AEW Dynamite 2/22/2023
MJF and Danielson (Credit-AEW)
Here’s how we rated this week’s Dynamite from Phoenix. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 2/22/2023
Orange Cassidy def. Wheeler Yuta to retain the AEW All-Atlantic Championship: ★★★★ 1/4
The Acclaimed def. Lee Moriarty and Big Bill: ★★
Saraya def. Skye Blue: ★
Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal won the Revolution Tag Team Battle Royal: ★★
Jon Moxley def. Evil Uno: ★★
Mox (Credit-AEW)
Show Highlight—
Orange Cassidy vs. Wheeler Yuta. What a classic bout and an even better example of a match that blew away expectations. Like his bout with Will Ospreay, this will be used in conversion therapy to OC fandom. The story was the old cliche about past partners knowing each other hold for hold and their pride wouldn’t them get beat by the other man.
Once they got to the spot where they spit gum and loogies at each other, the crowd was going to have a conniption, but when OC only got a two on the orange punch, it went over like Taker nearly getting pinned in the streak-era at Mania. The role of Claudio as angry grandpa at the end was hilarious, making a perfect meme for years to come.
What Worked—
Phoenix. Awesome first time market. That card looked Rampage-y at best on paper but the wrestlers and the fans made it a tremendous atmosphere that proves Phoenix is worthy of getting a PPV—just not before Detroit, of course, that would be fucking blasphemous. Clearly the building as a whole was not sold out, but enough of the lower bowl was, giving the production team the ability to light it better than some of the lower drawing markets and unabashedly use cranes.
Chris Jericho. Just when you want him to take a hiatus and tour with Fozzy, that magnificent bastard wears the unlikely mashup of Beetlejuice and David Lee Roth. And he does the perfect click of a pen to a great, cheap pop.
Leg’s like linguine. Anyone else think Christian’s crawl intentionally looked like Chappelle’s Rick James after he got his legs wailed on by the Murphy brothers? Just me? Not a timely reference but whatever…
MJF’s promo. His character really is something, they way he can project whatever he hates about himself onto his opponent as his public motivation for why he despises them. Because his recent promos were not hovering on the top 20 of all time during this recent stretch, of course some pockets of wrestling Twitter acted like he was losing his appeal entirely and shouldn’t have the belt anymore. Anytime you get to see how disturbed MJF the character is at his core, it’s captivating television, especially when the lines are so blurred that you don’t know what is and isn’t a shoot. This was so effective that afterwards I couldn’t shake it off and was genuinely hoping that whoeverthefuck Max Friedman actually is can distance himself psychologically from his on-screen character. Does it make you a mark to be unnerved that the guy’s made two suicide ideation references on TV this year?
What Didn’t Work—
Tony’s announcement. It’s a bit disconcerting that Tony was savvy enough to structure the show around the announcement to pop a number and it worked. Disconcerting in that you don’t want him to become a Vince-like on-air presence that the network wants to see on TV for ratings as it’ll only have diminishing returns. But in fairness to Tony, he totally deflected to Adam Cole and knows he’s not a great television performer. As to the reality show itself, who knows, it could be huge if done right. What’s also has to be seen as a positive, is that the network has to be in favor of extending their relationship if they’re going to give AEW another hour. It’ll tragically cut into Dana White’s Good Ol’ Fashioned Goon Hand Hour but whattyagonnado.
Show Cringe—
Show Cringe: Nothing—very strong show!
Evil Uno is Hardcore (Credit-Evil Uno)
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