Dynamite: The FIRE Still Burning

All Elite Wrestling Dynamite has been coming out swinging ever since Full Gear. Every week has been jam-packed with incredible matches and stories from top to bottom of every card. The stories themselves have been great too! This week’s episode was the first without an Elite/Death Triangle match since Full Gear, but that doesn’t mean it was lacking in star power! Ricky Starks headlined the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale, Samoa Joe defended his TNT Title against Darby Allin, and The Acclaimed took on FTR for the AEW Tag Titles. Looked like a strong card from the onset!

But did All Elite Wrestling keep the momentum going?

Let’s find out!



Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale

Photo Credit: AEW

Battle royales are fun. They are fantastic ways to accomplish many things: furthering or starting stories, building stars, and pushing chips “all in” on one person. This week’s Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale wasn’t a great battle royale, but it accomplished one main goal: pushing Ricky Starks.

As always with Battle Royales, they are difficult to grade on a normal match scale because they aren’t anywhere close to normal. Here’s your list of eliminations:

  • Blade immediately eliminated and cheats to eliminate Orange Cassidy.
  • Dustin Rhodes hits a destroyer to eliminate Kip Sabian
  • Butcher lariat onto Dustin Rhodes and eliminates the veteran
  • Brian Cage suplexes Dalton Castle over the ropes
  • Jungle Boy Meteora onto the apron to eliminate Cage
  • Ricky Starks spears Butcher through the ropes
  • Jungle Boy leaps over the ropes to eliminate Lee Moriarty
  • W. Morrissey interferes to eliminate Jungle Boy in retaliation
  • Matt Hardy eliminates Shawn Dean after a Twist of Fate
  • Ricky Starks sends Matt Hardy packing
  • Ricky Starks wins with an awesome reversal to eliminate Ethan Page.

Battle royales are great when multiple storylines are intertwined with the eliminations. The only stories happening in this one were Kip Sabian and Orange Cassidy, plus the craziness with Ethan Page and Matt Hardy. The Broken One has started to appear once again with “Delete” chants. There was also a fun spot with The Boys saving Dalton Castle a couple of times prior to his elimination. All in all, Ricky Starks survived to challenge MJF for the AEW Championship.

Segments:

  • MJF’s music hits directly after the match. He didn’t give Starks any second of celebration before coming out to berate the Absolute one. MJF ignored Starks at first to address Bryan Danielson in the camera. Danielson was away with Regal after MJF knocked him out cold. Once MJF turned his attention to Starks this segment became amazing. MJF was his usual fantastic self, but Ricky Starks answered the call and then some. MJF referenced The Rock by calling Starks, “The Pebble,” but Starks hilariously responded by calling MJF, “Maxi Pad.” I’m not proud of how much I laughed that this. This intense version of Starks was one for the ages. He made himself with this intense promo. It was fantastic.
  • Jon Moxley was backstage up next. He doesn’t care that Regal is gone and wants to get back to the Blackpool COmbat Club that wins all the titles. He’s also sick of feuding with the Jericho Appreciation Society. Everyone is too, Moxley.

TNT Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Darby Allin

Photo Credit: AEW

Samoa Joe has only held the TNT Championship for a couple of weeks, but his run has been awesome so far. His routine defenses will only elevate the title in the long run, but it’s also exciting to see that the Samoa Joe everyone was waiting for has arrived. The intense killer was on full display in this one against Darby Allin, the man who wants to die.

And die is exactly what Darby almost did in this one. Allin wanted his belt back and wanted Joe to know that he wouldn’t stop coming after Joe unless Joe put him in the grave. Samoa Joe obliged. The coolest part of Samoa Joe matches is when he slowly walks away from a move because he knew it was coming. Joe did that during Darby’s suicide dive, which caused Darby to careen into the metal barricade, face first.

Samoa Joe proceeded to pick apart and throw Darby all around the ring. He pulled up the ringside padding to powerslam Darby onto the concrete and then sent Darby into the ring post. Darby was getting what he asked for!

Darby turned the tides all of a sudden by sending Joe into the ringside steps. The pace cranked up after that, but also came to a conclusion rather quickly. Darby strung a bunch of moves together, as he is one to perfectly do, but Samoa Joe caught the Coffin Drop. Joe submits Darby with the Rear Naked Choke to retain his title in a fantastic match.

4/5

Segments:

  • Darby Allin apparently still had a death wish, because he got right back into the ring after the match. He was still standing and wanted Samoa Joe to know about it. Joe knocked him out and hit a Muscle Buster onto Darby’s Skateboard. Wardlow erupted onto the scene for the save.
  • Orange Cassidy and Kip Sabian were backstage after brawling during the Battle Royale. Sabian was mad that he “can’t wrestle now,” due to the action of Dustin Rhodes. Cassidy is putting the All-Atlantic Title on the line against an opponent of Sabian’s choosing on Rampage.
  • Jericho promoting his Ring of Honor championship and Final Battle match with Claudio Castagnoli. If Jericho wins, Claudio is joining the Jericho Appreciation Society. Cool, I guess?

