SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
NEWS & NOTES
•ROH Final Battle takes place this Friday from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The show will likely be headlined by Athena vs. Billie Starkz for the ROH Women’s Title. Also on the show Chris Jericho defends the ROH World Title against Matt Cardona and the Sons of Texas defend the ROH Tag Team Titles against The Righteous in a double bullrope match.
•Willow Nightingale defeated Jamie Hayter to earn her way into the Women’s International Cup four-way at Wrestle Dynasty
•Julia Hart made her return after the match, laying out Jamie Hayter with a hammerlock DDT. Also, Julia Hart’s entrance music made its return as well. I forgot how much I’ve missed it until immediately began singing along with it as did the crowd in St. Louis.
•Lio Rush & Action Andretti became the number one contenders for the tag team titles after defeating Top Flight on Collision.
INTRODUCTION
AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash will be live from Washington D.C. t0night. The subtitles for the shows don’t particularly bother me, but coming off the heels of the annual Winter is Coming show, it doesn’t feel a little superfluous.
If Blood and Guts, Grand Slam, and Fight for the Fallen are meant to stand out, adding holiday themed names to shows simply because it’s Christmastime undercuts that a little bit. All that said, it should be a fun show. Will Ospreay vs. Darby Allin should be a really good match. Darby will of course bump like a madman, but I’ll be interested to see how he adapts his style to Ospreay and if he brings some of his amateur background into it. The TBS Title match could surprise some folks. There’s also the little matter of what exactly happened to FTR after Collision went off the air. So, grab a glass of eggnog and let’s see if Mox & the Mechanics decide to roast someone’s chestnuts on an open fire.
FEUD ANALYSIS
Jon Moxley vs. Jay White vs. Hangman Page vs. Orange Cassidy
Latest Developments
The fatal four-way match for World’s End was made official; FTR were hooded and either abducted or simply assaulted as Collision went off the air.
Analysis
Dynamite opened with Jay White and Orange Cassidy teaming up to fight Pac and Jon Moxley. The match was predictably strong right up until “Hangman” Adam Page inserted himself and attacked Mox leading to the faces being disqualified. The dissension continued when OC and Hangman took to fighting and then OC accidentally hit Jay with an Orange Punch to which Jay responded with a Blade Runner. The fighting amongst the opposition lead Mox to lay out the challenge for the four-way.
This was mostly well done. I didn’t like the DQ finish. It was a cheap way out. That said, it did directly lay the foundation for Mox’s challenge. Speaking of which, Mox’s promo was very smart. He pointed out that the inability of OC, White, and Hangman to get along for a common goal would ultimately be their downfall, therefore he was fully confident in challenging the three of them. I love that Mox established that it’s going to take a concerted effort from a unified group to bring him and the Mechanics down.
That played right into the cold opening of Collision where a video aired of Will Ospreay approaching Darby Allin backstage at Dynamite shortly after Darby had saved him from a post-match attack by Claudio Castagnoli. Darby questioned why Ospreay hasn’t been in the fight against Mox and the Mechanics to which Ospreay responded by saying he was focused on the Continental Calssic, but Darby could reach out to him once it was over.
Clearly Tony Khan heard some of the criticism about the biggest stars not being involved and sought to correct that. Bringing Ospreay into the fold not only expands the story, it ties the biggest babyface into biggest story with the biggest heel.
Collision closed with Mox and the Mechanics commandeering a camera backstage and waiting for FTR to get ready to walk out. That’s when Marina Shafir stepped into their path long enough for the others to jump out, place black cloth hoods over their heads, and drag them out the door. It’s unclear whether they were abducted or simply assaulted but the noise as the show ended would strongly imply the latter.
This angle continued the spinoff feud between FTR and The Mechanics presumably leading to a match at Fight for the Fallen and Adam Copeland’s return. There’s been some chatter about this story become a regular story and Mox a regular heel. The inclusion of Ospreay as well as FTR keeps this more of the umbrella story it’s supposed to be. It’s not that Mox is trying to take AEW from Tony Khan. That’s never been the point in fact. It’s that they are running roughshod over the company and the babyfaces are fighting to bring them down.
Grade: B+
Mina Shirakawa vs. Mariah May
Latest Developments
Mariah May defeated Mina Shirakawa to retain the AEW Women’s World title. After the match, Toni Storm made her return to AEW.
Analysis
Mariah and Mina main evented Dynamite last week. They had a really good match that could’ve gone into another gear if they’d had the time. As it stands, though, they laid into each other and in the end Mariah survived a Glamorous Driver and pinned Mina after a Storm Zero. Mariah didn’t have time to celebrate long though because knockoff “Barracuda” hit and Toni Storm, in her classic rock star gear, made her long-awaited (at least by me) comeback to a loud pop from the Kansas City crowd.
Toni wasn’t back five minutes before controversy erupted over Toni’s return match taking place on last Friday’s Rampage. Initially I felt the criticism was wholly valid. Having seen how things played out between Friday and Saturday, it seems there was a method to the madness.
