AEW

Pops & Botches: AEW Dynamite – 06.30.2021

AEW Dynamite Pops & Botches Recaps & Reviews

 

IT’S WEDNESDAY NIGHT. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

Heya folks! Weren’t we just here the other day? What the hell?!? Everything seems familiar but nothing seems the same! All I know is we are BACK on Wednesday nights and life feels normal again! Check in with me next week when we aren’t in Daily’s Place and we’ll see how discombobulated I really get! If you want to read about what went down on last week’s Dynamite (four days ago), click here. But if you’re looking to read something of quality (heh), read our Dark recap, here. If this is your first time here and you have no clue what I’m talking about or who I am, keep reading. It’ll make sense soon enough.

We return to Daily’s Place with the crowd scream-singing “Judas” and that’s really the only way to start a show that is live again. Jericho’s on commentary and this show is already the tits.

POP: Penta Poppin’ and Kingston Killin’

Jericho doesn’t get but three seconds to say hey before Penta El Zero Miedo and beautiful, beautiful Eddie Kingston come out to fight the Young Bucks. Most notably, the Young Bucks are sporting some new facial hair, which the commentary team immediately (and disgustedly) compares to “a couple of porn stars.” I wish I could find a GIF of the streamers shooting off because it scared (quite possibly) the actual shit out of Penta. And this show is already amazing.

If Kingston and Miedo (The Kings of Fear?) can beat the Young Bucks tonight, they will get a shot at the AEW Championship Titles. So does that mean that this is technically a number one contender’s match? Either way, the teams start fighting before the Bucks can even take their stupid jackets off. Early in the match, Miedo dropkicks one of the Bucks in the butt to which Excalibur describes as “punishing the perineum.” I can’t tonight, you guys.  This is great.

The Young Bucks gain an advantage with some deft tag team wrestling against Eddie. Naturally, he gets sick of it and is able to briefly Hulk up before eating a Nick Knee to the face. Eddie is able to knock black-haired Buck out of the ring and crotch blonde Buck on the top rope. After multiple headbutts and a superplex, he’s able to tag in Penta … and he came in like his outer mask was on fire.

The two count after that corkscrew Code Red had the crowd chanting “that was three” and black-haired Buck thanking Jesus. Speaking of two counts, the Real Best Friends almost won again after this quick exchange. The Young Bucks tear a page out of Ric Flair’s book and hits Penta in the dick. After a spike package piledriver, Eddie is able to get in the ring and break up the pin. This brings out the Good Brothers who distract the ref for just long enough that Matt holds Penta up for a superkick. Penta is able to back body drop Nick over then ducks when Brandon Cutler tries to spray him in the face with his canned Arrogance.

The Elite Hunter, Frankie Kazarian, jumps Cutler and steals his spray, allowing Penta to hit an over-the-top senton on the Good Brothers and Nick. He packages up Matt and hits him with a piledriver into a spinning Eddie backfist and Penta/Eddie have earned a shot at the AEW Tag Team Championships!

I try and put my blind love for All Things Eddie Kingston away when I do these articles so I can give a fair and unbiased opinion. So allow me to be completely honest, this wasn’t the best match we’ve seen involving Kingston. But also, it didn’t have to be. Eddie and Penta were able to get the victory (and the number one contendership) by beating the Bucks, handing them their first loss in almost a year. It also showed us how a team can neutralize all the outside interference in the form of Brandon Cutler and the Good Brothers. And his name is Frankie Kazarian. So now Kazarian’s hate for the Elite is weaved into this story and it all made sense as to how they could get away from the shenanigans and still get a victory. COME ON, EDDIE! I just want him to have a title so bad. SO BAD!

Big Daddy Christian Cool gives Jungle Boy a little fatherly pep talk. Most importantly, we learn Christian is a quarter triceratops on his mom’s side! This could be huge, everyone. Stay tuned to see where this goes!

When we come back from commercial, we get an interview with All Ego Ethan Page. It’s safe to say the crowd hates him. Luckily for them, Darby and Sting save them all from any more of his egotistical diatribe. Stings drags a coffin out with him and in a shocking twist, Darby jumps out and attacks Page.

