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From emotional tributes for Jon Huber to The Dark Order's night-long arc for their leader, this week's edition of AEW Dynamite featured many contrasting moments.
The pro wrestling world has been devastated since last Saturday when the man known as Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper) passed away due to a non-COVID lung issue. Tributes for The Exalted One have been pouring in from all across the world, and it has become apparent how many lives he had positively impacted throughout his own life and career.
The entire AEW roster and staff should be proud of themselves for putting on a fantastic tribute show for Brodie Lee. The in-ring matches and video tributes blended seamlessly, and the last AEW Dynamite of 2020 was certainly one of the most emotionally-impacting pro wrestling episodes of all time.
Hopefully, this show also gave some sense of closure to the viewers, who have been through an overwhelming past few days to cap-off the strange and devastating year that was 2020.
Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of AEW Dynamite (December 30, 2020).
#5: Jon Moxley, Darby Allin, Chris Jericho, and other AEW staff and personnel paid heartwarming video tributes to Brodie Lee
After an opening 10-bell salute in the memory of Brodie Lee, AEW aired a couple of video tributes from their staff and wrestlers throughout the episode.
Jon Moxley talked about how much Brodie Lee meant to him and The Exalted One's overall impact in the wrestling community. Eddie Kingston remained emotional in his tribute to Brodie Lee despite having to portray his heelish side against The Dark Order on the same show.
Darby Allin remembered Brodie Lee as a positive influence in the AEW locker room who always wanted to lift up other people backstage, without possessing even a tiny shred of ego. Among other video tributes, Chris Jericho also thought of Lee as an intelligent man who proved his worth as a true star by becoming one of the top names in AEW.
#4: The Dark Order members gained clean sweep victories on AEW Dynamite
Brodie Lee has left a huge chasm in The Dark Order on AEW Dynamite. However, he had also elevated several lesser-known stars during his time with the faction. The Dark Order's presence was felt in each and every match featured on the Brodie Lee tribute episode of AEW Dynamite.
Colt Cabana teamed up with The Young Bucks to kick-off this show. The trio was able to defeat Matt Hardy and Private Party.
Lance Archer paid tribute by donning an attire similar to Brodie Lee's swamp cult outfit. He teamed up with Dark Order's Evil Uno and Stu Grayson to pick up a victory against Eddie Kingston, The Butcher and The Blade. After the match, the winning team and even the veteran Jake Roberts took out Kingston with multiple strikes.
Dark Order's John Silver got a spotlight with Alex Reynolds and Hangman Page after Silver used Lee's classic discus clothesline to win a six-man tag team match against The Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz, and MJF).
Anna Jay teamed up with her friend, Tay Conti, to defeat Dr. Britt Baker and Penelope Ford. Pres10 Vance teamed up with Cody Rhodes and Orange Cassidy to defeat Team Taz (Ricky Starks, Brian Cage, Powerhouse Hobbs) in the main event match. After the bout was over, Sting and Darby Allin arrived at the rescue of the babyfaces from Team Taz's beatdown.
Cody Rhodes and '10' were handpicked for the main event match because they are Brodie Lee Jr.'s favorite wrestlers.
The Dark Order members looked visibly emotional throughout this week's AEW Dynamite.
#3: Brodie Lee Jr. gave MJF a well-deserved kendo stick shot on AEW Dynamite
Well, if there was an AEW wrestler who didn't hold back in terms of kayfabe in any capacity during this episode, it had to be MJF.
During The Dark Order and Hangman Page's six-man tag team bout against The Inner Circle, MJF took it one step further from a heel's perspective and teased Brodie Jr. near ringside.
This particular subplot came full circle for The Inner Circle member (no pun intended) when Brodie Jr. hit MJF on the head with a kendo stick. This occurred after MJF had snatched away Brodie Jr.'s Dark Order mask on AEW Dynamite.
After this incident, MJF took to Twitter and posted a non-PG tweet to Brodie Lee's son. As mentioned in the previous slide, The Dark Order and Hangman Page went on to win against The Inner Circle.
Brodie Jr. was featured throughout this week's AEW Dynamite as the camera panned towards him several times. Props go to Brodie Lee's eight-year-old son for being an enthusiastic sport on AEW Dynamite despite his father's recent passing,
#2: Erick Redbeard, fka Erick Rowan, debuted on AEW Dynamite and paid tribute to his Wyatt family comrade
Erick Redbeard appeared on AEW Dynamite for the first time in his pro wrestling career during Dark Order and Hangman Page's match against The Inner Circle.
The bout got out of hand when Wardlow appeared on AEW Dynamite and took out Alex Reynolds with a clothesline. This is when Erick Redbeard showed up to eliminate Wardlow from the equation by delivering a big claw chokeslam to MJF's bodyguard.
Erick Redbeard and Wardlow took their brawl backstage as the match continued inside the ring. After Dark Order and Hangman Page picked up a victory, an emotional Redbeard came out to celebrate this victory while also holding up a sign that read: 'Goodbye, for now, my brother. See you down the road.'
The same person who has been portrayed as a monstrous giant for most of his WWE career couldn't hold back his true emotions in this scenario. After all, The Wyatt family played a huge role in Erick Redbeard and Brodie Lee's careers, and both of them even teamed-up as The Bludgeon Brothers back in WWE.
Erick Redbeard's arrival in AEW, as well as Brodie Jr.'s role in the aforementioned six-man tag team bout, made it one of the best memorial pro wrestling matches that fans have seen in a while.
#1: Brodie Lee Jr. was handed over the TNT Title in memory of his father, followed by a heartfelt video package to end this episode of AEW Dynamite
The final segment of the final episode of AEW Dynamite in 2020 saw Cody Rhodes cutting a heartwarming promo to honor Brodie Lee. He introduced Brodie Lee Jr. to the fans, who came down to the ring with his mother, Amanda Huber, Dark Order's Pres10 Vance, along with Tony Khan.
Brodie Jr. placed down his father's boots in the ring, and Cody Rhodes covered the boots with Brodie Lee's trademark scarf. The fans gave a loud ovation throughout this segment, as Tony Khan announced Brodie Lee's eight-year-old son as the AEW TNT Champion for life. The final ceremony of the night made sense as Brodie Lee had been a TNT Champion during his time in AEW, and he was one of the most defining titleholders in the company for a while.
A special video tribute in the memory of Mr. Brodie Lee ended this week's edition of AEW Dynamite. It was a moment that will be remembered in AEW and pro wrestling history forever.
On the post-show following this week's AEW Dynamite, Tony Schiavone announced that little Brodie - Negative One - will hold the TNT Championship belt, while Darby Allin will be getting a new belt in the near future.
AEW did their best in honoring Brodie Lee this week. The moral of this episode was that of the harmony and support which exists between pro wrestling families, as well as cherishing the memory of a great man to end a year that has been filled with sorrow and pain. The pro wrestling world's love for Brodie Lee and his positive impact in the locker room has transcended a few boundaries between competing promotions (WWE and AEW, among others), and the best all of us can do at the moment is to honor and respect Brodie Lee's legacy from this point onwards.
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