Hello, my name is Jen! Welcome to my AEW Dynamite Recap: Glasgow Edition! For all of those who don’t know me, I’m your resident pro wrestling nerd who’s been a fan of AEW since its inception in 2019.
So with that out of the way, let’s jump right into it!
The show started with the American Dragon, Bryan Danielson himself. He is a great replacement for Taz at the commentary booth, and it was fun hearing some of his reactions to the AEW talent. Taz requested some time off due to recent surgeries and the impact of travel on him.
Soon afterwards, we got to see a wild Billy Goat, aka Will Ospreay, appear! He talked about the famous Greggs Sausage Rolls. Now, I want to try some! Ospreay is doing a great job at keeping me worried about injuring his neck at the upcoming Forbidden Door PPV. The Lights Out Steel Cage Match beckons the bruv!
Shenanigans ensued when Mox and the Deathriders encircled him, but the cavalry of Jetspeed and the Ace himself, Hiroshi Tanahashi (president of NJPW), powerwalked his way to even the odds. (If you don’t know, Tanahashi has REALLY bad knees…but don’t worry, he’s retiring soon!)
The skirmish evolved into the first match of the night. That was a real smooth transition segue, I might add. During the whole match, I was distracted by Tanahashi’s luscious head of hair as well as his beautiful sling blade. The match ended with a high fly flow from the Ace himself. He’s still got it!
More Deathriders enforcers arrive after the match. I was surprised to see the NJPW War Dogs (Gabe Kidd, Drilla Maloney, Clark Conners, Robbie-X) involved. Had they shown up at the AEW All In PPV 6 weeks ago, Mox would’ve retained. Anyway, the OPPS (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Shibata) and Darby Allin (of course, disguised as a body bag) came in for the rescue.
Now, I’ve got to admit, this first segment was all over the place. If I were a first-time AEW viewer, I would be lost in the shuffle because there were just so many moving parts and new wrestlers popping out of every crevice. All of this chaos culminated when Darby did a coffin drop from the heavens, and the good guys stood tall.
Then we had the Cope and Christian Cage segment. When Cope posed for his pyro, it was nonexistent. I never laughed so hard. Christian still says he’ll remain ‘a-hole’, but not just any ‘a-hole’, Copes’ a-hole’. I chuckled. But since they both have mutual enemies, Christian is willing to play ball and remain a tag team only out of necessity. Perhaps it’s because Cope doesn’t want him as a father?
Suddenly, Kip and Mother Wayne came out backstage. Where’s Nick? It turns out that he’s injured and devised a plan to bring back none other than Luchasaurus to replace him at Forbidden Door. Killswitch (they are still using that silly name, but the Glasgow crowd knew who he truly was!) laid out both Cope and Christian with chokeslams and stood tall.
I must say, I’m elated to see Luchasaurus back in AEW. I’ve had pneumonia before, and it’s no laughing matter. He is lucky that they were able to get him medical care in time. So, I am glad he is well again, let alone wrestling at a big AEW PPV.
On a site note: Did anyone notice in Killswitch’s vignette that looked like Jack Perry was reviving him? That does make an interesting plot twist, doesn’t it? Could we see another of “Christian’s sons” return for revenge? Will we get a variation of Jurassic Express in the future? The possibilities are endless…
After all that action, we see a backstage segment involving Mark Briscoe looking for MJF. MJF is ahead of the game by asking Ricochet and his goons (GOA) to help find Briscoe…more of this development later in the show.
Next, we finally have a match without a promo in the beginning. FTR vs Brodido were battling in the finals of the tag team tournament to see who would go to London to face The Hurt Syndicate! It was a great match. But after getting through two commercial breaks, I never thought they would kick into 2nd gear. It wasn’t until Arkady (the announcer) mentioned 5 minutes remaining that pushed the tempo. That was when I realized that they’re going to stretch this out to the final minutes. Cash Wheeler did a gnarly dive to the outside onto a flimsy-looking table. That looked rough. The result was a time limit draw.
I thought they were going to tack on a few more minutes or continue the match until there was a definite winner, but it turns out that it will be a 3-way match at Forbidden Door. I see where you’re going with this, Tony Khan. The Hurt Syndicate now has a 33% chance of losing their championships, just like at All In Texas. I’m a sad panda. Still, it was a great match that highlights how far AEW will go with its talents and for the crowd.
After the match, Hangman came out to cut a promo. As he strutted down the ramp, the pyro went off. At this point, I’m thinking of myself, “Cope feels quite invisible right now”. Anyway, Hangman is angry (of course, he is) that MJF beat him up in the parking lot last week. Little did he know that MJF had his friend Mark Briscoe tied up backstage, threatening to “make fried chicken out of him” unless he agreed to the three ridiculous stipulations in their match at Forbidden Door.
Hangman accepted (obviously) and ran to the back looking for MJF, but only finds Ricochet to beat up (A-haa!)
We now head to the main event, consisting of Mercedes Mone and Athena vs Timeless Toni Storm and Alex Windsor. I’m glad that this was the main event. All the ladies shone in the match and showed great energy. Winzaa impressed me the most by showing off her raw power. A funny part in the match was when Toni referenced an Austin Powers character when she yelled, “Get in my belly!” I laughed. During the ending segments of the match, Athena delivered a nasty-looking piledriver to Toni on the steel steps.
Will that injury factor into Toni vs Athena’s match at Forbidden Door? We shall see.
After Toni was incapacitated, Windsor tried to pin Mercedes, but she wasn’t legally tagged in. Athena flew in and finished her with the “O-Face” to win the match. Athena gloated with Billie Starkz while Mercedes Mone called out CMLL’s Persephone, who was in the front row, ahead of the 4-way match at Forbidden Door. Both women’s matches have the potential to be epic!
All in all, I think this episode was promo-heavy, but had some bright moments. The Scottish segment of the AEW Community showed why they are among the best crowds ever, and they were invested in this show from start to finish!
That’s all for my AEW Dynamite Recap! Let me know what you thought of the show and what you expect to see from AEW Collision on Saturday!
