AEW Dynamite Review - July 29, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus), Orange Cassidy and Best Friends def. Inner Circle (Sammy Guevara, Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Santana and Ortiz)

Man, what a damn mess this was. The worst part is that the commentators were well aware of how much of a mess it was and pointed out how dumb it was for referee Aubrey Edwards to not do anything about it. I'm all for the big multi-man spots, but they were overdone in this match and it was hard to keep track of who the legal man was. It also felt like they were moving in slow motion at certain points, and maybe the lack of audience reaction made that more noticeable than normal. On the bright side, I'm glad AEW didn't forget about the Guevara vs. Matt Hardy feud. Hopefully we can finally get Guevara going to The Hardy Compound as had been teased months ago.

AEW TNT Champion Cody def. WARHORSE

Like most people, I knew nothing about WARHORSE coming into this show other than how he looked like The Ultimate Warrior if he was thrown in the dryer for too long. I wish we got to know more about him so viewers had more of a reason to care about the dude, but he did well and had a solid showing against Cody. It wasn't one of Cody's best AEW TNT Championship defenses to date, but it's cool he gave an independent star like WARHORSE the platform to shine and get more people aware of his work in the process. Afterward, Matt Cardona (f.k.a. Zack Ryder) made his long-awaited AEW debut and helped his friend Cody fend off The Dark Order. They'll be teaming next week and I'm curious if this ultimately ends with one of them turning on the other.

Chris Jericho Announced His Plans for Orange Cassidy

This promo felt out of place after Inner Circle already wrestled at the start of the show, but that's merely nitpicking. Some of the segment was funny, but I'm ready for Inner Circle to be treated like a serious threat again and not a glorified comedy act. Jericho hyping up his rematch with Cassidy as "one of the greatest in AEW history" was ridiculous and hilarious when you realize he was likely mocking WWE for doing that with Edge vs. Randy Orton at Backlash last month. We'll see what happens with the debate and if he has someone notable in mind to moderate it. I saw a fan on Twitter throw out Bob Barker's name, but with how old he is and considering we're in the middle of a pandemic at the moment, that may not be such a smart idea, as awesome as it would be.

AEW World Tag Team Champions "Hangman" Adam Page and Kenny Omega def. The Dark Order (Stu Grayson and Evil Uno)

Had this match happened a few months ago, I would have bought into the possibility more of Dark Order becoming tag team champions with how aggressively they were being pushed at the time. Now, they feel like just another act on the show, especially with Colt Cabana teasing he's a member but not fully committing yet. Despite all that, this was a very well-wrestled match and everyone busted their ass. I wish the "crowd" was livelier, but that was an issue throughout the entire show, not just here. Dark Order looked great in defeat and Omega and Page presumably move on to face FTR and The Young Bucks at All Out. Next week's 12-man tag team affair should be interesting.

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida def. Diamante (Non-Title)

I've been a fan of Diamante since her IMPACT days, but even I'll admit that she hasn't done as well as I was hoping these past two weeks. Last week's match with Ivelisse was disappointing and this outing wasn't much better. It had its fair share of rough spots and not even Shida was able to salvage it. I'd still like to see Diamante get a contract because the women's division could use her, but these last two performances from her haven't the best reflections of how talented she is, in my opinion.

MJF Called Out AEW World Champion Jon Moxley

This whole campaign shtick from MJF was complete gold. The guy is consistently one of the best parts about the show week after week and it's honestly a shame he hasn't been more a regular in recent months. I'm hoping that changes now that he seems to be entering the AEW World Championship picture heading into All Out, which is long overdue. This was a hell of a promo from MJF and I'm highly anticipating his eventual verbal exchanges with Moxley. Those could be money.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and Darby Allin def. Ricky starks and FTW Champion Brian Cage in a No Disqualification Tornado Tag Team Match

I loved that the commentators acknowledged how Moxley and Allin almost teamed earlier this year but Moxley was ambushed before they could. The roles were almost reversed here until Allin reemerged out of nowhere (following a terrific promo from Ricky Starks, that is). This was a super fun main event with everyone playing their roles well and delivering on the stipulation. Moxley and Allin are always awesome together, which is why I'm highly anticipating their clash for the AEW World Championship next week (even though it's a bit random Allin is getting a title shot despite being ranked at No. 5 in the power rankings). By the way, that finish looked brutal and I do not envy Starks for taking it. Then again, I guess it's only fair after he accidentally roughed up Allin a week ago.

Overall Show

I found last week's edition of Dynamite to be slightly stronger on the whole, but this was still an entertaining show with multiple matches being set up for the coming weeks and others being teased for All Out. The women's match and the opener missed the mark for me, but the main event, MJF's promo and the AEW World Tag Team Championship bout were all excellent. I will say that the lousy live crowd hurt my enjoyment of the episode. They either have to stop taping so much content at once or encourage them to be louder because it was hard to tell if there was anyone even in attendance for this show with how quiet they were.