All Elite Wrestling made its return to Pittsburgh, a city known almost as much for its wrestling as the steel it once produced, for the fourth time this past week, and also for the fourth time, the great Pat Maclaughlin and I had tickets to the event, departing from the suburbs of Western, Pennsylvania at about 5:30 PM to arrive for a 7 PM bell time. Surprisingly, despite Penn Dot being notoriously known for construction seemingly everywhere around the steel city, the trip to the Peterson Events Center, the venue that hosts Pitt Panther basketball games, was rather uneventful. Since long distances aren’t my strong suite, Pat was nice enough to drop me off in front of the build before he was brave enough to venture to find a parking spot. By the time the show started with the Ring Of Honor taping, the seats were mostly full so I’m not sure what, if any changes were made to the entry process, but the Peterson staff kept the lines moving and avoided a log jam or any major traffic in the aisles as fans entered the building. Thankfully, the aging Maclaughlin found his way to the front doors after he parked and we found our way to the seats, the risers right about the floor, providing us with a good view of the action. We ran into Andrew Palace, a stellar Pittsburgh grappler that was working as a part of the local staff that night, and aside from being one of the most solid performers on the Pittsburgh circuit, he’s also one of the politest people I’ve met in wrestling.
Pat and I found our seats just as the ROH taping began, but to avoid any spoilers for bouts that haven’t aired yet, I won’t detail the results. However, a contest to go out of your way to watch for any of those that might have access to Honor Club is the Lee Moriarty/Rocky Romero bout. Lee is an alumni of Ryse Wrestling, the local organization where I provide commentary for the broadcasts of events, and it’s so great to get to see him work on such a major stage in Pittsburgh. He’s one of the kindest people I know and he undoubtedly deserves the success.
The live broadcast kicked off with the extended in-ring promo with the “four pillars” and I have to say, I honestly think that AEW should do a better job of explaining the concept. Too often, especially with the broadcast team, I don’t think enough attention is paid to the fact that the national television audience has no idea what the All Japan concept was more than twenty five years ago. I’m not trying to be too negative about this segment, but it was more or less the exact same promo from last week and really didn’t do anything other than to set up the Jungle Boy/Sammy Guevera main event, which is fine, but that could’ve been accomplished without the nearly 20-minute segment that was more or less a carbon copy of a previous edition of Dynamite.
The six woman tag match was fine. It wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t need to be. Britt Baker was one of the most over performers on the entire show and when someone is that over, you don’t need the high spots or the car crash match to get a reaction. The hometown baby face won and the crowd popped for it so it was mission accomplished.
I’m not sure if the impromptu brawl between The Elite and The Blackpool Combat Club was scheduled because Matt Jackson has a legitimate arm injury and might not be cleared for a match or if this was what would’ve been planned anyway, but it was a fun segment that gave the audience the chance to see each stable on the show. Konosuke Takeshita was involved in this angle and it will be interesting to see if this association with the two featured factions will lead to more exposure for him, but hopefully, there’s a bigger plan in place for the Japanese grappler. He’s just too talented to get lost in the shuffle, but given the sporadic nature of the AEW product, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s presented as a secondary figure during this feud.
The TNT title match was solid. Wardlow and Powerhouse Hobbs are two guys that Tony Khan should consider a priority for the future, especially Hobbs, as the series of vignettes that were done with him recently cemented the authenticity that he brings to the table. That’s why it’s somewhat puzzling that the TNT title was booked as a hot potato in recent months. Wardlow’s rather short reign initially didn’t do much to help his momentum, and if Tony Khan wanted to go with Hobbs as TNT champion instead, that’s completely understandable, but to pass the belt back and fourth was almost too 50/50 for either one of them to make progress from the wins. Unfortunately, Wardlow’s status has been hit or miss since the infamous MJF incident at Double or Nothing last year so unless Khan has solid plans for Wardlow in the future, he might want to consider WWE an option in the future.
