BRM Reviews the 12/14/2022 Dynamite (Winter is Coming 2022)

[Big Red Machine]

Apparently Tony Khan paid money to have the old NBA on TNT theme play during Excalibur’s show run-down. WHY?!

BEST OF SEVEN SERIES FOR THE AEW WORLD TRIOS TITLES MATCH #4: Death Triangle(c)(2) (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. The Elite(1) (w/Brandon Cutler & Michael Nakazawa)- 6/10
Don Callis was on commentary for this match. Nick Jackson hurt his ankle and had to be taken to the back. Spots happened until Matt took a Package Piledriver on the apron to take him out and leave Kenny all on his own… but then Nick made his “dramatic” return just in time for Kenny to ready to make the hot tag, but then Penta hit him in the ankle with the hammer, allowing Fenix to win with ankle lock.
I guess we’ve just dropped that story that Fenix didn’t want to cheat. Or maybe the fact that he is fine with cheating now means that they have finished “telling,” in which case the story amounts to “he wasn’t… but then he was.”

KENNY OMEGA POST-MATCH PROMO- snore
He said that because Death Triangle keep using the hammer, for the next match they should make not just hammers legal, but all weapons. He then said “we are sick of playing by your rules,” which doesn’t make any sense in context because Death Triangle are the ones who have been using weapons even though weapons are against the rules.
The announcers didn’t seem to know if they should wait for Tony Khan to approve this or if they should just take it as approved. Then Kenny started talking again, and said something about leaving it up to the people in the back, so I guess he forgot a line or something? It was weird. Then Kenny did his catchphrase, but not before some pointless and annoying “I was not scheduled to say this” stuff.
Well… at least this series won’t be seven matches of purely flips, superkicks, and head-drops.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS MJF- a F*CKING AWESOME promo by MJF to build up the main event

TEAM TNA JUMPS THE ACCLAIMED FROM BEHIND DURING THEIR ENTRANCE- snore
Then Jeff said they wanted a title shot and called them “slap-nuts” in 2022.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS THE MALE MEMBERS OF THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY- terrible
Jericho was his usual clownish self, calling for the Giant Swing to be banned. He said he will beat up a jobber tonight as a warm-up for his rematch against Cesaro.
When Schiavone asked Daniel Garcia about losing the Pure Title, Jericho snatched the mic away and said he was very disappointed in Garcia, and so he is ordering Garcia to shadow his “elder,” Sammy Guevara so Sammy can “mentor” him.
Sammy then cut a promo building up a match with Moxley on Rampage, and he said that Tay would beat Ruby Soho tonight.
1. I love how Moxley vowed on Rampage that the BCC would end this feud at Final Battle, and the BCC went out and won their matches cleanly and won the titles… and now the feud isn’t over. Why did they have Moxley say that?
2. How are we supposed to reconcile the Jericho who was so clever that he saw MJF’s attempts to steal the Inner Circle away from him coming with this clown who can’t see that what he has done here will only annoy Garcia?
3. For months Jericho has been yapping about how he wanted to “desecrate” ROH. In that time, at no point did he ever express any interest in Daniel Garcia being the ROH Pure Champion, even if it was just as being part of his plan to destroy ROH because Garcia being champion would give them leverage or something. But now, all of a sudden, Jericho is very disappointed in Garcia for losing the title, but made no comment of any kind about how his plans to destroy or desecrate ROH or whatever have suffered some kind of big setback.
Just like Jericho’s hatred of and desire to destroy ROH came completely out of nowhere once he won the title, he it has now disappeared in favor of this disappointment with Garcia for losing a title that Jericho never expressed one single sh*t about Garcia holding before… because Jericho’s actions are not motivated by anything organic to the character, but rather by the direction the booker wants to go in now. When a character’s actions and motivations feel based more on the needs of the plot than anything organic to the character, that’s bad storytelling.

Oh. And at the end, Hager shouted “I LIKE THIS HAT!” because G-d forbid anyone take anything seriously.

