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AEW Dynamite 8/5/2020 – Twelve Man Chaos, A Warning from Jon Moxley

AEW Dynamite had a bit of an off week last week. A large part of it was the last-minute lack of Excalibur on commentary. Timing seemed a little off during some of the matches too. Can AEW pull it back together this week? Let's find out.

A moment from the twelve-man tag match on AEW Dynamite 8/5/2020 [Photo: AEW]
A moment from the twelve-man tag match on AEW Dynamite 8/5/2020 [Photo: AEW]

AEW Dynamite 8/5/2020 Report Part 1

Jim Ross welcomes us to AEW Dynamite. Tony Schiavone is there. Taz is there. Excalibur is not there. Don't read too much into it though; they filmed this episode last week. Next week will be a better indicator of Excalibur's future. Learning from last week, all twelve men are in the ring as soon as Dynamite kicks off, and the match gets started right away.

The Elite and FTR vs. The Dark Order

Nick Jackson and Brodie Lee start things off. Nick dodges Brodie's offense and tags in Matt Jackson. They hit some flippy shit but Lee clotheslines them both. Lee tags in Nine, and everyone on the Elite/FTR team takes turns beating him up until Evil Uno and Stu Grayson come in and beat everyone else up. They go for a double suplex on Hangman Page and Kenny Omega, but FTR comes in and blocks it. Page, Omega, and FTR perform a triple suplex on Uno, Grayson, and Nine. The match devolves into chaos, but fast-paced chaos. Dax Harwood eventually ends up the legal man against Five. Harwood tags in Cash Wheeler.

More chaos and ridiculous spots ensue until we get to the point. Harwood works a knee injury, causing Wheeler and Page walk him to the back, leaving Kenny and the Bucks alone. Where do Hangman Page's loyalties lie?! Outnumbering their opponents two-to-one now, Dark Order has their way with Matt Jackson. In one cool spot, Evil Uno catches a kick from Jackson. He tosses Jackson's foot to the ref and hits a neck drop. Matt eventually gets the upper hand on Five, but Grayson and Uno take out Nick and Kenny on the outside so he has no one to tag.

Left with no other option, Matt goes into full spot monkey mode, hitting flips and dives on everyone. Still, he has no one to tag. But then Hannkgman Page comes back out. Page gets the hot tag and takes on the entire Dark Order. Several flips and dives later, Hangman hits a moonsault off the top rope onto the entire Dark Order team sans Brodie Lee on the floor. He brings Five (who somehow Page knows is the legal man despite all the chaos) into the ring and tosses him into the corner, daring Lee to tag in. Lee does.

Lee and page square off. They trade blows and Page hits a big boot, but Grayson pulls down the ropes when Page tries to bounce off them and he tumbles to the floor. Now even Brodie Lee hits a dive. Dives for everyone! It's a discount sale on dives down at the dive store! Dark Order hoists Page on Colt Cabana's shoulders on the top rope and he hits Chicago Skyline, but Kenny Omega breaks it up. Grayson and Uno hit a combo cannonball/450 splash on Page and Omega. Grayson pins Page but Page kicks out. Lee tags in and goes for a discus cloothesline, but eats a superkick party from The Bucks, who are awake now I guess. Superkick party on everyone in Dark Order, then on Lee again while Kenny hits a snapdragon. They hold Lee for a Buckshot Lariat, but Dark Order gets involved. Page misses, and Lee hits his discus clothesline to get the win.

Winners: Dark Order

Holy hell, what a way to kick off Dynamite. To the casual observer, this may have seemed like a chaotic spotfest, but amidst all the dives, tandem offense, and more dives, there were several stories being advanced here. Hangman Page's growing alliance with FTR. His disillusionment with The Elite. Brodie Lee's beef with Page. Lee's love for Colt Cabana. And in what may be my favorite part, Page failed to save the day, which is sure to eat at him. A lot of times Page and Omega get into trouble but pull out the victory anyway. Not this time. Dynamite goes to commercials.

Footage shows us Best Friends arriving at Daily's Place in Trent's mom's white minivan prior to Dynamite today. Well, not really today. It was filmed last week. But you get the point. This will be important later. Jon Moxley cuts a promo. He talks about struggling with demons early in his career. People tried to talk him out of crazy matches and in some cases, he wishes he listened to them. But in other cases, he wouldn't change a thing. He gets why Darby Allin challenged him for his title. But Moxley has become the voice of reason now. He's concerned for Darby Allin's health. Allin will come at Moxley and won't stop until he can't move. The last time they wrestled, Moxley nearly broke his neck. Moxley doesn't want to end Allin's career. Allin is his favorite wrestler. But the title is on the line, and when Allin signed that contract, Moxley has to do what he has to do. Moxley tells Allin when it's time to stay down, just stay down, even though he knows Allin won't listen, just like Moxley wouldn't. The point here is that Moxley sees himself in Darby Allin, and he's both proud but also sad because he's going to have to put him down in the Dynamite main event later.

We've already broken 1,000 words, but Dynamite is just getting started. I feel a four-pager coming on tonight for this recap, and that's not even counting NXT! Recapping wrestling shows forces you to pay more attention to the structure of the show and the structure of matches, and from that perspective, you can really see just how different Dynamite is. When I recap WWE's shows, or even Impact, I can kind of casually just watch the show and type stuff down really quick, count on breaks between segments when I know there'll be some video package to clean up the text, etc. None of that is possible with Dynamite. I'm just frantically typing the entire time. The pacing is wild, not only in the matches, but going from segment to segment. It certainly keeps me on my toes, but I also think it's a big reason why Dynamite feels like it flows together so well, and also like it goes by so fast. This show does not drag.

But we're still only a quarter way through it. Click on the table of contents down below to continue reading.


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Jude TerrorAbout Jude Terror

A prophecy once said that in the comic book industry's darkest days, a hero would come to lead the people through a plague of overpriced floppies, incentive variant covers, #1 issue reboots, and super-mega-crossover events. Sadly, that prophecy was wrong. Oh, Jude Terror was right. For ten years. About everything. But nobody listened. And so, Jude Terror has moved on to a more important mission: turning Bleeding Cool into a pro wrestling dirt sheet!
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