AEW Dynamite Review - August 18, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sting and Darby Allin def. 2.0 in a Texas Tornado Tag Team Match

Damn, what a hot opener to the show. I have no idea why Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston were going out to the ring to kick things off from a storyline standpoint, but 2.0 and Daniel Garcia attacking them put good heat on 2.0 before the bout even started and set up Garcia vs. Moxley for Friday's Rampage. The Texas Tornado tag team match that followed was an absolute blast. 2.0 continue to kill it with what they've been doing in AEW, Sting is looking terrific despite being over the age of 60, and Allin is crazy over. This was everything it needed to be and then some.

Sammy Guevara def. Shawn Spears

Footage aired beforehand of Guevara proposing to his girlfriend earlier in the evening, which was a cool moment. Thankfully, she said yes, as it might have been a bit awkward otherwise. At any rate, Guevara and Spears have been feuding pretty much since the start of the year, so this was a long time coming. They had an enjoyable encounter, but the constant kickouts down the stretch were too much. For example, Spears kicking out of whatever splash Guevara did off the top rope was beyond dumb. Hopefully Guevara winning clean means we can move on from this finally.

Lance Archer Interrupted Dan Lambert Before Being Attacked by Men of the Year

Lambert was originally advertised to appear last week before he was bumped to this week. He came out with Andrei Arlovski and Junior Dos Santos, who are both former UFC Champions. I'm not familiar with Arlovski, but I've definitely heard of Santos and it sounded like the crowd knew of him as well based on their reaction to him. Lambert cut another gem of a heel promo in this segment as he's such a natural talker. The segment was designed to kick off a feud between Archer and Men of the Year (the apparent team name for Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page). I can't say I'm too thrilled about that, but hey, at least it gives Archer something to do coming off his loss of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship this past weekend at New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Resurgence event.

AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus)

I remember being slightly disappointed by the match these teams had almost exactly one year ago at All Out because of how Young Bucks were coming across as heels but weren't actually heels. It was a bizarre dynamic, but they're obviously full-fledged heels by this point and that helped this match a lot because of how over Jurassic Express is. The action was extremely entertaining and the drama and suspense over some of the nearfalls was well done, but I could have done without all the interference at ringside. I realize it led to the announcement that Young Bucks will defend their tag titles inside a steel cage at All Out, but it's become a recurring problem with almost anything The Elite is involved in.

The Factory Interrupted Paul Wight

You had to know QT Marshall vs. Wight at All Out was coming after what went down between them last week. I appreciate AEW's consistency considering Wight and Marshall have had issues on Dark: Elevation for months, but I'm sorry, I don't see it as an attraction whatsoever and don't understand why that of all things is being saved for the pay-per-view when other guys such as Jon Moxley, Adam Page and Cody Rhodes won't be a part of it as of now (albeit for varying reasons). On the bright side, Marshall is the perfect person for Wight to be squashing in his AEW debut (as opposed to a promising up-and-comer), but I personally can't bring myself to care about this.

Powerhouse Hobbs Attacked Brian Cage

This felt like the most pointless segment on the entire show. I get the sense that AEW's plans for this program had to be put on the shelf until Hobbs returned from his hiatus (my condolences go out to him and his family for the loss of his mother). Well, he's back, but showing him beating up Cage in the back was a weird way to reintroduce him. Ricky Starks' promo was cut short as a result and Taz and Hook standing in the ring ultimately didn't serve a purpose. This kept the feud flowing, but I'm ready for the next chapter, whatever that might be.

Thunder Rosa def. Penelope Ford

Rosa continues to generate superstar-level reactions every time she comes out, regardless of what show she's on. If she's not the one to eventually dethrone Britt Baker as AEW Women's World Champion, what are we even doing here? This was match was set up on Tuesday's episode of Dark. Ford has been getting some nice reps in on the Dark shows as of late and this was one of her better performances yet. Having an opponent the caliber of Rosa obviously helped a lot, while Rosa just keeps rolling.

MJF def. Chris Jericho

The stipulation stated that Jericho couldn't use his Judas Effect finisher at all and that he couldn't come out to his "Judas" entrance music. Of course, the crowd sang the song anyway, which I'm sure meant the world to Jericho. Unfortunately (and this has been apparent throughout these labors), he just can't go in the ring the way he used to. He's gotten significantly slower in the ring as of late and isn't capable of what he once was. That said, this was a perfectly solid main event that the fans in attendance were into for the most part. MJF had to bump his ass off for Jericho's offense, who looked like he was moving in slow motion at certain points, but the important thing is that the right guy won. I'm just surprised they didn't blow this off at the pay-per-view. Leaving either of these guys off All Out seems like a strange call to me.

Overall Show

After a few editions of Dynamite that didn't feature much out of the ordinary, AEW returned to form with this Dynamite. It was a stacked show and that first hour in particular was white hot. The crowd was electric all night long and, per usual, the build and hype for Rampage and next week's Dynamite were strong. We're also getting a better idea of what we're getting at All Out, but the card is far from complete. While not perfect by any means, I thought this was a top-notch edition of Dynamite that gives me hope they'll be able to maintain this momentum heading into the fall. But before then, we have The First Dance edition of Rampage! If a certain someone doesn't show up, there just might be a riot in Chicago on Friday night.

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