Toni defeated a game Harley Cameron on Rampage. While sitting on the apron after the match, Toni said “I’m very happy to be here.” It was innocuous if you weren’t really paying attention. The next night on Collision she quickly beat Shazza McKenzie and then grabbed a mic and announced that she was officially “All Elite.” She followed that up by interrupting a Thunder Rosa interview backstage to introduce herself to both Rosa and Tony Schiavone who were both perplexed
There are two plausible explanations for what’s going on with Toni. It’s possible that she’s suffering from amnesia a la Cactus Jack after Vader powerbombed him on concrete in 1993 in which case something is going to eventually trigger her memory to come back.
The other explanation is that she’s still actually “Timeless” Toni and she’s playing an amnesiac version of Toni Storm classic with the ultimate goal of getting even with Mariah. That would almost be like some 3D chess on her part. Either way, the best story in wrestling is back and this time there’s some interesting uncertainty mixed in.
In the meantime, Mariah cut a fiery promo immediately after Dynamite that was first posted to social media and then aired on Collision. She was profane in her disregard for Toni before turning her attention to Thunder Rosa who’d done her best Lodi impression by sitting in the crowd during the Mariah-Mina match holding up signs. She told Rosa she would put her down if she stepped to her.
Rosa responded the next night by challenging Mariah to a Tijuana street fight. A Mariah May vs. Thunder Rosa match would be really good on its own. I don’t understand the need for a street fight, especially since the feud doesn’t really justify it.
Grade: B+
Mercedes Moné vs. Anna Jay
Latest Developments
Mercedes and Anna had a backstage promo segment to build up to their match tonight. Kris Statlander reemerged and made it clear that she has unfinished business with the TBS Title.
Analysis
The backstage interview done by Renee Paquette was simple but effective. Moné was supremely arrogant and obnoxious. Anna refused to be intimidated by Mercedes and reminded her that all she needs is three seconds to shock the world.
I expect these two to have a pretty darn good match. The likelihood of Anna winning is slim, especially with Kris Statlander back in the picture. Statlander had a promo on Rampage in which she said she had unfinished business with the TBS Title and then squashed an opponent on Collision. It certainly seems that the plan is to run back Mercedes vs Stat at World’s End and I’m perfectly fine with that.
Something else to keep an eye on. Athena qualified to represent ROH in the Women’s International Cup match at WrestleDynasty. The winner gets a shot at any title of her choosing. There’s strong chance Athena drops the ROH Women’s Title to Billie Starkz at Final Battle on Friday night. If that’s the case, her chances of winning that match shoot up and I could see her picking the TBS Title for her title shot. Just food for thought.
Grade: B
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Adam Cole vs. MJF
Latest Developments
Adam Cole defeated Kyle O’Reilly to earn the right to face MJF at World’s End for the Dynamite Diamond Ring.
Analysis
I’m going to try and keep this short this week. Cole and KOR had a perfectly fine wrestling match that the crowd struggled to really get into. That’s mostly because this story has been so snakebitten and disjointed. MJF, live and in person, attempted to interfere. Cole caught him, superkicked him, and then used the distraction to roll up KOR for the win.
Honestly, I’m just relieved Cole won and there was no further attempt at delaying this match. He just needs to go over MJF even if it means winning that gaudy ring because this feud needs to end. MJF is scheduled to speak live tomorrow night, but I’m not sure he can breathe any new life into this feud. It just needs to be over so they can both move on.
Grade: C+
Christian Cage vs. Hook
Latest Developments
Hook jumped Christian in his luxury box until the Patriarchy made the save.
Analysis
Christian Cage watched the opening tag match (Mox & Pac vs. OC & Jay White) from his luxury box. He sent the Patria
rchy on an assignment mid-match. After the match and after the post-match fracas, he got on the mic and once again talked about cashing in his contract. He said he was going to beat Mox so bad he’d send him back to rehab. (As an aside, I don’t necessarily have a problem with heels going after other heels. It’s tricky because you don’t want to accidentally turn one heel face, but villains don’t have to like each other. That said, Christian going there with Mox was on-brand for Christian but it still felt gratuitous.)
Digressing as he finished his promo, he wandered into his suite and on the other side of the door stood Hook, arm in cast after the attack the previous week. Hook smashed the glass, opened the door, and proceeded to beat Christian all over the box until the Patriarchy finally came back and gave Christian the chance to make an escape.
Hook whooping that ass was fun to watch. Christian certainly deserved it. That said, there were two small things that bugged me. One, Christian should’ve have stayed in the arena until he and all of us heard Hook smash the glass. That’s when the camera should’ve panned. The other thing, as pointed out by Wade Keller on the post-show (I didn’t catch it live) Hook should’ve reached through the broken door to unlatch it from the inside. That’s the whole point of break the glass. Otherwise this was effective in building up this feud.
Grade: B-
Stay right here and keep the flow going. We think you’ll like to read this next…
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: AEW Collision results (12/14): Powell’s review of Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe and Kazuchika Okada vs. The Beast Mortos in Continental Classic matches, Jamie Hayter vs. Willow Nightingale
(You can always reach PWTorch editor Wade Keller at kellerwade@gmail.com. You can also send live event results and news tips to pwtorch@gmail.com. Also, we’re always looking for volunteer contributors to help us round out of coverage of the pro wrestling scene.)
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