The AEW Full Gear pay-per-view was full of shocking moments, with Cody losing in his attempt to become the All Elite Wrestling world champion and being betrayed by his friend MJF. Full Gear also saw the violent Lights Out match between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley that left fans divided. Some felt AEW went too far with the violence, whereas other fans are calling it a classic hardcore wrestling match and one of AEW's best bouts to date.
AEW Dynamite for 11/13/2019 is the first post-PPV show in company history, and there's a lot riding on it. Traditionally, wrestling TV ratings go up after a PPV as the company gets to work setting up the next storylines and feuds, so it will be interesting to see if AEW has similar success. However, the three brand invasion angle happening on NXT may see NXT win the ratings war against AEW for the first week since the shows started airing.
Here's a full recap of AEW Dynamite for 11/13/2019.
1. Jon Moxley vs. Michael Nakazawa
Winner: Jon Moxley. Moxley is coming in hot off his absurdly violent Lights Out Match with Kenny Omega that took place at the Full Gear PPV. His match with Nakazawa was potentially the shortest AEW television match to date, and that's exactly how it should have been. Nakazawa being Omega's real-life friend gave it a storyline reason to happen, and it also firmly established Moxley as in a league well above Nakazawa, who is more or less a comedy wrestler and enhancement talent. Moxley made short work of Nakazawa by hitting him with the Paradigm Shift for the win.
After the match, Moxley cut a promo about how everyone is going to be afraid to fight him from now on. It almost seemed like an open challenge, but then no one came out to confront Moxley, so the promo fell kind of flat.
2. Jurassic Express vs. The Dark Order
Winners: The Dark Order. Marko Stunt is just way too small to take seriously. People make the argument that he is similar to Rey Mysterio, but it's really not even comparable. One has to suspend their disbelief even more than usual whenever he's in the ring. There was also a pretty bad botch in this match where Marko slipped off the top rope, which in turn made Stu Greyson look a bit idiotic as he just stood there waiting for Stunt to correct himself. Jungle Boy did a half-hearted kick to Greyson's gut to try to salvage it, but eh. The match ended with The Dark Order hitting their Fatality finishing move on Stunt.
After the match, The Dark Order attempted to recruit Stunt into their group to be one of their minions. Jungle Boy didn't let it happen, resulting in an assault from The Dark Order on the Jurassic Express. And then Luchasaurus made his surprise return, taking out all of the Dark Order's minions and nailing Stu Greyson with some stiff shots as well. Luchasaurus has always been the real star of the Jurassic Express team, so it will be great to finally see him get a chance to shine on AEW Dynamite TV.
3. Three Way Match: Darby Allin vs. Peter Avalon w/ Leva Bates vs. Shawn Spears w/ Tully Blanchard
Winner: Darby Allin. This was a pretty random match, and it was also another short one. All of the matches on this episode of AEW Dynamite have felt much shorter than usual. We haven't even gotten through an hour of TV and we've had three matches, and I think only the tag match went through a commercial break so far. Since this match was so short, it really didn't have much in the way of notable in-ring action. Joey Janela ran down to attack Shawn Spears as revenge for what happened at Full Gear, but then he did this weird face at the camera that made JR question if he was having a seizure. He was trying to look intimidating, but it didn't really work. At any rate, with Spears out of the question, it gave Allin the clear to lay waste to Peter Avalon. Then when the match was over, Allin answered Moxley's challenge from earlier in the night. However, we don't know when exactly this match will take place just yet.
4. Dani Jordyn vs. Nyla Rose
Winner: Nyla Rose. Wow, yet another squash match on Dynamite. This is such a weird show compared to previous episodes, but it is sort of a breath of fresh air from all the super-long matches that they had been doing. And honestly, it's almost better for a match to go too short and then go too long because if it's not all that interesting, we can move on to something else much quicker. This match was just a standard squash match with Nyla going over, but they have a lot of work to do if they want to rebuild Nyla as a credible threat after she was jobbed out so much, and to Riho of all people.
When the match was over, Tony Schiavone interviewed Allie at ringside to talk about how she has been going up in the women's rankings (didn't even realize she won any matches). This promo was interrupted by Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes, who attacked Allie and took a chunk of her hair, similarly to what Kong did to Bea Priestley at Full Gear.
5. Chris Jericho and MJF Cut Promos
Chris Jericho came to the ring to address his victory over Cody, but he was soon interrupted by MJF. The two then had a somewhat amusing, if a bit lengthy promo. MJF laid out his reasons for betraying Cody, and teased that he would be joining The Inner Circle. However, it's unclear if MJF is joining Jericho's stable or not. A badly injured Cody Rhodes eventually ran down to the ring, botched a snap slam, and then still managed to take out both Jericho and MJF on his own. The new wrestler Wardlow then came into the ring and attacked Cody, finishing him off with an Attitude Adjustment-style move and then choking him with his tie over the ropes. It seems like MJF and Wardlow are going to be a pair separate from The Inner Circle, but it's not super clear at this point.
6. "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Pac
Winner: Pac. This was a shorter but also faster-paced version of the match these two had at Full Gear. It included a brainbuster on the outside and a rather vicious ending with Pac cheating to get the upper-hand on Page. With Page laid out on the ground, Pac ran in and started stomping on his head, and then hit him with the Black Arrow. Page was already out at this point, but Pac latched on the Brutalizer for good measure, and refused to relinquish the hold at first.
7. The Young Bucks Brawled With Proud N Powerful
We were then treated to an Attitude Era-style brawl between The Young Bucks and Proud N Powerful backstage. It included a fun cameo by Orange Cassidy, but was otherwise serious in tone. Nick Jackson's leg was brutalized by Santana and Ortiz, and Matt Jackson was thrown through a wooden platform in a manner not unlike The Rock n Roll Express a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, a decent chunk of this brawl was relegated to picture-in-picture, when it really deserved to be a main focus because so far AEW brawls have been highly entertaining and have helped set the promotion apart from WWE. The brawl ended with an intervention from Private Party, who will be facing Santana and Ortiz on next week's episode of AEW Dynamite.
8. AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: SCU (c) w/ Christopher Daniels vs. The Inner Circle w/ Jake Hager
Winners: SCU. The lack of MJF and Wardlow at ringside more or less confirms that they will be off doing their own thing, separate from The Inner Circle. This match was great, with Sammy Guevara the standout performer. He took a couple of really sick looking bumps, including a German suplex from Kazarian that appeared to dump him on his head. Hager's involvement in the match wasn't properly concealed from the referee, so that hurt the match a bit, but they recovered nicely with some shocking false finishes, like Scorpio Sky kicking out of a Codebreaker. Scorpio ended up getting a small package victory over Jericho, which was also very surprising as it's safe to say that most assumed Guevara would be eating the pin. Jericho then had a meltdown afterwards and started tearing up the ringside area. This ending was great and lets AEW go in a number of different directions, including a potential title match between Jericho and Scorpio Sky, so it will be interesting to see if that comes to pass at some point down the road.