AEW Dynamite Review - February 2, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jon Moxley def. Wheeler Yuta

It was announced on Tuesday night on Twitter that Moxley would be facing The Brian Kendrick on this episode following his release from WWE being made official hours earlier. However, Kendrick was pulled from Dynamite right before the show started because of some abhorrent comments he made years ago that resurfaced online. I know he has since apologized, but that was probably the right call as it likely would have overshadowed the match itself. Yuta was an underwhelming replacement, but I know he made sense because Moxley previously squashed him before his hiatus. They had a well-wrestled match, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The post-match promo from Moxley and Bryan Danielson was the real focus. Danielson brought up the possibility of leading a faction with Moxley where they could mentor the likes of Daniel Garcia, Lee Moriarty and Yuta. I hope that happens even without Moxley being involved and we get Moxley vs. Danielson at Revolution instead.

Brandi Rhodes and Paige VanZant Brawled

Dan Lambert continues to be one of the absolute worst parts of AEW's weekly programming. I've said time and time again that the guy is a talented talker, but his materials in these promos is just awful. It's especially bad when he, Cody Rhodes or anyone else bring up the face/heel talk. Brandi is equally unlikable and I have no idea whether fans are supposed to be cheering or booing her. This seemed to set up a match between her and VanZant that I have no desire to see.

The Kings of The Black Throne def. Death Triangle (Penta El Zero Miedo and Pac)

Pac came out wearing a blindfold only to take it off halfway through the match. I feel they were expecting that to get a bigger reaction than it did. At least it's better than him wrestling with the blindfold on like Julia Hart with the stupid eyepatch. Penta and Pac are a fun team, but they aren't a true team like Malakai Black and Brody King are at this point, so the outcome was the correct one. This was an entertaining affair. I continue to hope that we haven't seen the last of Black in the singles ranks and that they'll recruit someone new into the group for King to team with primarily.

Nyla Rose def. Ruby Soho

Rose challenged Soho to a match last week because Soho eliminated her from the AEW TBS Championship Tournament. It's as simple as that. I don't blame the crowd being relatively quiet for this because they don't have a ton of bad blood built up and neither woman has a lot of momentum right now, but it was a quality contest and I appreciated that they were given an ample amount of time. Rose winning means there will at least be one more match between them.

Lance Archer Attacked AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page

This feud has been fine, but it's been fairly underwhelming considering it's over the AEW World Championship. Page has played his role well and Archer has been made out to look like a monster, but I don't think anyone actually believes he has a legitimate shot of becoming champion next week. Much like earlier, Lambert was once again the worst part about this segment and his presence was completely unnecessary. Page really does feel like an afterthought at the moment and hopefully he can go back to being a focal point on the program once he overcomes Archer.

MJF def. CM Punk

Between the entrances and the match itself, this was given the entire final 45 minutes of the show. That essentially eliminated any chance of this being more of an angle than a match and that's okay because at least they made it out to be as big of a deal as possible in Punk's hometown of Chicago. It turned out to be a great match paced very nicely and strong storytelling. I wasn't too fond of the restart finish in the middle (which they also did during MJF vs. Chris Jericho at All Out last year), but I realize it was done to keep the match moving so it didn't get boring after almost 40 minutes. The Wardlow twist was well done and MJF winning was the right call. I have no issue with him cheating to do so because it's line with what his character would do and it prolongs the program along with giving him a hell of an accolade to brag about (it's all about that heat, Bully Ray would be proud).

Overall Show

This was a one-match show in my eyes in that the main event delivered but everything else was mostly mediocre. The Moxley and Danielson interaction was interesting but Moxley vs. Yuta was not. I liked Kings of The Black Throne against Death Triangle, but the other stuff just sort of existed this week. The Brandi and Lambert segment in particular was brutal. That said, definitely make time to watch that main event. It's not often a Dynamite main event goes that long and it was justified in this case, making it that much more special.

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