The War for Wednesday: NXT vs. AEW 11/6/24

(Author’s note: These are the kinds of reviews you’ll find here on a much more regular basis. Big paragraphs of unfiltered summaries and thoughts.

AEW Dynamite

1. Claudio Castagnoli & PAC vs. Orange Cassidy & Darby Allin
2. Chris Jericho, Big Bill & Bryan Keith vs. Mark Briscoe, Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly - Fight Without Honor
3. Adam Cole vs. Malakai Black
4. Penelope Ford vs. Jamie Hayter
5. Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita vs. Ricochet & a Mystery Partner

MVP and friends started off the program by carrying on about their accolades. An angry Swerve appears and challenged Bobby Lashley for the PPV. Opening tag started off well. Darby’s dive off the stage was nuts. DDT off the top on PAC by Orange! Holy shit that was gnarly! I love Darby. He’s so chaotic and when he takes a move, he sells it like death. Another nasty DDT from Orange onto PAC. Claudio constantly cutting off the babyfaces to make the save was a nice touch. After match brawl, Darby eats shit getting through full force into the ring post. Wish this didn’t have the screwy finish as it was just getting good. Fight Without Honor was absolute chaos. I love a good wild brawl and this is what this was. Broken tables, broken bodies everywhere. Briscoe getting tossed through the ladder was nuts. OH MY GOD! FROGGY BOW OFF THE LADDER!! HOLY CHRIST! Ishii just wandering around slugging fools in the face was glorious. Good god that brain buster to finish Jericho was nasty. I really, really want to see Jericho vs. Ishii for some reason. It’s probably a me problem but I don’t get Adam Cole at all. He’s a fine wrestler but every promo is the same from him. Lot of this was in slo-mo but there were a few bright spots. Loved the big super kick off the apron. Black got destroyed. Cole at an absolutely brutal knee to the face after a big Panama Sunrise.  Not sure why people lost their mind over this. There are worse things in the world. Cole rambles on about some sort of convoluted stipulation going in order for him to fight MJF at the PPV. Doesn’t matter, I’m not interested. Stuff happened backstage. Hangman and Jay White had a fight. Kris Statlander got hit by a car. Christian and his family come out to the ring to annoy everyone. Lots of filibustering. Christian is like a congressman, he talks a lot but doesn’t really say anything. Hook comes out, he says stuff and beats up security. Meanwhile, Don Calls takes a bribe. Loved Ford vs. Hayter. They absolutely beat the crap out of each other. No other way to put it. Ford was out for two years but you wouldn’t be able to tell. She looked good and hit all of her trademark stuff. Hayter mauled Ford with lots of hard shots. Loved this. Every single minute of it. HOLY SHIT! HOBBS IS BACK! Hobbs is a dude I wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley late at night. Then again, not sure what I’d be doing in that type of environment. Ricochet moonsaults off Hobbs shoulders! Holy crap that was awesome! I can see the reason some compare the new look Fletcher to Randy Orton. He does a similar pose and also uses the hanging DDT. Lariat by Hobbs wrecks Takeshita. Block on the poisonrana leading to the Doomsday Device was really cool. I love how Hobbs is absolutely smashing people. He just approaches someone and hits them as hard as he possibly can. Ricochet and Takeshita’s exchanges in this were mind-blowing. Very Matrix-esque. Really want to see them in a singles bout. Fletcher’s old partner runs down wearing pants that are about a size too small and gets waylaid. More people run down and there’s a massive fight. Show ends.

NXT

1. Lola Vice vs. Jaida Parker - Hardcore Match
2. Je’Von Evans vs. Wes Lee
3. Ethan Page & Ridge Holland vs. Trick Williams & Bubba Ray Dudley
4. Tony D’Angelo vs. Nunzio
5. Jacy Jayne, Cora Jade, Fallon Henley, Roxanne Perez & Jasmyn Nix vs. Zaria, Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, Jordynne Grace & Kelani Jordan

How awesome is the vibe to start this off with? The old school ECW music, the wild crowd in the arena. This is what NXT really should be. Running venues like this with small but rowdy crowds. Dawn Marie is the special ref for the opening bout. I’m not too familiar with her. All kinds of wild stuff in this one. Vice whacking Parker with a forearm through a chair. Parker did an ass drop off a ladder through another ladder. Where the hell did the brick come from?! Doesn’t matter, Vice took that HARD to the face. This match was great. Neither girl held back. Hard shots with kendo sticks, chairs and all kinds of weaponry. Ethan Page and Ridge Holland wax poetic in front of the Rocky statue. I really need subtitles for Ridge Holland. Hey! RVD is here and he’s hanging out with Kelani Jordan backstage! Then Wes Lee turns up and bludgeons him. Ok then. Tony D is wandering around a cheesesteak joint and runs into Tony Mamaluke and Nunzio. Nunzio challenges Tony D. Je’von Evans is incredible. Hell, this whole match is incredible! Never seen a guy who can fly around the ring like that. Plus he took some insane stuff. Brain buster on the steps was nuts but the giant bump through the table was COMPLETE INSANITY!! RVD turns up and contributes nothing except standing around. One of the best matches I’ve seen from NXT this year. Ava comes out and announces NXT Deadline with the enthusiasm of a couch. Robert Stone insults the fans, Rhino turns up and gores the shit out of him. The babyface women’s team is backstage sounding totally scripted. One of my biggest pet peeves with NXT is that the backstage promos for the women come across as wooden and forced. Needs to be more natural. Like we’re eavesdropping on a conversation instead of them all standing in a row getting a line of a script in. Tag match was fine. Nothing groundbreaking or amazing. Thought Bubba was fun addition to the match but didn’t do much except for some clubberin’. Dudley Boyz tribute stuff afterwards was fun and D-Von bringing the table was a nice touch. Random people talk backstage. I have no clue who that was or what just happened. Oh no, it’s the heel baddies for the main event! They ramble on about keeping the “newbies” out. Tony Mamaluke looks like an insurance salesman. If he hadn’t been identified, then I would’ve thought he was just a dude in a suit trying to hustle me some MetLife policy I don’t need. I remember Nunzio from his days on SmackDown in the 2000s but I haven’t seen much, if any, of the original ECW. Just a fun squash. I got a chuckle out of Nunzio crossing himself before getting dropped by a Tony D spine buster. Shawn Spears is backstage and talks to some hairy, werewolf looking dude about food. Touching moment backstage with William Regal and the No Quarter Catch Crew where they casually drop hints that Dempsey is Regal’s kid. Video for Nikita Lyons. I forgot she existed. Ava is runs into Nathan Frazier and Axiom and says nothing of importance. Cora Jade’s eyewear doesn’t look like it’s very helpful for vision issues. Perhaps she needs a new opthamologist. Maybe the Dudleys could help her out? Anyway, how fun was this. All kinds of action everywhere. Too much to keep up with. Kelani’s moonsault out to the floor was a really neat spot. Ending set up multiple things. Really great way to close out this show.