AEW Dynamite 3/22/2023 Match Ratings and Commentary

(Credit-AEW)

Here’s how we rated this week’s Dynamite from Missouri. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.

AEW Dynamite - 3/22/2023

• Orange Cassidy, Sting, and Darby Allin def. Kip Sabian and The Butcher and The Blade: ★★★

• The Gunns def. Top Flight to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship: ★★

• Hook def. Stokely Hathaway: ★

• Jon Moxley def. Stu Grayson: ★★

• Toni Storm def. Skye Blue: ★★

• Kenny Omega def. El Hijo del Vikingo: ★★★★ 1/2

Dream match (Credit-AEW)

Show Highlight—

• Kenny Omega vs. El Hijo del Vikingo.  What a match and a breakthrough performance by Vikingo.  Just absolutely insane that he’s able to hit those ranas so seemingly effortlessly.  Kenny gave Vikingo a ton in this match and wrestled almost like a modern, babyface Randy Savage.

  I was part of the fanbase that hadn’t seen Vikingo wrestle previously but saw clips (but I didn’t NEED to see a month of build because I can give both AEW and AAA the benefit of the doubt that the stars will only align briefly and you have to do things while you have a window of opportunity).  Anyways, he looked great in defeat and came off like he’ll be a hot commodity that any American promotion would instantly sign.  I’m sure a lot of podcasts will have hot takes that it hurts AEW to feature someone so prominently that they won’t sign but Jesus, just appreciate a fantastic match and AEW gaining a stronger partnership with another promotion.

What Worked—

• Show thread.  Great bookending of the show with the Blackpool Combat Club attacking The Elite and AEW peppered in enough openings for future storylines (best of all did the BCC attack The Young Bucks or was it CM Punk or Jay White or Takeshita?).

• Red white and blue ropes!  That made me so fucking happy to see.  Makes perfect sense with the new color scheme of Dynamite.  Funny how a slight little change like that can be so aesthetically pleasing to the eye and satisfy the nostalgia one has for old school wrestling.

• Opening trios match.  What fun.  The babyfaces all looked great in their respective roles and looked like they were enjoying the match as much as the crowd did.  Sting doing OC’s schtick was classic.  He still looks like he’s 20 years younger.

• The Gunns/FTR face-off.  I’m shocked with all the fucking inside baseball going on in AEW TV that there wasn’t a joke that if the Gunns win, Dax can’t make a vaguely worded Tweet about the direction of FTR.  The crowd was into it, but man, I’m getting taken out of FTR with all the teases of worked shoots or if they’re coming or going or signing or not signing or whateverthehell.

• Stokely Hathaway.  This was some Bobby Heenan shit.  He was fantastic and genuinely funny.  The entrance with his own stable having zero confidence in him, retiring before the match starts, the doctors note on the receipt from Wingstop, all great antics that make the show fun to watch.

  It’s funny too, because I haven’t published this on the site yet, but I re-watched Mega Matches on the WWE network to write about for the site and it features a Bobby Heenan vs. Big Bossman match and they played this match like a perfect cover of that match.

  Stokely bet on himself by leaving WWE and he is going to be rewarded for playing his hand perfectly.  Soon enough, he’s going to be known as the successor to Paul Heyman as the most over manager in the industry.

• Adam Cole/Daniel Garcia face-off.  Adam Cole is over huge.  He’s clearly the next babyface and he’s just so damn likable.  AEW can run the 4 pillars for Double or Nothing and then have Adam Cole get the title shot with MJF at All Out.  Daniel Garcia’s Color Me Badd-ish clothing is killing it, especially with that little dance moves he does.  Perfect sacrificial lamb for Cole’s return match.

What Didn’t Work—

• Shock zoom.  Nitpicking here, but God it sucks ass that the zoom-onto-the-shocked-face-after-a-two-count seems to be part of the standard way to shoot wrestling now.

Show Cringe—

• QTV.  Not funny and more broadly performed than a lesser Leslie Nielsen vehicle.

  I was right in that they’d lean into the wrestling journalism thing but  actually giving Meltzer a reference on TV is the fucking laziest, squirmiest, shit imaginable.  I never understood the endgame in that.  Especially if you really think he’s not gathering enough accurate sources, or who is he to criticize as he’s never wrestled before, whatever the beef is, actually fucking call him out with something good and go for the throat.  These wimpy, cutesy references are not only lame but they only end up giving him a bigger platform.  Oh yeah, and it gets nobody over.

  Before they pull the plug on this—which they will—they ought to really ratchet up the obnoxiousness and have Saraya on to scream this is her house before the next coat of paint goes on The Factory.

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The Firm (Credit-AEW)

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