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

Only Losers Play D&D

Next up on the broadcast was a mid-card showcase match featuring The Young Bucks’ childhood friend Brandon Cutler facing off against Cody’s “best friend” MJF.

Cutler came out to a mostly positive reaction while MJF came out to a chorus of cheers which then devolved into boos when the self proclaimed “Salt of the Earth” started to run down the crowd.

The two men locked up and immediately MJF was up to his dastardly tactics but Cutler came to fight and wasn’t going to waste this opportunity. They fought onto the apron where Cutler attempted a rough-looking Code Red into the ring. Cutler then hoisted MJF up for a fireman’s carry but was brought down by MJF raking his eyes. MJF threw Cutler into the ring post which gave him the opportunity to chastise the crowd a bit.

Both men laid into each other until MJF went out to the floor and was met with a crisp-looking suicide dive from Cutler who then started to lay into MJF on the floor in a full mount position. Cutler went up for a top rope maneuver but the knee MJF had applied some pressure onto earlier into the match gave out and he fell down into the ring where MJF was ready to pounce on him and lock on Salt of the Earth for the submission victory.

This was a fine match that felt a little short for the story AEW was looking to tell but MJF still came out looking great and Cutler looked good in his plucky underdog role. Cutler’s selling of the knee was a bit off-putting as some fans weren’t aware of the sequence that injured that knee. It almost felt like he randomly had a knee spasm instead of an obvious worked issue that MJF had exploited. Nevertheless, a solid match that did what it needed to do.