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 8th edition of AEW Dynamite.
CM Punk Kicks Off Dynamite/Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale
So this weeks Dynamite kicks off with CM Punk, doing what we all expected MJF to do the day CM Punk debuted, MJF’s music hits in his hometown and instead of MJF, it’s CM Punk. Punk has a lot of heat because in AEW Long Island is bizarro world where CM Punk gets heavily booed and MJF gets heavily cheered which we will get to. This is very funny to me as someone from Long Island, NY. So Punk enters the ring and talks about how Chicago was louder, and takes multiple shots at the New York Islanders, and as a New York Rangers fan I absolutely loved that.
He mentions how its getting warm in here and takes off his jacket to reveal a four pillars shirt with MJF replaced by Britt Baker. Then he discusses how MJF always takes shots at Punk for assuming that all he wants to do is get in Britt’s pants when he puts her over, instead of him just thinking she’s good at her job unlike MJF. He discusses how he stood up to MJF man to man and challenged him and MJF got all tough and took his jacket off and then walked away, but he’s Long Island’s guy and he gets it but doesn’t agree.
He makes a very good comparison to how growing up as a Chicago Bulls fan he hated Dennis Rodman as a Detroit Piston because he was supposed to but when he became a Chicago Bull he was his biggest fan because he was on his team now so he gets why Long Island would like MJF. He then mentions how next week there’s a big title match between, Hangman and The Dragon (Bryan Danielson) and he’s gonna be keeping a close eye on that match because he wants next even though MJF has been staking claim at that he doesn’t think he deserves it. He lays out a challenge to MJF anytime, anywhere just say when, and would do it tonight even, and leaves.
So I decided to put these segments together because they happened right after one another, and were linked anyway, so after a break we get a vignette with a narrator talking about MJF and all different things about Long Island that (honestly really aren’t as great as MJF makes them out to be, and I would know, since I am also raised on Long Island) the narrator also runs down MJF’s high school accomplishments and then he makes his entrance wearing his high school letterman jacket. He’s super over with the crowd and the rest of the competitors are already in the ring. MJF spends most of the match outside the ring or standing around letting Wardlow clear the field, Dante Martin and Lio Rush had a stare down but never fought each other.
Late in the match Lee Johnson and Lio Rush are trying to eliminate Wardlow and MJF comes from behind and eliminates all three men to a huge pop. Kazarain would run at MJF but he ducks down and eliminates Kaz. This leaves Dante Martin, Ricky Starks, and MJF. Dante and Ricky are backing off MJF until Dante surprises Ricky and eliminates him and removes his FTW arm band. So Dante and MJF will face off next week for the Dynamite Diamond Ring. MJF would raise the hand of Dante and go to leave.
Ricky Starks would re-enter the ring and attack Dante, and MJF would contemplate going back to the ring a few times before returning and getting in the face of Ricky Starks, before attacking Dante again and CM Punk would run out to help Dante and MJF would bail immediately and Dante would recover hit a kick to Starks and then Punk hits a GTS to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 6.5/10
So this is a combined rating as I felt the opening promo by Punk was very strong despite him repeatedly poking fun at the New York Islanders, even though that was really funny to me, he did it a lot, however, all the points he made about MJF and the fans cheering him just because they are on Long Island were one-hundred percent correct. I loved that he played the heel in MJF’s hometown etc. all of that was great. The battle royale unfortunately was very predictable, more dissention between MJF and Wardlow, MJF makes the final two again, and Dante turns on Team Taz two weeks after joining which felt like a very odd time to do it even though we all saw it coming from a mile away. I’m very curious when they will announce the MJF versus CM Punk match and what Punk’s involvement will be in the Diamond Ring final between MJF and Dante next week.
The Acclaimed & 2point0 vs. The Varsity Blonds & Jurassic Express
I had a fun time watching this match, yes AEW does these kinds of matches a lot and they are usually good and this one was one of those. The thing about these matches in AEW is everyone gets a chance to shine and they all did great here. Jungle Boy just gets better and better. Luchasaurus was throwing people around like it was nothing and was hitting double chokeslams, Daniel Garcia tries to get involved and Eddie Kingston would come down to take care of him, and Jungle Boy locks in the Snare Trap for for the submission victory.
