AEW Dynamite Review - September 28, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bryan Danielson Interrupted Chris Jericho's ROH World Championship Celebration; Danielson def. "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard

I haven't been high on most of what Jericho Appreciation Society has done this year, and there were certainly parts of this segment that were stupid, but I ended up being more entertained by it on the whole than I thought I would be. More importantly, they successfully teased further tension between Jericho and Daniel Garcia. Hopefully that split is coming soon and they don't drag it out another six months. The subsequent Danielson vs. Menard match was fine albeit unnecessary, but I assume AEW is working with a limited roster due to the hurricane in Florida and they wanted to kill time.

Wheeler Yuta Called Out MJF

Yuta got eaten alive on the mic by MJF last week, so I liked that he showed much more intensity this week and was able to hold his own. He and MJF had a quality verbal exchange here to set up a match between the two for next week. MJF's attempts to get heat from the crowd were more noticeable than usual. I also liked their brawl that followed Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson in the skybox.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley def. Juice Robinson in an AEW World Championship Eliminator Match

As the video package illustrated earlier in the episode, these two have history over the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I don't follow Robinson's career closely, but the commentators mentioned he's a free agent at the moment. That might be a storyline thing because I could've sworn he was still making appearances for NJPW, but oh well. These two work well together and had another enjoyable affair here, even though the outcome was never in doubt.

Britt Baker Interrupted Saraya; AEW Interim Women's World Champion Toni Storm def. Serena Deeb in a Lumberjack Match

it was nice to see Saraya speak from the heart at the beginning of her promo, but the rest of the segment sucked. She didn't come across very well and there was no mention of whether she'll be cleared to compete at any point, assuming she hasn't been already. Why not address the thousand-pound elephant in the room or have anyone else bring it up? Baker's response wasn't too great, either. Storm and Deeb was well wrestled, but the crowd was quiet and the Lumberjack stipulation didn't help. As far as whether Saraya can truly bring change to the women's division, time will tell. It's all a matter of whether Tony Khan will start booking the women as a priority.

Ricky Starks def. Eli Isom

Talking is Starks' strong suit, so while I would've liked to hear from him coming off his Lights Out win over Powerhouse Hobbs last week on Rampage, but I'm happy he appeared at all. As for Isom, it was cool he was used in Philadelphia considering Ring of Honor's history there. He was a promising prospect in ROH as recently as a year ago, but he was beaten almost immediately by Starks here to keep Starks' momentum going.

ROH World Champion Chris Jericho def. Bandido

I understand Bandido isn't an AEW regular (in fact, this marked his AEW debut), but I thought AEW did an effective job of explaining why he was getting a shot at the ROH World Championship (spoiler: he never got a rematch after losing it earlier this year). Not only that, he went in there and absolutely killed it with Jericho. As I've said before, Jericho has really stepped up his in-ring game this year and this was another example of that. Jericho made Bandido look fantastic before beating him and the crowd was really behind Bandido throughout. Post-match, Jericho challenged Danielson to an ROH World Championship match on the October 12th edition of Dynamite in his native Canada.

Overall Show

The hurricane was definitely to blame for some of AEW's bigger names having to miss Dynamite this week, but it's not as if this show was without star power. Moxley, Jericho, Danielson, MJF and even the newly-signed Saraya all appeared and yet it still only ended up being a mediocre show on the whole. The main event is well worth checking out as it was an excellent affair, but the rest of this episode felt like filler compared to last week's newsworthy Grand Slam shows and ahead of next week's anniversary edition.

SEE MORE: Dynamite Reviews