The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.13.24

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 11.13.24

Live from Bridgeport, CT

Your hosts are Excalibur, Tony Schiavone & Nigel McGuinness

Christian Cage & Hangman Page v. Jay White & Juice Robinson

Hangman Page is on Bluesky and sharing gardening pictures! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Page and White fight for the lockup to start and trade headlocks, but Hangman puts the boots to him and Christian tags himself in to give it a go. White sends Christian into the buckle and it’s over to Juice, who throws punches before turning his back on Cage and paying for it. Juice takes a beating in the corner while Cage and Page squabble over tags and Hangman comes in with a belly to belly for two. Juice gets sent to the floor as Nick Wayne makes a nuisance of himself and runs away, but Hook pops up in the crowd and takes him out before they brawl to the back. Hot tag Jay White and he slugs it out with Hangman and follows with a DDT. Christian cuts him off, but Jay DDTs him as well and sends him to the floor before sending Hangman into the corner for two. The BBG double-teams Hangman in the corner and White hits a brainbuster for two. Juice takes out Christian and goes up, but Page SWEEPS THE LEG and brings him down with a fallaway slam for two. Hangman with a powerbomb for two, but White makes the save. White tries the Blade Runner and Page saves, but Jay drops everyone with the sleeper suplexes and then takes Christian to the floor for a Blade Runner into the railing. Back in the ring, Juice slugs Page down and gets a sunset flip, but the ref is distracted, and Kip hits Juice with the contract and the Deadeye finishes at 11:33. Well obviously poor Juice was gonna take the fall there. A very fun opener. ***1/4

Meanwhile, Excalibur runs down the Full Gear card with matches and the date of the show and I LOVE IT. MORE OF THIS. Sell me on the show!

Meanwhile, Mercedes defends herself against accusations of trying to run Statlander over, when it was clearly Kamille and her poor driving skills at fault. But then she sends Kmaille away, allowing Statlander to wander into the shot and brawl with her, putting both heels through the wall.

Will Ospreay joins Tony, but Kyle Fletcher interrupts and throws out some threats from the Don Callis Family. Will calls him out for having the screwdriver in his back pocket and points out that Kyle lived in his house and picked up his son from school with him. Kyle accuses Will of trying to make him into a Will Ospreay clone, but Will points out that Kyle has done “sod all” on his own without Ospreay backing him up. Hey, he was ROH tag champ and TV champ, that’s not bad! So they book a match for Full Gear and Will talks about Fletcher causing nerve damage with the Tiger Driver at WrestleDream, and this brings out the Murder Machines and Powerhouse Hobbs & Mark Davis for a brawl. But this leads right into…

Falls Count Anywhere: Roderick Strong v. Lance Archer

Archer takes him backstage and slams him through a table for two. We’re supposed to take a break but TSN doesn’t actually go to the commercial and instead just plays the audio over the match, which makes for a weird visual. So they fight into the crowd and Roddy runs him into the railing, but Brian Cage comes out for the double-team before the Kingdom saves. Taven and Bennett as babyfaces is such an ill-fitting combo. So Archer brings Taven up onto a railing and chokeslams him onto a couple of security geeks in some impressive balance, but then he tries it on Strong and Roddy crotches him to escape. And then Roddy leaps the railing and hits Archer with a high knee for the pin at 4:41. So Roddy goes on to Full Gear, but Takeshita attacks him while he’s celebrating and lays him out. So we roll right into…

Adam Cole v. Konosuke Takeshita

They brawl while Cole’s music is still playing and Adam clotheslines him to the floor and then finishes his entrance gimmick. Takeshita fires back in the corner and then blocks a Panama Sunrise with a right hand as we take a break. This time TSN gets it right at least. Back with Cole hitting a neckbreaker, but Takeshita powerbombs him for two. Cole’s skin, I should point out, is the same color of yellow that my daughter was when she was a baby and had jaundice as a newborn. Has Adam considered an ultraviolet light treatment? Cole with an enzuigiri off a slugfest, but Takeshita hits him with the rolling elbow and Cole fires back with a brainbuster for two. Takeshita counters another Panama Sunrise and then turns him around for a tombstone and flows right into a german suplex and lariat for two. AWESOME. Takeshita misses the knee and Cole superkicks him and goes up for another Sunrise, which actually hits this time. So Cole reveals his pasty white knee and goes for the Boom, but Takeshita bails and loads up the diamond ring, knocking Cole out and pinning him to win at 9:11. HAHAHA, suck it, Cole! Back to the end of the line again. Takeshita was great here, as usual. ***1/4. So Roddy tries to attack and Takeshita hits him with a low blow and loads up the ring, but Kyle O’Reilly saves while Ricochet chases off Takeshita. And then we get a tease of an Undisputed reunion, but Kyle is already in a stable and won’t commit. Well there was a lot going on here but it was a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, the Death Riders arrive for their takeover of TBS.

