Jungle Boy and Chris Jericho will meet once again on Dynamite in two weeks.
A six-man tag team match has been announced for Chris Jericho’s Rock ‘n’ Rager at Sea: Part Deux cruise that will air on AEW Dynamite on January 22. The Jurassic Express (Luchasarus, Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt) will take on Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz.
Jericho and Jungle Boy have had some previous history together. They faced off back on December 18 with the stipulation being Jungle Boy would have to survive ten minutes against Chris Jericho. Despite being put in the liontamer for a long period of time, Jungle Boy was able to beat the clock.
The Jurassic Express were victorious tonight in defeating Best Friends and Orange Cassidy.
Jericho’s Rock ‘n’ Rager At Sea, which will depart from Miami to the Bahamas, runs from January 20 through January 24. Most of AEW’s roster is scheduled to be on the tour including the rest of the Inner Circle, Hangman Adam Page, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and more.
The episode began with a “Last Week on Dynamite” video, which is a different way to format the show. This concentrated on the MJF vs. Hangman Page match and the aftermath with DDP.
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Tony Schiavone has returned from the assignment he was on last week and hosted the show with Dasha Gonzales, who was also on assignment from Dark last week. That’s a lot of assignments.
Shanna was supposed to do commentary with Excalibur, but she got laid out by Nyla Rose before the show began last week. Rose then joined Excalibur at the desk.
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Jimmy Havoc defeated Brandon Cutler
Neither wrestler came into the match with the most sterling win-loss record. Havoc has only won one singles match (and two overall), but Cutler has won nothing. Zero, zip, zilch, nada.
Havoc just got done paying a hefty fine for using an unauthorized staple gun at the last show, so he had to shake his head at the fans chanting for staples. Unless they were chanting for the office supply store.
They were having a good, solid match that the fans weren’t really getting into until Havoc went crazy and pulled out his staple gun. He did have a change of heart and gave it to the referee, but Havoc then kicked a field goal with Cutler’s groin. Unlike way too many extra points in the NFL this year, this one was good.
Cutler got over it and went for a chop outside the ring, but Havoc ducked and Cutler chopped the ring post.
Havoc continued to bite Cutler. Perhaps he didn’t get enough to eat at the pre-match buffet? Cutler broke out an over-the-top-rope leg drop while Havoc was laying on the middle rope, but he went down in defeat after Havoc hit the Acid Rainmaker.
After the match, Havoc stapled a check for $10,000 to Cutler’s head.
We cut to a post-match promo where Havoc told AEW management that he will do what he wants and will pay these checks every time, before stapling a check to the wall. If these fines were legit, why wouldn’t they just take the money out of the wrestler’s paycheck?
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The same propaganda video from last week aired, urging people to Join The Dark Order.
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A video package recapping Cody’s return from last week aired. The one thing people don’t seem to mention (or maybe notice) is before everyone came out they had already done a hashtag promoting The Butcher, The Blade, and The Bunny.
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Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) defeated Sonny Kiss
Kiss got the biggest reaction on the show so far, just doing his normal spots. Spears mocked him by flexing his butt cheeks, which caused the fans to chant “10” at him. Spears flipped off the Sears Centre.
Moments later, Spears dropped Kiss with a backbreaker on the ring apron, which is the hardest part of the ring. Spears won with a C-4, a running Death Valley Driver, in what was essentially a squash match.
After the match, Spears and Blanchard gave Kiss a spike piledriver outside the ring.
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We got a commercial for A Little Bit of the Bubbly before we were magically whisked away to the AEW Control Center.
A recap of the Dustin Rhodes/Inner Circle angle from last week aired, which builds up tomorrow night’s six-man tag. Also last week, Pentagon Jr. and Fenix were complaining to Jenn Decker about losing to Trent, when Pentagon was attacked by Christopher Daniels. This leads to the Daniels-Pentagon match tomorrow night.
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We got a mockumentary called Jurassic Planet, looking at, shockingly, the Jurassic Express. They showed Jungle Boy getting water from a nearby brook and Luchasaurus eating leaves from a tree.
They happened to stumble across a naughty babysaurus, named Marko Stunt, who was playing with tires. The video ended with Luchasaurus holding Stunt’s hand like a father and his child while carrying Jungle Boy.
This was in lieu of a From Undesirable to Undeniable segment. Let’s face facts, Luchasaurus sitting down and talking to Cody about his career just wouldn’t be right.
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Proud & Powerful (Santana & Ortiz) defeated Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt)
Jurassic Express have the worst records of anyone in AEW. Jungle Boy is 0-8 going into this match, while Stunt is 0-7. I assume Luchasaurus is still getting over his injury and that’s why we’re getting Babysaurus.
