Day 125: Top 5 Moments From AEW Dynamite 1/20/21

When I got home from work last night, Rachel was still tuned into CNN. People presumably on Zoom were lip syncing songs and I was mad confused. Firstly, I was confused that Rachel had watched CNN all day. Secondly, there was people lip syncing songs on CNN. I guess the inauguration got real froggy. As much as I wanted to see more of it, I had 4 hours of wrestling to watch. And since I watched 4 hours of new wrestling last night, I might as well break down the highlights of 2 of those hours. So here’s the Top 5 moments from the better show, AEW Dynamite. Because I know how much you people love it when I talk wrestling. You’re welcome.

5) Private Party turning heel. This seemed like a forgone conclusion, as they’ve been tricked into aligning with the evil Matt Hardy Version 420.69. While their match started out polite enough, they decided to fight dirty towards the end and were absolutely giddy about how good it felt. And I for one am all about it. With a roster as crammed as AEW’s, there needs to be more heels to make the stories more interesting. Most of the mid-carder faces I can hardly remember the names of. The heels just have more stuff to do.

4) Dr. Luther’s delivery of the line, “I’m going to ruin your birthday!” The opening segment with subsequent match was absolutely perfect. It started with the birthday celebration of -1/Brodie Lee Jr/a kid who’s father just tragically died and AEW is pulling out all stops to make him feel included in the most heartwarming fashion imaginable. The Dark Order got everyone in the arena to sing Happy Birthday. The party was immediately crashed by Luther and his cronies, who’s still offended that a 9 year old kid called him ugly. In retaliation, he said in his most evil villain voice, “I’m…going to…ruin your birthday!”. It was the most ’80s shit I’ve ever seen and it made me cackle to the point that I had to pause it.

3) The Inner Circle Triple Threat Tag Team Hullaballoo Main Event Thing. Not much to say about it. It was a well-scripted match with 5 of the top guys in AEW and one Bang Bang Bart Jericho. In an episode that was all about segments and progressing storylines, this was the one match that stuck out. Rightfully so, because it’s the main event. Duh.

2) Miro forcing Chuck Taylor to tell Orange Cassidy, “Miro is my best friend now”. Last week, Chuck Taylor lost a match to Miro, forcing him to become his butler for the foreseeable future. He came out with Miro this week donning a crisp butler suit while Orange Cassidy sat in the stands. After some moderate guffawing, Miro forced “Charles” Taylor to send Cassidy a message. Reluctant at first, he said that Miro was his new best friend. And stupidly enough, Orange Cassidy was heartbroken even though he saw the full exchange and knew he was reading from a script. This is the kind of goofiness that makes a good palette cleanser after 3 hours of Raw misery. Also, for a guy that doesn’t speak or emote, Orange Cassidy is a fine actor. He really conveyed his sadness even though he really did nothing to indicate so. I guess that’s just the power of storytelling.

1) The ending to the opening match. To be fair, the first 20 minutes of dynamite was just so fucking good. The match ended as Adam Page, Reynolds, Cabana and John Silver all did a part in the finisher. Then chaos spilled outside of the ring as Brodie Jr started swinging the kendo stick again, getting some pretty good shots in. Then lot of cake went flying. This was all capped off by John Silver getting on one knee and proposing that Adam Page join the Dark Order. He said no, but was interrupted by confetti and banners exclaiming, “HE SAID YES!” Dancers came out and had to be shooed away. The whole scene was hilariously awkward. Adam hung his head, grabbed a bottle of whiskey and left, leaving the Dark Order heartbroken and stunned. As far as shenanigans go, this was as good as it gets. Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face.

So there you have it. This weeks Dynamite took some much needed time to develop storylines, as they were coming off a 2 week event and a tribute show. This all leads up to another special event, Beach Break, which is in…2 weeks?!? Wow. They don’t mess around.

– TeeCoZee