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AEW Dynamite Recap – What's Kenneth Alpha Doing in the Impact Zone?!
Winter isn't just coming, folks. Winter is Here. AEW doesn't have another PPV until 2021, so this episode of Dynamite is looking like the biggest show until then, at least on paper. A year in the making, Kenny Omega is facing Jon Moxley for the AEW Championship. Unlike most television title matches, I kinda sorta maybe believe it might change hands tonight.
I'm Jude Terror, and this is The Shovel: Wednesday Night Wars edition, the column where I watch wrestling, so you don't have to. And this is part two of the AEW Dynamite recap (split into two parts, one for each hour, so I can get paid twice).
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AEW Dynamite Recap for December 2nd, 2020 Part 2
Just prior to a commercial break, Darby Allin and Cody Rhodes, with Arn Anderson at ringside, started a match with Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks, with Taz at ringside. Just prior to that, I had come to the realization that Ricky Starks looks a lot like The Situation from Jersey Shore, and I'm not sure what to do with that information. And prior to that, we just saw as near a perfect first our of AEW Dynamite as I've ever seen.
The show comes back, and the match is on. Jim Ross is absolutely entranced by Will Hobbs. He and Excalibur talk about Hobbs's high school football career, and JR lists off his weightlifting stats. Darby Allin spends most of this match getting his ass kicked, playing second-fiddle to Cody even though he's the one with the belt. Cody gets the hot tag and takes on Hobbs and Starks. He gets so fired up he pulls off his weight belt and tosses it… into the empty portion of the stands. Oops! Cody kicks some more ass, no-selling some cheating attempts. Allin tags himself in as Cody hits a Cody Cutter on Starks. Cody hits a plancha on Hobbs, and Allin hits the coffin drop on Starks for the win.
Darby Allin and Cody Rhodes defeat Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks.
Hobbs attacks after the match, takes out Cody and beats down Allin. Arn Anderson gets in the ring and steps to Hobbs, and he does get a few good shots in, but he gets taken down by Hobbs and Starks. Dustin Rhodes comes out to turn the tide. Brian Cage comes out to turn it back. Taz directs traffic as Cage hits Cody with an F5, and then he and starks hold Cody so Hobbs can hit him with the belt…
But the lights go out. A winter-themed video package plays on the Khantron. Holy fuck, it's Sting! Sting comes out (with fake snow for his entrance). He's got his baseball bat. Hearing Tony Schiavone shout, "Sting is here!" warms my cold, dead heart. Sting comes to the ring and comes face to face with Arn Anderson. Taz and his boys have fled. Sting walks over to Dustin Rhodes and stares at him. Then Cody. Then Darby Allin who stands up so they can have a proper staredown. Sting gives the crowd a few "woos" and leaves. Dynamite takes a commercial break.
Excalibur is still marking out over String. Tony Schiavone says Sting has signed a multi-year contract with AEW. "How's that news?" he adds. "You didn't even have to go to the hotline to get it," says JR. "This is the biggest episode of Dynamite ever," says Excalibur. Come on, Tony, this your moment. Say it. Say, "this is the greatest night in the history of our sport!" Sadly, he doesn't say it. But we're all thinking it.
MJF vs. Orange Cassidy for the Dynamite Diamond Ring. The Young Bucks vs. The Hybrid 2. Dustin Rhodes vs. Dark Order's 10. The Inner Circle Ultimatum. FTR vs. Varsity Blondes (Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr.). Abadon in action.
Speaking of which, Alex Marvez talks to Hikaru Shida backstage. Shida says she's not afraid of Abadon, who is "just a girl doing zombie cosplay. I do cosplay sometimes." Shida hears a noise in the background, gets spooked, and says she has to go. Maybe she's not as confident as she claims.
Also, next week, Sting speaks! But right now, Jon Moxley cuts a promo about the main event, which is starting… after a commercial break. Don Callis is on commentary for the main event. He's commented more for AEW lately than he has for Impact. Justin Roberts does the introductions. Kenny Omega comes out first and then Moxley. Moxley's entrance includes a walk from the hallways to the stands to the ring.
