AEW Dynamite Live Coverage - September 23rd, 2020

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AEW Dynamite

This week on Dynamite, we hear from the ‘Demo God’ Chris Jericho. Orange Cassidy challenges Mr. Brodie Lee for the TNT Championship title. AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida partners with NWA Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa against Ivelisse & Diamanté. And Eddie Kingston steps up to challenge Jon Moxley for his AEW World Championship.


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- This week's show opens up with a Road Warrior Animal 1960-2020 graphic in honor of the memory of WWE Hall Of Fame legend Joe Laurinaitis of the Legion of Doom / Road Warriors tag-team, who passed away at age 60 today.

- From there, the regular weekly video signature opening package airs and then we shoot live inside Daily's Place amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL. where pyro erupts and Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone and Excalibur welcome us to the show on commentary.

Kip Sabian (w/ Penelope Ford) & "The Best Man" Miro vs. "The Bad Boy" Joey Janela & Sonny Kiss

After that we hear the theme music of Kip Sabian, who makes his way down to the ring with his soon-to-be wife Penelope Ford, as his tag-team match alongside "The Best Man" Miro will kick things off inside the ring on AEW Dynamite this week.

Sabian gets on the mic once in the ring and gives a big pre-match introduction for "The Best Man" Miro. The former WWE Superstar known as Rusev makes his way out wearing a t-shirt that says "The Best Man" on it. He tears it off, pyro explodes and he enters the ring, flexing and posing for the hard-camera.

Now we're treated to the joint ring entrance of their opponents for this tag-team contest, the duo of "The Bad Boy" Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss. As they make their way down to the ring, a pre-match promo airs via split-screen set-up. During the promo, Janela references his past history with Sabian's soon-to-be wife.

The bell sounds and we've got Sabian and Kiss kicking things off for their respective teams. Kiss ducks and leap-frogs around Sabian's initial offensive attempts, countering with a Rabbit Kiss spot in the corner. Sabian doesn't like the lay of the land here in the early goings, so he tags in. Kiss tags in Janela.

Before Miro can do anything, Sabian tags himself back in and goes to work on Janela. The fans chant "We Want Miro" as Janela tags Kiss right back in. Kiss gets the upper hand on Sabian and tags Janela back in. The two exchange quick tags back-and-forth to maintain control of the offense until "The Best Man" runs in to hit a cheap shot from behind that turns the momentum in their favor.

Sabian is back up and he leaps to his corner, tagging in Miro. Miro takes the hot tag and as the limited capacity COVID-19 safety-distanced audience inside Daily's Place come alive, "The Best Man" hits some power showcase spots as he and Sabian are in firm control of the action now. Miro tags Sabian back in and after getting in a couple of shots on Kiss, Sabian tags Miro back in to take back over.

"The Best Man" slows down the pace, using a deliberate slow-paced attack as the offensive dominant display continues by he and Sabian, who tags back in and hits a slingshot spot over the top-rope for a near fall on Kiss. Finally, Kiss makes the tag to Janela, however Miro had referee Aubrey Edwards distracted so the tag wasn't acknowledged.

Miro tags in and now he's taking it to Kiss, who the announcers point out desparately needs to make the tag. He flips over the back of his opponent to do exactly that. Janela takes the hot tag and comes in the ring blasting Miro off the ring apron. This only angers "The Best Man" who also enters the ring, however he appeared to hurt his leg / knee at some point.

The action spills out to the floor where Miro is limping pretty badly and the announcers are acknowledging this on commentary. Back in the ring, Janela hits a super kick on Sabian for a near fall before tagging Kiss back in. Miro was believed to be still down outside the ring according to the announcers, however just after they say that we see him with a cheap shot from behind in the ring.

Sabian with a pop-up into a lawn-blower for a close near fall that Janela just barely breaks up after hitting the ring. Miro scoops him up and dumps him on the floor for his efforts. Now he's jumping and stomping in place, his HBK-like foot-stomp call-to-his-finisher set-up, and then hits a running kick to the grill that decks Kiss. He follows up with a stomp to Kiss' spine and then applies the Camel Clutch, getting the tap from Kiss and earning the victory for he and Sabian.

