All Elite Wrestling returned to the OVO Hydro in Glasgow for some Dynamite and Collision. Last year I put forward that the show might have convinced me to watch AEW a bit more regularly. Ultimately it didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a promotion trying to forge a legacy and a product for those that crave something for them to enjoy. Wrestling is supposed to be fun, entertainment at its very core.
It was Déjà vu with Will Ospreay opening Dynamite in Glasgow, an impassioned speech to gee folk up for All In at the weekend, a mention for those that paved the way and to those lost in British wrestling, Kris Travis, Ryan Smile, Mad Kurt, and Scotland’s own Lionheart, and closing out by staking his claim on the AEW World Championship match against Kenny Omega at the weekend. Crowd were hyped.
AEW Continental Challenge Cup – Semi Final – Jon Moxley defeated Claudio Castagnoli by submission to advance to the final.
Both men entered via the Death Rider alcove to coming through the crowd. It was a slow start, with a super wide and high hard cam shot that was distracting and showed the big gaps between seated sections. Weird camera angles aside, it was a bit of a slog early doors until it went to the outside for Castagnoli to swing Moxley into the barricade. Claudio focused the attack on the left shoulder and showed little to no effect to chops and strikes in return.
A backdrop from Moxley had Castagnoli impressively land on his feet, only to be sent to the outside and look up to see a torpedo Jon Moxley diving through the ropes. Back in the ring it was strikes being traded until Moxley delivered a cutter. Claudio went back to the submissions for an arm bar and a hangman swing into a rear naked choke. The match soon returned to slugging it out, Moxley kicked out after a Curb Stomp – Neutralizer one two shot, Castagnoli kicked out of a Death Rider DDT at one, then a Curb Stomp and a second Death Rider DDT. Moxley locked in a grounded headlock for the submission win.
This was not a fun watch. It was like watching a turtle fighting whenever Jon Moxley was doing anything. I feel like there’s a fine line between aura and lazy, and it was more like the latter, coupled with Claudio Castagnoli not being charismatic, plus there wasn’t any Death Rider tension to add any spice to the match up that might have added some sort of excitement. It was mostly punching.
Adam Copeland, & The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) defeated Don Callis Family (Rocky Romero, Jake Doyle, & Brian Cage) by pinfall.
Copeland and Doyle started off before bringing in The Young Bucks to do Young Buck things and a string of offense before Nick Jackson was caught by Brian Cage and dropped onto the apron. Nick was isolated in The Don Callis Family corner. Doyle, Romero, and Cage took turns to batter Jackson, with Brian Cage holding Nick Jackson up for an eternity in set up of a vertical suplex that ended up countered into a small package for a two count. Nick made it to his corner after sending Cage off the second rope with a hurricurana as Copeland tagged in to wail on his opponents.
Jake Doyle body checked Copeland to stop a spear with The Young Bucks hitting superkicks everywhere until they almost caught Copeland. Matt and Nick were sent outside for The Don Callis Family to hit all their moves on Copeland, who kicked out anyway. Superkick, superkick, superkick, superkick, dive, dive, and Copeland connected with a spear to Rocky Romero to get the win.
Christian Cage entered to dress down The Young Bucks verbally, Matt Jackson sarcastically retorted, leading to Christian kicking Matt between the legs, Nick superkicked Christian, and Copeland speared Nick Jackson to close the segment.
The result was so inevitable that any potential drama was lost. I just can’t get into Young Bucks matches, they are so performative, most noticeable when Brian Cage was blatantly watching the big screen while setting up a suplex to Copeland on the second ropes to stall and wait for the Jacksons to arrive. Even Adam Copeland seemed to refuse to get out of third gear. It looked like Copeland was trying to get a bit of something going with Jake Doyle to make Doyle look like a brute so there was a positive there threaded but it couldn’t save a pretty boring match.
Willow’s music played until it cut to backstage where it revealed Mercedes Moné had attacked her, we moved onto the slimiest man in wrestling Don Callis confirming that Mark Davis would be in the Casino Gauntlet backstage. Andrade’s music played next but no Andrade with MJF stotted out for some cliché insults and mocked Andrade, Andrade snuck through the crowd for a quick scrap. Backstage once more for a leathery Chris Jericho to announce that he would also be in the Casino Gauntlet. A whole lot of stuff that could’ve been spaced out between matches instead of clumped in one place.
AEW Continental Challenge Cup – Semi Final – Nigel McGuinness defeated Kyle O’Reilly by submission to advance to the final.
