wrestling / TV Reports

Pantoja’s AEW Beach Break 2022 Review

January 27, 2022 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
Sammy Guevara AEW Dynamite, AEW Beach Break 2022 Image Credit: AEW
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Pantoja’s AEW Beach Break 2022 Review  

AEW Beach Break
January 26th, 2022 | Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio

Okay, so this will be a slightly different review than usual since I was at the show live.

Things opened with a Dark: Elevation taping. I won’t spoil anything but Thunder Rosa and Ruby Soho were way over, Brandi Rhodes might be the worst wrestler I’ve ever seen live, and Penta El Zero Miedo is awesome to witness in person.

AEW TNT Championship Ladder Match: Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara
The crowd was way hot for this. I had some really annoying people sitting behind me and they were very pro-Sammy. Since I don’t care for Sammy, I became anti-Sammy for the night and it was fun to heel it up. The match got off to a slow start and it felt like they were stalling on a house show level. Things picked up once the ladders were brought into play and even though I don’t like Sammy his cutter off of one was one of the wildest things I’ve ever witnessed live. I do think they fell into the typical AEW trope of sometimes doing too much. Cody got up quickly from some of the stuff that happened and Sammy spent next to no time selling his leg damage. The Fuego del Sol run-in got a decent reaction but not much more. Sammy ended up pulling down the titles after 22:07 in a great match. I didn’t care about this at all but it was really good. I wish they just kept the title on Miro instead of doing any of this. [****]

Elijah Dean and James Alexander vs. Wardlow
Big hometown pop for Wardlow, who dominated these two and won with the Powerbomb Symphony gimmick in 1:17. [NR]

The video package of Hangman Page learning the Lance Archer match is a Texas Death Match was great. However, AEW videos had some audio problems on the big screen so this aired with no sound (we saw it in full during Rampage). There were several odd audio moments throughout the night.

2.0 and Daniel Garcia vs. Chris Jericho, Santana and Ortiz
The greatest trick Jericho ever pulled was getting wrestling fans to believe Fozzy is good. The main crux of this match was Santana and Ortiz having issues with Jericho because of what Eddie Kingston said. They refused to tag him in throughout the match. Honestly, as someone who understands that Santana and Ortiz are horribly booked by AEW, I was behind everything they did here even if the crowd wasn’t. 2.0 are good goofy villains, while Garcia feels like the real star of the team. The match was decent and after some miscommunication issues, Jericho hit Parker with Judas Effect, leading to a Santana pin in 8:44. A fine little match to advance a story. [**¼]

Sore winner Jericho flipped off his Inner Circle buddies on his way out.

CM Punk came out to a huge pop and had the LONGBOIS on for a fight. He dissed MJF’s scarf and thought having possession of it might lead to a match. So basically the Jean-Pierre Lafitte/Bret Hart angle from 1995. MJF showed up and didn’t want to waste this match in a dump like Cleveland. He actually ROASTED Punk on the mic, talking about him walking out and whining in Cleveland back in 2014 and how he’ll leave again just like LeBron James did. Punk’s response was really lame, saying MJF was a fan of his podcast and then threw in some generic babyface stuff. MJF agreed to the match next week in Chicago and brought out the Pinnacle for a beatdown. They all jumped Punk and the crowd badly wanted Wardlow to decline doing the powerbomb on him but he went through with it. They’re really going to make people wait for this. MJF was on fire here, while Punk existed. Cool to see him after all this time though.

Looking at the TV report, a fair amount of backstage stuff that aired on Dynamite didn’t appear for us until Rampage like the Bowens/Moxley challenge.

Julia Hart accepted a TBS Title match and told Griff Garrison to mind his business. I mean yeah, hush Griff.

Leyla Hirsch vs. Red Velvet
I really like Leyla Hirsch but this was a drag. It went 8:13 but felt closer to 18:13. The crowd didn’t care about this at all no matter what they did. It was boring, went on too long, and even the cheap finish with a handful of tights felt lame because Hirsch should’ve won clean ahead of an expected match with Statlander. Bad all around. [*]

Post-match, Statlander saved Velvet from an attack.

Britt Baker came out for a promo. She got a pop but once she pulled out the Terrible Towel, got booed. Man, I feel like if WWE tried to shill PWI Awards as if they were legit, the internet would roast them but AEW gets a pass for some odd reason. Anyway, Britt said it’s criminal that she doesn’t get a microphone as often as she previously did, though she didn’t do much with it here. She just dissed Cleveland sports teams a lot, put herself over, and nobody interrupted. It felt like a waste of time, to be honest.

They ran down the card for Rampage and once it included no Hook, everyone was pretty disappointed. Nyla Rose interrupted to challenge Ruby Soho next week. Vickie got a pop from me.

Lights Out Match: Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy
Huge reaction for both guys. Similar to the opener, I felt like this got off to a slow start. After a pretty hot opening minute or so, they took a while to set up some other spots and get weapons. Maybe this was during a commercial but it lacked energy. That all changed when we got the biggest pop of the night as DANHAUSEN made an appearance as Cole pulled out a chair from under the ring that he was holding. He ultimately left without doing anything to impact the match but everyone was buzzing. It was great. They did the run-in stuff where Best Friends and Cole’s buddies all showed up but fought each other to the back. Cole has always been great in No DQ matches and he was vicious here. OC brought the fight as well in a fun match. The finish saw them fight to the top of the entrance tunnel. OC hit a low blow, hugged Cole, and then fell from the top with him through the stage, where he got the three count in 17:00. A blast of a main event and Cole got his comeuppance without it impacting his ranking. [***¾]

WAIT, you guys didn’t get the Sammy Guevara cue card gimmick? Oh my god, he came out with Fuego and ran through about 32 of these damn cards with the most generic promo I’ve ever heard. The cards said how he “did the work” to become champion and included a Cleveland cheap pop. The guy behind me decided to read each card aloud as if none of us could read. I legit said, out loud, that this was the worst thing I’ve ever seen live and I once watched Big Show and Erick Rowan in a Stairs match.

No spoilers for other shows but there are some quick notes.
• Tony Khan comes out too much. He cut a promo before the show, before Rampage, and after.
• The pacing of this thing was rough. Dark was fine for what it was, as was Dynamite. However, the crowd DIED for Rampage.
• After Dynamite there was a 20 or so minute delay while they set things up for Rampage that was boring and killed the crowd.
• Matches on Rampage seemed to go on forever when they shouldn’t have.
• Can’t imagine that Brock Anderson is Arn’s kid, he’s actually just a young clone.
• FTR’s theme had me shaking my ass in the stands.
• Lee Johnson nearly wrecked himself on back to back dives.
• Post-show, TK brought out Hook to a massive ovation. He came out in a hoodie wearing a bookbag and shared his Funyuns with Jungle Boy. He then immediately left. Wardlow came out after to thanks TK and Cleveland.
• Best parts of the show were Danhausen, Hook showing up, and this girl who tripped going up the stairs next to me.

8.0
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
I really enjoyed Dynamite, even with it having a few problems. The opener and main event were great, we got Danhausen, and some good promos. My major issues with the experience came from pacing and Rampage.
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