Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: February 16, 2022
AEW Dynamite broadcast live from the historic Nashville Municipal Auditorium in front of a smoking hot live audience that reminded everyone why companies love shooting in Nashville.
AEW 2nd Dog Collar Match
There was a look in his eyes that said CM Punk was already in the zone when he sat in the middle of the ring and announced he would be facing Maxwell Jacob Friedman at the March 6 Revolution pay-per-view in the second Dog Collar match in AEW history.
I had read that before I saw the show and was skeptical. I still think Tony Khan is already out of ideas but Punk sold the shit of that for me. MJF cut his best-ever promo to my ears.
Bryan Danielson defeated Lee Moriarty
A small mistake having “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson come out first for his match with TAIGASTYLE Lee Moriarty. Bigger star comes out second. It just comes across better on TV. The revival of excellent technical wrestling continued as these two had a great match. With an in-ring focused-bullshit lite contest, you could tell Jim Ross was in his element. Nashville is historically a market that loves high-level technical wrestling so they were all in quickly.
Danielson picked up the win after stomping Moriarty several times and choking Moriarty out with a triangle choke. Moriarty got to have a competitive match without countless near falls and false finishes. A real breath of fresh air for televised wrestling.
Danielson campaigns again for Jon Moxley to team up with him to mentor younger wrestlers. Moxley comes out (still do Sugar-Free Wild Thing), told a good story (shout out to Tracey Smothers), and is non-committal, for the moment. This is a very good story for them
Wardlow defeated Max Caster
“Mr. Mayhem” Wardlow beat “Platinum” Max Caster of The Acclaimed to qualify for the Face of the Revolution ladder match at the Revolution pay-per-view. It was okay. They are running out of people to beat the Acclaimed.
Some foreshadowing in the backstage interview with Women’s champion Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, her associates’ Rebel, Jamie Hayter, and her paid mercenary, Mercedes Martinez, who is scheduled to face Thunder Rosa in a No Disqualification match later.
A Very Good Face-Off
Very good face-off with World champion Hangman Page and top-ranked contender Adam Cole. They are smartly using the long and well-known history of the two for this.
Looking like Sting Jr, Page was quickly blindsided by Page’s longtime allies reDragon–Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish. Took them a minute but the Dark Order came out to make the save, with 10 losing his shit and manhandling the security personnel (GET OUT OF THERE, BARON BLACK!!). Very good segment.
Proud N Powerful defeated The Inner Cirle
With the Mad King Eddie Kingston ringside, Santana and Ortiz beat Chris Jericho and Jake Hager in a pretty good match. Santana, Ortiz, and Hager brought a ton of emotion and it gave the match an edge that made it even more entertaining. Jericho didn’t get beat up by enough brown brothers so he runs out to get in a scuffle with Kingston. If that’s what you want to do, son, okay.
The good promo segments continued backstage with Cole losing control with reDragon and Matt and Nick Jackson sniping at each other.
Thunder Rosa defeated Mercedes Martinez
Thunder Rosa won the No DQ match over Martinez in a real slobberknocker. That prompts Team Baker to come out and leave both of them laying. The Martin Kove stuff was cute. Get a little celebrity buzz. I understand.
Good House of Black vignette. Good and creepy.
Great promo vignette with “Switchblade” Jay White on is huge US tour.
Main Event: Sammy Guevara (c) defeated Darby Allin
For the TNT Championship
TNT champion Sammy Guevara (yes, this was on TBS) defeated Darby Allin (with Sting) in a successful title defense, gaining his first AEW win over Allin in a singles match. This was fantastic. They had some tough matches to follow and more than capably did so, earning the right to be the main event.
I did think the involvement of the Andrade-Hardy Family Office made it a bit messy but it was still a great match and they transition right into the next thing for Guevara as Andrade El Idolo is positioned perfectly to be next up while continuing his building issue with Allin and Sting, finally giving him something major in AEW.
AEW has been on a roll lately with their TV product and this was no exception. Easily one of their better all-around shows ever.
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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.
