Coming up, the real reason WWE released Toni Storm, a former WWE star debuts on Dynamite
and Pete will be here with a review for Dynamite, because it’s Christmas week yo, people are
off. Except me and Pete, short straws. Subscribe though, that might cheer us up.
So you have spotted this news on social media, but according to Fightful and PWInsider WWE
have let former NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm go.
According to the reports a memo was issued to talent yesterday afternoon announcing Storm’s
departure, but it did not mention the dreaded budget cuts and Toni was the only name mentioned.
John Laurinaitis’ powers are waning, he needs more souls.
The current reports claim that Storm requested her release and it was granted, gone are the
halcyon days of WWE refusing to release anyone in case AEW snaps them up.
The night before her release, Storm worked a show in Washington, DC, having a triple
threat match against Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks which went down as scheduled.
According to PWInsider Storm then flew herself home from Baltimore yesterday morning, as
in paid for the ticket and left, not hijacked a 747.
In the wake of Storm’s abrupt departure Liv Morgan took to Twitter with a burning
heart emoji and the horns, while Shotzi posted saying: “Toni Storm is the whole package!
ABSOLUTELY BADASSSSS!!!” With five s’es. But perhaps most interesting of all was AEW
Women’s Champion Britt Baker who posted a pic of Storm as NXT UK Women’s Champion,
and could suggest that Toni is an opponent she would love to face, if only she made her
way to AEW. Thankfully Tony Khan is still collecting wrestlers.
Like former NXT star and short-lived member of Retribution, Mercedes Martinez.
The veteran of the biz made a surprising AEW return on Dynamite last night helping Jade
Cargill to victory in the AEW TBS Women’s Championship Tournament.
Shortly after the appearance TK took to Twitter to welcome Martinez to the fold, stating that
she was indeed #AllElite. She last appeared for the company in 2019,
before heading to WWE in 2020. Dynamite also saw another hotly anticipated
return as Jim Ross came back to the commentary desk.
Ross had been taking a break while undergoing treatment for skin cancer.
Thankfully the treatment was a success and Ross took to Twitter to let the world know
that he is “cancer free!” Congrats JR, glad to have you back!!
Now over to Pete with this week’s Dynamite review.
The New Year’s Smash episode of Dynamite kicked off with the return of JR to commentary,
which was lovely to see with a loud ovation too. Nice to see you back JR, and glad you’re
doing well. The first match of the night was Jurassic
Express, Christian Cage & the Lucha Bros vs FTR, Matt Hardy & Private Party in a 10-man
tag match, and the story of the match was how will they co-exist, as every wrestling
story on the planet seems to be right now. This match was a whole lot of fun, with everyone
working well together initially, until the Lucha Bros and Christian Cage started blind
tagging each other - uh oh, they can’t co-exist. This ended up costing them the match as Cage
blind tagged himself in, got into it with Penta, and FTR took advantage and hit Big
Rig for the win. This led into a backstage segment where it
was made official that it’ll be Jurassic Express vs Lucha Bros for the AEW Tag Titles
next week on the first Dynamite on TBS, where Christian Cage is definitely 100% turning
heel to cost Jurassic Express the match…right? This was a great way to start the show, and
what came next was 2.0 and Daniel Garcia vs Eddie Kingston & Santana & Ortiz, and Eddie
Kingston just wanted Daniel Garcia in this whole match, hyperfocusing on getting payback
on him. However, this match felt like it had a somewhat
anticlimactic finish as Matt Lee rolled up Santana with a handful of trunks to get the
win, which felt like it wasn’t properly built to, which left the crowd wanting a bit
more. After the match Santana got nailed with the ring bell by Garcia, and then after that
out came Chris Jericho to make the…save? You’re a bit late mate, your friend’s
already been beaten up. He chases them off with Floyd the Bat, but Eddie Kingston seemed
to share my sentiment as he then got in Jericho’s face afterwards. If this is leading to a Jericho/Kingston
match, I’m all for it, and this continued Kingston’s mad descent after his string
of losses. MJF cut a promo backstage, saying that Wardlow
needs to qualify for the ladder match to grant him a TNT title shot, but once he wins it,
he needs to hand that opportunity over to MJF, and Mark Sterling came in to read the
contract Wardlow signed in which it says that every contract opportunity and title are property
of Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Oh Wardlow, you numpty. He then took out his anger on Colin
Delaney, beating him with four powerbombs. I do love Wardlow reacting to the crowd and
doing more and more powerbombs, it’s such wonderful character work and great reactive
storytelling from AEW to pick up on it and go with it.
There is hella tension between The Young Bucks, Adam Cole and reDRagon backstage, as Bucks
aren’t happy with Kyle O’Reilly being there, O’Reilly isn’t happy with Cole
or the Bucks, but he has a private word with Cole, saying yeah obviously they have heat,
but this is AEW, the key to success is factions, which he’s totally correct in saying. He
says he knows Fish has his back, he’ll have to see tonight if Cole has his back too.
