In this WrestleTalk News, Eddie Kingston Suspended by AEW, news on who came up with the finish
for Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk, AEW might be pursuing WWE for alleged contract tampering, and Pete
reviews last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
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A few weeks ago, the idea of AEW stars being suspended for their backstage behaviour was
almost unthinkable, but given the increased reports of backstage unrest in the company,
perhaps it was only a matter of time.
Reports were published yesterday that AEW president Tony Khan would be holding a large
talent meeting to discuss the apparent unrest, unrest which included a very prominent star
getting a real suspension.
According to both Dave Meltzer and Fightful Select, Eddie Kingston recently served a secret
suspension following a genuine altercation with Sammy Guevara.
The reports note the two men had a “verbal dispute”, and Fightful Select’s report
added the rumour is that Kingston went as far as swinging at Guevara after Sammy made
a disrespectful comment about Kingston’s physique.
It isn’t clear how long Kingston was suspended for, but the report is that the suspension
has now been served, so it doesn’t appear to have been a particularly long one.
Title of Pete’s sextape.
Interestingly, Kingston and Guevara had been feuding on TV lately, and the two men were
set for a match at All Out, but plans may have been scrapped.
Kingston challenged Guevara to a match on the August 3rd episode of AEW Dynamite, a
challenge Guevara would accept during a taping of AEW Dynamite a week later, but when the
show aired, Guevara’s challenge acceptance was nowhere to be seen.
It isn’t clear whether the suspension and the possible cancelation of the match are
linked, but my grandma did always tell me there’s no such thing as coincidence.
Although she did tell me that after I started asking her why I look so much like the postman.
Since then, Eddie Kingston has issued a statement to PWInsider about this suspension, saying:
“You know the truth.
I wouldn't lie.
I was wrong for being unprofessional.
That is the blind fact.
He did what he did and the public can judge that but I know for a fact I was wrong.”
But despite the unrest in AEW, the promotion is still managing to put on some incredible
matches, including last night’s Jon Moxley vs. CM Punk Undisputed AEW Championship match.
Pete will have a full review of the show later, but as you will likely have already seen,
Jon Moxley defeated CM Punk to become the Undisputed AEW World Champion, winning in
just 5 minutes in a dominant display.
According to Fightful Select, the interesting call for the match to take place on last night’s
AEW Dynamite rather than at the upcoming All Out show may have come directly from Moxley,
with one source reporting it was his idea, and that Punk would “eventually” agree
to the idea.
Will Washington also noted earlier this week that there was a suggestion AEW had wanted
to increase buzz and ticket sales for last night’s show, so having the title unification
match last night was a way of doing that.
In terms of my own completely unfounded speculation, given how short the match was, perhaps AEW
simply didn’t think the finish they had planned would satisfy a PPV main event crowd,
so the call was made the change the date.
And just before we get into Pete’s review, Tony Khan has allegedly told talent that he
has sent a warning to WWE, with PWInsider reporting the message was “warning them
not to tamper with his talent.”
Fightful Select backed up this report, and revealed the contents of the warning email
specifically related to “contract tampering allegations.”
It isn’t clear exactly what contract tampering is being referred to, but there were reports
last week that WWE had contacted as least one AEW star who is currently under contract.
And now hot tag to Pint-sized Pete for his review of AEW Dynamite.
And now it’s time for my review of holy s*** wrestling is so much fun guys, I mean,
AEW Dynamite, in about 5 minutes.
The show began with a great opening promo between Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia and Bryan
Danielson, where Jericho wanted Garcia to apologise for his actions last week, Danielson
was telling Garcia that he agrees with the crowd, he’s a wrestler, and Garcia was caught
between the pair of them.
After saying he can’t do this right now and telling Jericho to leave him alone, he
tried to leave, Jericho tried to stop him but he pushed Jericho to the ground and walked
out, allowing Jericho and Danielson to set up their All Out match about who the best
wrestler actually is.
It’s Danielson, by the way.
This was some great emotional storytelling, and while we can most likely see where this
story is going, I’m all for it.
And even if we can see where stories are going, sometimes we can’t, like we saw later on
this show.
Dax Harwood then faced Jay Lethal in a very fun match, which featured some fierce chops
and fantastic chain wrestling sequences, which ended with rollup counter after rollup counter
leading to Lethal getting the win with the tights.
Post-match, it was announced that the Trios match at All Out with FTR & Wardlow teaming
up would actually be against Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machine Guns.
This makes me very happy.
Thumbs up here.
Thunder Rosa announced in a backstage segment that she is being forced to relinquish the
AEW Women’s World Title due to injury and that there will be a Fatal 4-Way to determine
the Interim champion at All Out between Toni Storm, Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter and Hikaru
Shida.
I think Toni Storm is probably winning it, but I also wouldn’t be opposed to Hayter
or Shida winning either.
They should genuinely just replicate Moxley’s interim run, just wrestle every week and put
on banging matches.
Later on in the show, Britt Baker defeated hometown gal Kilynn King relatively quickly,
and the four competitors in the four way at All Out brawled.
This was fine.
Colten Gunn faced his Daddy Ass next, and while I am very happy Scissor Me Daddy Ass
is back, this match was nothing too special.
