The Ins And Outs Of AEW Dynamite 10/2/19: Boom Goes The Dynamite

Previously on All Elite Wrestling: AEW went All Out to crown its first-ever World Champion, and then the title belt was immediately lost. Plus PAC toasted Kenny Omega, Jimmy Havoc cut Joey Janela’s tongue with a piece of paper in a Cracker Barrel Clash, and everyone’s favorite team is a big dinosaur who hangs out with the smallest people he can find.

With that, welcome to the first ever edition of the Ins and Outs of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite, TNT’s WCW Monday Nitro sequel series (not really) that pairs billionaire television know-how with YouTube and independent wrestling spirit. It’s in the same style as our Best and Worst columns, obviously, but I wanted to give it its own flavor, and not have 30 things called “Best and Worst of” something on the page at once. It’s fun, play along!

If you’d like to keep up with our ongoing coverage of all things All Elite Wrestling, make sure you’re following our AEW tag page. The column itself will have a tag page after it’s been on for more than half a day.

So, let’s see what happens when you give The Elite enough money and production value to fart rainbow dust.

In the interest of complete transparency in your “what did the guy on the internet think about the wrestling show” column, I can’t speak on the television production side of last night’s debut. I was there live, attempting to make up for the whole “not going to the Mall of America to watch the debut episode of Nitro when I was a teen” thing, so how the announce team worked and how the pacing and commercial breaks felt will have to wait until next week.

I’ll make two quick notes, however:

Let’s talk about what we can talk about: the total, nonstop action.

WAIT NO NOT LIKE THAT

— All Elite Wrestling on TNT (@AEWonTNT) October 3, 2019

Cody Rhodes is living his best life. If you weren’t already aware of that, please watch as he opens the first episode of his company’s live TNT broadcast by walking to the ring with his so beautiful it’s borderline absurd wife, Brandi, and soaking in the cheers and adoration of 14,000+ people who came out because brother turned a goofy New Japan YouTube aside into a legitimate, televised alternative that could at best save professional wrestling as an artform and, worst case scenario, be something fun to watch if WWE ever turns NXT into Yellow Raw.

He opens the show against my absolute motherfucker Sammy Guevara, who continues to be in the running for Worst Person in the World; an honor that’s legitimately prestigious when the beloved wrestler you’re facing is also often a total dirtbag and hangs out with MJF. I love them starting the show off with Cody vs. Sammy, as it spotlights what brought them to the dance (the Elite), honors the legacy of what brought EVERYONE there in the first place (the Rhodes family), and keeps half the spotlight on fresh, new talent who are hungry enough to do some shit you’ve never seen before. I also like the continuing AEW trend of Cody being kinda shook by the new generation of guys and beating them, sure, but having to do his best to do it.

Additionally: