AEW Dynamite 2-9-22 - Boardwalk Hall FORBIDDEN DOOR DEBUT

Wardlow brings out some MJF cutouts alongside a burberry carpet. Ex says that CM Punk beat CM Punk before flubbing another line. FTR and Tully gets an intro before Spears. MJF gets a Cody-tier intro. THE MAN WHO PUTS SHOULDERS ON THE MAT AND BANGS ALL THE RATS, MJF! MJF thanks himself and of course SHAWN SPEARS BABY! Punk walks out in a jacket looking dejected.

Punk buries his spray tan and says he learned from the past and he has friends today. Sting and Darby are out and Sting's dressed to fight. Punk says he's there to fight the guy who beat him - WARDLOW! He tells Wardlow to grow a set and MJF says everyone knows Wardlow's his best friend!? Dax says that he hates dressing like this and HE LOVES HIS FIGHTING GEAR AND HE WANTS A REMATCH! MJF says okay, if you do this, since they're in Atlantic City, he'll give him any match anywhere if he wins. BUT HE CAN'T TEAM WITH DARBY AND STING! Good luck finding someone who doesn't hate him and oh yeah, Wardlow has a match next!

Andrade meets with Sting and Darby with the faces telling Andrade Darby doesn't work for Sting and Darby wants the TNT Title and so does Andrade. The Blade is out to be destroyed by Wardlow. This for some reason goes more than 18 seconds, through a break. Corner charge INTO A POWERBOMB SYMPHONY! Spears doesn't want this and wants a pinfall here. Spears chairshots Blade and WOOHOO!s.  Inner Circle is up next, but FIRST NEXT, Penta! 

Everyone but Santana and Ortiz are out for the team meeting. Jericho bitches with them for NOT LETTING JERICHO'S FANS SEE HIM WRESTLE! Santana says the days of them being second-fiddle to him are done! Jericho stood in their way and took their spotlight. Jericho says that they had their chance to beat champs AND THEY LOST TO THE BUCKS. Jericho brought them into the company on 10/2/19 and he brought them into the group and he can kick them out. Maybe he invited the wrong two members of LAX! Sammy takes up for Jericho and Jericho tells him to shut up. 

Sammy says he wants to be the best champion in wrestling all this bickering won't help - and he's quit the group before and if they can't get this shit together, he's out again. Ortiz says that it's not time to talk because that won't solve it - they want a match, Jericho and Hager vs. PnP to settle this shit! More Elite stuff and JAY WHITE JOINS IN ON A BEATING! He's the forbidden door guy!

Face of the Revolution qualifier with Kassidy against KEITH LEE! TOSS ALL ACROSS THE DAMN RING! SLINGSHOT CROSSBODY BY KEITH LEE! PPPPOOUNNNNCCCEEEEE to the floor! Matt walks out on his team after saying that he'd have to make changes if he didn't win. Springboard sorta cutta on the rope before a tornillo to Lee! BBC ends it! This ruled! Billion star squash! QUEN POWERBOMBED ONTO KASSIDY AND THEN A POWERBOMB ON THE APRON. THIS RULED!

Sammy's got his cue cards...and the break nixes them! Punk's out WITH MOX to face FTR! Mox and Dax are fantastic together. Love the PK from Mox. AMW finish gets 2 and Punk prevents a powerplex. DOOMSDAY DEVICE BY THE FACES! BELL TO THE HEAD OF PUNK and a Dax brainbuster gets 2.9! Big Rig prevents the GTS AND MOX SAVES AT 2. Faces can't get their finishes, but a DOUBLE TAPOUT IS INCOMING. Aubrey focuses on the illegal men to get them out so Tully runs in and...slowly eats a GTS. But CASH IS WILLING TO SACRIFICE TULLY in a little homage to Gino being willing to sacrifice Tully to win the Southwest tag titles and the heels lose it!

That was, in a vacuum, an incredible match. AQA is out to face Jade who just IS A STAR. She Backlund lifts her up and poses! Jade does pushups and eats a tornado DDT. SHOOTING STAR PRESS HITS FOR 2.9! AQA goes up, slip up and eats a few forearms. Jade catches her for a TOUR OF THE ISLANDS and the Jaded ends it! Bucks want RPG Vice on Rampage and they get on Cole for not letting them know that Jay White was coming in. Cole says when you're Bullet Club, you're BC 4 LIFE! Cutler says he might've read something on reddit about White.

Deeb says that there's no one who can last 5 minutes with her. Deeb says she'll dig Katy Arquette's grave tonight. One minute tapout to the Tequila Sunrise! Love it! Rampage card is run down, capped off by the Gunn Club and the tag champs. "YOU THREW ME IN THE SNOW"! is among Jungle Boy's best promos. For better or worse.

The world title starts off with a brawl in the back before we get sheer mayhem early with Archer going through glass. BUCKSHOT gets a 9 count and we get more violent mayhem with the buckle being undone. BIG BOOTS ON THE APRON before JAKE SHORTARMS HANGMAN and wants a DDT, but Lance stops it and Lance eats a DDT of his own - before Jake flips Hangman the bird.

BARBWIRE CHAIR by Archer! BLACKOUT ON THE UPTURNED STEPS! holy shit! BARB WIRE SLEEVE ELBOW STRIKES BY HANGMAN! GERMAN BY PAGE! BUCKSHOT OFF OF PAUL TURNER'S BACK THROUGH TWO TABLES ON THE FLOOR! Page wins it and COLE IS OUT! HE PUTS THE BELT ON PAGE'S SHOULDER! Fantastic night!

