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The AEW Week in Review 10/2/21

By Kurt Zamora • Published 2nd October 2021
dark order aew

It’s Saturday and you know what that means! Welcome one and all to the latest installment of the AEW Week in Review here at TJRWrestling. Coming off such a huge week for the company, AEW had both their shows this week in Rochester, New York. The hometown of the late, great Brodie Lee. A lot of emotion surrounding this week’s shows, so let’s discuss how I felt the week went for AEW.

Best Match

Coming off a week that was filled with MOTW contenders, one might think there would be a lack of options this week, kind of like there was two weeks ago. However, that was not the case as we had three really good options to choose from. Jungle Boy vs. Adam Cole, Sammy Guevara vs. Miro for the TNT Title, both on Dynamite, and then Bryan Danielson vs. Nick Jackson on Rampage. Our fearless leader John Canton only gave Sammy/Miro 3 stars, compared to four stars for the other two matches. I think that’s a touch unfair as the crowd was really into the match and Sammy is one of their top young babyfaces. He’s not on TV much and this was a fresh matchup that had a lot of good action. That being said, it’s not my pick for the week.

It’s truly a toss up between the other two matches, but I’m going to go with Jungle Boy vs. Adam Cole. This was a phenomenal opening match in front of another hot crowd for AEW. Jungle Boy is probably losing more than he should these days, but he’s only 24 and it’s clear the company thinks highly of him, so I can’t complain too much. I thought the Panama Sunrise nearfall was incredible and this match helps us get to the big 8 man tag coming this coming Wednesday. Shoutout to the Danielson/Jackson match on Rampage as well. It was great getting to see Danielson work the style he wants to again, and any time we get a Cattle Mutilation is a good time!

Best Moment

It’s hard not to pick Sammy Guevara winning the TNT Title. I’ve been watching Sammy for years on the indy scene here in Texas. The first match I saw him in, he took on Zack Sabre Jr. in an incredible match. However, as I said at the top of the column, this week was all about the show being in Brodie Lee’s hometown, so I have to go with Amanda Huber & Brodie Jr. AKA -1 coming out during the 16 man tag match and getting The Dark Order back together again.

On a personal level, I think it’s incredible what AEW has done for the Huber family. If you see Amanda’s IG posts, you can truly feel the love the company has shown her and her family. This was sealed as the moment of the week for me though when -1 threw the rolled-up papers at Evil Uno’s head, which was a tremendous call back to something his dad would do on Dynamite and BTE when the Dark Order had made him mad. Feel good moments like these are needed more and more these days, so that’s why I’m giving this one the spotlight this week.

Critique of the Week

This was an easy choice this week, it’s the neverending storyline between Ricky Starks/Team Taz and Brian Cage. Is Cage hurt? Is Starks hurt? No one knows. As John pointed out in his Rampage review, Cage has wrestled twice on Dynamite since June. Cage hasn’t done himself any favors on social media with some questionable comments coming out by both himself and his wife Melissa Santos (former ring announcer on Lucha Underground). Personally, I like the concept of Team Taz, but I think Ricky Starks is being held back by being in the group. It needs members like Powerhouse Hobbs who could use a mouthpiece to compliment what he does in the ring. Starks doesn’t need a mouthpiece. He’s the total package and should be a future World Champion for the company. This storyline hasn’t been that great even when everyone was on TV, so the lack of development has really stalled everyone out. I hope the blowoff match happens soon and both parties can go on to bigger and better things.

Looking Ahead

It’s crazy to think that this Wednesday’s episode is the two-year anniversary show. The debut show in Washington D.C. feels like it was just a few months ago. The company has done so much in two years, and I can only imagine what they can do in the next two years. While nothing has been announced for Rampage, Dynamite has four huge matches already announced.

Hikaru Shida makes what feels like her first Dynamite appearance since losing the title to Britt Baker, to take on Serena Deeb. Shida has the chance to be the first woman in AEW to reach 50 wins, which tells you how many times she’s obviously been on Dark & Elevation based on my comment about how long it’s been since she’s been on Dynamite. There’s a huge 8-man tag between The Elite & Jurassic Express/Danielson/Christian that should be nothing short of insane. Sammy Guevara uses the Forbidden Door for his first title defense and takes on Bobby Fish. A Reddit post made the great observation that if you zoom in on the match graphic, Fish is already wearing an AEW licensed shirt of his, so I would expect to see a “Bobby Fish is All Elite” post after the match is over. Lastly, a HUGE seven-man Casino Ladder match, where the winner gets an AEW World Title match. There is a Joker in the match, so is this when we get the return of Hangman? I really and truly hope so. I’m sure this will be the main event of the show and be completely nuts with who’s in the match.

This Week in Vlogs

This week’s BTE covers a ton from Grand Slam in NYC. There’s a very funny moment when Matt Jackson tries to downplay how big a deal the show is by saying he’s wrestled in seven Tokyo Dome shows, so he feels nothing at this show. Besides the coverage from NYC, there’s an opening vignette from Christopher Daniels, who is making a return to the ring and explaining what his personal story has been since he and Kazarian had to break up. He’s appeared in Impact recently, so I don’t know that he’ll be doing anything in the ring in AEW, but it’s a great video nonetheless. The vlog ends with the funniest man in wrestling, John Silver, trying to recruit Wardlow as a friend for him and Alex Reynolds. It fails miserably as you expect.

This week’s vlog for Sammy Guevara opens with a cameo from the BMF himself, Jorge Masvidal, and the camera cuts away before it appears he’s going to kill Griff Garrison. This continues to be the better/funnier vlog of the two. A lot of good stuff with Fuego Del Sol, including a new bit where Cody Rhodes is dressing as a luchador and is the brother of Fuego. Dustin Rhodes shows up, who in the vlog is Fuego’s “father”, but acts like he doesn’t know who Cody’s character is. Also, they put a censored bar over Cody’s neck tattoo which makes it even funnier. QT Marshall advanced in the Vlog Crew Title tournament after defeating Fuego in a game of ping pong. Also, if you ever wanted to see Jake Hager’s butt, this is the episode for you.

That’s it for this week! Hope everyone enjoyed this week of AEW as much as I did. Be sure to hit me up on Twitter, @KTankZamora, and let me know what you think and what you want to see discussed in these weekly recaps. Thanks for checking out the column once again. As always, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do… but if you do, name it after me.