AEW Dynamite Review - June 18
Wardlow and Jake Hager opened the Friday, June 18 episode of Dynamite with an MMA-style cage fight. (Photo via All Elite Wrestling/Twitter)
In what will be the final edition of Friday Night Dynamite for the near future, All Elite Wrestling continued to build towards their stacked set of July events including four special episodes of Dynamite in four consecutive weeks. With a busy week coming up to close out June where Dynamite will be held on both Saturday, June 26 and Wednesday, June 30, the June 18 episode was all about setting the table for a strong end of the month.
The show kicked off with the heavily anticipated mixed martial arts contest between Jake Hager and Wardlow. The first round actually resembled a real MMA match fairly well for the first few minutes, albeit with more taunts and staredowns than typical. Things eventually broke down, as the combination of MMA-style and pro wrestling striking was a bit too awkward. It looked as if both guys were too scared of actually hitting their opponent to throw a convincing punch, despite Hager’s legitimate MMA background.
With the awkwardness of round one’s final minutes capped off by a cage-assisted superman punch by Wardlow, round two largely moved away from the realistic aspects of the fight, abandoning the grappling from round one that looked largely authentic. After trading submission attempts, Wardlow powerbombed Hager into the cage, nailed a hurricanrana and then speared Hager, marking the final departure from any preconceptions of an MMA fight. The two exchanged wrestling maneuvers until Hager locked in his arm triangle choke that put Wardlow to sleep.
The two’s respective cornermen entered the octagon for a brawl that concluded with MJF locking Chris Jericho in an armbar and flattening Dean Malenko with a forearm. The fight was fun for what it was and was a pretty creative way to advance the feud between The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle.
Ahead of their six-man tag main event, Frankie Kazarian, Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo prophesized about what they would do to The Elite later in the show.
Next, Taz looked to clear the air between the members of his team; not much was accomplished, though, as Ricky Starks didn’t even respond to Powerhouse Hobbs’ complaint about his abandonment last week, and Brian Cage wasn’t even present for the team meeting.
The Men of the Year, Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky, had a strong showing in their handicap match against Darby Allin. (Photo via All Elite Wrestling/Twitter)
Darby Allin then faced off with The Men of the Year, Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page, in a two-on-one handicap match. Allin held his own, at one point even using zip ties to neutralize Page and the duo’s numbers advantage, but the handicap was too much even for him as Page put him away with the Ego’s Edge. Allin is a great underdog, and he’s so well-protected that it seemed plausible he could win at times, but giving the victory to Page and Sky was the right decision here.
Next up was Orange Cassidy taking on Cezar Bononi, with Best Friends and The Wingmen at ringside to support their respective members. Bononi showed off his strength for much of the match, tossing the smaller Cassidy around early, but some assistance from Best Friends helped mitigate The Wingmen’s influence and allowed Cassidy to pull off a flurry of superman punches, eventually landing one on Bononi for the win. The match was short but fun, and hopefully just a way of preserving Cassidy’s relevance on-screen until fans are able to return to the shows.
Kenny Omega, Don Callis and Michael Nakazawa pulled up on Jungle Boy in a golf cart mid-interview backstage, with Omega talking down to Jungle Boy yet again and attempting to goad him into starting a fight. As Jungle Boy looked ready to strike, Nakazawa hit him from behind with a laptop. Jungle Boy gained the upper hand on Omega quickly though, causing Omega and Callis to make a getaway, leaving Nakazawa behind.
Matt Hardy threatened to continue his attacks on Christian Cage in a backstage promo, only to be interrupted by Cage himself. Outnumbered, Cage was shoved into a gated area and locked in by Private Party, allowing Hardy to offer Cage retirement money in the hopes that he’d give up on his pursuit of Hardy.
Next, Cody Rhodes teamed with the debuting Brock Anderson to take on QT Marshall and Aaron Solow. This was a fine match, with Anderson taking most of the offense from Marshall and Solow, but he was able to showcase some real skills in just his first outing. His technique looked sound, and he picked up the win with a deep jackknife pin on Solow.
Nightmare Family coach Arn Anderson was there to raise the hand of his son, Brock, after his debut victory on Dynamite. (Photo via Fightful.com/All Elite Wrestling)
Jake Roberts cut a promo from an abandoned building for some reason, with Lance Archer pacing behind him, discussing how Archer has run out of patience for his next opportunity at AEW gold.
Aired next was Jim Ross’ sitdown interview with Andrade El Idolo, AEW’s newest big signee. Andrade said he chose to come to AEW because of their many stars, but that he is a superstar and that his first goal is to take the TNT Championship, and his next goal after that is to take the AEW World Championship. He said he partnered with Vickie Guerrero because of their shared connection of coming from pro wrestling families and claimed that the duo has a surprise in the waiting.
Backstage with The Dark Order, Adam Page accepted Taz’s challenge from earlier in the night for a match with Hobbs on next week’s Dynamite. When interviewer Alex Marvez brought up Page’s standing as the No. 2 contender for the AEW World Championship, Page changed the subject and instead began praising members of The Dark Order for their recent performances, culminating in a chant and celebration for Evil Uno. Page’s character development and consistency has been fun to watch throughout his AEW run, and it’s clear that he’s well on his way to eventually being one of the company’s top stars.
In her first match on Dynamite, Julia Hart faced off with Penelope Ford in a fairly lackluster match. Hart’s character is a cheerleader, partnered with The Varsity Blonds, but she didn’t get much of a chance to leave an impression as she hardly landed any moves in the match. Ford delivered on her spots and got the win with an Indian Deathlock. Post-match, Miro came out and brawled with The Varsity Blonds’ Brian Pillman Jr., and his promo seemed to hint towards a continued on-screen relationship between Miro and Ford.
Backstage, Vickie Guerrero told Britt Baker and Rebel that because AEW President Tony Khan owed her a favor due to her recruitment of Andrade, next week Baker and Rebel will face Nyla Rose and herself in a tag match. Guerrero wrestling again is not something to look forward to. After match announcements were made for both of June’s final two shows, Mark Sterling and Jade Cargill cut yet another promo from backstage hyping up Cargill’s business prospects and her brand. The two have a very apparent chemistry together, and should be a good addition to Dynamite once they become more prominently used.
The main event saw Kazarian, Kingston and Penta take on Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Matt Jackson of The Elite. The match was high-energy and clicked on all cylinders, with some great offensive sequences coming from the babyface trio. Penta’s package piledriver leading into Kingston’s saito suplex, finished off with an Angel’s Wings by Kazarian was an absolutely devastating combination, but Gallows was able to break up the pin. After some more back-and-forth, Nick Jackson would take advantage of the referee’s attention being diverted by spraying Penta in the face with an aerosol can, allowing Anderson to nail a diving neckbreaker for the win.
Finished off with a great main event, Dynamite was an improvement this week after last week’s episode felt a tad stagnant. With the big slate of July events on the horizon, the final shows of June should hopefully advance the show’s stories to a point where July will be a month of change for the direction of some of AEW’s biggest names.
The strap match stipulation feels a bit random for this feud, but hopefully, it will inject some life into a story that hasn’t felt like it has been hitting its full potential.
