11 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (29 Sep)
Sammy Guevara becomes TNT Champion, The Dark Order reunite, and Brodie Lee is honoured.
Rochester, New York hosted an eventful episode of AEW Dynamite last night, with a blistering opener, major title change, a return, a reunion, and a host of exciting match announcements populating its two hours. Impressive in its economic storytelling, it got a lot done - even for AEW.
But it was all about Mr. Brodie Lee.
This intended hometown show was originally supposed to host the Exalted One's AEW debut on 18 March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic stopped that from happening, meaning Lee had to show up in an empty Daily's Place instead, forever robbing him of colossal pop. Fans therefore knew last night was going to be special before Tony Khan's conformation that the show would be dedicated to honouring Lee, and it ended up playing out that way.
Invested viewers would have run the full gamut of human emotion between the Brodie references, Sammy Guevara and Miro's TNT Title fight, Jungle Boy vs. Adam Cole, The Dark Order coming back together, and Arn Anderson straightening Cody Rhodes out. Dynamite was as effective a transitional episode as AEW has ever produced - and a rollercoaster to boot.
Let's light the fuse.