On today’s news, there’s been a new Covid outbreak in WWE, big plans for the Royal Rumble
might have been revealed, Oli’s review of last night’s AEW Dynamite, and more.
Now you better watch out, you better not cry, you better press that subscribe button and
enable notifications, or so help me god you will only be getting coal for Christmas.
With the new Omicron variant being a huge issue the world is facing right now, and has
been for a little while, wrestling shows have continued on hoping and praying it would just
politely go away. Unfortunately for WWE, it hasn’t.
According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, he heard from several sources that after the
latest loop of live events WWE held, “a number of talents and staff were feeling run
down and some have since tested positive for COVID-19, while others who were feeling sick
are still waiting for their test results to return.”
While tomorrow night’s episode of SmackDown has been pre-taped and will be unaffected
by this, it’s uncertain what the full extent of the repercussions will be, as WWE are looking
to hold their inaugural Day 1 event on January 1st, and with isolation periods and it being
currently unknown who has tested positive, and who has to isolate because of contact
with them, Day 1 could potentially be in jeopardy. In a follow-up report, PWInsider notes that
WWE still plans to go ahead with all their US shows, even using NXT talent as replacements
if need be, though there has been “a lot of calls and a lot of running around” in
the company, as they try to stay ahead of the situation. This follow-up report also
noted that there had been more positive cases since their initial report, so the full extent
of the positive cases is as of yet unknown. Hoping everyone stays safe and for those who
have tested positive, they get better soon. But later in the month after Day 1, we have
the Royal Rumble, and aside from the Rumble matches themselves, the big question is who
is Roman Reigns going to face, because at this point I think we can all see that Reigns
will retain against Lesnar at Day 1 and then will face him again at WrestleMania because
we haven’t had enough of Reigns vs Lesnar at WrestleMania already.
WrestlingNews.co is speculating, and that’s what it is, so take it with a pinch of salt,
that house show loops are generally pretty good indicators of what matches and feuds
are to come on TV. And on the latest house show circuits, Drew McIntyre has been teaming
with The New Day to take on the Bloodline, meaning that the New Day vs Usos feud might
very well continue past Day 1 into the Rumble, and that we might be getting McIntyre vs Reigns
at the Rumble itself. It’s probably the biggest Universal Title
feud they could do on SmackDown right now outside of Lesnar, so I’d be all for it,
and for some reason Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville don’t like putting McIntyre in Battle
Royales, so sure, why not I guess. And before I hand over to Oli for his review
of Dynamite, some nice news coming out of the AEW locker room. According to Wade Keller
of PWTorch, despite the venomous promos CM Punk and MJF have been trading, the two “seem
to get along well behind the scenes when people see them together planning their segments”.
Keller also noted that some wrestlers on the roster have their own locker rooms, however
that’s less about who is the most important, and more about who feels like socialising.
According to Keller, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Darby Allin all have
their own locker rooms, also noting that Bryan Danielson doesn’t and changes in the locker
room with everyone else, but possibly more heartwarmingly, CM Punk has been “super
receptive” to any and all talent approaching him with questions and the like. “In fact,
one younger wrestler on the roster told me ‘yeah, he’s been super chill and receptive
since he’s got here. He’s a good dude.” See? He does like wrestling. Merry Christmas.
And now, it’s Thursday, you know what that means, it’s time for Oli’s review of AEW
Dynamite, in about 5 minutes. Dynamite’s Holiday Bash special opened with
a battle of who’s got the better entrance music: Adam Cole’s Bay Bay or Where is my
Mind by the Pixies for Orange Cassidy. Got to hell one of the greatest bands of all
time - it’s all about the boom. Cassidy and Cole wrestled a pay-per-view level
match for me, telling the story of who’s the better man in multiple ways. Who’s the
better technical wrestler? Cassidy, because Cole had to resort to a Backstabber. Who’s
got the better friends? It’s a draw, because the Chuckie and Trent took out the Young Bucks
before they properly interfered. Who’s got more heart? Both of them, for kicking out
of each other’s signatures in the back and forth final third. But ultimately, who’s
the dirtier player? Cole wins that one, and the match, as Bobby Fish distracted the referee
and a debuting Kyle O’Reilly took out Cassidy, letting Cole get the pin.
The Undisputed Era have reunited in AEW. Not you, Roddy. And it was pretty good, I guess.
The difficult thing with first impressions, or wrestling debuts, is you only get one of
them, and I have to be honest, the Undisputed Era reforming in AEW fell short of my admittedly
lofty expectations. Cole and Kyle squared off against each other,
presumably to reference how they were blood feuding the last time we saw them - a nice
touch, but one that made it a bit confusing, particularly if you don’t watch NXT. The
Bucks looked blindsided, Cole looked like he was caught between two girlfriends, and
I was just confused over Cole’s motivations here, after setting this up as the best Christmas
gift last week. I also think this is an angle that should’ve closed an episode to really
feel momentous, no matter how fun the main event was.
