November 17, 2021 – Norfolk, Virginia

Sammy Guevara def. Jay Lethal {AEW TNT Championship Match}
From Dynamite 111. They show Tony Nese in the crowd again. The guy is only wrestling on Dark, so why is this watching from the crowd gimmick going on for so long? I know we didn’t miss anything during the commercial break because they spent the time off TV with Guevara nursing an injury from the PPV on the floor. These two were very good opponents for each other. They’re of similar stature and style, though Guevera is more spry than Lethal thanks to his age. Guevara did a nice job selling his ribs, losing the advantage shortly after gaining it every time because he couldn’t breathe. He missed a dive onto Lethal on a table, giving Lethal a huge advantage. The fact that Lethal couldn’t capitalize on it for a win, and that Guevara shined much more than the former ROH Champion as the match drew to a close, has me surprised that this is how they chose to debut the new guy. It felt more like the performance you’d get from someone coming in for a one-off than someone who was just starting his run in the company. Ah well, the match was a lot of fun. Guevara hit the GTH for the win at 10:02 (shown of 12:52). ***½

November 29, 2021 – Chicago, Illinois

Jay Lethal def. Storm Grayson
From Dark: Elevation 39. This is a rather noticeable drop down the card for Lethal after a flashy debut. Storm is debuting here and gets no entrance. It’s an internet show, I feel like you have the time to give the jobbers entrances. And now it seems clear that they’ll pad Lethal’s stats on the Dark shows. I’m not sure where there’s room for him in the title picture, so hopefully they can find a feud to slot him into and justify the big debut segment from the PPV. Lethal hit the Lethal Injection to end this squash at 2:28. After this, Lethal spent two weeks visiting AAA and revisiting ROH to lose in main events for both companies. What a strange way to start his AEW career. *½

December 8, 2021 – Elmont, New York

Dante Martin and MJF def. Jay Lethal, Frankie Kazarian, Lee Johnson,Lee Moriarty, Lio Rush, Matt Hardy, Matt Sydal, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricky Starks, Wardlow {Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal}
From Dynamite 114. This match has two winners who fight the following week to see who gets the Dynamite Diamond Ring. Is that their version of King of the Ring? I know it’s really just a vanity award for MJF, but I’m curious how it’s meant to be internalized. Nice to see actual proof that Lethal still works for this company. But then he’s the first person eliminated after Hardy hits him with brass knuckles. Why did they sign him and debut him so auspiciously? Hardy gets dumped right after that. A couple interesting things did happen. The two big stories throughout the match were whether or not MJF would win in front of his hometown fans and how things would shake out between Rush and Team Taz. MJF did win, knocking out his bodyguard Wardlow along the way. And Martin won the other spot, betraying Starks of Team Taz at 5:32 (shown of 8:26) and showing his true allegiance was to Rush all along. MJF and Starks beat up Martin after the match, but Punk makes the save. Cool of them to thread a couple stories in there, but the action was all kick, punch, toss. **

January 3, 2022 – Jacksonville, Florida

Jay Lethal def. Troy Hollywood
From Dark: Elevation 44. They combined matches taped for Dark and Elevation for this episode, since they did both tapings in Daily’s Place the last week of December rather than doing one in Orlando at the TV studio. I don’t know if that was really worth mentioning, but this is just a squash and I have very little to say about it so I figured I might as well fill space with something. Lethal’s run so far is very interesting in light of Big Swole’s comments about AEW’s lack of representation on television and Tony Khan’s absurd response. On commentary here you have Tony Schavione talking about how Lethal was a world champion in another promotion and how he debuted in the main event of Dynamite in a TNT Championship match. Since then, Lethal has barely wrestled for AEW at all, and where he has wrestled it was to get eliminated first from a battle royal on TV and then a pair of matches on YouTube. This has been a very weak run. The things I wrote in my review of his first Elevation match a month earlier make me feel embarrassed about my terrible predictive ability. And I’m not saying it’s because he’s black that his run has been so crummy compared to the other guys I’ve been reviewing in these posts. More likely it’s because being a former ROH guy doesn’t have the same cache as being a former WWE guy, and also the AEW suits probably don’t want to feature Lethal too prominently as the internet points out Lethal’s questionable (to put it nicely) personal history. But the optics sure ain’t great for the black guy to debut and then hardly ever appear on TV. Next week, Dynamite and Rampage will be live and taped, respectively, from an arena that’s a 15-minute drive from Lethal’s hometown. If he doesn’t appear on either show then something is very wrong. He won this squash in 3:57 with the Lethal Injection. N/A

January 10, 2022 – Newark, New Jersey

Jay Lethal & Sonny Kiss def. Jaden Valo & Chris Steeler
From Dark: Elevation 45. Lethal & Kiss, both hometown wrestlers, were relegated to a tiny match on this show rather than a spot on Dynamite or Rampage. It does seem like Kiss is going to quietly move off of the roster when his contract expires soon, but Lethal’s spot continues to baffle me. Sitting through the pre-Dynamite taping (I was at this show live) was torture, as they filmed ten matches in about 50 minutes. It’s a miracle the crowd came back for the AEW title match that opened Dynamite. If this match had gotten even two more minutes, Lethal & Kiss might have been able to show off a bit more decent tandem stuff. As it is they at least got to give us a flash of what their team might be before Lethal hit the Lethal Injection for the win at 2:31. This run for Lethal is preposterous. N/A

January 17, 2022 – Raleigh, North Carolina

Jay Lethal def. Alexander Moss
From Dark: Elevation 47. Lethal popped up on Dynamite a few days earlier, saving Dante Martin from Team Taz. Now we’ll just have to see if that translates to Lethal appearing in any real capacity in a match on Dynamite or Rampage this coming week. Dynamite already looks booked up, but maybe Rampage? It does seem like AEW is aware that they’re getting dragged for signing this guy, debuting him in a high-profile way, and then shuffling him down the card. It didn’t help their case that the same exact thing happened to Tony Nese, which makes it look like they signed folks without any idea of what to do with them. I have two small issues with this otherwise innocuous squash. The first is that Lethal is not established enough in AEW for Moss to be kicking out of the flying elbowdrop here. It’s one of Lethal’s big moves and it’s silly that some scrub who didn’t get a ring intro should be able to withstand it. And the second, much more minor thing, is that Mark Henry claims on commentary during the match that he’s never seen anyone pinned by a backslide. Dude, why would anyone ever do the backslide then? You’re a commentator; it stands to reason you should have watched a lot of wrestling. Lethal won this thing with the Lethal Injection at 4:39. N/A

January 31, 2022 – Cleveland, Ohio

Jay Lethal def. Casey Carrington
From Dark: Elevation 47. Lethal got himself involved in the Dante Martin vs. Team Taz feud a couple weeks earlier, but then presumably got COVID because he was off AEW shows and his indie bookings for a stint. But now he’s back and they used this squash to hype Lethal’s match a few days later against Ricky Starks for the FTW title. So after three months in the company they’re finally starting to do something with him. Carrington hit an enziguiri and a forearm at one point, but really he was just there to eat Lethal’s offense. Lethal finished him off with the flying elbowdrop and the Lethal Injection at 3:11. I’m mostly just relieved he went right from the elbowdrop to the finisher and didn’t let this scrub kick out of the elbowdrop like everyone else. N/A

February 4, 2022 – Chicago, Illinois

Ricky Starks def. Jay Lethal {FTW Championship Match}
From Rampage 27. It’s my birthday! Too bad nobody will see this for like six weeks at the earliest when I post it after Revolution. This was a spirited little bout. I could have done without the Powerhouse Hobbs/Dante Martin interference, but I suppose Martin owed Lethal a favor so it makes narrative sense. And they gave the match a beat between the gaga and the finish, so there’s that. Starks countered the Lethal Injection twice, the second time to the Roshambo for the win at 9:21 (shown of 12:51). I liked that finish a lot; it showed that Lethal was relying way too much on the Lethal Injection, which tracks as he’d won all of his matches to this point with it. I suppose Lethal gets folded into the rest of the Martin/Sydal crew from here, otherwise I have no clue where he stands. ***¼

February 21, 2022 – Nashville, Tennessee

Jay Lethal, Brock Anderson, Frankie Kazarian, Lee Johnson & Matt Sydal def. Luther, Serpentico, Cezar Bononi, JD Drake & Peter Avalon
From Dark: Elevation 51. Everyone got about thirty seconds to shine in this match. I’m tempted to say that there’s no logical reason for a ten man tag match to last less than five minutes, but the finish here made sense. A big brawl broke out and most folks wound up on the floor, but Serpentico got caught in the ring. Kazarian and Johnson hit big moves and then Lethal finished him off with the diving elbowdrop at 6:06. A fun way to pass six minutes, if that’s what you’re looking for. Mostly, I’m glad someone was pinned with the elbowdrop. **¼

