With Night One of Fyter Fest set to kick off on tonight’s edition of Dynamite, let’s take a look back at how AEW led into their two-week extravaganza with a recap of last week’s Dynamite and Rampage, both from Rochester, NY.
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7/6/22 Dynamite Recap
Match 1: Wardlow def. Scorpio Sky to win the TNT Championship
Dynamite kicked off with a bang as Wardlow finally had his chance at Scorpio Sky and the TNT Championship in a Street Fight. The last time these two met, Sky escaped with his title thanks to MJF’s involvement. Now with MJF out of the picture, it appeared that Wardlow had more of an even ground to contend against Scorpio.
Dan Lambert had his American Top Team cohorts attempt to overwhelm Wardlow, but to little effect. This would lead to Wardlow taking out the ATT entourage in one fell swoop. It did, however, open him up to a belt shot from a desperate Scorpio. 1… 2… not quite!
The end for Scorpio came when Wardlow fought out of a TKO attempt and shoved him into Lambert on the apron. A three-bomb strong Powerbomb Symphony soon followed and a one-footed pin on the fallen Scorpio heralded the TNT Title’s arrival into “Wardlow’s World”.
Scorpio never really had Wardlow on the ropes for this match, presumably due to having to work through an injury, so it limited him somewhat in what he could do.
As for our new TNT World Champion, his big victory was very reminiscent of Goldberg winning WCW’s United States Championship from Raven in a similar, dominant fashion. It’ll be interesting to see the wide array of challengers Wardlow will be met with during his reign.
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Match 2: “Swerve in Our Glory” def. The Butcher & The Blade
The continuing passive-aggressive tension between Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee remained a recurring theme in their tag match against The Butcher and the Blade. There were instances where miscommunication could’ve potentially cost Swerve in Our Glory the match.
Notably, Lee accidentally hit Strickland with the Pounce after The Blade pulled Swerve in harm’s way to avoid a gargantuan impact. However, Swerve and Lee got their act together long enough to put away Butcher and the Blade for the all-important win. Their double team Spirit Bomb/Swerve Stomp combo finisher was the difference in this one.
Post-Match
Team Taz’s Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs once again interrupted Swerve and Lee’s victory celebrations, taking umbrage with the two acting like they’re the best tag team in AEW. This brought out the AEW World Tag Team Champions, the Young Bucks, who had their own things to say to Swerve in Our Glory and Team Taz.
The Jacksons boasted about how they were the true kings of the tag division and threw down the gauntlet to their foes – a Triple or Nothing tag title match on Week 1 of Fyter Fest with the tag titles on the line.
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Match 3: Rush def. Penta Oscuro
La Faccion Ingobernable was in full force on Dynamite, as Rush took on Death Triangle’s Penta Oscuro in single’s action.
El Toro Blanco acquitted himself well in his AEW debut, showing why he was a former ROH World Champion against one of the best luchadores on the All Elite roster. Rush dazzled with his array of offense against Penta.
Rush scored the victory after an assist from Andrade El Idolo, who saved him from defeat by placing Rush’s feet on the ropes on the pin after he fell victim to a Penta Oscuro package piledriver. Rey Fenix attempted to ward off Andrade, but that was enough to cause a distraction for Rush to hit Penta with a lowblow and remove his mask to get the dirty victory.
It was a good enough introduction to Rush for new viewers, but it was a finish that yet again saw a heel wrestler remove one of the Lucha Brothers’ masks to earn a cheap victory. It’s a finish that’s practically guaranteed to happen during a match with either Fenix or Penta. While it’s an easy way to get heat on a heel, it does seem a tad bit overused.
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Match 4: The Ass Boys & The Acclaimed def. Bear Country, Leon Ruff, & Fuego Del Sol
What seemed like it would be a regular squash finish for the Gunn Club and the Acclaimed had some interesting wrinkles throughout as we saw betrayal most foul take place.
To start, the Gunns snatched away the microphone from Max Caster before he could start his rap. Once the match got underway, the finish saw Austin Gunn steal a pin away from Caster after a blind tag. However, the real interesting thing came following the match…
Post-Match
Austin & Colten Gunn got into it with Caster and Anthony Bowens, which led to fisticuffs being exchanged. Billy Gunn seemingly tried to play peacemaker, but showed his true colors by attacking Caster with a vicious lariat. A baffled Bowens tried to plead with Billy by way of a scissoring, but fell victim to a Fameasser instead.
The Gunns’ dastardly betrayal of The Acclaimed neatly sets up Caster & Bowens for a babyface turn, which should work out well. The negative reactions the Gunn Club got for cutting off Caster’s pre-match rap shows just how much AEW fans have come to enjoy the witty barbs of The Acclaimed. Really intriguing places this could go, indeed.
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Match 5: ThunderStorm (Thunder Rosa & Toni Storm) def. Nyla Rose & Marina Shafir
The maiden voyage for the dream team of Toni Storm and AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa saw them settle the score against rivals Nyla Rose & Marina Shafir.
