Cero Reviews AEW Dynamite 12.18: Bucks vs SCU

[cero2k]

AEW Dynamite
December 18, 2019
Corpus Christi, TX

Lucha Bros vs Kenny Omega & Adam Page - 8.5/10
Awesome match, tons of action from both teams, but there were some small botches that were mostly out of miscommunication, but those could be hidden under 'stress'. Mainly Fenix going for a phantom cutter. The crowd was super hot, a lot of Mexicans doing the "Si Se Puede" chant. Kenny being the babyface in peril, but later on, it was the other way around. They played into the dissension between Page and Omega when the former accidentally hit the Buckshot Lariat on Omega and led to the loss at the Spike Fear Factor.

During the match, we got a little Dark Order subliminal messages.

Post-match - Page and Omega got face to face and they started shoving each other, but PAC interrupted them in the tron, asking for an answer. He got the camera to follow him to the locker room where he attacked Nakazawa. Omega ran after through the crowd, shortcut to the locker rooms.

On the side by side, we saw Omega going all over the place looking for PAC, but he got jumped by the Lucha Bros instead until Page made the save. You hear that? that is the sound of geeks crying because they did this on the side-by-side and not the show.

Also during the commercial, we saw Darby Allin walking down the hallway, towards his match I would imagine.

The Butcher and The Blade w/The Bunny vs Cody & Darby Allin - 7.5/10
Two stories going on here, one is that Darby is considerably smaller than everyone, especially Andy, who is about 100lbs bigger. Other was that Cody was cut off and the cheating tactics of B&B kept him at bay. For both men's issues against B&B, they were babyface in peril. They both made a comeback and Cody won with the top rope Os Cutter after Allin took out Andy with the Coffin Drop. This was really fast paced, felt like a fight, but I wasn't a fan of the team of Cody and Allin, they're just too different.

I think Cody ended with a small cut in the back of the head after the double dive spot. Could be just a beer stain.

Jungle Boy Training Montage - He trains in a gym, not a jungle, so I don't know what to feel about this. Great footage tho, drones have made vignettes really cinematic in the last years.

Awesome Kong w/Nightmare Collective vs Miranda Alize - Squash
One hit kill by Kong. Hair cut afterwards. There was an inset promo that was mostly to show more of the bald guy from last week.

"Jungle Boy" Jack Perry Interview - JR conducting the interview. Perry talked about Jericho, saying he respects his legend, but does not respect the person. Perry talked about how his dad would be proud of what he's achieved so far.

Jericho, Hager, and Guevara came out. Guevara came out through a door and had a bunch of cards for Jericho to cut a promo on the side-by-side screen, pretty much talking about not being to hear the show. THEN, at least for me, the screen-by-screen ended and only got normal commercials, so I didn't get to see the read promo.

10-Minute Time Limit, Non-title match
Chris Jericho w/Jake Hager vs Jungle Boy w/Jurassic Express - 6.5/10
Jungle Boy's family is live at ringside. This was a good showing for Jungle Boy, especially for someone as green as him, but I think the time limit was a bad decision since it was too short to really get the drama going, not enough time to work him into becoming a martyr to the crowd.

Match was that Jungle Boy started strong, good clean wrestling, but Jericho just got vicious, nothing fancy, straight up strikes, and around the 3 minute mark, dropped him with a Codebreaker, but instead of going for the kill, he just kinda continued working on JB since he had enough time. Around this time, Hager, Luchasaurus, and Marko all got themselves ejected form ringside. This whole distraction gave JB the time to recover and make a comeback, doing some dives and getting a near fall with a roll up and one with a Lionsault. Jericho eventually locked in the Walls of Jericho, but JB held on until the clock ran out.

My one complain is that Jericho never showed any hurry when the clock closed in to the 10 minute mark, but then he was all crazy about getting five more minutes after he couldn't submit him. Once the match was restarted, he once again was all calm again. I did like that Jericho left the match instead of finishing the last 5 minutes, which I guess it's a count out win for JB.

Jericho came back during the commercial to create chaos and talk trash to Perry's family. Schiavone interviewed him and corrected him about what Jericho had said about Jungle Boy not being able to last 10 minutes, while Jericho said that JB wasn't able to beat him.

Jericho Promo - Jericho then talked about his offer to Jon Moxley to join TIC. He said he's waiting for him o New Year's day.

SCU vs Lucha Bros Confrontation - SCU were being interviewed when the Lucha Bros interrupted them, Pentagon called out Daniels, but he's still shaken by his poor performance in their last match, and left speechless. SCU chased after Daniels.

Women's Championship No. 1 Contendership Match
Dr. Brit Baker, DMD vs Kris Statlander - 7/10
Winner faces Riho on Jan 1st show. Back and forward match, Statlander was playing a bit with Baker at first, but Baker, being all serious, pushed Statlander to get serious. This was kinda speed vs power, with Baker doing a lot of dodging and going for more locks, while Statlander was more about power moves. Finish saw Baker go for the Lockjaw, but Statlander powered up, got the Fireman's Carry and into the Big Bang Theory for the win. Statlander is 3-0 going into her title match. Riho's face at Statlander was gold. This was arguably one of the better Baker matches I've seen, but that's a low standard.

We got Dark Order website promotion during the match on the screen, commentary saw it and wondered what the fuck was up with that.

Post-match - Schivaone interviewed Statlander after the match, but Statlander just booped him. Brandi Rhodes came out and congratulated Statlander, and once again told her she wanted her in the Collective. Statlander said no, Kong and Cruise came out to distract her while Brandi hit her with her shoe's heel. Have you ever been hit by one? it fucking hurts.

Sadie Gibbs came out to check on Statlander and help her to the back. Nightmare Collective can be a way to keep the title on Riho while Statlander

Backstage, Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard said that in AEW, the tag division matters and so he wants to get in there. Tully said that they're going to find Shawn his guy, someone that thinks like Shawn. Ok promo, this could had been done on Twitter.

Young Bucks Promo - It's the same from last week's Dark, and it was fantastic. I loved the whole thing about the xmas dinner table.

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match
The Young Bucks vs S.C.U. (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) (C) - 7.5/10
Knox is the ref, this is a So Cal party! This was underwhelming wrestling wise, but a great story. SCU was just dominant that they perfectly cut the ring in half on the Bucks and destroyed Matt Jackson, always keeping Nick away, and through quick tags and big moves, SCU picked up the win over Matt. It'll be interesting seeing what the Bucks have to say about being outclassed tonight.

Post-match - The Dark Order Creepers came out and surrounded the ring. Lights went out and Evil Uno and Grayson came out in the ramp and congratulated SCU. Evil Uno said that tonight wasn't a recruitment night, but an initiation night. The Creepers attacked, but it was The Beaver Boys, unmasked that led the attack and the numbers game was enough to beat both The Bucks and SCU.

Omega came out for the save, but also got ganged on, targeted by Grayson specially. Cody and Dustin came out, but the numbers game was still enough, Creepers kept coming out from the crowd. Page as usual, never came out.

Creepers cleared the ring of everyone but The Bucks and gave Silver and Reynolds their masks. Matt Jackson was busted open in the mouth. Interesting angle, we'd been building to this for weeks. I sure hope that someone bigger joins the Dark Order, because the Beaver Boys is kinda underwhelming, they need a champion.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show, but I thought it ended somewhat underwhelming in the wrestling department, mainly the two big matches that were built for tonight. I think both got their points across, which is good, but neither captivated me. Jan 1st will be a big show, but a tricky day to get people to tune in.