AEW Dynamite - December 15, 2021 - Winter is Coming

[Zoo Enthusiast]

15 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Amazing how AEW might have the best male and female wrestler in the world right now with Danielson and Deeb.

Truly bonkers she hasn’t been a featured TV wrestler before.  So fantastic.

[Matt D]

14 minutes ago, The Man in Blak said:

My main complaint with the draw is actually that they led off the show with it, which immediately called back to how they led off Grand Slam with the Omega/Danielson draw. Tipped their hand a bit.

Means the third time they do it and shock everyone at the last minute, there’ll be a hell of a payoff?

[MoS]

7 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

The thing with that trilogy was that Joe was a year into his reign, though. You do that when an established champ faces a big challenge. 

Yeah but Joe was always booked as a dominant threat, so it made sense for him to not immediately be challenged. They have pushed Bryan as the GOAT, and he nearly beat Omega. His entire gameplan is taking the match deep and outlasting you. So for him to actually be the one saved by the bell was a big progress for Hangman, and left him more over than when he walked in. 

I understand why people are pissed at the draw, but I think it fits the story they are telling. 

[sek69]

MJF getting his receipt back for the Miz jab, lol.

[MoS]

Eddie Kingston is the absolute best. 

Hahaha I admittedly popped for the Ryback dig

 

[strobogo]

Lol at Sting finally painting on a new hairline

[MoS]

Dante Martin isn't real. Loved the match and the post-match angle. Hottest end to a show in a while. This was a tremendous episode of Dynamite. 

[sek69]

Dante Martin is just nuts, if he ever has a match with Fenix it might be entirely in the air.

[SirEdger]

I'm kinda pissed at myself to have been expecting the Briscoes when the lights went out only to see Sting & Darby appear instead.

Imagine the pop Dem Boyz would've had tonight.

[sek69]

They're definitely coming in at some point soon, I was expecting it to be them too. 

[Migs]

2 hours ago, Log said:

That looked like a pretty big dude Black was putting the necklace on. He said it makes him “more than a king”. Brodie King?

I hope so. Brodie and Malakai wrecking dudes would be wild. I'm in for them against every tag team on the roster.

[sek69]

News just broke that Brodie King did sign with AEW so I suppose that was him. 

[sek69]

Also lol at Big Daddy Shad being at attendance at the show and waiting til afterwards to fire Urban Myer. I guess even he wanted to see Hangman/Danielson first. 

[Tim Cooke]

10 hours ago, Matt D said:

I love how they built up to that first chop to the point that it drew a chant once he got it.

The old Eddy vs Benoit spot

[Tim Cooke]

11 hours ago, sek69 said:

Fans are never going to like a time limit draw....and they shouldn't Wins and losses matter in AEW so a draw should never be acceptable, but it puts a ton of interest on the rematch which will probably pop a huge PPV number for them.

Wins and losses are based off of real sports (Kahn has said as much).  

Are soccer draws horrible?  

I'm not an NFL guy, but games can end in ties.

Same for NHL.

For the big four, it's really only baseball and basketball that play until you win.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Tim Cooke
Added in NHL, NFL, and Baseball

[Tim Cooke]

This was the best match in AEW history.  Masterful performance from Danielson and Page was as good as he has ever been.  This may be the best Danielson 30+ minute match.  I loved his ROH 2002-2007 run but some of those matches suffered from the typical "this was 10 minutes too long."  

This match felt right, from start to finish.  Couldn't be more excited for a return match.

[El-P]

Awesome match. Page will be fine. He just had to MOTYC in a matter of a few weeks with two GOAT contender. Meaning : he delivers when called to the task. Welcome to the GWE 2026 list too Hangman.

Awesome match, although there was a lull at one point when the doctor was "taking care" of Page, as it went on for too long. The crowd even began to chant bullshit, thankfully Dragon put an end to it but this is a trope that has disrupted some NXT matches in the past and should not be overused, especially when that cut was about 1,7 on the Muta scale. Kinda lost the crowd at about 45 minutes too before getting them back for a hellish finish. La Majistral craddle got a legit nearfall, which was nice. Great finishing stretch. Yeah. What a year for AEW. So happy to watch Danielson in this setting. Love the booking too of having him looming like a shadow over the top guys, he hasn't beat them but no one can beat him either yet. The first pinfall on Danielson has to be special now.

I just love Serena Deeb. Hopefully she gets a title reign sometime in 2022, she's too good not to.

Final match was very good, Dante has ways to go but damn is he ridiculous in the air. Mix of Rey, RVD, Fénix and no one else before.

Brodie King, fuck yeah ! I kinda wanted Julia Hart to get Alexablissed, but Brodie King in AEW is gonna be so awesome. Perfect fit with Black. I love those kinda characters, and yeah you should add some female with them (and no, I don't mean Abadon, all due respect).

(Darwin Award of the night goes to that idiotic Corny fan holding his stupid sign for two hours while an all-time awesome show was happening. I'm sure he expected the security to take it off, but nope, he had to get tired by the end. Actually paying good money to look like a complete idiot on TV, job well done. )

[Matt D]

41 minutes ago, El-P said:

Awesome match, although there was a lull at one point when the doctor was "taking care" of Page, as it went on for too long. The crowd even began to chant bullshit, thankfully Dragon put an end to it but this is a trope that has disrupted some NXT matches in the past and should not be overused, especially when that cut was about 1,7 on the Muta scale.

That was one of those moments that felt worse as it was happening than after it was done.

