COMPLETED: January 2, 2024
Swerve Strickland vs. Jay Lethal (AEW Dynamite 11/22/23)
Just a little dry cause it’s hard to buy into anything Jay Lethal in AEW, but a mostly focused effort. It’s a leg and arm match, which Swerve does decently enough even though it’s not really his strong suit. Still, it’s all solidly done stuff and I like that Swerve’s floatier offense is kept to a minimum again. Much more focused on striking at bad limbs, wrenching on them. The more we can eliminate Swerve’s more contrived ideas, the better.
Rating: ***
Rush vs. Jay White (AEW Dynamite 11/22/23)
Unfortunately heatless when it slows down, crowd wasn’t invested in too much. To be fair, there wasn’t anything too interesting happening in those control segments anyway. Luckily, enough of this goes to more meat and potatoes striking to keep it fun. There’s some real meaty shots in this and that’s what keeps this worth the watch til the end.
Rating: ***¼
Jon Moxley vs. Mark Briscoe (AEW Dynamite 11/22/23)
Full review here.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW Collision 11/25/23)
Full review here.
Eddie Kingston vs. Brody King (AEW Collision 11/25/23)
Full review here.
Jon Moxley vs. Jay Lethal (AEW Dynamite 11/29/23)
Full review here.
Mark Briscoe vs. Rush (AEW Dynamite 11/29/23)
Full review here.
Swerve Strickland vs. Jay White (AEW Dynamite 11/29/23)
Full review here.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brody King (AEW Collision 12/2/23)
Those initial strike exchanges aren’t much, but this develops nicely once it settles into another Brody King monster show. I still wish for a little more urgency and explosiveness from the guy, but it’s not such a problem when he’s working with such talented opposition. Claudio’s not nearly as endearing as Eddie but he understands the mechanics of the outsized babyface well enough, again something incredibly impressive given how big he is. Some stiffer strikes at the end, cool power stuff like that extra big giant swing. Good match.
Rating: ***1/4
Andrade el Idolo vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW Collision 12/2/23)
Almost no dance stuff this time around, which is a plus in my column. Garcia’s still piecing together working as a babyface, but things are coming together nicely. His focus on chops to apply the Steamboat rule are especially effective, but the Sleeper still leaves a little to be desired in terms of being a big transition move for his comebacks. Andrade hit everything pretty clean here, his control was just a little lax. Another decent TV outing from these two.
Rating: ***1/4
Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW Collision 12/2/23)
Full review here.
Jon Moxley vs. Rush (AEW Dynamite 12/6/23)
Still feels like we’re never quite getting the best from these two together. This feels much more like your run of the mill Mox TV match more than anything else, and we don’t even get a fun bladejob to go along with it. That being said, the standard Mox TV match is a good one. There’s crowd brawling, big strikes, a general sense of hard hitting struggle throughout. Still, this lacks of the more elegant structuring of even the Lethal/Mox match from the week before, and the heavy blows aren’t quite great enough to compensate for that loss. Very good stuff, but not very interesting.
Rating: ***1/2
Swerve Strickland vs. Mark Briscoe (AEW Dynamite 12/6/23)
Full review here.
Jay White vs. Jay Lethal (AEW Dynamite 12/6/23)
All extremely solid stuff, mechanically good for all of it. They’re both real focused here and nothing they do is bad, but it’s just impossible to care. Not only are they in the lower tier of scorers in the tournament, they’re also being used in a heater spot between two title matches on the episode. The crowd doesn’t seem to care much either, just invested in the stunning revelation that they’re both named Jay.
Rating: ***
Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW Rampage 10/8/23)
Full review here.
Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli (AEW Collision 10/9/23)
Full review here.
Bryan Danielson vs. Andrade el Idolo (AEW Collision 10/9/23)
Full review here.
Andrade el Idolo vs. Brody King (AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming 12/13/23)
Full review here.
Rush vs. Jay Lethal (AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming 12/13/23)
Another rock solid Jay Lethal that doesn’t mean too much. This one has the added benefit of being much shorter than the typical tournament match, and that it features both guys throwing a lot of stiff chops. Rush using the sleeper for the win to potentially set up taking on Mox in the semis, or some time after is an interesting choice.
Rating: ***
Mark Briscoe vs. Jay White (AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming 12/13/23)
Another strong effort from Mark Briscoe here. With tournament contention out of the question, he goes full force here once again and it’s just so spirited and engaging. With Mark recently though, I can’t help but fixate on the smaller details. Note how well he sells his arm after missing that first froggy bow, or how he takes the time to sell each individual body part that Jay attacks when picking him apart. This is another one kept mostly short and punchy, but without too much to offer beneath the surface. Perhaps Mark’s least match in the tournament so far, but that’s still a pretty high floor all things considered.
Rating: ***1/2
Jon Moxley vs. Swerve Strickland (AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming 12/13/23)
Full review here.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Andrade el Idolo (AEW Collision: Winter is Coming 12/16/23)
Extremely solid stuff all around if not quite setting the world on fire. This comes across perhaps a little tame given how they led into it at the end of last week’s Collision, but that’s fine. Solid action all around, but nothing much to write home about outside of that sick low blow finish.
Rating: ***1/4
Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia (AEW Collision: Winter is Coming 12/16/23)
Full review here.
Bryan Danielson vs. Brody King (AEW Collision: Winter is Coming 12/16/23)
Full review here.
Swerve Strickland vs. Rush (AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash 12/20/23)
Good match overall even though some things keep it from hitting great. There’s an odd sort of mixed messaging here with the dynamic they’re playing with. Strickland’s got the bad arm coming in, and he’s tenacious in moments like grabbing an armbar on Rush while he’s posing. It’s the kind of thing that makes him feel right to cheer for, but it doesn’t quite shake out that way when he’s the one working a bit of control segment down the stretch. A few other weird choices aside (some bad early “near miss”-style wrestling, a few suplex no sells that didn’t land for me), this is mostly good. Enough solid shots and big bumps to guarantee a fun time.
Rating: ***½
Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal (AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash 12/20/23)
Full review here.
Jon Moxley vs. Jay White (AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash 12/20/23)
Full review here.
Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli (AEW Collision: Holiday Bash 12/23/23)
Full review here.
Daniel Garcia vs. Brody King (AEW Collision: Holiday Bash 12/23/23)
Full review here.
Eddie Kingston vs. Andrade el Idolo (AEW Collision: Holiday Bash 12/23/23)
Full review here.
Jon Moxley vs. Jay White vs. Swerve Strickland (AEW Dynamite: New Year Smash 12/27/23)
Too long, but mostly fine. It’s one of those three-ways that feels more formless than actually chaotic, more meandering than spontaneous. Mox tries to give this a little more shape with his leg selling, but it feels like a blood from a stone effort here. None of these three really pair all that well with each other either (the best of the bunch being Mox with Jay), so no surprise this rather bloated effort turned out less than great.
Rating: ***
Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW Dynamite: New Year Smash 12/27/23)
Full review here.
Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley (AEW Worlds End 12/30/23)
Full review here.
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