‘AEW: Dynamite’ Review (May 4th 2022)
Welcome to this week’s review of AEW: Dynamite, which was broadcast live from the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, Baltimore, Maryland (that’s a mouthful). As usual we have Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, and Jim Ross on commentary and ANOTHER stacked card, including an ROH championship match!
Match #1: Owen Hart Foundation Qualifying Match – Jeff Hardy def. Bobby Fish
My Thoughts: So Jeff Hardy gets the win and moves on to a match with Darby Allin. That is the most interesting outcome of this match. What’s also interesting is how good a match between two “older” wrestlers can still be – though the ending felt a little abrupt to me, especially considering the beating Fish was giving Hardy throughout the match. Anyways, I’m more excited about what’s next for Jeff Hardy than this match. Sorry!
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #2: AFO (The Butcher & The Blade and Angelico) vs. Blackpool Combat Club
My Thoughts: So until this week’s Dark I had zero interest in seeing anything happen in this match other than the AFO get their hards kicked in. However… Angelico put on a superb match against Yuya Uemera. After that, I wanted to see Angelico go one-on-one with Bryan Danielson AND Wheeler Yuta! But we essentially got a quasi-squash match instead. Which, when it features the BCC, isn’t that bad!
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #3: Wardlow def. W. Morrissey
My Thoughts: Absolutely LOVED seeing W. Morrissey on AEW television. The man is doing great work on Impact and has come a looooong way from his time in the WWE. I was actually hyped for this one and it did not disappoint. Morrissey didn’t roll over and take it from Wardlow, even making it look tricky for him at times but Wardlow got the deserved win. Wardlow should absolutely destroy MJF when they finally meet right? Please!
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #4: Chris Jericho def. Santana
My Thoughts: I knew we were going to get shenanigans in this match but once, just once, I’d like the good guys to get an early, clean, win. I don’t care about long-term storytelling, Santana deserved to pummel the living crap out of Chris Jericho – it would have been so satisfying to have him taken down a peg or two like after his match against Eddie Kingston. But no. We get a Jericho win and a JAS run-in. Boooooo!
My Score: 2 out of 5
Match #5: Owen Hart Foundation Qualifying Match – Rey Fenix def. Dante Martin
My Thoughts: Yes, yes and more yes! This was everything you’d expect from two high fliers going at it. Both men gave as good as they got and experience won the day. THAT’S how you do a match between veteran and “newbie”. Seriously. I could watch this each and every week, it reminded me of the excitement you got from great cruiserweight matches in WCW back in the day. But better.
My Score: 4 out of 5
Match #6: Ring Of Honor Women’s Championship Match – Mercedes Martinez def. Deonna Purrazzo
My Thoughts: Going into this one you knew Deonna Purrazzo was dropping the belt. No way Tony Khan is having a champion who’s not signed to his books. Which kind of ruined the entire match for me. I’m a fan of what Purrazzo has done as the ROH Women’s Champ – including the “Champ Champ” challenge on Impact. Now she has ZERO belts, which makes her a shoo-in for the Impact women’s belt now surely? She’s the best women’s wrestler in the company after all. Mercedes Martinez being ROH Women’s Champ brings a great sense of legitimacy to the title – after all Martinez is known for being a badass AND a hard worker. They’ll need to find the next big ROH star to take the belt off her IMHO.
Totally agree with the sentiments for the Rey Fenix/Dante Martin match. I would’ve gone with 4.5 out of 5. That Jeff Hardy/Bobby Fish match was a dud. Fish, to me, should have won the match, and the 2.5 rating was being too generous. I would have gone with 1 out of five. Otherwise, the synapses of last night’s Dynamite is spot on.