AEW Dynamite Review - February 23, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

reDRagon Won a Tag Team Battle Royal to Advance to the AEW World Tag Team Championship Three-Way Match at Revolution

The first half or so of this was pretty standard for a Battle Royal. I appreciated that there was so much star power involved from the tag team division, but it didn't get exciting until the final stretch when it came down to Santana, Kyle O'Reilly, Matt Jackson and John Silver. The interactions between reDRagon and The Young Bucks were the highlights of the match and O'Reilly throwing out Jackson to win further teases tension between the teams. The post-match angle with Adam Page going after reDRagon and Cole coming to their aid was excellent. Page is finally starting to feel like a focal point of the show. Also, I'm invested in this story they're telling with Young Bucks, reDRagon and Cole. I'm looking forward to Kenny Omega returning soon so he can factor into it as well.

CM Punk Confronted MJF

Holy shit. This was one of the most unique and best promos I've ever heard MJF cut, and that's saying something given the gems he's been responsible for over the years. It was a total babyface promo, and although the crowd booed him the entire time, we were all waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did. It's bound to at some point, but not this week, and it ended on a very interesting note instead. This was stellar stuff and I loved how they played it off with Punk buying into it. They needed to find new ways to keep this feud hot going into Revolution and they definitely did that.

Death Triangle (Pac and Penta Oscuro) def. The Kings of The Black Throne

First of all, the new look for Penta is awesome. It's obviously inspired by his time spent as Pentagon Dark in Lucha Underground, and considering that was a great time in his career, I'm all for revisiting that character in AEW. He and Pac previously lost to Malakai Black and Brody King, so I was fine with them avenging that loss here. It was a very fun match, though I would've had Penta pin King instead of Black. Obviously, their victory was quickly overshadowed by the debuting Buddy Matthews, who is officially the third member of The House of Black. Given his history with Black from WWE, that makes perfect sense.

Chris Jericho and Eddie Kingston Exchanged Words

I've been saying for a while that almost anything involving Jericho has been among the worst stuff on Dynamite every week, but I'm happy he's ditched the goofy crap lately in favor of this more serious side we're seeing from him. It reminds me of the Jericho we were getting when he originally arrived in AEW, as Kingston alluded to, not the Mimosa Mayhem garbage. This was an outstanding verbal exchange from both men, though I could have done without the constant jabs at WWE. Some were fine and funny, others were unnecessary. All in all, this was a wonderful piece of business. We need more of this Jericho and I'm not surprised Kingston was able to bring it out of him.

FTW Champion Ricky Starks def. Preston "10" Vance to Qualify for the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match (Non-Title)

As someone who was in attendance, I can tell you that virtually no one cared about this match. I realize everyone was still coming down from the hot segment that preceded it, but it feels like Starks has no momentum right now and Vance is coming off a loss to Cole last week on Rampage. The match was fine yet forgettable. On the bright side, I'm glad Starks qualified for Revolution even though he has zero chance of winning.

AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill def. The Bunny

This was one of Cargill's most competitive matches to date and I have no idea why. I understand Thunder Rosa and Ruby Soho taking Cargill to her limit, but why The Bunny? She hasn't been positioned as anyone important since the start of AEW. Hell, I can't remember the last match she won on TV. To their credit, though, this was better than I thought it would be and the crowd was into some of those close nearfalls. Tay Conti is a nice first feud for Cargill, though I don't know if I'd be rushing into that at Revolution.

Bryan Danielson def. Daniel Garcia

I'm shocked this was only added to the show a few hours beforehand. I'm not saying it would have done a huge number or anything (I can understand the average viewer not giving a crap given Garcia rarely wins whenever it matters most), but AEW usually does a better job of advertising cool stuff like this in advance. Nonetheless, it was the well-worked main event you'd expect from them, though it didn't reach that next level like I was hoping it would. Hopefully they intentionally held out for future encounters. The post-match setup for Danielson vs. Jon Moxley at Revolution was well done

Overall Show

This was the third Dynamite show I've attended (the first two being in Boston in 2019 and 2021 respectively) and it was easily the most well-rounded one yet. There was some quality wrestling sprinkled throughout, but the best part about the episode was the mic work. Those promos from MJF, Kingston and Jericho were top-notch and did their job of leaving me excited for Revolution. AEW has one more week left until the pay-per-view, but based on what's been advertised, I'm already sold.

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