Winners: "The Best Man" Miro & Kip Sabian

- As "The Best Man" Miro and the soon-to-be-married duo of Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford head to the back, while Miro's music is still playing, we see Eddie Kingston walk past and make his way down to the squared circle, walking with a purpose.

Kingston tells the hard camera to stay on him because he's going to talk straight to us at home and to the morons inside Daily's Place amphitheater. He says for those who don't check social media, there's been some changes announced for tonight's show.

Instead of the originally scheduled six-man tag-team bout pitting Jon Moxley, Darby Allin and Will Hobbs against the trio of "The Murderhawk Monster" Lance Archer, Brian Cage and Ricky Starks, he will be going one-on-one against Moxley tonight with the AEW World Heavyweight Championship on-the-line.

Kingston references the fact that he was never officially eliminated during the Casino Battle Royale at the recent AEW ALL OUT 2020 pay-per-view and talks about being the rightful challenger to the AEW World Heavyweight Championship anyways. This leads to him calling out the champion.

With that said, the familiar theme music of Jon Moxley plays and the AEW champ makes his way through the crowd in Daily's Place to the ring, where he immediately goes nose-to-nose with Kingston. A bunch of AEW officials hit the ring to separate the two and as we head to a commercial break, we are told Moxley vs. Kingston will be tonight's main event.

Evil Uno vs. "Hangman" Adam Page

After running down some of the top matches still to come here on AEW Dynamite, the announce team are joined by Kenny Omega, who will provide special guest commentary for our next match of the evening.

As Excalibur informs us, in a match originally offered as a tag-team bout with "Hangman" Adam Page and Kenny Omega, the former AEW Tag-Team Champions, taking on Evil Uno and Stu Grayson, we will instead see Page vs. Uno in a one-on-one bout due to Omega turning down the offer to team up with Page again.

Evil Uno now makes his way out accompanied by several members of The Dark Order, while Omega jokes around with Ross, Schiavone and Excalibur as he settles in at the commentary desk.

Out next to arguably the second most catchy theme song in AEW behind Chris Jericho's entrance music is the former member of The Elite -- "Hangman" Adam Page. As Omega reiterates the fact that he has no interest in teaming up with Page again while being grilled about the subject on commentary, the bell sounds to kick off the second match of the evening.

With Page and Uno locking up to get this one officially underway, we see five members of The Dark Order, including Stu Grayson and Colt Cabana among others, are standing side-by-side on the entrance aisle just a couple of feet away from the ring.

As the camera shows Anna Jay via close-up shot, Excalibur talks about her choking out Brandi Rhodes in their one-on-one bout on the special one-hour AEW Late-Night Dynamite broadcast that followed the NBA Playoffs on TNT game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.

While the fans rally behind him, Page starts firing up on offense, taking it to Uno now to the delight of the AEW fans in attendance at Daily's Place tonight. Page and Uno now trade chops that can be heard echo'ing throughout the Jacksonville-based amphitheater. After knocking Uno out to the floor, Page hits the ropes and takes flight as he soars over the ropes and splashes onto The Dark Order member for a big high spot.

Page acknowledges the reaction from the fans as he throws Uno back in the ring. He goes in after him but Uno has backed himself in a corner and is hugging the referee of the match from behind like a scared little boy. Wimpy-looking or not, it turned out to be effective, as Omega is thrown off just long enough for Uno to get in a cheap shot that turns the offensive momentum in his favor.

He starts taking it to "Hangman" now as we head to a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break as the action continues.

We're back from the break and we see the action is still underway with Uno still very much in control of the offensive momentum of the bout. With that in mind, the five aforementioned Dark Order members who were standing by on the entrance ramp during the match all head to the back, including Colt Cabana, who does so reluctantly.

Meanwhile, Uno is dominating the action as he continues to mount a big offensive run on "Hangman," capping it off with a top-rope Senton Atomico for a close near-fall that even has Omega franticly questioning if that was a three-count from the referee or not.

