Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, dynamite, sports, tv, wrestling

AEW Dynamite 6/17/20 Report Part 1 – Ricky Starks is All Elite

It's Wednesday night, which means it's time to tune into TNT and watch some good old fashioned wrasslin' from the wrestling company that only makes their talent work during a pandemic after giving them real coronavirus tests. That's right; it's time for AEW Dynamite unless, of course, you're watching NXT live, but who would do that? It's a stacked card tonight with a couple of title matches, and one of them is starting right now.

Kenny Omega and Hangman Page head to the ring on a sunny Jacksonville evening for a match against the Natural Nightmares. Brandi Rhodes is in the ring already with Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall. The Bunny is nowhere to be found… yet.

Dustin and Kenny start the match. Kenny goes for One-Winged Angel right away, but Dustin blocks it. Rhodes hits a nice hurricanrana off the top rope before both men tag out. Page gets the better of Marshall quickly and lays in some chops. But Marshall returns fire with a dropkick. Hangman hits a big boot and tags in Omega, who springboards in with a double axehandle.

Marshall gets a suplex on Omega and tags Rhodes back in. Rhodes hits some of his signature strikes and tosses Omega hard into the turnbuckles. He hits a backdrop and a couple of elbow drops and gets a two-count. Rhodes tags in Marshall, and they hit a double Russian Leg Sweep for a two count.

Britt Baker is passing notes to Tony Schiavone over a clothesline. They're fashion critiques about his outfit.  She doesn't like his tie. In the ring, Marshall has Omega in a chinlock. He tags Rhodes back in. Rhodes hits a snapmare and applies a chinlock of his own. Kenny fights back, but Rhodes hits a big backdrop. Rhodes charges Omega in the corner but Omega blocks and hits a Kotara Crusher.

Marshall and Page tag in, and Hangman hits a big clothesline on Marshall, then a springboard clothesline to send Rhodes to the floor. Page hits a fallaway slam on Marshall and a dive on Rhodes. He's able to get a two-count on Marshall and tags in Omega, who hits a springboard moonsault for two. Omega tags Page back in. Page kicks Rhodes from the apron to the floor. Marshall and Page exchange blows, and Marshall hits a spin kick off the ropes. Both men tag out.

Rhodes and Omega exchange moves off Irish Whips, and Rhodes hits his dropdown uppercut, a Manhattan Drop, and a bulldog.  Then he whips Kenny into the ropes and hits a power slam. Hangman gets a powerslam as well. Rhodes goes to the top rope and hits some flippy s**t on Page and Omega, then dumps both from the ring. Was that Whisper in the Wind? Rhodes hits a senton off the apron on his opponents, and Marshall follows up with the QT Special. Back in, Marshall hits a diving uppercut on Omega, but Omega hits him with the Snapdragon suplex. Rhodes comes in and hits the Canadian Destroyer on Omega. Page hits a clothesline on Rhodes. Marshall hits a Diamond Cutter on Page.

Now Allie comes out. Jim Ross calls her a Jezebel. That's not politically correct anymore, JR. Besides, Allie is doing nothing Jezebel-like. She's just cheering on her boyfriend QT, who misses a moonsault. Omega tags in Page and whips him into Marshall in the corner. Page returns the favor. Omega throws Marshall to Page for a German Suplex and dumps Rhodes to the floor.

Page tags Omega in and hits a powerbomb on Marshall. Omega hits a knee to the back of the head while Page dives out of the ring on Rhodes. Omega and Page hit the Last Call and get the pin. Allie looks disappointed.  Page and Omega will defend the titles against Best Friends or Le Sex Gods at Fyter Fest.

Winners and still AEW Tag Team Champions: Hangman Page and Kenny Omega

The announcers thank us for joining them (you're welcome, JR) and run through the rest of the lineup for tonight. Cody will defend the TNT Championship against an outsider. Billy (Don't Call Him Gunn) faces MJF. Superbad Squad will fight the Young Bucks. Le Sex Gods will face Best Friends for the opportunity to face Page and Omega. And next, Anna Jay will wrestle as the AEW Women's Division is looking like a horror movie cast, being picked off by injury one-by-one. But first, some commercials.

We get a video package for Anna Jay. Jay comes to the ring to fight Abadon. Abadon… crawls to the ring on her hands and knees like the girl from The Ring. She's wearing elaborate zombie makeup. JR apologizes for this. Britt Baker says, "This broad needs to find Jesus." The match lasts less than a minute, and Abadon gets the pin. Then she mugs for the camera. JR is disgusted. Nevertheless, on social media later, AEW announced Abadon has signed with AEW.

Winner: Abadon

The Dark Order comes to the stage. Brodie Lee sends Stu Grayson and Evil Uno to give Colt Cabana, who is in the audience, a contract. The Dark Order helps Anna Jay to her feet and walks her to the back as Dynamite heads to another commercial break.

After the break, MJF heads to the ring for his match against Billy. Billy can no longer use the name Gunn because he's in a trademark dispute with WWE over it. Everyone in these situations should just follow the Ultimate Warrior model and legally change their name to their ring name. But skip the Destrucity nonsense.

