AEW Dynamite: Anniversary Review - October 6, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Elite (AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, Adam Cole and The Young Bucks) def. Bryan Danielson, Impact World Champion Christian Cage and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus)

This was very similar to when Cole and Young Bucks faced Cage and Jurassic Express on the Grand Slam edition of Dynamite in that it was a total spot-fest and I can understand the reaction to it from fans being polarizing. If that isn't your type of thing, you're going to despise this match, but you'll love it if it is. Personally, I enjoyed the fast-paced action and the chaotic nature of the match. What's interesting is that Cole once again scored the pinfall for his win and it was over Jungle Boy. Jurassic Express have lost enough that it's probably time for them to move on to something else, but I do appreciate keeping Cole strong.

CM Punk Challenged Daniel Garcia to a Match on Rampage

Punk has been back for a month and a half at this point, but as he alluded to in this promo, I'm still not sick of seeing him come out and simply soak up the adulation from the audience. Clearly I'm not alone based on the reaction he received here. He told some stories about living in Philadelphia (where this episode emanated from) years ago, and although the promo was pretty random on the whole, he did announce at the end he'll be facing Garcia on Friday's Rampage. That's a hell of an opportunity for Garcia, who has been impressive thus far in his AEW run.

AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara def. Bobby Fish

This was a hell of a first title defense for Guevara, who was challenged by Fish on Twitter literally minutes after he became champion last week on Dynamite. I thought Fish was signed with MLW, but apparently not as AEW announced after this show that he's actually "all elite," which is cool news. I'm a Fish fan, so while I don't think it was a necessary signing given how stacked the roster already is, he can bring a nice veteran presence to the midcard. They worked really well together and had a blast of a bout. Post-match, Dan Lambert cut a promo on Inner Circle and got nuclear heat for it. His shtick is hit or miss most weeks, but this was tremendous. I can't say they sold me on next week's six-man tag team match, but it will be interesting to see how much the MMA guys actually do.

Tony Schiavone Unveiled the AEW TBS Championship

This has been rumored for a while and it was finally made official here. I wasn't sold on the idea initially, not because I don't think it can work in theory but because the women's division hasn't had a ton of focus in AEW since the inception of the company. However, that's been changing a bit lately with more feuds outside of the title picture, so if that can continue, it will work. I will say, though, the design is a massive upgrade over the AEW Women's World Championship, at least in my opinion.

Darby Allin def. Nick Comoroto

The pre-match sit-down interview Allin did with Jim Ross was excellent and established that he paints half of his face because of the car accident he and his uncle were involved in that MJF alluded to the week prior. It was a smart way for fans to get to know more about Allin. I wish that was it because the match was completely pointless, especially since we saw Allin get attacked by The Pinnacle in the parking lot later in the show. I would have rather seen Aaron Solo or QT Marshall eat defeat, but whatever. The Factory is a dead act, anyway.

Malaki Black Attacked Dante Martin

Unless he's spoken in pre-match interviews on the Dark shows and I just don't remember, I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've heard Martin speak. He shockingly did really well and sounded sure of himself and confident. Combine that with how impressive he's been in the ring on his own this year and he may not even need his brother Darius when he's cleared to compete (though I do enjoy Top Flight). The lights went out, Black showed up, attacked Martin, accepted his challenge, and that was it. Simple and effective stuff to keep Black's momentum going.

Brian Cage Interrupted FTW Champion Ricky Starks

I've been saying this for over a month now, but this feud desperately needs to end. Thankfully, this segment was designed to set up a Philadelphia Street Fight between them on Friday's Rampage. Starks is a talented talker and I appreciated that the segment was kept short and sweet, but this program has no juice at the moment and everyone involved has lost steam. I'm ready for them to move on to something new.

Serena Deeb def. Hikaru Shida

The story of this match was that Shida was looking to secure her 50th win in AEW. She would have been the first woman to do so and the second person overall behind Jungle Boy. We haven't seen her on Dynamite since before she lost the title back in May, and we hadn't seen Deeb in the ring since the start of the summer due to getting hurt. They had a great match here and I liked the surprise outcome along with Deeb cementing her heel turn. Deeb should be considered an early candidate to capture the TBS title.

"Hangman" Adam Page def. Jon Moxley, Lance Archer, Pac, Andrade El Idolo, Orange Cassidy and Matt Hardy in a Casino Ladder Match to Earn a Future AEW World Championship Opportunity

I was feeling Ladder match fatigue for a while in WWE and AEW, but I can't remember the last one AEW did and thus I was into this. It was stacked with star power and the crowd was white-hot throughout, but of course, there was only one person who made sense to win and that was the joker entrant, Adam Page. He's been gone for two months and we found out pretty quickly that he's still as over now as he was then. This whole match was a spectacle and a fun one at that. It was stated that Page earned a future title opportunity with the win, making me think he won't be facing Omega at Full Gear but rather at another point down the road.

Overall Show

AEW went all out for their anniversary show this year and it was a terrific time on the whole. The company continues to have a problem of trying to shove too much into the two-hour period (probably due to the expanding roster), but pretty much everything delivered and the two hours flew by more than usual. The main event was the perfect way to cap the evening off and now we have a very interesting road to Full Gear ahead of us. Admittedly, I was skeptical, but props to AEW for keeping the hot momentum going coming out of the strong summer season. Dynamite still feels must-see every week.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews