AEW Dynamite 3/1/2023
Mox (Credit-AEW)
Here’s how we rated this week’s Dynamite from the famous Cow Palace in San Francisco. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 3/1/2023
Orange Cassidy def. Big Bill to retain the AEW All-Atlantic Championship: ★★
Powerhouse Hobbs won the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match: ★★★★
Chris Jericho def. Peter Avalon: ★
Hook def. Matt Hardy: ★
Toni Storm def. Riho: ★★
Orange Cassidy and Danhausen won the Revolution Casino Battle Royal: ★
Hobbs (Credit-AEW)
Show Highlight—
Moxley’s promo. What an all time great promo. It was the epitome of that old adage, it’s not what you say but how you look saying it. For all the shitting on Mox—some of it warranted—for the onscreen blading, you take one look at his image after he’s on that staircase and it’s on you if you think that that doesn’t register. That was real; that was visceral. There’s something beautiful about the way blood can be captured on video. The way this was shot, with the symmetry from the railings and his positioning on the steps, it was like a Francis Bacon painting. And there was more genius in the way the camera expertly panned down to the blood pooling on the floor in droplets as Mox barked, “it doesn’t count,” referring to the cheap win he got in the third bout. Here’s another old adage, red makes green. Pro wrestling can be fucking beautiful.
What Worked—
Hobbs won the ladder match. The hometown guy won in the biggest match of his career, what a concept! False equivalencies to Sami aside, AEW does have a great track record of saving moments for someone’s home court to enhance the moment for television and it worked like clockwork here. Hobbs looked like a future world champion, let alone TNT champ. The ladder match itself was a daring trainwreck that was like a big dumb action movie, but good God, was it done right.
Komander. I’m so glad I had no fucking clue who this guy was and was ignorant to his moveset before watching. That sprint down the ring ropes was one of the most impressive bits of gymnastics in wrestling I’ve seen in years. What a spot.
Christian. I wish he was on TV on a more frequent basis. It’s not his absence that makes the heart grow fonder, it’s his being the best shitheel ever that’s in full control of the crowd. Outside of MJF, who gets more heat that’s not go-away-heat? They threw out a great future narrative nugget of Christian winning a single’s title before Jungle Boy too, to make Jack’s eventual win seem like an even bigger deal.
Danielson’s go-home promo. MJF’s program isn’t shining as brightly as some of his previous Godlike work, but this angle of the looming 60 minute match is still great. Danielson dropped a perfectly timed F-Bomb to sell this and it worked to perfection. Having the main event be a promo after coming back from commercial with four minutes left felt like peak Monday Night Wars in 1998, but they got away with it based on Danielson shutting up MJF with all his intensity.
What Didn’t Work—
Beaten Big Bill. It doesn’t matter that Bill Bill lost to Orange Cassidy per se, OC is protected and over, it’s the fact that he lost in a (pretty much) cold match to take away the allure of the unstoppable giant. He was protected in the tag team with Lee Moriarty. Once he starts losing on the regular in singles matches what’s his usefulness at that point? He can always job to Brock Lesnar one day!
Kill the kill the lights. Harping on the storytelling in AEW is a sport right now but this one is indefensible. At least Booker T and Edge had a big shampoo sponsorship to fight over!
My wife is Jim Cornette. Mrs. Dr. Moore doesn’t regularly watch wrestling, but she caught the ladder match with me and her criticisms sounded exactly like the ones you’d imagine Corny would also share: “This is so removed from a simulation of amateur wrestling.” “Why do some guys climb so fast and some other guys climb so slow?” “Shouldn’t he (referring to Sammy) play pretend and act like he’s hurt?” And, because of course it was said, “Why are the refs holding the ladder?” I still liked this ladder match though!
Show Cringe—
Superfluous Battle Royal. It was a bad idea before the bell even rang. And it was worse when it was over. The staggered time, lack of Jokers, waste of Aussie Open, endless nature of it all, and a babyface team winning made this one of the bigger main event whiffs in Dynamite’s history. If the point is to put as much sympathy on The Acclaimed and keep them the biggest stars in the division, have The Butcher and The Blade or Rush and Preston Vance win so The Acclaimed have to overcome more odds at the PPV. The redeeming quality of it all, is at least it reminds the audience of the abundance of tag teams still in AEW. With FTR on hiatus, The Bucks with the trios, and The Acclaimed miles ahead of the pack, the tag roster did come off a bit depleted previously.
Danielson (Credit-AEW)
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