AEW Dynamite Review: February 26, 2020

AEW Dynamite Review: February 26, 2020 by Felix Pichler

Pac vs. Kenny Omega (w/ Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in a 30 minutes Ironman Match

Surprisingly, the first match of this episode of AEW Dynamite was the Ironman match and the Young Bucks were in Omega’s corner while Adam “Hangman” Page wasn’t. We saw the first point after about 16 minutes as Pac attacked his opponent with a chair and for that Omega received one point.

Pac performed seconds later his finisher from the top rope for the 1-1. Then, Pac set up a table at ringside, placed Omega on it and performed a Moonsault from the top rope on his opponent. However, Omega was able to beat the ten count and got back into the ring.

In the last minutes of this match, Pac locked in the Brutalizer, but Omega was able to not tape out but it seemed as he would fade away. However, as the time was up, it was still 1-1 and the Young Bucks checked on Omega while Pac had a discussion with ref. Then, the Bastard gave the referee a cheap shot. After that, Justin Roberts announced that this match would continue under sudden death rules and Aubrey Edwards came out to replace the knocked down referee. Omega performed the One Winged Angel to get the 2-1 via pinfall.

After the match, Omega and the Young Bucks went backstage while Pac got interviewed by Tony Schiavone who asked the Bastard about losing the match after all the talking and everything that led to this fight. Pac questioned what Schiavone tried to achieve as then suddenly Orange Cassidy came on the stage to then get attacked by Pac.

Opinion: Incredible match to open this show and both superstars proved why they are the best in AEW and even the world. Now, as this feud is over, it will be interesting to see what will be next for Pac.

Rating: A

“The Inner Circle” Santana, Ortiz and Sammy Guevara vs. “The Jurassic Express” Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy

Logically, the Inner Circle isolated Marko Stunt for quite some time and work on him. In the final phase, this match got quite chaotic and, in the end, Darby Allin distracted Guevara what gave Jungle Boy the chance to get the three count against the Spanish God.

Opinion: Good match and a logical ending as Guevara is the only one of these six men who has a match at AEW Revolution.

Rating: B

“The Best Friends” Chuck Taylor and Trent (w/ Orange Cassidy) vs. The Butcher and The Blade (w/ The Bunny)

This fight was evenly-matched as both teams had short periods in which they were able to dominate the opposition. Then, Cassidy and the Bunny were in the centre of the ring. The Bunny took Cassidy’s shades and wanted to perform a low blow which Cassidy blocked to then take her bunny hears and put them on his own head.

The Blade entered the ring and wanted to clothesline Cassidy who ducked underneath and performed a Suicide Dive onto the Butcher while the Best Friends performed in the ring their finisher against the Blade for the win.

Opinion: Good match and a funny angle at the end. Besides, the Best Friends are currently one of the teams who pick up wins on a regular base, so maybe they will be in the title picture soon.

Rating: B

Yuka Sakazaki vs. Big Swole vs. Shanna vs. Hikaru Shida in a four-way match

The match took almost 10 minutes, and, in the end, it was Hikaru Shida who was able to pick up the win after a Running Knee.

Opinion: You have to give huge credit to these four women as the match was really good, but we know almost nothing about the characters and due to that, these matches make absolutely no sense.

Rating: C-

Interview with the “Young Bucks” Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega and Adam “Hangman” Page

So, we then saw an interview with these four men from “earlier today”. Page’s alcoholism was once more a topic as in the end he left since his glass was empty. The Young Bucks explained that the other two men are their best friends in the world. Also, it was interesting to see that Page was bothered by Matt saying that the Elite would be bigger than the tag titles. Page also explained that winning the tag titles was the biggest accomplishment of his career and the Young Bucks want to take it away from him.

Opinion: So, I’m curious where this will lead to at their match at AEW Revolution, but you have to add that the Young Bucks worked a bit heelish as they told Page that he was a jobber in ROH before they brought him into the Bullet Club. Still, Omega seems to be somewhere in the middle.

Rating: A

The weigh-in

Schiavone was in the ring with two models, photographs and security before Gary Michael Cappetta came out who was the special host for this weigh-in of Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho. Moxley was the first one who came out followed by Jericho who had all other four members of the Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager) with him.

Moxley was the first one to step on the scale and weighed 234 pounds. Jericho took one piece of his clothes off after another (and talked shit about Kansas City to draw heat) and then jawed with Moxley who headbutted him. A brawl broke out and the Inner Circle attacked Mox while Jericho was recovering and then got up with blood in his face. Dustin Rhodes came out to help Moxley and attacked Hager who then brawled towards the concourse area.

Allin came out and hit Santana with the skateboard but Guevara attacked him to then hit him with his own Skateboard. Then, Moxley and Jericho were the only two men standing in the ring and traded punches until Moxley set him up for the Paradigm Shift, but Santana saved the AEW Champion with a low blow against Moxley. Then, Y2J performed the Judas Effect followed by a Paradigm Shift onto the scale.

Opinion: Good segment to set up three matches at once. Until now, Jericho always was the one who dominated his opponent. Due to that, the people are looking forward to Moxley beating up the AEW Champion.

Rating: A

Summary

As always, a great episode of AEW Dynamite and they did a great job in hyping up the upcoming PPV AEW Revolution. Still, I was surprised that we saw nothing except a few video packages about the feud between Cody Rhodes and MJF which will maybe be the best match at AEW Revolution.

Rating: B+