Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #MouthingOff (with MikeJC): Dynamite Weekly, the weekly review feature on AEW Dynamite here on SLTDWrestling.com. I will be giving my thoughts and opinions on all the highlights of the show as well as giving the “Remarkable Wrestler” of the week. So here are the highlights of the Wednesday, December 29th special edition of AEW Dynamite: New Year’s Smash.
10-Man Tag Team Match: Lucha Bros., Jurassic Express, and Christian Cage vs. FTR, Private Party, and Matt Hardy
New Year’s Smash kicks off with this multi-man match where everyone in it got there chance to shine. The main story of this match was early on it was a lot of back and forth, and while Luchasaurus was owning the ring by literally taking out everyone of the opposing team, Penta would tag himself in and halt the momentum completely. Everyone else got to play the hits for the most part, that includes Tully Blanchard and the rest of HFO. Fenix hit a crazy Tornillo that whipped out multiple members of the opposing team. Jungle Boy was on fire like usual, FTR were amazing because they always are.
The turning point came when Christian would tag himself in when it felt like Penta was going to finish it, which caused a disagreement between the two and Christian would walk right into the Big Rig by FTR to secure the victory for their team. Later in the night Christian would challenge the Lucha Bros. for Jurassic Express to set up a tag title match between the two teams next week.
Segment Rating: 6/10
This was a fun match that went exactly as I expected, Jurassic Express have been next in line for the tag titles for a little while now and that should be a hell of a match for sure. Christian taking the pin was the right move as it protects the tag teams in this match as none of them could afford to look weak by getting pinned.
Trios Match: Eddie Kingston, and Santana & Ortiz vs. Daniel Garcia & 2point0
Eddie, Santana and Ortiz all charged the ring as their opponents are already in the ring and of course they bail and a brawl breaks out to start the match. The majority of this match is a lot of trading strikes between teams and Santana and Ortiz are really the only ones in this match that are fighting to win while Eddie is fighting to hurt his opponents.
Garcia looked great once again, this guy has the brightest future of everyone in this match, he just gets better and better with each match. The match takes a turn when Eddie tagged back in and he’d hit a huge series of chops on Garcia and a release suplex on Jeff Parker then tags in Santana then tags and continues the fight to Matt Lee and goes for a standing moonsault but Lee gets the knees up and goes for a roll up and grabs the tights again to secure the sneaky victory for this team.
They continue to brawl after the match and the heels attack Santana and hit him with the ring bell, and this brings out the returning Chris Jericho who chases off the heels after the bell shot and Garcia and 2point0 run away while Kingston is checking on Santana and Jericho isn’t, which angers Kingston (I believe that was the reason but I’m not sure). Ortiz has to get in between them as Kingston wants Judas to stop playing and Kingston walks off angry.
Segment Rating: 5/10
So the story of this match is Jericho returned to save them and Kingston didn’t like it. Now I don’t know for sure but it felt to me as mentioned that Jericho made the save sure but he didn’t check on his supposed friend and that’s what Kingston cares about. If that’s what it is I like it, if this is just Kingston being mad about Jericho just showing up then it’s dumb. The match was middle of the road and I didn’t need it but it went fine despite the exact finish from Garcia versus Kingston from the other day. Also if this is the beginning of the end of the Inner Circle I’m all for that.
MJF Owns Everything Wardlow Wins/Wardlow Destroys Colin Delaney
MJF is backstage with Shawn Spears and Wardlow, and he takes all his shots at CM Punk and Sting off of last weeks match, calling CM Punk a coward even though MJF is the one who literally ran away from Punk and he calls Sting an “untrained outlaw hack” and asks Spears who trained that guy and when Spears he doesn’t know, MJF says of course not because he wasn’t. He accuses Punk of “staying away from him the entire match” and calls him a coward once again before saying he’s over it and that he has to focus on bigger and better things like “chasing big platinum” (I assume means the world title).
He then turns his attention to Wardlow who is sitting uninterested in the background and tells him that he needs to stop doing the powerbomb symphony focus on winning big matches and qualifying for the Face of the Revolution Ladder match where the winner gets a shot at the TNT Title, which he knows Wardlow would win but when he does he’ll be relinquishing the title to MJF, which Wardlow didn’t like. MJF tells Spears to bring in Mark Sterling who reads the contract Wardlow signed with MJF that awards MJF every championship Wardlow were to win and mentions that when that happens he is going to focus on racking up wins and not only winning the TNT title but the AEW World title as well.