Stokely Hathaway caused the distraction outside by attacking the Acclaimed, and Colten hit
a low blow and the Colt 45 to win.
Swerve in our Glory saved The Acclaimed from a post-match beatdown, and later made the
match between those two teams for All Out, which I’m very much looking forward to.
They announced that the Death Triangle vs United Empire match will be the main event
of the show next, to which I promptly said ‘wait what the f***’.
They’d been hyping Moxley vs Punk as the biggest Dynamite match in history, how could
it conceivably not be the main event?
Though it definitely did strongly suggest there were shenanigans afoot for that match,
I was still curious.
And that match came next, Moxley vs Punk, what many people thought would be the main
event of All Out, wasn’t even the main event of Dynamite.
I was watching this, waiting for the angle to happen, and it certainly did, just a couple
of minutes into the match.
Punk hit an inziguri to Mox, and immediately grabbed his surgically repaired foot, writhing
in agony on the floor.
Mox stretched that foot out, hit two Death Riders and pinned Punk for a total match time
of 2 minutes and 59 seconds.
Jon Moxley is your new AEW World Champion, Punk was helped to the back, looking heartbroken
in the process, and everyone watching had a collective Undertaker streak broken meme
guy face.
This is an insane result.
For everyone who thought the result was a foregone conclusion, this turned everything
on its head.
When Punk returned, oh it’s obvious Punk vs Moxley will be the main event of All Out,
in Chicago.
Oh it’s on Dynamite, well it’s obvious Punk will beat Moxley to have a big match
at All Out, in Chicago.
And now Moxley beat Punk in under 3 minutes.
What does this mean for All Out?
What does this mean for Punk?
What does this mean for the AEW World Title?
I have no idea, and you know what, I don’t care, because I am completely and utterly
along for the ride.
Wrestling is so much fun right now and I’m just here to enjoy it.
I don’t know where the story is going, and I love it.
When AEW’s backs were against the wall, as WWE is on a hot streak right now, they
give their show a complete shot in the arm and now All Out seems completely unpredictable
because we don’t even know what the AEW World Title match will be.
Okay, maybe just a little speculation.
I can’t help it.
MJF?
Is he coming back?
What do you think they could make for All Out that feel big enough?
Let me know in the comments, I’d be very curious to see your thoughts.
Later in the show, Moxley cut a brilliant backstage promo, saying oh was that not how
it was meant to go?
Best in the world my ass, and repeatedly said my time is now.
Jon Moxley vs…John Cena at All Out?
Oh hey that isn’t the end of the show though, as Christian Cage cut a promo accepting Jungle
Boy’s match for All Out.
I’m sure everyone paid attention and wasn’t still decompressing from what we’d just
seen.
Ricky Starks reignited the crowd though with his in-ring promo, calling out Powerhouse
Hobbs for All Out, firing up and cutting a scathing and brilliantly passionate promo
about their time together and how he saw Hobbs as a friend, before he attacked his neck,
the same neck that he broke over a year ago, the same neck that Hobbs called him about
every week to check how it was healing.
This was masterful stuff, and another huge thumbs up from me.
And then we had the main event Trios match of Death Triangle vs United Empire and hot
damn guys, this might be one of my favourite Dynamite matches.
The sheer amount of insanely fast back and forth flips, counters, dives, twists, turns,
holds, kicks, cutters, destroyers, was unbelievable.
I can’t go through this spot for spot because I’d be here til next week, but the finish
of the match came when Kip Sabian was ringside under his cardboard box, which distracted
PAC.
Swerve though, it wasn’t Sabian, but it was some other dude who had been forced into
that position with tape over his mouth, when the real Kip Sabian attacked PAC, laying him
out, allowing United Empire to triple team Rey Fenix for the win.
While I’ve been down on the Kip Sabian ‘story’ for months, simply because it didn’t progress,
nor was mentioned by commentary or anything, the crowd reaction to Sabian returning was
big, and the sustained ‘Kip’ chants following the attack indicate to me that this was a
success, so fair play.
And United Empire winning would have been a fine enough end to the show, before you
then remembered.
That means it’s United Empire vs The Elite next week.
And then Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks came out and oh my god guys.
Omega vs Ospreay is actually going to happen.
Don Callis had to stop Kenny getting into the ring, but those two looked like they legitimately
wanted to beat each other up, which they probably do.
What an absolutely wild episode of Dynamite.
As I mentioned before, the show needed an injection of something fierce, and they got
it.
The Mox/Punk result was completely unexpected, United Empire vs Elite next week, Danielson
vs Jericho with Garcia’s favour hanging in the balance, some fantastic wrestling,
this is an easy 5/5 show.
Wrestling is so much fun.
My notes for that Punk vs Mox match were: super aggressive start, Punk injury?, Death
Rider, What the f*** is happening, Death Rider, and then all in caps, WHAT THE F*** IS THIS,
HOLY S***, ERM, MOX WINS, OKAY, ERM, I KIND OF LOVE THIS, OKAY.
Just in case you wondered how eloquent I am in real time.
I’ve got a ton more thoughts on this, so be sure to check out the full Dynamite podcast
review later today with myself and Andy Datson.