Ortiz got worked over by his smaller foes, but then the heels took over with a double-team German suplex/dropkick on Stunt.
Santana lifted Stunt up in a suplex and then Proud & Powerful tagged in and out and handed Stunt off to each other while he was still in the suplex position. Stunt rolled through with a small package at one point, but he eventually was dropped at the second suplex attempt.
Stunt and Jungle Boy were set up on chairs outside the ring and Santana did a running cannonball dive off Ortiz’s back onto them.
Both members of Jurassic Express do a great job of fighting for the hot tag. This time Jungle Boy got it and got a near fall with a diving crossbody. They also used a ripcord leg drop and a flipping cutter. Stunt went up top for a 450 splash, but got distracted when Jungle Boy got pulled off the apron and was pinned after a Liger Bomb by Santana.
Sammy Guevara came out to shoot video of the three of them putting the boots to Jurassic Express. This may be footage for Being The Inner Circle. Luchasaurus did a walk-in for the save. He gave all three boots and knees and gave Ortiz a chokeslam for good measure.
Luchasaurus, who was not booked on the show, stood tall over the three men who will be in the main event of Dynamite tomorrow night. Jake Hager then walked out and traded blows with Luchasaurus. It was the Unstoppable Force vs. the Immovable Object, as neither man went down. Luchasaurus tried going for a chokeslam, but Proud & Powerful broke it up.
The Young Bucks ran down and chased Proud & Powerful and Hager off. All five babyfaces went off on Guevara, including Stunt doing an assisted Canadian Destroyer.
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Final Thoughts —
Now that AEW Dark has settled down into the B-show territory it was always meant to be, we can judge the show based on that. The episode was fine — I guess I should get used to the crowd being dead, even though they were pretty hot last week. Check out the Jurassic Planet mockumentary and skip the rest unless you’re a completist.
AEW’s return to the Sears Centre Arena last night included three matches taped for AEW Dark.
– Jimmy Havoc defeated Brandon Cutler
Havoc used a staple gun after the match.
– Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) defeated Sonny Kiss
After the match was over, Spears gave Kiss a piledriver on the floor.
– Santana & Ortiz defeated Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt)
Sammy Guevara helped Santana and Ortiz attack Jungle Boy and Stunt following the match. Luchasaurus came out to make the save, then Jake Hager arrived to help the Inner Circle. The Young Bucks got involved and the babyfaces stood tall.
Nyla Rose was the guest commentator on this week’s AEW Dark tapings. The show premieres on YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesdays.
Next Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite is also taking place in Illinois, with the show being held at the State Farm Center in Champaign.
Shawn Spears picked up his first singles win and started a feud with Joey Janela.
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The show started with Tony Schiavone introducing Spanish announcer Dasha Gonzales (the former Dasha Fuentes) as his newest co-host. Speaking of changes, this week Excalibur was joined at the booth by Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
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Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) defeated Michael Nakazawa
I know they were on Dynamite last week, but it’s weird to not have The Librarians on the show. This was Nakazawa’s first match for AEW since facing Alex Jebailey back at Fyter Fest. MJF asked the Facebook meme question about if olive oil is made out of olives and coconut oil is made out of coconuts, what is baby oil, which Nakazawa slathers himself in, made of?
Spears had the early advantage until Nakazawa pulled out the baby oil. Spears was not happy with getting it on him and tried to wipe it off onto referee Aubrey Edwards. Both Spears and Tully Blanchard slipped and bumped due to the baby oil.
Spears used the chop to much success. For the finish, Spears blocked Nakazawa’s attempts at using his thong for an offensive maneuver and got the pin with a slingshot brainbuster.
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Allie & Sadie Gibbs defeated Mercedes Martinez & Big Swole
Gibbs and Swole started the match doing the running shoulder blocks at each other, which Gibbs won by finally taking Swole down.
They began running the ropes and we never found out what happened, as the director felt it was more important to show a fan sitting at ringside. This happened a second time later on when Allie was going for a sliding elbow to Martinez, but instead we saw the fans.
Gibbs picked Allie up and dropped her on Martinez, but did it in the “wrong” direction, as she dropped Allie vertically, across the face and chest. Martinez and Swole hit the H Bomb on Gibbs.
Gibbs ignored the beating she got, shoved Swole across the ring, and casually tagged in Allie. After the producer didn’t show Allie’s offense, the heels decided that was enough and cut her off to get the heat. We got the expected four-way, which culminated with a giant dive spot with Gibbs doing a cartwheel into a dive over the top rope.