February 28, 2022 – Bridgeport, Connecticut 

Jay Lethal def. Jora Johl
From Dark: Elevation 52. I guess the bright side here is Lethal has moved up on Dark: Elevation to wrestling jobbers who at least are a minor part of stables (the Andrade-Hardy Family Office in this case) and get an entrance. Shiavone sounds like his brain went through a blender, “We are coming to you from the state of Connecticut, and that’s why of course nearby New Jersey, Jay Lethal, long time New Jersey native relative.” Bro, what? Are you dehydrated? Mark Henry is also useless on commentary. Paul Wight isn’t much better, but at least he gets a comment in about Johl controlling a few times during the match being the result of Matt Hardy’s guidance. I talk so much about the commentary because the match is very short. I did like Lethal’s chop-from-many-directions bit. He hit the Lethal Injection for the win at 3:27. Not a bad little match. **¼

I think we can safely call Lethal’s initial run a near-complete miss. I imagine now that Tony Khan owns ROH that Lethal will primarily be working there again. But I won’t be following his AEW matches in these posts anymore, as he was allowed to produce nothing of note, and didn’t get a spot on PPV night despite Revolution and the pre-show having thirteen (!) matches. At the PPV, Swerve Strickland debuted in the same kind of segment that Lethal debuted in at Full Gear. So I’ll be following Strickland instead going forward and hoping that he has more success. Considering he was in WWE and not ROH, he probably will be booked better. 

Brody King & Malakai Black def. Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison
From Dynamite 120. I’m not sure what’s wrong with House of Black as a tag team name, as Kings of the Black Throne is a mouthful. That said, their entrance is sick and they look awesome as a team. They accomplished a lot in under town minutes here. Black & King dominated, Pillman was able to show that he’s afraid to springboard after botching a dive two weeks earlier, and said fear got Garrison pushed head-first into the steel steps. Black & King hit Dante’s Inferno (Black tosses Pillman to King, who hits a powerslam) for the win at 1:53. This is the shortest match I’ve felt warrants a rating in a long time. After the match, a blinded PAC gets on the big screen and says he’s coming for Black. I wonder if they’ll do a singles match or a tag with King and Penta. **¼

February 2, 2022 – Chicago, Illinois

Brody King & Malakai Black def. PAC & Penta El Zero Miedo
From Dynamite 122. PAC enters the match blindfolded (presumably still blind), led to the ring by Alex Abrahantes. But it’s clear right away that he can see and it was just a goof. The match was fun, though outside of PAC’s pretend playing the only truly memorable thing here was King no-selling Miedo’s offense. The Kings of the Black Throne hit Miedo with Dante’s Inferno for the win at 7:38. The right team went over, and that wasn’t a certainty given that this was PAC’s comeback match. I feel like PAC has had more comeback matches since AEW started in 2019 than anyone in the history of wrestling could ever dream of in the span of three years. . ***

February 23, 2022 – Bridgeport, Connecticut

PAC & Penta Oscuro def. Brody King & Malakai Black
From Dynamite 125. Because of being misted by Black, Penta is transformed into Oscuro, which is Spanish for Dark. So this is his Lucha Underground persona. I’ll believe it only if he spends the entire match trying to break Black’s arm. He doesn’t do that, and no one does much of anything because this is very short. The one point of interest is that Oscuro puts his hand over Black’s mouth to stop him from using the mist and then rolls up Black for the win at 4:40 (shown of 7:31). After the match, the fight continues. Buddy Matthews debuts and joins the House of Black, attacking PAC and Oscuro. And here we have a great example of Tony Khan’s addiction to new signings. Black and King get two wins under their belts, including one against the team they’re facing here. That’s nice momentum and makes new guy King look like an unstoppable asset in Black’s corner. But Khan, wanting to give Oscuro a win in his first match under the new gimmick, books an immediate rematch between the two teams (lame) and gives them the win. And he can rationalize it to himself by debuting Buddy Matthews here and having him join the House of Black to make sure that the stable doesn’t lose so much momentum. It’s obscured 50-50 booking and it stinks. I guess we’re to assume this culminates in a six-man tag including Fenix, whenever his arm is healed enough to wrestle. *¾

March 6, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews def. PAC, Penta Oscura & Erick Redbeard
From the third Revolution: The Buy In. Redbeard joined up with the Death Triangle two nights earlier without any explanation as to why. The House of Black’s entrance is amazing here. Excalibur says that Redbeard is a name from PAC’s past, but like how? They’ve only ever fought on opposite sides of the ring before. Weak booking aside, Redbeard played his part well during the match. And what a terrific six-man tag match it was deserving of a spot on the PPV proper. It had rapid-fire action and made the House of Black look like a cohesive, dangerous team. The babyfaces looked good too, but all playing their own parts separately. That led to their demise in a couple respects. Oscuro became too focused on hurting Black, even at times when Black wasn’t the legal man. That led to Matthews hitting him with a Stomp and getting a very close near fall. It also saw Redbeard focus too much on overpowering King, which allowed Black to catch Redbeard with the black mist. That led directly to King hitting Redbeard with Island Driver at 17:23. Only one thing in this match irked me. Oscuro hit Black with the package piledriver on the apron. It was a pivotal moment for the story of the match. But very shortly thereafter, Black was up and functional as if it hadn’t happened. A very annoying bit in an otherwise terrific match. ***¾

I really liked Matthews’ performance in this match, so I’ll be pivoting to reviewing his matches in the next go-around rather than King’s. That said, I imagine there will be a lot of overlap.  

February 9, 2022 – Atlantic City, New Jersey

Keith Lee def. Isiah Kassidy
From Dynamite 123. This is a qualifying match to get into a ladder match at Revolution for a later shot at the TNT Championship. Scorpio Sky won it last year, lost to Darby Allin a few days later in his title match, and then did nothing of note for the next year. I mean, he teamed with Ethan Page and linked up with Dan Lambert, but all that did was put him in the shadow of the other two. Maybe it’ll go better for Lee. This match went well for him. It was a good squash that showed off his strength well and his agility decently. Matt Hardy walked out on Kassidy when it became clear he was going to lose. Lee hit the Supernova for the win at 4:29. **½

March 4, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

Keith Lee def. JD Drake
From Rampage 31. Another squash for Lee, but this time he squashed a chubby boy. Drake looked out of his element here, stumbling around like an actual baby. Very odd. Lee won with the Supernova at 4:22 (shown of 5:50). The Wing Men attacked him after the match but he fought them all off and then stared down Team Tazz. Unless they’re going to put the TNT Title on Lee after the PPV (which is as likely as anything), I wish they’d just done Lee vs. Ricky Starks or Powerhouse Hobbs at the PPV. *½

March 6, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

Wardlow def. Keith Lee, Orange Cassidy, Christian Cage, Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs {Number One Contender Ladder Match}
From the third Revolution. Booker of the Year Tony Khan putting this sure-to-be spotty ladder match featuring six wrestlers right after the spotty tag title match featuring six wrestlers is a little annoying. At least the pretty spotty six-man tag match two matches before the tag title match had a singles match opener to buffer it. A literal brass ring is hanging above the ring. You can tell this is my first time reviewing one of these ladder matches because that kind of blatant “symbolism” hitting me in the face for the first time is setting me off. Dan Lambert and co. watch this match from the crowd. Paige VanZant  is so hot that I feel physical pain. Generally, I don’t care for ladder matches, but this was filled with great character work from everyone involved. Now that there are so few spots left that we haven’t seen before, the most interesting thing you can do in a match like this is made the spots compelling from a character perspective. At one point near the end, Wardlow knocked Hobbs and Lee off of the ramp. Schiavone said, “I don’t think we’ll see those guys anymore,” but AEW history isn’t in line with that claim at all. To their credit, they do stay down. Danhausen interferes to stop Starks from winning the match, and then Wardlow hits him with a powerbomb onto another ladder before grabbing the ring at 17:24. I thought they’d give it to Lee here, but given where Wardlow is in his storyline with MJF, it’s a good time to pull the trigger on his success. ****

Given that they used the match to push Wardlow instead of Lee, and given that the thought of a Lee vs. Team Taz isn’t setting my panties on fire, I’m going to stop reviewing Lee’s matches going forward.  

