AEW Dynamite Review - August 11, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Elite (AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks) def. Dante Martin, Matt Sydal and Mike Sydal

This felt like a random match on paper to set up whatever was going to happen afterward, but this turned into a hell of a sprint and a really enjoyable affair about halfway through. The Sydal brothers are a fine team (I prefer Matt on his own personally), but Dante stood out more than anyone else in this match and had an incredible showing, especially toward the end. Post-match, Christian Cage confronted Omega afterward and announced that although he's set to contend for the AEW World Championship at All Out, he'll get a shot at Omega's Impact World Championship before then in the opener of Friday's Rampage episode. That's an interesting situation because it'd be weird if they did the match twice in the span of a few weeks, but hopefully that means Omega vs. Christian won't happen at All Out after all. Oh, and we're getting Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express for the AEW World Tag Team Championship next week on Dynamite.

Darby Allin def. Daniel Garcia

Allin teamed with Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston last week to defeat Garcia and 2.0, hence why this match happened. I don't know much about Garcia at all, but I thought he was really impressive here. Allin works well with just about everybody, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised this was a fun little match. It must have been a thrill for 2.0 to get physical with Sting at ringside. In fact, Sting will wrestle on Dynamite for the first time ever next week, teaming with Allin to take on 2.0. Ever-Rise went from competing on 205 Live two months ago to competing on Dynamite against Sting. That's quite the transition.

Matt Hardy and Private Party def. Wheeler Yuta and Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor)

I simply can't bring myself to care about the latest faction war involving the H.F.O. I enjoy Hardy in this leader role, but was it really necessary to have the entire stable at ringside? And what are these matches accomplishing exactly? The answer is nothing. This was well wrestled and entertaining while it lasted, but the heels winning means more matches are bound to follow. This felt like filler more than anything else on the show. At least Hardy picked up a win for once.

Kris Statlander def. Nyla Rose

These two previously fought at Revolution 2020 for the AEW Women's World Championship. I believe Statlander was sick with the flu at the time (it was right before COVID-19 hit, obviously) and that may have played a factor in why the match was so disappointing. Thankfully, this was a significant improvement with both women having better showings this time around, specifically Statlander. Being undefeated since she returned to the ring earlier this year, she has a lot of momentum right now. My guess is that she goes for the gold either at NWA Empowerrr (to get more AEW representation on the pay-per-view in addition to Leyla Hirsch) or at All Out. I just hope we get to hear from her before then.

AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker and Red Velvet Brawled

I love how Baker is the one person who won't immediately take the mic out of Tony Schiavone's hand while being interviewed. She cut a fairly basic promo hyping up her title match with Velvet on Friday's Rampage, but her hometown crowd ate up every word of it. Velvet was obviously booed when she came out to brawl with Baker, but I think everyone expected that. It's interesting that they'll be headlining Friday's show. It's cool that the women will be in the main event for only the second time ever on a major AEW program, but Velvet simply isn't on that level yet. Hopefully they can produce a better bout than I think they will.

Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers def. The Dark Order (Stu Grayson and Evil Uno)

Getting the Impact World Tag Team Championship defended on an AEW show was a treat. I realize a decent amount of fans may not have cared, but I thought it was cool. IMPACT executive Scott D'Amore sat in on commentary. Grayson and Uno are a terrific team (and an underrated one at that in my opinion), but this wasn't their most amazing outing. Then again, considering who they faced, I'm not shocked. The interference from Brandon Cutler for the finish was lame, too.

Paul Wight Saved Tony Schiavone From The Factory

This whole segment was just bizarre. I almost changed the channel when I saw The Factory in the ring being interviewed. QT Marshall wrestled his first match in a while on Tuesday's Dark and I couldn't understand for the life of me why. Well, now we know: because he's likely wrestling Wight in his debut match for AEW at All Out, if not on an upcoming episode of Dynamite or Rampage. Marshall is the perfect person for Wight to be squashing, but I can't say it's a match I'm overly excited for.

Chris Jericho def. Wardlow

Compared to the other "labors" Jericho has had to endure over the last month, this felt a bit underwhelming. Granted, it was better than Jericho's subpar performance versus Juventud Guerrera last week, but there wasn't anything about this match that stood out as special. Maybe Jericho should go back to wrestling singles matches every so often and not every week because they've officially lost their luster. I was a competent main event and they told a logical story, but I don't think the outcome was ever in doubt. Apparently Jericho vs. MJF is happening next week (I figured it'd be saved for All Out) and Jericho won't be able to use his Judas Effect finisher or even come out to his usual entrance music. We'll see what they have in store.

Overall Show

It's crazy that with all the buzz surrounding the AEW product at the moment, we still don't know what a majority of the All Out card is going to look like. Is Omega vs. Christian still going to happen at that show? Who are each of the other champions going to defend against? Will Jericho vs. MJF happen again at the event in addition to next week? It seems like AEW has been focusing on the Rampage debut, the huge August 20th episode in Chicago, Dynamite, and the Arthur Ashe Stadium show and not enough on All Out, but I hope they have a strong card planned (especially since I'll be there in attendance!). This was a slight step up from last week and another thumbs-up episode on the whole. Dynamite has an energy about it than no other weekly wrestling show does, and even if very little of note happens, the crowds are always electric. The atmosphere is a big part of what makes these shows so fun.

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