Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

AEW Dynamite Highlights – Le Champion Celebration (11/27/19)

Dynamite

A night full of twists and turns, AEW Dynamite this week had a little bit of everything. We had “Chris Jericho‘s Thanksgiving Thank You Celebrashon For Le Champion” which will hopefully become an annual event much like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Much like that parade we had interesting characters appear, including a Blade, Butcher, and Bunny, all of whom may be familiar faces to you depending on your taste in wrestling or music. We also had a pair of Rhodes returning, and two stars at the prime of their careers crossing paths in an epic collision that puts the cherry on top of this Thanksgiving pie. Here are all the highlights.

Le Champion Gets The Celebration He Deserves…Almost

With Soul Train Jones being the master of ceremonies, Dynamite kicked things off with a fittingly festive mood as he introduced Chris Jericho down to the ring. He then introduced the world to what we’ve all been waiting for: the official “bubbly” available at ALittleBitOfTheBubbly.com, which promptly crashed the website and sold-out, presumably in that order. Accepting gifts from all members of the Inner Circle afterwards, including a boricua basket from Ortiz and Santana, as well as possibly pop of the night for Jake Hager bringing out the LITERAL goat, Chris Jerigoat as a present for his leader.

This was prime Jericho being adored and admonished in equal measure by the crowd in a sort of promo crescendo/decrescendo that he does so beautifully. And he proved he got it from his daddy, as after the “smaller” gifts, the big box ended up being his father Ted Irvine who cut a promo in his Rangers jersey about the Chicago Blackhawks being wimps and how he used to beat the crap out of Bobby Hull. You have got to love pro wrestling, don’t you? After this, Justin Roberts (of Michael Nakazawa and Jon Moxley screaming fame) was brought in to read the official thank you statement from TNT to Jericho, but it wasn’t fitting for Le Champion so he got the boots from the Inner Circle.

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But thankfully, the marching band was actually SCU because once again, this is the wonderful world of wrestling folks and nobody is dressed up who can’t wrestle. SCU cleared the ring, including Soul Train taking some bumps and it may not have been the best choice of ending, but there may be nobody hotter and more consistently entertaining, as JR would say “for my money right now”, than Le Champion.

The American Nightmare Returns, But Not Without Consequence

After Cody was announced to make his return, everybody knew there was going to be a squash match of some sort or another. Matt Knicks was the one to receive the pinfall here after receiving a quick mixture of technical wrestling offence that led to a smooth figure four for the submission victory early in the match. Nothing new for a New York Knicks fan like myself, it was already over for Matt Knicks before it started. The next inevitable beyond the conclusion of the match was Cody addressing MJF. And we were just about to get that. But then…we didn’t, thanks to a dastardly trio and a sneak attack from a debuting trio.

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First revealing himself through a cut in the canvas of the ring, The Blade (see what they did there) came out and attacked Cody from behind, setting the stage for his partner The Butcher to come shortly behind and victimize him with a suplex onto a backbreaker, targeting the injured ribs of Cody. The Bunny,also known as Allie, appeared as well, seemingly the mastermind behind the muscle pleased with the work her henchmen had committed. The crowd seemed to react a bit confused and flat, but you have to like their commitment to debuting new talent with a bang and this certainly achieved that on Dynamite this week.

MJF Gains A Diamond Ring And A Diamond Enemy?

After last week’s Dynamite Dozen Battle Royale, the wrestling world collectively felt like we all knew what was coming. The bad guy was going to win himself a nice shiny ring with the help of his big, bad musclebound bodyguard and rub it in all our “poor, redneck faces” (his future words, not mine mind you) and this basically panned out exactly as you’d imagine it would. The match itself was typical MJF shenanigans, as he tried to take every page out of Ric Flair‘s handbook as he could. Distracting the ref, using his manager, and then eventually stealing a finisher from his rival (as botched as it may have been) to seal the victory after a right hand from his big man Wardlow. Hangman Page got in some good offence here, but ultimately it was really the MJF show that everybody expected, and that led to a fantastic moment with DDP.

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Staring eye to eye with the legend himself for the ring ceremony, he made sure to voice his displeasure with their underhanded tactics in screwing the younger Page out of a victory. He reluctantly still gave him the ring which Friedman slid onto his pinkie because of course a rich snob would. DDP then tried to extend the handshake, which was rejected in very egotistical fashion as one would expect from the young narcissist. This garnered a reaction from DDP which made Wardlow step in between. This then prompted perhaps the best one-liner of the night, saying “you’re gonna look really stupid having a 63-year-old man kicking your ass all over the streets of Chicago!” Brilliant stuff and the brawl looked realistic enough without having to do too much. Simple, effective storytelling at its finest.

Le Champion Can Continue His Celebration

With so much build-up to the Dynamite main event, this one took a little bit of time for Scorpio Sky and Chris Jericho to find their chemistry in the ring. Starting off with Sky grabbing the momentum early, it seemed as if Jericho was a bit out of sorts in the role of receiving some of Sky’s more fast-paced and hard-hitting early offence. Selling a bit too much the idea of him being out of sorts against Sky, it quickly shifted the pendulum as Jericho was able to lock in the Liontamer early. From then on, things slowly started to get more cohesive and feel more like the match we anticipated this to be. After Scorpio reached the ropes showcasing his resilience and desire, this match was on.

Jericho continued the longest-running feud in AEW with Aubrey Edwards and himself as Jake Hager tried to involve himself before being taken out by Frankie Kazarian. This distracted Edwards enough to allow Le Champion to try to use the gold to clock Scorpio but he reversed it into his TKO finisher for a near fall that had all of Chicago ready to throw a parade in his honor. But despite a wild hurricanrana off the top rope, an enzuiguri, still just another close two. Clearly frustrated, Scorpio went to go to the sky only to get caught in a vicious looking Codebreaker for a near fall. Jericho would finally put him away however with one final Liontamer, in a bit of an anti-climatic fashion to an otherwise quickly intensifying finish. But just when the night felt like it may fall sour, things got all too sweet. Well for everybody except for Jericho.

As Le Champion locked in the Liontamer on Scorpio one more time, Jon Moxley peered down from the cheap seats after having cut an open challenge promo earlier in the night. It seems the message is clear: one, two, Moxley’s coming for you.

Dynamite Of The Night: Kenny Omega vs. PAC

Remember when people were saying that Kenny Omega wasn’t putting on good matches in AEW? I think it is time that rumour takes a CM Punk finisher right off the Internet, especially after the recent matches with PAC. This match had a little bit of everything you could ask for in a television match. In fact, many people are criticizing why this isn’t on a pay-per-view. And when you watch it, you’ll understand exactly why. But that is what makes these matches so special for AEW Dynamite.

The selling was master class from PAC as usual, whether it be strikes or manoeuvres. The pair both unloaded an array of pop-worthy moments, including a falcon arrow off the top rope that was a sight to behold. An outright brawl broke out at one point, exchanging knees and kicks the stiffness of which would make the strictest of Japanese purists shed a single tear. The offence is so poetic that it is simply not worth describing, it is necessary to witness. Do your eyes a favour as a wrestling fan.

Overall, not Dynamite‘s best week of television but they still continue to deliver an excellent wrestling product that captivates from beginning to end. Next week will be free of the “holiday hangover” effect in Champaign, Illinois and will look to answer a lot of questions from this week!

Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite every Wednesday night at 8:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Pacific on TNT and internationally on AEW Plus on Fite TV

Zach Perez

Zach Perez

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