AEW: Dynamite Review - December 8th, 2021

AEW: Dynamite

December 8th, 2021 

UBS Arena - Long Island, New York 

Commentators - Excalibur, Taz & Tony Schiavone

CM Punk opens the show, but not in the fashion you’d expect. MJf’s music hits and his hometown crowd loses their mind… only for CM Punk to walk up through the tunnel. This set the stage for one of the most odd, but interesting promos since Punk joined the company. The crowd largely booed Punk and I don’t think he even anticipated them to be that partisan toward MJF considering he IS the heel in the program and has been the antagonist the entirety of his AEW career. But they were partisan and not ashamed of it, either. Punk almost seems taken aback and repeats a line about the Islander’s a couple of times, but he does lean deeper towards villainous Punk and that alone is cool! He closes by calling the crowd chicken shits then leaving LMAO. I enjoyed this more than last week’s garbage so hell yea. 

1) Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal 

It’s a yearly tradition! The Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal where the winner gets to carry the Diamond for the next entire calendar year. MJF is the defending champ for two years and he gets a massive reaction here in his hometown. MJF even gets a little emotional during his entrance which is so rare and special. Honestly this whole performance from him is special and shows he could be a top babyface one day and be just as good as he is as a heel. Truly great shit. What is also great is the characters they chose for this match. You got Jay Lethal in there working the role he should.. a low mid carder that’s thrown out early. We got to see the Dante Martin story unfold more as he and Lio Rush come face to face and later Dante even saves Lio from a Wardlow chokeslam. And fuck it this even circles back into the finish where DANTE TURNS ON RICKY STARKS AND THROWS HIM OUT TO WIN. ITS DANTE VS MJF NEZT WEEK. YESSSS. Perfect, perfect finish. So fun. 

Match rating - ***

After the match, MJF shakes Dante’s hand continuing the work as a babyface for the night which was phenomenal. I speak too soon, though as the tweener/heel ways creep back in moments later. Ricky Starks attacks Dante after MJF leaves the ring. Cameras catch MJF contemplating a save.. AND HE RUNS TO THE RING!!! .. and joins Starks in beating up Dante Martin!! Insane swerve .. again. CM PUNK IS OUT NEXT… to boos lol. MJF bails, Dante kicks Starks and PUNK HITS THE GTS. Awesome fun as fuck shit here. Hell yeah man. Punk stands in the ring with Dante Martin as MJF and Starks both retreat. 

2) Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, Brian Pillman Jr, & Griff Garrison (w/ Christian Cage & Julia Hart) vs. The Acclaimed & 2.0 (w/ Daniel Garcia)

For a match that was announced extremely last minute, holy shit. What a fucking blast. The rhythm this show has tonight is just unmatched. I didn’t think I missed seeing the Varsity Blondes & The Acclaimed, but this made me feel like I should’ve. They definitely aren’t strong enough to have super compelling 2 v 2’s just yet, but they are a fucking blast here. Everyone here gets their shit in and looks fantastic. The heels cut the ring off and despite being super young, aside from 2.0 who are very experienced, they worked this in a super veteran esque way and I loved it. Pillman Jr plowing through for the hot tag to Luchasaurus was awesome and the crowd was super into it. The finishing run was bonkers with everyone nailing their stuff. Man, this was just so fun and good!! Jungle Boy gets the honor of finishing things off after EDDIE KINGSTON ran down to thwart some interference from Daniel Garcia. 

Match rating - ***1/4

After the match, Eddie Kingston leads the camera crew backstage where he meets up with Ortiz. You can’t hear Eddie because of some audio issues, but the man is yellin. Shouts to Excalibur for putting over what King was trying to say and bringing up that King & Ortiz are both from New York and King is showing us how New York does it THEN FUCKIN GARCIA AND 2.0 ATTACK AND START THROWJNG BUCKETS AND SHIT AT KINGSTON AND ORTIZ. AWESOME PULL APSRT BRAWL YES!’ GIVE ME THAT King/Santana/Ortiz-Garcia/2.0 TRIOS MATCH NOWWW. I didn’t even know I wanted it, but now I need it thanks to Eddie Kingston. 

3) The Young Bucks (w/ Adam Cole & Brandon Cutler) vs. Chuck Taylor & Rocky Romero (w/ Orange Cassidy) 

“Cole needs to wash that hair.” -Tony Schiavone

This show just KEEPS. ON. HITTING. This starts slow with Rocky working on the Bucks, but it soon becomes clear we are getting a Bucks style match and that’s just fine with me. It gets pretty hot only to, for me, burn out a little down the stretch right before/right after the picture in picture. Things hop right back into the groove, though, and beyond that, we get some awesome false finishes. There were moments where I felt like we could see the huge upset of Rocky & Chuck getting the victory over the Bucks. All in all, this was just great TV tag wrestling. Bucks win after a great series of near falls.

