AEW Dynamite Review - October 14, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR def. Best Friends

This was an entertaining affair as I expected, yet it didn't reach the levels that it probably should have for whatever reason. That said, both teams put forth a hell of an effort and they managed to keep the pace consistent throughout. It didn't help that the finish didn't come across well and ended the outing on a somewhat sour note. I wonder if that was done to leave the door open for a future rematch or simply to protect Best Friends in defeat as FTR move on to other challengers (which was basically confirmed later on when the number one contender's four-way was announced).

Miro and Kip Sabian def. Sean Maluta and Lee Johnson

Maluta made his AEW debut back in August when he lost to Lance Archer on Thursday Night Dynamite after being an NXT regular for several years, so it was nice to see him pop up again here. That said, this was nothing but an extended squash for Miro and Sabian. It was fine for what it was, but I continue to be underwhelmed by this pairing of Miro and Sabian. Them getting angry over their arcade game getting smashed (despite its questionable placement by ringside) is a stupid way for them to transition into a rivalry with Best Friends.

MJF Asked to Join Inner Circle

Any interaction between MJF and Chris Jericho in the past few weeks has been entertaining and this was no exception. It was certainly silly at certain points, but it was a definite improvement over whatever the hell last week was supposed to be. I'm looking forward to the "steak dinner" between Jericho and MJF next week, though I'm still not sure where this is supposed to be headed. Will MJF replace Jericho as the leader of the group, will he replace Sammy Guevara, or is all of this merely designed to keep MJF busy?

AEW TNT Champion Cody vs. Orange Cassidy Ended in a Time Limit Draw

I didn't know what to expect from this outing considering a majority of Cassidy's recent matches have barely been above average, but this was easily his strongest showing to date. He took Cody to the limit and came close to scoring the victory on a few occasions. Cody was masterful as always in his role and definitely showed some heel tendencies. AEW doesn't do time limit draws often, so this was well done and avoided Cassidy from eating defeat so soon after losing to Brodie Lee. Darby Allin is set to challenge the AEW TNT Champion at Full Gear, which makes me think we might be getting a three-way at the pay-per-view, potentially with Allin winning and Cody finally turning heel.

Sammy Guevara Interrupted Matt Hardy

Hardy and his family were being interviewed at ringside by Tony Schiavone when a video featuring Guevara popped up on the big screen. Guevara revealed that he was the one who attacked Hardy a few weeks ago and that their rivalry isn't over yet. This was a simple segment designed to set up what will hopefully be one more match between them at Full Gear, this time on the Hardy Compound. Fingers crossed all goes well as this feud has felt cursed since the start.

An AEW World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Four-Way Tag Team Match Was Announced for Next Week

Man, talk about a lack of logic. AEW's ranking system has been flawed for a while now, but this was one of the dumbest segments we've seen on Dynamite yet. The number one contenders (Best Friends) lost to the AEW World Tag Team Champions (FTR) earlier in the evening, so why wouldn't the other four teams in the rankings face off next week with a title shot at Full Gear up for grabs? Why would a raffle even be necessary? It's going to be The Young Bucks vs. The Butcher and The Blade vs. John "3" Silver and Alex "4" Reynolds vs. Private Party. I can only imagine who's winning that one. Ugh.

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida def. Big Swole

Swole has stacked up her fair share of wins over the past few months, but it hasn't felt like she's been riding this massive wave of momentum. Rather, it feels like AEW gave her a title shot because it was the anniversary show and they wanted an AEW Women's Championship match. Don't get me wrong, this was decent enough, but there were some sloppy spots and it was lacking overall. It didn't help that viewers largely didn't buy into the possibility that Swole would become champion. Shida is the perfect person to be champion right now, but she needs an equally important challenger.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley def. Lance Archer in a No Disqualification Match

Was this officially deemed a No Disqualification match? It obviously was one, but I don't remember that being announced ahead of time. Nonetheless, this was an entertaining main event. I wouldn't put it on the level of their Wrestle Kingdom clash from the beginning of the year, but they worked very well together and produced a quality contest. Much like most of the other matches on this show, however, this also suffered from being too predictable. Eddie Kingston and his crew laid out Moxley afterward, so it looks like he's being set up for the next title shot at Full Gear. I'd totally be down for that if Moxley hadn't just beaten Kingston decisively recently on Dynamite.

Overall Show

AEW loaded up this anniversary edition of Dynamite (even though the actual anniversary of Dynamite was on October 2nd) with four title matches and hyped it huge for about a month, but only one of the matches was memorable in my opinion and everything else didn't feel remotely as special. It would have been a solid show by regular Dynamite standards, but for an anniversary show, it was undoubtedly underwhelming. Hopefully they can pull together a compelling card for Full Gear in the next few weeks, but I will say that the tournament to determine a number one contender to the AEW World Championship essentially renders the power rankings irrelevant.