AEW Dynamite Live Coverage - March 18th, 2020

https://i.imgur.com/qBlFjGc.jpg


AEW Dynamite

After weeks of taunting, the Exalted One will be revealed, the Best Friends face The Lucha Brothers and which team gets the advantage? The Elite? Or the Inner Circle?



:aew:

- The show kicks off directly inside the ring with a shot of Cody Rhodes in a suit standing in the center of an AEW ring inside an empty Daily's Place arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

Cody talks about never feeling so small. He says he's going to ask three people who haven't been getting along as of late to put aside their differences because we all need to stand together right now.

He continues to address the Coronavirus Pandemic, claiming we can't live in fear, we have to feel alive. Cody goes on to talk about the anger between Jackson and Hangman Adam Page last week. He says they need to overcome it to succeed at Blood & Guts.

The American Nightmare goes on to talk about Hangman Page, who he sarcastically says he is tired of "putting over," noting again how he expected him to be the original AEW World Champion because he was so good. He says nothing is owed to him though, so he needs to quit acting like it.

Now he talks about Kenny Omega. He says he respects that like him, Omega doesn't want to be a Bridesmaid. He says whomever is No. 1 A and No. 1 B between the two is not important, he says what is important is that he needs Omega right now. He says he needs the old Omega.

He says he needs The Elite right now. He needs The Elite to be elite.

With that said, out comes Kenny Omega and one of The Young Bucks. Omega begins first on the mic between the two. Omega says he and Cody haven't always seen eye-to-eye but he does know that if it's up to him, whether or not they even have a Dynamite next week, he wants to go out the same way he came in -- and that's as The Elite.

Now it's Matt Jackson's turn to talk. Jackson talks about what happened to his brother Nick last week, saying he couldn't even get on an airplane afterwards. He says and yet again, it's just the three of them. He questions where Adam "Hangman" Page is.

Hangman finally shows up and heads towards the ring. Before he steps in the ring, Matt says he's asking him as a man -- tonight and at Blood & Guts, will he stand with The Elite. Hangman doesn't say anything, but nods his head and raises a mixed drink he was holding while listening to Matt from the entrance way. He turns around and exits.

Omega says he wants to address the audience now. He says he can't see them or feel their energy in the building, but he's ready to give them the best damn episode of AEW Dynamite regardless. He says "so god damnit, let's start Dynamite!" With that said, the lights come up, the pyro explodes and fire pyro erupts as the camera pans over to the announce trio of Jim Ross, Taz and The Excalibur, the special commentary team for this week.

- The announce trio run down some of the action scheduled for tonight's special empty arena edition of AEW Dynamite from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, FL., the AEW Blood & Guts "go-home" show for next week's highly anticipated showdown between The Inner Circle and The Elite in the WarGames-style match.

- From there, the announcers talk about the new trio of Death Triangle -- "The Bastard" PAC and The Lucha Bros (Pentagon JR. & Rey Fenix). With that said, they introduce a special video package highlighting the history that led to their union.

- Now we shoot back live inside Daily's Place where Tony Schiavone is with Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) and "The Chairman of AEW" Shawn Spears.

Schiavone grills MJF, who is the only one to do any talking, about potential gambling. MJF acts outraged, as does Spears, until MJF whispers in Schiavone's ear about inquiring as to whether or not "he wants any action."

Best Friends vs. Lucha Bros

Now we head to the ring for our first match of the evening. The theme music of The Best Friends plays and out comes Chuckie T. and Trent, accompanied by Orange Cassidy. Their tag-team bout against The Lucha Bros is up first in the ring here at AEW Dynamite.

Out next are their opponents for tonight, The Lucha Bros. They make their way to the ring as cool fire pyro explodes and Orange Cassidy makes his way over to join J.R., Taz and The Excalibur on commentary for this match.

The duo of MJF and Shawn Spears are still in the stands making a ton of noise as the apparent "crowd of fans" for this match. MJF is yelling "Let's go masked guys! Let's go masked guys!" in the early goings as Rey Fenix dominates the early action.

