Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: February 9, 2022
AEW Dynamite made its Atlantic City, New Jersey debut, putting on a strong show with good wrestling and some great promos.
MJF Was Not Bad At All Here
Started with the Pinnacle–Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Shawn Spears, FTR (Dash Harwood and Cash Wheeler), and Tully Blanchard and the world’s greatest prop man, Wardlow–had a celebration of MJF’s victory over CM Punk in Chicago last week (twice). As he should, MJF has decided he’s done with Punk and aimed at the world title. A lot of good facial expressions from Wardlow, who got no credit for helping MJF.
Punk comes out and this time brings help in the form of Darby Allin and Sting and challenges the man who beat him in Chicago…Wardlow, who he credits for being the reason the rest of Pinnacle have any success. MJF offers Punk a rematch but only if he and a partner–not Sting or Allin–can beat FTR later in the show. A long talking segment for them and for a change, MJF was not bad at all and carried his own weight. Set up a lot of things and I enjoyed it.
Andrade is still trying to buy Sting’s young assistant (Allin). Love this even though he truly needs someone to talk for him.
Wardlow defeated Shawn Spears
For some reason, Wardlow (with a sandwich eating Spears) faces The Blade from the Andrade-Hardy Family Office. Even with a hot start from Blade, big squash. Powerbomb Symphony as Wardlow is another talent on the AEW roster getting the Nikita-Goldberg push. A few minutes too long.
Penta Dark Returns?
Penta El Zero Miedo went to a cemetery and dug up an old mask. Pentagon DARK???
Inner Circle Team Meeting…Love It!
“Le MAGAion” Chris Jericho held a team meeting with the Inner Circle and behaved like a narcissistic ass (even shading Eddie Guerrero), justifying Santana and Ortiz’ wanting to leave the Inner Circle, challenging Jericho and Jake Hager on their way out. Santana bodied him on the mic last night, and I expect them to catch two more bodies next week. Loved this.
Switchblade Jay White Debut
Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero–Roppongi Vice–try to have a backlot interview with Tony Schiavone but got whooped on by the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) and Adam Cole, who stood back and let
“Switchblade” Jay White, leader of the Bullet Club and making his AEW debut throw Barretta into the side of a truck (nasty-looking bump). White’s been slamming that Forbidden Door the whole month. White was there on the invite of Cole without the knowledge of the Bucks. Interesting.
Keith Lee defeated Isiah Kassidy
Making this the best February possible, “Bearc–I mean–“Limitless” Keith Lee made his own AEW debut, beating Isiah Kassidy of Private Party and the AHFO to advance to the Face of the Revolution ladder match at the Revolution pay-per-view.
Pure dominance with Lee looking like an absolute superstar, beating Kassidy then his PP partner Marq Quen. The way the Party is making everyone look great, there needs to be some reward for them this spring.
Good segment featuring Mercedes Martinez, Thunder Rosa, and Women’s champ Dr. Britt Baker DMD to hype the no DQ match between Martinez and Rosa next week.
CM Punk and Jon Moxley defeated FTR
Punk found a partner…Jon Moxley. Very good match that got a lot of time and had the perfect setup with FTR dominating when they were working as a unit but falling behind when Punk or Mox got to break it down into singles battles. Loved Mox saving Punk from the FTR Big Rig finish and not Punk kicking up and killing it.
Jade Cargill (c) defeated AQA
For the TBS Championship
TBS champion Jade Cargill was victorious in her defense against the AEW debuting AQA. Solid. I’m glad they didn’t have AQA get steamrolled and even looked like she might pull off the upset. But nope. First a Tour of the Islands slam (she needs to do this more) and the Jaded face front slam. Ball game.
Serena Deeb defeated Katie Arquette
Serena Deeb ate up the young Katie Arquette (making her own Dynamite debut) in a Five Minute Rookie Challenge. Another good heel segment.
Seeing the audience was cooling off from the tag match, I would have switched these two last segments.
Good segment with world-tag champs the Jurassic Express and the Gunn Club, their next challengers. A good placeholder feud.
Main Event: Adam Page (c) defeated Lance Archer
For the AEW World Championship
The idea that the Hangman Page-Lance Archer feud STARTS with a Texas Death Match for the world title is Russo-esque. That aside, big, bloody, athletic, hard-hitting brawl as it should have been. The ol MurderHawk deserved to lose not letting Jake the Snake Roberts hit that DDT on the floor. After Page’s win, Adam Cole saunters down to the ring and puts the title belt on the bloody champion’s shoulder in congratulations, a reminder that he is the number one contender.
Fun show with heavy Nitro 97 energy and that’s always a good thing.
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Reviews by Dave is the best wrestling review on the internet! It’s written by David Houston II, who writes about WWE NXT 2.0, AEW Dynamite, and IMPACT Wrestling.