After the match Eddie Kingston went up the ramp and was jawing at the camera and Ortiz was there and Kingston wanted him to leave him alone until they are both attacked by 2point0 and Garcia for another post match brawl.
Segment Rating: 5.75/10
This was a fun match but not a lot to talk about here, other then the continued 2point0 stuff with Eddie and the eventual return of Jericho and now that Santana and Ortiz are working with Eddie Kingston again and that can definitely lead to something with Jericho and hopefully and eventual Inner Circle dissention deal.
The Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Chuck Taylor
This was a fun match, and it’s not surprising these guys have all worked together and have had great matches. Now despite me liking it as much as I do it did kind of drag. This tends to happen in Young Bucks TV matches a lot, these matches don’t need to be the longest match on the card every Wednesday and I don’t absolutely hate it like I said, it just doesn’t need to be that way all the time. There’s so much that went on in this match.
The action escalates towards the end with Brandon Cutler and Adam Cole both getting involved with Cutler looking to use the cool spray to the eyes but hitting Matt Jackson instead, and Cole looking to get involved physically but his attention is diverted thanks to sloth style kicks from Orange Cassidy who gets taken out by the Young Bucks. Chuck hits a piledriver and Rocky starts trying to finish off Matt but he turns it into the Meltzer Driver to secure their victory.
After the match The SuperKliq beat up everyone until the Best Friends music blares once again as Sue drives her familiar mini-van to the entrance way as we get the re-emergence of Trent. Sporting a new shaved head and he cleans house and helps all his friends to their feet and Kris Statlander walks Sue to the ring to celebrate with the group. It was later revealed on twitter by Rocky Romero that Sue is an official member of CHAOS, which is hilariously amazing that Sue, Trent’s Mom is in the same group as Kazuchika Okada.
Segment Rating: 6.25/10
This match as per usual in a Young Bucks match was very fun but as mentioned these matches don’t need to be the longest match on the card every week especially when they aren’t involved in the biggest story on the show anymore. Shaving a good eight minutest off those matches would be good to highlight others. Regardless of that this was good and with Trent back we can get more from this group and I am fully believe that when they announce the Six Man Titles that Best Friends should be the first to win them.
Sammy’s Next Challenger is Revealed
Tony Schiavone is on the stage with Sammy to interview him but of course that part was a waste of time like usual as Tony didn’t even get to ask something before being interrupted making Tony’s presence here unnecessary again. They are interrupted by Cody who says he spoke to Tony Khan and Sammy’s next open challenge will be against him. He wishes Sammy good luck and leaves. Then we hear the voice of Ethan Page who is complaining about Cody always getting opportunities.
He goes on to mention how the only reason Cody is getting a title shot is because he kisses Tony Khan’s ass and Ethan and Sky only get title shots because of Dan Lambert who will be back. Scorpio Sky interjects and says that Sammy never defends his title against someone in the rankings and says at some point Sammy will have to prove himself as a champion or stop claiming to be one. Sammy lays down his title and challenges them to come down and face him to end the segment.
Segment Rating 5.25/10
I thought this segment was fine but I don’t think Cody should be challenging or beating Guevara especially since Scorpio is one-hundred percent correct about the rankings argument. He’s ranked third in the rankings behind Bryan Danielson whose busy and Kenny Omega whose on a break, so why is Cody getting a title shot? Scorpio should be next. So I hope he gets involved causing Cody to lose.
Jamie Hayter vs. Riho
This match had it’s ups and downs but their was a lot of great action in it and the chemistry between these two got better as the match went on. I think Riho gets a bad rap from a lot of people because she is part of the original Joshi direction at the very beginning of this division and being the first champion and not really having a memorable reign, none of that is her fault, they didn’t know what the division was back then. Jamie Hayter is very good, and comes off as a powerhouse that doesn’t really look like one especially against Riho.
