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From Bray Wyatt's catchphrase being referenced during Brodie Lee's segment to Dustin Rhodes putting his career on the line, this week's edition of AEW Dynamite featured some contrasting moments.
Last night's episode was certainly good as compared to what went down in the previous week. The TNT Championship Tournament reached a crucial phase as Dustin Rhodes put his career on the line against Kip Sabian during the main event.
Also, fans witnessed a light-hearted video from The Bubbly Bunch (Chris Jericho's Inner Circle). But as always, there were low points in between. However, Chris Jericho and Tony Schiavone's commentary continued to entertain viewers this week as well.
What were your thoughts on this episode? How did NXT fare against AEW in terms of quality this week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of AEW Dynamite (April 22, 2020).
#5: "Broken" Matt Hardy invited Sammy Guevara to battle in the Hardy Compound
A few weeks ago, Matt Hardy invited Chris Jericho for an Elite Deletion Match at the former's infamous compound.
But since then, Le Champion has ignored the challenge completely. Instead, Jericho has been doing commentary alongside Tony Schiavone, while also appearing in the Bubbly Bunch skits at the same time.
So Hardy invited Sammy Guevara to do Jericho's dirty work instead. The Broken One also switched back to his normal persona to talk to Chris Jericho. Matt stated that AEW is all about the future, and Jericho intends to take down the founding pillars of AEW (The Elite) for his own benefit.
Although Hardy is largely responsible for pushing cinematic matches in front of a mainstream view, The Broken One has to follow the brilliance of The Boneyard and The Firefly Fun House matches at the same time.
#4: Orange Cassidy defeated Jimmy Havoc to win his Dynamite Debut
Chris Jericho's onscreen character hates Orange Cassidy. After all, the third member of AEW's Best Friends gets away with everything without putting too much effort against his opponents.
Cassidy made his Dynamite Debut against Jimmy Havoc after the two clashed in ringside shenanigans last week.
Unlike Cassidy's entertaining match against PAC at AEW Revolution, his encounter with Havoc wasn't as charismatic as one would have hoped. Putting the live audience factor aside, Havoc's alliance with Kip Sabian & Penelope Ford doesn't make a lot of sense.
Cassidy got beat up for most of the match and picked up a victory after Ford's distraction proved to be a double-edged sword for Havoc.
Orange Cassidy got beat up after the match until Best Friends interrupted to make the save.
After the main event, Tony Schiavone announced that Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc will face Best Friends in a No Disqualification Match on next week's Dynamite.
This storyline feels a little forced, and without a live audience present, Cassidy's charisma is only felt during certain spots.
#3: Bray Wyatt's catchphrase was referenced in Brodie Lee's new skit
Brodie Lee has amplified his digs towards Vince McMahon to a point where it is impossible to tell if further Mr. McMahon references are intentional or not.
But if there was a certain takeaway from this week's episode, it included a potential Dark Order recruit mentioning Bray Wyatt's catchphrase from a personal perspective. Apparently, the potential recruit had the "whole world in his hands" before things went sideways.
Brodie Lee assured that this person - also a former football star - could have a place in his stable. Later, The Exalted One defeated Justin Law inside the ring.
He also stared down Marko Stunt several times. It looks like the smallest member of the Jurassic Express will have an eventual showdown with Lee.
It can be assumed that Lee's character must have a personal distaste for wrestlers built like Marko Stunt, because like I said, it is impossible to tell whether or not all of his actions are a dig towards Vince McMahon at this point.
#2: Dustin Rhodes saved himself from retirement after defeating Kip Sabian in the main event
Just like last week's main event, this episode built towards Dustin Rhodes' potential retirement match. Rhodes put his career on the line and vowed to retire from wrestling if he lost to Kip Sabian.
This was a great hook to attract viewers for this week's edition of Dynamite. It was unlikely that Dustin's wrestling career would end in a time where fans can't get to witness shows from the stands.
Penelope Ford was eliminated as a distraction, thanks to Brandi Rhodes. Dustin hit the Code Red on Sabian for a pinfall victory.
AEW has teased another showdown between Cody and Dustin. This would be a huge rematch since their previous encounter was an instant classic.
In order to achieve that, Dustin has to defeat Lance Archer in the semi-finals, which seems to be a tough task.
Archer wants to face Cody, and it is most likely that this match will be the finals of the TNT Championship Tournament.
However, it is too early to discount Cody's semi-finals opponent, Darby Allin, in this case.
Both semi-final bouts will take place next week. Which superstars will be featured in the finals of the TNT Championship Tournament, in your opinion?
#1: The Inner Circle parodied TikTok dances on this week's edition of The Bubbly Bunch
The Bubbly Bunch delivered some hilarious moments to wrestling fans during a time where people need it the most.
Chris Jericho said that when things are looking down, all they have to do is dance!
Apparently, the Flim Flam Dance is a new craze in AEW, and all of this started when The Inner Circle tried to get Sammy Guevara's spirits up after the faction's recent downfalls.
From Jake Hager to Chris Jericho, no one's dancing skills could match up to Guevara's moves, and as promised by Le Champion, The Spanish God won a bottle of hand sanitizer for his efforts.
This was a heartwarming segment that showed us The Inner Circle is way different from a stereotypical heel faction. When you think about it, the reason why there are almost no conflicts within the group is that all members of The Inner Circle are treated equally.
Even heels have a code for friendship, after all.
What else could be better than Jake Hager dancing like a cool cat after having wrestled Jon Moxley in a grueling battle just last week?