Trent is taking over things in the ring now, as a big back elbow floors Fenix. A big drop kick is nailed by Chuck Taylor for a near fall before he tags Trent right back in. Trent comes off the top rope with a double axe handle now as the announcers point out that Pentagon has been kept on the apron the entire time thus far.

We see Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Lance Archer make their way to the stands now, as they take a seat behind MJF and Shawn Spears as the audience for this match doubles in size as the pace in the ring picks up. We see another shot of Orange Cassidy sitting in a chair at ringside. To the surprise of nobody, he has not said a word despite putting a headset on when first sitting down next to J.R., Taz and Excalibur.

Fenix is making a comeback now with some knife-edge chops across the chest and a big kick that floors Trent. He whips Trent in the corner and finally makes the tag to Pentagon, who enters the contest for the first time. He and Fenix hit super kicks in stereo on Chuck and Trent.

The smoke clears and the dust settles and Pentagon is in the ring now blasting Trent with leg kicks. Now we see Orange Cassidy and Rey Fenix lock eyes. Fenix hits a big dive on one of The Best Friends as Orange stands up from his chair at the announce desk. J.R. takes us to a mid-match commercial break as the action returns to the ring.

Finally, after the referee misses the key moment of the contest, The Lucha Bros score the victory over the number four ranked tag-team in AEW. Orange Cassidy looks upset at ringside as The Excalibur talks about the success of PAC and The Lucha Bros since the formation of Death Triangle.

Winners: Lucha Bros

- After the match, Orange Cassidy continues to look upset as Schiavone grabs a mic and calls the trio over. Chuck and Trent are upset. They talk about not needing a ring next time, let alone a crowd or an arena. He says next week they want The Lucha Bros in the parking lot. The challenge is made and we move on.

Penelope Ford (w/ Kip Sabian) vs. Riho vs. Kris Statlander vs. Hikaru Shida

Penelope Ford makes her way out to the ring accompanied by Kip Sabian. Ford is put over by Excalibur on commentary as she poses in the ring in her leather jacket and her music fades down.

One of her opponents, Riho, makes her way out as the music of the former AEW Women's Champion hits. She enters the ring as J.R. informs us that a four-way women's match is up next. We head to break before the other two contestants in the match are introduced.

When we return from the break, Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander have already joined Riho and Penelope Ford in the ring. The bell sounds and here we go. Ford goes right after Riho, but when she gets her out of the ring, she turns around to see Shida and Statlander working as a unit and approaching her with intentions of double-teaming her.

They begin doing exactly that, until Sabian gets involved and the action spills out to the floor. Riho ends up taking out all three ladies with a big splash off the top rope to the floor. She grabs Ford and rolls her in the ring, but Ford rolls right back out other side and Riho turns around into Shida and Statlander, who are ready to double-team again.

Riho takes them out with a double-dropkick momentarily, however Statlander ends up wedging Riho in the corner. Statlander tells Shida to suplex her into Riho. She does. That looked cool. Shida tried to capitalize with a pin attempt, but no dice.

Shida and Statlander are now duking it out as the only two active competitors in the match, with Riho and Ford selling on the floor. As they return to the ring, both Riho and Ford come off the top rope. Now Shida goes up top and hits a missile dropkick.

Ford and Riho stare each other down as they are the only two standing in the ring now. They slug it out, trading big shots until Riho lets her emotions get the better of her, which gives Ford the opening she needs to take over on offense. Ford hits a backspring elbow on Riho in the corner.

Now Kip Sabian climbs up to the ring apron for an assist with Ford on Riho as the announcers complain about the referee not noticing. Statlander is starting to take over on offense as the power competitor in the match, taking out Riho and Shida with big spots before Ford takes her out of the ring altogether with a cool move of her own.

Shida hits the Falcon Arrow for a close near fall as we see another shot of MJF and Shawn Spears, who are now eating some kind of food as they enjoy the show as fans. Meanwhile back in the ring, Shida scores the pin out of nowhere on Ford.

Winner: Hikaru Shida

- Colt Cabana is doing an interview with Tony Schiavone and being as playful as one can be, joking about being the Bruce Springsteen of AEW when his "good record" is brought up.

