Pantoja’s AEW Dynamite Review 3.2.22

AEW Dynamite

March 2nd, 2022 | Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida

We open to Tony Khan in the ring for his big announcement. It’s not an HBO Max deal like was rumored online (though that still could happen). It’s that he has now purchased Ring of Honor. That’s legitimately big because they can now use ROH to help give shine to everyone on AEW’s bloated roster. Khan also set up our opening contest, which is actually the main event of the first ever ROH show.

Bryan Danielson (15-1-2) vs. Christopher Daniels (29-21)

We haven’t seen Daniels in months after an injury sustained against the Young Bucks. In perfect ROH tradition, Danielson and Daniels adhered to the Code of Honor, shaking hands before the bell. Paul Turner was the referee, who was also on that inaugural ROH show. Although Daniels is 51, he can still have a good match and it worked well here because these two know each other so well. They had a really solid back and forth bout where Daniels got to play the hits and Danielson let him shine without ever looking bad on his own end. Daniels even trying the Best Moonsault Ever was a welcome sight. He got pulled into the Triangle Choke, giving Danielson the win after 11:10. Just good old fashioned wrestling. [***]

Post-match, Danielson said they ended matches in ROH with handshakes too but he’s not there anymore so he grabbed Daniels’s hand and KICKED HIS FUCKING HEAD IN. He promise to do the same to Jon Moxley, which brought him out. He said that he’s on two paths, one ending in getting his head kicked in and the other in him beating the American Dragon. He was ready to fight now but Danielson backed away to save it for the PPV.

Backstage, Sting and Darby Allin spoke about a triple threat match for the TNT Title on Friday but the third participant isn’t mentioned.

Casino Tag Team Battle Royal

FTR was out first followed by Top Flight! Yes, Darius Martin is back. So, this wasn’t really a “casino” battle royal as it didn’t follow the AEW gimmick of the card suits and the joker team, though Top Flight is a nice surprise. Anyway, this was basically a Royal Rumble with tag teams that was given a lot of time, going through multiple commercial breaks. What worked here was that they kept the action going and made sure there weren’t really any lulls. I won’t recap every team to enter though I do want to praise The Acclaimed for the Max Caster rap. They’re hit or miss but this was good with references to them being the #1 team yet having to compete in this, Euphoria, and Glenn Jacobs’s dumb tweets. I do appreciate how they left a lot of unimportant teams to make their entrance during commercial breaks like Bear Country and whatever stable Pete Avalon is in. Dark Order had multiple teams involved. The Young Bucks were the obvious winners given the story with reDRagon and that AEW isn’t going to leave the Bucks off a PPV. 2.0 was the final team in. It came down to Top Flight, FTR, and the Young Bucks. That was good booking because FTR controlled a lot of this match with their skills, Top Flight got to shine as the exciting duo who returned, and the Bucks are the Bucks. The final two were Matt Jackson and Darius Martin. Darius fought off both Bucks and might’ve won if it wasn’t for Landon outside. Of course, the Bucks won after 26:54 but that was fun. I enjoyed myself throughout though there were a few too many lackluster teams in there and the outcome had no real drama. [***¼]

Post-match, the Bucks and reDRagon celebrated uneasily and Jurassic Express came out to stand on the stage.

Chris Jericho cut a promo backstage promising to beat Eddie Kingston, who will fail as usual. Santana and Ortiz fist bumped him but didn’t say if they were good or not.

CM Punk came out for a promo about what MJF said last week. He believed what Max said but doesn’t know if that means he’s responsible for whatever Max has done. He called out MJF for a face to face and said he reminds him of himself when he was younger. He offered a handshake and MJF surprisingly hugged him. But when they pulled apart, MJF kicked him low in a perfect bit of heel work. He ripped off his jacket to reveal a shirt with the photo of young MJF posing with Punk. Then he called out his buddies who gave him the ring gimmick to level Punk, busting him wide open. Punk bled BUCKETS. MJF, in a perfect line, told Punk “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist” which is an iconic Punk line from ROH. What timing on that. Then, Spears hung Punk over the ropes by the dog collar. A phenomenal bit of business heading into Sunday. I wondered how AEW would manage to keep MJF/Punk interesting for so long and they’ve done a good job.