We see multiple replays of the top-rope high-spot from The Dark Order member and the photo-finish count from the match official.

After the replays, Page starts making his comeback as he begins firing up on offense, blasting Uno with punches and a blindslide lariat. He follows up with a standing shooting star press, however Uno rolls through on the pin attempt and gets another photo-finish type near fall.

Finally, Page sets up on the ring apron for his "Buckshot Lariat" finisher and he hits it. 1-2-3. Page scores the pinfall victory. As he did last week, as soon as he finished his special guest commentary obligations for the match, once the bell sounds he thanks the announce team for having him and he leaves while Page looks around for him.

Winner: "Hangman" Adam Page

- The announcers now kick it to an "earlier today" backstage segment, which sees Tony Schiavone approach the locker room of The Young Bucks -- Nick and Matt Jackson.

The latter ends up answering the knock on the door from the AEW Dynamite commentator. Matt jokes with Tony about looking nervous, saying he has nothing to worry about this week.

As Matt finished up addressing the recent actions of he and his brother Nick, which have been very un-Young Bucks-like actions, he gets worked up again and asks for Schiavone to pull out his cell phone.

Schiavone obliges and Matt ends up taking it and smashing it over and over again on a nearby wall, smashing it to pieces. He throws a bunch of cash in the air to cover the anticipated fine he expects to receive from AEW President Tony Khan again, and tells Schiavone to buy a new one.

On that note, we head back to another commercial break.

TNT Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. Mr. Brodie Lee (c)

As we return from the break, we hear the familiar sounds of the theme song of :"Freshly Squeezed" Orange Cassidy. He makes his way down to the ring for our next match of the evening.

Out next is the reigning and defending TNT Champion -- "The Exalted One" Mr. Brodie Lee. He makes his way to the ring accompanied by several members of the Dark Order.

AEW ring announcer Justin Roberts does the formal pre-match ring introductions for this, our first of two big championship contests scheduled for this evening. Afterwards the bell sounds and here we go.

The two simply stare at each other from opposite corners of the ring as the Dark Order take seats on the floor outside the ring. "The Exalted One" watches, half-annoyed and half in disbelief as the arrogant and slow-paced "Freshly Squeezed" one takes his sweet ass time removing his sunglasses and jean jacket as he prepares for battle.

Cassidy takes his time making his way over to the TNT Champion where, with his hands in his pockets as always, starts tuning up the band. He lands some repeated sweet shin music, which Lee just stares at before ultimately responding by delivering an echoing bitch-slap that knocks the taste out of Orange's mouth, no doubt.

This fires up the "Freshly Squeezed" one, who hits a nice dropkick that sends the big man out of the ring and out to the floor. He follows up with a hands-in-his-pockets dive through the ropes, however the Dark Order members at ringside catch him and hold onto him while Lee, who re-enters the ring, hits the ropes and does a dive through the ropes of his own, splashing onto Cassidy.

Back in the ring now, Lee taunts the AEW fans in Daily's Place amphitheater while the Dark Order members at ringside get in some cheap shots, putting the collective boots to the "Freshly Squeezed" one for good measure before throwing him back to the lone wolf waiting for him inside the squared circle.

Cassidy tries firing up, but "The Exalted One" of the Dark Order cuts his attempts short, decking him as J.R. leads us into a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break as the action continues.

We're back from the break and we witness the fired up comeback of the "Freshly Squeezed" one, as Cassidy hits the Orange Punch on Mr. Brodie Lee for a nearfall. Moments later, however, "The Exalted One" takes back over and after hitting his finisher, scores the pinfall victory over Cassidy to retain his TNT Championship.

Winner: Mr. Brodie Lee

- After the match ends, the lights inside the Daily's Place amphitheater go out and some ominous music plays, slowly intensifying as the announcers acknowledge the unusual sight.

Finally, the music picks up and out walks "The American Nightmare" as Cody makes his long-awaited return here on AEW Dynamite. He comes out with new hair color, as the formerly bleach-blond hair-colored AEW EVP is now a brunette once again (View Photos Here).