There’s so much good towards the end of this match to get into but toward the end Riho goes up to the top rope and Britt Baker gets involved by grabbing her leg, giving Hayter enough time to climb up and attempt a superplex but Riho turns it around into a Crucifix Bomb off the top rope and then hits her finisher for the victory.
After the match we are reminded by commentary that Britt Baker has never beaten Riho and Britt enters the ring and attacks Riho and puts the Lock Jaw on and talks trash at Riho to end the segment.
Segment Rating: 6/10
Riho picked up a big victory here leading to her title shot against Britt that she earned unfortunately by beating Britt but they are going into that match with the history and the fact that Britt has never beaten Riho which we know is probably going to happen when this meeting takes place. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Britt is keeping that title shiny for Thunder Rosa and nobody else. Hayter is eventually going to turn on Britt especially after the recent disagreements between the two.
Malakai Black’s New Target
Tony Schiavone once again is on the stage this time to interview the Varsity Blonds, and asks them a question that doesn’t get answered once again making him being on the stage at all pointless and I will point it out every time until it stops, the lights go out, and when they come back on Malakai Black appears and takes his mask off and stares, before black misting Julia Hart. She screams really loud and the lights go out, and when they come back on he is gone.
Segment Rating: 5/10
Normally I wouldn’t include this short of a segment in the ratings, but I’ll explain why and this isn’t my idea I’ve heard it from numerous people. Malakai has done this to numerous people and I think the reason he’s doing it is to turn certain people to his side, do they join his cause and form a true House of Black stable, or does it unlock something inside the people he mists? This is interesting to me and I wanna see if it goes somewhere and will we see some kind of change in, Julia in the coming weeks. As we’ve kind of seen with Cody who blatantly is calling himself “a good guy” which he wasn’t doing before. We’ll see where it goes but I’m interested.
Bryan Danielson vs. John Silver
I loved this match which is not surprising. All of these Danielson/Dark Order matches have been great. Bryan Danielson is yet to have a bad match in AEW which again is not surprising. John Silver is a star and him and Bryan mesh really well in the ring. There was some great mat wrestling by both guys and I loved that Silver was trying to beat Bryan at his own game by locking in a heel hook, he applied great pressure on it too and Bryan sold it great by yelling.
Bryan would get the upper hand after a big mistake by Silver and hits hard elbow strikes and locks in submission that makes Silver pass out and keeps the hold on a little longer after the bell. The ref gets Bryan to break the hold and he gets on the mic, and mentions how he promised he’d destroy all of the Dark Order to get to Hangman, and how he stomped the heads in of all the previous members he faced, and does the same to Silver after the match, but Hangman would come out and make the save. Hangman vows to show Bryan exactly what Cowboy Sh*t is all about next week in the big title match as the show ends.
Segment Rating: 7/10
I absolutely love this match and as I’ve mentioned previously this story with Bryan essentially being a heel who just wants to prove how good he is and that he’s better then Hangman has been great to me. I can’t wait to see what happens in the title match next week. I mentioned how Silver proved himself once again and I’ve said it before his future is super bright.
Remarkable Wrestler of the Week
For this episode of AEW Dynamite, the Remarkable Wrestlers of the week is Bryan Danielson.
Danielson gets the RWOW this week for all this momentum he’s built up by beating all of the big names in the Dark Order to get to Hangman, and his performance reflects the story here.
Overall
This was a pretty good night of wrestling and storytelling on Dynamite. Everything for the most part was good to great. Overall I give this episode of Dynamite a 6 out of 10. The other segments that took place saw FTR challenge for the AEW Tag Team Championships again and it was announced later for this weeks episode of Rampage. Ruby Soho gets interviewed then interrupted by Bunny and Penelope Ford, who make fun of her for not having friends and talk about the trios match they are having on Rampage if she can find any friends, Ruby attacks them and Nyla attacks her before she is saved by Tay and Anna. Jade and Thunder Rosa hyped up their tournament match, and lastly Taz promised an announcement and he announced that Hook would be making his in ring debut on Rampage this week. Can’t wait for Winter is Coming next week.
What are your thoughts on this special AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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