A technical start had Nigel McGinness and Kyle O’Reilly, with Nigel having a little bit of fun to bamboozle O’Reilly like transitioning a chin lock into using referee Aubrey Edwards, Kyle countering and rolling up Edwards before realising his error. It was back to tying up between submissions for both as they had a chess match of moves and pins. Nigel punched Kyle so hard that a lump formed under the eye of O’Reilly as the match went on.
Business picked up with a big lariat from McGuinness that got him a two count, Nigel then locked in a London Dungeon for the tap out.
Just as the match got started… it ended.
Another disappointing match. The audience didn’t care, there was no sense of urgency, they just grappled for a bit, a strike here and there, and then the finish.
To the back and it was the suited hotdog Don Callis with International Champion Kyle Fletcher, they were interrupted by Okada in pyjamas, the word family was used a lot.
Persephone, & Divine Dominion (Megan Bayne & Lena Kross) defeated Maya World, & The Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter & Alex Windsor) by pinfall.
Megan Bayne threw Maya World around like she was a wet trackie with Lena Kross and Persephone getting in on that action. World rolled through to get Alex Windsor in as The Brawling Birds went into a speedrun of double and triple team manoeuvres to take control. Jamie Hayter got the better of Persephone until Lena Kross intervened to turn the tide. It was Hayter’s turn to be kept in the wrong corner, being thrown by Megan Bayne like nothing. Alex Windsor interrupted a pin to spark a brawl between The Brawling Birds and Divine Dominion, Hayter and Bayne ran into each other with stereo clotheslines.
World and Persephone tagged in to pick up the pace until the match just broke down, everyone was doing things while the referee stood about looking useless. Maya World hit a nice springboard stunner for her pin attempt intercepted by Megan Bayne dragging Maya out of the ring. The Brawling Birds and Divine Dominion started fighting up the ramp with the distraction seeing Persephone lamping World with a belt, a frog splash sealed the deal.
One of the better matches on the show, it was by the numbers for the most part but the strength of character shown by all six elevated the match more. Megan Bayne stood out as star, while Maya World foot some of the best reactions of the night. There’s a quality that Persephone has that makes her intriguing to watch, a manic chaos exudes from her. Good stuff.
The first video package to hype up a match that isn’t happening on this show played. It was for Darby Allin against Kevin Knight at All In. It would’ve been nice to have more of those to catch up filthy casuals like myself, help us understand the why.
Swerve Strickland w/Prince Nana defeated Jungle Jack Perry by pinfall.
Strickland big brothered Jack Perry to open, with Perry firing back to take down Swerve that looked to irritate. Strickland bullied his way back into the driver’s seat to put the boots to Jungle Jack. Perry came back as they fought to the apron, an attempted headscissor from Jack was stopped mid swing by Swerve for Strickland to swing Perry into the ring post. Swerve dragged Perry around ringside until Jack reversed an Irish Whip to send Strickland into the barricade.
The momentum didn’t last long before Swerve was back to dominating Jungle Jack Perry, stretching him with a modified Gory Special. Perry spun out to send Strickland to ringside, landing a Sliced Bread onto the floor and bombarding Swerve with dive after dive after dive. Swerve tried to meet Perry on the top turnbuckle but was pushed off for a backflip, Jungle Jack almost necked himself from a Moonsault that by a miracle landed with no incident. Swerve cracked Perry with a House Call kick before going for a double foot stomp that was countered into an STF that was turned into a package pin that was kicked out of. Jack kept coming close to snatching it until he was caught for a wheelbarrow sit-out driver to see Swerve Strickland collect the victory.
A decent match with plenty of moments to bite on. They did a good job of getting across the underdog dynamic as the match went on even if they lacked giving some of the higher impact moves a second to breath, however, the main event for their final Dynamite before All In? Nah.
As a go home show to their biggest event on their calendar, it was pedestrian. Nothing on this convinced me to want to buy a ticket or sign up to Triller, or whatever streaming service it is on, the All In card was mentioned sparingly and off hand. Not even a sniff of Kenny Omega is mad, the crowd were noticeably less enthusiastic in comparison to 12 months prior, and AEW gave them no reason to react any other way. Last year I had my finger over the buy now button, after this one I’m not even interested in browsing the Buy In on the night. Tony Schiavone and Excalibur sounded bored, the matches were disappointing, and the lack of context and that “why” had me not caring about the matches anyway.
It was a tough two hours to sit through. I hope the atmosphere in the Hydro was better than the heatless matches we witnessed on TV.