AEW Dynamite is owned by All Elite Wrestling, Shahid Khan, and TNT
We back with week two of AEW Aftermath: The Post-Apocalyptic series where the whole world is gone except for these brave heroes putting on shows in an empty arena for all the zombies and mutants still roaming the wastelands! I mean good on them for putting out another episode, but I’m not sure how much longer they’re gonna get away with doing this live every week as things seem to only be getting worse in this country. Still, as long as we have Dynamite I’ll be here to let you know about it!
The episode begins with Cody, Kenny, and Tony in the announcer’s booth. Apparently JR and Excalibur couldn’t make it for whatever reason; though we are assured that they everyone is fine. In addition to the lack of announcers, we also don’t have a crowd of wrestlers outside the ring like we did last time. Instead we have like five dudes in some sort of back room watching the show that we occasionally cut back to. I don’t want to dock the show for things it can’t control as they clearly had trouble getting as many people as they did, but the people outside the ring cheering and jeering as the matches went on was such a big part of what made last week’s episode work as well as it did. Thankfully Tony and our rotating cast of announcers try talking AS MUCH as possible during the matches so that it never gets too quiet.
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Cody Vs. Jimmy Havoc
I haven’t been keeping up with Dark, so maybe Jimmy’s been showing up there a few times, but damn has it been a long time! I remember he was getting a decent enough storyline with Tony Kahn, but I get the feeling that his drunken scuffle with Excalibur halted that right in its tracks. Still, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I guess Jimmy’s back in good graces for now. The story of the match is that Cody isn’t really taking Jimmy seriously, and frankly neither is Kenny who’s calling this match with Tony. They see him as nothing more than a sparring partner to keep Cody in shape between now and the eventual Blood and Guts match which is not a bad idea for a story, but I still don’t feel like Jimmy is proving Cody wrong ENOUGH for him to really start taking him seriously. Still, Jimmy is a good worker and is willing to get rough and dirty with the biggest Face at the company which is not nothing, and I think a less flashy style works better in an empty arena when there isn’t a crowd to play to. Cody didn’t get that message however as he does that thing where he runs to the back and then runs back at full speed to do a lariat on his opponent. It’s a good move, but without a crowd it doesn’t hit as hard. What DOES hit hard though is when Jimmy takes something called a Reverse Suplex from the top rope which to ME looks an attempt to MURDER the guy by dropping him on his head that he just barely escapes from. Cody follows that up with two Cross Rhodes which feel rather muted since there was no applause when he hit it, and then he gets the pin to similarly muted effect. Not a bad match given the circumstances, but just didn’t have the same oomph to it like the matches from last week.
The Reviewers Unite 