Cody takes out several of the members of the Dark Order who are still at or around the ring, including taking out one of them with a nice springboard cutter off the middle-ropes.

The announcers talk about how this not only looks like, but seems like a totally new "American Nightmare." After his explosive return, we head back to another commercial break.

- When we return from commercial, we see a pissed off "Exalted One" backstage, as a still out-of-breath and angry Mr. Brodie Lee addresses what just went down before the break.

Mr. Brodie Lee talks about Cody's comeback and attack of the Dark Order from moments ago and eventually poses the question -- is Cody a coward or not?

The leader of the Dark Order and the reigning, defending TNT Champion Mr. Brodie Lee goes on to issue a challenge to "The American Nightmare" Cody.

He says if he's not a coward, he has seven days to answer the challenge. Back to commercial.

- We're back inside Daily's Place amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL. now where we hear the theme song of Matt Hardy. Hardy makes his way to the ring accompanied by Private Party.

- The announcers point out the fact that Hardy is still walking with a noticeable limp as he heads down to the ring along with Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy.

After getting a nice ovation from the AEW fans in Jacksonville, Hardy thanks them and says that their reception of him tonight is the best birthday present he could ask for.

Hardy goes on to talk about recalling a mystery attack before the injury situation in his "Broken Rules Match" against Sammy Guevara at the AEW ALL OUT 2020 pay-per-view.

Matt claims that he remembers one thing from the attack, and that is that the person who led the attack had a baseball bat and because "The Demo God" Chris Jericho always has his baseball bat "Floyd" with him, he is Hardy's prime suspect.

With that said, the man with the single most catchy pro wrestling theme song in the business today, "Le Champion," makes his way out to the top of the entrance stage.

Chris Jericho comes out accompanied by his fellow Inner Circle members Jake Hager, Santana and Ortiz, and carrying ole' "Floyd" the baseball bat. He goes on to respond to Hardy's claim that he attacked him with a bat after telling him no one gives a sh*t about his birthday.

"The Demo God" claims he doesn't need a bat to beat up Hardy. He goes on to surprise Hardy with the news that Sammy Guevara is back -- tonight. On that note, he makes his way out to join his fellow Inner Circle members as "The Spanish God" of the group is back.

Hardy ends up talking about not caring if he is cleared to return to action yet or not, he asks if Jericho wants to fight. Jericho and Hardy bicker a bit more until Private Party take the mic and things culminate with Isiah Kassidy issuing a challenge to face Chris Jericho in singles action on AEW Dynamite next week, vowing to make him his "Le Champion b*tch!"

- The "SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS!" theme song of Private Party plays as the announcers recap the challenge and take us into another commercial break.

- FTR with Tully Blanchard out in the ring with Tony Schiavone to explain the "20 Minutes with Greatness" stipulation with the champions. Tully hypes up his guys, but he wonders what makes them the best in the ring. Tully says next week they get to show the fans their greatness and it will be against SCU in a 20-minute match.

Dax Harwood says it doesn't matter who they face next, it can be Best Friends or anyone. Best Friends head out and say they might be banged up after last week's Parking Lot Fight, but they will take on FTR right now! FTR initially agrees, but Wheeler gets on the ring and says Best Friends aren't healed up, so maybe another week!

Chuck Taylor on the mic, and says "say what you want about Santana and Ortiz, but they aren't a bunch of weenies and are always looking for a fight." Chuck and Trent then hug in the ring as FTR head to the back.

Hikaru Shida & Thunder Rosa vs. Ivelisse & Diamante

Things break down fairly quickly with Rosa and Shida beating up Diamante out on the floor. Back in the ring, Rosa is tagged in, Shida with an assisted suplex, cover, two. Diamante finally gets Rosa into the corner, Ivelisse tags in, double kicks, Diamante tries for the pin, but Ivelisse is the legal person! Ivelisse with punches to Rosa.