Billy and Austin Gunn (go ahead, sue me Vince!) come to the ring. MJF tries an armbar on Gunn, and Gunn no-sells it. MJF tries to play like he was just shaking Billy's hand. Shenanigans like this happen throughout the match, MJF isn't taking Gunn seriously and spends a lot of the match screwing with him.

For the finish, MJF puts a reverse Figure Four on Gunn. He uses the ropes, and Aubrey Edwards breaks it up. MJF distracts Aubrey as Gunn recovers. Gunn goes for a chokeslam, but MJF kicks him in the knee. MJF tries a Famouser, but Gunn reverses and hits his own. Wardlow distracts Edwards during the pinfall and gets a punch to the face for his trouble. Butt Wardlow manages to toss MJF his diamond ring. Wardlow attacks Austin Gunn outside, and Billy heads outside to take care of him. When he comes back, MJF punches him with the ring and gets a pinfall. After the match, MJF and Wardlow argue with Jurassic Express in the crowd. The stands empty to break up the brawl.

Winner: Coronavirus

Backstage, Alex Marvez interviews Le Sex Gods. Chris Jericho says Marvez has a fat head and then lays into Orange Cassidy. Jericho doesn't like being interrupted, and that's why he juiced Orange Cassidy. Sammy Guevara says they beat the pulp out of Cassidy. Jericho says they'll win their match tonight and become the new number one contenders. Jericho says he and Sammy aren't just best friends. They're blood brothers, and blood is thicker than orange juice.

Tony Schiavone interviews Britt Baker. Tony announces Hikaru Shida will defend her championship against Penelope Ford at Fyter Fest, assuming both women can avoid getting injured over the next few weeks, a dicey prospect in AEW. Britt isn't pleased with Tony breaking this news during their interview, so she ends the conversation and puts Tony on a "friendship timeout." She tells Reba to drive her away in her golf cart, but it's actually Big Swole at the wheel. "Where to, Doctor?" Swole leaves the arena with Baker in the cart.

Cody comes to the ring with Arn Anderson for his TNT Championship open challenge mystery match. His opponent will be someone from outside of AEW, but we won't find out until after commercials. When Dynamite comes back,  Cody is cutting a promo. Cody wonders if he's in the Elite and Nightmare Family still since no one came out to save him when he was being beaten up by Jake Hager last week. Kinda hellish, Cody. Cody hands the mic to Anderson.

Anderson tells Cody with age comes maturity and wisdom, and Cody needs to listen to the voice of reason. Anderson knows Cody can beat Hager, but timing is everything, and the timing is not right. Anderson wants to move on to Cody's opponent tonight. Anderson bills it as a tuneup match for Cody.

Absolute Ricky Starks appears on the Khantron to introduce himself with a video package. Starks calls himself the hottest free agent in pro wrestling, which is a tall order. Starks heads to the ring, and the match gets underway after some introductions. Jake Hager is watching the match from backstage.

The match starts with the competitors trading armbars. How come matches never start with the Test of Strength anymore. I miss the test of strength. Cody hits a shoulder tackle, then a kick to the gut and a dropdown uppercut. Starks strikes back with some slaps to the face. They trade more blows, and Cody hits a dropkick. Cody delivers a low blow, sending Starks to the floor, and then a suicide dive. Time for commercials! Oh, no, sorry, forgot this isn't WWE. Cody brings Stark back in the ring and goes for a running move of some sort, but we don't get to learn what because Starks dodges and sends Cody face-first into the rope. My favorite wrestling move is the one where the wrestler doesn't attempt any actual move because the purpose is to have the move reversed. You see it a lot when someone jumps off the top rope into a superkick. What were they going for? Were they going to hit the other wrestler with their face?

Starks heads outside and beats on Cody on the apron. He hits a legdrop, and both men roll back in. Starks gets a one-count. Starks lays Cody on the ropes and goes for something, but Anderson pulls Cody out of the way. More trading of blows and Starks hits a Tornado DDT. They trade punches and kicks again, and Starks puts Cody in a chinlock, then drops an elbow on his head. He tosses Cody into the corner and charges after him, but they bump their heads together. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Starks tries that DDT again but misses and gets caught in a powerslam for a two-count. Starks avoids a Crossroads, but can't avoid a standing vertical suplex. Cody gets another two-count. Cody heads to the top rope, but Starks grabs his foot. Starks heads up top and hits a superplex on Cody. Tony wants to talk about the lineage of NWA Heavyweight Champions, but JR isn't interested in a trip down memory lane. Are you okay, JR? Starks takes himself and Cody outside the ring with a clothesline. They both crawl back in and punch each other some more. Cody goes for the Disaster Kick, but Starks hits a spear for two.

Starks goes for a Tiger Driver or something, but Cody blocks it, and they trade pin reversals. Cody hits the Crossroads for the pinfall. After the match, the two men shake hands. Later on social media, AEW announced that Starks has signed with the company. Dynamite takes a commercial break, and we'll take this opportunity to move onto part two of our AEW recap, so join us there shortly.

Winner: Cody

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