This week from the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, AEW Dynamite made its debut as a special pre-Christmas show. During the week, they had David Crockett show up on one of the YouTube hype shows to talk about wrestling history in North Carolina, which shows a nice connection to AEW as they try to bring back a part of history.
Adam Cole vs Orange Cassidy
This was a grudge match of sorts that has been growing between Adam Cole and Orange Cassidy. The announcers pointed out that Cole has been targeting fan favorites since arriving in AEW, starting with Jungle Boy and now focusing on Orange Cassidy and his gang. As per every Orange Cassidy match, there was a bit of comedy but the main thing the announcers tried to sell was how Orange Cassidy was trying to get into Adam Cole’s mind throughout the match with his antics.
Some of the Elite attempted to come down but was thwarted by Chuck Taylor and Trend Berreta. And as they came down, an opening was created so that Orange Cassidy could do a suicide dive to take them out. When they came back from the break, both sides had cleared out. Eventually, Bobby Fish made his way down to provide a distraction to the referee after Adam Cole had rolled to the outside to take a breather. In turn, the crowd became riled up as Kyle O’Reily made his debut in attacking Orange Cassidy, allowing Adam Cole to return inside for the roll up.
There was a brief span of time where Cole spun Kyle O’Reily around to question his actions but Trent and Chuck Taylor returned to the ring, provoking Cole and Kyle to attack them. Also, Bobby Fish came in from the outside to help with the beat down where Fish and O’Reily held up Taylor for the super kick from Cole followed up by Fish and O’Reily doing a modified version of the Eliminator’s High Low move on Trent.
In turn, there was an extremely vocal Undisputed chant for the three while the Bucks came to the ring. Neither Fish nor O’Reily acknowledged the Bucks while Cole seemed to confirm that O’Reily was the surprise. As Cole left and signaled Fish and O’Reily to follow, Fish and O’Reily hugged while they returned back up the ramp.
Not a bad little debut. When Bobby Fish first came in and got his initial match, there was little to no fanfare. When he started to team with Cole, there was more as people recognized their history together. But now with O’Reily available, people know exactly what this trio means. And while Adam Cole says, “It’s all about the boom,” I say “it’s all about the context.”
The big thing people are anticipating is a big Elite vs Undisputed Era feuds, especially when Kenny Omega returns. There has been small teasers of Cole being the one to cause dissension in the Elite ranks. Now, it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen and practically a dream scenario.
Adam Page Interview
Tony Schiavone is in the ring and brings out Adam Page for an interview. They talk a bit about his 60 minute draw with Bryan Danielson and it leads to Page not just having self doubts but feeling angry at himself. That causes Bryan Danielson to emerge and describe Page as an entitled Millenial. Basically, Danielson berates the audience and Page as he describes the stipulations of adding judges for their upcoming re-match.
Pretty damn good segment. Bryan Danielson is the top guy right now. He’s just so good at what he does. Page has improved on the mic and showed fire once Danielson came out. With this re-match happening on the debut show on TBS (from switching off of TNT), it’s beginning to sound like another 60 minute match. It’s not an iron man match so I’m curious where they’re planning to go with this. Perhaps, they’ll start doing Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat draws. But Page is on the verge of becoming a super star here.
MJF and Pinnacle Backstage Segment
Warm up segment for the 6 man later that night. As they get a shot in of the group, Wardlow is hidden by MJF.
Wardlow vs Captain Shawn Dean
Poor Shawn Dean stood less of a chance than Griff Garrison did. Four power bombs and it’s over.
Lambert Segment
I ignored it because he just bores me at this point.
Britt Christmas Special
Small segment with Britt, Tony Schiavone, Jamie Hayter and Rebel. Again didn’t really pay much attention here. Main gist was Britt verbally antagonizing Riho.
Ruby Soho vs Nyla Rose
TBS Women’s Title semi-finals. Again, didn’t really pay much attention because I don’t enjoy watching Nyla Rose. Ruby won when Rose got up to the top turnbuckle and ate one of Ruby’s Destination Unknown kick to the face.
Pretty much now it’s Thunder Rosa vs Jade Cargill. Jade is just too green to be anything but a jobber in my book. But Thunder Rosa has unfinished business with Ruby after she lost with Ruby’s Destination Unknown kick. Honestly, I can see Ruby winning the tournament at this stage but Thunder Rosa should get a chance to face Britt for the main women’s title.
Malaki Black vs Griff Garrison
Almost a squash of Griff. Brian Pillman Jr came down to act as Griff’s second then ate a kick. No idea what they’re doing with Malakai.
Sting, Darby Allin and CM Punk vs MJF and FTR
Main event. Punk comes out with Sting’s face paint and pants. They’re basically selling this as a huge return of Sting in North Carolina. They gave this match some time and treated it as a more traditional pro-wrestling match. Lots of teasing Punk vs MJF where each time MJF would get out from locking up.
This was a novelty match in that you have three generation of wrestlers. Punk and Sting in the ring is something no one ever probably believed could happen. You could tell Punk was having a blast. Also, the moments with MJF and Sting were great. FTR and MJF got to be traditional heels here.
Fun match with Sting, Punk and Darby hitting their finishers on Dax while MJF took off. Read an article about this being Sting’s farewell tour so this wasn’t a bad way for him to get his stuff in while saying good bye. Punk got the win though and MJF took the announcer headsets to complain about how Punk tried to dodge him. You gotta think that Punk also is having a blast and doing all those stories he probably wanted to tell in the WWE. So we’re getting all of that.
Final Thoughts
Fun little show. The big thing was Kyle O’Reily’s debut as well as the announcement of Page vs Danielson part 2. Also, there was a video talking about the Owen Hart memorial with a very well done package with other wrestlers giving their thoughts on Owen. Not too outlandish of a show for Christmas so I thought it was as good as you could get.