AEW Dynamite 9/7/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
MJF is back (Credit: AEW)
Here’s where we landed with Dynamite this week. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 9/7/2022
Death Triangle def. Best Friends to win the AEW World Trios Championship: ★★★★
Toni Storm def. Penelope Ford to retain the AEW Women’s Championship: ★
Wardlow def. Tony Nese to retain the AEW TNT Championship: ★
Bryan Danielson def. “Hangman” Adam Page: ★★★★1/4
Daniel Garcia def. Wheeler Yuta to win the ROH Pure Championship: ★★★★
Death Triangle (Credit: AEW)
Show Highlight—
MJF/Mox Opening Promos. MJF as the smarmy, intentionally brown-nosing babyface was hilarious. “…I was just kidding.” He plays to the crowd so well and the audience is dying to root for him. And it warms my Atheist heart that a crowd erupts for him proclaiming himself to be better than Moses. I thought they were going to do sort of a retcon with MJF and make him a face now, and maybe in the end that’s what you do with him if/when he gets the AEW World title. I would be riveted to watch weeks of him still being an insincere asshole and balancing the delicate line of him resisting the urge to be a spineless dick. But, Mox is a suitable top babyface. So when confronted by a real hero, MJF couldn’t help himself and goes right back to being a shithead. Mox took the babyface baton and ran with it, coming off like a sympathetic babyfaces of all babyfaces. Mox put over the AEW World title, and asked for the honor of being the top guy in the company.
What Worked—
Tony cut the shit. Tony Khan appeared on video (good call there, the crowd may have hijacked him) declaring the titles held by Punk and the Elite vacant and gave the fanbase the most logical and appealing ways to crown new champions. The tournament of champions is a great idea, where it’s a tournament of past AEW or TNT champions and they’ll crown the new champion at Grand Slam to make that event feel like a big deal in spite of all the backstage shit going on. And CM Punk has been totally scrubbed off the show.
Trios match. Who is more reliable to the AEW fanbase than these two teams? Fenix has been on an amazing run in all of his matches and is deserving of gold. Banger match.
Catfight. Ya gotta love the satisfying image of Danhausen punching Alex Abrahantes.
“You’re last name is ‘The Assistant.’” A wonderfully stupid and awesome line by John Silver. Also appreciate the logic and continuity of saying they can’t compete because of injuries to justify why the didn’t get to be in the match to decide the new Trios champs.
Listen. That was exactly how you needed to build a rematch to Swerve In Our Glory and The Acclaimed 2. Swerve cutting off a Max Caster was smart on a multitude of levels, as the fanbase could only imagine him going off like Pusha T on Drake about the shitshow backstage. One may nitpick at Keith Lee not being out there, but it makes sense that Swerve is the dick out of the two and he can turn heel in the end. And good god, for the thousandth time, who would have ever fucking imagined Billy Gunn could be so over and get the crowd that hyped.
Wardlow doesn’t need to be reheated. After bitching about how AEW’s reality-based storylines and inside baseball references are playing to a niche crowd, this actually worked, because it addressed concerns that the general fanbase that doesn’t have a wrestling podcast also fear. On a show that is all about rebuilding equity in the company, Wardlow emphatically stating he hasn’t lost momentum was smart, simple and effective.
Danielson/Hangman III. For a cold match they stole the show and put on a great, great match that was on-par with their previous classics.
Garcia IS a pillar. Crowning moment for Daniel Garcia in his hometown. It’s satisfying that a wrestling company continues to understand the importance of building the local guy/girl to win big in their own market to make the fans happy and glad they came. Jericho and Danielson played their parts to perfection here, this gives their rematch in the tournament a little more meaning and gravitas.
What Didn’t Work—
Stokely’s lament. Sure, maybe the show actually genuinely really was running out of time, but not sharing their motivation makes the heel group flat. What’s their why? You’re left wondering if MJF is or isn’t part of the stable. Like why wouldn’t they come out after Mox confronted MJF and he revealed his true, heel-ish nature? Not a biggie but a minor annoyance.
Show Cringe—
Women’s wrestling. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that on a show that was all about rebuilding the bridge with the fanbase and putting on the best show possible to Put Smiles On People’s Faces™, women’s wrestling was scantly featured. Awesome that Toni Storm got to defend her title, but that shit’s the basic expectation. They replayed the video of Jamie Hayter blowing off Britt Baker after the match at All Out, which again good, but you’d think they’d play that as bridge to them falling out in a tag-team match or segment inside the ring, as the fanbase is trained to think that has more meaning if it’s featured in-ring as opposed to a pre-taped segment. Tony Khan had a rough fucking go of it last week, but forgotten after the shitstorm is his defense of not having Thunder Rosa in-ring to relinquish her belt because of it not being a ratings draw. And to Tony’s defense on the Thunder Rosa slight, maybe there’s another reason why he didn’t give her that spotlight. Nevertheless, the audience that is vocal about women’s wrestling will still be justifiably annoyed. Women’s wrestling will matter only if you make it matter, and AEW has a great women’s locker room full of potential stars. Nevertheless, this continued the awesome Dynamite streak AEW is on and if AEW has to take two or three steps back with losing Punk (and even The Elite once their contracts expire), they’re taking a step forward in the end. Create stars like MJF, Wardlow, Hook, Garcia, The Acclaimed, Toni Storm, and Jamie Hayer—it’s all going to be fine.
Daniel Garcia (Credit: AEW)
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