“AEW Dynamite” had a stacked lineup of action with plenty of high expectations for its Jan. 8 show. Almost everything was delivered, whether with great performances or some surprises. Most importantly, having “The Cleaner” back on our screens is good.
👆OMEGAMAN!
Kenny Omega makes everything better.
An all-time great through and through, Omega appears to possibly be winding down his career despite a still relatively young wrestling age of 41. The former AEW World champion has simply had his body go through the wringer, as obviously seen with his most recent hiatus — a battle against diverticulitis.
Omega cut an emotional and passionate promo, highlighting how death could have been his fate had he not sought help when he did. After going through several different versions of himself in recent years, He set up what to expect from his character at this juncture. One of those iterations, in particular, featured Don Callis by his side, who made the interruption tonight. Omega was instantly on edge, looking around the arena. This was a very subtle but great nod to the awareness generally lacking from wrestling wrestlers.
As soon as Callis uttered his first couple of words, Omega went on the attack. Seeing Callis run in fear was comical as always, and Omega gave him a short beatdown until Brian Cage and Lance Archer made the rescue.
I like the direction of this rather than right into the teased revisit of a Kazuchika Okada rivalry. No one can say they won’t be open to that, but dealing with Callis and company feels like a fine warm-up or lead back to Okada. At least while the latter holds his Continental title.
What made this even better? Well, when Omega was in the grips of the behemoths with an eventually emerging Kyle Fletcher hovering over him, Will Ospreay made the surprise save. Ospreay’s history with all is no secret, and another Omega match — whether with or against him — is a win for the wrestling world. They stared down, and the show went off the air. Omega’s first match back comes next week against Cage. Oh, boy. That will be a doozy, as Cage is a perpetually underrated talent.
As great as it is to pair Omega with either of these options I mentioned, it’s kind of weird. You almost have too many choices if you’re AEW. But that’s one of those rare good problems to have. When you forget you’re having all these banger matches and feuds without the world title involved, you’re doing something right.
Speaking of banger matches, “AEW Dynamite” opened with absolute…
🔥FIRE!
Dude, Ospreay vs. Buddy Matthews. Come on.
This match was insane. Matthews, again, needs so much more love than he gets, but there was no way he was getting the win here. Thankfully, we may be headed for some type of push with him, and Brody King also deserves one. Every member of House of Black is phenomenal, and I’m so glad Ospreay said what we were all thinking after this epic opener.
“The Aerial Assassin” puts Matthews over big after his win, letting him know he has his back anytime he may need aid. There were underlying tones of pushing Matthew and King away from the House of Black because they’re good enough to stand alone. They’ve all been in relatively similar boats by accepting their inability to win mid-match, so I hope we get a good continuation of where this could go — rather than them just quietly separating off-screen or something lame.
And at this point, do we need to say much about Ospreay? The guy is magic every time he steps between the ropes. It doesn’t make sense, and it never will. Let him open every single wrestling show for the rest of forever.
🎲GAMBLE!
The Men’s Casino Gauntlet match was a pretty fun time.
Hangman Adam Page and Jay White started the match. Does it get any more perfect than that? Yes, actually. Because as soon as Wheeler Yuta entered after them, he was hit with an instant Blade Runner. I couldn’t have been happier. You still suck, Yuta.
It only got better from here as the following entrant was not Swerve Strickland despite his theme song hitting the speakers. Hangman stared with his patented intensity as his mortal enemy was expected to come out — and then it was that psycho Ricochet. Talk about a perfect Swerve-Swerve.
The lightness of Ricochet in the ring still baffles me every time I see him work. He can flow with anyone, and all interactions between competitors in this one were fun. Among the others was Daniel Garcia, who had a brief tangle with Adam Cole that made me want a match in the future.