November 17, 2021 – Norfolk, Virginia

Bryan Danielson def. Evil Uno
From Dynamite 111. Danielson kind of turned heel before the match, running down Adam Page and the state of Virginia for hating hard work and having excuses for failure. He also said, “to be fair,” a couple times, to which people in the crowd replied the way they do on Letterkenny. Good for them! Uno brings Danielson’s average opponent age to 39.2. The heeling didn’t stop with the pre-match promo and scrap with Page. Danielson bullied Uno and arrogantly posed for the crowd. And the fans are now chanting “no” instead of “yes.” It’s amazing how easily he turns on his dickhead mode. With the crowd behind Uno, he got in some well-received offense. But this was a dominant win for Danielson. He blocked a diving senton, hit the Busaiku Knee Kick, stomped on Uno’s head, and put on a hardly necessary triangle choke for the win at 6:21. After the match, Danielson promises to kick every member of the Dark Order’s head in until he gets his title shot, starting with Colt Cabana in Chicago. I wish there’d been more of a transition to this part of his persona, but at least he didn’t start as a smiling company shill like CM Punk. That would have been too jarring a leap. ***

November 24, 2021 – Chicago, Illinois

Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana
From Dynamite Thanksgiving. Old man Cabana bumps Danielson’s average opponent age up to 39.3. The last time these two wrestled in Chicago, the match went an hour long. It was not amazing. Excalibur mentions that match on commentary. It’s kind of funny that this is the first time these two have wrestled in 15 years, given how many times they had singles matches in 2006. This was more of a squash than I was expecting. It was spirited, but Danielson ran the table on Cabana. He also knocked out a couple of Cabana’s teeth and finished him with the Labell Lock at 5:09. Yikes! It was better than their five-minute match from ROH, though. After the match, Danielson challenged Alan Angels to a match in Georgia next week. Not by name, but that’s the Dark Order member from the Peach State. Page came out and the two had a nice little scrap before Danielson bailed. Loving this angle so far. **½

November 30, 2021 – Orlando, Florida

Infinito def. Ray Jaz
From Dark 119. By all accounts, Infinito is Danielson. I don’t know why this is happening but let’s see how it plays out. If he wasn’t so vocal I’d say it was hard to say it was Danielson for sure, but Infinito made so much noise that it more or less confirmed his identity. I don’t know for sure how old Jaz is, but looking at his college wrestling career it seems likely that he’s 25. So Danielson’s average opponent is now 38.2. Along with the Adam Cole vs. Anthony Greene match, this was taped over a month earlier and sat in the can for a while. The commentators took the opportunity during this match to get some sillies out of their system. Infinito did the same, hitting an infinite airplane spin and then getting a schoolboy for the win at 3:45. This was a fun little diversion. I’m curious if it was a one-off or if we’ll see Danielson flex his lucha wings again. **

December 1, 2021 – Duluth, Georgia

Bryan Danielson def. Alan Angels
From Dynamite 113. Now that he’s stringing matches against guys under 30 together, Danielson’s average opponent age is now 37.1. I’ll kill this gimmick if and when he gets below 35. This was about as long as the Cabana match, but was more competitive. Angels got a few near falls and the match was more exciting as a result. Like he did to Uno and Cabana, Danielson stomped Angels’ head and then put on a heel hook for the win at 6:09. Page was on commentary for the match and they confirmed the title match would be in two weeks. So I’m the meantime, Danielson challenged John Silver in his hometown. It’s so weird that the venues lined up with the Dark Order member’s hometowns. Silver stops Page from attacking Danielson (and makes a failed attempt to attack himself) because apparently Tony Khan said they’d be suspended if they touch before their match. ***

December 8, 2021 – Elmont, New York

Bryan Danielson def. John Silver
From Dynamite 114. Danielson’s average opponent age is now 36.7. Oddly, this is only Bryan’s second Dynamite main event. The first was against Bobby Fish, despite having had matches against far more interesting opponents. I hope this signals the end of Danielson in the opener every week. I’m sure it means that at least through next week. This was just a hint more fun than the last three weeks of Dark Order squashes. Silver got more of his stuff in and got a lot more of his personality in. A convincing heel hook and a sick German suplex led to a couple of almost believable false finishes. But in the end, Danielson hit a roaring elbow, the seated elbows, Gotch Piledriver, and a full nelson variation for the win at 7:53 (shown of 10:43). He drew out Page for an attack after the match and then bailed. Page was fuming but Danielson stayed centered. The commentators did a lousy job of selling that Danielson has used these squashes to get into Page’s head, but Danielson is doing is best to sell it himself. Honestly, the video package hyping Danielson vs. Silver was better than the hype has been for next week’s main event. But I’ll grant that some of it WAS hyping next week’s title match. ***¼

December 15, 2021 – Garland, Texas

Adam Page tld. Bryan Danielson {AEW World Championship Match}
From Dynamite: Winter is Coming. Danielson’s average opponent age is now 36.3. Based on the fact that this opened the show and the way they started out, I predicted this was going to go very long. Given that assumption, I was very impressed when they turned things way up about 20 minutes in. The crowd had been with them through the early stage, but they started buying into near-falls in a big way after the first commercial. It wasn’t long after that when I began wondering how they’d keep the same pace to round out the Broadway. Thirty minutes in, Danielson shoved Page from the top rope to the floor and then began zeroing in on his shoulder. It seemed like they were teasing Page doing the Nigel McGuinness head bump to the post. I’m thankful they made it a shoulder bump instead. Page was busted open by it anyway. They doesn’t really make sense. Apparently, dealing with Page’s cut is how they spent the entire second commercial break. Given that, watching the non-live version of this match on TNT’s app might be the more rewarding viewing experience. Anyway, at this point Page is bloody and his shoulder is screwed. But Page came back by baiting Danielson into kicking the same post. The commentators bring up Silver’s attack on Danielson’s leg the week before, something Danielson sold in an interview earlier in the day, and by wearing tape under his knee pad. As the time limit drew near, I started thinking about the fact that while I was very engaged for the entire hour, nothing had gotten me out of my seat. But as I was mulling that thought over, I noticed my heart was beating pretty fast and it was clear that I’d become very invested in whether or not either of these guys could grab a win before the clock ran out. Page almost snuck one in by countering the Busaiku Knee Kick to the Dead Eye. Danielson almost won by countering the Buckshot Lariat to the LaBell Lock. Page attacked the leg to escape that. He finally connected with the Buckshot, but it was too late and the time limit ran out at 48:43 (shown of 60:00). I’m impressed with the way they’ve set it up so that no one can beat Danielson, but at the same time Danielson can’t beat the tippy top guys, so we get draws. Very curious to see where they go with it. ****½

January 5, 2022 – Newark, New Jersey

Adam Page def. Bryan Danielson {AEW World Championship Match}
From Dynamite 118. Hangman is still 30, so Danielson’s average opponent age is now 35.9. Danielson blamed his inability to put Page away at Winter is Coming on a leg injury that Silver gave him in their match. As such, he went from wrestling every week to taking time off between the title challenges. Smart move. He also insisted there be judges at ringside in case of another draw. They are Mark Henry, Jerry Lynn, and Paul Wight. They are I saw this match live, which was pretty neat, but I’m reviewing the TBS broadcast of the match. Now I’m fairly certain he was writing something in his notes, but it looked to me (and the folks sitting around me who saw him on the big screen) that he was sleeping through the match. Sleepy Paul, we call him. Sitting in the arena, there were moments where this match dragged a bit for me early on. It’s clear now that those moments happened during the commercial break. So until AEW gets their own streaming service, the version of this match that exists online (on TBS.com) is a more entertaining way to watch it than the full match. Danielson was very cocky early on, feeling like he could control the pace of the match without any pushback. Once he busted Page open, he got even more overconfident. But he tried to do the Nigel McGuinness post spot again, and this time it backfired. Page hit it instead and Danielson joined him as a bleeder. From then on, Danielson couldn’t get control for more than a moment or two at a time. On his third attempt, Page hit the Buckshot Lariat for the win at 23:54 (shown of 29:06). This was a breezier watch, but the first match felt a little more epic to me. Still, both are great and I hope they fight again someday. What I’m worried about now, and I hope it’s unfounded, is that Danielson is going to have a little rivalry with Wight because of some mean stares they shared during the match. Hopefully Wight’s injuries and the fact that I can’t imagine anyone is clamoring for that matchup keep it from happening. ****¼

