AEW Dynamite Review - December 16, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Hardy and Private Party def. "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex "3" Reynolds and John "4" Silver)

Page isn't an official member of Dark Order, but I guess he figured he'd give it a shot since his career is in the doldrums at the moment (from a storyline standpoint). His latest loss likely don't much to change his mind about joining. The match itself was entertaining and I liked Hardy's subtle heel tendencies, including making the blind tag at the end and pinning Reynolds for the win. That should slowly lead to dissension between him and Private Party. I predict Page will stick around Dark Order long enough for Brodie Lee to return and target him.

Cody Rhodes def. Angelico

Well, this was random. The Hybrid2 are coming off a hard-fought loss to The Young Bucks, so there was zero reason to think Angelico was going to win here. While the outcome was never in doubt, it was entertaining while it lasted and didn't overstay its welcome. Post-match, Team Taz threatened to attack Rhodes before Sting showed up. Even though Sting had a bat in his hand, you'd think the five men in Team Taz would have jumped the 61-year-old, anyway. It was a nice tease for Sting's future interactions with Rhodes and Darby Allin, even though his cameo here didn't feel necessary. On a side note, congrats to Cody and Brandi on their big pregnancy announcement!

Lance Archer and Death Triangle Brawled with Eddie Kingston, The Butcher and The Blade

Kingston was in the midst of addressing all of his enemies when Archer emerged and began to brawl with him. That brought out Butcher, Blade, The Lucha Brothers and the returning Pac. It was a hot segment that set up a possible eight-man tag team match for down the road, though I'm not sure who would team with Kingston, Butcher and Blade. It was teased that Archer and Pac aren't completely on the same page and that could combust before long. In the meantime, Pac will face Butcher one-on-one next week.

Inner Circle (MJF, Chris Jericho, Santana, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager) def. Varsity Blondes, Top Flight and Best Friends

This 12-man tag team match was originally announced as a 14-man tag team match, but apparently a family emergency led to Wardlow pulling out from the show. That resulted in Brandon Cutler being pulled as well and you won't get any complaints out of me for that. This was a mess like I feared it would be but still passable. They did their best to keep things flowing and not too chaotic, but it fell apart down the stretch. One thing I did like about this was that Top Flight came away from it looking good and challenging Jericho and MJF to a tag matchup next week.

The Acclaimed def. SCU (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian)

I've spoken highly of The Acclaimed in my Dark reviews over the past two months as they've impressed me quite a bit. I'm happy they're already on Dynamite and now own a big win over the inaugural AEW World Tag Team Champions SCU. It was a fun match with SCU doing an excellent job as always of elevating the younger talent. The Acclaimed called out Young Bucks and challenged them to an AEW World Tag Team Championship matchup for next week, which was made official soon after. For what it's worth, Kazarian was yelling at Daniels afterward, so I don't know if they were supposed to be teasing tension or if Kazarian is just continuing his anger management gimmick from Being The Elite.

NWA World Women's Champion Serena Deeb and Big Swole def. Ivelisse and Diamante

Yes, Ivelisse and Diamante are still a thing despite not appearing on Dynamite much since winning The Deadly Draw what felt like ages ago. They're a perfectly serviceable team but are basically lackeys at this point for Nyla Rose and Jade Cargill. Maybe that's the best role for them at this point. This was a well-wrestled match that served its purpose in giving the babyfaces a win and likely planting the seeds for Swole vs. Deeb for the NWA World Women's Championship at some point.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega def. Joey Janela in a No Disqualification, Anything Goes Match (Non-Title)

Although I couldn't care less about Janela, I appreciated that AEW didn't forget about how Janela was supposed to be in the World Title Eliminator before being replaced by Sonny Kiss due to unforeseen circumstances. They had a pair of matches late last year, including a Lights Out match on Dark (which I was in attendance for), so they had experience working in an extreme environment. This worked for what it was and played to Janela's strengths. The real highlight was the post-match announcement that Omega will be defending the AEW World Championship against Rey Fenix in two weeks as he too wasn't able to face Omega in the World Title Eliminator. That's a hell of a hook for the final Dynamite of the year.

Overall Show

The "Winter is Coming" edition of Dynamite was on another level. Last week's show was definitely a comedown but still solid. This was along those same lines albeit less exciting in my opinion. There wasn't a lot I was looking forward to coming into the episode and I honestly don't regret not tuning in live. It felt like filler, but I'm sure that was done by design with everything that's being set up for the coming weeks. The two hours were enjoyable but far from must-see.