The challengers are putting up a fight, Ivelisse with a DDT, cover, Rosa breaks that up and hits a neckbreaker on Diamante. Shida hits an enziguri on Ivelisse. Rosa runs in and hits a knee strike on Shida by mistake! Rosa is knocked down, hook kick by Ivelisse, cover, two. Diamante with an assisted sliced bread #2, cover, Rosa breaks it up again.

Rosa and Ivelisse out to the floor. Diamanate looks for code red, Rosa stops that and hits a death valley driver. Shida nails falcon arrow, cover, Ivelisse stops the count. Rosa send Ivelisse out to the floor. Shida clocks Diamante with a running knee, cover, 1-2-3.

Winners: Hikaru Shida & Thunder Rosa

- Backstage, Dasha with Chris Jericho about Isiah Kassidy about challenging him to a match. Jericho says he might be a big star in AEW, but it won't be next week. Jericho says the only "shot, shot, shot" Kassidy is feeling will be from him in the ring.

MJF strolls up and says it's awful someone like Kassidy would disrespect Jericho. Jericho says that means a lot from the uncrowned champion that means a lot.

They both say each other are great and then say "So, why did you call me a loser?!" (From what happened last week). They bicker a bit, MJF says he would never do that, he was saying it about the limo driver.

Jericho then says he was calling Tony Schiavone a loser, they both laugh and bump fists. They each say they're alright and head off.

AEW World Championship: Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley (c)

After the announcers run down several matches for next week's edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT, as well as some other All Elite Wrestling announcements for upcoming shows and specials, we head back to the ring for this week's main event.

The AEW World Heavyweight Championship will be up for grabs when AEW on TNT returns after another commercial break.

We start off slowly and then things quickly pick up as the two trade vicious chops back-and-forth as Moxley's chest turns as red as a clown's nose or Ronald McDonald's shoes.

Kingston pulls ahead and is in the offensive lead here in the early goings, taking it to the champ in this match put together on short notice after "The Murderhawk Monster" Lance Archer was pulled from tonight's show after announcing that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

The pace picks up now as Mox fights his way into the contest, blasting Kingston with repeated knee strikes and knocking him out of the ring and out to the floor, where he follows him out with a big tope suicida. He follows that sequence up with a nice suplex on the floor.

Back in the ring, Mox continues to go to work on Kingston, blasting him with a beautiful piledriver. He goes for the cover, however Kingston gets his foot on the rope to break the referee's pin. Kingston gets back to his feet and now he and the champ trade blows as the crowd intensity picks up.

Kingston starts mixing in various strikes to his exchanges and goes for a bit boot, however Mox avoids it and counters with a nice German suplex. Kingston answers back with one of his own moments later. The camera shows a close-up of some pretty gnarly bruising on the back of the challenger.

The two are back to a vertical basis again, slugging it out once more, however this time they are trading b*tch-slaps back-and-forth. Kingston looks for a spinning back-fist, however Mox avoids it and jumps on him, sinching up a sleeper-hold in the process. He switches that to a bulldog choke as the announcers point out.

Kingston doesn't appear to be moving as he looks to be out. He is. Kingston never tapped out, he did pass out and the referee calls for the bell. Jon Moxley chokes out Eddie Kingston to retain the AEW World Championship in this week's main event.

Winner: Jon Moxley

- As soon as the match ends, we see Eddie Kingston's crew of The Lucha Bros -- Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix, as well as The Butcher & The Blade hit the ring to beat down Moxley.

Joining them to add to the post-match attack on the AEW World Champion is Team Taz, as "The Human Suplex Machine" makes his way down to the ring along with Brian Cage and Ricky Starks. They join along with the beatdown in progress at the hands of Eddie Kingston, Pentagon Jr., Rey Fenix, The Butcher and The Blade.

This continues until finally AEW newcomer Will Hobbs sprints down to make the save. The numbers game ends up being too much for him as well. The heels continue their post-match assault.

Now we hear the familiar theme of Darby Allin. The fan-favorite hits the ring looking to try and even things up, however he too is just another victim of the numbers disadvantage.

The heels beat him down as well and pose over the fallen babyfaces as Jim Ross thanks us for tuning in and wishes us a good night as this week's show goes off the air.