By Coach B

I went with Jack Perry vs. Zack Sabre Jr. on AEW Dynamite July 1st, 2026, mostly because I wanted something current, but not something with an internet discourse cloud already hovering over it like a gas leak.

First thing: Jack Perry comes to the ring as a babyface, and he does not exactly look thrilled to be there.

I am not saying he needs to skip down the ramp throwing candy into the crowd like it’s the homecoming parade. But there is a difference between “serious competitor” and “man quietly looks more pissed than tough.”

Maybe that is just the character. Right away, Perry gives off the energy of someone doing his job, which, to be fair, ends up making sense.

Then Zack Sabre Jr. comes out, and his tights say TMDK.

I watch a fair amount of AEW. I am not in denial about it like some fans. Nobody is kicking down my door and demanding I explain the Continental Classic.

And if they do, I’m going out the window.

I had to look up TMDK because otherwise it was going to drive me nuts. It means “The Mighty Don’t Kneel,” which comes from an international wrestling faction situation that I am not going to make fun of because I am an ignorant American and they are probably great.

Back to the match.

I absolutely love that AEW does picture-in-picture during commercials on Dynamite. Small thing, but it matters. You watch WWE Raw on Netflix, an app you are already paying for, and somehow you are still getting three-and-a-half-minute commercial breaks like a sucker.

Shout out to Tony Khan. Seems like a good dude. Has to be exhausted. I assume he uses one of those sensory deprivation water tanks where 30 minutes equals four hours of sleep. It is probably absolute nonsense and eventually causes the user to grow a tail, but still.

Good guy.

As for the match itself, I have to say it: this was pretty good.

I have not watched a ton of Zack Sabre Jr. matches. I have seen some, and I generally like him. His style is physical, patient, and weird in a way that feels useful instead of performative. He takes his time. He works holds like he is not just standing around waiting for the next big sequence.

That should not feel rare, but here we are, standing in the wreckage.

And credit to Jack Perry, because he sells his ass off here. Sabre spends a lot of the match attacking the arm and wrist, and Perry actually keeps selling it. He grabs at it. He protects it. Even when he is doing modern wrestling stuff, he remembers the arm exists.

Again, this should not feel like the Rosetta Stone, but apparently “my arm hurts because a man hurt my arm” is where we are planting the flag.

Perry also deserves credit for hitting a baseball slide under the bottom rope instead of doing the mandatory dive through the ropes that every human being in every match in every promotion is now apparently legally required to attempt.

It is small. It is subtle. It works.

Same with the atomic drop.

Not that anyone did one here. Just completely unprompted. Normal thought to have: more atomic drop. 

But the atomic drop could still be a perfectly decent move if anyone ever bothered selling it like it hurts. Which it should. It very obviously should. Jim Cornette has called in the "ass bump" and it should be the legal name going forward. Let's figure this out. 

Do I agree with everything the man says about modern wrestling, especially AEW?

No.

But sometimes the old man yelling at clouds is yelling at the correct cloud.

This match had flips. Perry did a full flip from the top rope to the outside, because it is still 2026 and apparently every match needs at least one moment where a man briefly becomes luggage. But even then, he kept selling the arm.

Is that a huge departure from old wrestling logic?

Sure.

Is that automatically bad?

I do not think so.

Because this was still physical, still connected, and still built around something real. The movement had a point. The damage carried over. Nobody just shook off a shoulder injury because the next GIF was ready.

Sabre’s submissions looked filthy. At one point he had Perry’s shoulder pulled back in a way that made me physically uncomfortable. As someone who has torn his labrum more than once, I can say with full medical confidence: fucking ouch.

My own shoulder started filing paperwork just watching it.

I am not against modern wrestling doing modern wrestling things. I am not sitting here demanding everyone work a Memphis studio match in 2026, though if someone wants to try, where do I send the check? 

By the end, Sabre was mocking Perry while Perry was laid out on the outside, and that helped too. He worked like a heel. Perry worked underneath. The arm mattered. The selling mattered. The match had modern movement, but it did not feel like athletic punctuation with no sentence attached.

Final Rating: 8/10

Good match. Physical, smart, and surprisingly grounded for something that still had a man flipping through space. I liked this quite a bit upon review, and I cared more than I expected to.