JUNGLE BOY vs. BRIAN CAGE (w/Prince Nana)- 6.75/10
Jungle Boy won clean in a contest of power vs. speed.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT-
Jungle Boy called out Big Bill. Stokely Hathaway came out to respond. Jungle Boy went to respond to Stokely’s fighting words, but Lee Moriarty and Big Bill came out and beat him up. Hook came out to make the… um… not really a save, because Jungle Boy had already got his ass kicked for quite a while, but at least he came out.
Instead of just beating Hook up with their massive numbers advantage, the heels left because… um…
Is it really that hard to just have the babyfaces come out with a weapon when you want him to chase off multiple heels?
Hook offered Jungle Boy a hand up, and the announcers acted shocked that Hook offered a hand to the person he came out to help.

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB PROMO- good words, but completely uninteresting
Danielson is once again absent. They said that they were “putting everyone on notice” and stuff like that and said they’d beat people up. Moxley built up his match with Sammy Guevara on Rampage, and suggested that he wanted to fight Adam Page and the Dark Order. At no point did Moxley mention wanting his title back. For a guy who claims he likes to fight so much, Moxley sure spends a lot more time talking than he does fighting.

SHANE STRICKLAND PROMO/VIDEO PACKAGE- good
Keith Lee wants them to talk in front of the people this time (see how easy it is to just put the damn Tweet on the screen?). Swerve says that will happen next week. He says that in wrestling he has no friends or family; only “affiliates.”

THE HOUSE OF BLACK (w/Julia Hart) vs. THE FACTORY (w/Nick Comoroto & Lee Johnson)- no rating, dull segment
During their entrance, after Excalibur tried to tell us that they are now “more sinister” than before and that they have “declared war on AEW,” Tony Schiavone thought it was a good idea to say “they’re right out of a horror movie is what they are. I like ‘em.” I don’t understand how it even enters into his brain to say those two things right next to each other.
Julia Hart spat black mist into Comoroto’s face. Is he going to join their stable now, or was the mist that Julia got sprayed with special in some way? And if they have that mist that slowly corrupts people and brings them to their side, why don’t they just walk around the locker room spitting it at people left and right?
People brawled around ringside, but the announcers pointed out that the leaders of both groups were in the ring, not engaging in the fighting. Despite having two guys in the ring, the bell had not rung. Then, once the brawl on the outside was done and the camera had seen the action it needed to, the bell rang…and Buddy and Brody hopped up onto the apron so that Q.T. (mostly) surrounded. Q.T. then ran into a Black Mass and got pinned. The guys who beat up fifteen jobbers recently now beat up five. So what?
This was an overly-orchestrated segment resulting in a quick squash to put over a group I have absolutely no interest in because they (or, really, Malakai in his entire tenure, which is closing in on a year and a half now) have never given any kind of mission statement, or said anything that even approaches being coherent. They’re a group of people who does stuff because someone backstage thinks it’s cool and artistic.

JAMIE HAYTER VS. HIKARU SHIDA VIDEO PACKAGE- meh
Shida won on Rampage, so she’s getting a title shot next week.

RENEE PAQUETTE’S INTERVIEW WITH BRITT BAKER IS INTERVIEWED BY… SOMEONE- atrocious
Britt runs her mouth on behalf of Jamie Hayter, then gets interrupted by… someone. Whoever this is says that Britt talks a good game, but wants to know if Britt can wrestle as well as she can talk, so she challenges Britt to a match on Rampage. The mystery woman left, and Britt turned and asked Rebel if that was Skye Blue. Britt accepts the challenge.
I was absolutely flabbergasted by this segment. This f*cking loser is on TV so infrequently and wins even less frequently went up to the former world champion and tell her that she needs to prove that she can wrestle as well as she runs her mouth? I don’t understand how anyone could watch this and come away wanting to see any outcome other than Dr. Baker stomping Skye Blue’s jaw into dust, then vacuuming the dust up with a shop-vac and hurling the shop-vac into the ocean.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. ACTION ANDRETTI- no rating, great segment
Why did Tony Khan book Chris Jericho vs. some no-name jobber in the top-of-the-hour spot?
They accidentally put Jericho’s chyron up for Andretti. The fans sang Jericho’s song… and then they all proceeded to taunt him by chanting “YOU TAPPED OUT!” Then they started to chant “LET’S GO JOBBER!” And then, when Jericho got the jobber in the corner, they started counting along with the clotheslines Jericho was throwing. Are you people cheering for Jericho or not?
Anyway, the jobber not only got some offence in, but even kicked out of Jericho’s finish. And then he kept getting offense and countering stuff and he beat Chris Jericho cleanly. And not with a roll-up, either. He hit a real move first. The crowd was hot for all of this and the announcers did a wonderful job and everyone treated it like the huge deal that it should be.
And yet, I just can’t get excited because I have no faith that this guy will go anywhere. This promotion already has way too many characters for the time it has. We’ve seen so many people seem to have early momentum in this company, and then fade away in a matter of weeks. Everyone from Private Party to Dante Martin to Lee Moriarty to Ruby Soho to Will Hobbs to Lance Archer to Miro. If you do something this big, you NEED to do something with the guy, and I just don’t have faith that that will happen.