February 16, 2022 – Nashville, Tennessee

Bryan Danielson def. Lee Moriarty
From Dynamite 124. Danielson took almost a full month off of TV after losing to Page. He came back and started sort of stalking Jon Moxley, only to later propose to Moxley that they should start a stable with a bunch of young AEW stars who are currently being mentored by others. Moriarty was one of the guys mentioned (along with Wheeler YUTA and Daniel Garcia), and this stemmed from that. Moriarty brings Danielson’s average opponent age down to 35.4. If his next couple of matches are against the other young dudes he mentioned a couple weeks back then I’m going to be killing this gimmick very soon. Melissa Joan Hart is in the front row watching this match. Didn’t know she was a wrestling fan, though it should be obvious since she’s Bret’s favorite niece. A friend of mine actually dated the dude who played her brother on Clarissa Explains It All like 10 years ago. Moriarty uses the Border City Stretch early in the match, and Excalibur acts very cool and gives credit to active wrestler Alex Shelley for the move despite Shelley having never wrestled in AEW. I watched this while on a work trip in Tel Aviv, so I was able to watch the match without commercial interruption. I also watched after seeing people online gush over it some. I’m not sure I feel that gushing is warranted. It was good, but the action that took place during the break was flat and the match ended rather quickly after that. Yes, we got the leglocked slap exchange and the energy from then on was great. But it was crazy brief. Anyway, if I hadn’t seen people lauding this I’d have no complaints, because on it’s own it was fun and Danielson was appropriately dominant. He hit the Busaiku Knee Kick, the unprotected stomps, and then put on a cocky triangle choke for the win at 12:14. After the match, Danielson demands an answer from Moxley about the proposed stable. Moxley comes out and talks about meeting Danielson for the first time, wrestling him a bunch, and never being able to beat him. That’s technically untrue (Moxley once won by DQ) and I have proof! He pretty much says he wants to have a bloody brawl against Danielson before he agrees to team up. This works for me. ***¼

February 23, 2022 – Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bryan Danielson def. Daniel Garcia
From Dynamite 125. The 23-year-old Garcia brings Danielson’s average opponent age down to 34.7, so I can finally kill this gimmick. I preferred this a bit to the Moriarty match. Primarily, I liked the double knuckle lock elbow exchange more than I liked the leglock upside down slap fight. I also liked that Danielson seemed more comfortable dominating here than he did against Moriarty. That might be me projecting myself feeling more comfortable with it now. But Danielson is god-tier, so him beating up these young guys he wants to mentor works for me. He caught Garcia with a triangle choke for the win at 7:11 (shown of 10:22). After the match, 2.0 attacks Danielson, but Moxley makes the save. Danielson agrees to the match against Moxley at Revolution. ***¼

March 2, 2022 – Jacksonville, Florida

Bryan Danielson def. Christopher Daniels
From Dynamite 126. This has nothing to do with Danielson’s angle with Moxley, but rather exists to celebrate Tony Khan’s purchase of ROH. It’s a rematch between two of the three uncancelled guys that wrestled in ROH’s first main event. Excalibur mentions the Code of Honor (Danielson and Daniels shoot hands at the start of the match), but it’d be nice if he also explained what the Code of Honor is and why it’s been central to ROH’s identity. Though credit where it’s due, he does talk about the one-on-one match that Daniels and Danielson had against each other on ROH’s second show. It’s a good thing that last week’s Danielson match put an end to the Average Opponent Age score, because this match would have tanked it. Having said that, Daniels brags about being 51 years old after hitting an Arabian Press to the floor. Fair enough. This was more of a showcase for Daniels than I expected it to be, and he made a good show of it. But Danielson did what Danielson does, and countered the Triple Jump Moonsault to a triangle choke for the win at 11:17. After the match, Danielson explains the Code of Honor, but then turns the post-match handshake into an attack on Daniels. Moxley comes out and cuts a promo that doesn’t have anything to do with the angle he’s actually in with Danielson and is more geared towards the fact that he’s never pinned Danielson. ***½

March 5, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

Jon Moxley def. Bryan Danielson
From the third Revolution. I took the liberty of watching all of their past singles matches, which to this point have had a very definitive ceiling. They show clips from the HWA match I reviewed in that pop up during the hype package. That is neat. The commentators talk about Danielson usually wrestling with a smirk because he’s wrestling against opponents younger than Moxley. That hasn’t really been the case, as the Average Opponent Age shows. This was better than most of the matches these guys have had before, maybe all of them. Really, the DGUSA match is the only one that comes close. But aside from the fact that blood was mentioned in the build to the match, I didn’t feel that watching these guys bleed added anything to the experience here. I also didn’t feel that there was anything here that necessitated the match going over twenty minutes. And finally, Danielson’s left shoulder was clearly several inches off of the mat when Moxley caught him with a roll up for the win at 21:05. They fought hard, but that extra spark to make this something special only came out once, briefly a few minutes before the end. They keep fighting after the bell until security separates them. William Regal debuts to stand between them, headbutt Moxley, slap Danielson, and make them shake hands ***¾

My slight disappointment in his PPV match aside, Danielson is Danielson so I’ll continue to review his matches. 

November 19, 2021 – Norfolk, Virginia

Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy def. Adam Cole & Bobby Fish
From Rampage 15. Fish comes out with Cole, thankfully making it so we don’t need to hear Fish’s entrance music. I was really enjoying this match until the absolutely dreadful finish. Cole and Fish reuniting is more interesting to me than Cole teaming with the Young Bucks. He’s less goofy and the match resembled some of the better moments from the Undisputed Era’s tag team run through NXT. That’s impressive, mostly because the best Undisputed Era tag team matches didn’t include Fish or Cole. But then the Young Bucks and Christian ran out to do a Benny Hill routine around the ring. That was lame enough, but for some reason it also led to Cole leaving the corner and running up the ramp to watch as Fish tapped out to the Snare Trap at 12:00 (shown of 15:29). I suppose that could be a hint at a SuperKliq vs. reDRagon feud, but if it’s not then it made no sense. And since Kyle O’Reilly is still in NXT, this match doesn’t get that benefit of the doubt. ***

November 26, 2021 – Chicago, Illinois

Adam Cole & Bobby Fish def. Orange Cassidy & Wheeler YUTA 
From Rampage Black Friday. Taz on commentary complaining that “Orange Friday” would be gimmick infringement against him is pretty funny. I saw some people complaining that Cassidy’s shtick is annoying against a guy like Cole, but I thought they worked it in pretty well here. I think the commentators do a good job of connecting it to the mind games that guys like Johnny Saint would employ. In fact, I didn’t go nuts for this match outside of Cassidy’s early antics. Everything else felt kind of slow, and then the tag rules got thrown out the window toward the end. Why don’t they just make every match in this company a tornado tag? The way they do it now is very distracting, and it killed the crowd. I dunno, overall this was kind of a mess. Fish pinned YUTA with an avalanche Falcon Arrow at 12:54. **½

November 30, 2021 – Orlando, Florida

Adam Cole def. Anthony Greene
From Dark 119. Cole in a singles match?! Don’t worry, it was taped a long time ago. It’s kind of weird to see Cole back in an environment that looks so much like the Capitol Wrestling Center. They don’t call it that anymore, but this venue looks like the Performance Center looked back when they did call it that. Given that this actually had a bit of backstory to it (Greene won a squash on Dark the week before before being told by Schiavone in the ring that he’d get this match against Cole), I thought it’d be a bit more even. Instead, it felt more like Cole was slumming it against a guy who had some momentum on a lesser show. Greene got in some token offense, but never enough to feel like Cole was in any danger. Rather, Cole more or less ran through his moveset, robbed only of his chance to hit the Panama Sunrise. The Boom finished off Greene at 9:32. **¾

December 10, 2021 – Elmont, New York

Adam Cole def. Wheeler YUTA
From Rampage 19. Cole has Fish, the Young Bucks, and Brandon Cutler in his corner. YUTA has the reconstituted Best Friends and Rocky Romero in his. This mostly serviced a build for an eventual Cole vs. Cassidy match, and that’s fine with me because it was done very well. Cole mimicked Cassidy’s lazy kicks and dumped YUTA at Cassidy’s feet on the floor. For his part, YUTA took control more than you’d expect because Cole wasn’t taking him seriously. But Cole was shown to be leagues above YUTA by easily retaking control and hitting the Boom for the win at 7:13. I think it’s kind of weird to use the main event of your show to do something like this, but as build for the Cole & Friends vs. Best Friends feud it did the trick. After the match, the bad guys attack the good guys and Cole hits Cassidy with the second low blow in two weeks. ***

December 17, 2021 – Garland, Texas

Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, Trent & Chuck Taylor def. Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson
From Rampage 20. I mentioned in my review of last week’s match that his is building to Cole vs. Cassidy. That’s happening next week on Dynamite, and you’d think that would be the end of the feud. But now it’s becoming clear that the culmination of this feud will be a 5-on-5 match including YUTA and probably Kyle O’Reilly. That’s dope, but will there be a stipulation? I’m not the biggest Fish fan in the world, as evidenced by not tracking him directly the way I have been other recent additions to the AEW roster, but this made me want to see a Romero vs. Fish match. I live in the age of the internet where I can do just that, and in so doing learn that Romero has never beaten Fish one-on-one. There have been a lot of Romero wins in the various Roppongi Vice vs. reDRagon matches that happened back in 2015. Looks like we might see that particular feud reignited in 2022 as well. Anyway, this match was frantic as hell, but everyone hit their marks exactly right and the match ended with a feel good moment for the returning Trent. Truthfully, the match was little more than a showcase for Cassidy and Trent, but that’s fine as a match that’s clearly not the end of the feud. DM gave this four stars, though the whole gimmick of remarking on Meltzer’s overrating of Young Buck matches is sort of wearing thin for me so this will be the end unless it’s something really egregious. Trent hit Fish with the Strong Zero for the win at 11:52 (shown of 13:28). ***¼