Two things to note there. First, Danielson was getting pretty earnest heat in there, especially with the middle finger which really changed the tenor of the crowd noise, but doing the jumping jacks in the rhythm of the chants too. It didn't feel like 2021 "Let's play along" heat. People seemed legitimately angry in the moment. Also something he garnered when he was striking down upon a defenseless/helpless Page at certain points of the match.

The other is that during that bit, which was almost all commercial break in the US, btw, tension seemed to build, to the point it was sort of horrific that Danielson was so quick to hit the baseball slide/dropkick just as Page was starting to finally get up. There was a real build and payoff there even if the build was probably a bit too much.

[Stiva]

Page/Bryan was absolutely incredible and I can see the logic in having them go again at BOTB. I had a feeling that post-WWE would see Danielson attempt to go long again but to see that he’s actually better at it than he ever has been is pretty wild. Page wasn’t quite on that level but it’s fair to say that nobody currently working is even close anyway.

Would have popped for the Briscoes at the end but Sting having the big moment in Greensboro will be awesome. I guess FTR keep asking to sell for and put Sting over.

Black having his own creepy stable is far more preferable than ever seeing Wyatt turn up with his. Hyped for the next wave of AEW debuts now that they could potentially have the pick of ROH.

I also love how Darby will also loop back round to teaming with the guys he’s fought tooth and nail in the past and he always remembers to be cagy at first. Great little attention to detail for people who have been with it since the start.

[MoS]

I am actually a bit nervous about what Bryan has planned for the rematch. I remember very early on in his career, he really wanted to do like a 180-min match (3 falls, 60 mins each) but "compromised" and went only like 80 minutes. As great as this draw was, the rematch doesn't need to be longer. It actually needs to be shorter and more intense imo, so it's a different kind of classic. 

[NintendoLogic]

I watched the title match. Maybe it's because I knew going in that they were going 60, but I started losing interest around 20 minutes in. I felt like it was mainly just a bunch of stuff happening without a strong storyline hook. I got back into it when it looked like they were going to go in a more story-based direction (Hangman's arm+blood loss vs. Danielson's leg), but they never fully committed to it and instead just kept Doing Stuff. One spot that stuck out to me was Danielson going for an armbar on Hangman's left arm rather than the injured right one to make it easier for him to make the ropes so they could do the deadeye on the apron. To their credit, a lot of the stuff they did was really cool in a vacuum, and it was obviously an incredible achievement from a cardio standpoint (especially Danielson skinning the cat 59 minutes in). In that respect, it's probably the pinnacle of CrossFit wrestling. From a booking standpoint, I think the goal was to get Hangman over as a worthy champion by showing he's a super worker who can go 60 minutes with the great Bryan Danielson. That sort of thing is a bit too meta for my tastes, but that's just the reality of pro wrestling these days. By the way, it really bothers me that Danielson doesn't fully extend his arms when he does jumping jacks. If he does that for heel heat, mission accomplished.

I popped for the "Vince fears W-2s" sign.

[strobogo]

I've seen a lot of 60 minute matches in my time, but not many that not only stayed hot the entire time, but got hotter and hotter all the way to the finish. And the crowd started off super hot to begin with. Very enjoyable professional wrasslin in the year of our lord 2021.

[MoS]

3 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

By the way, it really bothers me that Danielson doesn't fully extend his arms when he does jumping jacks. If he does that for heel heat, mission accomplished.

I don't know why, but this genuinely got a big loud laugh out of me. Thanks for this 

[El-P]

16 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

To their credit, a lot of the stuff they did was really cool in a vacuum, and it was obviously an incredible achievement from a cardio standpoint (especially Danielson skinning the cat 59 minutes in). In that respect, it's probably the pinnacle of CrossFit wrestling. From a booking standpoint, I think the goal was to get Hangman over as a worthy champion by showing he's a super worker who can go 60 minutes with the great Bryan Danielson. That sort of thing is a bit too meta for my tastes, but that's just the reality of pro wrestling these days.

Actually, this entire description absolutely fits every 60 mn Flair vs Steamboat match ever. If I never ever hear the word "crossfit wrestling" it'll be way too soon (dunno who used it first, but it's the worst), but Flair was actually the epitome of crossfit wrestling before crossfit even existed, his entire gimmick was that he could go "all night long, wooooo!". And if we're being fair more than to Flair, the infamous Toyota vs Inoue 60 minute sprint from 1995 was probably the apex of going batshit for 60 minutes (I admit I haven't rewatched it in 20 years though).

I will agree that in term of psychological depths and structuring, this wasn't an Omega match (not sure that's where you were going, probably not, but that's were it leads me !). And it's not the first time I see that with Danielson, also happened in the Miro match where they did kinda lose the crowd for a little while and seemed to wandered a bit. Happened here too before the awesome finishing stretch. Mind you, it's a small observation and criticism and like I said, this was MOTYC and we're talking elite level anyway.

[MoS]

I think Danielson's limb-work psychology is simply that he is a stretcher, who breaks down bigger opponents by twisting them into painful knots. The fact that he got too sadistic with his punishment and did not remain focused on one limb was his undoing in kayfabe, because it allowed Hangman to come back and to use his superior strength and smashmouth style to neutralise Dragon's expertise. 

I didn't think they lost the crowd at any point at all. The closest was when Page was getting treated for his cut, but Danielson actually used that to get the crowd to start viscerally hating him, which took the match to a whole new level. There were so few This is Awesome chants in the finishing stretch, and I think it was largely cuz Bryan and Hangman actually managed to make the crowd feel emotional and invested in the result, and that brief lull when Hangman was getting treated was crucial in achieving that.