AEW Dynamite Review - November 9, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH/IWGP/AAA World Tag Team Champions FTR and AEW World Tag Team Champions The Acclaimed def. The Gunns and Swerve In Our Glory

This was designed to further the two feuds involved as well as plant the seeds for a future FTR vs. Acclaimed match, so it was effective in both of those respects. It was an enjoyable opener to boot with all eight guys working well together. FTR and Acclaimed are two of the most over acts in the entire company, so it was logical for them to go over. It's possible FTR vs. The Gunns will be saved for Final Battle, but I'd rather it happen on the Full Gear pre-show or on TV so FTR can defend against The Kingdom at that event instead.

Ethan Page def. Eddie Kingston in an AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament Quarterfinal Match

I don't think Kingston has been featured on TV since that loss to Sammy Guevara on the Grand Slam edition of Rampage in September, which is ridiculous. That combined with Page's recent singles push made the outcome here pretty obvious, but it was a good match for what it was. As many others have likely predicted, I assume it will be Page against Ricky Starks in the finals of the tourney at Full Gear.

AEW TNT Champion Wardlow def. Ari Daivari

Daivari's Trustbusters gimmick is awful and I can't bring myself to care about him or his group if I tried. That said, he was the perfect person to take a quick beating from Wardlow. The match was over within a minute as it should have been, but the focus was really on Samoa Joe turning on Wardlow afterward while Powerhouse Hobbs watched from the ramp. It was made clear that Hobbs and Joe aren't aligned, and both look to have their sights set on the AEW TNT Championship. Joe and Wardlow accidentally bumped shoulders last week, and already Joe is pissed enough to turn on him? That turn definitely feels rushed.

Saraya Attacked Britt Baker

We've been waiting on this announcement from Saraya since she arrived in the company and we finally got it in this segment. The build to this bout has left a lot to be desired in the past two months, but I applaud their effort to get people invested in their program with their dueling promos here because the mic work from both of them was strong. This was a vast improvement over Saraya's first promo in AEW and you could tell it meant the world to her to announce that she's cleared based on how emotional she was. This was the highlight of the night for me.

Jay Lethal def. Trent Beretta

This match wasn't included in the graphic for the show beforehand, so it must have been added at the last minute. It was a quality contest between two skilled stars, but fans had no reason to believe Beretta was beating Lethal, especially since they haven't been at odds as of late. Lethal won to keep his momentum going heading into Lethal and Jeff Jarrett vs. Darby Allin and Sting at Full Gear. And yes, we heard from Jarrett again afterward. Here's hoping Jarrett's on-air role wraps up at Full Gear because there is zero need for him to be appearing regularly beyond that.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley Addressed MJF

It was a bummer that we didn't get to hear from MJF in person on this show, but at least they aired the footage of his Pardon My Take interview earlier in the episode. This was the usual strong rebuttal from Moxley, who dismissed MJF as "the Devil" and said he's looked into the eyes of the Devil himself. William Regal stood beside him the entire time, which is no coincidence. I expect (and hope) Regal factors into the finish of the AEW World Championship match at Full Gear in MJF's favor.

Jamie Hayter def. Skye Blue

With Hayter challenging Toni Storm for the AEW Interim Women's World Championship at Full Gear, it makes sense to give her a straightforward win before then. Thus, this was a glorified squash. Although they worked well together and Blue sold nicely for Hayter's offense, I don't think it needed to last as long as it did. I wish Hayter and Storm were given more mic time to heat up their feud, but I have no doubt they'll deliver when the bell rings.

Bryan Danielson def. Sammy Guevara in a 2-Out-of-3 Falls Match

As much as I enjoyed their original encounter two weeks ago, I didn't have much of a desire in seeing a rematch, mostly because there was no reason for one. Guevara has been a total afterthought going into this ROH World Championship four-way at Full Gear and I can't imagine anyone actually saw him as a threat to Danielson here. That said, they had a great main event that followed the formula of most two-out-of-three falls matches.

Overall Show

Tony Khan really needs to stop overhyping his shows on social media beforehand. I'm well aware he's a promoter and that's what they do, but there really wasn't much that was "newsworthy" about this episode outside of Saraya announcing she's cleared. Even the announcement from Tony Schiavone that they'll be doing a United Kingdom show next year felt underwhelming. This was better than last week's show, but the only two things I'd recommend going out of your way to see are the Saraya and Baker verbal exchange and Moxley's promo.

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