After this Wardlow would face Colin Delaney (yes that Colin Delaney) and would destroy him the same way he’s destroyed everyone else he’s fought the past few shows, by hitting four powerbombs one after the other and getting the pinfall victory. Again following the match Spears would hit Wardlow’s fallen opponent with a few chair shots to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 5.75/10
So the seeds continue to be planted for the Wardlow split from MJF. I think we are getting closer and closer to that and this MJF owns everything having to do with Wardlow’s career including titles wrinkle really intrigues me. I feel like they wouldn’t introduce it if it wasn’t going to happen so I have a feel that scenario could play out exactly as MJF predicted, minus him winning the world title. He doesn’t need both belts at the same time and that just hinders the entire roster at that point. If MJF takes the TNT title from Wardlow that could be the driving force to break them apart for good. MJF’s promo about Punk and Sting was hilarious because of how delusional it made him sound, which is fine because of how good of a heel he is.
Dan Lambert & Brandi Rhodes Have Words
Dan Lambert is in the ring with Men of the Year, and he’s taking shots at Cody for being a company guy who always gets what he wants without earning it while guys like Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky don’t get anything. Then for some reason he starts taking shots at Cody’s wife, Brandi and says that he’s never met a Brandi that wasn’t a stripper, among other things.
This brings out Brandi who calls Lambert an uglier cheap excuse for Paul Heyman, to which Dan Lambert responds by saying he prefers Jim Cornette and makes fun of Brandi for having an “irritating voice”. Brandi then asks Lambert when was the last time he got beat up by a woman and didn’t have to pay for it because she’ll kick his ass right here for free.
He then mentions that he’s a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and then calls her “Bambi” and says he gets his stripper names confused sometimes. She says that he might be a black belt, but she’s a black bitch and takes her shoes off to prepare to fight him, but Dustin Rhodes comes out and holds her back to restore order and he receives a cheap shot from Men of the Year and the segment ends with Brandi checking on Dustin.
Segment Rating: 0/10
To put this into perspective. This segment was so bad that AEW doesn’t even have a tweet about on their official account. They’ve had bad segments like this before and bad ideas, etc. and they learned from it and moved on from it. This needs to be another one of those times. I don’t get Tony Khan’s fascination with allowing Dan Lambert to shit talk his product. I don’t get this dated terminology about Brandi being a stripper name when its a very common name in general, I don’t get any of this and it’s not good at all.
AEW should know better, Dan Lambert should know better, Tony Khan should know better, Brandi Rhodes should know better. Plain and simple this is not needed at all, its not “shocking”, it’s not a money making segment, its nothing good, it’s just bad and that’s why it’s a nothing segment that brings this show down and gets a 0. I hope Dan Lambert is effectively off the show because of this and if he ever comes back to stop pretending to be Jim Cornette for shock value and Tony Khan stop letting him do it just to get people talking.
TBS Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Thunder Rosa vs. Jade Cargill
This match to me was never in question, because I think we’ve all known from day one this Title and this tournament was done for Jade, get her more reps, and to keep her away from Britt. Also as I’ve said in the past and will continue to until it happens, we all know Thunder Rosa is taking that title off of Britt and if Jade doesn’t win this title then there’s no reason for her to have won this match at all.
Right off the bat Thunder Rosa proves why she’s one of if not the coolest woman in all of wrestling by coming out in X-23 inspired attire with claws for the entrance. That alone should endear her to all the people with the common interests of wrestling and comics. These two have a hard hitting back and forth match and for the first time in her career really, Jade showed a great ability to sell and work with a hurt limb as Rosa being the technician that she is worked on the leg the whole match to limit Jade’s power and Rosa did it to near perfection.
Jade despite the knee being hurt still showed great athleticism throughout the match. They continue to trade shots Rosa works the knee again and hits a nice looking dragon screw and then locks in a figure four leg lock. She has the hold on for a little while before Jade is able to use her length to get to the ropes and it’s at that point that Mark Sterling gives Jade some water and then gets on the apron to distract the referee.
Rosa goes to continue the attack but a masked attacker hits Rosa in the face with something knocking her out cold and Jade follows that up with Jaded and secures her victory with the pinfall. Post match Jade is celebrating when Rosa runs at her again to attack her but Jade gets the upper hand and the masked individual comes in and helps and after they beat Rosa down some more the masked attacker unmasks to reveal her identity, it’s Mercedes Martinez. They go to continue the attack but Ruby Soho comes out to help as the heels leave the ring.
Segment Rating: 7/10
I loved this match a lot. Both looked great in the ring, this is easily Jade’s best match ever, as it’s taken her sometime to get to this point and she seems very capable at this point in her career. Jade goes to the finals to face Ruby Soho which should be a very interesting match next week. Mercedes Martinez is a hell of a pick up for AEW as it was later revealed that she has officially signed with AEW, I feel like she is a name they really needed to help grow this division even further and she’s gonna start that by facing Thunder Rosa, are you kidding me that’s gonna be an amazing match. A lot of good here, now if only AEW got into the habit of having more then one women’s match on Dynamite.
CM Punk Makes His Daily’s Place Debut
CM Punk comes out to a great ovation from the Daily’s Place crowd as he makes his first appearance there. He opens by thanking Jim Ross for being here after what he’s been through with his health and he’s glad to have him back and that he’s the best to ever do it. Then he goes on to discuss how Daily’s Place immediately makes him think of his late friend Brodie Lee, and that if you don’t get the importance of his impact on the business then you didn’t know him, and AEW’s tribute to Brodie was the driving force for him to decide to come here.
