Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: November 17, 2021
I swear “The Accountant” is the lead-in movie every other week for something AEW on TNT. Anyway…Well done interview with former world champion Kenny Omega and his Elite cohorts, the Young Bucks and Adam Cole. Omega’s taking some time off and snuck in some shade to Adam Cole. Hm.
Love Having The Dragon Back
With his Dark Order buddies in the ring, new world champion Hangman Page celebrated his win in front of his Virginia home state audience. A nice moment that saw the number one contender, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson come out and lit Page’s ass up. I’m loving having the Dragon back. That was very good. It’s not too often that a very basic setup can still deliver. It did.
Bryan Danielson defeated Evil Uno
Danielson then chews up Evil Uno–former leader of the Dark Order now big goober of the DO. Uno’s good so he had his moments, but he was out of his depth here as Danielson continues his dominant run in AEW.
Finally, a truly great heel promo from Maxwell Jacob Friedman. More of that, please.
Loved the backstage segment with 2point0 and Daniel Garcia running up on Eddie Kingston when he’s trying to do an interview.
Orange Cassidy and Tomohiro Ishii defeated The Butcher and The Blade
In an “If you missed it, it will be on New Japan World” match, New Japan’s CHAOS group sent NEVER Openweight champion, the Stone Pit Bull Tomohiro Ishii to help Orange Cassidy in his issue with Matt Hardy’s Hardy Family Office, beating the Butcher and the Blade in a solid tag match. Felt a little long but it was fine. They did a better job of showcasing Ishii in his Dynamite debut than they did Minoru Suzuki.
Nyla Rose defeated Hikaru Shida
Advancing to the semifinals of the TBS Tournament, “The Native Beast” Nyla Rose beat Hikaru Shida. This was the first time Rose has ever beaten Shida and tied her for Most Wins alongside Shida at 51. Rose worked a deliberate power style and it made an effective story of Shida having to fight from underneath. Serena Deeb’s interference was fine as it means there’s one more chapter to that great feud but didn’t cheapen Rose’s win by submission.
The best sign of the night: Book >1 Women’s match. Amen.
CM Punk Wanted to See What The Hype was About
MJF was going pretty good in the ring with his promo when CM Punk wanted to see what the hype was about up close. Didn’t look impressed. Great segment.
Lio Rush and Dante Martin defeated The Acclaimed
Lio Rush and Dante Martin beat the Acclaimed–Max Caster and Anthony Bowens–in a very good tag match. The match-up itself doesn’t make sense as the Acclaimed is an established heel team and Rush has come in as a heel trying to “manage” the face Martin but whatever. I liked Team Taz pitching to Martin after the match.
Expertly done video package for the Jade Cargill-Red Velvet TBS tournament match.
Main Event: Sammy Guevara (c) defeated Jay Lethal
For the TNT Championship
AEW rule: the guy with the taped-up ribs is going to win. A bandaged Sammy Guevara was successful in defending his TNT championship against an in-ring debuting Jay Lethal in the best singles match of the night. Not a fan at all of that particular situation where they absolutely sell how compromised a wrestler is but they win anyway. That does nothing but hurt the losing wrestler.
Still, Lethal should be fine. It won’t be in-ring stuff that derails this run.
That crucifix counter to the elbow smash was excellent. Entertaining, competitive match to end a great follow-up to the critically acclaimed Full Gear pay-per-view.
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