Dynamite takes one more commercial break before the match. There's about a half-hour left in the show when the bell rings. Jim Ross assures us that if the match goes longer than that, AEW will stay on the air. The small crowd is loud as hell as this match starts, 40-degree weather and all. The match starts out slow with a long feeling-out period in the ring, where Omega may have an advantage. Then it spills outside where Moxley has the advantage, and he knows it. Moxley and Omega brawl in the ringside area through a picture-in-picture commercial break, but right before the break, Omega drops Moxley's knee on the barrier.
Omega brings the match back inside, and Moxley is in trouble now. Omega zeroes in on that left leg, and Moxley doesn't have much of an answer for it. After taking a lot of punishment, Moxley finally manages to hit a variety of suplexes on Omega. Still, he continues to sell the knee into another picture-in-picture commercial break. A note on picture-in-picture commercial breaks: I appreciate them in spirit, but I am utterly incapable of not watching the commercials. They're louder, and they take up a bigger portion of the screen. I guess that's probably the point.
Anyway, after the break, Omega is in control again and hits a tope con hilo on Moxley. But back in the ring, Moxley hits a paradigm shift. But he doesn't pin Omega. He rolls out of the ring and gets two steel chairs. He sets them up, facing each other, and sits in one. He invites Kenny to sit in the other, and he does. Moxley tells Omega to hit him in the face. Omega does it. They trade punches and slaps from the chairs. Moxley wins the exchange, but Omega hits Moxley with a V-Trigger. He hits a pair of snapdragon suplexes, but Moxley dodges a second V-Trigger and hits a german suplex. Omega then hits a V-Trigger. Moxley hits a clothesline. He hits a second paradigm shift. Now he makes the cover. But Kenny Omega kicks out!
Omega rolls out of the ring. Moxley goes for a suicide dive, but Omega counters it with a V-Trigger. Back inside, Omega hits a missile dropkick, another V-Trigger, and a Tiger Driver '98 for a two-count. Omega goes for another V-Trigger, but Moxley catches it. Omega tries again and hits it. He goes for One-Winged Angel, and they trade reversals until Omega hits a dropkick. Now he hits ripcord V-Trigger and goes for One-Winged Angel again. Moxley counters it on the way down, but Omega counters the counter and hits a German suplex for two. He goes up top for a Phoenix Splash, but he slips on the ropes (and Moxley tries to shove him, but really Omega fell first on his own).
Outside, Moxley DDTs Omega into some ringside heaters. A doctor comes out and checks out Kenny. Don Callis also leaves commentary and goes down there. They're saying Omega hit the concrete when he fell. It's a work, though. Moxley shoves the officials out of the way and tosses Omega in the ring. He mounts him and punches him in the head. Don Callis has a microphone and pleads with the ref to stop the match. Moxley punches him in the face. Callis drops the microphone he had in his hand, and as the ref tends to Callis, Omega hits Moxley with the mic. Was this the plan all along?
Moxley is busted open. Omega pulls down his kneepad and hits a V-Trigger. Then another. A third to the back of the head as Moxley leans on the ropes. A fourth to the face as Moxley sits in the corner. And now, finally, a One-Winged Angel. He pins him!
Kenny Omega defeats Jon Moxley to win the AEW Championship.
Don Callis, laughing, grabs the belt and gets in the ring to usher Omega away. They quickly exit the ringside area as AEW staff are outraged. So is commentary. JR says they're "running like scalded dogs." They make it to the parking lot where Alex Marvez tries to interview them. Don Callis tells Marvez we can find out on Tuesday night. Marvez is like, "but Dynamite is on Wednesdays." Callis says he and Omega will explain it all on Impact Wrestling. Holy fucking shit.
As AEW goes off the air, Eddie Kingston jumps on commentary to call out Lance Archer for next week. And that's it. For Dynamite. Wow. Wow. What an episode. Sting. Omega. Callis. Impact. Moxley going undefeated for a year to make this loss so shocking and powerful. Omega's months-long slow-burn heel turn culminating so perfectly. Don Callis is in rare form telling the AEW audience that the new AEW Champion will explain himself on Impact Wrestling next week?! Wow!