The Aug. 27 edition of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite was highlighted by a tables match between Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara
All Elite Wrestling’s (AEW) pay-per-view, All Out, is just one week from Sunday and Dynamite was a loaded show building to the event. Due to scheduling conflicts with the NBA playoffs, this episode of Dynamite aired live Thursday night and included a limited number of fans in attendance for the first time since March.
The Thursday edition of Dynamite was quite the stacked and included a tag-team gauntlet match, with the winner facing the champions at All Out. Also on the card was Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara in a tables match, Mr. Brodie Lee’s TNT Championship victory celebration, and the contract signing between Jon Moxley and Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) for their AEW Championship match at All Out.
To learn how this show came to be and all the main takeaways keep reading this week’s edition of Diffusing Dynamite, hosted by the aces of The Intermission’s wrestling section Gavin Axelrod and Joseph Casciaro.
FTR vs Omega and Page set for All Out
The show’s opener was a four-team gauntlet match to find the next contenders for Kenny Omega and ‘Hangman’ Adam Page’s AEW Tag Team Titles. Natural Nightmares and The Young Bucks kicked off the match.
The Bucks were able to finish off Dustin Rhodes and Q.T. Marshall in about 10 minutes to advance.
Best Friends, Trent and Chuck Taylor were up next and The Bucks seemed to be making easy work of them until Hangman Page got involved and screwed his fellow Elite members.
The Bucks were about to hit their finish when Page held Nick Jackson’s legs, which allowed Trent to pin Matt Jackson for the elimination. Page couldn’t even look his stablemates in the eye as they looked on in shock and he retreated to the back.
FTR accompanied by their new manager Tully Blanchard were the final entrants and they did not waste any time going after Best Friends. They attacked the already injured knee of Taylor and worked on it throughout the match. Dax Harwood eventually locked Taylor in an inverted figure-four-leg lock to submit him and secure a title match for his team.
A match between FTR and Omega and Page sounds like straight money, and I cannot wait to see this at All Out!
The ‘Hangman’ isn’t so elite
In the second match of the number one contender’s gauntlet match, it was The Young Bucks against Best Friends. It was in this bout we saw one of the biggest blows to The Elite to date.
The Bucks had control over Best Friends, but Trent was able to roll-up Matt Jackson in the middle of the ring. As Matt’s brother Nick attempted to go into the ring to break up the pin, his leg was grabbed and held by ‘Hangman’ Adam Page which led to The Bucks’ elimination.
Page and The Bucks were supposed to be friends and stablemates, so this left everyone in the situation confused and hurt. However, the reason for Page doing this seems to be quite clear, he wanted to give his friends and Buck’s rivals FTR an easier path to the win.
FTR got into Page’s head last week, and you can read more about that on Diffusing Dynamite: Week 4. Later on in the night at the bar, Hangman and The Bucks had another interaction and it didn’t end well.
The Bucks told Hangman that he is nothing but a drunk and hey are going to give him what he’s wanted since November. The Bucks then told Page he was kicked out of The Elite, and they walked out on him.
As Page stared into a shattered mirror to close the segment, he did not bother to chase after his ‘friends.’ The Elite is falling apart in front of our eyes, and I expect this to continue to unfold at All Out.
Casino Battle Royale set for All Out
AEW announced on Dynamite that at All Out, there would be a Casino Battle Royale with the winner receiving a future AEW World Championship match. Eight of the 21 competitors in this match so far are Darby Allin, Lance Archer, Brian Cage, Ricky Starks, The Lucha Bros, The Butcher and Blade, and Eddie Kingston.
AEW-NWA cross promotion on display in women’s title promo
In a brief backstage segment, the contract was signed between AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida and National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa. The match for the AEW Women’s Championship is now set for All Out and I am expecting a banger from these two women.
Mox and MJF together are magic
Jon Moxley and MJF delivered an absolutely perfect segment and contract signing for their AEW World Championship match at All Out. Both men showed their resentment for one another and are amazing with a microphone in their hand.
MJF started the signing by telling Moxley that he never got the hype around him and that he is not a wrestler, he’s just a glorified goon. He even took a cheap shot at Moxley to really fire him up by saying tell your hot wife I’m single.
Mox then got his chance to talk and he kept it very short and sweet, telling MJF nothing he says matters and that nothing he says himself matters, and on Sept. 5 MJF is a dead man. Another loophole in the match for MJF was that Moxley’s finisher the Paradigm Shift was banned in their match.
Moxley did not let this bother him and he just said it allowed him to think of all the ways he could hurt MJF. Moxley also added an extra page of the contract that MJF did not see, and now next week Moxley will battle MJF’s lawyer, Smart Mark Sterling, and if the lawyer doesn’t show up the match at All Out is off!
JOIN THE DARK ORDER
The Dark Order led by the new TNT Champion, Mr. Brodie Lee came to the ring to celebrate Lee’s title win last week. They brought out a coffin with The Nightmare Family logo on top to symbolize the fall of Cody.
Mr. Brodie Lee then went on to say that they buried The Nightmare Family and Cody will never ever get his title back. Mr. Brodie then welcomed the newest member of Dark Order to the faction, Anna Jay, and then later on they offered a spot in the group to another woman, Tayanora Conti.
The Natural Nightmares did not take too well to all this ill talk of their family, and they ran out to attack the Dark Order. However, just the two were not enough and they were later joined by Scorpio Sky and Matt Cardona in order to fight off the Dark Order.
The feud between the Dark Order and the Nightmare Family is really heating up, and at All Out it will be Dark Order against The Natural Nightmares, Scorpio Sky, and Matt Cardona in an eight-man tag team match.
Sammy Guevara wins a bloody main event
The main event of this show was a tables match between Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara, this seemed to be the climax of this feud. I had high expectations for a match between these two men, and I was greatly let down.
The match was barely even five minutes long, and both men busted themselves open putting themselves through tables. The match ended after Guevara superplexed Hardy through a table-chair combo that Hardy set up.
It is unfortunate that this is how this feud ends, and I would not be upset if these two guys got another chance to go at it with some more time.
Cassidy provides some juice
After the main event concluded we were all graced with the presence of ‘freshly squeezed’, Orange Cassidy. Cassidy came running out to attack his nemesis, Chris Jericho, who had been on commentary all night.
This feud has been money and to close this episode of Dynamite both men were laying into each other. The Mimosa Mayhem match at All Out is going to be a bout for the ages between these two stars.
Next week: It’s the go home show for All Out featuring Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley and many more in action on Dynamite’s regular Wednesday time!