Jake Hager & Daniel Garcia vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta

Photo Credit: AEW

Up next was a small preview of this Saturday’s Final Battle PPV. Claudio and Wheeler Yuta faced off against Jake Hager and Daniel Garcia in what is the 500th time we’ve seen the Blackpool Combat Club face off against the Jericho Appreciation Society. Most fans are ready for these two factions to end their feud. That being said, if you’ve seen one of their matches, you’ve seen them all, and they’re all good. This one was no different.

Most of this match was spent isolating Wheeler Yuta from Claudio Castagnoli. The JAS works very well together, regardless of who’s tagging with whom. It didn’t last, as Claudio inevitably received the tag and strung together his usual huge uppercuts. The match ramped up from here all the way to the finish, where Claudio hit a huge uppercut to pick up the victory for the Blackpool Combat Club. This was a fun match, but similar to so many of these before it.

3/5

Segments:

  • Everyone knows why William Regal left AEW, but Regal wanted a kayfabe reason to leave the Blackpool Combat Club. Directly following this match, Regal appeared on the big screen to say goodbye to his faction mates. He helped MJF at Full Gear to teach them all one more lesson: always watch your back. Not a fan of this, but AEW needed a reason why Regal was gone.
  • Another House of Black vignette was up next. Their goal is to put down the corruption in AEW. THIS is exactly what the House of Black needed. Simplify the motivations.
  • Jaime Hayter was backstage with Schiavone up next. The women’s champ was pissed that nobody cared to give her an interview. She’s giving a title shot to Regina di Wave title match winner from Rampage between The Bunny and Hikaru Shida. Hayter versus Shida sounds awesome!

Jade Cargill & The Baddies vs. Madison Rayne, Skye Blue, & Kiera Hogan

Photo Credit: AEW

We had a continuation of whatever is going with Jade Cargill and the Baddies up next. Kiera Hogan was previously kicked to the curb by the Baddies but found friends in Madison Rayne and Skye Blue. This was a weird matchup, but it showed some nice character work from Jade.

The story of the match revolved around the Baddies doing all of Jade’s dirty work. Jade’s winning streak has grown her ego tenfold and she doesn’t need to fight much anymore. Red Velvet and Leila Grey fought a two-on-three match for the majority. There were some rough patches here and there, but Red and Skye Blue had good chemistry. Red and Blue. It’s funny.

Once Jade had seen enough, she received the hot tag and finished Madison Rayne with the Jaded to claim the victory. This match was a weak point of the evening, but it’s nice to see so many fresh and younger faces getting Dynamite time. Can never complain about that!

2.75/5

  • Schiavone was backstage again with Saraya. Dr. Britt Baker with the quick interruption talking about the new year in the Kia Forum. She and Hayter are challenging Saraya to bring a partner to Los Angeles. Who could it be!? AEW doesn’t promote a surprise this far in advance without making it huge.

AEW Tag Team Championship: The Acclaimed (c) vs. FTR

Photo Credit: AEW

And all of a sudden it was main event time! This episode was a bullet train from start to finish; blink and you’ll miss it. AEW capped off an amazing evening with another amazing Tag Team Championship match featuring everyone’s favorite, The Acclaimed, defending against FTR. The Top Guys have been atop the AEW Tag rankings for a while so this match was only a matter of time. It was well worth the wait!

Both teams ramped the intensity up directly after the bell rang. They fought hard for the majority of this match. We got quintessential Acclaimed craziness, with a Scissor Me Timbers and a break to Scissor Daddy Ass. Just imagine that sentence at the onset of 2022.

FTR’s entire goal of this match was to keep Caster and Bowens away from each other. It worked for a while too. FTR sent Bowens into the ring post and catapulted Caster into the metal ring bottom. They kept the advantage for a good portion, but the champs wouldn’t stay down. That’s one of the best parts about the Acclaimed. They are an amazing and resilient team. They beat you through attrition and they’re constant teamwork. It’s a wonder to see. Tag Team Wrestling at its best.

FTR did their damnedest to silence the champs with a Spike Piledriver and the inevitable Big Rig, but The Acclaimed survived. The final moments of the match saw Max Caster and Cash Wheeler duking it out mano y mano. Cash hit numerous huge lariats and attempted a nasty powerbomb, but Caster reversed Cash’s attempt at the subsequent jackknife pin to steal the victory from the jaws of defeat.

What a freaking match.

4.5/5

Match of the Night

But our evening was not done! The Gunn Club popped up on the big screen with an announcement. The Briscoe Brothers wrote a letter for FTR saying that this Saturday, at Final Battle, Dem Boys and the Top Guys will be culminating their trilogy in a Dog Collar match.

Holy crap.


OVERALL

And that was AEW Dynamite for this week! All in all, another amazing show! All Elite Wrestling is doing a fantastic job of continuing its momentum after Full Gear. It might not be showing in the ratings, but the past few weeks have been some of the best wrestling television of 2022.

Verdict: 4.5/5

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