Obviously, it means Uncrowned continues its debut week with the first recap of "AEW Dynamite." Wednesday's show was the first to take place after the WrestleDream pay-per-view event last Saturday, which featured three title changes, with Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita winning the AEW World Championship and AEW International Championship, respectively.
Let's get this out of the way early, right? Say what you will about the ending of WrestleDream -- not Moxley going over Danielson as much as the immediate aftermath -- but I LOVED the open to "Dynamite" on Wednesday.
Picking up immediately as Blackpool Combat Club exited WrestleDream and shot in the back of a moving pickup truck, this was the cinematic side of pro wrestling at its finest. Moxley ranting and raving about how he hates what AEW has become and putting the entire locker room on notice, saying, "You work for me now," was the perfect amount of menace to set up his latest reign as champion.
On to the show!
No, this isn't a "Dynamite" pun and the Costco Guys did not open the night off. Instead, it was Adam Cole (Bay Bay) who began things in earnest in San Jose, California. Cole returned on Saturday night at WrestleDream, reigniting his feud with (also returning at WrestleDream) MJF.
For those who needed a refresher, Cole retold his history with MJF before he was shelved for a year due to injury. Cole essentially played the hits for a babyface promo and laid out a challenge before MJF's music hit and we got a video response/rejection from the former AEW World Champion.
MJF flipped the script, playing the victim and claiming that Cole was the one who betrayed him. In return, MJF said he would never grant Cole the peace of getting vengeance on him.
📝 Book it! Cole vs. MJF at Full Gear next month needs to happen.
The next segment featured a pair of interviews from Renee Paquette. The first, from Saturday, was with Chris Jericho, who just lost a match against Mark Briscoe for the Ring of Honor World Championship. Jericho -- who plugged his side endeavors, "Terrifier 3" and Fozzy's latest tour -- demanded a rematch, invoking the name of Briscoe's late brother Jay once again.
Briscoe, naturally, accepted the challenge in the subsequent interview segment, but upped the ante by making it a Ladder War match for next week's "Dynamite." FTR then joined the interview as they were set for a match with Jericho's cronies, Big Bill and Bad Apple Bryan Keith.
The first in-ring action of the night was a fairly standard TV tag match, with both teams getting decent showcases before FTR ultimately won with their Shatter Machine finisher. After the win, the Outrunners' music hit and the hottest tag team in AEW came out to celebrate "Predator"-style with Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. La Faccion Ingobernable was also shown backstage watching.
FTR is one of the best tag teams in the world, so hopefully they march back into the title picture -- a teased heel turn would go a long way toward this.
Winner: FTR.
Another brief interview segment came as we jumped backstage to talk with The Acclaimed. Just as Anthony Bowens and Max Caster were getting started, they were interrupted by MVP and Shelton Benjamin (more on them later). MVP challenged them to be more "serious" about their craft and handed them a business card.
The seeds for our lone championship contest of the night were planted on Saturday at WrestleDream as Moné and Kamille bumped into Queen Aminata backstage.
Moné entered "Dynamite" undefeated and remained that way in a pretty entertaining match with Aminata, who showed off some creative offense before ultimately tapping out. Both women came out of this looking better than they did going in, even if Moné's reign was never truly in doubt.
Winner (and still): Mercedes Moné.
If it seems like a good portion of the night was spent catching people up on the happenings at WrestleDream, it was. We got a brief look back at Private Party's AEW Tag Team Championship match against The Young Bucks on Saturday (it was really good) before both teams confronted each other backstage.
Private Party asked the Bucks for a rematch, which the EVPs denied. As they walked away, Stokely Hathaway entered the picture and taunted Isiah Kassidy and Mar Quen, looking to drive a wedge between them by suggesting Kassidy is a better singles star anyway.
The Bucks were in a bit of a rush because they had to get to another backstage segment alongside fellow Elite members Jack Perry and Kazuchika Okada. Perry, one of the top heels in AEW, wished EVP Kenny Omega a happy birthday -- not a work, Happy Birthday Best Bout Machine -- before mocking his very real battle with diverticulitis, including dumping fake organs on a cake.
The Bucks and Okada were scheduled for a match against The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero and Kyle O'Reilly). Just as action was starting to heat up, Blackpool ransacked the place, taking out the Conglomeration, focusing mostly on Orange Cassidy (like Darby Allin, an AEW OG). The Elite escaped the onslaught and watched from the ramp as Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, and Marina Shafir created chaos. Eventually, The Dark Order and Top Flight attempted make a rescue but were snuffed out.
Moxley called this the "cost of doing business," as Shafir choked out Alex Reynolds using a belt around the ring post. We still have not seen the AEW World Championship since BCC bagged it up after the main event on Saturday, but PAC was carrying around a gray briefcase.
After all of the commotion, Private Party and Daniel Garcia confronted the Elite, specifically the EVPs Matt and Nick Jackson about why they're letting this happen. This little breakout feud will culminate in a trios match next week.
For all intents and purposes, this was a squash match. Rush got in some offense, but it was essentially a showcase of Benjamin in his AEW debut. Rush was a perfect opponent because it was able to really highlight the power and presence of Benjamin, establishing him as a real threat moving forward.
After the match, MVP slipped a business card into Rush's trunks and laid out a challenge for Swerve Strickland, who spurned the manager's advances at WrestleDream. Strickland (in a "Mass Effect N7" jacket no less) accepted in a backstage promo and the match was set for the October 30 "Fright Night Dynamite."
Winner: Shelton Benjamin.
Don Callis is a pure heat machine, which is really something to witness. He came to the ring flanked by Lance Archer and new Ring of Honor Television Champion Brian Cage. Callis then proclaimed that there are no real journalists in professional wrestling (we resent that here at Uncrowned, Don) and welcomed new AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher to the ring. Fletcher turned on Will Ospreay at WrestleDream and helped Takeshita win the championship.
Takeshita vowed to defend his title around the world while Fletcher cut a fairly generic heel promo.
📝 Book it! Give me Kyle Fletcher vs. Will Ospreay at Full Gear next.
AEW Women's World Champion Mariah May went on a tirade about how she isn't getting the respect (or celebration) she deserves as champion. She also lamented the lack of women willing to step up to fight her. Anna Jay, fresh off a Zero Hour win at WrestleDream, took issue with this notion and confronted May before inadvertently slapping Christopher Daniels. May and Jay will meet in a non-title eliminator match this weekend.
Speaking of this weekend, Ricochet, who was in the AEW International Championship triple-threat match on Saturday at WrestleDream, issued an open challenge for "Collision."
We got another vicious attack courtesy of Blackpool Combat Club, with Dark Order and Top Flight once again being the victims. BCC eventually fled the arena in a pickup truck and Evil Uno and Top Flight each issued challenges, with the latter getting their shot at the heels on "Collision."
The night's main event featured "Switchblade" Jay White against "The Patriarch" Christian Cage. The match itself was entertaining and helped to move along each wrestler's storylines, albeit not with one another. Kip Sabian came out to distract Cage and the referee, allowing White to set Cage up for the Blade Runner finisher. Instead of White landing it and winning, he was met with a Buckshot Lariat from "Hangman" Adam Page, who White defeated on Saturday at WrestleDream.
Winner: Christian Cage
For our readers who are strapped for time, here's the TL;DR -- Blackpool Combat Club is dangerous, MVP wants clients and bromance is dead between Cole and MJF.