AEW Dynamite Review - November 4, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

MJF and Wardlow def. Inner Circle (Ortiz and Sammy Guevara)

Ortiz and Guevara are the two members of Inner Circle who aren't yet sold on MJF potentially joining the group. For that reason, it made sense for Otiz and Guevara to be the ones to take on MJF and Wardlow, but I didn't love Guevara losing again so close to his Elite Deletion matchup with Matt Hardy at Full Gear. Other than that, this was an enjoyable opening tag team affair. I'm interested to see what will happen with MJF and Chris Jericho on Saturday and if MJF will end up becoming a part of Inner Circle or not. My guess is no, but it's hard to say for sure.

Miro def. Trent

The commentators mentioned that this was Miro's first singles match in nearly nine months, which would have been when he was in WWE. He looked better here than he has in any other match so far in AEW. This is why I'd rather see him on his own as opposed to in an undercard tag team with Kip Sabian. To his credit, Trent had a hell of a showing here as well and it was a great match on the whole. Miro vs. Orange Cassidy was teased afterward, though I would hope Miro wins because otherwise he'll be dead in the water before he has the chance to get going in AEW.

Team Taz Threatened to Make Their Presence Felt at Full Gear

The power rankings were a big talking point on this show and Team Taz brought them up again here. I'm glad they did because they weren't wrong in calling them a sham. Brian Cage is ranked at No. 1 for the men, yet isn't scheduled to be in action at Full Gear. The same can be said for Starks, who has won most of his matches in AEW (even though most of them have been squashes on Dark) and isn't ranked at all. Can we please do away with the pointless rankings already? I expect Team Taz to show up during Darby Allin vs. Cody given their recent rivalry with Allin.

The Young Bucks def. Private Party

I remember being in attendance for the match these two teams had in Boston on the second-ever episode of Dynamite in October 2019 and them blowing the roof off the building. Their chemistry is off the charts and I almost wish this where Young Bucks became the number one contenders to the AEW World Tag Team Championship as opposed to that weird Fatal 4-Way a few weeks ago. The in-ring action was exciting, and even though the outcome wasn't in doubt because Young Bucks had a title shot coming up this weekend, Private Party came close to winning on a few occasions and had a stellar performance that I wish AEW would capitalize off of. Then again, I don't have high hopes because Private Party went nowhere after beating Young Bucks last year. The post-match angle with FTR going after Young Bucks and Adam Page and Kenny Omega was solid, but it just further illustrated how underwhelming the build to Young Bucks vs. FTR has been over the last month or two.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston Went Face-to-Face

It was explained that their Full Gear match would have been called off if either of them came in contact with the other. This an incredible exchange that was everything I hoped it would be and more. Moxley has been cutting the best promos of his career as AEW World Champion and Kingston has been killing it on the mic since signing with AEW. Both of these guys brought their A-game here and it made for a stellar segment. Needless to say, this left me looking forward to their "I Quit" encounter at Full Gear.

Nyla Rose def. Red Velvet

Despite Brandi Rhodes taking her under her wing recently, Velvet didn't stand a chance here. Rose beat her quickly and decisively as she should have and it was a glorious squash. My question is, if Rose has been the number one contender to the AEW Women's Championship for the last 24 weeks (basically since when she dropped the title to Hikaru Shida back at Double or Nothing in May), why hasn't she gotten what's owed to her before now? Don't get me wrong, it should be another excellent match from them, but AEW has really dropped the ball on the women's division lately.

AEW TNT Champion Cody and The Gunn Club def. The Dark Order (Preston "10" Vance, John "5" Silver and Colt Cabana)

I'm sorry but I have no desire to see Billy Gunn wrestle in the main event of Dynamite in 2020. Yes, it was a six-man tag team match, but he and his son Austin have primarily been a fixture on Dark their entire time teaming. Also, what was the reasoning for The Nightmare Family wanting to recruit them? And what's their beef with Dark Order? All of this felt so random to me and ill-placed on the final show before a pay-per-view. It was a decent enough main event, but Dark Order consisted of losers, The Gunn Club do nothing for me, and Cody was the only one who stood out to me for as long as this lasted. How this was supposed to get viewers more excited for Cody vs. Allin at Full Gear than they were before, I have no idea, but at least the promo that followed from Cody addressing Allin was good stuff.

Overall Show

The video packages hyping up Full Gear for Saturday night as well as the sit-down interviews with Omega and Page were really well done. We also got to hear from Pac for the first time in many months and it was fantastic albeit brief. I can't remember many quality go-home shows AEW has done over the last year, but this episode was very effective in generating more interest in the upcoming pay-per-view. It's a stacked card on paper that should hopefully make up for the disappointment that was All Out in September. The wrestling on this show also delivered, making it one of the better installments of Dynamite in some time.