Dynamite kicked off with the return of Jim Ross to a big ovation. Nice moment and great to see J.R back.
Jurassic Express, Christian Cage & Lucha Brothers vs FTR, Matt Hardy & Private Party
I find that sometimes matches like this can become a bit of a mess with the amount of people involved, but here they had a good match laid out and everyone was allowed time to get their stuff in without it falling apart.
I really enjoyed Christian Cage and FTR in this match and I would be down for a Christian and friend teaming up against FTR or even a singles match between Christian and Dax which could be a lot of fun.
Luchasarus was over big time with the Jacksonville crowd and has been getting some good reactions all over the country in recent times. Most of the match was built up to a big hot tag which led to the dinosaur coming in and cleaning house.
The match breaks down during the end with a lot of action happening at once. Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix were on fire with some high-flying offense and it’s going to be great when they oppose each other in the ring next week.
Penta was looking to hit the Fear Factor for the win but Christian blind tags himself in, they had also been teasing the issues between Jurassic Express and Lucha Brothers throughout the match. Christian and Penta get into an argument which leads to FTR hitting the Big Rig on a distracted Cage for the win.
Eddie Kingston and Santana & Ortiz vs Daniel Garcia and 2.0
They really put over the animosity between the teams in this match, especially between Kingston and Garcia. It involved a lot of brawling and at time Kingston didn’t seem to care much about winning, but more about dishing out some pain on Garcia and 2.0
The match never went to a high level in terms of quality bit it never needed too, and I thought they told a good story with Garcia and 2.0 being in the heads of Eddie Kingston. They got around nine minutes of action with the ending seeing Lee get the rollup with a handful of tights on Ortiz for the win.
Post-match, Garcia and 2.0 continue the beatdown on Eddie, Santana and Ortiz including laying Santana out with the ring bell. Judas finally hits as Chris Jericho makes his big return, bringing Floyd along as he clears house.
Kingston isn’t appreciative of Jericho coming to the rescue and both men look like they are about to start trading fists, but Ortiz stands between them to prevent anything happening.
I’m curious to see where this is going to go. I think we will eventually get a Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia match which should be good, but I am thinking long term the bigger picture is between Jericho and Kingston and what effect it could have on the Inner Circle with Santana and Ortiz having to choose sides.
Colin Delaney vs Wardlow
Maybe there’s some alternate universe out there where Colin Delaney defeats Wardlow, but in this one Wardlow kills him quickly with a powerbomb symphony.
Shawn Spears can’t control his chair fetish and decides to attack Colin with a vicious shot post-match.
Thunder Rosa vs Jade Cargill
This was the second semi final in the TBS Title tournament with the winner to advance to the final next week against Ruby Soho.
It wasn’t match of the night or something we will be talking about for months, but I thought it was Jade Cargill’s best match in her career thus far and sharing the ring with an experienced veteran in Thunder Rosa made sure that she was going to look good in a match that got some time.
Thunder Rosa goes after the knees of Jade early in the match and they tell the story of the smaller competitor trying to cut down the size difference and avoid the power game of Jade. It was simple but effective and Jade did a decent job of selling.
Coming into this match I wasn’t sure who they would have go over as I thought there was a strong case for both to win, but they would ultimately have Jade Cargill get the pinfall after Mark Sterling distracts the referee allowing a hooded figure to take a cheap shot at Rosa.
Thunder Rosa tries to get some revenge on Jade after the match, but the hooded figure enters the ring again. She’s revealed to be Mercedes Martinez who aligns herself with Jade as both women double team Rosa. Ruby Soho runs down the ring with a led pipe to make the save as the heels leave the ring.
Martinez brings a lot of experience to the women’s division and should have some good matches with Thunder Rosa.
Other Segments
- Christian and Jurassic Express are interviewed backstage. Cage isn’t happy with what happened in the match. Lucha Brothers interrupt and they trade some insults with the World Tag Titles match being set for next week.
