AEW Dynamite 9/14/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary

(Credit: AEW)

Here’s where we landed with Dynamite from Albany this week. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.

AEW Dynamite - 9/14/2022

• Jon Moxley def. Sammy Guevara: ★★

• Jungle Boy def. Jay Lethal: ★★

• Powerhouse Hobbs def. Matt DiMartino: ★

• Swerve In Our Glory def. Lucha Bros to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship: ★★★

• Serena Deeb and Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. def. Toni Storm and Athena: ★★★

• Bryan Danielson def. Chris Jericho: ★★★★

Ratings mover (Credit: AEW)

Show Highlight—

• MJF.  MJF worked his ass off to get Albany to hate him and it just didn’t take.  It may be totally against the longterm plans but you’d think Tony would be crazy not to try it.  Even if you make it a Don Rickles-esque schtick where he playfully abuses the fans.  Smart move to hype up MJF before the commercial break to gauge the rating fluctuation not unlike what WWE would do with Cody and their graphics promoting him for Raw a few months back.  Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how fucking hilarious it was that MJF tweeted his full support for the PWI 500 rankings.  I’m chuckling now just writing this. What a genius.     

What Worked—

• Stokley’s Firm.  Every guy in his stable has a goal, they have ambition, and a title or stature they want.  And when has there ever been a stable where they outright say there’s an expiration date and they’ll eventually break up?

• Promoting Rampage.  Are they the biggest matches in the world?  No, but at least Tony is making a clear attempt at trying to move the needle and get fans invested again as opposed to just dumping the card whilst Excalibur does his best “Motormouth” John Moschitta impression.

• Powerhouse presentation.  They’re doing a great job of making him look like a star, having an aura, and keeping that spinebuster as goddamn brutal as the powerbomb symphony.

• Women’s division.  I was going to write how I love the combinations in this tag-team for future programs, and well, what better way to do this than have a 4-way match at Grand Slam for maximum star power (albeit, if you’re Serena Deeb and just pinned the champion, I’d suggest otherwise).  Having Jamie run out with the chair to gauge the fan reaction was smart.  Hopefully Tony hears it.  What a program for Full Gear that’ll be with Jamie and Britt.

• Tough titty.  God almighty, Jericho’s chest took such stiff shots his chest looked like Cody’s at Hell in a Cell.  This match was far superior to their perfectly fine outing at All Out.  More psychology with Bryan’s wheel getting badly injured ala Savage/Bret from an old Saturday Night’s Main Event in 1987.  I was convinced that this was a way to give Jericho the duke here, so it worked on me.  Danielson and Mox is the bigger match for the finals, and it’s believable that their stable would be fully supportive of facing each other again with no ill-effects.

• Tracking shot hard cam—They shot this show really well.  And what made it look so well, is the production truck kept going back to the more cinematic hard cam bellow the “main” hard cam.  I love how that looks.  Makes the wrestling seem more cinematic, more epic, without having to do over-do anything.

What Didn’t Work—

• Sammy’s got X-Pac heat.  You can’t read the comment sections and really believe that’s an accurate read on what the fanbase is thinking, but I guess I never realized how much people feel Sammy’s heat is go-away-heat.  Bit of a disappointment here, it felt like more of an extended squash with smidgen amount of offense (I’ll let someone else make the 5 star Meltzer rating jabs).  Weird low-blow that blew.  And if Sammy really wanted to lean into the go-away-heat, get that Michael Cole 2001 highlights on them bangs.

• 1/4/23.  Anyone else notice that Danielson is advertised right there in the front for the show in Seattle the same day as WrestleKingdom 17?  NJPW will have to save him vs. ZSJ for the next Forbidden Door…

• Action in-action.  I’ve been dying for hype videos of Hook training but it’s wasted on this guy.  I mean, whatever, I guess that helps make him seem somewhat um, athletic….  Hopefully I eat my words at Grand Slam and can be pleasantly surprised.

Show Cringe—

• Too much Marvez.  A lotta Alex for one show.  I’m sure he’s sweet as can be, but wear a suit that fucking fits.  He looks like someone who had their stomach stapled ten years ago but still wears the same clothes from the Jarred-before-Subway photos.

Semi-Finalists (Credit: AEW)

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