All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite: Dynamite 8/16 and Rampage 8/18: Fight for the Fallen 2023

August 16, 2023 4:52 PM - Season 4, Episode 46

AEW boss Tony Khan announced last week that this week’s shows would be under the Fight for the Fallen banner, with proceeds from Dynamite/Rampage and Collision going to the Maui Food Bank to provide assistance to victims of Maui’s devastating wildfires. Orange Cassidy defends, The Bunny attacks, and Nick Wayne will probably be severely beaten (again).

The announced card for Dynamite:

The Young Bucks vs. The Gunns

Fighting the Gunns also likely means having Jay White and Juice Robinson at ringside. Since the Bucks are already booked for All In, maybe that can be the second helping at All Out the following week?

AEW International Championship Match: Orange Cassidy vs. Wheeler Yuta

Yuta is only equal to PAC with respect to how little chill he has for Cassidy's "sloth style", and the Blackpool Combat Club has made fine sport out of liquefying the faces of anyone Best Friends-adjacent. It would make my day if someone remembered that Best Friends are part of Chaos, and suddenly Hirooki Goto or Tomohiro Ishii shows up to destroy Yuta.

Darby Allin and Nick Wayne vs. Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona

For no particular reason, here's a YouTube compilation of Wild Animals Eating Newborn Prey Alive.

Chris Jericho gives his answer to Don Callis

For no particular reason, here's a YouTube video of two elephant seals fighting for sumremacy.

Kenny Omega has a sit down interview with Jim Ross

For no particul-- no, I kid. I expect this to be a straightforward babyface promo where Kenny gently implies that he has nothing to do for All In, can someone be his dance partner, pretty please?

The Bunny vs. Britt Baker for the final spot in the AEW Women’s World Title Fatal 4 Way at All In

Shove off, Britt! The Bunny hasn't sniffed a title shot since 2019, and as someone who thoroughly enjoyed Allie's run on Impact I want her to have another moment in the sun before she and the Butcher and the Blade run off to be a throuple.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Death Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Jeff Jarrett

This is to promote, not the movie per se, but an upcoming game based on the movie. JJ has implied that Leatherface himself may crash the match, which would be an improvement from when they were promoting Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Helen Mirren refused to job out to Nyla Rose*

*That was a joke.

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (6 comments total)

Over the last few weeks, Tony Khan is finally putting in the work to retroactively justify the enormous ticket sales for All In, and now we've added to it.

Stadium Stampede! 12 men worth of chaos at Wembley! BCC vs Eddie Kingston & Lucha Bros vs Best Friends vs... ???

And then, Kenny's promo with JR -- emnating from the heart of Daily's Place in broad frickin' daylight -- suddenly gifts us a trios match of Kenny, Hangman and Kota Ibushi vs. Bullet Club Gold and Konosuke Takeshita.

Fair play to you, Tony. Greatest Event In Wrestling History... achieved.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:34 PM on August 16, 2023

Discussion question: When Sting is on video promoting his coffin match against AR Fox, is his performance leaning more towards (a) Jim Carrey as the Riddler, or (b) Jack Nicholson as The Joker?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:59 PM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Aussie Open getting run out of the ring by MJF threatening a kangaroo kick is the cherry on top of a comedy "brochacho" segment that lasted... maybe 30 minutes?

And then that gets topped by... the Texas Chainsaw Title Match! Karo syrup, Karen Jarrett screaming like a movie victim, Satnam Singh in overalls, Leatherface interference, a belt with his face on it!? It was terrible and stupid, and I give it four stars.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:29 PM on August 16, 2023

Haven't watched the show yet (it goes up in a couple days on NJPW World for folks in Japan) but the images of the Leatherface belt are great. I hope Jarrett keeps using it.
Incidentally, since I've been posting it in other places, the Leatherface gimmick has a long history in Japan as it moved from person to person after he was "introduced" in the USWA in the early 90s. Tony surely knows this.
Anyway, someone has still been using the gimmick in Japan as recently as 2021. Here he is wrestling in a bar.
posted by LostInUbe at 8:32 PM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Stadium Stampede! 12 men worth of chaos at Wembley! BCC vs Eddie Kingston & Lucha Bros vs Best Friends vs... ???

I took it as being [Eddie + Lucha Bros + Best Friends] vs. [BCC + 3 persons to be named later] (House of Black is not otherwise engaged at the moment...).
posted by Etrigan at 7:49 AM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yes, your version tracks better. I’m kind of hoping it’s not House of Black, they feel overexposed, or at the very least their gimmick does not seem to lend them to joining with BCC or participating in something as tawdry as a “Stadium Stampede”.

Although I’m prepared to eat my words if Sue shows up and runs people down driving a London taxicab.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 12:19 PM on August 17, 2023 [1 favorite]