After over-hearing a comment, Kip Sabian comes over and tries to confront Cabana, asking him if he's got a problem after telling him he heard what he said. Colt slaps him. Kip backs off. We head to commercial.

- When we return from the break, we shoot to a pre-taped interview with Jon Moxley.

Tony Schiavone catches up with the AEW World Champion and asks for his thoughts about his medical suspension and not being allowed in the building.

Moxley jokingly questions when he has ever been allowed in the building any other time. He says he promises to be around when the big bomb goes off at AEW. With that said he gets in his car and speeds off.

The Butcher & The Blade vs. Jurassic Express

The team of The Butcher and The Blade now make their way to the ring, followed by the team of Jurassic Express -- The Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy.

As Jurassic Express finishes up their ring entrance, we see MJF paying off The Butcher and The Blade, as the announcers speculate he is offering them more money, or a pay raise to get things done.

The bell sounds and here we go. Jungle Boy and The Blade kick things off for their respective teams. Jungle Boy's quickness helps him jump off to an early offensive advantage. The Blade hits one big spot but Jungle Boy quickly recovers, hits a move of his own and tags in The Luchasaurus.

Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy hit a double-team move on The Blade as the camera pans the audience of MJF, Shawn Spears and a couple of others. The action starts to get out of control now, culminating with Jungle Boy attempting a big tope suicida that goes bad, as The Butcher and The Blade catch him coming down and whip him with vicious momentum into the steel ring barricade.

The ref stops Luchasaurus from coming over, allowing The Blade and The Butcher to deliver some additional punishment on Jungle Boy outside of the ring before rolling him back in, where The Butcher goes to work on him. He gets in some powerful, thudding offense as we see Christopher Daniels and others in the audience now.

The Butcher tags in The Blade, who calmly comes in and picks up where The Butcher left off. He is in no rush now, as Jungle Boy is clearly down and out at the moment. Spears and MJF jokingly offer to double whatever bets they appear to have placed on this match now that The Butcher and The Blade are in such a dominant spot in the contest. On that note, we head to a mid-match commercial.

We return from the break to see Jungle Boy still getting beaten down by the heel duo as MJF shouts on from the crowd. Finally, Jungle Boy makes the tag.

Luchasaurus makes the hot tag and gets in and is taking out any-and-everything that moves -- and in style, as the announcers put over the big man. Things culminate with the finish after Jungle Boy tags in and scores the pin out of nowhere. After the match we head back to a commercial break as MJF flips out.

Winners: Jurassic Express

- We return from the commercial and The Dark Order's theme hits and out comes Evil Uno and Stu Grayson.

He talks about The Exalted One and says he hopes the camera is closing in on his eyes so everyone knows how serious he is. He says he cares about us. He says together, we are one. He promises that The Exalted One is here.

As he repeats "The Exalted One is here" over and over, we hear from the audience Christopher Daniels off-microphone yelling "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Daniels gets in the ring and gets on mic saying they have done nothing but waste everybody's time. Daniels, like the announcers did during the ring entrance of Evil Uno and Stu Grayson, said there isn't an Exalted One.

As Daniels continues ranting about there being no Exalted One, he is interrupted by a wild, choppy video accompanied by a voice narrating.

We do what we want, when we want and if I want something I take it. Now let me put it a different way in case your stupid and you didn't get it.

Luke Harper is finally shown and he continues to talk, addressing the dumb old guy Daniels, claiming another dumb old guy didn't believe in him. He says he is Brodie Lee and he is The Exalted One.

We enter the arena again where the lights come up and now Brodie Lee is somehow standing right behind Daniels and the rest of SoCal Uncensored (SCU). He and The Dark Order attack SCU and stand tall. We head to commercial break afterwards.

- Now we head over to Tony Schiavone, who is standing near ringside with two men who have been watching throughout the show from the empty arena, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Lance Archer.

The WWE Hall Of Famer points out that the man next to him, Lance Archer, is here to fight, not talk. Roberts said Cody had the gauntlet laid at his feet and he ignored them. Roberts said it would be one thing to try to stay out of harm's way, but it's another simply to ignore him. Jake said he's a hall of famer and should be listened to.

Roberts finishes up his turn on the mic by telling Cody to "think about it."