BOTCH: Hair We Go Again

Jack Evans and Jack Perry enter the ring to see who is the better Jack, Jack. The real stakes of this match are that Jungle Boy is aiming for his 50th win in AEW, something nobody has ever done. Workhorse.

The match is a pretty basic affair early with both men going back and forth, exchanging moves at a higher-than-HHH-at-Wrestlemania pace. We go to commercial with Evans beating the hell out of Jungle Boy. This lasts all the way through the break but when we come back, Jungle Boy counters a corner move with an elbow to Evans’ face. Jungle Boy goes for a superplex but Evans is able to slip out underneath. Evans goes for a German Suplex off the top but Jungle Boy flips out, hits a dropkick and locks in the Snare Trap for the tap!

Immediately after the match, the Hardy Family Office comes out to beat up Jungle Boy but before they can even enter the ring, Jurassic Express and Christian come out to even the odds. Jurassic Express and Private Party magically disappear like a bowl of Lucky Charms so Cage gives Hardy a Killswitch about it. He quickly dispatches Jack Evans, who runs in to protect Hardy but it does allow Hardy to slip out of the ring and scamper up the ramp.

This segment didn’t really do much for me. It did give us Jungle Boy’s entrance theme which is also fun. They hyped up Jungle Boy’s 50th win but didn’t lean too much into him getting back on track after losing a close, close match to Kenny Omega last week for the AEW World Championship. Furthermore, it was all overshadowed (quickly) by the Cage/Hardy stuff. Put that in a backstage segment with Christian getting jumped and Jurassic Express making the save as promised in the earlier segment. Let Jungle Boy have his 50th win glory. But seriously, congratulations, Jack (Perry). You deserve it.

POP: Miro, Miro on the Wall, How do you Crush the Kid Whose Dad Played Football?

Little Pillman explains why a match with Miro is personal for him. You can’t fuck with this guy’s brother, Miro. It makes him mad! Once both are in the ring, Pillman goes right after Miro, trying to beat the Bulgarian brains out of him. Pillman gets the upper hand and the action spills to the outside. Pillman continues the assault and once Miro retreats into the ring, proves he’s Flyin’ Brian’s boy. As he goes for a superkick, Miro catches his leg and kicks Brian in the head a couple of times. One stomp on the back later, and it’s Game Over for Brian Pillman, Jr. In Pillman’s defense, his mama didn’t raise no quitter and he passes out instead of tapping.

Nobody is shocked at the outcome of this match. Not even Brian Pillman, Jr. The vignette before the match led me to believe he was going to be too emotional and it would cost him. I’m not sure if that’s 100% what happened – I just think Miro is too strong. But Pillman definitely was fighting with more passion than he normally does. Also, I’m not sure about him putting his jacket and glasses on Julia Hart and then tussling her hair like she’s a seven-year old.

Looks like we are going to get a Brian Cage and Ricky Starks match in Austin, Texas! Get ready, y’all!

POP: Las GuerreRose
But also, BOTCH: Rebel’s Hell

Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose come out in matching Skeletor masks for their clash with Rebel and Dr. Britt Baker, DMD. They didn’t have matching masks or outfits for their entrance but isn’t Rebel’s enthusiasm infectious? She is literally all of us if they put us in a match.

Before the match starts, Vickie gets in Rebel’s face and Rebel pushes her to the ground. Vickie gets in her face about it so Baker punches Guerrero out of the ring. Nyla enters and dismisses Rebel so she could get her hands on Britt. Nyla just overpowers Rebel, who is never able to get any offense in. Nyla even throws her over to Britt to tag in but Britt must’ve slipped on the apron as she goes to the floor.

Nyla beats up Rebel for a little bit longer and tags in Vickie. Nyla grabs a table from under the ring and sets it up on the outside. Rebel takes control over Vickie with as much ease as Nyla took control over her. But when Nyla gets tagged back in, Rebel’s not ready. As she hits the ropes to thrust kick Nyla, Baker tags in and puts Nyla down with a slingblade. Nyla almost hits a Beast Bomb but Baker gets away from her and Rebel quickly applies the glove. Nyla isn’t having any part of that so she drapes Britt over the rope and hits a top rope knee to the back of the neck. This move looked DEVASTATING.

