AEW Dynamite 6/8/2022

AEW Dynamite 6/8/2022

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2022/06/aew-dynamite-612022.html

Casino Battle Royal Interim Championship Qualifier

CM Punk is injured so they have a complicated tournament for the AEW Interim Title. There's a battle royale and the winner of it faces Mox, then the winner of that faces either Tanahashi or Goto for the Interim Title. They never explained how you got entry into this when in theory, everyone would want in this.

This battle royale has people assigned playing card suits and the 4 groups all come out at separate times together. 

This thing went on around 25 minutes and Kyle O'Reilly won. I don't find battle royales that entertaining and wasn't real interested by what I did see. I really don't get the logic behind Kyle winning and I don't know why this promotion likes battle royales so much. I also don't think starting off the show with a 25 minute battle royale is a good idea.

Jon Moxley did a promo on Kyle O'Reilly. He said it had been a strange year and said Kyle is in with the wrong guy at the wrong place in the wrong time. Mox said the Forbidden Door belongs to him.

They announced a new AEW Title. He said it is the AEW All-Atlantic title. It represents fans all around the world and says it promises to bring us the best of the best for all decades to come. We have an 8 person tournament with people from different countries with the final being a 4 way.

They didn't really explain what this title was except that it is meant to represent fans in different countries, so it is hard to say much about. It seems like it is going to be some kind of title that is defended across the world which maybe could be interesting. I don't really understand why they don't use the ROH titles that are floating around for this though. I'm not entirely opposed to a promotion having multiple titles as it gives people something to fight for, but a title is only worth as much as the challengers for it are. It's also kind of weird to have an All-Atlantic title with a Japanese and Chinese flag on it, which would be the Pacific.

They also didn't explain how people gained entry to this and if the title is worth something, you would think big names would want it.

AEW All-Atlantic Championship Tournament First Round - Buddy Matthews vs Pac

They do some basic moves and counters to start things. Pac gets shoulderblocked and kips up then headscissors him. We go to PiP break and return. Buddy gets stuck between the ropes and Pac gets tilt-a-whirled and ddt'd him. Pac hit some kicks then flips him with a lariat. Buddy sunset flips him off the 2nd rope and rolls into a ligerbomb. Pac comes back with a blind poisonrana off the 2nd rope then hits his black arrow corkscrew ssp for the win.

I didn't think this was too good. The crowd was real weird here alternating between being dead silent and randomly chanting for them to "fight forever". They did too much here and they didn't have enough time or the right crowd for what they were trying.

Eddie Kingston does a promo on the JAS. He says they cost him the title. Eddie says he wants Jake Hager on Rampage and pulls out a tech guy as he went too long and tells him he is done. Eddie was specific that he wanted Jake on Rampage for some odd reason and the cameraman bit also was odd.

Trent Beretta does a promo. He says today is national best friends day but his friends aren't here. He said he and Rocky didn't win or lose their ROH tag title match and therefore deserve another title shot. FTR then come out. Cash says he agrees with Trent and it doesn't sit well because he wants to prove he is the best. Dax says Trent should be mad at Cobb and Khan for interfering. He mentions Will Osperay then Will comes out. Aussie Open attacked FTR and Trent. I didn't like this segment at all. It's too many new people who nobody knows and truthfully, I don't even know who Aussie Open is.

Red Dragon, Adam Cole and William Regal are interviewed. Regal asks Kyle if he's truly ready for Mox. He says he will get his head cracked open and tells him to think about his wife and friends. Kyle says he thinks about his wife and friends all the time. Kyle talks about people he beat. He says he came to AEW to fight the best. 

Hangman Page vs David Finlay

Oh great, another guy that nobody outside of the IWC will know.

They shove each other and Finlay hits a nice dropkick. Finlay goes for a leapfrog and gets slammed then Page face kicks him. Finlay gets thrown out and knocked off the apron then Page topes him. Finlay gets back in and clips him and we go to PiP break. Page catches a crossbody with a fallaway slam then springboard lariats him and plancha's him outside.

Page then pop-up ligerbombs him for 2. Finlay hits a uranage backbreaker on Page and Finlay has blood under his eye. Finlay running euro's him.  They hit forearms at the same time, Page lariats him then hits a buckshot lariat to win.

You know how I feel about people losing on their debuts. It's dumb. And bringing in Finlay to do it is even dumber since nobody knows who he is and the very first thing they are going to learn about him is that he loses. Beating people nobody knows doesn't really get you that far.

Page does a promo after. He says he wasn't in the battle royale (nor the tournament). Why? Who knows. He said it doesn't seem like he is getting a title shot anytime soon. Page says he wants the IWGP title and wants Okada. I mean I'm sure Ryohei Oiwa does too. Adam Cole says Okada may not be champion, it could be Jay White. Cole says Page isn't a champion and says he won the Owen Hart Tournament, so he should get a shot. He says Page's time has come and gone

Thunder Rosa issued an open challenge to any woman. She says she is always ready to roll. Marina Shafir then comes in and says she wants to be her problem, when asked if she has a problem. She said she wants to ask Rosa if she can solve her. It's a good thing we have these rankings. They are really so much help for determining contenders on this show.