What did you think of Kyle’s debut? Let me know in the comments down below.
Wangman Page vs Bryan Danielson was announced for the first Dynamite of 2022 on TBS. Following
their one hour draw last week, Page told Tony Schiavone he’d never felt less of a champion
the whole three years he’s been in AEW. This brought Bryan out to a big, seemingly
mixed reaction, far louder than Page’s, who called Hangman an ‘entitled millennial
cowboy’, saying he wants judges for their rematch, as they would’ve declared him the
winner last week. Page said they won’t need them, because
he’ll win in under an hour this time. Hangman finished on a strong promo, but then just
before the camera cut away, he dropped his head, like he didn’t believe what he just
said - which could be some excellent character work.
MJF called out Wardlow for not being there to save him last week, and then stood in front
of him for the rest of the Pinnacle’s promo on Punk, Sting and Darby - some very smart
staging - which led into another squash match victory for Wardlow, destroying Captain Shawn
Dean with four powerbombs. Dan Lambert is back! And apparently Tony Khan
has set up up to fail with an impossible assignment: get Cody Rhodes cheered. How’s he going
to do that? Cody’s a bigger dick than he is! How can people not love Lambert? He’s
such an asshole. Britt Baker cut a promo from a Christmas scene,
telling Riho ‘You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.’ A reference to the 1983 film A Christmas
Story, which the crowd reacted to like she’d just called someone The Miz.
We got a video package giving us more details on what the Owen Hart Tournament has in store
for us… it’s in Owen Hart’s memory. Which I kind of already figured.
It was a lovely video package though, putting over Owen as a wrestler and a human being.
Hopefully this isn’t just the standard single elimination format, as we’ve just had two
of those. Like this next match, Nyla Rose vs Ruby Soho
in the TBS Tournament semi final - which started with Ruby genuinely getting her hands stuck
in her jacket. Damn it, punk rock look! But The Man won’t know how much I disrespect
him unless I have very tight leather coats. Vickie Guerrero pushed Soho off the top rope,
and Nyle targeted her shoulder for some excellent selling. But Ruby kicked out of the Beast
Bomb and then pulled Nyle off the second rope into a Riott Kick in a great finish to advance
to the finals. Malakai Black mostly dominated Griff Garrison
in a fun squash match, also intimidating Brian Pillman at ringside. He set Griff up for the
Black Mass, but made him tap in a Half Boston Crab on his injured knee instead, and then
Black Massed Pillman afterwards. There were no teases of the King that supposedly joined
the House of Black last week. Matt Hardy with Private Party said Isiah Cassidy
will pound Jungle Boy’s ass on Friday, which got a retort from Christian, Jungle Boy and
Luchasaurus. Matt and Christian mentoring feuding tag teams is a really cool mirror.
JR is back next week from his cancer treatment! And the main event was a stupidly fun, 20
minute plus six man tag of the Pinnacle’s MJF and FTR vs the face paint gang of Sting,
Darby Allin and CM Punk, who all awesomely referenced each other’s make-up.
This match hit every note it was designed to:
Great wrestling, check. Goofy heel shenanigans, check. Babyfaces looking strong, check. Nostalgia
pops, check. Expertly teasing the promotion’s major feud right now, check.
MJF and Punk never touched once, with MJF at one point sprinting up the stands and back
down to tag out to avoid him. The match broke down into chaos, with the
camera even missing some spots, just catching an overturned table. You just gotta assume
Darby did something insane. And MJF massively overshot a dive outside, seemingly landing
face first. Thankfully FTR appeared to absorb enough of the speed, and he was up for his
spot seconds later. A spot that was arguably more scary: Sting, at the age of 62, doing
a top rope crossbody to the outside. Compare him to returning legends in their 50s. The
guy is incredible. All the faces hit their finishers on Dax Harwood,
and the youngest got the pin, with Darby hitting a Coffin Drop for the win. That is the kind
of match you could show a non-wrestling fan, and they’d probably get into it by the end.
What did you think of Dynamite? Let me know in the comments. 76% of you voted for Intellectual
Property Disputed Era in our poll on a pole match on the community tab.
Sometimes it’s how you leave them, and that closing trios match elevated this show by
a whole point. And O’Reilly’s debut makes me excited for future feuds, even if the angle
itself fell short of my expectations. This week’s Dynamite, as always, is a four out
of five. Now watch my video from yesterday about the
major heat between CM Punk and WWE.