Jay White vs. Komander was an entertaining match, but as much as this might ruffle some feathers of The Wrestling Observer fan base, White was more or less responsible for the quality of this contest. In many ways, this was a prime example of a very well-rounded worker that can do anything in the ring to make it work compared to the performer that only knows how to do the high spots. Don’t get me wrong, Komander’s athleticism, especially in-person, is absolutely incredible, but White was the “glue” of this match. As mentioned, Komander’s aerial ability is tremendous, but outside of those high spots, he doesn’t really excel at any other aspect of the sport. Instead of working the pace of the match, he more or less put it on autopilot until the next dive. On the flip side, Jay White is the complete worker and still in the prime of his career. I have to be honest, I was surprised that White landed in AEW, particularly after it was rumored that he might’ve been close to a WWE deal. As he proved in New Japan, Jay White is a top guy so Tony Khan would be wise to use him at a level on par with his skills. Speaking of signing an AEW contract, it was announced on social media that Komander inked a deal. At this point, I have to shake my head when I see more wrestlers, specifically those that are similar to many already on the roster, get added to the company. That’s not to say that Komander doesn’t have talent, but rather what’s the plan for him? This has happened so many times that it almost validates the criticism that Tony uses AEW as a vanity project. Khan gives away more contracts than Oprah gave away cars, and the odds say that Komander ends up on the Youtube shows within a few months. Has anyone seen Bandido?
The Adam Cole/Chris Jericho segment wasn’t the typical AEW promo, but it was great business. It generated heat for the angle and gave the storyline a purpose. It wasn’t just putting Jericho in a feud with Adam Cole to give them both something to do on the show, the segment established a premise for the storyline with Cole trying to get revenge for the attack on Britt Baker. How the storyline plays out remains to be seen, but I’d say this was a money segment.
The main event of Jungle Boy vs. Sammy Guevara was tremendous and an example of what AEW could be without the sporadic booking or middle school drama behind the scenes. This was two quality young talents that had a TV main event that can give viewers a reason to tune into Dynamite as an alternative to WWE. Granted, I don’t have much faith that Tony Khan can realistically juggle this angle with four talents to a logical conclusion at the next pay-per-view, but as far as this specific episode of Dynamite, the Sammy/Jungle Boy bout gave the fans their money’s worth.
After Dynamite, matches were taped for Rampage including, the opener of Jon Moxley vs. Christopher Daniels. A hilarious side note, at one point, a very intoxicated fan that was sitting near the rail of the entrance way decided to stumble around to the other side of the seating section and lean over the guard rail to attempt to fist bump Moxley mid-match. This fellow must’ve enjoyed too many Bud Light beverages, as the guy wearing what appeared to be cameo pants with leaves attached to them, seemed oblivious to the national television taping that was being filmed when he reached over the rail. The guy was also oblivious to the fact that several security guards were surrounding him to escort him out of the venue as soon as the match concluded. After he was told to hit the bricks, he attempted to fist bump each of the police officers that were showing him to the door. A security guard that resembled Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad wasn’t impressed and didn’t acknowledge the hand gesture as the impaired patron staggered toward the exit. Of course, on his way out of the arena, the local yokel tried to get the crowd to cheer his accomplishment of being kicked out after he bought the very expensive floor seats. The Rampage main event was Vikingo vs. Dralistico and while the high spots were insane, there was definitely a disconnect with the audience. Dralistico was aligned with the heel faction with Rush, but attempted to work the crowd like a baby face to garner a very minimal reaction. This bout didn’t have the “glue” that made the Jay White/Komander match work earlier in the night.
As I waited outside the venue for Pat to get the car, I saw a few more faces from Ryse Wrestling. Cowpoke Paul, a youngster with a lot of potential and impressive skills in the ring, and Meighan Nelson, my broadcast colleague at an event last week, stopped to say hello. After some traffic on the way home, I made it back at about 12:30 AM. Maclaughlin returned to his house in time to take the garbage out for pick up, a booking decision made by the boss of the house, Mrs. Mac, and it concluded what was a fun night of live AEW action.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram & Facebook @jimlamotta89