- MJF, Shawn Spears and Wardlow were backstage. They continue the dissension between Wardlow and MJF with MJF revealing in the contract that if Wardlow were to win the TNT Title or any title that he would have to relinquish it to MJF.
- Dan Lambert with Men of the Year cut a scathing promo on Cody Rhodes and made it personal by mentioning Brandi and basically calling her a whore. Brandi has enough and comes out to confront him, calling him Paul Heyman lite which Lambert responds with that he’s more like Jim Cornette. They tease that it’s going to get physical between the two, but Dustin Rhodes comes out to calm down the situation. With his back turned, Men of the Year jump him. This could be a way of injecting Paige VanZant into the mix.
- CM Punk came out to a huge reaction as he is making his first appearance at Daily’s Place. Punk had some nice words for Jim Ross, the late great Brodie Lee, and put over how Daily’s Place is the home of AEW. He brings up that he is here to ultimately become the World Champion and teases that he could be challenging for it soon. He also mentions that his path will once again cross with MJF but for now it seems to be done. I’m thinking they’ll meet each other at Revolution and the feud will be put on the back burner for a month or so until they’re ready to heat it up again.
- Brian Pillman Jr. cut a great promo hyping up his match next week against Malakai Black. He vows he will get revenge for Griff Garrison. Pillman had a lot of intensity and played the role of the fired up babyface with a lot of confidence. This guy is going to be a great face in the future and a tremendous heel when the time is right to turn him.
- Backstage promo with the Young Bucks, Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly. There’s friction between the Bucks and Kyle, with Adam Cole being in the middle. Kyle wants to talk to Cole alone and brings up their history in NXT but Kyle willing to put it in the past. I also like that this could be a long game of Kyle looking to get payback on Adam Cole.
- We got a promo from Darby & Sting and The Acclaimed, It’ll be Bowens vs Darby on Rampage, as well as The Bunny and Penelope Ford against TayJay in a street fight which they hyped up. They also continued to the feud between Hikaru Shida, and Serena Deeb and it looks like we are getting a Kris Statlander and Layla Hirsch feud. It’s nice to see the women’s division getting more airtime to tell stories outside of the title picture.
Orange Cassidy and Best Friends vs Adam Cole and reDRagon
I love the seriousness of Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish. Kyle immediately looked like a badass in this match and his chemistry with Bobby Fish was on full display and I am very excited to see them tearing it up together in the future.
This was a great six-man tag team match which was probably expected when you have these six men together in the ring. Orange Cassidy’s comedy was kept to a minimum and only used as a way to get into his opponent’s heads. This is one of those times where it works, and I liked seeing a more aggressive version of him.
They played up the history between Trent, Kyle, and Bobby Fish with their many battles in NJPW and some of the exchanges with Trent and ReDRagon stood out.
There was a moment where Kyle accidentally kicks Adam Cole which adds more to their issues.
We get Brandon Cutler coming down to the ring who ends up distracting the referee. This allows the Young Bucks to sneak into the ring and hit a double superkick on Chuck Taylor as Bobby Fish and O’Reilly finish him off with the Chasing the Dragon for the win.
Cole, Fish and O’Reilly were tremendous as a unit and picked up where they left off in NXT. I’m intrigued with the story and where it’s going to lead. They played up the issues throughout the show between Kyle, Adam Cole, and The Bucks.
I’m intrigued to see what unfolds next. I know some are expecting Cole to eventually turn on the Bucks and resurrect the Undisputed Era, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if they were to take it in some completely different direction. Kyle is a great addition to AEW and I’m really looking forward to seeing him more in 2022.
Final Thoughts
Solid edition of Dynamite to end the year. The main event was great and match of the night, but the rest of the card was good too. Next week they move to TBS and have basically set up a mini PPV with the World Title rematch, the World Tag Team Titles on the line and the final of the TBS Title Tournament.