All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite: February 12, 2025

February 12, 2025 5:11 PM - Season 6, Episode 20

Why wait until Grand Slam Australia when we can have two title matches happen tonight? Besides that, MJF will have to grapple with Dustin Rhodes, Kris Statlander and Penelope Ford battle with Megan Bayne lurking in the wings (on her head), Max Caster's open challenge continues, and Adam Copeland continues to stalk Jon Moxley.

The announced card for tonight:

Dustin Rhodes vs. MJF - commercial-free match
AEW World Trios Championship Match: The Death Riders (c) vs. The Undisputed Kingdom
AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: The Hurt Syndicate (c) vs. The Gunns
Max Caster's "Best Wrestler Alive" Open Challenge
Kris Statlander vs. Penelope Ford
Megan Bayne makes her Dynamite in-ring singles debut
Samoa Joe, Hook & Katsuyori Shibata in trios action
We'll hear from Cope

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (7 comments total)

Establishing characterization is so important in a multi-person match. For example, in the Undisputed vs. Death Riders even a newcomer would realize that Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly are the grapplers and technicians, PAC and Claudio are strong agile fighters while Wheeler Yuta is the shitbag gremlin. Which leave for Adam Cole to be the hot-tag showboat -- he hits the flash moves, but when either of his teammates had the chance to pin he was too busy pre-celebrating to guard against interference.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:34 PM on February 12

"Jon Cruz, a long time rival of Samoa Joe, whether Joe realizes it or not" -- Well done, Excalibur.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:38 PM on February 12

Chris Jericho clearly saw my notes about meeting Bandido's gimmick half-way and chooses to have a showdown in the middle of the ring. Of course he's a stinkin' cheatin' varmint, so we get to see a save made by the Outrunners -- "a poison pen letter to wrestling's neon era!" says Nigel -- followed by Big Bill and Powerhouse Hobbs. This whole segment is a example of using a good rivalry to lift up other wrestlers.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:00 PM on February 12

MJF gets a relatively clean victory over Dustin, minus a few heelish gestures towards the crowd. But the real news is when Stone Cold Steve Austin Hangman Adam Page walks in on the post-match castigo, and if Hangman was ever a heel this is where he turns face. MJF runs off into the crowd, and since everything is projection with this guy, calls Hangman a "coward", which is the insult he reserves for people respects and fears.

According to Cagematch, these two have not had a one-on-one match since 2019, which is shocking.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:23 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Tony Schiavone, watching Statlander vs. Penelope Ford: "What a women's matchup we are watching!"
Excalibur, a second later: "What a matchup we are watching!"
Neatly done.

This episode features two women's matches and several more angles besides, including WIllow Nightingale taking time away from her Japan tour getting blindsided by Marina Shafir during an interview, and Harley Cameron making a really excellent promo. According to Meltzer last week's promo segment struck great ratings, and Harley is really showing herself having all the skills to be a top name.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:53 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Still reading these, so thank you for putting them up. Hard to keep up with everything sometimes.

We, my daughter and I, are loving the women's stuff at the moment. We've watched this Harley promo a few times. She's not winning though is she?
posted by Ramo at 6:49 PM on February 14

Well, there are three Australians having title matches at Grand Slam. They can't all win, that's just lazy booking. Of them I think Buddy Matthews is definitely losing since AEW's just started trying to get "Hounds of Hell" off the ground as a separate tag team, so there's no sense in making him a singles champ. I think that at least one of Toni Storm and Harley are winning.

I'll have to find out Sunday morning, because I'm not staying up into the wee hours to watch Grand Slam live.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:10 AM on February 15