AEW Dynamite recap for October 16, 2019: Rise of the Painmaker

Rise of the Painmaker

The main event of this week’s Dynamite features the AEW Heavyweight Championship being defended for the first time, as Chris Jericho took on challenger Darby Allin.

Jericho came out with his face adorned with the markings of his dark persona “The Painmaker” and Allin came out with word “Champ” painted all down one side of his body.

Allin starts off with an explosive burst of offense. Allin takes the champ to the floor and hits a nasty suicide dive onto Jericho. Jericho takes a bit of offense from Allin and fights back but Allin hits him with a Code Red to bring the momentum back his way. Jericho seems to be quite annoyed with Allin and throws him super hard into the ring post which sends Allin flying out to the floor.

Back from commercial, Y2J is laying into Allin with a Kendo stick. Allin counters a second-rope attack from Jericho and locks in a crucifix pin but can’t secure the win. Allin grabs the Kendo stick and wails on the champ and looks to lock in an armbar but Jericho rolls through it into the Walls of Jericho. Allin breaks the hold quickly by grabbing the ropes.

“The Painmaker” persona rears its ugly head as Jericho ties Allin’s hands behind his back with tape. Allin continues to fight back though the disadvantage, however, and hits Jericho with a springboard splash. Allin continues the handicapped onslaught with a dropkick and Tope Con Giro to the floor.

Allin was not to be denied and hits a crazy corkscrew atomico. Jericho fights back with a lariat, and powerbombs Allin onto his skateboard. Jericho looks to finish the match with a steel chair but Allin dropkicks it into Jericho’s face. Allin looked to hit the Coffin Drop but Jake Hager came in and blindsided Allin. Jericho then pounced on the prone Allin and locked in The Walls of Jericho for the win as the ref ended the match for Allin’s safety.

The Inner Circle celebrated with a little bit of the bubbly in the ring to end the show.

This was an incredible match that endeared Allin to the crowd and reintroduced “The Painmaker” to the American audience. A great first defense for Jericho.

In what may be considered the best episode of Dynamite yet, every match over delivered and the bar was raised exponentially. Hopefully AEW continues this momentum heading into next week as each weeks seems to get better and better.