Match rating - ***1/4 

After the match, The Bucks & Cole don’t even take the time to celebrate, they just immediately jump Rocky & Chuck even more. Orange Cassidy joins in, but gets taken out as well. Wheeler Yuta runs down.. still no luck. Those dirty bastards in the Elite continue the assault until.. UNTIL.. SUE !!! SUE HAS THE VAN AND SHE PULLS INTO THE ARENA AND BY GOD ITS TRENT !!! TRENT IS BACK!! Greg charges the ring and takes out EVERHBODY! This literally brought me out of my seat. Trent is sporting a new shaved head and looks phenomenal. THE PPL GET WHAT THEY WANT as the entirety of the Best Friends unit is reunited for the first time since the beginning of the year when Trent went out with injury. Hell, Kris Statlander even brought Trent’s mom in the ring for the hug. This was just as wholesome as can be and such a deserved and amazing return for Trent. And to top it all off, the Roppongi Vice reunion is teased as the music plays while the Best Friends and Rocky celebrate. I love this shit <3 

TNT Champion Sammy Guevara is out on the stage with Tony Schiavone when we return from commercial. He’s soon interrupted by Cody Rhodes who says he is accepting Guevara’s TNT Title open challenge for the Christmas ep of Dynamite. Cody makes a lot of obvious reference to him still portraying a good guy even though everyone’s booing him and honestly I loved it. This segment fucked. I’m truthfully excited to see these two lock up again considering their history and the history of Cody with the TNT title. 

Backstage, Ruby Soho is interrupted by THE BUNNY and Penelope Ford and she swings off on them. Hell yea!

4) Riho vs. Jamie Hayter (w/ Britt Baker & Rebel)

Yes yes yes yes yes yeS!! My queens get the time here and they absolutely tear it down just as we all expected. Things start slow and a little rocky, but once they get their footing this turns into one of my favorite women’s matches in the promotion. Jamie is such a fantastic assbeater. She dominates Riho here and tosses her around. Britt & Rebel at ringside antagonizing Riho amidst it all is awesome as well. Riho is so much smaller than Jamie and works such a different style, but it makes their dynamic perfect. And also despite that, all of Riho’s shots look great because she really lays it in. This makes the comeback all the more believable. They land some sick spots down the stretch and get some good false finishes in. I was on the edge of my seat for the final stretch and the fact that this ended with Riho using her finisher and not some sort of roll up or flash pin made me so happy. Riho wins and all is right in the world. I can’t wait for the Britt/Riho match and I hope we get many more Riho and Hayter singles matches on Dynamite, they are easily in the Top 3-4 women in the company. 

Match rating - ***3/4 

Taz is at the commentary booth and he announces that HOOK debuts on Rampage this Friday against Fuego Del Sol. THEYRE SENDING HOOK !!

Tony Schiavone has the Varsity Blondes and Julia Hart on the stage for an interview for some reason. The lights go out AND ITS MALAKAI!!! Malakai Black sprays his mist in Julia Hart’s face and she lets out one hell of a scream to sell it like death. We love that. I’m not a fan of the eye mist stuff, but this seemed to work. Maybe because I’m loving this show so much. 

5) Bryan Danielson vs. John Silver

Huge match for John Silver, arguably.. no, definitely, the biggest match of his career. Danielson is one week away from confidently challenging Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World title in Hangman’s first defense. The two haven’t really touched despite lots of verbal jabs being thrown over the past few weeks. Silver is the last on Danielson’s mission of kicking every member of Dark Order’s head in. He’s taken care of Uno, Angels, and Cabana. Now, he strives to embarrass Silver in his hometown and it’s quite the main event. The story of Silver being a step behind the intense veteran in the form of Danielson shines bright and when Silver is finally able to get some ground and nail the release german suplex that he went for earlier in the contest, the place comes to their feet. Silver’s comeback is valiant, but it’s no match for Danielson who rains down elbows to Silver’s head before locking him in a submission choke for the victory. Another great match in this run from Dragon. 

Match rating - ***1/2 

After the match, Danielson gets on the mic and says he won, but he forgot one thing.. to kick Silver’s head in. He says he never breaks a promise so he has to do it. Danielson sets Silver up and starts stomping AND HERE COMES HANGMAN PAGE. NO TITLE BELT JUST A CAN OF WJOOP ASS. PAGE THROWS SOME STIFF BLOWS TO DANIELSON BEFORE THE CHALLENGER RETREATS. Hangman gets the mic and closes the show strong by proclaiming “next week, I’m gonna stomp the Cowboy shit out of you!” OMG YES YES. Stroooong close to the show.