Everyone hit a big move on everyone, including the Allie Valley Driver, and Gibbs pinned Swole with a moonsault. This was rough in spots, but it accomplished its goals at the end of the day.
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They formally announced Dr. Britt Baker vs. Bea Priestley for the Full Gear Buy-In show, which included a video package building it up. Baker called Priestley a piece of sh*t.
After that we got a recap of the Chris Jericho-Cody angle from last Wednesday.
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Up next was our weekly From Undesirable To Undeniable segment where Cody interviewed Jimmy Havoc. Havoc said he feels undesirable a lot of the time now and all you have to do was look on his Twitter feed.
Havoc did look back to a moment when he was three years old which started him down the road he’s on. He started feeling undeniable by wrestling the way he wants to now and said getting signed shows that he is good enough.
Honestly, this was the weakest of the four segments, but that’s mostly because the three before this were really good.
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Joey Janela & Jimmy Havoc defeated Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt)
Stunt put on a Luchasaurus mask, but he took it off as the match began. The announcers said he was 5’3″, which I am calling shenanigans on.
A couple people tried to start either an ECW or a CZW chant, but it didn’t pick up steam. Havoc and Jungle Boy were displaying fine technical wrestling until Havoc decided to gnaw on Jungle Boy’s wrist. Jungle Boy hit a beautiful high dropkick. Stunt did a suicide dive — diving between Jungle Boy’s legs to Havoc — and Jungle Boy hit a beautiful Asai moonsault on Janela.
There were a lot of people shown not paying attention, which is weird since this was the last match of the night, so if you’re not gonna watch or care, why not leave early? Havoc bit the neck of Stunt, which led to an announcer discussion about vampires.
Stunt made the hot tag to Jungle Boy, which the fans did pop for. Jungle Boy got tired of his team being bit, so he bit Havoc, which made the crowd happy. Jungle Boy gave Janela an atomic drop and an inverted atomic drop, both of which Janela sold like sure death.
A series of big moves saw Janela hit Jungle Boy with a big lariat as the last move. Jungle Boy ducked the Acid Rainmaker, but it led to Stunt nearly being pinned with a Michinoku driver.
Havoc pulled out a staple gun, but Janela blind tagged himself in and took the staple gun. Janela turned on his partner by stapling him in the head. Despite that, Havoc still helped his partner win, as Janela pinned Stunt with a top rope package piledriver.
After the match, Havoc took his staple gun, glared at Janela, and walked away.
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We were whisked away backstage, where Janela was smoking a cigarette after the match. Tully Blanchard approached him and said he wasn’t happy with how Janela treated him the last time they saw each other. Spears attacked Janela and appeared to force cigarettes down Janela’s throat, but the camera was turned away and the show came to its conclusion.
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Final Thoughts —
This was the first time the show really felt like Velocity. Unlike prior episodes that had some degree of stardom, this was the midcard and under showcase.
The premiere episode focused on four dark matches that were taped after last week’s premiere episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT.
On the card, Best Friends & Private Party teamed up to take on the Lucha Bros., Angelico & Jack Evans. There was also a women’s tag team match, with Britt Baker & Allie taking on Penelope Ford & Bea Priestley. Darby Allin took on CIMA, and SCU took on Jurassic Express in the main event.
Tomorrow’s episode of Dynamite will have Darby Allin taking on Jimmy Havoc for the number one contendership for the AEW World title, Shawn Spears vs. Jon Moxley, Dustin Rhodes & Hangman Page vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara and The Young Bucks vs. Private Party in a first round AEW Tag Team title tournament match.
AEW Dark will stream every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on their YouTube channel. You can watch the first episode below:
This week’s Being the Elite included the tease of another match for the AEW Dynamite premiere.
On today’s Being the Elite episode, it was teased that SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) will face Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt) on AEW’s first television episode on TNT. Those six also faced off at All Out, with SCU getting the win.
The Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. is hosting the Dynamite premiere on Wednesday, October 2. Here’s what’s been announced for the episode:
Chris Jericho and two mystery partners vs. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks
Nyla Rose vs. Riho to determine the inaugural AEW Women’s Champion
Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara
MJF vs. Brandon Cutler
Appearances by Jon Moxley and Hangman Page
This week’s Being the Elite also featured Omega giving an in-character response to the reaction to comments he made about NXT wrestlers. Omega had told Sportskeeda’s Dropkick Diskussions that AEW would feature real stars and not developmental talent. He also said that NXT wrestlers would be in the opening match to his main event if they were on the same show.
On Being the Elite, Omega’s character has been in a downward spiral since losing to PAC at All Out.
