AEW Dynamite Review - October 16, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

SoCal Uncensored def. Best Friends in an AEW world Tag Team Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

It felt random two weeks ago for SCU and The Lucha Brothers to brawl on the stage, but they came back to that here with Lucha Bros attacking Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian before this bout as retaliation. Scorpio Sky then took Daniels' spot and Sky still wearing his street clothes was a nice touch. Despite being unprepared, they came out on top against Best Friends in a really fun opening match. It's just a shame the finish was a bit botched.

Santana and Ortiz def. Alex Reynolds and john Silver

I love how Santana and Ortiz's AEW entrance is slightly similar to the one they had as LAX in IMPACT. At any rate, this was our first official squash match on Dynamite that used "local athletes" (even though I'm sure I've seen John Silver somewhere before, WWE/NXT perhaps?). It was a great way to get Santana and Ortiz over on their own and establish their offense. Chris Jericho popped up on the big screen afterward and said that Santana and Ortiz were challenging The Young Bucks to a matchup at Full Gear next month. I'm really looking forward to that, but it was weird that Santana and Ortiz didn't make the challenge themselves.

AEW Women's Champion Riho def. Britt Baker

I'd argue while Baker is the biggest female star AEW has, Riho is a far better wrestler and was probably the best choice for the inaugural AEW Women's Champion. My only issue with her so far is that she's a terrific wrestler, but we haven't heard from her on the mic at all in AEW (as far as I know, anyway) and thus it's been difficult to care about her as a character. Hopefully that changes soon. This match started off rough but picked up nicely down the stretch. Riho winning by the skin of her teeth makes me think we haven't seen the last of these two against each other. Baker's facial expressions afterward definitely make it feel like a heel turn is inevitable.

The Lucha Brothers def. Jurassic Express in an AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

Earlier in the evening, AEW unfortunately announced an injury to Luchsaurus that kept him out of action here. He was replaced by Marko Stunt, who isn't even close to being on Luchasaurus' level. Jurassic Express had a decent chance of advancing before the change was made, but Stunt isn't believable in the slightest. To his credit, he sells really well and can fly around the ring, but it's hard to take him seriously when he's up against stars such as Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix.

Adam Page and Kenny Omega def. Pac and Jon Moxley

This match was perfect in that not only did all four men have bad blood with each other, it was very well wrestled and the pace never slowed down. They received a decent amount of time and made the most of it by producing a tremendous tag team affair where everyone got to shine at one point or another. Moxley proved he doesn't take crap from anyone by laying out Pac at the end and leaving him to get beat by Page and Omega, who needed the victory. Now we have Moxley vs. Pac on tap for next week and that should be a total banger.

AEW World Champion Chris Jericho def. Darby Allin in a Street Fight

Everyone was aware going into this thing that Allin wasn't winning the title, but that was never the point. Rather, this was all about how strong Allin would look in defeat, and I'd say Jericho was successful in giving him a star-making performance. This was a highly entertaining main event that utilized the stipulation well and allowed Allin to look like an equal to Jericho by hanging in there for as long as he did. Allin doing those crazy moves while his hands were taped behind his back was actually done originally at a Northeast Wrestling event I attended back in June when he faced Moxley. It was just as cool here as it was then. Jericho's post-match celebration with the rest of The Inner Circle was hilarious.

Overall Show

AEW continues to deliver a simple and compelling product every Wednesday night where the two hours manage to fly by. Granted, I watched this one back on DVR due to tuning into NXT live this week, but everything mattered and the wrestling was top-notch. I didn't mention it anywhere above, but that video package for Cody was just outstanding. AEW needs more of that type of content, especially heading into pay-per-views like Full Gear. I'm already excited for next week's episode with what's on tap (which includes Private Party vs. Lucha Brothers in the semifinals of the tag title tourney and Moxley vs. Pac).