Below is a live report covering everything that went down following last week’s AEW Dynamite in Chicago, which I had the pleasure of attending live at the Sears Center.
I’m not exactly sure when cameras stopped rolling on Dynamite as I haven’t watched it back yet, but Jon Moxley eventually made his way to the ring and Chris Jericho bailed up the ramp. Mox posed and celebrated with the fans until a producer tried to get him to leave because his segment was out of time (I think it was QT but I didn’t get a good luck). Mox gave him the Dirty Deeds, or whatever it’s called now, it got a massive reaction, and he left through the crowd after going up and down a bunch of the sections.
Not on Dark, but after Dynamite Jon Moxley celebrated with the fans and gave the Dirty Deeds (or whatever) to a producer who was trying to tell him to leave the ring so they could move to the next segment. I believe it was QT. pic.twitter.com/S3LoeVlqzQ
— Mike Killam (@MikeKillam) November 28, 2019
Nyla Rose is on commentary.
1. Jimmy Havoc def. Brandon Cutler in about 7 minutes. Cutler got in some nice kicking combinations, and hit a hanging legdrop out on the apron at one point. Havoc played the bad guy and threatened to use his staple gun, the referee took it away, and he used the distraction to kick Cutler in the balls. Lots of biting throughout. After the match Havoc stapled something to Cutler’s forehead, so expect another $10,000 “fine” coming soon.
2. Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) def. Sonny Kiss in about 4 minutes. A basic, short match. The crowd was happy to see Sonny again and he just radiates energy. They should do something with him.
Match 2 – Spears def. Sonny Kiss in ~4 minutes. Pretty basic, but the crowd loved Sonny. #AEWDARK pic.twitter.com/SG88o0MI25
— Mike Killam (@MikeKillam) November 28, 2019
3. Santana & Ortiz def. Jungleboy & Marko Stunt in a little over 13 minutes. This was one of my favorite things of the night, including the Dynamite portion. Marko was super over and the crowd chanted “Marko’s gonna kill you!” several times. Jurassic Express put up a hell of a fight and played the perfect underdrogs, leading to some convincing nearfalls at the end. Santana & Ortiz did a delayed suplex on Marko and passed him back and forth a good 5-6 times, in a great spot. I don’t remember the exact finish but it involved Marko getting kicked or kneed in the face 3-4 times by both guys. It was brutal.
Sammy Guevara came out and the Inner Circle beat up Jurrassic Express. Luchasaurus hit the ring and got a huge pop to even the odds. Jake Hager was next, I believe, and the two big men had an epic staredown. Luchasaurus tried to chokeslam him, but the whole faction beat him down. The Young Bucks ended up out there, they all hit their signature moves and the Inner Circle eventually retreated.
Match 3 – Santana & Ortiz def. Jungleboy & Marko stunt in 13:25.
This was the best thing on #AEWDARK. A whole lot of fun. Marko was over as hell (lots of “Markos gonna kill you” chants) and did all kinds of cool stuff. pic.twitter.com/BeEY6ENA0H
— Mike Killam (@MikeKillam) November 28, 2019
This is probably where the DARK taping actually ends, although it could have been earlier because this stretched on quite a bit.
Cody Rhodes and Brandon Cutler came out after the show and joined the others in the ring with a bunch of t-shirts. They all talked about Chicago and the city being a special place and the unofficial home of AEW.
The crowd had a bunch of Aubrey Edwards (the female ref) signs and one dude dressed as a banana had a sign that said “I’m Bananas for Aubrey”. Cody called her back out to the ring, and then made the banana get in the ring. They all ragged on Cutler for having a terrible W/L record and made him get down on the mat so the banana could pin him. He kicked out at two-and-a-half and said “I won’t do this anymore guys….” so the Young Bucks superkicked him. Banana made the cover, Aubrey made the count and the super fan in the costume got to have a cool moment. The fans loved all of this.
Aubrey, Cody, Cutler, the Young Bucks, Luchasaurus, Marko and Jungle Boy hung out in the ring for a good 20 minutes throwing merch to the crowd. They ran out so Cody threw his boots as well, and the Bucks said he could have sold those for a few thousand dollars, which is true. They gave away a turnbuckle too, and the Bucks joked that production needed to remove the jumbotron so they could throw it into the crowd.
That’s about it. Everybody eventually left and Cody (maybe others) stayed behind even longer to sign and take pictures with the fans left in the building.
I don’t know when #AEWDARK actually stops, but Sammy Guevara was out next, followed by the Young Bucks. Babyfaces go over, hang out with the crowd for about 20 minutes and throw out tons of merch to send the crowd home happy. pic.twitter.com/jQUQzclgYs
— Mike Killam (@MikeKillam) November 28, 2019
I would say about 80% or more of the people who were there for Dynamite stayed for the DARK tapings, so hopefully it’s a good show on TV. The first two matches weren’t outstanding, but the main event was a ton of fun and the brawl was good.
The crowd throughout the night, while they clearly enjoyed themselves and popped at the things they were supposed to react to, were clearly exhausted. It was a ridiculously long weekend of wrestling and clearly many people had been to at least one of the WWE shows. It was not close to being sold out, although there was a good turnout. The upper balcony on hard cam side was largely empty and there were one or two whole sections empty, although not large ones.
It was one of the more low-energy major shows I’ve been to, but I don’t blame AEW. They put on a good show, at least live, people were just tired. It’s the middle of a long week, the weather has been terrible, and we’d all seen about 20 hours of wrestling this week already. People wanted to put the effort in, and everyone around me was having a good time, there just wasn’t any of the usual mega-hype and electricity of all the other AEW shows I’ve been to.