The road to “Forbidden Door” continued last night, when AEW returned to Cincinnati at the Andrew J Brady Music Center for Episode 306 of Wednesday Night “Dynamite.”
The show was bookended by confrontations between MJF and the AEW World Champion, “Hangman” Adam Page. For weeks, MJF has insisted that his Casino Gauntlet contract is more of an insurance policy than a title opportunity. Last night, however, Page successfully goaded MJF into exercising his contract. This felt like the natural conclusion here. After all, Page is older, wiser, more mature, more disciplined, and far more self assured.
Before the show ended, MJF attacked Page in the parking deck—vowing to break the world champion’s spirit before their match in London.
Darby Allin continued his war on The Death Riders, attacking Wheeler Yuta shortly after Jon Moxley’s match against Kevin Knight. For his transgressions, Claudio Castagnoli proceeded to put Allin in his own body bag and stomp a mudhole in him. Fortunately for Allin, an impassioned Will Ospreay intervened—forcing The Death Riders to retreat.
Afterwards, the “Aerial Assassin” challenged the Death Riders to a light’s out steel cage match. In other words, a “War Games” match. The competitors will be Moxley, Castagnoli, Gabe Kidd, and The Young Bucks versus Allin, Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and The Golden Lovers. That’s what I’d call a “dream team.”
Elsewhere, Adam Copeland picked Stokely Hathaway apart and then hugged a reluctant Christian Cage. Tony Khan managed to converge every relevant angle in the women’s division into one segment, which is both mildly impressive and extremely disheartening.
Hopefully this is building towards: (1) a “Blood & Guts” match or (2) a women’s tag team tournament.
The Young Bucks superkicked Justin Roberts. Kazuchika Okada called Swerve Strickland a bitch. And, Kyle Fletcher’s opponent for “Forbidden Door” has emerged: junior heavyweight legend Hiromu Takahashi.
We’re only 10 days away from “Forbidden Door.” Entering this week’s installment, only five matches had been announced for the show. Last night, four more matches were announced—fleshing out this card in a way that was desperately needed. In that regard, this week’s episode was a marked success. On the other hand, the in ring quality was certainly below part—for AEW’s lofty standards.
Rating: ***
Matches
Jon Moxley vs. Kevin Knight
This didn’t have quite the same luster that Moxley’s match against “Speedball” Mike Bailey did last week, but the conditions were drastically different. Cincinnati may be the only city in the world where Moxley would be cheered, so this was a daunting task for Kevin Knight. Fortunately, the young phenom carried his fair share of the weight, galvanizing the crowd with his aerial arsenal.
As always, though, Moxley was undeterred.
Rating: ***¼
Mercedes Moné, Thekla, & Skye Blue vs. Willow Nightingale, Alex Windsor, & Queen Aminata
Mercedes Moné joined forces with two-thirds of the Triangle of Madness to face Alex Windsor, Willow Nightingale, and Queen Aminata. Meanwhile, “Timeless” Toni Storm and Athena watched from the audience—converging three angles into one match.
Tony Khan is either vehemently opposed to committing multiple segments to the women’s division or he’s building towards a broader angle for the division. In either scenario, the saving grace here was the match quality.
Rating: ***
Adam Copeland vs. Stokely Hathaway
“Yo he’s short, he’s bald, and he gets no hoes, baby!”
This was golden. Even though Adam Copeland lost his edge, he’ll always be the “Ultimate Opportunist.” Here, he picked Stokely Hathaway apart with surgical precision—harmonizing with this classy Cincinnati crowd.
Afterwards, FTR were forced to intervene—breaking their litigious arrangement. Christian Cage then came to Copeland’s rescue with “Spike” in hand. Nick Wayne & Kip Sabian then followed suit. Cage neutralized Wayne’s steel chair with “Spike,” while Copeland leveled Sabian with a spear.
In the end, it was only Copeland and Cage left in the ring. The fans urged them to “hug it out,” so they did… Sort of. While Copeland embraced him, Cage seemed reluctant. Tony Khan doesn’t care about Cage’s feelings though, because Adam Copeland and Christian will be joining forces to face Nick Wayne & Kip Sabian at “Forbidden Door.”
Rating: N/A
Kyle Fletcher, Josh Alexander & The Young Bucks vs. Hiromu Takahashi, Hologram, and Brodido
Last Saturday in Roanoke, Kyle Fletcher challenged New Japan Pro Wrestling to send their best pound-for-pound wrestler to face him at “Forbidden Door.” Last night, his challenger proved to be junior heavyweight legend Hiromu Takahashi, who joined forces with Brodido and Hologram to face the “Protostar,” Josh Alexander, and The Young Bucks.
Matt and Nick Jackson are tired of being treated like the “j-word.” More importantly, they’re tired of being slighted by the ring announcer, Justin Roberts. So, they knocked his block off with a pair of superkicks—forcing Tony Schiavone to assume ring announcing duties.
The match itself was serviceable. Takahashi looked like a star, which was a victory in itself. The addition of Hologram meant that the outcome almost seemed inevitable. Tony Khan’s only creation has yet to lose in AEW, amassing a 29-0 record entering this contest. It was clear that he wasn’t going to suffer his first loss here, in an eight man tag team match.
Rating: ***
The Opps vs. La Facción Ingobernables
Samoa Joe hasn’t appeared in AEW since “All In: Texas,” when he was injured at the hands of Claudio Castagnoli. Last night, he returned—joining forces with Powerhouse Hobbs and Katsuyori Shibata to face La Facción Ingobernables in trios action.
The Opps have only defended their AEW World Trios Championships once in the last four months. This was no exception. In fairness, LFI did lose in trios action last Saturday to “Hangman” Adam Page & JetSpeed, so maybe they didn’t deserve a title match.
This was inoffensive enough. However, it paled in comparison to LFI’s aforementioned match against Page and JetSpeed. It was nice to see Joe return to “Dynamite,” though.
Rating: **¾
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