AEW Dynamite Review - March 2, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tony Khan Announced His Acquisition of Ring of Honor

This has been rumored by a number of people for a few days and now it's a reality. This is awesome news. Without ROH, there is no AEW. I'm not sure what this means for the promotion itself as far as running shows because no one is technically under contract to the company anymore, but I definitely see this as a positive, especially since it means AEW officially owns ROH's tape library and that includes All In. ROH ending up on whatever streaming service AEW (hopefully) ends up would be cool as well. Khan screaming his way through this promo was unnecessary, but the actual announcement delivered and I'm excited to see what's next.

Bryan Danielson def. Christopher Daniels

Getting Danielson vs. Daniels in an impromptu match coming off that ROH announcement from Khan was pretty awesome. For those unaware, these two were involved in the first-ever main event in ROH history (along with Low Ki, of course). We haven't gotten Daniels in action on AEW TV in about 10 months, so this was a treat. They beat the hell out of each other and Daniels showed he can still go. The post-match promos from Danielson and Jon Moxley were well done and effectively built toward their upcoming clash at Revolution.

The Young Bucks Won the Casino Battle Royale to Advance to the AEW World Tag Team Championship Three-Way Match at Revolution

Much like last week's tag team Battle Royal, this was largely a mess that killed quite a bit of television time. That isn't to say it was bad by any means, but it was your average Battle Royal up until the hot closing stretch. I know 21 teams have to take part per the rules of a Casino Battle Royale, but there were way too many people in the ring at one point. At least we got the return of Top Flight after almost a year and the right team going over. The interactions between Young Bucks and reDRagon during Sunday's AEW World Tag Team Championship three-way will be worth keeping an eye on.

AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin and Sting Saved CM Punk From The Pinnacle

Everyone knew exactly where last week's angle was going, but that didn't make this segment any less great. Punk cut an excellent promo and the subsequent attack was perfectly executed. Punk bleeding a gusher was a really nice touch and was an amazing visual heading into the pay-per-view. Sting walking to the ring while Guevara and Allin ran to Punk's aid was unintentionally funny, but in all seriousness, this was a strong segment. This feud has been fantastic.

Thunder Rosa and Mercedes Martinez def. AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter

This was a logical tag team match to do given the events that have transpired with these four recently. Rosa and Martinez have quality chemistry as partners and I've been digging the underlying tension between Baker and Hayter. Has AEW not done more with it because it could be seen as being too similar to what AEW is doing with Wardlow and MJF? At any rate, this was a well-worked tag team match and Rosa pinning Baker was interesting. Fingers crossed that means Baker retains the title at Revolution because I'd like to see the feud stretch out a little longer.

Wardlow def. Cezar Bononi

These Wardlow squashes have been a weekly occurrence for many months now. I love Wardlow as much as the next guy and he's obviously over with the audience, but I don't know he needs to be squashing someone every single week when there's so many other people not getting television time. On the bright side, this was complete destruction from Wardlow, who literally hit his finisher two or three times and that was it. This was more about the face-off between Wardlow and Shawn Spears afterward. The fans are ready for that Wardlow turn, though I'd personally hold off until MJF wins the AEW World Championship.

Adam Cole and reDRagon def. AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds)

I'm always down for the former Undisputed Era teaming up, especially when it's in the main event. Silver and Reynolds have been booked like the biggest losers for some time now, but they were obviously there to take the loss for Page. The match itself was very entertaining and maintained a chaotic pace, possibly because they were running short on time (which is par for the course for Dynamite. The post-match angle did its job in putting last-minute heat on Cole going into Revolution, where I expect him to lose.

Overall Show

I don't think I've ever seen a weak go-home from AEW ahead of any of their pay-per-views for the past three years, but this one in particular was one of the best they've ever done, at least to my memory. I realize the ROH announcement had nothing to do with Revolution and that was what kicked off the show, but it created plenty of buzz and momentum that they followed up on with exceptional hype for Revolution, which is shaping up to be another outstanding event from AEW on paper. Of course, the company needs to improve at the pacing of these shows and not cramming so much into a two-hour window, but I came away from this episode very satisfied and amped up for Sunday night and whatever else the future holds.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews