Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho battled in a “Barbed Wire Everywhere” match in the main event of “AEW Dynamite” this week, and while it more than lived up to the promise of the name — even the ring bell and the ring announcer’s microphone were covered — it has already taken its share of criticism, including from people in the industry.
Case in point: WWE Hall Of Famer “Road Dogg” Brian James, who weighed in on Twitter to take shots at the company for, among other things, Tay Conti’s inability to open the shark cage containing the Jericho Appreciation Society, who had to break themselves out through the bars.
“So they paid attention to that detail,” James said, referring to the barbed wire on the microphone, “but then forgot to have the girl rehearse opening the cage.”
Later, when one fan called the entire match a disaster, James seemed to agree, but replied, “Don’t say that out loud. They’ll come for you.”
The match saw plenty of interference taking place, with Tay Conti initially attacking Ruby Soho, who was in charge of the key and lift for the shark cage. This led to Anna Jay coming down to make the save, only for her to turn heel on Soho, siding with the JAS and allowing the rest of the group to come out (albeit after jumping through the bars after the door didn’t open), to attack Kingston.
Eventually, Ortiz and the Blackpool Combat Club came out to even the odds, helping to make the situation a one-on-one match once again. Kingston then seemingly had the encounter won when he locked in the Stretched Plum (while adding in some barbed wire) until Sammy Guevara returned to screw Kingston over, getting revenge for being thrown off the roof at “Blood and Guts.” This led to Jericho hitting the Judas Effect (also with barbed wire) to get the win, though Kingston did get the last laugh by throwing the former WWE star into a bed of barbed wire to close the show.
While James was critical of this week’s “Dynamite” main event, he has admitted in the past that he’d “love to work with promo guys backstage at AEW because it’s just new talent,” leave himself open to helping the company out in some capacity.
