Cody Cuts Career-Defining Promo, Chris Jericho Remains on Fire, More AEW Fallout

All Elite Wrestling had much riding on the November 6 airing of Dynamite.

The two-hour sprint had served as a barnburner of wrestling entertainment each week since making its big debut. Title changes, debuts, incredible promos and matches, an "anything can happen" vibe—despite the world-class production—and more. It had been a fun ride.

But Wednesday was different. The broadcast had to help build for Saturday's pay-per-view, Full Gear. The task was pumping up title matches, raising the stakes for everyone and smartly juggling all of the complicated relationships between wrestlers and factions for a company just getting its feet off the ground.

And thanks to a massive announcement, incredible work from Chris Jericho and more, Dynamite again didn't have problems meeting expectations.

PAC-Hangman Page Gets More Great Build

A week ago, "Hangman" Adam Page got some much-needed character direction, coining a new catchphrase and furthering his feud with PAC in the process.

Wednesday, things seemed to come to a head just in time for Full Gear. PAC opened Dynamite with a win over Trent, doing so in impressive fashion. He didn't win via his normal finisher, so he went into a blind rage and locked in a submission that ended up making his opponent pass out.

Later, PAC interfered in the main event, hitting Page with a low blow, inadvertently helping Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara pick up the win over Page and Kenny Omega.

Before Wednesday, if not the last few weeks, it was almost easy to forget Page and PAC were en route to a massive collision. Not anymore, and given the build here, it has a chance to steal the show.

Private Party Joins the Tag-Title Fray at Full Gear

A little predictability had to set in at some point.

It was a shock during the tag-team tournaments when The Young Bucks lost. Likewise, SCU winning it all, even over the Lucha Brothers, was unexpected.

But Wednesday night, Private Party moving past Dark Order for the right to enter the three-team fray at Full Gear was easy to see coming.

That is mostly because the duo of Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen deserve it. The two were incredible in the tournament and again Wednesday night, overcoming the distractions of the Dark Order to pick up a win.

Private Party getting in the ring with SCU and the Lucha Brothers is bound to be an incredible match and, no, the winner isn't predictable by any means.

Chris Jericho Crafts an All-Timer of a Video Package

It isn't often a wrestling recap would spotlight something like a video package.

But that's just how good Chris Jericho's run with AEW is right now.

Wednesday, commentary noted Jericho's Inner Circle submitted a video they produced themselves, and AEW was going to let it roll. Supposedly, it was about Jericho's journey to Full Gear.

And hilarity ensued. Within, brilliance. Jericho kissed Sammy Guevara on the forehead. Guevara proclaimed Jericho as the youngest AEW champ ever. Jake Hager made noises at the screen. Jericho was compared to Olive Garden breadsticks: unlimited. Jericho, like that time he sat in a hot tub drinking champagne, plopped down in a bathtub with a scarf on and was drinking it again.

This was all in good fun, and it wound up serving as perhaps the funniest thing to grace wrestling television in a long time. It was satire, of course, but it also served as a bit of a look into just how much Jericho's character thinks of himself.

Don't worry, the show still did normal wrestling things, ending with a massive fight that somehow weaved in four or five different storylines at once. But the video package landed second only to Cody's historic announcement.

Cody Makes His Announcement

Credit: Lee South/AEW

Going into Wednesday night, it almost felt like the Cody Rhodes announcement could end up being a big letdown.

Not because AEW has done something like that in the past. Largely, because we've been conditioned to think "announcements" in the wrestling world are something that can keep getting interrupted for weeks on end as a means to keep people interested.

Not here—and what an announcement it was.

Cody, while weaving in plenty of history and his complicated ties to AEW, revealed he'll never challenge for the promotion's top title again if he loses to Chris Jericho at Full Gear.

It serves as a stunning development, and considering how AEW has surprised fans in the past, it doesn't seem to telegraph the ending at all. And perhaps lost in the implications here was the stellar promo after the announcement, which verbally shredded Jericho, perhaps beyond repair.

Before this, the title match had had something of a traditional build. Now? The emotion and stakes are truly on a different level from what wrestling fans normally get to see.