December 22, 2021 – Greensboro, North Carolina

Adam Cole def. Orange Cassidy
From Dynamite: Holiday Bash. It’s nice of them to acknowledge Kwanzaa and Boxing Day by calling this Holiday Bash instead of Christmas Bash. That’s what I’m assuming they’re doing, since they have a show named after the New Year coming up after this and Chanukah has been over for weeks. Or maybe they’re incorporating National Short Person Day, which is today, given who is in this match. This was the kind of Cassidy match that I really like, wherein Cassidy’s lazy antics are a feint so that his opponent lets his guard down and Cassidy can hit a big move. In this case, it was a superkick, and then countering a superkick to a roll up. I wasn’t really sold on Cassidy kicking out of the Panama Sunrise, but the commentators did a full court press on insisting it only happened because of Cole’s lazy cover. I guess I buy that in the sense that Cole can’t do lazy wrestling as well as Cassidy can. There was a bunch of interference in the middle of the match to take the Best Friends and the Young Bucks out of the equation. At the end of the match, Fish ran down to distract the referee while Kyle O’Reilly debuted behind the ref’s back to attack Cassidy. Cole came in with the Boom for the win at 14:18 (shown of 17:06). The excitement of O’Reilly’s debut obscured what was a crummy finish, but the match was never building itself to be a classic anyway. The Young Bucks come back out and look concerned about this development. ***¼

December 29, 2021 – Jacksonville, Florida

Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish def. Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor & Trent
From Dynamite: New Year’s Smash. I think at this point I’m transitioning this section from being just about Cole to being about all of the former Undisputed Era members. Sorry, that doesn’t mean I’ll retroactively add Fish’s singles matches, but it might mean I review them going forward. We’ll see how I feel. Oh my god I hate the reDRagon music so much. This match was flash over finesse. Everyone looked kind of out of sorts before the commercial break, and at times during the finish. Fish & O’Reilly did some dope double teaming, but outside of that this match only clicked for a few minutes in the middle. Brandon Cutler ran out to distract the referees while the Bucks superkicked the Best Friends. Fish & O’Reilly hit Chasing the Dragon on Taylor for the win at 12:03 (shown of 14:44). That came after some friendly fire from O’Reilly on Cole. I like that that played off of some awkwardness earlier between Cole and O’Reilly over their NXT feud, but it led to this clumsily overbooked finish. ***

January 7, 2022 – Newark, New Jersey

Adam Cole def. Jake Atlas
From Rampage 23. The commentators did a good job of talking up Atlas before the match. Earlier, Cole forgave O’Reilly for the friendly fire from their trios match, though O’Reilly didn’t seem as understanding about Cole’s desire to keep aligned with the Young Bucks. Cole is named the number one contender here, but Punk is also undefeated and has won more singles matches than Cole. He also has a better overall record than Cole, having never lost in any kind of match. But he’s not in the rankings at all. Pretty dumb. Pretty very dumb. Anyway, there was some cute stuff from Atlas here, even if I question the decision to give Atlas most of the match’s offense against the so-called top contender. Atlas got injured right before the end of the match, so Cole calls an audible and taps him out to a weak kneebar instead of the Panama Sunrise at 8:09 (shown of 9:39). The Best Friends stop the Undisputed Era from attacking Atlas some more. ***

January 14, 2022 – Raleigh, North Carolina

Adam Cole def. Trent Barreta
From Rampage 24. On Dynamite, reDRagon and the Young Bucks argued over who would get the tag titles first, while Cole tried to spin the situation into a positive by saying that they were all one big faction and that friendly competition within is healthy. Then, the Best Friends came out for a fight, and Britt Baker and Kris Statlander got involved. That led to this and the following match. Also, this feud is just dragging on forever with no end in sight and no change in momentum. Both guys brought their whole crew out to the ring with them. Barreta completely outshined Cole here. He sold his neck incredibly well and looked sharp as a tack by countering the Panama Sunrise over and over again. For his part, Cole sold like a goof or not at all, which I found annoying. It’s also annoying in matches like this that the Boom and the Panama Sunrise both require Cole’s opponent to stay in a specific prone position for a long time. It worked here because Trent had so many counters, so it appeared it was baiting Cole rather than awkwardly bending over for no reason. Thankfully, the Cole quirks were balanced by Barreta’s good work and the interesting angle of Barreta trying to hurt Cole’s neck right back. ***½

January 18, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

Adam Cole def. Kaun
From Dark 126. This definitely wasn’t a squash, as Kaun dominated almost the entire match. The crowd was dead for it, which makes sense to me because who the hell is Kaun? Why was Cole selling so much for this guy? Why is some random lunk the guy who almost hands Cole his first loss? This was baffling and I kind of hated it. Cole hit the Boom, one of like three moves he hit the whole match, for the win at 7:52. After the match, Cole bullies Schiavone and then puts over Baker to hype the mixed tag match. *¾ 

January 19, 2022 – Washington, D.C.

Adam Cole & Britt Baker def. Orange Cassidy & Kris Statlander 
From Dynamite 120. I’ve seen a lot of praise for this match, and for Baker in general, but holy crap were the early Statlander/Baker parts of this match slow and bad. It was especially the case in contrast to how quickly Cassidy was running around the ring. There was an early moment where Statlander and Cassidy hit stereo dives on their opponents, and Baker was caught on camera standing around, looking at Statlander and waiting patiently for her to attack. Things did get a bit better after the commercial break, with some fun lucha-inspired stuff from the women being a highlight. In the end, Cassidy accidentally sent Baker through a table, so Cole hit him with a low blow and the Boom for the win at 11:30 (shown of 14:25). Sadly, I have a couple more gripes. The commentators said constantly that the men couldn’t interact with the women, but Cassidy and Statlander both physically attacked (I’d put “attacked” in quotes for Cassidy) their opposite-gendered opponents. Why are the babyfaces the ones breaking the rules, and why mention the rule if it’s not going to be enforced at all? My last bit isn’t so much a complaint as an observation, but Cole looks like he has a Victorian wasting disease. He’s much skinnier and paler than he was in WWE, which isn’t bad on its own except he’s making Cassidy look like Hulk Hogan by comparison. So it’s noticeable. Anyway, the table spot was apparently enough for them to finally end this meandering feud next week with a Lights Out match. That’s the stipulation that doesn’t count towards anyone’s W/L record. They sort of ran that angle with Cole’s feud against O’Reilly in NXT, and strikes me as something that people would call lazy booking if it happened in WWE. ***

January 26, 2022 – Cleveland, Ohio

Orange Cassidy def. Adam Cole {Lights Out Match}
From Dynamite: Beach Break. Cassidy destroyed his own sunglasses and launched an attack on Cole to show that he’s not treating this match as business as usual. Not long after, Danhausen appears from under the ring, seemingly not at the request of either wrestler. He quickly leaves. Okay then. Then the plunder gets introduced and they do some fun work there. Then both guys’ crews come out and fight one another. Cole hits a low blow but Cassidy was wearing a loaded cup. Then they brawled to the back for some action that leaned more goofy then intense. Finally, Cassidy hugged Cole and pulled him off of the top of the entrance tube through the stage and got the win at 13:46 (shown of 16:57). This was a fun brawl, slightly closer to what you’d expect from a zany Cassidy match than what you’d expect from a violent Lights Out match, which is a little irritating because in the past this stipulation was used to indicate ultra violence. Here, it just feels like a lazy way to give Cole a win without blemishing his record. This stip has never counted toward W/L records, but it’s never been used as a crutch before. I see the same people saying that it’s fine that Lance Archer gets a title shot on the back of one win that say it’s important to protect Cole’s win streak here. AEW’s fandom is so culty it really does make it harder to get into the product. Also, I love Danhausen as much as the next guy, and I’m willing to see if he interacts with Cole going forward, but if he doesn’t then I’m baffled as to why they debuted him here. ***¼

February 4, 2022 – Chicago, Illinois

Adam Cole def. Evil Uno
From Rampage 27. The idea here is that Cole is SO MAD that he lost to Cassidy (even though it doesn’t count) that now he’s gunning for Page’s title and thus fighting Page’s friend Uno. This is WWE logic and it’s annoying, where a guy who just lost gets into the title picture because of the loss. It’d be one thing for him to move on and rack up a couple more wins before taking on the Dark Order, but to directly connect the two is lame. I rarely have anything good to say about Chris Jericho these days, but thank god he talks about Cole winning here in terms of getting back the momentum he lost by losing to Cassidy. This was squashier than any of the non-Wardlow squashes that this company does. Uno got zero offense, and Cole put him down in 2:28 with the Boom. After the match, Cole lists all the guys he beat in singles matches since debuting and claims to still be undefeated. The problem with having this be Cole’s reaction to a Lights Out match is that it defeats the purpose of doing them in the future. He’s setting his sights on the AEW World Championship. N/A

