AEW DYNAMITE PRIMER 1/15: DDP’s return to the ring in a six-man tag, Pac vs. Darby Allin, Moxley vs. Guevara, Cody responds to MJF’s demands

AEW DYNAMITE PRIMER
JANUARY 14, 2020
CORAL GABLES, FL. AT THE WATSCO CENTER
AIRS ON TNT, 8:00 PM EST
BY JOSHUA CHAMBERS (@josh_chambers), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

ARENA

The Watsco Center is the 8,000 seat home of the University of Miami Hurricanes (NCAA Basketball) and is located on the University’s campus in Coral Gables, Florida.

Road to Miami
Road to Miami premiered Monday January 13, 2020 on AEW’s YouTube channel.

ANNOUNCED LINE-UP

This week’s episode is part one of AEW’s two-part “Bash at the Beach event.” Part 2 will take place on “Chris Jericho’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea Part Deux: Second Wave” and will air as the Jan. 22 episode of Dynamite.

Matches Announced:

• Jon Moxley (1) vs. Sammy Guevara (5)
• Kris Stratlander & Shida vs. The Nightmare Collective (Awesome Kong & Mel)
• MJF, The Butcher & The Blade vs. DDP Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall
• PAC (4) vs. Darby Allin
• Santana & Ortiz (1) vs. The Young Bucks (2) vs. The Best Friends (3) vs. Kenny Omega & Adam Page (4)

Segments Advertised:

Cody responds to MJF’s demands

AEW DARK RESULTS

• Darby Allin defeated Brandon Cutler
• Nyla Rose vs. Shanna – No Contest
• The Gunn Club (Austin & Billy Gunn) defeated Shawn Spears & Peter Avalon

(Josh’s Analysis: Feel free to skip Allin vs. Cutler. The Nyla-Shanna segment did a good job of advancing both their characters’ feud, and I’m now more invested in their story than anything else going on in the Women’s Division. Watching Billy and Austin Gunn wrestle together made me feel unexpectedly sentimental. It was a fun match, but Shawn Spears doing goofy comedy spots doesn’t really fit in with how they’ve tried to portray him so far.)

MATCHES & SEGMENTS

Jon Moxley (1) vs. Sammy Guevara (5)

Sammy Guevara is looking for revenge after Moxley pretended to join the Inner Circle before attacking them and making off with “the most expensive car in America” last week.

(Josh’s Analysis: Last week went better than expected. We all knew how it was going to end, but they dragged out the celebration just long enough to cast some doubt and make Moxley’s sudden but inevitable betrayal that much sweeter. Expect a Moxley win here, but this could be a real star-making opportunity for the already impressive Guevara.)


Kris Stratlander & Shida vs. The Nightmare Collective (Awesome Kong & Mel)

Last week’s Women’s Championship match between Riho and Stratlander was derailed by The Nightmare Collective’s interference (and the unveiling of Luther). Shida ran in to make the save, and will team with Stratlander this week against against Kong & Mel.

(Josh’s Analysis: Of the approximately 15 evil recruitment storylines that AEW is running, The Nightmare Collective is my least favorite. That being said, Kong, Stratlander, and Shida are all great talents. I don’t know much about Mel so I hope she gets enough time to showcase what she can do before this match falls victim to the inevitable Nightmare Collective shenanigans.)


MJF & The Butcher & The Blade vs. DDP & Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall

Last week DDP interrupted MJF’s taunting of Cody and the two began swapping insults. DDP dealt a pair of Diamond Cutters to The Butcher and The Blade, MJF gave DDP a low blow, and Dustin and QT ran out for the save.

(Josh’s Analysis: DDP says that fans have been clamoring for his in-ring return… so here we are! Will it be a good match? Nope! Will it be fun? Probably! Will they plug DDP Yoga more than once? Definitely! ) 


Pac (4) vs. Darby Allin

(Josh’s Analysis: Pac has been tormenting Kenny Omega (and poor Michael Nakazawa) for weeks and Darby Allin has been having very good matches en route to losing to the promotion’s biggest stars. There’s no storyline motivation for this match, but AEW needed another high quality match to make Bash at the Beach feel special. I’m hoping for an Allin victory here to get his 2020 singles record on track)

Santana & Ortiz (1) vs. The Young Bucks (2) vs. The Best Friends (3) vs. Kenny Omega & Adam Page (4)

The top four tag team contenders face off, with the winner getting a championship match against SCU.

(Josh’s Analysis: TOO. MANY. PEOPLE. I am not a fan of three-way and four-way tag matches. The rules never really make sense, and we always get the spot where someone does some flippy stuff onto a group of people waiting to catch them.)

Cody responds to MJF’s demands

Two weeks ago MJF demanded that Cody adhere to the following stipulations if he wants a match at Revolution:

• Cody can not touch MJF until their match, otherwise they’ll never face each other
• Cody must beat Wardlow in a steel cage match
• MJF gets to whip Cody 10 times with a leather strap

Last week Cody’s new manager (Arn Anderson) cut a promo ridiculing MJF’s ego, saying he was delusional to think he had the stroke to demand such ridiculous stipulations. He and Cody would talk it over, he said, and would respond this week.

(Josh’s Analysis: To be completely honest, I love these silly stipulations and I’m pretty sure that Cody is going to accept them.)