Meanwhile, the Hurt Syndicate doesn’t like Renee’s interview style, so MVP asks the questions himself.

The Death Riders join us, beating up JD Drake for no particular reason on the way. Moxley is pretty sick of Orange Cassidy being all laid back and unbothered by the chaos, so he’s gonna make an example out of Orange and stomp his face into hamburger meat. So that brings out the Conglomeration, as Orange is going to win by wrestling and beat Moxley. Again. But first, he takes out Wheeler Yuta next week. So the Death Riders do their dramatic retreat into the crowd again, but Darby Allin appears in the crowd and dives off a balcony onto them out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Moxley and friends retreat to the parking lot and try to drive off, but Darby Allin continues attacking, so Claudio hauls him off the truck and smashes him into the door with a giant swing so they can finally drive off. This raises the question of what exactly “Jon Moxley takes over TBS” was supposed to be, exactly, but maybe there’s more coming up.

Meanwhile, Chris Jericho has a soft spot for Ishii after all their history in Japan and so grants him an ROH title match in two weeks in Chicago.

Oh also the Continental Classic starts in Chicago, so that’s pretty great.

Dr. Britt Baker DMD v. Penelope Ford

They trade wristlocks to start and Britt hits a neckbreaker to send her to the floor, but Ford comes back with double knees on the apron as we take a break. Back with Ford holding a surfboard, but Britt hits a sling blade. Ford comes back with a handspring elbow in the corner and does a Matrix dodge into a super sloppy cutter for two. This match has been kinda rough. Ford goes up and misses the moonsault, but Britt gets a neckbreaker and then takes too long setting up, allowing Penelope to put her in the Muta Lock. But then Britt uses the glove and finishes with the Lockjaw at 8:59. And then Serena Deeb comes out to stare Britt down and set up a match no one could possibly care about. *

Meanwhile, Mina Shirakawa, the Harley Cameron of Japan, meets the real Harley Cameron and they have a booby battle to set up a match on Collision. Now there’s a match I can care about.

Swerve Strickland v. Lio Rush

They hit the floor right away and Swerve drops Rush on the apron, but he goes for an early Swerve Stomp and Lio hits the ropes to send him to the floor as we take a break. Back with them trading shots on the apron, and Swerve brings him in for a suplex that gets two. Swerve with the diving uppercut, but Rush hits him with a Spanish fly for two. Back to the floor and Lio hits a poison rana off the stairs and follows with a tope and back in for a frog splash that gets two. Rush with a rollup, but he holds the ropes and gets caught, so he hits an enzuigiri instead and goes for another poison rana. This time Swerve catches him and hits the JML Driver to finish at 9:20. Incredible performance from Rush here. ***1/2

Afterwards, Swerve calls out the Hurt Syndicate and wants a match RIGHT NOW with Bobby Lashley, but Shelton Benjamin attacks from behind and they deliver a beatdown on Swerve and then take out Prince Nana as well.

Meanwhile, Jamie Hayter’s backstage promo is interrupted by another creepy Julia Hart vignette, as she’s trying to sleep off an arrow to the heart but gets a phone call from Brody King’s disembodied voice on a phone that’s not plugged into the wall. Well I mean cordless phones are a thing so that’s not THAT spooky, but these have been really well done so far.

FTR v. Brody King & Malakai Black

They trade double-teams and fight to the floor as FTR hits a double dive and we take a break. Back with Brody King running wild with chops on FTR and then hitting them with a double splash in the corner, and then a double cannonball in the other corner for two. Brody tries a superplex on Cash, but Dax blocks it and tags himself in for a Doomsday Device that gets two. House of Black with a double-team powerbomb on Dax for two. FTR goes after Brody again with a Powerplex, but Brody gets the knees up and Malakai flies in with a double stomp on Dax for two. FTR with the Shatter Machine on Brody for two, but Black makes the save and brawls with Cash on the apron. So FTR gives him a spike piledriver on the apron, THE HARDEST PART OF THE RING, and then Brody just destroys them with a dive and hits Dax with a lariat in the ring for two. Another lariat gets two. Brody with the sleeper this time, and Dax is OUT, so the ref calls the match at 13:16 to send the House into the PPV match. Well that was unexpected! This match RULED. ****

Now this was more like it! Really enjoyed all the chaos with everything flowing into the next segment, and a couple of banger matches to close out the show. Best thing is that they hit the PPV hype early and often, making sure to lay out the card and tell you exactly when and where to order it. The Britt match was whatever and the “Moxley takes over TBS” hype ended up being exactly nothing, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the rest of the show. Big thumbs up this week.