AEW Dynamite Review - January 20, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Dark Order Celebrated -1's Birthday; "Hangman" Adam Page and Dark Order (Colt Cabana, Alex "3" Reynolds and John "4" Silver) def. Chaos Project and The Hybrid2

The birthday celebration for -1 (a.k.a. Brodie Jr., Brodie Lee's son) was cute. He isn't a regular on Dynamite, and this is his first birthday without his dad, so I thought it was a really nice gesture on AEW's part. I hated that Luther had to be a part of it though, even if he did get faceplanted into the cake later on. He has go-away heat with me. The eight-man tag team match was fun for what it was and I'm digging the chemistry Dark Order is having with Page. I got a kick out of the post-match bit with Page declining their offer to join the group yet Dark Order having a celebration on standby, anyway. I'm sure he'll end up aligning himself with them eventually, but AEW appears to be taking their time with it.

Team Taz Interrupted AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin and Sting

It's about damn time that there was some progression in this storyline with Sting, Allin and Team Taz. Sting spoke about how he sees himself in Allin but was interrupted by Team Taz on the big screen. They went back and forth and the exchange ended with Allin teasing that he and Sting would meet them in the streets. Sure enough, AEW confirmed the next day that Allin and Sting will battle Team Taz in a Street Fight at Revolution next month. That's a huge deal, though I'm not sure why that couldn't have been announced on Dynamite as opposed to social media. Here's hoping it's cinematic-style because I don't know if Sting being in an actual match at this point is such a good idea.

Cody Rhodes def. Peter Avalon

I'm sorry but Avalon doesn't belong on Dynamite, at least not in a lengthy match. He simply isn't at that level. He's better than Luther, but that's not saying much. I would have been perfectly fine with Cody hitting the Cross Rhodes in the first five seconds like he did and winning with that, instead of it dragging on for another 10 minutes because of Jade Cargill's distraction on the stage. The finish sucked, too. I am so done with the Cody and Cargill crap, I can't stress enough how little I care. I'm shocked AEW hasn't shifted gears with Brandi now pregnant.

Jon Moxley def. Nick Comoroto

This marked Moxley's first match since losing the AEW World Championship to Kenny Omega back on December 3rd. Has it really been that long since the Winter Is Coming show? Damn. Comoroto has shown signs of potential over on AEW Dark, so I was glad he was picked for this, even though he didn't do much before getting beaten in a matter of minutes. He was released by NXT last year (but never appeared on NXT TV), so we'll see if he ends up getting signed like Tay Conti did. Moxley cut his usual quality promo afterward and called out Omega. With Omega and The Good Brothers taking on Moxley, Pac and Rey Fenix at Beach Break, I assume Moxley will get his rematch against Omega at the Revolution pay-per-view.

Private Party and Matt Hardy def. Matt Sydal and Top Flight

In case you missed it, Private Party showed up on Tuesday's episode of IMPACT! Wrestling with Hardy and became the number one contenders to the Impact World Tag Team Championship. They came across as heels on that show, so I didn't know if AEW would continue to tease that here. Not only did they tease it, they cemented themselves as heels by cheating to win and attacking the babyfaces afterward. This was a pretty hectic six-man tag team match that exposed how green Top Flight are. It wasn't bad, but they need to slow things down once in a while. I'm hyped for the heel Private Party and Hardy pairing as I believe that has a lot of potential and should get Private Party back on the right track.

Penelope Ford def. Leyla Hirsch

Hirsch was originally supposed to face Nyla Rose before AEW announced that Rose came in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 and thus she had to miss the show. This ended up being a much better match than I was expecting. Then again, Hirsch has impressed me every time I've seen her in action these past few months, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The post-match stuff with Kip Sabian, Miro, Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy was trash. It's an angle that defines undercard crap.

Chris Jericho & MJF def. Sammy Hager and Santana & Ortiz in a Three-Way Tag Team Match to Become the Official Tag Team of Inner Circle

Why should I give a crap about who the official tag team of Inner Circle is? Listen, Inner Circle still have their moments and can be entertaining, but whatever story they're trying to tell has been dragging beyond belief. If the idea is to slowly build to a breakup, just get it over with already. These matches aren't serving much of a purpose in the meantime. This was all over the place and that Lionsault botch from Jericho was scary. I guess this means Santana and Ortiz will have to sit back and do nothing while Jericho and MJF get all the opportunities as a team. None of this made any sense, and the match wasn't amazing enough to justify it happening, especially in the main event spot.

Overall Show

Although I enjoyed this episode on the whole, it was definitely a downgrade from what we've come to expect from Dynamite. It felt like a filler show with not a lot happening. Multiple things moved forward and AEW always does a superb job of that (along with announcing the entire card for next week at the end), but there wasn't a ton of excitement on this show at all. The Dark Order stuff and Private Party's heel turn were the only things that stood out to me, as everything else existed and didn't leave me super satisfied once the evening was over.