Storm & Rosa worked well as a cohesive unit, matching the challenge of Nyla and Marina, who hoped to use their brute strength to gain the upper hand.
The babyface super-duo got the victory with a tandem spike variation of Thunder Rosa’s patented Fire-Thunder Driver on Shafir for the pin and win. It’s interesting that this team pretty much co-existed without issues, though that could change, especially if there’s an AEW Women’s World Title rematch to be revisited down the line.
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Match 6: Jon Moxley def. Brody King (retains Interim AEW World Championship)
Dynamite’s main event pitted interim champion Jon Moxley against Brody King for his first-ever defense of the Interim AEW World Title.
The House of Black’s titan certainly didn’t waste time putting his best foot forward in a big way by keeping Moxley on his toes for the early stages of the match. King used his enormous strength to overpower Mox several times.
It appeared that King might score a shock upset win as he applied a sleeper hold to keep Mox down long enough for the running corner cannonball. The champ managed to kick out at the last possible second to survive.
With Dynamite running past two minutes past 10pm, Mox would eventually retain his Interim AEW TItle by way of a Paradigm Shift, followed by the Bulldog Choke. When King escaped the initial hold, Mox applied it again to earn the referee’s decision as King passed out from the pressure.
All in all, a solid main event that saw King come out of it looking fantastic, even in defeat. He not only hung tough versus Jon Moxley, but managed to dominate him physiically on more than one occasion.
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7/8/22 AEW Rampage Results
- Eddie Kingston def. Konosuke Takeshita via pinfall (12:30) after hitting the backfist for the win. This match was said to be a solid one where Takeshita and Kingston went to war against one another. Another star-making performance for Takeshita.
- The Gates of Agony (Kaun & Toa Liona) def. Jonathan Gresham & Lee Moriarty via pinfall (15:30) when Gresham abandoned Moriarty in the finish, leaving him at the mercy of Kaun & Liona. Gresham revealed that he was aligned with Tully Blanchard Enterprises after the match.
- Serena Deeb & Mercedes Martinez def. Christina Marie & Kayla Sparks via submission (4:00) when Deeb applied the Serenity Lock for the win. After the match, Deeb turned against Martinez, ending their temporary tag team alliance.
- Orange Cassidy def. Tony Nese via pinfall (15:00) with the Orange Punch on Nese. Mark Sterling tried to get involved, but got hit in the groin by Danhausen, who then cursed Nese afterwards, leading to the finish.
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Other Odds & Ends
- On Dynamite, Christian Cage & Luchasaurus left Matt Hardy lying with a chokeslam through the table after Hardy confronted Christian and his new ally on their recent, evil actions, especially towards Jungle Boy and his family. Christian mocked Matt by stating that he was making the absent Jeff Hardy “the sober one” in comparison.
- Jake Hager and Claudio Castagnoli had a backstage confrontation to set up their one-on-one encounter at Fyter Fest: Week 1.
- Eddie Kingston attempted to call out Chris Jericho for a fight and for making a liar out of him at Blood and Guts. The Jericho Appreciation Society interrupted via video, showing that they had Ruby Soho cornered with her arm trapped behind a car door. Tay Conti slammed the door shut on Soho’s arm.
- On Rampage, Kingston challenged Jericho to a barbed wire match, which was later scheduled for Fyter Fest: Week 2, with the J.A.S. to be locked inside shark cages.
- The Dark Order appeared in front of the Rochester crowd to reaffirm their commitment of staying put in AEW and do right by Brodie Lee’s legacy. They had Brodie Jr./Negative One try to say a proclamation, only to be interrupted by QT Marshall, who challenged him to a match. QT found himself on the receiving end of a righteous beating from Dark Order and their friend “Hangman” Adam Page. The segment concluded with Brodie Jr. saying that he’s waiting until he’s 19 to get the pin on QT.
- Stokely Hathaway revealed that he hired Leila Grey as an “interim” Baddie, to which Jade Cargill offered an ultimatum for: either Leila shows results or Stoke’s out.
- Cargill’s rivals, Athena and Kris Statlander, declared that they weren’t going anywhere until Jade gave them a shot at the TBS Championship. The two claimed that Jade was afraid of “real” competition.
- Matches made for ROH Death Before Dishonor: Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal for the ROH TV Title, Daniel Garcia vs. Wheeler YUTA for the ROH Pure Championship, and FTR vs. The Briscoes for the ROH Tag Team Championships.
- Jonathan Gresham explained his reasons for aligning with Tully Blanchard on Rampage, stating that he didn’t want to be stuck at home and that Blanchard offered him a chance to get back to being “the foundation” of ROH. We learned that Gresham will defend his ROH Title against Lee Moriarty on the following week’s Rampage.
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Marc Quill is the editor of RingCrashers, GateCrashers’ home for all your All Elite Wrestling and indie wrestling needs. He’s also the web novelist behind Skye Emery: Bluebird, which you can read here. You can chat with him about wrestling, comics, and stuff in general on @MarcQuill on Twitter.