February 18, 2022 – Nashville, Tennessee

Adam Cole def. 10
From Rampage: Slam Dunk. I’m not at all clear why this episode of Rampage got a subtitle, though I’m sure it’s easy to figure out if you’re more interested than I am. Color me uninterested, mostly because they’ve decided to reheat Cole after the loss to Cassidy by having him run through the same storyline that Danielson did in his road to a title shot against Page. Tony Khan, Booker of the Year. It’s weird to me that in a company that has Shawn Spears on its roster, 10 does the Tye Dillinger taunt. The dynamic here was more interesting than in the Cole vs. Uno match, though I have to bring up another gripe I have with Cole’s AEW work. And to no one’s surprise, it’s another Panama Sunrise issue. He goes for the complicated move no matter how alert his opponent seems to be. In some cases, that means the opponent was alert looked like a dummy for getting caught. In other’s like in this match, his opponent is alert and Cole looks like an idiot for going for the move. I simply don’t feel he should be using this move in every match. In NXT, it was on special occasions and felt like a big deal, and even then there were times it looked contrived. But overall, I liked the big man vs. little man dynamic they had going here. Cole hit the Boom for the win at 8:22 (shown of 9:52). ***

March 2, 2022 – Jacksonville, Florida

Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish def. Adam Page, John Silver & Alex Reynolds
From Dynamite 126. I don’t feel great about how much the tag title challengers were used as cannon fodder for Page here, though Page did need to be juiced up before the PPV. I’m also grateful that the champion got to be in the main event slot on the Dynamite before the PPV. I wish he was in this slot more often. There wasn’t much to this one, though the action moved briskly and without pause. Cole hit Reynolds with the Boom for the win at 9:30 (shown of 12:43). After the match, Cole and reDRagon tie Page to the ropes so he can watch as they beat up his buddies some more. *** 

March 6, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus def. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish and Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson {AEW Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match}
From the third Revolution. reDRagon is basically an extension of Cole, so this is where I’ll sneak in my review of this match. I still can’t get over how bad reDRagon’s entrance music is, and even more I can’t get over how many people like this trash. They establish early on that the plan between reDRagon and the Young Bucks is to get rid of the tag champs before fighting each other for the belts. O’Reilly violates that agreement pretty early, but plays dumb in a cute moment. Then, this turns into a wild, lucha-inspired spot fest. A really well-executed one. It’s a little more grounded when Fish & O’Reilly are in the ring, which is nice because it gives the match more drama than it would have if the moves kept coming nonstop. It’s impressive when you have a match like this go nearly twenty minutes and it never feels like it’s just washing over you. The champs hit Matt with a backdrop into a powerbomb for the win at 18:55. ****¼

Adam Page def. Adam Cole {AEW World Championship Match}
From the third Revolution. I like Adam Cole. I like Adam Page. But to me, this is a cold issue going in. This feud kind of came out of nowhere and on the heels of Cole losing to Orange Cassidy. I’ve already talked about how the Lights Out stipulation really only serves to gaslight the AEW audience, so I won’t complain about it more except to say it did a disservice to Cole getting a title shot here. Luckily, Excalibur mentioned on commentary on the previous Dynamite that this was a threematch (thank you Kevin Ford for the term) to a pair of matches these two had in ROH, so that gave me something small to sink my teeth into. It’s been almost five years since their last match, which came four years after their first. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they don’t fight again for another half decade just to keep the tradition alive. If AEW was honest with itself, Punk vs. MJF would have been the main event instead of this match. They don’t treat the champion like the champion week to week, so they might as well have put the match people were excited for most on last. Earlier in the night, they debuted a new Women’s World Championship belt. On commentary, Jim Ross states that Page’s title belt is new too when it clearly is not. Get this guy a pillow, it’s too late for him. It’s too late for the crowd too, apparently, as they don’t react to most of Cole’s near falls. I’d also blame that on this program being half baked. They do react to Page kicking out of the Boom, so there’s that at least. This match pulled a lot from their second match in ROH. Mostly those were good pulls, but in one case they rehashed a really irritating spot. A Panama Sunrise on the floor was overcome, and Page recovered almost immediately so he could block a second attempt in the ring. That move is basically a transition move now. Cole got to the ropes to keep from getting pinned by the Buckshot Lariat. After some unnecessary silliness involving reDRagon and the Dark Order at ringside, Page hit Cole with the Boom and the Buckshot for the win at 25:46. This could probably have been half the length and accomplished the same thing. The crowd was tired and the match didn’t have the juice to really bring them back. Calling an audible and packing more into less time was the way to go here. Two talented guys, but they need someone to tell them when less is more. The end of a very long night is that time. ***½

I’ve found Cole’s run to be mismanaged so far. I felt no urgency to his run at the title, which made it clear that he wasn’t going to win. How do you take a guy on a win streak, have in lose in a match “that doesn’t count,” and then use  that to justify his title shot? So I’ll be focusing on O’Reilly (and likely Fish by extension) instead of Cole in the next go-around. 

November 24, 2021 – Chicago, Illinois

CM Punk def. QT Marshall
From Dynamite Thanksgiving. I wonder who between Punk and Danielson will get pinned or submit first. I’d imagine it’ll be Danielson when he fights Page, but you could have an interesting match between these two pitting their undefeated streaks against each other. Cole also hasn’t been pinned yet, but he’s only won three singles matches so far. There was a “Remaster Super Mario RPG” sign spotted in the crowd. Yeah, I’d play that. MJF and Punk had a promo duel before this match. It’s more fun watching his AEW run when he’s actually in an angle. MJF called out Punk for being a pandering babyface. I love that they’re actually addressing the lame bits of his run so far. That said, this match against Marshall feels pointless. Maybe it’s by design, because MJF called Punk out for having trouble beating the weakest opponents. Tony Schiavone brings it up during the match. He’s so much better than Jim Ross at this point. Excalibur is fine I guess, but Schiavone blows him out of the water too. So okay fine, Marshall being here makes sense from a storyline perspective, but he’s very boring and I didn’t have fun watching this. Marshall controlled a lot of this, because as MJF said, he has trouble against even the most uninspiring of opponents and because MJF got in his head. But the match was a snooze, largely controlled by Marshall. Punk ended this pedestrian bout with the Go2Sleep at 8:36 (shown of 11:07). Excalibur mystifyingly says that this is peak Punk. That’s not at all what the rest of this story is trying to convey. Weird. **¼

December 1, 2021 – Duluth, Georgia

CM Punk def. Lee Moriarty
From Dynamite 113. MJF sat in on commentary for this match. This came right after Page sat in on Danielson’s match against Angels, so it’s a bit repetitive. They try to sell that Punk had a cold the previous week, which is why he performed so poorly against Marshall. This was pretty sick. Punk was off his game from the start and looked worried the whole time. Once Moriarty started picking up steam and started believing in his ability to beat Punk, he rolled through his big offense. Punk barely scraped by and then hit a lucky Go2Sleep for the win at 7:53 (shown of 10:23). MJF had another Punk had another exchange after the match. Punk should not have talked about MJF’s Chanukah suit. That’s representation that wrestling needs. Actually the more I think about it the more I find the comment (“You stole Larry David’s outfit”) irritating. Imagine any other minority wearing something festive or ethnic and being compared to another person in that minority for no other reason than they’re also a member of that group. If I missed something where David wore a Chanukah costume then by all means, prove me wrong. I’d love to have a reason to not think that MJF’s Judaism during Chanukah was the thing to poke fun at. Anyway, that suit is dope and I’m happy to see that the online reaction to it was like 99% adoration. It ends with MJF vowing to win the Dynamite Diamond Ring next week in his hometown and threatening Punk’s dog. That’s pretty cheap. Wardlow makes sure Punk doesn’t touch MJF. ***¼ 

