AEW Dynamite: CM Punk calls out Eddie Kingston, Miro enters the Eliminator Tournament

With just 10 days left before Full Gear, AEW ramps up the intensity!

Returning to a rowdy Kansas City area, this week’s AEW Dynamite did not wait to bring the excitement.

The show was kicked off with the entrance of the AEW World Champion, Kenny Omega. Omega’s opponent, Alan Angels of the Dark Order, sat in the ring waiting for his opportunity.

Angels was awarded this opportunity based on his performance late last year against Kenny Omega. Despite representing completely different parts of the card, Angels just seems to have Omega’s numbers in their matchups, which is a different and interesting story worth telling.

The match was not long, but it did give the fans plenty to see of both Angels and Omega. Angels had a counter for every bit of Omega’s offense, showcasing his ring IQ. He slipped out of the one-winged angel, passed some V-triggers, and even got a dive to the outside off. However, Omega was too much for Angels, and after some brutal V-triggers, laid Angels out for the three count.

After the match, Omega grabbed a mic and expressed his anger at Angels and called for Michael Nakazawa, who was ringside, to give him a chair. He began setting the chair up to hurt Angels, when Adam Page’s music hit.

Hangman rushed the ring, springing into the ring with a buckshot lariat. Omega ducked under the extended arm of Page and slid out of the ring, leaving behind his title. Hangman notices the belt, picks it up, then throws it back to Kenny, telling him he will let him have it for ten more days.

Kenny Omega beats Alan Angels with a V-Trigger.

Right after the match, it was announced that Miro would be taking Jon Moxley’s place in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament.

Next, CM Punk made his way to the ring. The Independence crowd was roaring for the return of Punk, although the normally jovial Punk was visibly less energetic.

When he grabbed the stick, he began his time in the ring to talk about Jon Moxley. He not only expresses his love and admiration for the man behind the wrestler but urges fans to express their support for him as well. He gets a Moxley chant going for a while before moving on.

He then addresses the elephant in the room: Eddie Kingston. After their brief backstage encounter on last week’s Rampage, Punk had become aggravated and wanted to make sure he was given the respect he was due from Kingston. He asked Kingston to make sure that he shows up to this week’s AEW Rampage, where they can have a chat face to face, and Kingston can apologize.

He leaves the ring on the note that he wanted to be Moxley’s replacement in the tournament, but had Kingston to deal with first.

After this, the Young Bucks and Adam Cole are backstage to deliver an interview. They barely get started when a returning Christian Cage interrupts them. They try to intimidate him when Luchasaurus sneaks up behind them. They begin beating down the Superkliq and drag them out to the front area.

A brawl ensues, which sees the Kliq get a slight edge. Then, a returning Jungle Boy leaps into action, taking out the entire Superkliq. The now-hardened babyfaces brutalize the Superkliq, culminating in Christian Cage hitting a con-chair-to on Adam Cole.

Back to the in-ring action

The next match was announced by Tony Khan a few hours before the show and would showcase FTR defending their AAA Tag Titles against the team of Aerostar and Samuray Del Sol.

The match is exactly what a modern Lucha libre versus FTR match should look like. The high flyers floated around the ring, while the champs just looked for every opportunity to ground them. In the words of their slogan in the fed “No flips, just fists”

The champs retain with a rope-assisted roll-up. The AAA stars were received well online and by the crowd and likely will be back in the near future.

FTR beat Aerostar/Samuray Del Sol via roll-up

There was a segment involving Dan Lambert and the Inner Circle.

Next was a match in the TBS Women’s Championship Tournament between Anna Jay and Jamie Hayter. Of course, Hayter was accompanied by Rebel and Dr. Britt Baker, who got a roaring reaction from the crowd upon exiting the tunnel.

Hayter was stronger than Jay, but Jay was faster and more cunning. Hayter would throw Jay out of the ring, Jay would reverse her moves on the outside. Hayter would slow the match down in the corner, Jay would explode out of the corner with a running kick.

Towards the end of the match, Baker distracted the ref, which gave Rebel the opportunity to grab Anna Jay’s legs and trip her up. This opened up Hayter, who exploded off the ropes for her forearm lariat and grabbed the pin.

After the match, the heels try to beat down on Anna Jay when Tay Conti came down to save her friend. However, the numbers game was still too much for her, and she started to get beat down as well. When Baker was just about to deliver the curb stomp to Conti, Thunder Rosa also came down the ramp to get involved.

This furthers the many stories being told in the women’s division very well. Thunder Rosa and Jamie Hayter are going to tear the house down on whatever show they meet up on. Meanwhile, Baker and Conti are slated to have what should also be a great match at Full Gear.

Jamie Hayter beats Anna Jay via forearm Lariat

Finally, the final major promo section of the show belonged to MJF, who came out and addressed Darby Allin, who was in the audience.

Darby, unsurprisingly, delivered a great promo, highlighting how great he is both on the stick and in the ring. Darby delivered a few lines back at MJF, but then it devolved into a brawl. Sting came down the ramp to keep MJF from escaping, Darby came through the crowd, and the brawl was quite exciting.

The next match was the highly anticipated matchup between Cody and Andrade El Idolo.

The two battled like absolute heavyweights, throwing hard elbows and kicks through each other. The match was well-paced, the action was hard-hitting, and the right man went over in the end.

Towards the end of the match, Idolo fell out of the ring to the outside, and Cody went for a tope suicido to follow. However, as he exited the ropes, FTR arose from under the ring with the AAA Tag Titles to batter him and send him falling to the ring apron. Idolo scrambled into the ring, grabbed Cody for the hammerlock DDT and got a three count without hooking the leg.

After the match, the heels celebrated and attempted to beat down Cody, while Tully Blanchard came down to the ring and even tried to fight long-time tag partner Arn Anderson. Before things could escalate too far, the Lucha Brothers came running down to the ring to make the save.

Andrade El Idolo beats Cody via Hammerlock DDT

Finally, the main event. Miro returns from whatever cave his wife is making him sleep in until he can become a champion again while Orange Cassidy arrived, still broken and bandaged from his rough stretch of recent matches. The winner gets to wrestle Bryan Danielson at Full Gear for a guaranteed shot at the AEW World Championship.

Bryan Danielson, who will fight the winner of this match at Full Gear, was on commentary.

The match was your usual big man – small man match. Cassidy would try and keep distance from Miro, Miro would be aggressive in closing the distance, Cassidy would capitalize. It went like this for about ten minutes, before a brilliant closing sequence.

Cassidy armed himself for the orange punch but missed because Miro ducked out of the way. Then Miro went for a thrust kick, which Cassidy rolled away from. Finally, Cassidy capitalized on Miro being turned around and hit him with a beautiful Beach Break. Cassidy flailed his way onto Miro, but only gets a two count.

As it’s clear Cassidy can not do much more, he prepares for another orange punch. Miro shoulder tackles an airborne Cassidy, sending him to the mat where Miro thrust kicks his head into the fourth row. Miro locks in the Game Over, and that was all she wrote.

Miro becomes victorious, Danielson comes down to the ring to stand face to face with him, and we will be blessed with the pay off in ten days.