Wednesday Night Wars: AEW Dynamite - 2020.09.30

By ZD

      Image: AEW/TNT

     The night opens up with Ricky Starks and Darby Allin in an exhibition match. Starks is a good wrestler although I'm entirely sure that AEW knows exactly what to do with him gimmick wise because to this point he still seems a bit of an el generico, but he tries his best to sell whatever his gimmick is supposed to be right now. Allin seems to be gaining traction with the AEW faithful, but I'm still not entirely convinced. I don't like to think that all wrestlers need to be big, in fact Mysterio and Bliss have proved this isn't always the case, but you really need to be able to sell being small and explaining why you can beat those much bigger than you (like Allin vs. Moxley which I didn't buy at all) and I don't feel he really does a great job of this as Allin never adjusts to overcome the odds and just happens to with his standard skill set and perseverance. The match was alright, but definitely not the best mood setter for the first one.

    Next up is Orange Cassidy accompanied by Best Friends vs. 10 accompanied by the Dark Order. I will spare you all, obviously I'm not a fan of either of these factions and particularly don't get the hype or what is so special about the laziest wrestler ever, Orange Cassidy. The only highlight of this match was when members of the Dark Order imitated and mocked Best Friends or Orange Cassidy and that says a lot because it wasn't that funny.

    Then there was a tag team match and probably the best match of the night. FTR took on SCU (champ) in a title match with a stipulation set by FTR that if they can't be beat within 20 minutes that the automatically retain (though this stipulation didn't end up being needed). Both teams can wrestle for sure, with me favoring SCU just a bit more. If I had to point out each of their weaknesses, FTR and Tulley really like mic skills as they constantly butchers lines or sound unconvincing during promos and SCU just has a cringey name (So Cal Uncensored), but I like them other wise. The match featured a lot of good spots and was a solid match all around with several false finishes for SCU, but unfortunately being the heels FTR would retain and win by Tulley holding Scorpio Sky so he couldn't kick out outside of the refs (very limited) vision.

    Cody Rhodes would then come out and cut a very dramatic promo to accept Brody Lee's challenge to a dog collar match for the TNT title followed by several brawls between members of the Nightmare Family and the Dark Order that went on way too long and restarted like 4+ times. It went from making the point to becoming very awkward very fast.

    Jericho would face off against Isaiah Cassidy (one half of the better version of the Street Profits) in a fairly unforgettable match. I'm just getting so distracted by the fact that Matt Hardy is supposed to be on leave due to a concussion, but has appeared at every episode since he has said that (albeit not competing) and I'm just really concerned for his health at this point.

    Jon Moxley would then fight an opponent of Eddie Kingston's choosing after being bested by Moxley last week. The opponent ending up being The Butcher who entered a brawler vs. brawler battle with Moxley which was once again not offensively bad, but not stand out either and that perfectly sums up this episode of Dynamite. It was fine, but probably more enhanced that I had pizza and wings while watching it or I probably could have been a lot more critical during this airing.