AEW Dynamite: 1/5/2022

Without a doubt, Wednesday nights are the most exciting part of any wrestling fan’s week. All Elite Wrestler certainly lives up to its name, this is an elite wrestling organization that has quickly risen up to the rankings and is on par with WWE in terms of popularity and mainstream attention. After a successful 2021, did AEW start off this year with a bang?

Match 1: AEW World Heavyweight Championship; “Hangman” Adam Page (c) vs Bryan Danielson. (Rating: 4/5)

What a way to kick off the first Dynamite of 2022 with the second match of the Hangman and American Dragon saga. After their first encounter a few weeks ago on Dynamite, Danielson and Page went the full 60 minutes without a clear and decisive winner. So many false finishes left and right; kick out after kick out and submissions being broken. It was hard hitting, it was blood-shedding, it was a technical masterpiece on Bryan Danielson’s part and tonight was very similar yet more brutal. Both men bleeding, both men hitting their best moves and nothing. Danielson managed to avoid two of the champion’s Buckshot Lariat, however the third was the charm and Adam Page ended up giving Bryan Danielson’s first ever loss in AEW since signing with the company back in September during the All Out payperview.

Segment 1: CM Punk hands MJF a loss… more or less.

MJF was actually scheduled to compete tonight against Shawn Dean, however as soon as the bell rang CM Punk ran down the ramp into the ring and scared MJF to the outside of the ring. Dean was confused as to what was going on, and Punk ended up hitting the GTS on him which ended the match in disqualification; favoring Dean which meant MJF loses the match. What happened next was on par with their promo battle on Dynamite several months ago, and WWE’s biggest payperview of the year, WrestleMania, was name dropped twice! MJF compared Punk to wrestling legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, except Friedman made it perfectly clear that unlike Punk, Piper had main evented that payperview. MJF threw out the challenge for next week: CM Punk vs MJF…’s muscle, Wardlow. With how impressive the Wardog has been as of late, him getting the chance to take on this huge megastar in CM Punk will benefit Wardlow in the long run.

Segment 2: Pinhead and Squarehead

I love Chris Jericho. The man is a legend in this business and love how he’s been booked in AEW; and as great as he is on the mic, calling Matt and Jeff Parker “Squarehead” and “Pinhead” was just a letdown. Sure it beats using the “you’re a piece of you know what” insult (which is used way too much honestly), but Jericho was more creative with the name calling back during his rise in the WWE than he has at what probably is likely to be his final few years of his career. Daniel Garcia ran into the ring and a three on one beatdown happened before Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz came out to even out the odds. Eventually this will all lead to a feud between Kingston and Jericho, and I’m really in for it!

Match 2: Wardlow vs Antonio Zambrano. (Rating: 2.5/5)

Wardlow’s such a beast inside the ring. He’s got the look and has the talent to back it up. Up until this week, Wardlow’s been competing against local/enhancement talent to show off his dominance. The crowd loves seeing this man basically kill his opponents as well, always chanting “One more time!” after Wardlow hits others with multiple power-bombs. Really can’t wait for his match next week with Punk.

Match 3: TBS Women’s Championship; Jade Cargill vs Ruby Soho. (Rating: 3.5/5)

The finals to crown the first ever TBS women’s champion is here! The undefeated Jade Cargill versus the “runaway,” Ruby Soho; and this match was actually really great. Ruby being the smaller of the two used her speed to catch Cargill off guard, however Jade is far superior in terms of power and athleticism. The match ended with Cargill hitting Soho with the Jaded off the turnbuckle and pinned Ruby to become the first TBS women’s champion. I hope Ruby doesn’t get lost in the fold somehow and competes to get a title shot for either the TBS or AEW women’s title.

Match 4: Malakai Black vs Brian Pillman Jr. (Rating: 2.5/5)

Brian Pillman Jr has what it takes to be as great (perhaps even greater?) than his father, “Loose Cannon” Brian Pillman; and I love how he’s started to slowly be involved in pretty important storylines with well-established AEW wrestlers. This match pretty good, Pillman got his moves in and did seem like he could’ve stolen a win from Malakai; however one Black Mass later and Pillman Jr was down for the count. This story’s leading to a Varsity Blondes versus Malakai and whomever (Brody King) he recruits to join the House of Black.

Main Event: AEW World Tag Team Championship; The Lucha Brothers (c) vs Jurassic Express. (Rating: 5/5)

Wow, just wow. The raw emotion I had for this match reminded me of how much I love not only tag team wrestling but professional wrestling as a whole. Jungle Boy Jack Perry and Luchasaurus throughout the course of 2021 were inches away on capturing the tag team gold but were unsuccessful. Back and forth these four men went, and at one point: Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr hit the Fear Factor (Package Piledriver hit by Pentagon with Fenix hitting a double foot stomp to the opponent) on Jungle Boy and at the last possible second; Perry kicked out. And when the crowd reacted, wow: such a beautiful moment. The closing moments of the match were very scary, because Luchasaurus hit a chokeslam on Rey Fenix off the apron onto a table placed outside and Fenix legitimately broke his arm due to how the table broke, and Luchasaurus seemed to have injured his wrist. Jungle Boy won with a rollup and received one of the biggest reactions of not only the night but in his entire AEW career. All of AEW’s tag teams stood on the ramp and gave an ovation to Jurassic Express, with some keeping a close eye on the new champions; with the thoughts of who’d be the next contenders.

Final rating: 4.5/5