AEW Dynamite: Results, Grades, and Analysis for November 20, 2019

Proud n’ Powerful (Santana & Ortiz) (3-0) vs. Private Party (Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy) (3-6)

Both teams came out to honour their friend, Matt Travis, who tragically passed away. Kassidy and Santana started the match with Santana beating on Kassidy, using his strength to keep the advantage early on. Kassidy came back with lucha arm drags and sent Santana to the floor. Ortiz tagged in and ran at Kassidy, but stopped short of a boot. Quen jumped off the top rope with a crossbody on him.

Private Party double team Ortiz and then Kassidy helped Quen do a flip dive off the top turnbuckle onto both men. Unfortunately for Quen, Santana and Ortiz were able to turn it around and start to get the heat on him. Ortiz held Quen on the turnbuckle while Santana hit a Russian leg sweep off the middle rope. They also hit a DDT and a deadlift German on Quen for a 2 count.

Santana and Ortiz did a stalling suplex, tagging out to relieve each other while they held Quen in the air, before Ortiz hit a falcon arrow for a 2 count. That was an awesome spot. Ortiz took off his glove and used a back rake on Quen. The Greco Roman Back Rake is a secret technique of old shooters. The heat continued for several minutes with strikes, submissions, and a good dose of cheating.

Quen managed to roll through an attack and tag out to Kassidy, who hit several moves before hitting and Asai Moonsault on Santana to the floor. Kassidy hit a Code Red into the ring on Ortiz for a 2 count. The ref’s count was botched here, as Santana failed to pull the referee out of the ring. JR covered for it by saying that Ortiz was not the legal man.

Private Party went for the Silly String, but Quen’s back gave out. Ortiz powerbombed Kassidy for a 2 count. Ortiz and Santana hit a combo superkick and cutter for a 2 count. Ortiz distracted the referee while Santana brought out a slapjack. Nick Jackson ran down and pulled the slapjack out of Santana’s hands. As this happened, Private Party hit the Gin and Juice on Santana for the win!

Result: Private Party (4-6)

Rating: *** (3 stars)

This was a pretty standard tag match. Not bad at all. After the match, Sammy Guevara came out and attacked Nick Jackson. Dustin Rhodes came out wearing his cast, and he ran wild on Guevara and Santana and Ortiz. The crowd cheered Rhodes and Jackson wildly, and popped huge for Private Party’s win. This was a good way to help get them over.

Kenny Omega was working out and he cut a promo about how was doing things that were really uncharacteristic of him. He identified his loss to PAC at All Out as the moment when he started to lose who he was, and he promised to beat PAC next week and get back to his old self. He closed the promo saying “I bid you adieu, goodbye, and good bench” as he was working out. That’s the second time we heard that line tonight. I don’t think AEW did that by accident.