Tommaso Ciampa and Mark Briscoe have some excellent chemistry. They put on one of the best matches of the night, and it wasn’t even for a championship, as much as it felt like it should have been. The pair fought in an “anything goes” match, and it was pretty brutal, and bloody, for an episode of “Dynamite.” The word’s been going around on social media that AEW can’t do intentional blood in New York for Double or Nothing thanks to the state’s sports commission, and if that’s true, they certainly made up for it tonight, and Briscoe and Ciampa were the perfect men to do it.

Ciampa has been on a freaking roll, even in losses, including his AEW World Championship loss against Darby Allin a few weeks ago. He took a loss here again tonight, but I can’t say I minded it. The match was excellent, and Briscoe honestly probably needed the win more after being dethroned by Ciampa for the TNT title. It was Ciampa who put Briscoe on the shelf for three months with the Psycho Driller, which he almost hit tonight on some chairs to put the former TNT Champion back out.

The pair battled with everything, including a kendo stick, tables, a fire extinguisher, and a freaking cheese grater that Ciampa took to Briscoe’s forehead to draw first blood. Briscoe even tried to break out his arts & crafts side and stapled barbed wire to a table, but of course, he got the staple gun to his own forehead.

Ciampa looked to have the match won when he nailed Briscoe with a knee while wearing a knee pad covered with tacks, but instead of going for the pin, he wanted to deliver more pain. Instead of the Psycho Driller, however, it was Briscoe who hit a move to the chairs set up below, followed that up with a Jay Driller through the barbed wired table, then finally, a Froggy Bow to win the match. The end was a nice flurry of brutal offense from Briscoe, and I really enjoyed it as a nice exclamation point to all the action.

Even in defeat, Ciampa looked great. Briscoe got the win over the “Psycho Killer” that he needed, and the fans got to see a more hardcore match involving blood that we may not get to see on Sunday. It was a fun bout and a highlight of the longer night early on, and there was plenty of breathing room between it and the AEW World Championship main event, which only helped both matches.

Written by Daisy Ruth