Usually we open these videos with the news portion before moving into the AEW review.
But after a night of love and adoration for a great man, it felt only right to open with
the AEW Dynamite review.
But this isn’t really going to be a review.
AEW Dynamite wasn’t a night of gimmicks.
It wasn’t a night of characters, storylines or angles.
It was a tribute show to Brodie Lee, who tragically passed away over the weekend at the age of
41.
It was a night of moving messages from members of the AEW locker room, fun matches, and a
surprise appearance of a former Brodie tag partner.
In many ways it was similar to the Eddie Gurerro and Owen Hart tribute shows - babyfaces getting
the wins, and wrestlers being given the platform to remember a fallen brother.
It was a beautiful show.
I cried quite a bit watching, and I would bet that I wasn’t alone.
And judging by Twitter, the whole wrestling world was watching, with members of both sides
of company locker rooms tweeting support for Brodie; with WWE’s Sami Zayn, Sasha Banks,
Big E, and Bayley all showing their love for this episode.
And it was a perfect tribute show.
Honouring the life of a great wrestler, but also a great father, husband and all-round
human being.
I’ve never found myself in this position before, so I’ll do my best here.
This is less of a review, and more of a recap I guess.
Either way, please go out of your way to watch this show if you haven’t already.
The show’s graphics for the night were purple in honour of Lee’s Exalted One gimmick;
all the wrestlers wore armbands with his name; Aubry Edwards wore purple eyeshadow; Lance
Archer wore Luke Harper’s gear; Darby Allin had Brodie’s name as part of his make-up;
everyone was in tears.
Chris Jericho noted on commentary that it was okay for us to all cry and grieve tonight,
and that we did.
The show opened with a 10 bell salute for Brodie Lee with the entire AEW roster out
on the entrance ramp - with Brodie’s wife and kids front and centre.
Jon Moxley paid his respects in a very powerful promo, and our first match of the night saw
Hardy Party take on The Young Bucks and Colt Cabana.
The heels worked over Matt Jackson to build up to the Cabana hot tag which was amazing,
and after a close nearfall off Gin & Juice and the Twist of Fate, the good guys hit Chicago
Skyline, Indy Taker and the Superman Dive to get the win.
Colt was close to tears for a lot of this match, with the commentary bringing up their
long history outside of AEW.
I said that this show wasn’t about angles, but there were a couple peppered throughout
the show - the first being The Acclaimed coming out to cut a promo and being stopped by SCU
to set up their 8-man tag next week.
We got a lot of touching tributes throughout the night from Darby Allin, Dax Harwood, Arn
Anderson, Colt Cabana, Chris Jericho, Eddie Kingston and Bryce Remsberg.
Each one of them shared their own stories - like Darby wanting to wrestle him, and Jericho
talking about their time in Saudi Arabia - but the overwhelming message was how much Brodie
loved his family.
Bryce Remsberg in particular spoke highly of him, saying through the tears that if there
was a Mount Rushmore of wrestling fathers he should be part of it.
In what was probably my favourite match of the evening - from an in-ring perspective
anyway - Lance Archer teamed with the original Dark Order of Evil Uno and Stu Grayson to
take on Eddie Kingston’s Family.
It was a big brawling match with hoss-like action - with some amazing sequences between
Kingston and Uno; Archer and Butcher - and Grayson reminded us once again why he is one
of the most underrated guys on the AEW roster.
Uno and Grayson hit Fatality for the win, and after the match they all beat up Kingston
for good measure - with even Jake “The Snake” hitting the short arm clothesline.
But this wasn’t about which match was best from an in-ring perspective.
This was a night of emotion.
And things got really emotional in the next match.
If you’ve watched this week’s Being The Elite, or just taken a trip to his social
media page, you will have seen that John Silver has been greatly affected by the loss of Brodie
Lee, and him teaming with Alex Reynolds and Hangman Page felt like the most perfect way
for him to pay tribute.
He wore Brodie’s gear, which commentary told us was a gift from Lee to him, and they
had the perfect heel foils in Santana, Ortiz and MJF of Inner Circle.
MJF in particular was a total dick in this match, even getting in the face of Brodie
Lee Jr at ringside.
This was all about building to that Silver hot tag, letting him run wild and hitting
various Brodie-like spots.
In the most surprising moment of the night, Wardlow got in the ring but was stopped by
Brodie Lee’s former Bludgeon Brother Erick Redbeard.
Brodie Lee Jr. hit MJF with the kendo stick, and Silver hit the discus clothesline for
the win - immediately breaking down into tears.
Erick came back down to cry and celebrate with them, holding a sign that said “Goodbye
For Now Brother” - a lovely paraphrasing to one of Brodie’s famous catchphrases backstage
with the boys.
I’ll be honest, I was a wreck watching this match.
Anna Jay teamed with Tay Conti to take on Dr. Britt Baker and Penelope Ford, with Jay
picking up the win with the Queenslayer.
