AEW Dynamite 1/4/2023 Match Ratings and Commentary
Coffin Drop (Credit-AEW)
Here’s where we landed with this week’s, new-look Dynamite from Seattle. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 1/4/2023
Ricky Starks def. Chris Jericho: ★★★★
The Acclaimed def. Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship: ★★★
Bryan Danielson def. Tony Nese: ★
Swerve Strickland def. AR Fox: ★★★
Jade Cargill and Red Velvet def. Kiera Hogan and Skye Blue: ★
Darby Allin def. Samoa Joe for the AEW TNT Championship: ★★★
Ricky Starks (Credit-AEW)
Show Highlight—
Danielson back in Washington. Bryan Danielson is over like very few wrestlers in the history of the business, and when he’s in his home state, he gets eruptions like he’s Austin in Texas. Not implying Danielson has equaled Austin in terms of impact to the business, just stating that whenever Bryan is in WA, visually, the crowd creates such a visceral, joyous reaction it translates to the viewer you’re watching magic being captured.
What Worked—
New look. A new set and new look for Dynamite was long overdue, and thankfully, it was tweaking what they already had as opposed to going full-on Nitro ’99 with that sphincter-ish logo. The crowd was lit more, with white lights as opposed to coloring the audience in hues of blue or red. The camera itself seemed to have on a shorter lens to make the crowd seem bigger. The one angle on a crane was frequently used as the master establishing shot, giving the show a WWE-feel of making a wrestling event look bigger without ripping them off. I was terrified that the new look would be more cuts—which they do use far too much of, too—so my fears going into the show were thankfully unsubstantiated.
Best crowd ever? I didn’t think the shows in Texas could be topped but this was an amazing environment with a fanbase frothing for AEW. Maybe it was the new production upgrades, but finally the audience’s visual enthusiasm was equal to the audio pickup, something AEW has struggled with since its inception. Granted, it helped that all the local boys looked great and babyfaces won the big matches, but this week more than ever, AEW successfully captured that these shows are events you must attend. The party atmosphere and ruckus crowd does such a wonderful job of making you forget some of the rough patches AEW had in 2022 and gives you hope that 2023 is going to be the year we thought we’d get after All Out 2021.
Starks vs. Jericho. Like Triple H at his peak, Jericho knows how to incite dread that the match sequence he’s dominating in, will be the finish, only to give the babyface a perfectly-timed, improbable escape. This time it was the spot with the bat in the Walls of Jericho, which I fell for, to my delight. And make no mistake, Starks wasn’t being carried here. Ricky is on equal footing to Jericho and he’ll absolutely have a career of just shitting out 4 star gems like this.
Hangman and Mox. Great promo duel, great big-match, PPV quality build. Note that they’re still in a very low gear for how intense this feud feels. Nothing is overbooked or over-the-top. This ought to have legs to make it to a blow-off at Revolution.
Max Caster and Jeff Jarrett. In all fairness, it works now. The worked shoot shit was done fine in this instance and begrudgingly, I’ll admit it gave the match a little extra juice—why wouldn’t someone be pissed off by mentioning another man’s wife? But Christ it’s going to get tiresome if that’s the only way to keep Jarrett interesting is behind the scenes bullshit spun on Twitter or his fictional podcast with no payoff—and oh, L. Ron Hubbard, we do not need to see Dixie or Karen or worse, Kurt Angle come out and Sheikybaby his way through another match.
Saraya as socially oblivious. Kind of an interesting way to play her character, that she actually is just tone deaf and can’t read the room. It’s a natural way for storylines to begin like they did here with Shida, and eventually, it’ll sow the heel turn for AEW hardcores that resent carpetbaggers.
Iron Man Match. Nice way of playing tropes off each other to create something brand new—MJF doesn’t wrestle enough so Bryan assumes MJF will not have the wrestling endurance and overall experience to win in an Iron Man match and thus will be humiliated. Danielson will also go through MJF’s orchestrated onslaught of matches to prove in principal that he indeed is worthy of being the number one contender. Naturally, this provides an organic litmus test for both performers to see if they can get a great buyrate with damn near two months build towards the PPV. And! Extra bonus! An Iron Man match that’s an hour long will hopefully eliminate trying to cram in every performer on the roster in multi-person matches so they can push some bouts for a big-feel Dynamite or Rampage in the Cow Palace the week of the show.
What Didn’t Work—
Twin Peaks. Nobody’s saying that the production truck needs to scan for young ladies in the crowd to give Brent Musburger a boner, but Jesus, why did every face look downright Lynchian in the crowd during Jericho’s entrance? Watch it again on DVR, not to be a dick but…
Women’s slot. They gotta move them around the card and not put the women in that death slot each and every week of the show. You’re repeatedly telling the audience to stretch your legs and take a piss before the main event. You have a viable shot now to make something of this division.
Tony Nese. Like, I get it, Danielson needed just a squash match essentially because he was going to get a bananas reaction anyways and they had to zero in on the MJF segment which required focus and explanation. Tony Nese deserves better thought, as he’s a consistently strong performer who can put someone over convincingly and get a great match out of anyone. Selfishly, I thought they would open the show and get a four star match effortlessly. Hopefully we get to see them wrestle again.
Show Cringe—
Crazy bump. I’ll call myself out for being too sensitive in the wake of the horrific Damar Hamlin incident on Monday Night Football, but I didn’t need to see Darby take a goddamn Uranage on the steps. Before he was shit on by idiot fans on Twitter, Taz made a plea to the performers in the industry to be careful, and use that tragic event as a reminder to treat your body well. Maybe that was influencing my viewing experience too much, I dunno. Great that Darby got his big win in his hometown, I just want him to have a great run with the belt, and hopefully be able to drop the title on his terms as opposed to, I fear, needing to once the wheels come off.
Bryan Danielson and Tony Nese (Credit-AEW)
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