AEW Dynamite Review - November 25, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

"Hangman" Adam Page def. John Silver

The outcome was obviously never in doubt, but much like at Full Gear, this was important in allowing Silver to have a breakout performance and I thought he did just that once again. Page was the perfect opponent for him and they worked very well together. It was also a smart choice as the opener as it set the tone for the rest of the night nicely. However, The Dark Order extending an offer to Page feels like old news because they've been teasing it on and off for over a year now and it's not going to happen nor should it.

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Lee Johnson; Taz Attacked Cody Rhodes

Will Hobbs will apparently be known as Powerhouse Hobbs going forward. I don't hate the name change, but it does feel a little on the nose. As I said last week, I think putting him in Team Taz was the right move to make, and having him decimate people like he did Johnson here will only help his cause. Post-match, Taz complained about the FTW Championship not being officially recognized by AEW (even though I thought it already was?) before taking his frustration out on Rhodes with the Tazmission. It was a strong segment, but the only thing I didn't like about it was all the talk about "management" and whatnot. There's no need for that type of stuff to be acknowledged in my opinion.

The Hybrid2 def. Top Flight

It's no secret that Jack Evans and Angelico have been two of the most underutilized wrestlers since the start of AEW, so it's nice to see them entering a feud with The Young Bucks over the AEW World Tag Team Championship. My problem with it is that TH2 have largely been losers lately, so I'm not sure why anyone would think they have even the slightest chance of taking the titles from Young Bucks. Nonetheless, this was a quality contest with Top Flight scoring plenty of offense before eating defeat.

Inner Circle (Chris Jericho and Jake Hager) def. SCU (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian)

Jericho and MJF would be better represenatives of Inner Circle in my opinion as Hager does nothing for me, not even in a tag team role. That said, this was an enjoyable tag team affairt was awesome seeing Jericho and Daniels finally interact. I interviewed Daniels while he was with Ring of Honor in March 2017 and he mentioned a dream opponent of his was Jericho. It may not have been a one-on-one match, but they interacted quite a bit in this bout and it was fun. The post-match melee set the stage for Jericho vs. Frankie Kazarian next week.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley Attacked Kenny Omega Before Their Contract Signing

The contract signing never happened last week due to Moxley getting attacked backstage beforehand. To return the favor (because he assumed Omega did it), Moxley went after Omega here while he was making his entrance. Thus, we had a second straight week without a contract signing. I was excited for that verbal exchange between the two, but maybe AEW was worried Moxley would have destroyed Omega on the mic because he's far superior in that respect. Either way, next week's AEW World Championship match is bound to be interesting.

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida def. Anna Jay

The video package that preceded this match was definitely needed as the title picture has been fairly flat for months now, at least since Shida's feud with Thunder Rosa. It positioned Jay as a threat to the title even though she's still new. There remains room for improvement, but to her credit, she held her own and had a solid showing. It was a decent match on the whole and now Shida moves on to Abadon, who returned afterward and scared Shida on the stage. I honestly couldn't care less about Abadon as I find the character to be ridiculous, but it's good news that she's back coming off that injury scare about a month ago.

The Butcher and The Blade def. Pac and Fenix

Man, this was pure chaos, and I mean that in the best way possible. I've said before that The Butcher and The Blade bore me as characters, but they never cease to deliver whenever they're in the ring and that was evident here. This was an entertaining main event with a surprising result. That said, I didn't have an issue with Butcher and Blade winning because Eddie Kingston's stable will need credibility. I don't know where Penta El Zero M was during the post-match assault, but Lance Archer showed up and helped even the playing field for Pac and Fenix. I'm curious to see how he factors into all of this after being directionless for a while.

Overall Show

Props to AEW for making next week's "Winter Is Coming" show feel like a mini-pay-per-view. In addition to Moxley vs. Omega for the AEW World Championship, there will a Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal (the second annual), Jericho vs. Kazarian, Britt Baker vs. Leyla Hirsch, and Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. As for this episode, it was quite enjoyable on the whole, and while nothing huge happened, there were a lot of moving pieces and everything served a purpose, causing the two hours to fly by.