He then turns his attention to MJF, and mentions how he never has the guts to say anything to someone’s face, he’s just like an internet troll who likes the security of saying things behind a keyboard when Wardlow and The Pinnacle have his back. He talks about last week of the experience of teaming Darby and Sting last week and beating FTR and MJF. He says MJF is scared of him, and doesn’t want none, but he doesn’t have to have none after he literally ran away from him last week. So he moves on to the next topic of the AEW Championship.
He says it’s okay if MJF doesn’t want to fight him that’s fine, because MJF is a waste of time and an even bigger waste of Khan money then Tim Tebow (which was an amazing line to say in Jacksonville because they seemed to agree). He goes on to say he never wanted to mess with MJF, but “He found out the hard way, that on this mic, in this ring, and even on commentary nobody can touch me.” He continues by saying that if MJF wants to climb that ladder to get some W’s to get to AEW gold he imagines sooner or later he’ll see him again in this ring but it would be a real shame if somebody interfered with his quest for gold.
Segment Rating: 7/10
This is a CM Punk promo for the ages, he spoke about a lot here, his love and respect of Jim Ross and Brodie Lee, the recent events with MJF and how much of a coward MJF is to face him, wanting to be a champion again and MJF might be on the same path but they are going to meet one-on-one at some point and the title could be the reason. I love the Tim Tebow dig, since they are in Jacksonville at the building where the Jaguars practice, the fans seemed to love that comment for how truthful it was, and I loved the call back to the pipe bomb promo at the end. Where does CM Punk go from here, my guess working his way up the rankings to an eventual contenders match against none other then, MJF.
Trios Match: Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish vs. Best Friends and Orange Cassidy
Earlier in the night Adam Cole was talking Fish, O’Reilly and the Young Bucks and he said that this could be a dream team but The Bucks aren’t convinced and Cole asks to speak to O’Reilly alone, they talk about their sketchy past and things might not be great between them right now, but O’Reilly continues by saying that he will find out tonight if Cole truly has his back or not.
So the match is great as expected, all these teams are great as we all know by now. The action is all over the place as the referee seemingly never has control of it like usual. Fish and O’Reilly come out as ReDragon with the music and everything which is an awesome feeling to see again from their ROH days.
Cole and Cassidy have such great chemistry from their previous meetings and I love seeing them go at it, but with that said I don’t need to see it again after this match. O’Reilly looked good in his debut as him and Fish haven’t missed a beat as a team, again not surprising at all. There’s too much action in this match to detail here but this is a hell of a match for sure.
The ending sees some miscommunication between Cole and O’Reilly as Kyle accidently hits Cole in the face with a boot knocking him off the apron. The Young Bucks would come out and interfere on Cole’s behalf hitting a double superkick and then Fish and O’Reilly would finish the match by hitting Enter the Dragon for the pinfall victory. During the celebration Cole is seated on the floor as the Bucks help him up and instead of celebrating with ReDragon he leaves with the Young Bucks. People can check out DWI Guys for any kind of accidental injuries.
Segment Rating: 7.5/10
There’s so much meat on the bone here, all these different stories are happening at once and interacting with each other and I love it. The history of Cole, Fish and O’Reilly as a group in the other company, the history of the Cole and O’Reilly from earlier this year in said company. Cole’s affiliation with The Bucks and their history of not really liking ReDragon, there’s so much here and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out, especially when Kenny Omega returns, because the match we all want is right there and it has to happen. It’s time for the Super Kliq/Elite to move on from The Best Friends and Orange as they have exhausted this feud enough.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestler of the week is Kyle O’Reilly.
It should be no surprise as Kyle O’Reilly gets the RWOW this week for his stellar debut and not missing a beat with Fish as ReDragon and immediately going right into this great story with so much history.
Overall
So all around an okay episode of Dynamite with a stellar main event and women’s tournament match but a lot of multi-man matches that just seem unneeded to have them all on one show but still some great story progression in all of them overall I give this episode of Dynamite a 5.5 out of 10. There was a lot of filler segments on this show as well like promos for future matches, like Britt defending against Riho at the Battle of the Belts special, Brian Pillman Jr. doing an in ring promo discussing what Malakai Black did to Griff Garrison and him wanting a match to avenge that. Anthony Bowens challenging Darby Allin to a match and Darby accepting for Rampage. Hikaru Shida answering Serena Deeb’s challenge from last week. Ricky Starks addressing Dante Martin and wanting revenge for what he’s done to Team Taz. A preview of next weeks world title rematch between Bryan Danielson and Adam Page, as well as another great promo by Miro in the void speaking to his God once again. A lot of filler for sure.
What are your thoughts on this special AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
Follow Mouthing Off: @MikeJC821
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