AEW New Year's Smash: Night 1 Review - January 6, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks and SCU (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) def. The Hybrid2 and The Acclaimed

Young Bucks have been feuding with The Acclaimed and TH2 in recent weeks and SCU have established issues with both teams as well. Given the level of talent involved, it should have come as no surprise that this was as entertaining and as hectic as it was. They constantly kept things moving and everyone had a chance to shine, including The Acclaimed which I appreciated because I don't want them to get lost in the shuffle. As expected, SCU asked Young Bucks for a title shot and reminded viewers that they'll break up forever the next match they lose. I'm very curious to see what will happen with that storyline.

Jon Moxley Addressed AEW World Champion Kenny Omega

Other than his sit-down interview last week, this marked the first time Moxley has appeared on Dynamite since he lost the AEW World Championship to Omega a month ago. I've missed his promos and this was the usual quality stuff from him. The fact he acknowledged that he wouldn't be interfering in the main event because he wanted Fenix to have his moment was a nice touch. My guess is that we get the Omega vs. Moxley rematch at Revolution.

Wardlow def. Jake Hager

Wardlow is near the top of my list of people I expect to break out in AEW in 2021. His eventual split from MJF is going to be big if handled correctly. Hager usually bores me to tears, and while this wasn't the most thrilling outing, they worked well together and Wardlow carried him to a competent contest. Wardlow was the right winner as the dissension within Inner Circle continues.

Sting Crashed the Weigh-In Between AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin and FTW Champion Brian Cage

The bad blood between Allin and Cage goes all the way back to Double or Nothing last May, so I appreciated that they showed footage of their many interactions since then prior to this segment. We don't see weigh-ins enough in wrestling, so I'll take this over a contract signing any day of the week. It didn't last long before Team Taz threatened to ambush Allin, which predictably led to Sting making the save. We're seeing the same stuff with Sting week after week to the point where I'm ready for them to reach the next chapter of the story because it's getting old.

Cody Rhodes def. Matt Sydal

I can't believe these two never went one-on-one in WWE for as long as both guys were there for. Sydal has won a lot lately on Dark, but there was no way he was winning here. That said, he looked great in defeat and he and Cody had a very fun match. The post-match stuff was more memorable with Snoop Dogg hitting a top rope frog splash on Serpentico. Hey, it wasn't the greatest, but I applaud his effort. He looked like he was having a blast out there.

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida def. Abadon

As I've said time and time again, Abadon does absolutely nothing for me. The gimmick sucks and I have yet to see anything resembling an above-average match from her. This was probably the best bout she's had to date, though that's not saying much. Shida helped make it a passable matchup and it didn't overstay its welcome. That's pretty much all I can say about it. Hopefully Shida's next title program is better than this one has been.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega def. Rey Fenix; Omega, AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks and Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers Reunited

Omega and Fenix have killed it against each other any time they've gone one-on-one and this was no exception. I figured it would be an enjoyable match and not much more than that due to the obvious outcome, but they truly brought it to another level and made me believe the championship could've changed hands with some of those nearfalls. Seriously, this was an outstanding sprint. They followed that fantastic match with an awesome angle as Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows surfaced to lay out Jon Moxley and a bunch of other people. They had their Impact World Tag Team Championship with them, too. The Young Bucks came out and closed the show with them by doing the "Too Sweet" hand gesture, something we haven't seen in quite some time. This was wonderfully excited and it was a smart way to kick off the first show of the new year as it left me looking forward to where the storyline will go from here.

Overall Show

I didn't have high hopes for this show on paper, but other than last week's Brodie Lee tribute episode, it ended up being my favorite installment of Dynamite since "Winter Is Coming" a month ago. Obviously, most of that had to do with the final half hour, but the rest of this show was equally compelling as things progressed and there was some top-notch wrestling to boot. Night 2 will definitely have its work cut out for it next week, but the fallout from this week's show-closing angle has me invested no matter what else happens.