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AEW Dynamite: Fight for the Fallen Review - August 16, 2023

8/16/2023

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By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy def. Wheeler Yuta

This was as enjoyable as their original encounter from a few months ago. Cassidy doesn't miss with his title defenses and putting him in the opener is always a smart way of kicking off the show on a high note. This ended up being less about the match, though, and more about the post-match fallout with Eddie Kingston returning to help Cassidy, Best Friends and The Lucha Brothers fend off Blackpool Combat Club and challenging them to a Stadium Stampede match at All In. It feels like the latest attempt to get everyone on the card when it isn't necessary, and we just had Anarchy at the Arena at Double or Nothing in May, but maybe it'll exceed expectations.

Sammy Guevara Saved Chris Jericho From Konosuke Takeshita and IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay

Jericho's answer to Don Calls' offer about joining his faction was yes, but he changed his mind once he saw that Callis already had a picture made of him decapitating Jericho because he assumed Jericho would say no. Jericho changing his answer instead of declining from the get-go made him look like a moron, but the angle ended how many expected it would anyway with Callis, Takeshita and Ospreay attacking Jericho and Guevara making the save. Does this make Jericho a babyface now, along with Guevara? Jericho vs. Ospreay at All In feels like a waste of Ospreay, but I suppose it makes sense from a storyline standpoint.

Darby Allin and Nick Wayne def. ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Gates of Agony

This match got almost no television time because it quickly went to a commercial break and ended soon after returning. Thus, I can't really comment on the match, but what we saw was fine. I was surprised Gates of Agony, who are usually more dominant, were put away so easily. The best part of this was Sting bringing back his Joker persona on the big screen afterward and taunting The Mogul Embassy.

AEW World Champion MJF and Adam Cole Fended Off ROH World Tag Team Champions Aussie Open

Cole and MJF going to Outback Steakhouse together to mock Aussie Open was funny, but the backstage skit with Tony Khan that followed was just lame. Thankfully, they made up for it with their in-ring segment, where they talked about how much their match at All In means to each of them. MJF's promo was stronger than Cole's as he discussed how he ended up on the first All In five years ago. MJF and Cole have done a terrific job of making their championship clash feel as important as possible. The same can be said for their ROH World Tag Team Championship match, too.

Jeff Jarrett def. Jeff Hardy in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Deathmatch

I would love for someone to convince me how this was any better that the Pitch Black match WWE had at the Royal Rumble match earlier this year. It was actually more along the lines of that awful Lumberjack match with the zombies from Backlash 2021. This was an example of a sponsored match at its worst. A total mess, and of course there's an audience for this sort of thing, but I am not among that audience and thought it was terrible. Surely there was a better way to promote the new game than this?

Britt Baker def. The Bunny to Qualify for the AEW Women's World Championship Four-Way Match at All In

This marked The Bunny's return to the ring, but unfortunately for her, she had zero chance of winning. I'm not even sure why there were qualifiers for the four-way match at All In because they've all been extremely predictable. This was your standard Britt Baker match in that it wasn't bad but featured nothing out of the ordinary, either. I'm sure AEW originally expected Jamie Hayter to be back by at All In because this four-way feels very thrown-together.

AEW World Trios Champions House of Black Attacked The Acclaimed

The Acclaimed were set for action against two local athletes when the lights went out and House of Black laid them out. They wanted you to think Billy Gunn would make his triumphant return and save his boys, but no such luck. That's obviously the endgame, but they don't want to pull the trigger just yet. This was a simple segment that accomplished what it needed to, but I can't say I'm thrilled about seeing The Acclaimed and Gunn winning the Trios titles from House of Black soon (likely at All Out).

The Young Bucks def. The Gunns

For as much as they've improved (and putting them in Bullet Club Gold has worked out in their favor), I just don't see The Gunns as being worthy of the main event spot on these shows. This didn't get a ton of time (again, the commercial break in the middle didn't help), but it was solid on the whole. It only existed so the face-off between the Bucks and FTR could close the show. I realize the match at All In sells itself, but I wish we got a bigger build than what we've gotten so far.

Overall Show

This was quite the Dynamite edition of Dynamite, in the sense that it was all over the place and featured segments that were excellent and other segments that were awful. Maybe I'm spoiled by the pacing of Collision, but Dynamite still tries to shove way too much into a two-hour timeframe and it isn't effective. We got more build for All In, including three new matches made official for the card, and I'm not overly impressed by the two multi-man matches. I have no doubt they'll deliver a special show at Wembley Stadium, but the hype should be better considering it's one of the biggest wrestling shows of all-time from an attendance standpoint.
SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews
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