AEW Dynamite recap for October 2, 2019: Dawn of a revolution

AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite came out of the gate with a bang with several exciting matches, insightful character promos, and a raucous closing segment.

Let’s Start The Show

The first wrestling match on TNT since 2001 came right at the start of the inaugural  broadcast of AEW Dynamite as “The American Nightmare” took on “The Best Ever” Sammy Guevara.

Cody rose out of the stage with his wife Brandi in a grandiose entrance while Guevara sauntered down to the ring with his patented cocky strut. The crowd was fully behind Cody from the second his music hit and it was very obvious Guevara was going to need to play the heel here.

Both men started out circling one another in the beginning of the match. Guevara looked to employ his speed to gain quick headlocks and avoid Cody’s powerful strikes as Cody looked to catch a leg and employ some traditional wrestling on the high flyer.

Cody had to bail outside to regroup, after being outwitted by Guevara a few times, as Guevara taunted him from the center of the ring. Cody slid back and again went to his pedigree, his amateur wrestling base, while Guevara continued to move a mile an hour and ended up hitting a solid dropkick to Cody. Cody finally got some continued momentum as he nailed “The Best Ever” with a powerslam and locked in the Figure Four leglock.

After a long period of struggling Guevara was able to get out of the vicious hold and fight back as Cody switched his target to Guevara’s arm. Cody then hit a massive gourdbuster which garnered a very tight two count. This time it was Cody’s moment to taunt as he started doing push-ups in the ring as Guevara struggled to get to his feet. Guevara blasted “The American Nightmare” with a nasty Marafuji-esque crescent kick which seemed to throw Cody into a panicked state as he pulled out an uncharacteristic maneuver, a springboard Ace Crusher, to try and put down the rabid youngster.

The two jockeyed for a moment until Guevara rolled to the floor. Cody built up steam and leapt out after Guevara but ended up landing on Brandi who Guevara had pulled into Cody’s path. The crowd rained down chants of “a–hole” on Guevara as he continued to wear down Cody. Guevara then went up to the top rope and went for a moonsault which missed but Guevara landed on his feet, went for a standing moonsault, which also missed, but again Guevara landed on his feet and on his third attempt he finally hit a standing shooting star press which got him a close two count.

Cody threw Guevara into the ropes where the now-recovered Brandi was waiting as she struck Guevara with her heel and Cody hit him with a Beautiful Disaster kick for another agonizing two count. Cody then seemed to go for broke as he lifted his opponent up to the top rope and slammed him back down to the canvas with a nasty facelock inverted superplex. Cody then went for his patented “mega-finisher,” Djin’s Fire, but was denied. Cody went up top again but got caught and was subjected to a masterful Spanish Fly from Guevara. Guevara then went back to his faithful shooting star press but Cody got his knees up and rolled Guevara up for the prized three count.

Tony Schiavone embraced Cody after the match and went to interview him but is interrupted by Guevara. Guevara acts like he is going to strike Cody but surprisingly shakes his hand. And then out of nowhere Cody is struck from behind by his Full Gear opponent and AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. Guevara bailed out of the ring and leaves Cody to get destroyed by “The Painmaker”. Jericho beat down on Cody for an uncomfortable amount of time before slamming him down onto two chairs and burying him under a broken table as he grabs the mic and proclaims “I am Chris Jericho!”

This was a great match to start out Dynamite that played up both men’s strengths to a T. Guevara came away looking great and kept the massive amount of heat he came into the match with. Cody looked solid as he played the fan favorite while still keeping his shady side close. The Jericho beatdown was a little long but as it had to also play out through the commercial, that can be forgiven. Jericho has given Cody many reasons to hate him but none as solid and material as this blindside attack. This moment is definitely the spark this title feud needed.