“Meat” chants inevitably rang throughout the arena when Archer and Powerhouse Hobbs tossed Ricochet around the ring like a ragdoll. Yuta completely removed Jeff Jarrett from even getting the chance to enter the match. That was hilarious in one of those extremely sad ways — and we’ll talk more about it later.
Hobbs’s win was not what I expected. A beautiful Spinebuster on Kyle O’Reilly punched the big man’s ticket to an AEW World title match against Jon Moxley next week, and he looked really strong in the match. However, I have no faith in him dethroning the champ, nor should he.
The messiness of the title picture gives Hobbs an opportunity to win and distance storylines, which I can see working as somewhat random — or realistic — as it might feel.
Ultimately, we heard from Cope later in the night as he brought the intensity as usual. The callout worked, drawing Moxley and the Death Riders to the ring. It was a clever little ambush from “The Rated-R Superstar,” allowing FTR to attack from behind. Once Death Riders got the upper hand, attempting to replicate the infamous Bryan Danielson beatdown, Hobbs made the save. So, there was that tie-in.
I don’t know. And I think that will be a good thing, but we’ll find out next week.
🥱YAWN.
Jarrett had too much time. AEW is giving “JJ” respect, as it should, but there are justifiable extents, and then there’s overdoing it.
After losing the match to Hobbs, Jarrett took to the mic in the ring and wound up roasted by MJF, who made the veteran an offer to help him in this final year of his career.
Listen. It was good for what it was, but it was too long. Jarrett declined, and I can only assume we’ll see a match with him and MJF. Get it out of the way and don’t drag it out if we must, AEW. I beg of you.
🤩TEASE!
During the champs’ incredibly brief celebration on the ramp, the Hurt Syndicate teased a run for Private Party’s AEW Tag Team titles. This is precisely what I hoped for last week after Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin took care of The Acclaimed.
A fake toast interruption was fun as well. Private Party justifiably looked afraid and weaker than the potential future challengers, and that match can have a great story within. Underdog champs. You’ve got to love it.
Oh, then Lashley essentially had an elongated squash match with Mark Briscoe. That went on longer than it should have, but whatever.
👍EXPLOSIVE👍
1. Harley Cameron is the new best thing in wrestling, and no, I’m not joking. Pair her with Mariah May? Win, win, win and win some more. The duo had an excellent segment to set up a non-title match between them at Collision. It just shows that AEW sees what we all are and that Cameron is the next star, man. She’s just so fun and a great contrast to May. There has to be more between them, even if their match puts things on ice for a while.
2. MVP called a chair an “international object” during the Lashley vs. Briscoe match. Incredible.
3. Renee Paquette talking to anyone about Moxley is always hilarious. Because if you don’t know by now, they’re married.
👎DUDSVILLE👎
1. Some of the camera cuts in this episode were terrible. The adjustments from last week were almost completely unnoticeable, too. I’m not sure if that’s just me getting used to them immediately, but things were off.
2. Footage of Darby Allin getting stomped and kicked down the stairs by the Death Riders was shown. Poor guy. I mean, what? He’s got to have only about one or two lives left now.
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
I know this is becoming my gimmick, you guys. But I’m not going to hide my genuine love for a three-way. Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Toni Storm ruled.
This match had a little bit of everything, and when three talents like these get together, what do you expect? We should also throw out our spot of the night, which was the wildly creative and never before seen … I’m just going to call it the Willow slingshot. See for yourself.
Outside the ring, we also got a never-ending head-snap marathon from Storm on both women, which lasted a comical length of time. Then, she celebrated afterward. It was a perfect match because, in the end, the right woman won, and the right one took the fall. That was Statlander pinning Storm.
Storm’s in her amnesia rookie phase, so there’s plenty of time to drag this out, and the other two need to stay strong. Statlander, in particular, needed this after another shortcoming against Mercedes Mone. This was everything it needed to be and a little more.
👑There are a lot of questions with multiple good answers after this “Dynamite.” I give this show a Crown score of: 8/10. 👑
