Mox slugs away in the corner, but Strong comes back with a backbreaker combo.  Mox tries the choke and Roddy reverses into the gutbuster, but Mox hits him with a lariat for a double down.  Strong comes back with a big boot for two and goes into a Boston crab.  Mox quickly escapes and finishes him off with the choke at 11:15, however.  **1/2. But before Strong can offer a handshake, the Dogs attack and lay him out, leading to Moxley staring them down before suffering a beatdown himself.  So this brings out Gabe Kidd, pissed off about the Dogs acting like this, but the Dogs turn on him as well and finally the Conglomeration saves.  And then Jay White turns on Orange and the Bang Bang Gang appears to have joined up with the Dogs.  So Claudio comes out and he’s pissed, but he can only fight them off for so long before succumbing.  So I guess they’re forming some kind of Club together.

Meanwhile, a promo segment turns into a big brawl with the Triangle of Madness and Divine Dominion beating down the Birds and Statlander and Harley.

Nick Wayne joins us and the crowd actually does stand up and cheer when directed by Justin Roberts!  Nick points out that he beat Jericho twice (two fireworks) and demands that Jericho come out and apologize, as promised before their match.  So Jericho comes out but gets frustrated by Nick being a sore winner and can’t get out the “I’m sorry” that was required.  But finally he does get it out and gives Nick a peptalk, telling him to listen to the veterans who give him advice, much like he did himself.  And basically, don’t fuck it up.

Meanwhile, FTR and the Machine Guns have their first match at WrestleDream.

TBS title #1 contender:  Queen Aminata v. Maya World

They trade takedowns and Maya gets a rolling cradle, but Aminata gets the Chocolate Kisses and boots her down.  Maya with a leg lariat to put her on the floor and she follows with a dive.  Bak in the ring, Aminata comes back with a neckbreaker for two and we take a break.  Back with Aminata winning a slugfest, but Maya gets an enzuigiri and dodges the running kick in the corner.  Maya with a moonsault for two.  They trade cradles for two and Aminata sends her to the floor and runs her into the railing for a brawl out there, before putting her on a chair and dropkicking her out of it.  Back in the ring, Aminata headbutts her and hits Off With Her Head for the clean pin at 10:14.  So that’s next week apparently.  Man they were hitting each other pretty hard out there.  ***

Meanwhile, the Callis Family officially announces Blood and Guts against the Bucks and Darby and Borden.

Meanwhile, Samoa Joe has realized again that he deserves to be World champion again after beating Ospreay at Wrestledream.  But Jack Perry stops by and he wants another match with Joe to earn the handshake he never got.

Speedball Mike Bailey v. Ilja Dragunov

Bailey dodges a giant chop in the corner, but Ilja takes him down for two.  Bailey tries a rana and Dragunov kicks him down and then starts hitting him in various places really hard before suplexing him.  Bailey takes him to the floor for a moonsault, but he misses a kick and hits the stairs.  And Dragunov suplexes him out there as well as we take a break.  Back with Ilja beating on him with headbutts, but Bailey unloads with a spinkick for a double down.  Bailey makes the comeback with more kicks into a shooting star for two.  Ilja goes for the leg and Bailey kicks out of that, but Dragunov decides to hit back even harder and they just beat the piss out of each other until Dragunov gets a tiger suplex for two.  Top rope senton gets two.  Bailey bails to the apron and Dragunov continues hitting him hard, so Bailey moonsaults onto him with the knees.  Back in the ring, Dragunov takes him to the top rope and beats on him with headbutts to set up a superplex.  But Bailey kicks him from the mat and cradles for two.  Bailey with the wacky cradle for two.  Bailey keeps throwing kicks and sets up the crane kick, knocking the crazed Dragunov down, but not out.  So Bailey hits the running spinkick and goes up, but Ilja sweeps the leg and powerbombs him, then drops the D-Bomb forearm to finish at 16:05.  What a main event!  ****1/2

Hell of a show this week, with the apparent return of the Bullet Club in an angle right out of the Attitude Era, plus an insane debut for Ilja Dragunov, who is probably gonna terrorize the Continental Classic this year.  Plus we got Blood & Guts set up and a bunch of stuff for the PPV, as this episode put in the work.