Matches
- AEW World Trios Titles, Best of Seven Match 4: Death▲(c) vs The Elite ***3/4
- Cage vs Jungle Boy ***
- House of Black vs The Factory NR
- Andretti vs Jericho ***1/2
- Melo vs Ruby **1/2
- AEW World Title, Dynamite Diamond Ring 2022 Decision: MJF(c, r) vs Starks ***3/4
Thoughts
Winter is Coming had a pretty decent card and I do remember some fun buzz around the episode, so I was pretty hopeful that this would be a really fun show.
It was.
Match four in the best of seven series was admittedly the weakest of the bunch so far, but still a great six-man with the expected action and storytelling in place. The post-match announcement that #5 would be guerilla warfare was a nice bonus.
MJF promo to build the main. Good shit.
Jarrett and Jay attacked The Acclaimed mid-Max-rap. Cheap heat and guitar shots followed.
Jericho promised to squash a jobber. Garcia was demoted below Sammy.
Jungle Boy and Brian Cage was good without pushing into required viewing territory. Short, but sweet. Jungle got tossed until he eventually got the W. He seems to hopefully be getting a nice push right now, having just bested Luchasaurus and now Cage, which is a decent name to have in your win column.
Perry wants W. Morrissey or whatever the fuck they're calling him. Am I watching WWE?
Hathaway's friends come out to play and Hook makes the save. Jungle hasn't had a match since. Hook has had two squashes.
BCC brag and talk shit. Mox wants Sammy and Page. Claudio promises they're even better a team than people think.
House of Black killed The Factory next. I'm not sure which members of the latter, no dead, unit were actually meant to be in this but this six-man match was really Buddy and Brody killing four dudes on their own and then Black taking the head off of QT.
Hart using the mist was a nice touch.
Baker promises Shida will fail against Hayter. Skye then cut a really rough promo asking for a match against the dentist.
Jericho put Action Andretti over in the four spot. I remember seeing the news when it happened and reading some of the behind the scenes shit about it. The match was pretty good though admittedly the final few minutes could have been a bit smoother and the finish was only saved from feeling a tad flat because of the circumstance surrounding it.
I also remember thinking that they wouldn't capitalize off of this win.
I know it's a spoiler (for me, the dude that's still catching up), but after watching this I did take a look at what he was given after. I am not sure if he got any TV time at all after this and his list of AEW content is rather slim.
He was on Dark the week after and beat Invictus Khas. His other two AEW matches, victories over Bronson and then Ari, were taped for Dark but have yet to air. He also worked MCW's holiday time show in Maryland, but that one doesn't really matter in this situation.
He did drop the brand's top prize here, maybe suggesting his schedule was about to get busy, for those that care at all about the result.
But, back to relevancy, I can't help but wonder why you'd give this dude a big win like that, run him on YouTube the next week, then not have anything with him (in a wrestling match at least for sure) for a few weeks. I have no idea when those other Dark matches will air, either.
As a result, this also kind of felt like it could be seen as weakening Claudio's Final Battle victory by some.
Starks cut a promo to build the main. Good shit.
FTR and the ass boys continue to build their program that I in no way am looking forward to.
Jericho is pissed.
Ruby beat Tay next after the latter attacked early in an attempt to get the upper hand. It was okay. I still want the program to be over. Instead, Anna ran out to start shit and keep it going.
Page dropped fire and promised to meet Mox in hell.
MJF defended his belt and ring against Ricky Starks in the main event. A great overall match and honestly given the circumstances I was even okay with the Saturday morning shenanigans. A well placed kick in the pebbles at the end saw The Devil retain in a protected finish.
This felt a lot like classic Attitude Era big matches in a good way.
Danielson makes the champ run away to close the show. Luckily, he didn't get on a mic to cry about Regal this time.
Considering the card, I'd say this delivered decently. Not everything landed perfectly, but I've called Dynamite a pro-wrestling variety show (less these days) with effort behind it. They don't nail everything but you can usually respect the attempt. Sometimes things just aren't your cup of tea, even. That was Winter is Coming 2022 and I liked everything far more than not.
This was a very good 2-hour edition of AEW's flagship, especially without looking ahead, and it went down rather smooth.
Overall Rating: 75/100%
If you're wondering, yes that image above is of the masked dude in those old magic revealed episodes. Why I picked the image I will leave up to your imagination.