News Ticker

ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PREVIEW 12/22: Holiday Bash Edition, Garrison vs. Black, Pinnacle vs. Punk, Darby, and Sting, Ruby vs. Nyla in TBS Match, Schiavone and Baker Celebrate, Cassidy vs. Cole

BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

December 22, 2021

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

ALL ELITE WRESTLING DYNAMITE PRIMER
HOLIDAY BASH EDITION
DECEMBER 22, 2021
GREENSBORO, N.C. AT THE GREENSBORO COLISEUM
AIRS ON TNT NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 p.m. CST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Jim Ross (on medical leave)

Match Results from Last Week

  • “Hangman” Adam Page retained the AEW World Heavyweight Championship over Bryan Danielson. They went to a 60-minute time limit draw.
  • Wardlow defeated Matt Sydal.
  • Hikaru Shida defeated Serena Deeb in the rubber match of their three-match series.
  • MJF defeated Dante Martin to win the Dynamite Diamond Ring for the third straight year.

Arena

Tonight’s episode of Dynamite and taping of Rampage will emanate from an arena with a rich wrestling history in the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. You can go all the way back to 1983 to see when the first Jim Crockett Promotions Starrcade event took place. Several of those shows emanated from this building in addition to WWF house shows, Raw and Smackdown tapings, NWA house shows, amongst other events. Several members of the current AEW roster (Sting, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard) and announcers Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross are no strangers to this venue.

Four matches and a segment are on tap for this evening’s festivities:

Tony Khan announced on Twitter that a video package will air on the upcoming Owen Hart Cup.

Malakai Black vs. Griff Garrison (Varsity Blondes)

Two weeks ago on Dynamite, the Varsity Blondes (Griff Garrison & Brian Pillman, Jr.) were on the winning side of an eight-man tag team match. They, along with Julia Hart, were going to be interviewed by Tony Schiavone when the lights went out. Upon coming back on, Malakai Black appeared and sprayed his black mist in the eyes of Julia.

Last week, a vignette aired on Black where he said, “the house always wins,” referring to his House of Black gimmick and sprayed mist on someone with a mask. Later, Schiavone interviewed the Blondes and asked about Julia. Garrison frustratingly said, “well she’s not here.” He challenged Black to a match much to the chagrin of Pillman, who got shoved by Garrison who questioned which side he was on. The match was announced later in the show.

https://twitter.com/griffgarrison1/status/1473388885233258507?s=21

Frank’s Analysis: Brodie King, formerly of Ring of Honor, was likely the other one in the Black vignette. That said, I’m not sure how much I’m into this considering I don’t understand Black’s issue with the Blondes, but I suppose it’s an avenue to introduce whoever was in the video. The Blondes can take the beating.

Trios Match: MJF & AAA Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) vs. CM Punk & Darby Allin & Sting

There are a lot of entanglements in tonight’s Trios match between the aforementioned parties. Punk and MJF have been involved in verbal jabbing back and forth. MJF got the latest digs in, referring to Punk as the new version of Ryback, who won a series of matches against lower-end opponents upon his WWE television debut in 2012. Ironically, it was Punk who ended that streak in a Hell in a Cell match. That said, MJF went on to defeat Dante Martin for the Dynamite Diamond Ring with the assistance of Team Taz member Ricky Starks.

FTR came out to celebrate with their fellow Pinnacle member when the lights went out. Sting and Darby Allin appeared and paid FTR back for their attack on Rampage on December 10. When MJF and FTR got the better of things, CM Punk appeared. Once they cleared house, Punk said they would have a Trios match next week (tonight)

(It was advertised throughout the show that Tony Khan would announce a big match for tonight, but that didn’t happen). Following Punk’s announcement, Tony Schiavone said this was the match Tony planned to announce.)