Dan Lambert cut an in-ring promo ragging on Cody and Brandi, and he had some great lines.
Some so good in fact, people forgot they don’t like him and started cheering him because
he was saying bad things about the other guy people don’t like.
This brought out Brandi herself, who was initially greeted with boos from the crowd, but she
quickly turned that around into what was actually a really great back and forth promo between
herself and Dan Lambert, each of which had some great lines to each other. Brandi called
Lambert a less talented version of Paul Heyman, and asked him when was the last time he got
beaten up by a woman and didn’t have to pay for it. Lambert’s responses were also
pretty fire emoji, I think that’s what the kids say these days, which ended with Brandi
saying oh you’re a black belt, well I’m a black bitch and threatening to fight him,
but Dustin Rhodes came out to make save, but he was blindsided by Men of the Year. This
segment surprised me and was actually a ton of fun. But one question: where the hell was
Cody? That’s your wife my dude. After this was the semi-final match of the
TBS Tournament between Thunder Rosa and Jade Cargill, and this was also a great match.
This was the longest we’ve seen Cargill go in a match, and while she wasn’t perfect,
her selling of Rosa working over her knee was pretty much spot on, with subtle and overt
selling mixed together, it was great stuff. After the match got given quite a bit of time,
a masked figure smashed something over Rosa’s head while the referee was distracted, allowing
Cargill to get the win with Jaded, and the figure revealed themselves to be Mercedes
Martinez, who is now All Elite. Another great addition to the women’s division. Ruby Soho
came down to make the save on Rosa, as it’ll be Cargill vs Soho in the final next week
to crown the first TBS Champion. This was all great stuff, and honestly I think
the way AEW has handled the TBS Tournament has actually been really good overall. Lots
of prestige surrounding it, and I think whoever wins the belt next week will look really good
coming out of it. Thumbs up. CM Punk cut a promo next, saying he’s done
with MJF, he’s a waste of his time, but also MJF said he wanted gold, and wouldn’t
it be a shame if someone interrupted his pursuit of it. So you’re not done with MJF then
are you Punk. This was a good promo, but not exactly the white hot material you would expect
in a CM Punk vs MJF feud. Sammy Guevara wants to win his TNT Title back.
Serena Deeb and Hikaru Shida are going to have yet another match. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse
Hobbs don’t like Dante Martin. Brian Pillman Jr. cut a promo in the ring
next calling out Malakai Black, who appeared in the darkness to point at him, so it’ll
be a match between the two next week. And the main event of the show was Orange
Cassidy, Chuck Taylor and Trent Baretta vs Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly,
and let me tell you, on a personal note just because of how much I loved Undisputed Era
in NXT, just seeing the three of them do their entrance together again got the heart going.
Do we have a name for the trio yet though? The Not Undisputed Era? The Disputed Era I
suppose. This match was so much fun - The Disputed Era denying the Best Friends from
hugging, O’Reilly and Fish working together smoothly, Adam Cole being the greatest, Cassidy
getting to run wild, there was so much to enjoy in this.
But! How will they co-exist? Because at one point, Kyle O’Reilly inadvertently kicked
Adam Cole straight in the face, which brought out Brandon Cutler, who distracted the referee
while The Young Bucks came in and hit superkicks on the Best Friends, allowing reDRagon to
hit Chasing The Dragon for the win. After the bell, Adam Cole looked hurt and
betrayed on the outside while he was being tended to by The Bucks and Cutler, while Fish
and O’Reilly celebrated in the ring, and looked a bit bemused saying things like hey
man, we got the win, while the Bucks were mouthing off to them.
How. Will. They. Co-Exist. It’s not fully AEW’s fault that I literally
cannot take much more of any can they co-exist stories, though they did have two of them
on this show too. They even used the words can they co-exist ahead of the main event,
so they know what they’re doing. The Bucks/Cole/reDRagon is so interesting, and the dynamics are going
to be such a fun thing to explore, and it’s a very well told story if you take out the
first bit of Adam Cole saying he has a surprise for the Bucks and then not fully trusting
O’Reilly after he supposedly brought him in. But this shiny new storyline has been
tarnished and weathered by the can they co-exist storm.
Regardless though, what a fun show. Let us know what you thought in the comments and
by voting on our Community Tab where 78% of you voted for Whose side is Adam Cole on?!
There is so much good wrestling on the show that any minor grievances you have just get
washed away by the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you see The Disputed Era make their
entrance, or the Lucha Bros going crazy with their offense, or Thunder Rosa and Jade Cargill
putting on a banger. This show wasn’t perfect, but it was so goddamn enjoyable. This is a
4/5 show. Subscribe to WrestleTalk Podcast channel as
myself and Laurie Blake will be covering the episode in full over there later today.