Team Taz interrupted Keith Lee’s interview and Lee warned him that if he does it again, there won’t be much left of him. Ricky Starks warned him to avoid Rampage if he wants to make it to Revolution.

Britt Baker (41-19) and Jamie Hayter (7-11) vs. Mercedes Martinez and Thunder Rosa (50-7)

Man, Britt doesn’t even feel special anymore. She needs to drop that title ASAP. They didn’t show Martinez’s record. So, I wanted to like this so much more but it was actually pretty lame. Something about it didn’t click as they missed a few spots, had some sloppy moments, and just felt like their timing was off. There were some moments that just felt way wrong. Martinez was the face in peril before escaping Lockjaw and making the tag to Rosa, who had her face off with Britt. Outside, Jamie spoke with Rebel and might have gotten hurt. She looked a bit out of it. Rosa and Britt’s interactions weren’t up to what they did in the past. The Rebel/Hayter thing was still going on outside even after Hayter saved Britt from a pin. Britt ate a half and half suplex and then the Fire Thunder Driver, losing in 8:20. Yeah, I don’t like that. The match disappointed and Rosa winning before the PPV is usually a bad sign. Britt holding the title past Sunday would be a huge letdown/mistake. [*½]

Tay Conti was interviewed about facing Jade Cargill. Jade hilariously interrupted when they talked about her martial artis background by saying, “Bitch shut up before I kick you in the face again.” Anyway, they say Tay can’t do martial arts in the match or something.

Sammy Guevara showed up for his absurdly stupid cue card gimmick. I mean, that’s one wy to get around not being able to cut a promo.

Leyla Hirsch and Kris Statlander cut promos on each other.

Cezar Bononi (1-1) vs. Wardlow (44-7)

Wardlow dominated with an immediate Powerbomb Symphony even though Spears told him not to. This went 0:49. [NR]

Spears went to use the chair on Cezar and Wardlow stopped him to a pop. Spears got in Wardlow’s face but thought much better of it.

RAMPAGE!

· Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Andrade for the TNT Title on Rampage. Goddammit, pull the trigger on Andrade and stop wasting him.

· Keith Lee in action

· Serena Deeb’s Challenge

· Ethan Page vs. Christian Cage in a ladder match qualifier

BUY-IN

· Leyla Hirsch vs. Kris Statlander

· Hook vs. QT Marshall (HOW IS EVERYONE SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW HOOK?)

The House of Black cut a spooky promo because they are spooky men.

Backstage, MJF told Wardlow that if he wins the ladder match and the TNT Title, he gets to keep the title. MJF won’t take it like he talked about doing. When MJF dissed him and said he won’t win anyway, Wardlow said he’s always busy making sure MJF wins. MJF slapped him and threatened to put him out on the street.

Adam Cole and reDRagon (1-0) vs. Alex Reynolds (35-31), Hangman Page (48-14-1) and John Silver (39-25)

I love the Undisputed Era. I popped for Silver and Reynolds wearing the Hangman bandanas and vest. It’s still lame as hell that they hype Adam Cole as being undefeated just because of the Lights Out gimmick. Cole avoided Hangman at the start as expected. Everything that we got in here was quite good and I’m down Reynolds/Silver vs. reDRagon at some point. The teams went back and forth before Silver took the heat during the commercial break. He eventually made the hot tag to Page who did his thing though Cole wisely avoided basically all of it. We finally got the Cole/Page battle though it didn’t last long. Of course, given that Cole and Hangman are big deals and reDRagon is a new team, it was obvious that one of the Dark Order guys would take the fall. Reynolds tagged in against Cole and fell to the Last Shot after 12:42. Another good but not great match. [***]

Cole jumped Reynolds after the match until Hangman made the save. He fought off all of the Undisputed Era guys but the numbers were too much for him. They taped Hangman to the ropes, beat up more Dark Order guys, and then added smack talk and kicks to Hangman. Cole then picked up the title and said it belonged to him.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Another good episode of Dynamite as almost everything was entertaining. The Punk/MJF angle was fantastic, the ROH announcement was huge, and we had some good matches. However, the women’s match was pretty bad and matches for the PPV that needed to be showcased more (Cole/Hangman and Britt/Rosa still feel less important than they should) weren’t.