All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite: Dynamite 10/25/23 and Rampage 10/27/23

October 25, 2023 4:47 PM - Season 5, Episode 4

AEW comes to the hometown of Extreme to host two title matches, one ECW-pandering match, and-- what's this? A wild Okada has appeared!!

The announced card for Dynamite:

Dynamite Diamond Ring Match: MJF (c) vs. Juice Robinson

There's a lot of ways this can go: MJF has already lost (physical possession of) his championship belt thanks to Bullet Club Gold ganging up on him. With Adam Cole injured, MJF needs help, and Max Caster has been offering the assistance of The Acclaimed. Will today be the day he accepts, or does he fall further. Also, is the Devil Mask guy his Tyler Durden or what?

Ring Of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Championship Match: The Elite (Hangman Page & The Young Bucks) (c) vs. The Hardys & Brother Zay

Is it time to take these titles off the Elite? Every time they hold a title, they kinda turn heel-ish, and I don't know if that's desired heading into Full Gear. Also, the ROH Six-Man is one of the few titles the Hardys have never held.

AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Hikaru Shida vs. Ruby Soho

Every women's title match recently has been good-to-great, and yet I long for some new faces. I hope Shida didn't become the first three-time champ only to lose to Ruby, so hopefully her victory finally breaks the Outcasts and lets in some new contenders (Wherefore art thou, Thunder Rosa?)

Orange Cassidy and Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli

Cassidy made a phone call to CHAOS and got The Rainmaker to help him settle his beef with Blackpool Combat Club. Of course, the man he really wants is Moxley. Okada has his own reasons: Danielson got the better of him (with a broken arm!) when they last met at Forbidden Door 2023.

Rob Van Dam & Hook vs. The Dark Order (John Silver & Alex Reynolds)

Plus side: E-C-W! E-C-W! E-C-W!
Minus side: You can't expect me to take The Dark Order seriously as heels unless they win sometimes.

Tony Khan will have a gift for Sting

His own life-size statue? Whatever her gets, it should set up whatever program Sting will be in between now and his final match in January.

Chris Jericho sit-down interview with Renee Paquette

Swerve Strickland to address Hangman Page

...And maaaaaybe interfere in the Six-Man Match?

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (6 comments total)

Lots and lots in the first 30 minutes -- MJF retains his ring, but Juice makes him work for it, requiring a kangaroo kick plus a knockout punch from the diamond ring plus the Heatseeker DDT.

Then the Gunns jump him during the post-match celebration, and a complicated series of events, culminating in MJF agreeing to a eight-man tag with BCG, but refusing the help of Roderick Strong & The Kingdom but also refusing The Acclaimed. So he's got to find three other guys now?

Then he threatens to upturn the booking of Full Gear by agreeing to face Kenny Omega for the championship -- which I must again stress he does not physically possess -- on Collision this week. Win or lose, does this mean that BCG will face the combined power of MJF & The Elite?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:45 PM on October 25, 2023

The ECW Nostalgia Pop Tag Team does indeed win, and Taz on commentary is not holding back about how he feels about his son facing his former enemy.

But again: If Dark Order doesn't win matches, then they're not heels, they're just goobers.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:49 PM on October 25, 2023

Luther has been added to the Toni Storm Cinematic Universe and I want him to be a permanent fixture.

Meanwhile Sting came out to receive his gift from Tony Khan and said that Darby Allin is the best tag partner he's ever had, so f*** you Lex Luger.

But Sting's gift is RIC FLAIR. The Nature Boy is holding an AEW microphone.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:02 PM on October 25, 2023

If you're wondering why Hangman's chyron describes him as "ill-prepared and unattractive", it's because he finally showed up on Hey! EW with RJ City and demanded they change it to "handsome and well-prepared".
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:12 PM on October 25, 2023

Being part of a trio gives the Hardys a chance to bust out some moves you don't see a lot, like when Hangman tried to Deadeye and Isaiah Cassidy saved himself by silly-stringing over Jeff's back. But when Brother Zay is 60% of the offense and absorbs 80% of the Elite's offense, you know he'll take the pin.

And then the most creepifyng segment: we get to watch Swerve and Prince Nana do a home invasion of Hangman's house, ending with Swerve giving a full-on supervillain lecture to Hangman's (off-screen) baby.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:31 PM on October 25, 2023

OK, so everything about the last match was awesome: Orange Cassidy doing his best to lay into Claudio, occasionally managing to dodge his mightier strikes with his usual slipperiness, meanwhile Okada and Danielson immediately resume punching the hell out of each other. It ends Okada laying a massive Rainmaker on Danielson with Claudio pinning Cassidy, which apparently earns him a shot at the International title.

But after all that, Danielson clutches his face as though he had a real (orbital bone?) injury, Moxley and Yuta come out to check on him, which draws out Chuck, Trent and Kris Statlander and Hook to back up Cassidy. Hook and Yuta have an interesting staredown, and we end the episode with two factions staring daggers at each other.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:28 PM on October 25, 2023