AEW Dynamite Delivers Brutal “Spike” Spot as Moxley and Copeland Push Limits

Wednesday’s latest version of AEW’s Dynamite showcased one of the most gruesome spots in televised professional wrestling history.

Adam ‘Cope’ Copeland (more so known as Edge from his days in WWF/WWE) squared off again versus Jon Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose from his WWE days) for the AEW World Championship.

The street fight stipulation enabled both wrestlers to utilize virtually any object they’d like. In Cope’s case, his favorite item named ‘Spike’ is a wooden plank laced with a gigantic clump of nails. He’s brought it out on occasion as a bit of a scare tactic, and there have been times he’s swung it at opponents.

Cope took the spiked bat and connected with Moxley’s midsection on a swing. That would’ve been vicious enough as a dangerous spot in the match. Moxley yelled in pain as he absorbed the blow. Cope then put ‘Spike’ behind the two wresters. Moments later, Cope executed a suplex where Moxley landed directly on the item. The momentum and power was so potent, that “Spike” literally was lodged in Moxley’s back. It remained there as he screamed in pain getting to his feet.

Fellow Death Riders member Wheeler Yuta came into the ring to try and get “Spike” out of Moxley’s back. The referee even helped, and there were multiple close ups where the two tried to pry it off Moxley’s back with a handful of nails literally embedded into the skin to the point where it was pulling his skin at an uncomfortable level. With blood gushing, eventually the spiked bat was extracted from Moxley’s skin.

Moxley ultimately won the match via submission. The result of the match really doesn’t matter. This spot — which screamed indy wrestling — was not needed on this program, especially one broadcast on cable television.

These types of violent displays have often been utilized by AEW in the past, whether it’s the usage of glass to draw color from wrestlers, or other wrestlers literally drinking the blood of others during a match.

While AEW doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of WWE, operating with a sense of professionalism probably should be prioritized over aiming to get as big a pop as possible through bloody mechanisms rather than the craft of wrestling itself.

There’s certainly an audience for this sort of thing, though based on the poor ratings of the product, playing to a niche audience rather than the masses might not be the most sound business model.