In this WrestleTalk News, a major star has returned to NXT, Oli’s review of Dynamite
and more!
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On the other side of the Tuesday Night War we had news that could be categorized as a
positive and exciting as the steady stream of main roster stars used to bulk up NXT’s
card included a major surprise return.
In addition to the likes of Rhea Ripley, Raquel Rodriguez and the Good Brothers, NXT also
saw the return of former two time NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, who made his first NXT
appearance since Takeover Orlando in 2017.
Nakamura was the mystery opponent of Stacks, Tony D’Angelo’s right hand man, with Shinsuke
picking up the win with a pair of kinshasas.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select had correctly reported prior to the start of the show that
Nakamura had been one of the names discussed internally for an appearance on NXT, but it
remains to be seen whether this will be just a one time appearance or if the move to NXT
is a bit more permanent.
Nakamura hasn’t been seen on SmackDown lately with his last appearance coming on the August
26th episode where he beat Happy Corbin.
Another interesting note from NXT is that we may have an idea of what is going to happen
next with Austin Theory and his Money in the Bank contract.
Theory doesn’t seem like an ideal candidate to cash-in his contract successfully on the
main roster considering that would involve him beating Roman Reigns in some form and
that simply is not going to happen before WrestleMania 39, however it appears that a
different route may be in Theory’s future.
Also appearing on last night’s NXT, Theory teased cashing in Money in the Bank on NXT
Champion Bron Breakker as the show went off the air.
Breakker is scheduled to defend the title against Ilja Dragunov and JD McDonough at
Halloween Havoc this Saturday, so it seems entirely possible that WWE could get themselves
out of this Money in the Bank predicament in a more simple manner than originally though.
And now a hot tag to Oli for AEW Dynamite.
It’s Wednesday, you know what that means - wait not, Dynamite was on Tuesday, I remembered,
I remembered.
Also Oli is ill today, so I’m jumping in for my thoughts on this special Title Tuesday
episode of Dynamite.
Which is different from any other episode of Dynamite I’m sure.
The first titles to be defended were the Trios Titles - with Death Triangle facing Best Friends,
in the latest installment of their feud.
One title had already changed hands with Cassidy defeating PAC for the All-Atlantic belt, but
Death Triangle picked up the win here in a very, very fun match.
There were some outstanding nearfalls here, and some wonderful storytelling.
The crux of PAC’s wins lately has been his use of the ring bell hammer which he’s used
to cheat on several occasions.
He went to use that hammer in this match, but Rey Fenix was the guy who stopped him,
saying he didn’t need the hammer to win, and then absolutely proved himself right by
just winning by being great almost singlehandedly.
That’s some great seeds being planted for the next chapter of Death Triangle’s development,
which could go any number of directions.
Good stuff all round.
The next title up for grabs was the Interim AEW Women’s World Championship with Toni
Storm defending the belt against Hikaru Shida.
This was also a bunch of fun, with some great offense, many many German suplexes and some
nearfalls that genuinely made me buy them as the finish.
Storm got the win here with the Storm Zero, and after the match the heels of Hayter and
Rebel beat up Storm to set up Baker’s beatdown, but she was stopped by Saraya who brawled
off into the crowd.
Riho then came out and got arguably a bigger pop than Saraya’s, which either speaks to
how over Riho is, how much Saraya has gone off the boil, or how much more instantly recognisable
Riho’s music is than Saraya’s.
Backstage it was set up that FTR will be facing Swerve in our Glory next week.
That could legitimately be one of my favourite matchups on paper right now and I am very,
very excited for it.
Darby Allin got beaten up by Jay Lethal.
And then we had my favourite thing on the show when MJF confronted William Regal in
the ring.
MJF is continuing his incredible slow burn babyface turn with yet another career defining
promo to add to his arsenal, of which I think he has like 5 this year alone.
MJF spoke on his time training in WWE, getting extra work, and being under the tutelage of
William Regal during that time, but Regal blew him off for being too young at 19, and
said after three months of keeping in touch that he had other things to deal with and
said he should only contact him once he got better, but in much more abrupt words than
I just used.
MJF said that that email alone made him want to kill himself because professional wrestling
is his life, he was just a kid, but he said if he did, the nay sayers would win, so he
kept training and now here we are 7 years later and William Regal is nothing but a sad
old man in MJF’s company who hangs around with people who are more talented than he
ever was.
