AEW Dynamite Review — 12.1.2021 — Flaming Tables and a Shirtless Assistant
Cody Rhodes and Andrade Light The Place Up in a Street Fight, Literally
--
There was no write-up for last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite featuring the legendary CM Punk and MJF promo battle, but if you do want to listen to me talk about it, we did put out our weekly review of AEW Dynamite from last week, covering the show in its entirety as part of the Deep Six Wrestling Podcast! But anyways, this is going to be a full, in-depth review for this week’s edition of Dynamite!
So sit back, and enjoy this review of AEW Dynamite from December 1st, 2021!
SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE OF AEW DYNAMITE AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Bryan Danielson vs Alan Angels…
This served as a great start to the show, with AEW Dynamite more often than not delivering hot starts to their weekly television shows. These Dark Order vs Danielson matches are always fun, beginning with Danielson vs Uno, Cabana vs Danielson last week, and now Angels vs Danielson here, and in that regard it really is nice to see these guys all getting a spotlight on TV against arguably one of, if not, the best wrestler in the world, even in short matches where Danielson ultimately just runs through them. The feud between Adam Page and Danielson has really heated up and already feels fresh as hell.
I have found myself really falling in love with Danielson’s character work as well as of late, with it genuinely coming off as him just being Danielson. turned up a bit more extreme. The character is a bad guy that genuinely still believes he is the good guy and that the fans have just changed. So far, the Danielson heel turn has been a hit for me and I find myself now extremely excited for the Winter is Coming special edition episode of Dynamite in two weeks, where we learned on this show, that the main event will be Bryan Danielson vs Hangman Page for the AEW World Championship! Thumbs UP!
From there, we went into Squidward’s future void, joining a lost Miro who stated that he has been there for weeks, noting that The Vision has come. God has revealed to him what needs. The Redeemer will storm the gates of Heaven. He will bring fear. This is the word of the Redeemer. And thus, Miro continues to shine in this role. I expect him to have a BIG 2022 in AEW.
Lee Moriarty vs CM Punk…
In a weird turn of events, the first half of this match featured an entirely dead crowd for a CM Punk match, something that remained an issue for several portions of this show, minus the Punk part. Regardless, Punk gave Moriarty a lot in this, and gave him a hell of a lot of time to shine as Lee controlled the majority of the match and even had several big nearfalls at the end! I came out of this thinking that Moriarty looked real, real good against Punk here and continues to shine whenever given an opportunity.
After the match, we had another promo segment between Punk and MJF, with MJF pretty handiliy winning this one with line about PG Punk wanting to sleep with Britt Baker, calling him a “One Pump Chump”, and then threatening to literally kill Punk’s dog, Larry. MJF is the most detestable character in wrestling and it is not even close. At this point, the match between these two can happen whenever. Everyone is ready to see them fight, but I think most will gladly allow them to do MORE promos after last week’s instant classic promo battle between the two of them. Thumbs Up, but Thumbs Down to the weak crowd here in Atlanta!
We got a string of quick segments in a row here, beginning with a backstage interview featuring Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter, continuing to plant the seeds for their break-up, as well as announcing Hayter vs Riho for next week’s episode from the UBS Arena in Long Island. From there, Adam Cole made his entrance and headed to the ring to pose before joining commentary, which was followed up by Orange Cassidy entering and having a staredown with Cole, before the returning Young Bucks arrived and helped Cole take down Cassidy, with Chuck and Yuta running them off before The Elite could land a BTE Trigger on Cassidy. Finally, we had a pre-taped promo from 205 Live Veteran Tony Nese, hyping up his match against Sammy Guevara this week on AEW Rampage.
I am looking forward to Riho vs Hayter, and the eventual Baker vs Hayter and Baker vs Rosa matches, but I don’t have much else to say on that as it was a fairly quick, standard promo from the women. It is nice to see them putting some stock in Jamie Hayter though, as I think she has some massive upside. The Elite (and maybe Bobby Fish) vs Best Friends is off to an interesting start? It definitely is not the best feud going, but I expect the matches to be fun, and if this all ends with a ReDragon Reunion for Fish and a debuting Kyle O’Reilly, I will be pleased. Lastly, as someone who actively watched 205 Live on a weekly basis from its inception until late 2019, I am thrilled to see Tony Nese getting a big time title match on National TV. He is a great talent and similar to Drew Gulak, was horribly wasted within the WWE.
We also got a Wardlow squash match at the end of this, which makes it feel like he is being built up for something finally, likely a match against CM Punk before he and MJF collide, or possibly as a filler challenger for Adam Page in early 2022.