Sting talks about when he faced Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions in the Greensboro Coliseum back in 1988. Whole adults who have had children of their own have been born since that time!

https://twitter.com/sting/status/1473353206403006465?s=21

Frank’s Analysis: I suppose the Urban Meyer situation may have kept Tony from being able to come out, but then don’t have the announcers say that the head of the company will be making an announcement if it’s not going to happen. That said, I’m curious what the issue between FTR and Sting & Darby is all about. I get that it gets Tully Blanchard and Sting involved, calling back to their days in Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW, but I would have liked to have known why FTR attacked them in an interview. Speaking of which, I would like AEW to reduce the number of interviews that get interrupted. I like the old school way of one side talking, and then the other in a separate interview. That allows to issue to be understood and creates more of a chance for the fans to be invested. Let’s get past the Attitude Era/Monday Night War “everything has to be chaos” theory.

TBS Championship Match: Ruby Soho vs. Nyla Rose

The TBS Championship is starting to wind down as we head towards the semi-final matches. Ruby Soho goes one-on-one tonight with Nyla Rose. Nyla and her “so-to-speak” cohorts Bunny and Penelope Ford have been a thorn in the side of Ruby. The latest chapter took place less than two weeks ago on Rampage in Long Island where the three of them teamed up to defeated Ruby, Anna Jay, and Tay Conti. This was brought on Bunny and Penelope interrupting, yet again, an interview with Ruby.

The winner of this match faces the winner of the match between Thunder Rosa and Jade Cargill. Their issues got heated on the episode of Dark Elevation that was recorded at the UBS Arena.

https://twitter.com/nylarosebeast/status/1473421163925807105?s=21

Frank’s Analysis: I’m going ride with Ruby to the finals. I still feel like this title has Jade Cargill written all over it, but Ruby makes a ton of sense too. In fact, I’d rather her win to be honest. A final between those two would be interesting. If Nyla wins this and say Rosa beats Cargill, I guess I could see a Rosa vs. Nyla final. Then I would pick Rosa to win the title, but I feel like they will be going back to Rosa vs. Baker for the world title at some point. Anyway, there’s options. I like that it’s not clear cut. It’s nice to just, you know, watch wrestling without knowing what’s going to happen and enjoy? ‘

Tony Schiavone and AEW Women’s World Champion Dr. Britt Baker’s Christmas Party

It’s the holiday season, and what would it be without a little celebration, right? Tonight, we get a Christmas party with commentator Tony Schiavone and his good friend Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. One month ago, on the Thanksgiving Eve episode of Dynamite, we were treated to a Thanksgiving party, during which Tony advised Britt that she would have a Black Friday match on Rampage with Riho on the subsequent Rampage. Riho won that match, and thus earned the right to face Baker for the AEW Women’s World Championship.

We found out that match will take place on January 8 at the Battle of the Belts special. Riho was the first women’s champion and has never lost to Britt. Britt defeated Hikaru Shida at this year’s Double or Nothing to win the title for the first time.

Frank’s Analysis: I hope these skits are the exception and not the rule. It’s fine to have a little entertainment, but there’s another wrestling company that focusses on entertainment. Let’s stay with the wrestling here and build matches we want to see.

Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy

Adam Cole of the SuperKliq goes one-on-one with Orange Cassidy of the Best Friends. These two have been at it for a while with the latest chapter taking place on this past Friday’s Rampage. Cassidy, Trent Berretta & Chuck Taylor defeated Cole, Bobby Fish, and the Young Bucks in an eight-man tag.

They previously met on the November 26 edition of Rampage, where Cole & Fish defeated Cassidy and Wheeler Yuta. On the December 8 edition of Dynamite, Cassidy was about to get a triple BTE Trigger before Trent returned. They nearly went at it during Cole’s win over Yuta at the subsequent Rampage.

Frank’s Analysis: Cassidy is a fun cat to watch, and a guilty pleasure for me. In no way should be involved in any major championship or high-end storyline, but he’s entertaining in a good way and the guy can at least wrestle. I can compartmentalize and enjoy his work. I don’t see Cole losing this unless there are some shenanigans involved.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!

Related Articles

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

ALL CONTENT © TDH COMMUNICATIONS INC. 2024