AEW Dynamite: 2 things that went right on the Sept. 29 episode

Following a successful pair of Grand Slam shows at Arthur Ashe Stadium, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) ventured a bit further north to Rochester, NY — the hometown of the late Mr. Brodie Lee — for this week’s episode of Dynamite.

As fans have come to expect, the young promotion Wednesday’s edition of its flagship show with healthy storyline progression, quality promos, and entertaining in-ring action. But which of those moments stood out the most?

There were plenty of things to choose from, but let’s just focus on these two.

These are twoof the things that went right on the Sept. 29 episode of AEW Dynamite.

Dark Order finally mend fences

As a tribute to Brodie Lee, Tony Khan booked a 16-man tag team match pitting the entire Hardy Family Office against Orange Cassidy and The Dark Order. There is one problem: Dark Order haven’t been the same since disagreeing on whether or not to give their friend, “Hangman” Adam Page, some space.

As such, this match was booked with the intent to have the members of the group put aside their squabbles in the name of their departed “Exhaulted One” (and to hype Cassidy’s Hair vs. Hair match against Jack Evans for Friday’s Rampage). At first, the prospect of that happening looked shaky, as there were several miscommunication spots peppered throughout the bout.

It even got to the point where Evil Uno get fed up and tried to walk out on his teammates. Fortunately, Tay Conti, Anna Jay, -1, and Amanda Huber were also fed of…fed up with the all the infighting.

One paper toss at Uno later, and the group was back on the same page! Everyone then got their spots in on the HFO before the Evil Smash Brothers ended things with the Fatality on Jora Johl. The members then embraced after the match while “Brodie” chants echoed throughout the arena.

The Dark Order schism story was a good way to add some weight to they and Page’s loss to The Elite a few months back — and Page getting written off TV for paternity leave — but no one actually wanted to see the group split up, so wrapping things up in Lee’s hometown was the right move.

Arn Anderson…and all that that implies!

Some things to get out of the way regarding the Cody Rhodes and Lee Johnson vs. Dante Martin and Matt Sydal match: Martin is amazing and is a future star for the promotion, same with Johnson (and it was nice to see him get a win on the flagship show), and Sydal is still pretty good.

Now, let’s get to the big takeaway from this: Arn Anderson’s post-match promo on Rhodes. “The Enforcer” cut this promo in 2021, but this could’ve easily been a promo from 2001, 1991, or 1981.

Even after all these years, Anderson can still cut one heck of a promo, and this was one more great one to add to the catalog, as he took a few minutes to dissect why Rhodes has lost his last two matches to Malakai Black, including explaining what Anderson would do if someone tried to carjack him (blow the person’s brains out) compared to Rhodes (let his car get stolen).

At it’s base level, this story shows the effect big losses can have on characters in AEW. For Rhodes, it will be interesting to follow whether this leads to a heel turn or even joining Black.