December 22, 2021 – Greensboro, North Carolina

CM Punk, Sting & Darby Allin def. MJF, Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood
From Dynamite: Holiday Bash. I’m putting this here instead of in FTR’s section because Punk’s needs beefing up more than FTR’s does. This match is also much more about Punk’s beef with MJF than anything going on with FTR. That said, FTR ruled here. Sting has Punk-themed makeup on, while Punk returns the favor with an ode to surfer Sting. I felt like I was watching a Dragon Gate main event from ten years ago here. Not because there was a lucha influence to the action, but because it was a long trios match that stayed exciting the whole time and told a couple of great stories. First and foremost was MJF frustrating Punk by refusing to make contact. Adjacent to that was Allin not allowing that to mean that he and String couldn’t get shots in on MJF and FTR at every opportunity. Second and almost as impressive was Sting’s contribution to the match. It just shouldn’t be possible for him to be performing at this level at his age. I don’t want to see any singles matches from him, but in matches where he can take a time out when he needs to he is absolutely killing it. I do not understand how he can hit a dive from the top rope without hurting himself and without making himself look silly. It’s fascinating. Of course, it was FTR that kept this match from going off the rails and FTR that made sure the moments between the big moments were engaging. But also they did borrow the stacked attacks in the corner from classic Dragon Gate bangers. There were a couple of slightly sloppy moments, more from Punk than from Sting actually, but they were all recovered very quick. Plus they were offset by FTR doing several little things, like grabbing Sting’s leg from the mat after getting hit with a move to show that they were still with it, or reaching out from the apron to try in vain to stop Sting from headbutting their teammates in the groin. They’re the best. A dazed MJF was in Punk’s sights, but Harwood shoved MJF to the floor and took the bullet for him. Punk hit the Go2Sleep, Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop, and Allin hit the Coffin Drop for the win at 20:16 (shown of 24:57). ****

January 12, 2022 – Raleigh, North Carolina

CM Punk def. Wardlow
From Dynamite 119. Both guys come into this either undefeated or on a big winning streak, which is neat. Jim Ross did something very annoying on commentary that I would expect from Excalibur but not from Ross; he remarked on Wardlow whipping Punk chest-first into the turnbuckle being similar to how Bret Hart used to hit the turnbuckle. A nod to history is great, but you’re breaking kayfabe in pointing out that it’s Punk paying homage to Hart rather than Punk being a victim of Wardlow’s strength. I don’t want attention drawn to the fact that Hart deliberately took a turnbuckle spot the same way every time. Wardlow hit Punk with five powerbombs and was poised to get the win (as he’d been doing for weeks on TV), but MJF insisted that he hit more powerbombs. So Wardlow hit two more in the ring and one through a table on the floor. Punk beat the count back in the ring but MJF wanted more powerbombs. Wardlow got distracted by MJF’s shouting and Punk got a roll up for the win at 11:08 (shown of 14:06). I’ve seen finishes like that completely not work, but this accomplished a few things. It let Punk make MJF look silly, it continued the friction between Wardlow and MJF, and it gave them a way to put Punk over Wardlow without the big man looking weak (though he does look a little dumb). It also kept up the image of Punk as a guy who can barely hang on. Flair vs. Steamboat it was not, however. Shawn Spears kept Wardlow from attacking MJF after the match. **

January 19, 2022 – Washington, D.C.

CM Punk def. Shawn Spears
From Dynamite 120. Punk won in 12 seconds with the Go2Sleep. After the match, MJF tried to sneak up behind Punk and attack, but Punk was wise to it. MJF bailed before anything could happen. What are we supposed to make of Spears at this point? Outside of one cage match he had against Eric Young in NXT, I’ve never been excited by him. So this burial doesn’t bother me. But a match like this makes me wonder if he’s shown the door in June when his contract is up. N/A

February 2, 2022 – Chicago, Illinois

MJF def. CM Punk
From Dynamite 122. This is the Punk I’ve been missing. My favorite Punk has always been the one who spends a match getting his ass kicked by someone I like more. Mostly that’s because I find Punk’s public persona to be too dickish in the face of his TV persona being a hero. In any event, MJF beat him up good here. He did so by cheating his ass off, winning in 12 minutes with a rope-assisted choke. But then the referee saw the rope and restarted the match. So MJF exploited an injury to Punk’s arm and created an injury to Punk’s leg. And he continued to cheat his ass off. Punk did himself no favors by being so obsessed with hitting the Go2Sleep. MJF had an answer to it every time, and eventually Punk’s limbs weren’t strong enough to execute it at all. Instead, Punk got close to winning with the diving elbowdrop and the Pepsi Plunge, the latter of which was wild to see dusted off. The match went long, and when it seemed like neither guy had the goods to put the other away, Wardlow came out to be the difference maker. He teased giving Punk the win by abstaining from participation, but then he slipped MJF the Dynamite Diamond Ring. MJF laid out Punk with it and got the win at 30:17 (shown of 37:03). MJF will be bragging that he beat Punk twice, so I imagine the rematch will be 2/3 falls. ****½

February 9, 2022 – Atlantic City, New Jersey

CM Punk & Jon Moxley def. Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler
From Dynamite 123. This was set up earlier in the evening, hence the wonky corner graphic. The gimmick here is that Punk wants a rematch with MJF, but the rest of the Pinnacle wants a rematch against Punk because he beat them all. FTR get the honor, and MJF says that if Punk can beat them with any partner except Sting or Darby Allin, he can have the rematch with MJF. I don’t understand why MJF would be confident that FTR could beat Punk and a partner given the broad parameters. Between the 64-year-old Schiavone telling me that there’s no one cooler than Moxley, as he mugs and spins like a guy doing an impression of a cast member from Grease, and Jim Ross earlier in the night saying that Keith Lee reminded him of Mark Henry, I’m thinking that the elder AEW commentators should get in their lanes. On a positive note, Wheeler enthusiastically encouraging the referee to count out Moxley and then immediately attacking Moxley when he beats the count is dope as hell. I also totally bought Punk eating the pin after he got clocked with the ring bell. He’s already lost a match, wouldn’t hurt him too much to get cheated out of another win. From there the match was filled with believable near falls from both teams. Punk & Moxley won the day by hitting stereo finishers at 15:56 (shown of 18:34). Things got a little cute down the stretch, and Punk & Mox showed way too much cohesion for a first time team against a team like FTR for my liking. But they kept it interesting, that’s for sure. On the other hand, why didn’t Bryan Danielson have any presence here? He’d been courting Moxley as a partner and just wasn’t on this show at all (that storyline restarted the following week). ***¾ 

March 5, 2022 – Orlando, Florida

CM Punk def. MJF {Dog Collar Match}
From the third Revolution. MJF spent the two Dynamites before this cementing his heel status by saying that his villain origin story was being bullied as a kid for being Jewish at the same time as his hero Punk quit wrestling. I get that Magneto’s Jewish trauma was successful, but I tend to feel uncomfortable when Judaism plays into why the bad guy is the bad guy. Don’t we already have enough people calling us bad for being Jewish? Anyway, Punk responds to MJF’s weeks and weeks of mindgames and claims that Punk has gone soft by coming out in his Ring of Honor/indie gear to his AFI theme music. Very, very cool. It’s a shame the supposedly super smart fans in the crowd don’t know the words to sing along (with some exceptions, of course). Punk is 1-1 in singles dog collar matches coming into this, having beaten Raven and been defeated by Jimmy Rave in ROH. This had a couple of callbacks to the Raven match, including the babyface hanging the heel opponent over the ropes early, and the heel jawing on the microphone during the match. Punk bleeds a LOT here. Too much maybe, It’s super gross. MJF’s blade job is less obscene. Punk wrapped the chain around his leg to knee kick MJF’s forehead open, but it bites him when a subsequent kick attempt runs him into the steps. That screws him, as he can’t get MJF up for the Go2Sleep, and it makes him way too slow to cover after a Tombstone piledriver on the apron. One way this match set itself apart from both of Punk’s previous dog collar matches was by virtue of featuring no interference. Well, no physical interference. After a super bloody brawl featuring a couple well-executed thumbtack spots, MJF calls Wardlow down to the ring to bring him the Dynamite Diamond Ring. Wardlow, now the number one contender to the TNT Title, couldn’t find the ring in his jacket (like he did that last time MJF fought Punk). That distracted MJF and gave Punk the opportunity to drop him on the tacks. Wardlow found the ring and, with a smirk, left it on the mat for Punk. Punk worked MJF over with the ring and got the win at 26:34. This was an excellent fight, different enough from their old school bout the month before, with a very satisfying finish that leads directly into MJF’s feud with Wardlow. ****½

Danielson’s stuff was the highlight of the first two months after Full Gear, and Punk’s stuff was the highlight of the last two months. So Punk stays on for the next cycle, obviously. 

