Breaking Down AEW Dynamite (1/25/2023)

(Photo Credit: AEW)

Dynamite comes back this week with what was a huge addition, Mark Briscoe being on the show in a wrestling capacity to pay tribute to his brother, which got great time. MJF continues to put Bryan Danielson through challenges and Darby Allin has a returning Samoa Joe gunning for him once again.

Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs Action Andretti & Ricky Starks

With the feud continuing between the JAS and the team of Andretti and Starks, in the tag team match here we saw the JAS take the win, with an interference by Daniel Garcia hitting Andretti with the bat in the head to help Sammy get the pinfall and win. There was some good things from Andretti, and Starks delivered a Roshambo to Jericho on the outside.

Not too much advancement outside of the ending to the match which will probably lead to the feud being extended more, it might extend to Revolution, and if it does, that is fine, but it can’t go longer than that, because then the feud starts to get stale. But it is also a test for Andretti and we’ll see how he handles it in the coming weeks as the feud reaches its height.

Buddy Mathews vs Darby Allin

Part of the appeal to this match was the leg of Darby which was visibly taped up, and Matthews went for it. Obviously the other part was how good these two guys are, they didn’t disappoint. During the match, the lights went out, came back on, Malakai and King are standing at the bottom of the ramp, then Ortiz comes out to even the odds, along with Sting which sent them to the back.

The closing moments of the match had Darby deliver a scorpion death drop off the top rope, then hitting a coffin drop onto Matthews who was draped over the middle rope to get the win and retain the TNT title, which makes it four defenses in four straight weeks. Which is bringing the title back to prominence as said most weeks on here.

Post match when Darby was about to speak, he was interrupted by Samoa Joe who was on the screen, and basically said he will be looking to get the TNT title back. The match will probably happen fairly soon, the rematch, which sets up for Wardlow to return and get involved so the unfinished feud between Wardlow and Joe can continue.

Junglehook vs Ethan Page & Matt Hardy

Jungle Boy gets the win in this fairly academic match, but it looks like this Junglehook thing will continue for a bit, which gives both guys something to do so it’s pretty good in that regard. But it does feel like this was just put on the show because the plan is for Matt Hardy to break away soon, now can’t say if people will really care about it or Matt himself but if anything happens in the coming weeks, a break up is pretty likely.

Family Therapy with The Acclaimed & The Gunns

It more or less is the story of The Gunns and how their jealousy turned into hate for their father, and his supposed neglect, and it was decent stuff which resulted in The Gunns telling The Acclaimed and Billy that, they want the tag team titles. Part of this makes it seems that they will actually win the titles and will earn the admiration of their father. On the other hand, The Acclaimed haven’t had much of a run since winning the titles, so it feels like it would be early but either way this goes could be interesting. I think it may happen at Revolution.

Brian Cage vs Bryan Danielson

Another week of Bryan Danielson, and another great match for him and in this case, Brian Cage, who last week was paid by MJF to break Danielson’s arm. So they have a great match where this time Bryan is forced to use his speed and quickness more because of how big and strong Brian Cage is. Absolutely great action but obviously Bryan wins here, only by a cheap pin though, which keeps Cage looking good.

After the match though, it was Cage who kept on attacking Danielson, to the point that MJF came out and started directing Cage around, they put his arm within a chair and threw his shoulder into the ring post, as well as stomping on it in the ring. Interestingly, Konosuke Takeshita came out to make the save. After the break Bryan is mad in the trainers room who claims he will wrestle no matter the injury he has.Just more great build to the inevitable match that will happen between MJF and Danielson, he has one more match to go through next week in order to get a match at Revolution.

Following the next match, we got an MJF promo in the back, addressed Bryan and also revealed that it will be Timothy Thatcher who will challenge Bryan Danielson, which should be a great match.

Toni Storm vs Ruby Soho

After last weeks apparent heel turn by Storm and Saraya, we got Ruby Soho against Toni Storm, and the match was solid, then just before the end of the match, Britt Baker comes out at the top of the ramp, which distracts Toni Storm enough for Ruby Soho to get the win. It’s becoming extremely obvious that yes, it will be an outsiders vs originals type story, which seems good, and so far, is building nicely, and should all come to a head a Revolution.

Mark Briscoe vs Jay Lethal

The main event was different this time around, for very good reason, out of what was a huge loss for the wrestling world last week in Jay Briscoe, the last segment on the show here, with the match and everything, was to pay tribute to Jay, and this resulted in Mark Briscoe getting a spot in the main event, with Jay Lethal to just go and put on a great match, and they did just that.

Mark Briscoe did get the win and honestly it was just a very touching segment and match, Mark ended up finishing Lethal with the Jay-Driller. There was a graphic on the screen, members of the locker room filtered out to the stage for the support and all in all it was just a beautiful way to end Dynamite, with the demonstration of how important Jay Briscoe was to the wrestling business and community. I thought it was all very well done.

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