AEW Dynamite Recap, Grades, & Opinion: August 12, 2020

AEW Dynamite Recap: August 12, 2020

A.K.A The One Where It’s Tag Team Appreciation Week

All Elite Wrestling Dynamite is stacked with great content this week, headlined by the $7,000 obligation match between Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy and Tag Team Appreciation Week. Another top match is Cody defending his TNT Championship against Scorpio Sky. Aside from those two singles matches, the card is packed with two huge tag team matches, the most notable being Kenny Omega & Hangman Page defending their AEW Tag Team Championships against Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy. The other match is the Young Bucks against Evil Uno & Stu Grayson. Also teased for tonight is some interaction between AEW Champion Jon Moxley and his challenger at All Out, MJF. Lastly, Shida is announced to be in action. Here’s how it all shook out.

Results:

Young Bucks def. Dark Order
Cody def. Scorpio Sky
Hangman & Omega def. Jurassic Express
Hikaru Shida def. Heather Monroe
Orange Cassidy def. Chris Jericho

Match of the Night: Cody def. Scorpio Sky

Scorpio Sky came out and quite literally kicked a door down. He looked very serious and seemed very motivated. Cody then came out and did so with the fully finished version of the TNT Championship, which looks incredible. He was flanked by the entirety of the Nightmare Family and it was just a reminder that Cody is an absolute star. Also, the referee of the match was Mike Chioda, which was AWESOME.

The match started being centered around the two men one-upping each other. Scorpio ran into Cody for a shoulder block and Cody was unphased, flexing in his face. They then countered hip tosses until Cody tossed Scorpio out of the ring and held the ropes open for him, which Scorpio refused. It was clear that there was serious tension between these two and they wanted to prove a point on top of winning the match.

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Throughout everything, Cody always seemed to be a step ahead, and that continued into the picture-in-picture commercial break, as Cody just started wearing Scorpio down. When they returned, Scorpio caught Cody lacking and immediately started working Cody’s ribs, which were hurt from his match the previous week against Silver and Reynolds. Everything from abdominal stretches, stomps and even a slingshot cutter onto the ramp were used by Scorpio to get on top. Scorpio dominated, until he tried lifting Cody for a Suplex, but couldn’t because his lower back was hurt.

Cody brought Scorpio up for a Superplex, which he hit, but Scorpio turned it into a pin of his own for a near fall. Scorpio then went for a TKO, which Cody countered into a Cross Rhodes for a shocking near fall. And I mean SHOCKING. The two traded moves for a while, but Cody was able to hit another Cross Rhodes and pick up the win.

After the match, Brodie Lee came on the screen and said that he had already taken out the Elite and Hangman & Omega and that now it was Cody’s turn to put respect on his name. He made an official challenge for the TNT Championship for the August 22nd episode of Dynamite.

According to @ThisBrodieLee, @CodyRhodes reign is up on the next #AEWDynamite on Saturday, Aug. 22 – do NOT miss this match pic.twitter.com/9JsCBB1DPt

— All Elite Wrestling on TNT (@AEWonTNT) August 13, 2020

Three Thoughts:

Fast Start To Dynamite

Dynamite opened with the Young Bucks against Stu Grayson. Matt and Nick Jackson came out first and as they made their entrance, Five, Alex Reynolds and John Silver attacked and beat them down. Grayson and Uno came out and tossed Nick into the ring. Nick picked up a bit of steam, but Uno held the ropes open and Nick fell outside the ring, allowing the underlings to beat him down. After tossing Nick, Matt, who was taken out and still at the entrance, jumped off and hit a Tope Con Hilo on the trio.

In the ring, Nick was still being beaten down, but was eventually able to get the hot tag to Matt, who provided a spark of energy that the duo needed. It didn’t last long, as Uno was able to get the upper hand again and bring in Grayson, who really has such a fun offensive move set. Uno kept using underhanded tactics, while Grayson just showed off his athleticism. It was a nice mix between the heel tandem.

Eventually, Matt got a hot tag in and Nick went off. He was throwing kicks, knees and flipping all over the place. Grayson ate a Superkick on the outside and the Young Bucks hit Risky Business for a near fall. As impressive as the Young Bucks’ offense was, the Dark Order matched it with a crazy display of tandem offense that led to a VERY close near fall.

In the end, the Dark Order took out Nick and Grayson dragged Matt up the ramp and threw him into the tunnel before getting the underlings to block the tunnel. Grayson and Uno then set up for their finisher when Nick got out and managed to roll up Uno for the win. A great start to the show.

Tag Team Appreciation

After a commercial break, the Young Bucks and FTR were in the ring with the Brainbusters and the Rock n Roll Express. Matt praised the Rock n Roll Express and their influence on them as a team and the industry as a whole. Dax Harwood then got on the mic and praised the men for allowing all tag teams to be able to thrive in the world of pro wrestling. He talked about his family and how he was able to give them a great life because of those men.