November 24, 2021 – Chicago, Illinois 

Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, Andrade El Idolo & Malakai Black def. Cody Rhodes, PAC, Penta El Zero Mido & Rey Fenix
From Dynamite: Thanksgiving. The deal here is that all the heels are mad because they lost at the PPV and want revenge. How you know Jim Ross doesn’t have anyone keeping tabs on what he says on commentary, “I’m mesmerized by Jose, I don’t know what it is.” So then saying something about El Idolo’s vanilla manager is pointless and now you’ve just created an awkward silence on television. In an amazing moment early on, Rhodes got cheers for teasing that he’d throw his weight lifting belt to the crowd, but it got thrown back in the ring which got a much bigger cheer. There was a solid amount of high-level tag stuff here. Isolating Rhodes in the heel corner to the raucous cheers of the crowd, and Fenix having a handle on FTR and Tully Blanchard’s cheating enough to avoid a lot of it come to mind. There was a cool moment that might not have been deliberate but worked really well on me when Rhodes became fixated on getting his belt out of the ring, so he wasn’t focused when El Idolo moved out of the way of his charge and he hit PAC by mistake. I didn’t get much out of Blanchard and Arn Anderson threatening to fight each other near the end and was thankful they teamed up to hit Jose instead, because there’s literally no history of them ever fighting each other so why start now? After some more wackiness, Black misted PAC and El Idolo hit the hammerlock DDT for the win at 13:19 (shown of 16:13). This got more out of hand than I like, but if spots after spots is what you’re after, you’d dig this a lot. ***½

December 3, 2021 – Duluth, Georgia 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. PAC & Penta El Zero Miedo
From Rampage 18. PAC is wearing an eyepatch because of the mist from Black in the last match. I believe this was originally supposed to be a tag title match on the grounds that Wheeler wasn’t legal when he got pinned at the PPV, but Fenix was either stuck in Mexico or had a minor injury. PAC was running through FTR until his degraded vision caused him to trip on the top rope. From there the match flowed incredibly well. There were a lot of moments that I assumed would be the finish, but was pleased when they were not. I could have done without the lazy finish, which saw Black run down and mist PAC’s good eye, leading directly to Harwood getting the pin at 14:51 (shown of 18:19). It’s probably impossible to collect the data on it, but I’d like to see Brandon Thurston do a report on how many matches in each company did interference finishes by year the way he did with disqualifications. It’s so bogus. Between this win, the legal man issues at the PPV match, and a win over the Lucha Brothers the next night in AAA , a title rematch was justified. ***¾

December 10, 2021 – Elmont, New York

Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix def. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood {AEW World Tag Team Championship Match}
From Rampage 19. This was the best match between these teams to date by kind of a lot. It played to the strengths of FTR and let the Lucha Brothers do their thing without letting that thing overwhelm and bog down the match. Fenix got to fly and Penta got to be crazy, but never at the expense of the story. So we got to see that in the battle of FTR cheating against the Lucha Brothers flying and countering, the Lucha Brothers come out on top. Penta hit Wheeler with the Package Piledriver for the win at 12:28 (shown of 13:59). So now the Lucha Brothers and FTR are 2-2 against each other in straight tag team matches (in AEW, because of FTR’s win in AAA). ***¾

December 29, 2021 – Jacksonville, Florida

Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, Christian Cage, Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix def. Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen
From Dynamite: New Year’s Smash. Is there a more motley crew than Hardy’s stable? Just seems like a bunch of random tag teams thrown together. I also don’t really get why FTR was in this match when the Hardy crew has enough guys to make up a five-man team. The thing that annoys me most about a match like this is watching FTR have to run illogically into a position so they can be hit with a dive from one of the Lucha Bros. That said, there was some fun, acrobatic stuff in here. Not enough to make me remember it come tomorrow, though. Like last week, some of the highspots were outright missed by the production team. That’s really sloppy to have happen two weeks in a row. Sloppy shop. While I think about that, FTR hits Cage with the Big Rig for the win at 12:33. Happy FTR went over, even if it’s just the backdrop to force an unneeded miscommunication issue between the Jurassic Express and the Lucha Bros. They can just fight for the tag titles without anything extra and no one will be mad, and I’d rather watch a title match between two competent teams than guys who don’t have it together. But to reiterate, I’m glad FTR went over. ***¼

January 10, 2022 – Newark, New Jersey

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Pat Brink & Myles Hawkins
From Dark: Elevation 45. This is from the same Newark taping I attended as the Lethal/Kiss tag match, and it’s equally pointless. Well, maybe not equally, as this match at least had Harwood selling an injured shoulder even when he was on offense because he’s terrific at wrestling. Or perhaps it was a feint, as he recovers quickly and joins Wheeler in hitting the Big Rig on Brink for the win at 3:08. N/A

January 19, 2022 – Washington, D.C.

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson
From Rampage: Beach Break Championship Friday. FTR and Blanchard want Arn Anderson to align with them, so they’re taking out Anderson’s son and his son’s tag partner as a way of showing their strength to that effect or something. This was supposed to happen on Dynamite a couple weeks earlier, but one of the young guys (probably) got COVID. No time for entrances for either team. The joke early on is that because Harwood wrestles so much like the senior Anderson, he and the junior version are mirror images. This was fast paced and fun, and I could have stood for there to be five to ten more minutes of it. Anderson & Johnson controlled quite a bit with their speed, and got close to a win with a Johnson Frog Splash, but Wheeler was too close to the ropes. Anderson backed Blanchard toward his dad, who knocked his former tag team partner to the floor. Why? Just to pop the crowd, doesn’t matter in AEW if things have a purpose beyond that. Johnson fell victim to the spike piledriver at 6:44 (shown of 9:10). This probably could have been on Dark, if Dark wasn’t filled solely with 3-minute squashes these days. ***

It would be a month before FTR showed up on TV again, but a few days after their match on Rampage, they had a much ballyhooed match against the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express in South Carolina. 

February 23, 2022 – Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly def. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood, Jeff Parker & Matt Lee, Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta, Ortiz & Santana, Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen, The Blade & The Butcher, Alex Reynolds & John Silver, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn, and Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson {Number One Contenders Battle Royal}
From Dynamite 125. If you’re only looking at the FTR section, don’t be mislead by the dates. Between the 1/19 match and this, FTR wrestled against Punk & Ambrose earlier in February. Both members of a tag team have to be eliminated, which is more interesting if the match they’re fighting to be a part of is also an elimination match. Here, it’s mostly a way to fill more TV time, which is also fine. The Ass Boys are the first team completely eliminated. The Butcher and the Blade are out next. Then goes the Acclaimed. Santana takes out 2.0 by himself. There’s a tentative truce between reDRagon and the Young Bucks, and they’re able to dominate because of it. At this point, Schiavone gets confused and says that Silver is the only man riding solo for his team. The problem is that half the teams had been half eliminated and Shiavone just doesn’t seem to be paying attention. A few minutes later and every team is down to one man, which Shiavone makes a point to call correctly and make up for his blunder. Matt Jackson & O’Reilly team up to put an end to the Best Friends and P&P.  The eliminated Fish runs out to help O’Reilly dump Harwood. O’Reilly and Jackson double-team Silver. O’Reilly fakes an arm injury so that when Jackson dumps Silver, he’s surprised when O’Reilly eliminates him right after at 15:55 (shown of 18:25). That finish was sick. This was a very effective battle royal. There was always something interesting going on, and it played on current and past storylines. My expectations were exceeded. After the match, Page runs out to attack reDRagon while the Bucks stand by and let it happen. Cole runs out to help his buds, while Silver returns to back Page. Another very good use of different storylines advancing at once. ***½

March 2, 2022 – Jacksonville, Florida

Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson def. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood, Dante Martin & Darius Martin, Max Caster & Anthony Bowens, Trent Beretta & Chuck Tayler, Colten Gunn & Austin Gunn, Alan Angels & 10, The Butcher & The Blade, Ryan Nemeth & Peter Avalon, Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson, Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison, Santana & Ortiz, Bear Boulder & Bear Bronson, Jeff Parker & Matt Lee, Evil Uno & Stu Grayson {Casino Battle Royal}
From Dynamite 126. A tag team Royal Rumble, how fun. Like last week’s battle royal, both guys from a team have to be thrown over the top for an elimination. FTR and Top Flight start, and are quickly joined by the Acclaimed and their very cute pre-match rap. The ring fills up pretty quickly and becomes a punch n kick fest. Bear Country is the first team completely eliminated. The Varsity Blondes get thrown out not too long after that. The Gunn Club get eliminated almost as soon as they arrive. Bowens eliminated 10, taking out one of the Dark Order teams. The other Dark Order team takes out the Wingmen. Danhausen curses Uno, helping Trent to eliminate him. Santana & Ortiz eliminate 2.0, and are then eliminated by FTR. The Young Bucks eliminate the Best Friends. The Young Bucks eliminate FTR, leaving just Darius, who just returned from injury, in with them. reDRagon comes out to watch. Nick gets eliminated. Matt hits Darius with a low blow and a superkick to win the match at 21:39 (shown of 27:01). The Bucks celebrate with reDRagon after the match, as now the four of them will challenge for the tag titles at the PPV. This was very whatever. All dull brawling without much nuance or fun until the end, at which point everything started happening too quickly. **¾  

FTR have no presence on the PPV, but as members of Pinnacle they at least stayed relevant enough to have a couple of great matches on Dynamite. They recently said they were open for indie bookings, which makes me think we’ll be seeing even less of them in AEW for a while. But I really like them so I’ll keep watching their stuff.