Tony Schiavone interviewed Wardlow. He said Wardlow opted not to be in the battle royale, or the tournament, which he didn't bring up. Wardlow says, "Welcome to Wardlow's World". He confirms he didn't want to be in the battle royale because he says CM Punk is our champion. He says if he isn't beating Punk, he doesn't want it yet. Well, that makes the tournament look bad. He tells Punk to heal up because he will beat him when he comes back.

Wardlow then says he wants a title and says it is a title few men have had. He says he wants the TNT Title...and obviously not the All-Atlantic title. He says it is time for a change then Scorpio Sky comes out. Ethan Page and Dan Lambert then stop him. Wardlow says he is 110% ready.

We cut to Mark Sterling with security. He says Wardlow can't rip up legal documents on tv. Mark says he doesn't understand the words coming out of his mouth and says security might not get the money they deserve. Mark offers to sue him or to fight 20 security guys in a handicap match next week. Uh, okay.

We cut to the Bucks hanging out in the back. They talk about some of their recent wins and say they are back. They said they want the tag titles back. The Hardys walk in. Matt accuses them of burying him. Matt says they deserve a title shot as they beat them at DoN. Jurassic Express then walk in. Christian says they all need to earn the tag titles. Christian said the Bucks pinned Jungle Boy in Los Angeles and they want their win back. Christian says they are challenging the Hardys and the Bucks in a ladder match for the tag titles. Again, it's a good thing we have these rankings when nobody uses them to find contenders.

Marina Shafir vs Thunder Rosa

Marina hits corner knees to the gut and they do some awkward rolling. There was a funny moment here where they zoomed in and you could see at least 10 people head to the bathrooms as this went on. Rosa hits some corner chops and forearms then Marina did some weird arm thing that looked like a dance. Rosa spin kicks her and drops down to slap her. Marina then basically like shoot suplexes her as Rosa can't get over.

We go to PiP break and return and Rosa corner clotheslines her. She dropkicks her as she is against the middle rope then northern lights suplexes her for 2. Marina hits a pump handle suplex for 2 then Rosa death valley drivers her for 2. Rosa hits some body kicks as we see more people head to the bathrooms then Rosa rolls her up for the win.

This was random and out of nowhere, the crowd didn't care and it wasn't any good. Rosa's reign continues to be a flop.

Marina kicks her in the back after the match then does a bad judo throw. Marina then does an arm and leg triangle. Toni Storm makes the save and german suplexes her. Rosa then hits a fire thunder driver.

Toni grabs Rosa's title after and awkwardly hands it to her as Rosa notices. Rosa then holds it up.

Jade Cargill, Stokeley Hathaway and the Baddies are interviewed. Jade says nobody can mind their business. Stokley messes up Kris Statlanders name as she got involved in a match last week. Red tells Kris to go back to her planet and they say nobody can beat Red Velvet.

Rampage his Red Velvet vs Kris Statlander, FTR and Trent vs Will Osperay and Aussie Open and the debut of Satnam Singh, along with words from Hookhausen. Excalibur then brings up Hager vs Eddie on that show and runs down a bunch of other stuff. This was horrible. He announced like 7 different things in less than 30 seconds. He got confused during it and I did too.

Interim Championship Qualifier - Kyle O'Reilly vs Jon Moxley

Mox does a nice side throw early and gets leg kicked. Mox slaps him and Kyle hits a strike combo. They trade forearms and Kyle hits more kicks. Mox gets his mouth busted open and is stuck on the middle rope. Kyle knee drops him from the top. We go to PiP break when Mox pounds on him outside and gets dropkicked into the rails. We return from break and Mox superplexes him.

They trade more forearms and facekicks, then they kick each other at the same time. Kyle rope breaks out of a chickenwing by putting his teeth on the ropes then Mox kicks the ropes. Mox lariats him for 2. Kyle hits some kicks in the back then Mox hits the elbow flurry on him. Mox cutters him. Kyle kind of gets out of a piledriver just to get powerbombed but catches Mox with a triangle. Kyle then heel hooks him. They trade forearms and slaps then Kyle spinning forearms him. They backdrop and no sell each other then lariat battle.

Mox bulldog chokes Kyle and hits some knees to the head. He then does a running knee and hits a paradigm shift to win.

It wasn't a bad match, but we knew who was winning here, it didn't have a lot of build and it happened at the end of a bad show.

Overall thoughts: Horrible show here that didn't make much sense at all. It started off poorly and that set the stage for the rest of the night.