After the crowd showererd MJF with an appropriate level of praise for that outstanding promo,
they then boo’d Regal as he attempted to retort.
But then as he continued to talk, the crowd cheered him again, as he fired up himself,
saying he wanted to light a fire under MJF, because when he was 16, 17, 18, he was working
the UK independent scene and being beaten up by grown adults because that was the way
you broke into the industry back then.
If MJF only had an email to get him to that point, then he’s had it easy.
He wanted MJF to prove himself and do things the right way, because by cheating and hiring
other people to do his work for him, he’s proved nothing.
Good god, what a segment.
This is my storytelling.
This is absolutely wonderful character development from both sides, you can clearly see their
motivations, and how this paid off later in the show as well, and you felt both of their
emotions and their cries for help, the trauma they had faced in their lives manifesting
in raw emotion that they spilled out into the microphones, it was just a beautiful segment
from start to finish, and genuinely one of my favourite wrestling segments I’ve ever
seen, and I don’t say that lightly.
This is exactly what I want from my pro wrestling, and this ticked every box.
Masterful.
The next title on the line was Dalton Castle challenging Chris Jericho for the Ring of
Honor title, and Dalton Castle refused Chris Jericho’s handshake at the start of the
match.
You know, they’ve established that there should be a handshake at the start and end
of every match, but I think they’ve had more ROH matches subvert it.
Jake Hager on the outside got fired up because The Boys took his hat.
That’s silly, I love it.
The match itself with Jericho and Castle was great, some fun offense, and a great finishing
sequence which ended with Jericho hitting the Judas Effect from out of nowhere.
Commentary made sure to put over that whether he liked it or not, Jericho didn’t cheat
in this match and he actually followed the Code of Honor, which I thought was an odd
story beat, and he probably should have continued his systematic cheating and all that.
But then he decided to start desecrating Ring of Honor some more with a Tombstone to Jerry
Lynn on the ROH World Title belt on the stage, which was pretty rad.
This was also fun.
Christian Cage let everyone know that Luchasaurus is going for titles now, so watch out.
The Baddies can’t find Jade Cargill’s TBS title, and Jade threatened Tony Khan that
she’d hold up 60 minutes of Rampage if she didn’t get her back to her.
And then we had the main event of Jon Moxley vs Hangman Page for the AEW World Title.
This was of course overshadowed by what happened in the finish of this match, but before we
get there, both of these guys put on a stonker of a match, starting off with a brawl before
Moxley even made it to the ring, a huge moonsault over an entrance to the floor, a Deadeye on
the ring apron, Moxley started bleeding a few seconds into the match because of course
he did, this was just two top wrestlers doing some top wrestling.
But of course, there was the very unfortunate finish.
From a King Kong Lariat from Moxley, Hangman appeared to land on his head and seemed like
he was knocked out.
Referee Paul Turner acted immediately, spotting Hangman was out and immediately called off
the match, with Moxley being the winner.
It was a horrible bump to take, and a dreadful situation, as the commentary attempted to
cover what was happening while Hangman was stretchered out.
I think everyone here acted admirably, the commentary, the referees, Moxley, the production,
everyone was respectful to Hangman’s injury without detracting massively from the end
goal of the show.
AEW put out a statment on Twitter to say Hangman had been diagnosed with a concussion and had
been discharged from hospital, which is great news as it could have been much worse.
Rest up Hangman, and we wish you a speedy recovery.
But the show didn’t end there, as Moxley covered and cut a mostly seemingly impromptu
promo on Hangman, how dangerous pro wrestling is, and then called out MJF, who entered with
his chip and a referee, but instead of cashing in his chip then and there, he handed the
chip to Regal and said he’s actually going to face Moxley at Full Gear, because, crucially,
for the first time in his miserable life, he’s going to earn it.
What a payoff to the MJF/Regal segment from earlier, with Regal’s words of advice actually
taking root in MJF and meaning he is doing things the right way, not wanting any excuses
for when he becomes AEW World Champion.
This is once again an absolute masterclass of storytelling, and was a much needed pick-me-up
after the unfortunate events at the end of the match.
Overall, this was a fun episode of Dynamite.
It was of course marred by the end of the main event, but the fun matches elsewhere,
and particularly the MJF character development meant this show couldn’t score lower than
a 4 out of 5.
Tempest and I will be doing the Dynamite podcast later today as well, so subscribe over there
for that.