BATTLE OF THE UNDEFEATED TEAMS! Gunn Club vs Darby and Sting…
What a time to be alive, that in 2021, we are seeing Sting wrestle Billy Gunn on National TV, with Billy tagging with his son. Wild times! This was fine and honestly exceeded my expectations. In hindsight, it wasn't anything special, but I will say that Colten got to look good? Man has only been wrestling for less than a year and almost pinned Sting on National Television, to which I will add that I genuinely believed for a moment that Colten Gunn was going to hand Sting his first loss in AEW. Darby is a madman, Sting won in Georgia, all is well. Thumbs in the Middle.
We had another string of segments here, with Chris Jericho stating that he wasn’t there to help Eddie Kingston on Rampage last week, he just wanted to kick the poop out of 2.0 and Daniel Garcia, which of course, prompted them to come in and attack Jericho, writing him off of TV for a bit while he is on your with Fozzy.
Lio Rush confronted Taz on commentary, who was flanked by HOOK and Powerhouse Hobbs, in a very awkward segment thanks to the crowd just not reacting to any of it. Dante Martin and Ricky Starks also appeared at the end and gloated with Team Taz ahead of them all being in the Third Annual Dynamite Diamond Ring Battle Royale, alongside Lio Rush and MJF as the announced entrants into that match.
Jade Cargill and Smart Mark Sterling addressed Thunder Rosa, who Jade is set to collide with in the Semi-Finals of the TBS Women’s Championship Tournament, with Rosa stepping in and announcing that she will be doing commentary during Jade’s match on AEW Rampage this week, where Jade will (likely) be squashing one of Rosa’s students, Janai Kai.
Ruby Soho vs Kris Statlander in a Quarterfinals Match in the TBS Women’s Championship Tournament…
The biggest downside of this episode of AEW Dynamite was the crowd reaction to Ruby vs Kris, a TBS Tournament Match that they had been hyping up for weeks with video packages between the two women, only to get to the match and have the crowd barely into it for the first several minutes. Eventually however, once they show came back from a picture-in-picture commercial break, the crowd got into it. Ruby picked up the win, despite Kris having the power advantage the entire match, and we got some really good spots here including a combination Poisonrana + Snap Rana against the mat and a brutal looking Buckle Bomb from Kris to Ruby.
By the end of this affair, Ruby and Kris became another really strong match, joining Hikaru Shida vs Serena Deeb, Hikaru Shida vs Nyla Rose, and Thunder Rosa vs Jamie Hayter as the best matches in the tournament thus far. Both women looked really good here, just a shame they didn’t have a hotter crowd for the match. This gets a proper Thumbs Up from me though, despite the crowd issues.
After this match, we got the announcements for some upcoming shows for All Elite Wrestling:
Rampage this Friday:
- PAC and Penta vs FTR
- Sammy vs Tony Nese for the TNT Championship
- Jade vs Janai Kai with Thunder Rosa on Commentary
AEW Dynamite Next Week:
- Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal
- Jamie Hayter vs Riho
- Bryan Danielson vs John Silver
Winter is Coming (Two Weeks Away):
- Bryan Danielson vs Hangman Page for the AEW World Championship
- The Dynamite Diamond Ring Finals
Cody Rhodes vs Andrade El Idolo in an Atlanta Street Fight…
This was an absolutely insane Street Fight, with lots and lots of weapons, ranging from water bottles, to full trash cans, to laptops, to tables, it was just a spectacle of the highest degree to close out the show. The Sledgehammer and Golden Shovel stuff was very on the nose, but I didn’t have an issue with it as it makes sense for how people so often compare Cody to HHH despite them actively being very, very different wrestlers. Brandi Rhodes made her return for the finish, aiding Cody by setting a table aflame to put Andrade through, and I have to admit… it felt good and got a good reaction, and seeing a flaming table spot in 2021 like this was awesome.
I will also firmly say this; we are firmly past the “Andrade is overrated” period, as this man continually excels anytime he has a match in this company now, whether it be against PAC or Cody or teaming with Malakai Black. You love to see it. Thumbs Up!
If you enjoyed reading this, consider leaving a CLAP (like/thumbs up) here on the article, and do consider subscribing to the Deep Six Wrestling Podcast, which you can click on the hyperlink above or find at the link below!
CLICK HERE TO FIND THE DEEP SIX WRESTLING PODCAST
And if you want to keep up with me more personally, you can find me at the links below:
Twitter — https://twitter.com/NVProfoundFilm
Letterboxd — https://letterboxd.com/NVPFilm/
If you made it to the end and want to check out another one of my articles, check out my profile and consider following me on Medium, or check out this story:
