AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (12/20): MJF-Samoa Joe-Devil, Continental Classic matches, Commentary,

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I thought December was supposed to be a slow time for professional wrestling. Turns out this December has been the complete opposite. Here we are less than two weeks away from World’s End and we have the final week of the Continental Classic, the Devil whodunit continues, injury/illness issues with Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega, and TV contract rumors abound. Much like Cousin Eddie said, when talking about the “Jelly of the Month Club” in the movie “Christmas Vacation,” pro wrestling is the “gift that keeps on giving the whole year!” That all brings us to Dynamite from Oklahoma City with Jim Ross making his return. Let’s see how they did!

HITS

CONTINENTAL CLASSIC MATCHES

I keep putting them in the “Hits” column because they all keep delivering.

It’s amazing how stakes make a match even more compelling. Swerve and Rush had a great hard-hitting battle and the fact that the announcers kept saying how important it was allowed you to buy-in to the outcome. While many expected Swerve to win, the way the match was wrestled and called by the announcers made it plausible that Rush could pull it out. This was another great tournament match.

The Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal match may have meant nothing in the standings, but it may have been the most entertaining to me. Briscoe is a joy to watch. He gets the crowd going because he’s having a blast out there. Simple things like interacting with the fans and stealing one’s hat go a long way into making him into a future top mid-card babyface. I hope he is put into a good program once the tournament is over.

Side “Hit” to referee Paul Turner for catching the chair that Briscoe launched into the ring.

The main event was another great story. While I thought a three-way was likely, I could easily see it going either way so it was another example of an outcome that was not overly predictable. I would love to see a longer match between Jay White and Jon Moxley as we move forward. I was also happy to see White win, and he did so cleanly, as he needed this tournament as a reset after being defined down a bit in the MJF feud.

MJF, SAMOA, AND THE DEVIL

The Devil storyline continues to add suspects as we head down the stretch with this whodunit storyline. They continued to throw a lot at the viewers intentionally to keep everyone guessing. I wonder what next week will look like because, like I mentioned in the column a couple of weeks ago, if there is a match with the masked assailants, I would expect MJF and Joe to attempt to unmask them from the jump.

Either way, I enjoyed the promos from everyone involved and very much would like to see a Swerve vs. MJF feud in 2024.

THE COMMENTATORS

I get such a kick out of listening to the commentary week after week and this week was a step up. With Taz leading the way, it’s just plain fun to listen to them bust each other’s chops and throw out funny lines while also adding to what you are seeing in the ring. This is not a corporate group that reads prepared statement after statement when it comes to getting their agenda across. They sound like they are having a great time and that makes it so much fun to be a part of.

CHRISTIAN’S STATEMENT

Okay, so there was one prepared statement. And Tony Schiavone did a great job delivering it. Christian doesn’t even have to be in attendance to get the crowd fired up and booing which is a testament to what a great job he is doing week after week. This moved his story along and made me want to check out Collision this weekend to see what happens next.

MISSES

I WANT MY CALLIS FAMILY

Dynamite has returned to being a great show for the past six weeks or so, but they are making a mistake by not featuring Don Callis and his family. Callis has been relegated to Rampage and a few Collision’s, which is a bad call. I know time is precious and perhaps they were going to be a factor in the Omega/Jericho match that now won’t happen due to Omega’s health issues, but they are missing out by not having Callis on the show every Wednesday in front of their biggest audience.

While there were some segments in this week’s Dynamite that weren’t “Hits,” I would not call them “Misses” either, so that’s really all I had when it came to things I didn’t like about the show. I’ve been enjoying the programming a lot since they made an effort to adjust their focus and I’m hoping this continues after the New Year. A lot of their momentum will come from the Devil revelation so I’m very hopeful it pays off.

For more on all things AEW, please check out “The All Elite Conversation Club” with Joel Dehnel and me on Friday afternoon/evening on the PWTorch Dailycast podcast lineup.

Send questions and comments to allelitecc@gmail.com if you’d like to be a part of the show!

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

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