Jay welled up during the match, as she had been personally recruited by Lee to join Dark
Order to help push her career forward - which was also a message of the night.
Brodie Lee didn’t come to AEW to take a spot, he came to elevate the promotion and
the talent involved.
He imparted a lot of knowledge and wisdom onto the younger talent, talent like Anna
Jay, who at 22 only really started her professional wrestling career this year in 2020.
Matches like this clearly meant a lot to the younger talent of All Elite Wrestling.
After the match Britt Baker gave a nice subtle tribute to Big Rig, and then brawled with
Thunder Rosa to set up their match in a couple of weeks.
And the main event match of the show was handpicked by Brodie Lee Jr - a six man tag of his favourite
wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Orange Cassidy and Dark Order’s 10 taking on Team Taz.
The heels ragdolled Cassidy, and 10 got to run wild and pick up the win with a big spinebuster.
Even through his mask you could see this was a struggle for him, another young talent that
was given advice by Brodie Lee.
Team Taz did a beatdown after the match, but were stopped by Darby Allin and Sting who
came out of the same backstage area to build Allin’s TNT Title defense against Brian
Cage in two weeks.
But the real main event of the show was Cody inviting Amanda Huber and Brodie Jr to come
to the ring to retire his boots in one of the most touching moments of the evening.
Tony Khan announced that they were retiring the current design of the TNT Championship,
which had previously been held by Brodie Sr., naming Brodie Lee Jr the TNT Champ forever.
And the show ended with a lovely video package for Mr. Brodie Lee - featuring clips of his
indie days, personal photos of his family, and photos of him alongside WWE stars like
Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt.
It was the perfect end to a perfect show.
Obviously, I’m not going to score this episode.
It wasn’t that kind of show.
Instead I invite you to give your memories of Brodie Lee in the comments down below.
Thank you for everything you gave us Jon Huber.
We here at WrestleTalk will miss you a great deal, and as we’ve said all week, we would
like to extend our best wishes and thoughts to the family and friends of him.
You will be missed.
Now, let’s awkwardly segue into the wrestling news.
X-Pac’s second induction into the WWE Hall of Fame didn’t officially happen in 2020,
but many assumed that the former DX member was done with his in-ring career, mainly because
he said so in 2019 on an episode of X-Pac 1-2-360.
But now, on a new episode of the same show, it seems we may be getting one last run from
the 123 Kid: “I had hepatitis C for a long time.
I tested positive for it when I came back to TNA.
After that, I couldn’t get cleared in certain states with athletic commissions, so TNA and
WWE couldn’t really have me in matches...Now I’m cured, everyone.
Just this year.
I hadn’t mentioned it publicly.
It cost $100,000 for treatment.
It’s $1,000 a pill, one pill every day.
I feel great.”
“Now, that’s clear.
I’m going to get my knee fixed, I’ve had a torn ACL since the turn of this decade,
like 2008 or something.
I’m going to get that fixed and sometime next year, I’ll put myself on the market,
have a few more matches.”
Where would you like to see X-Pac wrestle?
WWE?
NXT?
AEW?
Somewhere else?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE!
But it looks like we’ll be seeing someone wrestle in WWE for a while longer, as we’ve
now got an update regarding Riddle’s WWE contract.
Riddle’s original contract he signed when he joined WWE in 2018 expired in August 2021,
and previous reports stated how WWE were hoping to get Riddle to re-sign before the year rolled
over into 2021.
Well it seems they have just about managed it, as both the Wrestling Observer and Fightful
Select are reporting that The Original Bro has now signed a multi-year deal with the
company.
In the Fightful Select report, it was mentioned that Riddle initially didn’t seem too interested
in re-signing with the company after their initial offer, but after new contract terms
were offered to him, he changed his mind and signed the new deal.
Riddle will be earning a reported $400,000 per year, plus an extra $50,000 for any shows
he works in Saudi Arabia.
Riddle is reportedly in line for a United States Championship match against Lashley
either at or before the Royal Rumble in January, and him signing a new deal only means this
is more likely to go ahead.
And finally today, the viewership for this week’s Raw episode is in, with the show
drawing an average of 1.77 million viewers, up from the previous week’s 1.69 million.
This continues the positive trend from the disastrously low December 14th episode - the
lowest viewership for Raw of all time - at 1.53 million.
Next week’s show is Raw Legend’s Night, which is Vince’s oldest trick in the book,
literally, in order for a ratings spike, so expect to see another increase for next week’s
show too.
WWE have got a new ‘crazy gimmick match’ lined up for Royal Rumble!
Press the video to the right to find out more, and what were 10 explosive wrestling shoot
interviews from 2020?
Press the video below that to watch our latest list video.
Remember to subscribe here for daily wrestling news videos and reviews, I’ve been Luke
Warm Luke Owen, Jam That Jam.