AEW Dynamite emanated from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL.
Only one cornerman was allowed with the remainder of the Inner Circle and Pinnacle banned from ringside.
Hager shot for a double leg takedown, but Wardlow stuffed it and tossed him aside.
Round 2 began with Wardlow charging for a running knee, but Hager evaded.
All of a sudden, the MMA fight turned into a professional wrestling bout.
Hager and Wardlow did well working the line of MMA action with sports entertainment flair.
It preserves the talking point that Hager is undefeated in MMA, even though, the announcers oversold his experience at times.
The focus was on Jericho’s dislocated elbow as MJF locked in the Salt of the Earth armbar.
Even if Guevara loses, it will feel good to see him land aggressive offense on MJF.
Allin had Sky stunned for a Coffin Drop, but Page pulled Allin out of the ring on the cover.
Pro wrestling conditioned me to expect a victory by Allin, so I’m very glad AEW didn’t fall into that weak trap.
Bononi had been manhandling OC, but the tide turned when the Best Friends lent hands for a rocket launcher to flip OC onto the Wingmen.
Solow swooped in from behind to set Brock up for a Pedigree, but the young Anderson countered into a jackknife pin to win.
QT had the best moment of the match by using Arn’s spinebuster on Brock.
Miro! Ford refused to release the submission on Hart, so the Varsity Blondes tried to break it up.
When I saw Ford versus Hart on the card, the last thing I thought was it leading to Miro’s next championship challenger.
Matt Jackson & Good Brothers defeated Frankie Kazarian, Pentagon, & Eddie Kingston.
As Pentagon was on the turnbuckles, Nick ran in to spray his eyes with aerosol.
On the positive side, I like that Kaz’s urgency to attack in the ring matched his Elite hunter attitude.
The big man has big money potential, so AEW needs to make sure he doesn’t fade to the back behind Starks and Cage.
When Alez Marvez pointed out that Hangman is ranked #2, he brushed off the question about thoughts on Kenny Omega defending the world title against #1 Jungle Boy next week.
Kenny Omega, Don Callis, and Michael Nakazawa rolled in on a golf cart to interrupt a backstage promo from Jungle Boy.
I appreciate AEW connecting the dots for why this match will take place, but hard pass on Vickie in the ring.
That will become a major problem in the future for the main event level if he doesn’t make strides in that area.
AEW did a little experimenting on this episode, and it worked out nicely.