And then Ricky Morton got on the mic and praised the Young Bucks as the best team of the last decade and the best team in the world. Arn Anderson then got on the mic and praised the Young Bucks for their impact on tag team wrestling and praised Ricky and Robert for their longevity, but said that FTR is the best team in the world.

Tully Blanchard then demanded the mic and was immediately aggressive. He said that Tom Brady is the best QB of all time because of the championships. Tully then looked at the Young Bucks and FTR and said that neither of them are champions so they can praise all they want, but they need some gold to talk. He then turned to Arn and was rather hostile, calling out Arn for his interference in the match between Cody and Shawn Spears last year. Arn wasn’t happy with that and walked away.

Then, a brawl kicked off after Ricky punched Tully. After the dust settled and Harwood was down grabbing his knee, FTR popped up and took out the Rock n Roll Express. The Young Bucks came back to the ring and Hangman & Omega came out. This seems to be pointing to a match for something, I just can’t figure out what yet.

What in the world?!

Watch #AEWDynamite NOW on @TNTDrama or https://t.co/GdI7QAsxEP for our International fans. #AEWonTNT @AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/NXRtdG0f2I

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 13, 2020

Show Me The Money

Before the match, Mike Chioda, who was refereeing the match, had an interview with Alex Marvez, which was interrupted by Jericho. He said that they’ve known each other a long time and that he actually saved Chioda’s job many years ago. He said that Chioda would do the right thing, insinuating that Chioda would rig the match in Jericho’s favor. Chioda refused, saying he’d call it down the middle, which Jericho thought was a wink wink type deal. It was not.

So the rules of the match are that Best Friends and Inner Circle are banned from ringside and the loser has to pay the winner $7,000.

Now that we got that out of the way, the two started the match by trading blows immediately and Cassidy hit a Superman Punch before tossing Jericho out of the ring and jumping on him for more punches. Cassidy was extremely motivated and just was pure aggression early. Jericho was able to endure the onslaught and then turn it on Cassidy by booting him in the face and slowing down the pace of the match.

During the picture-in-picture break, Jericho just kept hitting moves on Cassidy and then taunting the crowd or looking at the camera. He really is so cocky and unafraid of Cassidy. Jericho beat down Cassidy so hard that he tiredly started “chopping” Jericho, only for it to be a fake-out and he Superkicked him. Cassidy then hit a flying crossbody for a near fall. Cassidy then went full Hiroshi Tanahashi and hit a couple of Dragon Screws. He went for a Hurricanrana, but Jericho caught him and put on the Walls of Jericho, which Cassidy got out of.

Cassidy actually twisted Jericho’s knee and put him in a knee lock, which was awesome. Jericho managed to get the upper hand and went to grab Floyd the bat, screaming at Chioda to turn around so he could hit Cassidy. Chioda faked out Jericho and then grabbed the bat. Cassidy exploded and hit a PK and a Superman Punch, but was unable to get a pin. Then, Best Friends and the Inner Circle brawled on the ramp, distracting Chioda and allowing Jake Hager to hit a Powerslam on Cassidy for a close near fall. Cassidy then caught Jericho and applied a Mousetrap cradle for the win. It was a very creative pin attempt that put so much pressure on Jericho’s weak leg that he couldn’t kick out.

What in the hell?!
Watch #AEWDynamite NOW on @TNTDrama or https://t.co/GdI7QAsxEP for our International fans. #AEWonTNT @AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/OGmg2rSuNl

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 13, 2020

Grade: B

This was a very good episode of Dynamite. The two tag matches were excellent, the main event lived up to the hype and Cody and Scorpio Sky stole the show. MJF cut a juicy promo and really showed why he’s currently the best heel in all of professional wrestling before being confronted by Jon Moxley. The segment really got me excited for All Out. The Tag Team Appreciation segment was better than I thought it would be and really turned a segment I thought would just be praising the art of tag team wrestling into a possibility of like three of four different matches. I genuinely don’t know what to think after that, but I’m definitely invested. Shida had a competitive squash match and there still seems to be no challenger for her, so I’m interested to see what is going to happen with her. Overall, a solid episode of Dynamite. Class dismissed.

One More Thing:

MJF came out to give another address. He said that he mourns for the people who believe in Moxley because MJF is there and Dictator Jon is not. He claimed that Moxley is afraid of change and afraid of dealing with a pro wrestler who won’t happily look up at the lights for him. MJF then laid down on the ground in an effort to relate to Moxley. He said that Moxley is a good wrestler, but he’s not a leader. MJF then compared him to a dog and relayed the line from The Dark Knight about the dog and the car. He said that Moxley should just hand over the title because “We. Deserve. Better.”

Moxley’s music hit and MJF immediately sent out his security to get Moxley from the crowd. Moxley proceeded to come out the tunnel and blasted MJF from behind before hitting a Paradigm Shift and just walking out, grabbing a mic and laying in on his opponent. He said that they still aren’t even and that he’s going to make it a very bitter pill to swallow.

Javier Melo is a writer of Pro Wrestling for Full Press Coverage and co-host of the Crossbody of Work podcast. Follow Javier on Twitter @JMeloSports.