Luckily for Britt, Rebel is able to break up the count. Unfortunately, this is also where she reportedly dislocated her kneecap, according to various sources around AEW. Nyla drags her out of the way and tags in Vickie so she can hold Baker for the frog splash but Britt pushes Vickie into Nyla, knocking her off the top rope. She gets the Lock Jaw locked in on Vickie and Guerrero taps. Nyla attacks her after the match and Powerbombs Britt Baker to oblivion. She rolls her to the apron and then powerbombs her from the apron through the table on the floor!

Poor Rebel. The match was a fun one, too. I’m definitely excited to see Nyla vs Britt Baker for the championship but I’m not ready for the DMD era to be dead so I hope Baker can figure a way to pull out the W even if Rebel has to miss some time. At least we know she already has a crutch she can use to recover. As someone who’s suffered a surprise, debilitating knee injury, I hope her treatment and recovery happens with no setbacks and she gets back to us soon.

POTCH: A Man of his Word

MJF vs Sammy Guevara with Jericho on commentary is exactly how this show (and this run at Daily’s Place) should end. Both competitors can go and nobody is better at putting over talent while on commentary than Christopher, By God, Jericho. I’m pretty sure that’s his government name but I don’t have any way to access Canada’s Vital Records so you’ll just have to trust me on this one.

These two spent the first five minutes tying to one-up each other, including dual Ric Flair struts. Small botch on a literal botch as MJF leapfrogged Sammy and either didn’t get high up enough or Sammy didn’t go low enough but Sammy’s head was momentarily caught by MJF’s taint. Luckily enough, they kept the motion moving forward and it didn’t require the match to be altered at all. Sammy counters a superplex into a Spanish Fly, which I was going to call a Spanish God Fly but Jericho beat me to it. Plus, Sammy went all Spanish God on him afterwards so it evened out in the end.

MJF is able to elbow Sammy in the face and does a top rope double stomp on his arm. He goes to the outside and grabs a steel chair. Sammy launches himself through the ropes and dropkicks the chair into MJF’s stupid face. AND THEN HOLY SHIT, HE DID THIS.

Sammy rolls MJF back into the ring and goes up top for the 630 Senton. MJF crotches him and then hits Sammy with a tombstone piledriver from the top rope! MJF hurt his knee when he landed and can’t even pull Sammy up to execute any moves. Sammy tries to roll him up with an inside cradle but only gets a two count. After Sammy gets a couple of near falls, Sammy sets him up again for the 630 Senton. MJF begs him off but Sammy doesn’t give a shit and hits the 630 Senton anyway! But MJF kicks out at two!

Spears head down but Jericho decides to go help. He gets jumped by Wardlow from behind and Wardlow throws him from the stage to the floor below. While the ref is distracted by Jericho writhing on the outside, Spears absolutely brains Sammy with a chair and MJF covers him for the three count.

I realllly wanted this match to end clean with no shenanigans. I get that the ending was used to further the Inner Circle rivalry with The Pinnacle but honestly, at this point, it doesn’t need anything else to add fuel to the fire. It’s well established they hate each other so we already know that any iteration of a match is going to be a brawl. That being said, outside of the small botch I mentioned above, this match ruled. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a top rope Tombstone Piledriver before and I’m not going to lie, I was watching Sammy’s head and worried he’d be too low. I don’t even know what I would call a Spanish God that ended up paralyzed. I love the way MJF does everything inside (and sometimes, outside) of a wrestling ring. He has an innate ability to tell a story, whether it be his moves, his emotions or his facial expressions. Sammy is the perfect foil for MJF because he’s a little flashier but equally as cocky. What a great pairing to close out Daily’s Place.

POP: Daily’s Place

Enjoy your week everyone! Feel free to leave a comment below (good or bad, I’ll answer them all!) and share the column with your friends, family and followers. And seriously, join the Discord for good talk with good people. You can find me on there, Instagram or Twitter (all are @robbywardshow). Please hit me up with what you liked, what you hated, what you think I can change. I’m all ears! Wrestling united!

 

 

     

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