AEW Dynamite 11/30/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
The Devil (Credit: AEW)
Here’s where we landed with this week’s Dynamite from Indianapolis. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 11/30/2022
Bryan Danielson def. Dax Harwood: ★★★★1/2
Samoa Joe def. AR Fox to retain the AEW TNT Championship: ★★
Ricky Starks def. Ari Davari: ★
Willow Nightingale def. Anna Jay: ★
Death Triangle def. The Elite def. Death Triangle: ★★★★
Danielson and Dax (Credit: AEW)
Show Highlight—
MJF attacks Regal. Think of how great of a performer MJF was here to fight upstream. He had to run through a lot of storyline exposition, thus taking the crowd out of everything for a little bit. Add to that, the audience is resenting him because they do want to cheer him as the top babyface. Most ironic of all some of his schtick was getting old as it totally did feel like he was running through the same old hits. MJF, maybe even more than his fictionalized persona, just can’t live with himself cutting a B promo, and at one point, you can see him feel he needs to get back to his old impossibly monumental standards, and he cut back at the crowd during a lull by screaming, “I’m talking here, Indiana!” Saying those words, you could tell he felt them recede and his way of getting them back was acknowledging that he doesn’t wrestle, all he does is talk, he makes his opponents jump through hoops, and threatens to not wrestle unless it’s a big show that they’re not going to get for free. Meta, perfectly timed.
The scuttlebutt is that Regal is going back to WWE. Whatever, we don’t know. But if they were going to write him off, Regal lying on the mat like Tommy from Goodfellas by MJF is the way to do it. Consider the sinister arch Max has just completed: MJF is so evil he takes advantage of Regal’s enjoyment of violence for violence’s sake and turns Regal’s all’s fair in combat ethos against him to not only get the payback for a previous grievance, but MJF gives Regal what was coming to Regal and what he pretty much initially asked for. If you really think about it, it’s some Cartman in “Scott Tenorman Must Die” shit. A fantastic, in-real time recovery, all the while juggling so many things at once in and out of the ring, and in and out of kayfabe. Why can’t he be cemented as the best heel talker in the industry’s history already? He fucking had “Better Than You” lined in his suit.
What Worked—
Moxley/Hangman brawl. Complex, layered storytelling sometimes isn’t necessary when two guys that like to fight want to fight. In the scheme of things they did nothing and it worked perfectly. Mox making light of Hangman’s concussion was a perfect shitty thing to say to earn the endless pull-apart brawls. Oh, and it couldn’t have just been me that died a thousand deaths when Mox slipped. I thought he’d be out for three months after that to just get one more ill-timed AEW injury in for the year.
Danielson vs. Dax. MOTN; a wonderful blend of striking and technical mastery. The story they told was that they were completely even as wrestlers, something that is now mirroring where they stand amongst the hardcore fans and, most likely, their own peers. A simple but effective spot that demonstrated this story was when they fell into each other after a series of strikes and crumbled to the mat in exhaustion. I got got from the false finish kick-out of Danielson’s kick to a crouched Harwood, thinking Dax was going to pull off an upset win now, knowing they’d go home after Dax hit the sit-down Liger bomb and put the sharpshooter on after their legs got bundled up. Dammit, I wanted to throw all my objectivity out the window and just see Dax get a big singles win. Another MOTY candidate on one of the best resumes for best wrestler of the year that most wrestlers couldn’t put together in a career.
Samoa Joe. Joe as a heel will be a better presentation. A nice upgrade from perennially nursing some sort of arm injury, as if that was a character.
Orange Cassidy’s no sell. Goddamn that made me laugh. These two could be like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. OC went with whatever Marshall wanted for the match, much to QT’s befuddlement.
Match 3. The idea that a mere four star match is the disappointing match in this series just shows how fresh this still is feeling. I wanted to see Death Triangle sweep them, just for something completely different.
What Didn’t Work—
War Dog’s wardrobe? Wrestling fans will post about Wardlow with existential dread that he’s being ruined and not going to become the successor to Batista or Goldberg as we’ve collectively pined for. Here’s my worrywart stupid shit…I worry that the fans could reject him after one too many bold choices with high fashion. Like one day he’ll shop from the MJF rack of the department store and that’ll be the breaking point.
Show Cringe—
ROH PPV build. It is what it is sometimes with AEW/ROH: a storyline has gone on for half a year, and somehow another match between two factions still seems thrown together, yet you know it’ll take an act of god for the PPV match to be anything less than excellent. That’s how it feels for Garcia and Yuta. Maybe there’s an injury, maybe there’s personal life shit, maybe—and most likely explanation of all—there’s just a finite amount of TV time one can devote to on Dynamite. That segment just landed like, that’s the best you got? Somehow the less is more approach was perfect for Mox and Hangman but not satisfactory for this. Wrestling’ll do that.
The Elite take one (Credit: AEW)
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