This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite was always going to be a tough watch after the news of PAC’s passing on Sunday.
At Monday’s Ring of Honor tapings, Tony Khan announced that this week’s show would be a tribute show to PAC, with him noting that the AEW stars had the option of whether or not they wanted to compete on the show.
In the tough times, the AEW roster all opted to band together to give us what is being considered the greatest episode of AEW Dynamite the company has produced, though hopefully we never see another like it.
Jon Moxley’s greatest and most eerie promo
The show opened with Tony Schiavone in the ring discussing PAC’s career, before he cut to a promo video that was filmed with the Death Riders following Jon Moxley’s loss at All Out, which turned out to be PAC’s final time on camera.
What followed turned out to be one of the greatest promos of Moxley’s career, though it turned out to be a lot more eerie than intended.
Moxley would talk to Ospreay about his win, and how in wrestling you have to learn to lose, including ‘losing people’, and discussing the different types of eulogies.
“This is part of the game though man, you’re going to lose. I don’t care who you are, you’re going to lose. You got to know how to lose. You’re going to lose in wrestling, you’re going to lose in life, you’re going to lose people, you’re going to lose opportunities.”
“There’s two kinds of eulogies at funerals. One of them is this is what this guy did. The other one is this is who this guy was. When I’m dead and burned up and I’m ashes and I’m in the wind, I know which eulogy I want to have. I know what I want people to say about me at my funeral.”
To top off the incredibly eerie subject matter, the segment ended with the Death Riders leaving the frame one at a time, with the closing shot being of PAC.
Bryan Danielson returns to the ring to top off night of celebrations
AEW paid tribute to PAC all throughout the night, including all of the Death Riders being in action, Swerve Strickland and the New Level laying down the Trios Championship in his honor, and Will Ospreay defeating Ricochet with the Black Arrow.
The main event saw the Death Riders face the Don Callis Family in 10-man tag team action, which saw Bryan Danielson make his return to the ring after over a year away, joining the Death Riders for one night only to help them pick up the win.
Danielson joined in the Death Riders huddle with the rest of the group, with the closing shot of Dynamite being them all standing over PAC’s empty chair after airing a tribute video for him.
AEW’s tragic mastery of tribute shows
AEW has mastered the art of the perfect tribute show, which is a tragic thing to admit given how short of a time the company has existed.
In just the past few weeks AEW has hosted 3 tribute shows of television for Rebel, The Butcher and now PAC, with them also hosting the celebration of life for Jay Briscoe and Brodie Lee following their passings.
AEW’s tribute shows bring the entire wrestling world together for one night, and are among the best episode of television ever produced, but hopefully, despite all that, we never have to see another one.
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