RICKY STARKS PROMO- AWESOME!

FTR PROMO/VIDEO PACKAGE- awesome
They’re coming for revenge on Gunn Club.

JERICHO BREAKS STUFF BACKSTAGE- good

RUBY SOHO vs. TAY MELO- 6.75/10
Excalibur told us that his was a grudge match, as they are retroactively blaming Ruby’s nose being broken on Tay’s finisher. Okay. Then why not have Ruby cut a promo about it on last week’s show to get me excited for this match? It’s not like she’s a bad talker.
They brawled all around ringside before the bell. This (as well as people getting jumped) happen all the time in AEW, but this might the first time I’ve ever seen a referee check on someone and make sure they were okay with the match starting before ringing the bell.
The bell rang and they did stuff. They went to the outside so that Tay could cut Ruby off with a move onto the ramp. They wound up on the outside for way too long without getting counted out. Ruby eventually made her comeback and won cleanly.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Anna Jay came out and attack Ruby Soho and injured her nose again.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS ADAM PAGE- didn’t like it
Page is apparently not medically cleared still… but somehow knows he will be by Friday. He cut a very emotional promo about how when Moxley concussed him, he could remember the date and the city they were in and so forth, but couldn’t remember his son’s name. Call me a heartless monster, but this sort of pathos just doesn’t do anything for me. Is he upset a Moxley for this thing completely outside of Moxley’s control? If you’re worried about the consequences of concussions, then pro wrestling isn’t a good career choice for you, buddy.

DUSTIN RHODES PROMO- meh
He will team with Orange Cassidy and Best Friends on Rampage to face Kip Sabian, Trent Seven, and The Butcher & The Blade. The fact that Tony spends TV time on things like this is why I have no faith that Action Andretti will fare any better than Lee Moriarty has.

SINGLES MATCH FOR THE AEW WORLD TITLE AND THE DYNAMITE DIAMOND RING: MJF(c)(c) vs. Ricky Starks- 8/10
MJF took a stroll through the crowd. The referee didn’t even bother to try counting him out. While this was happening, Excalibur told us that Tony Khan loved Kenny Omega’s idea earlier tonight so much, that he has added some random stipulations for the potential sixth and seventh matches as well.
I HATE that spot where the heel is grabbing the ropes and the referee kicks his or her arm off. The ref should count to five as a warning, and if the wrestler doesn’t let go by five, the ref should disqualify that wrestler. Can you imagine if a hockey referee saw one player hooking another, and instead of calling a penalty, the referee just skated over and tried to stop the hook by giving the offending player a bodycheck? That’s what this is.
Very exciting stuff, although if they have a rematch, they should just give up on Starks trying to powerbomb MJF. He couldn’t get him up on the first attempt both times. MJF won with a low blow and a roll-up. When anyone else cheats, the announcers call it “smart.” When MJF does it, he’s a terrible person.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- they ruined it at the end
AS MJF is about to head through the tunnel, Bryan Danielson’s music plays. He runs out and chases MJF, determined to get revenge on MJF for perhaps crippling his mentor. He nearly catches MJF as MJF hops the barricade… and then Bryan just stops chasing MJF for no reason. Then he climbs a turnbuckle to go point at MJF, who has stopped at the top of a flight of stairs. NO. You don’t get to give up on chasing him for seemingly no reason, and then expect me to care when you dramatically point at him. Is it that hard to just have Dragon chase MJF out of the f*cking building?



This was more of a mixed bag than the usual episode of Dynamite, but it definitely felt like a significant one. The biggest issues remain the booking, the lack of attention to detail, and the tone of the show. The main event was definitely an important one, as it was two guys who aren’t thought of as the company’s premier work-rate guys being given time and then delivering. Definitely a win for both men.