All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite: Dynamite 10/10 and Rampage 10/13: TITLE TUESDAY

October 10, 2023 5:00 PM - Season 5, Episode 2

Your eyes do not deceive you, although your TV channel guide might, as TNT did a piss-poor job of noting the schedule change due to sport. Dynamite is once again going head-to-head with NXT tonight. Since HHH decided to throw down hard and fill the Performance Center with top names, Tony Khan has gone on his own offensive (and has been playing hard on Twitter this week) and booked a free 730PM (EST) Buy-In on YouTube plus gotten clearance to run 10 extra minutes with an exciting 6-match card.

Announced for Dynamite on 10/10:

FREE SHOW ON THE BUY-IN

Double title defense: Ring Of Honor World Championship & NJPW Strong Openweight Championship Match: Eddie Kingston (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki

Eddie has all the respect in the world for Crazy Japanese Murder Grandpa, but they've only faced each other in tag matches, and Eddie's side has lost more than won. These two man will slap the souls out of each other's chests, arrive in Sto'vo'kor and keep on hitting.

Main Dynamite Card:

Adam Copeland vs. Luchasaurus

The former Edge has arrived in AEW and instead of having a playdate with his friend Christian Cage, he has to fight Cage's weird enormous dinosaur toy. Watch as I shriek involuntarily every time Copeland gets dropped on his fragile twig neck, but probably expect him to win and keep trying to have his "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.

AEW International Championship Match: Rey Fenix (c) vs. Orange Cassidy

It was supposed to be Moxley, but he's still not cleared to wrestle, so Cassidy gets the chance to regain and reset the story.

"Timeless" Toni Storm makes an appearance

MJF responds to having his Burberry title belt stolen by Jay White

#1 Contender match to challenge for the TNT Championship: Swerve Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson

A real difference of styles for these two: Swerve is bigger, stronger, and has an insouciant style that will make technician Danielson very angry

AEW Women’s Championship Match:Saraya (c) vs. Hikaru Shida

Saraya's reign as champ has been a wet fart. Can Shida do better? Can anyone do better?

Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Chris Jericho

Now that Hobbs has joined the Don Callis Family, Jericho will need all his decades of tricks to go against this angry wall of a man. Can he find some assistance from Miro the Redeemer?

Switchblade Jay White vs. Hangman Page

White, fresh of stealing the belt and inducting "Belty" into Bullet Club Gold, declared that Hangman needs to prove himself worthy of a title shot. Meanwhile, Hangman is sulky whenever he loses and is separated from his friends in the Elite. Only victory can lift his spirits!

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (12 comments total)

As predicted, the Buy-In was a 10-minute gauntlet of chest destruction. Eddie retains and shows great emotion, hugging Suzuki on the way out, and stopping to high five Renee Paquette (and flip off RJ City, for reasons I look forward to learning).
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:12 PM on October 10, 2023

So the story of the majority of the Swerve/Danielson match is that each of them tries to shift gears on the other. Swerve attacks back and ribs, Danielson goes after hands and legs. Swerve makes backdrops, Danielson uses flying knees. But the math on the finish is a little iffy: Hangman lost to Swerve in a mostly clean match. But now Swerve tries to cheat, Hangman stops him, Danielson goes for a pin and Swerve kicks out, and then Danielson wins clean with a Busaiko Knee. So the guy who beat Hangman is beaten by Danielson, doesn't that make Hangman a bigger loser?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:33 PM on October 10, 2023

Aside from a few hope spots, Jericho's moveset is completely ineffective against Hobbs. Will there be an answer for the Callis Family's evil?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:45 PM on October 10, 2023

Tony Khan out here celebrating every victory. It's his birthday today!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:49 PM on October 10, 2023

And so Orange Cassidy regains the belt he made famous, after Rey Fenix sells his back four different times to prove he's not a chump.

Another first time: Hangman and Switchblade haven't had a one-on-one match since the G1 Climax 2018 and so they celebrate by doing a very NJPW-style match. Hangman is apparently willing to sacrifice his entire knee to win the match, and Jay White has the smarts to capitalize on that. And then Nana comes back with the receipt for the earlier interference.

MJF comes out to cut a burning-hot promo about looking yourself in the mirror and not hating the reflection -- on Mental Health Awareness Day, no less! -- but BCG is unwilling to even entertain the idea unless Max can find another three people to challenge the whole group. (I don't think Juice Robinson was trying to be anti-Semitic when he talked about hitting "Friedman" with a roll of quarters, but this was not the week for it, guys.)
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:27 PM on October 10, 2023

The women's match never got into it's highest gear, possibly because the Ruby Soho cheating and Toni Storm run-in was a little to comedic and undercut the seriousness. I just don't think Saraya's had anything worthwhile to do since she made her debut.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:49 PM on October 10, 2023

Max Castor to Anthony Bowens re: teaming with MJF: "I like it when they play hard to get." ::smiles at camera::

[[Toxic Codependent Yaoi Intensifies]]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:51 PM on October 10, 2023

The Adam Copeland/Luchasaurus match started a bit humdrum for me, but with only a few minutes left it turned brutal when Copeland made the most of a few spears and DDTs into the unforgiving ground and pulled the victory despite Nick Wayne shenanigans, managing to also turn Luchasaurus on Christian, if only for a moment (thus proving his earlier point).

And then, as Nick attacks Copeland for post-match castigo, the locker room starts to fill up as Danielson, then the rest of Blackpool Combat Club, then Prince Nana and the Mogul Embassy, then Hangman fill up the ring for a classic Dynamite brawl. See what you can do when everyone has a story with someone else?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:24 PM on October 10, 2023

Quote from a friend on Discord: "as many belts have changed hands on #TitleTuesday TONIGHT as have changed on ALL Battle of the Belts total"

AND it's the longest Dynamite ever!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:32 PM on October 10, 2023

Bonus round: Guess who was briefly on both NXT and Dynamite simultaneously!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:43 PM on October 10, 2023

That Juice quip had mild “you, Lieutenant WEINBERG?” vibes at least
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:09 PM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

MJF feels the same way
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:09 AM on October 11, 2023