AEW Dynamite Results: Winners, News And Notes on August 12, 2020

AEW Dynamite featured an FTR heel turn and the AEW World Tag Team Championships on the line during what was dubbed Tag Team Appreciation Night. The main event pitted Orange Cassidy against Chris Jericho in a $7,000 Obligation Match stemming from Cassidy ruining Jericho’s formerly white blazer.

AEW Dynamite drew its best viewership of the pandemic last week with a whopping 901,000 viewers compared to WWE NXT’s 753,000.

• August 5, 2020—901,000
• July 29, 2020—773,000
• July 22, 2020—845,000
• July 15, 2020—788,000
• July 8, 2020—715,000

AEW Dynamite: Key Competition

• WWE NXT
• Mainstream news coverage of COVID-19 Pandemic
• MLB Regular Season Slate
• NBA Regular Season Slate

Pro Wrestling Bits—How WWE can Save Raw Underground

AEW Dynamite YouTube Viewership Last Week

4,656,751 (Up from 2,747,060 views)

• Most-Viewed: Was Darby Allin able to Walk Away with the AEW World Championship? (1,267,925 views)
• Least-Viewed: A Special Look Inside MJFs HQ (64,376 views)
• Median Viewership: 258,648 views

AEW Dynamite Results: Wednesday, August 12, 2020

The Young Bucks def. Stu Grayson and Evil Uno

The Young Bucks have lost so much in AEW, there’s no match where you can take them for granted. In a weird way, knowing they’re not a lock to win helps enhance the drama of their match.

The Dark Order was a punchline at the end of last year, but between their work on Being the Elite and their recent surge on television, they’re slowly starting to enter “underrated” territory.

Jon Moxley Ruins MJF’s Campaign Speech

The fact that MJF has launched an entire campaign for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship makes that title feel so valuable.

Nina Update: Nina smiled and showed viewers some nefarious polling numbers but did not say a word.

MJF cut half this promo on his back and was still better than most people cutting a promo on two feet.

Jon Moxley came through the entrance way to attack MJF, and because he typically walks out through the crowd, MJF never saw it coming.

The only thing that would have made this segment better is if Nina was standing over a fallen MJF, smiling.

Cody def. Scorpio Sky—TNT Championship

Shout out to Scorpio Sky’s new entrance, which saw him kick a door down on his way to the ring. It looked so much better that it sounds.

Cody’s new championship looks absolutely impeccable and deserved a stage of its own, which is why it was so jarring to see him walk out with an enormous entourage. His days as a babyface is numbered and it’s the worst-kept secret in all of wrestling.

Cody and Scorpio Sky are a combined 24-2 this year. How does Scorpio feel like such an underdog?

Cody was introduced as The Prince of Pro Wrestling.

Welcome to AEW Mike Chioda.

Brodie Lee became the latest wrestler to crown himself a champion by stealing the old TNT Championship, and this trend is getting hacky.

Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page def. Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy—AEW World Tag Team
TISI
Championship

Luchasaurus during his entrance: “Hi mom, it only took 65 million years but they’re finally giving a dinosaur a title shot!”

As long as FTR his hanging around waiting for their well-deserved title shot, it’ll be impossible to convince me that anybody has a chance at dethroning Hangman Page and Kenny Omega.

The fact that Kenny Omega nor Hangman Adam Page have even scratched the surface of their singles career in AEW is downright scary.

Jim Ross puts over picture-in-picture like no other.

FTR Turns Heel During Tag Team Appreciation Night

It wasn’t until the announcement of this segment that I realized The Brainbusters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard)—and two of the Four Horsemen—are in AEW.

Three of the best promos this week came from three of the Four Horsemen. If Olie Anderson cuts a fire promo on Friday Night SmackDown it’ll be a clean sweep, but he’ll probably never set foot on WWE soil ever.

FTR finally turned heel by brutalizing The Rock ‘N Roll Express and AEW immediately cut to a Mike Chioda interview.

Hikaru Shida def. Heather Monroe

I can almost guarantee most of this match was cut short, which will only intensify the budding criticisms of AEW’s women’s division.

A lot of people miss Riho, but none more than AEW.

Orange Cassidy def. Chris Jericho—$7,000 Obligation Match

Part of the story of this match is that Chris Jericho saved Mike Chioda’s job back in WWE and Chioda owed him a favor. But I don’t care what Tomfoolery might be planned with Mike Chioda, Orange Cassidy simply has to win this match.

Ironically, the fact that Chris Jericho is still wearing an orange juice-stained jacket actually makes it worth more money. Far more than $7,000 at least.

JR discussing Mike Chioda’s positioning when he makes a count was some of the best analysis on either show, let alone all week.

Jake Hager’s ponytail took his Tough Guy rating down about 10 points.

It’s so crazy to think about how many people thought Orange Cassidy’s ceiling was as a midcard comedy wrestler.