- After a quick word, we kick it to an extensive video package focusing on the journey and background of Lance Archer before coming to All Elite Wrestling. We see him in backyard actions as Jake Roberts watched on.

- Now the announcers run down some of the action scheduled for "the next" edition of AEW Dynamite, with the trio careful not to promise a specific date, location or venue due to "circumstances beyond their control."

The match to determine who gets the team advantage at the first-ever AEW Blood & Guts match next week on AEW Dynamite, tonight's main event, is up next.

Cody, Matt Jackson & Hangman Page vs. Jake Hager, Santana & Ortiz

Out comes the trio that will be representing The Inner Circle tonight, Jake Hager and the team of Proud 'N' Powerful -- Santana and Ortiz. Out next are the former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara.

Guevara plays the role of fans in the crowd singing Jericho's theme as he makes his way out as guest announcer for this week's AEW Dynamite main event.

Their opponents for tonight representing The Elite will be "The American Nightmare" Cody, Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks and Adam "Hangman" Page. They come out, along with Kenny Omega, who hangs out at ringside to try and offset the huge numbers advantage The Inner Circle has, as always.

The bell sounds and the match gets going as Cody deals with heckeling from MJF in the crowd. Cody starts taking it to Ortiz and Santana early on, as neither Proud 'N' Powerful member can get anything going with "The American Nightmare" inside the squared circle here in the early goings of tonight's main event.

Finally, Cody tags out and in comes Matt Jackson from The Young Bucks. Matt immediately charges at Hager on the apron with punches, as The Excalibur points out that he is trying to get a measure of revenge after he attacked his brother Nick Jackson with a garage door at last week's AEW Dynamite.

Hangman Page quickly tags himself in without Matt's knowledge before The Young Bucks member can get anything going in the ring. Hangman takes it to Santana early on, hitting a big pump handle and half nelson into a bridged pin attempt, beautifully called by Taz on commentary. Speaking of the commentators, the camera pans over to show an arrogant Jericho bragging about not being able to go into a match against his crew with any animosity or emotions involved, or it will backfire every time.

Jericho now puts over the sexyness of "The Spanish God" of The Inner Circle until J.R. jumps in to take us to a mid-match commercial break.

We return from the break and we see that The Inner Circle team are still dominating the action. Finally, Cody hits his Cross Rhodes finisher on Ortiz and now both guys are down and out. Ortiz crawls over and makes the tag as Jericho cheers him on in spanish.

Cody is not as lucky, as he is cut off and stopped before he can tag in a fresh man from The Elite team to take over for the babyface team. Jake Hager is tagged in now and takes over where Santana left off, taking it to an already beaten down Cody, as J.R. takes us to another mid-match commercial break.

When we return from the break, it isn't long before the match gets to the finish, which sees The Inner Circle pick up the pinfall victory, earning the team advantage for themselves for the next episode of AEW Dynamite when The Inner Cirlcle takes on The Elite in the first-ever Blood & Guts match on AEW Dynamite.

Winners and GAINING ADVANTAGE in AEW Blood & Guts Match: The Inner Circle

After The Match: Chris Jericho Bans Fans From AEW Shows Until He Says So

Once the match is over, The Inner Circle cheer and celebrate at the entrance stage. Chris Jericho grabs a mic and demands the music be cut off so he can talk.

The former "Le Champion" says that he is officially banning fans from all future AEW shows until he says so. He says the world can change tomorrow, but fans are still banned from all AEW shows until he says so, because he doesn't want some dipsh*t fans chanting for Cody screwing things up.

He goes on to gloat about the dominance of The Inner Circle and brags that with Nick Jackson out of the match due to his internal injuries, they will enjoy a five-on-four advantage and now they will also enjoy the advantage of gaining the first member of their team in the contest after winning tonight's main event.

Jericho goes on to talk trash about Brandi Rhodes, who he spots at ringside, but before he can say much, he sees a drone flying its' way towards the ring. Matt Jackson hops on the microphone and says he recently made a phone call to a friend who owes him a favor. With that said, we see Matt Hardy standing in the rafters as some cool piano music plays.

:broken: