AEW Dynamite Review - March 9, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Daniel Garcia and 2point0 Attacked Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz

I don't think it's a stretch to say that Kingston and Jericho had one of the best matches of their respective AEW careers at Revolution. They had a solid verbal exchange, but you had to know something was up with Jericho playing up the nice guy act. Sure enough, he dropped the boom and turned on Kingston as well as Santana and Ortiz, splitting up Inner Circle in the process. I was looking forward to Jericho being back on his own as a heel and I would've been fine with Hager as his heavy since there's nothing else for him to do, but putting the two of them with Garcia and 2point0 is such a dumb idea. He's basically trading one faction for another, and a significantly weaker one at that. Jericho Appreciation Society is a dumb name to boot.

AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page def. Dante Martin

I realize Martin is the number two ranked singles wrestler, but no other explanation was given as to why this match happened and why it wasn't announced earlier than it was (I first saw it advertised on Twitter two hours beforehand). That aside, this was a fun television match despite the outcome never being in doubt. Dante definitely gained something in defeat even though he's headed back to the tag team ranks alongside his brother. Post-match, Adam Cole challenged Page to a six-man tag team match next week instead of to another shot at the AEW World Championship, which was weird.

Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley def. The Workhorsemen

The Workhorsemen are the team of JD Drake and Anthony Henry, who previously wrestled as Asher Hale in WWE NXT. I believe the two of them have a history from EVOLVE, but that wasn't what mattered here because this was all about Danielson and Moxley as it should have been. There may have been some that were disappointed this wasn't more competitive, but Danielson and Moxley needed a dominant win for their first time teaming. The best part about this whole thing was William Regal's post-match promo, where he spoke about his history with both men and what prompted him to join AEW. It was spectacular stuff and one of my favorite promos I've heard cut on Dynamite. Then again, I'm a massive Regal fan, so that shouldn't be too surprising. I'm extremely ecstatic about this group of Moxley, Danielson and Regal and what AEW has in store for them.

Pac def. Wheeler Yuta

I really liked how this match was only added to the show because the AEW World Championship match had a 60-minute time limit and it didn't even go 10 minutes. That's awesome attention to detail and, in storyline, would explain why this wasn't the most meaningful match. Pac lost alongside Penta Oscuro and Erick Redbeard to House of Black on the Revolution Buy-In, so this was likely designed to get Pac back on track. It just sort of existed but was fine while it lasted.

Jeff Hardy, Darby Allin and Sting Saved Matt Hardy from Andrade El Idolo, Private Party and The Butcher and The Blade

As soon as the "emergency meeting" was announced for The A.H.F.O., you had to know exactly where it was leading, and that's not a bad thing. Matt had been teasing tension with the rest of the group for weeks and it finally came to a head here with Andrade kicking him out. That was the perfect opportunity for Jeff to debut and it went over wonderfully. The fact Tony Khan was able to land "Loaded" as the entrance theme for The Hardys is so damn cool. This was a great segment and I'm pumped for this one last run for The Hardys.

Wardlow Addressed MJF

This was obviously the most we've ever heard Wardlow speak and I thought he did a fantastic job. I was happy no one interrupted him while he talked about why he agreed to work for MJF in the first place and why he wasn't going to stand for his bullying tactics anymore. MJF never came out, so since Wardlow is contending for the AEW TNT Championship next week, I assume we'll see something happen where MJF will either cost him the title or force him to hand it over if he wins. Either way, Wardlow showed how much of a star he was with his mic work in this segment. He's incredibly well spoken.

AEW World Tag Team Champions Jurassic Express def. The Acclaimed

I wish this match was saved for another time because it got lost in the shuffle on such a stacked show and felt like an afterthought. That said, the action was very good and the two teams worked well together. The Acclaimed never really win whenever it matters most, but then again, they came close on some of those nearfalls down the stretch. It's nice to see Jurassic Express some more love on Dynamite lately after being relegated to Rampage for a while.

Thunder Rosa def. "Legit" Leyla Hirsch in an AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator

I appreciate that AEW had Rosa earn another title shot by having her beat another top-ranked female, but this should have meant more than it did. The crowd clearly knew Rosa was winning, so they didn't seem to care about the contest much at all and that's a shame. It was solid, but I'm sure they could do better. We found out afterward from Tony Schiavone that Rosa's match with Britt Baker for the belt next week will be contested inside of a steel cage, so that all but confirms who's winning that one.

Scorpio Sky def. Sammy Guevara to Win the AEW TNT Championship

I've said several times that Sky didn't come into this show feeling like a legitimate threat to the TNT title and how his one-year undefeated streak was a joke because he's barely competed on Dynamite and Rampage in that time. That's also why I questioned this being positioned as the main event, but it ended up being an enjoyable affair. They wasted time during the commercial break with the injury angle, but they picked the pace back up and Paige VanZant going after Tay Conti was a nice way of kicking off that feud. This feels like a bizarre time to put the belt on Sky, but the guy is talented and hopefully he can have a decent reign.

Overall Show

Needless to say, this was one of the most newsworthy editions of Dynamite ever and a very entertaining one at that. The show suffered from the same issue it always does in that they crammed way too much into the two hours (FTR firing Tully Blanchard backstage was very random and Shane "Swerve" Strickland's backstage encounter with Tony Nese was a blink-and-you-missed-it moment), but that's far from an egregious issue. At least there was a lot to like and there's plenty more to look forward to, including on next week's St. Patrick's Day Slam episode. AEW has gotten its hot momentum back lately and I hope they can continue it through Double or Nothing.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews