Three weeks have gone by in the Wednesday Night Wars and it has been a clean sweep for All Elite Wrestling for rating supremacy. That sounds about right because there was one week so far where I thought WWE NXT put out the better show, and that was week one of the Wednesday Night Wars. Since then, it’s been unanimous that AEW has put out the better quality show while winning the rating war. In large, WWE NXT remains the best programming that WWE has to offer, but AEW is still besting that when you measure the worldwide audience. This week, AEW Dynamite is live from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania while WWE NXT remains at its studio location of Full Sail University.
That all being said, here is how AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT unfolded through week four of the Wednesday Night Wars.
AEW Dynamite; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1) Private Party (2-3) vs Lucha Bros (4-2)
AEW Dynamite opens with Private Party and the Lucha Bros already in the ring for a cold introduction into tag team action. This match is one of two semi-final matches on tonight’s card for the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament. Previously, Private Party defeated The Young Bucks to advance in the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament. That was their biggest win up to this point. The Lucha Bros defeated The Jurassic Express to arrive this far into the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament, but it shouldn’t go unforgotten that they isolated SoCal Uncensored by making sure Christopher Daniels was unable to compete.
Marq Quen of Private Party connected with a 450 Splash from the top rope in an attempt to get the victory, but the three count was out of reach. Rey Fenix Jr does get hit by the Gin and Juice tag team finisher by Private Party, but Private Party couldn’t capitalize because Fenix wasn’t the legal man. Another Gin and Juice attempt, this time on Pentagon Jr, but he reverses and hits Isiah Kassidy with the Canadian Destroyer instead. Quen attempts a Running Big Boot to Pentagon but misses and is caught in the ropes. Fenix runs across the top rope and hits Quen with a kick of his own.
The finish comes when the Lucha Bros hit their Package Piledriver/Top Rope Foot Stomp double team finisher on Marq Quen. Pentagon Jr gets credit for the pinfall and the Lucha Bros advance to the finals of the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament.
Winners: Lucha Bros (5-2)
2) SoCal Uncensored (4-3) vs The Dark Order (3-0)
This is the other semi-final match of the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament. Up to this point, The Dark Order has not had to wrestle in the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament, getting a bye to the semi-finals. Touched on earlier, the original lineup for SoCal Uncensored was Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian teaming up in this tournament. However, Daniels is out with a pinched nerve after receiving the Package Piledriver from Pentagon Jr last week on AEW Dynamite. Filling in for Daniels is Scorpio Sky alongside Kazarian.
While this match was going on, The Inner Circle was walking through the audience with paid tickets to a luxury suite. They were without Jake Hager, who is training for an MMA fight. Back in the ring, Stu Grayson launches himself over the top turnbuckle to the outside of the ring with a Tope Con Hilo, taking out Frankie Kazarian. Evil Uno connects with a Lifting Reverse STO on Scorpio Sky, but Sky kicks out of the pin attempt at two. As Kazarian gets back into the ring, he connects with a DDT upon entering the ring on Grayson and another DDT upon exiting the ring on Uno.
The finish comes when SoCal Uncensored hits the SCU-Later on Stu Grayson. Scorpio Sky is credited with the pinfall for his team. SoCal Uncensored will take on the Lucha Bros in the finals of the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament, carrying on to set up a grudge match to seek revenge on injuring Christopher Daniels at the beginning of the AEW Tag Team Championship tournament.
Winners: SoCal Uncensored (5-3)
3) “The Bad Boy” Joey Janela (1-2) vs “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega (3-3)
This is the second match that these two are having due to rave reviews after their unsanctioned match on AEW Dark. In an unsanctioned match, the outcome does not reflect on the record, so this will be the first time Joey Janela and Kenny Omega wrestle with an outcome that effects their records. In that unsanctioned match, Omega got the win.
A lot of back and forth countering between the two, featuring Joey Janela moving out of the way of an attempted V-Trigger by Kenny Omega and hitting a Snap German Suplex on Omega. Later, Janela got a full running start and hit a Running Clothesline, flipping Omega. Pin attempt and Omega kicked out at two. One big spot was when Janela went for a Flipping Senton from the top rope to the apron where Omega was laying, but Omega moved out of the way. Omega followed through with a vicious V-Trigger followed by a One-Winged Angel for the pinfall.
Winner: Kenny Omega (4-3)
Cody makes an entrance to the ring to deliver an announcement to the AEW fans in attendance. As he is trying to make his announcement, The Inner Circle is in their luxury suite with airhorns, continuously interrupting Cody. Chris Jericho then picks up a microphone and begins to boo Cody as he speaks. Cody turns around and looks towards Jericho and says, “This isn’t like the other wrestling company we came from. This isn’t an invisible wall right here. I could easily step through and I could easily come up there and we could fight, right here, and right now.” Jericho replies, “I know you’re not going to come up here because you’re a coward. You’re nothing more than an entitled, millennial, little bitch.”
Before leaving the ring, Cody hands his blazer over to Tony Schiavone and begins to make his way towards the direction of the Inner Circle’s luxury booth. Cody is outnumbered four-on-one. Each time Chris Jericho mentions he is outnumbered, a new person makes an entrance on behalf of Cody to even the odds. First, it’s Dustin Rhodes. Second, it’s Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Lastly, and to a big pop from the AEW crowd, it’s Diamond Dallas Page.
As Cody, Dustin Rhodes, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and Diamond Dallas Page make their way through the crowd towards the Inner Circle, Chris Jericho takes Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz and locks them in a room behind a door with a glass window. Thinking that they’ve outsmarted Cody, Cody takes the scarf from MJF and wraps it around his right hand before punching through the window to get into the room. It’s a four-on-four brawl onto the main concourse of the Petersen Events Center which is eventually broken up by security. Cody is reported to be taken to a holding cell at the University of Pittsburgh because The Inner Circle was at the show legally, with a purchased ticket in hand.
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