Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: December 22, 2021
AEW Dynamite broadcast their “Holiday Bash” show from one of the most historic buildings in the history of professional wrestling, the Greensboro Coliseum–a building that featured a long tradition of great Christmas day shows from the Jim Crockett Promotion days, and they tried hard to add this show to the list of great shows held in this building.
Adam Cole defeated Orange Cassidy
The match they’ve been building the last few weeks finally happened as Adam Cole, representing the SuperKliq faced Orange Cassidy of Best Friends/CHAOS to kick off the show. Very good match. OC had his moments of Freshly Squeezed shenanigans but they worked in the story of the match. Cassidy had an advantage when Cole ally Bobby Fish came out and distracted the referee, allowing another Cole ally and very recent rival, Kyle O’Reilly, to make his AEW debut, nailing OC from behind, setting up a Cole victory.
Some excellent storytelling here as Cole didn’t immediately hug it out with O’Reilly, which made perfect sense considering what they just did to each other on another network a few months ago. The Young Bucks coming out, clearly left out of the loop, and Cole leaving with the reunited O’Reilly and Fish was a compelling cliffhanger. How long is Omega going to be gone again?
Danielson Was Great, Page Was Ehhh
Hangman Page accepts Bryan Danielson’s rematch stipulation of having judges and I was not impressed. Danielson was great, but Page was eh and wth kind of champ just accepts the challenger’s stip?
Wardlow defeated Shawn Dean
Wardlow’s face during the Pinnacle segment was the same face I was making. He then goes to the ring and powerbombs “The Captain” Shawn Dean to hell, stopping Dean’s win streak at 3 and extending his own to 15.
His disdain at Shawn Spears’ antics after was more pronounced this week.
I Don’t See Where They’re Going with Them
Wardlow is having a slow-motion face turn to match the heel turn by Cody Rhodes. Dan Lambert and Men of the Year–Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page–cut another good, heat-seeking heel promo, but I don’t see where they’re going with them. They need some wins.
Great Promo from DMD
Great promo from Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, Women’s World champion.
Owen Hart Package
A fantastic package on Owen Hart and the Owen Hart Cup Tournaments (let’s get some new faces for these tournaments, please).
Ruby Soho defeated Nyla Rose
AEW, when someone has a sign like was shown before the TBS Tournament, slandering your talent, eject them. Zero tolerance.
Ruby Soho beating Nyla Rose to advance in the TBS Tournament was a good match that told the absolute correct story of “The Native Beast” using her superior power and Soho having to fight from underneath. Way, way too much time on the floor without anyone breaking the count. Aubrey Edwards seems to forget what comes after 5. They have to clean that up.
Malakai Black defeated Griff Garrison
Local guy Griff Garrison of Varsity Blonds (with Brian Pillman Jr) tried to get some payback on Malakai Black from Black’s attack on Garrison friend, Julia Hart, a couple of weeks ago. So we’re sure Garrison isn’t the son of Steve or Shaun Simpson from 80s World Class? Black not only beat him up, but he also beat up Pillman too. Leave that man alone, kids.
Some odd phrasing with the competing promos from Matt Hardy and Private Party and Christian Cage and Jurassic Express. Odd.
Main Event: CM Punk, Sting, and Darby Allin defeat MJF and FTR
Sting makes his in-ring return to Greensboro (his first since 1994), teaming with CM Punk for the first time ever (great work, Excaliber: Blade Runner Punk) and his regular tag partner, Darby Allin (who needed a comeback win after doing the job on Twitter last week) to beat the Pinnacle’s MJF and FTR–Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. This was the second match that had some good work in it but again made the referee look like an idiot who can’t count as MJF stopped wrestling and went on a cross country jog with Punk in hot pursuit like he was Sheriff Buford Justice. Bastdammit. Clean this shit up!
Sting looked inspired and FTR put on an awesome performance. The hiptoss on MJF to the floor looked scary. Wrestlers that don’t do over-the-top spots shouldn’t do over-the-top spots. Punk had a couple of moments when his face said “How do they work with this shit on their eyes?” but he looked good for the most part with some new tag partners and new opponents.
Fun show with a couple of terrible moments that robbed their referees of any kind of legitimacy.
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