AEW Dynamite 2-2-22 - CM Punk vs. MJF

Boy, what a crazy journey to this show. It started with MJF vs. Punk and then Kendrick is gone from WWE, signed by AEW, put in a Mox match to further the Danielson tale and now after anti-semitic comments from him surface, he's on the shelf to be replaced in this match. Unreal. Oh, and Shane McMahon was released from WWE too. Like goddamn, what a day! Mox will face Wheeler Yuta and it starts off the show. The AEW World Title replica is shown off and looks great before Mox is out in his Terminator-esque shirt. 

Yuta goes quick and wants a tope, but eats a chokeout before flipping out of a move and shotgun dropkicks him. Mox STFs Yuta but escapes and we get a dive off the top to Mox on the floor. Cutter by Mox and he wants the Death Rider, but Yuta escapes. RNC by Mox and a King Kong lariat by Mox before a hammer elbow series and the Death Rider ends it. Danielson is out and Ex says it's due to Mox using his elbows. Danielson asks if they want to see him fight to a YES chant. Bryan says he did, for a long time because Mox was different. He wants to test him because he loved him as AEW World Champ and he wants to see how good he is. He could be champion if he had help - and they should be fighting together. 

Bryan says a millennial cowboy shouldn't be world champ, a guy who has a VLOG shouldn't be TNT Champion and a DINOSAUR SHOULDN'T BE A TAG CHAMP. They could be tag champs and they could be partners with Mox as the AEW World Title. I like that this makes logical sense, and it also works as a swerve for Bryan to just not ever have to face Mox because he's afraid of him. Mox stands mid-ring while Bryan leaves him to his thoughts. TREMENDOUS stuff here. 

Brnadi is out as a heel, I think saying she is so loved in Cincinatti...in Chicago before DAN LAMBERT IS THE BABYFACE. He knocks her bolt-ons and says she's getting booed next to an old, conservative AEW-hating guy like him. Brandi buries Page to say they wanted to bring in Josh Alexander. GIANT "shut the fuck up" chant for Brandi. Dan says she was only kept around in WWE to be face-down and he's got a better idea for her than fighting him - PVZ! She runs down and the locker room empties to separate them.

Well that was an all-time bad segment on Dynamite. Hardy is disappointed in Private Party and Hardy challenges Sammy for the TNT Title on Rampage...via ISIAH KASSIDY! Kings of the Black Throne vs. Death Triangle is up. PAC is out with bandages on his eyes. PAC hits his spots blindfolded. PAC reveals he's fine before King dominates during the break. 

PENTA slingblades everyone before PAC brainbusters Malakai for 2. King and Penta slug it out! RUN-UP SWANTON TO THE FLOOR ON BRODY! Mist to Penta and the assisted powerslam/Dante's Inferno ends it. Good-ish match - never quite got to that next gear. Nyla vs. Ruby is up with LARS at ringside! "VERY DELIBERATE PACE" by Ex for this. Ruby gets a kinda-TKO on the apron. Nyla gets a neckbreaker after Vickie puts her foot on the rope after No Future. Swanton and a beast bomb get the win for Nyla.

Gunn Club beat up Jungle Boy and toss him outside in the snow. MJF and Punk warm up backstage. Hangman vs. Archer is next week and really needs something great here to heat it up. These two just aren't gelling yet. The lower-third graphic shows that his flight's been cancelled - and he doesn't know it. He brings that up as a likely thing in the promo before Jake and Lambert come out. Jake sounds 2,000 and Archer is tired of this and just beats the shit out of him. Archer vs. Page is for the title next week. 

Jericho THE INFLUENCER wants a team meeting next week. Punk vs. MJF is up and Punk runs wild with punches and chops in the corner. MJF channels Terry Funk getting stuck in the rope and punched every time Punk swings him up. Walk and brawl AND SELFIES with the fans from Punk. Punk runs wild with slams and goes for the Savage elbow, but MJF rolls away before Punk jumps. Punk's shoulder gets slammed into the post. Punk climbs up the table and eats a kneedrop to the wrist.

Punk gets a crossbody off the top. Punk goes for the corner knee/lariat, but the arm is hurt, so he does the bulldog variant. MJF chokes him with wrist tape into a sleeper and RNC! THE ARM GOES DOWN THREE TIMES! I had a feeling that MJF would win this - but that was the perfect way to do it. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Bryce restarts it! Corner punches by Punk! 20 PUNCHES! Punk goes for a sharpshooter, but MJF shoves him off onto the apron hard. 

Punk throws him off the heatseeker and gets a springboard clothesline. Punk dives onto MJF and he lands on the rail next to Kip Sabian. DOUBLE STOMP TO THE ARM OF PUNK by MJF. Elevated cloverleaf by MJF! Punk gets an STF, but he can't lift him up for the GTS! POISON RANA BY PUNK sends himself on his neck for 2. MJF goes to shove Punk into Bryce, but Bryce puts himself out of bounds to avoid that - so MJF ballshots him instead for a rope-assisted 2 alongside a "deep dish pizza" chant. 

PEPSI PLUNGE OFF THE TOP FROM PUNK! MJF wants a tombstone and Punk wants one - BUT THE THROAT SLASH gives MJF a chance and a cradle gets 2. Cro Cop kick gets MJF down and the Savage elbow gets 2.9! Wardlow comes out and JR says he may not be with MJF while everyone else says the contract with MJF tells the tale. He eyes up Punk and WALKS AWAY TO LET HIM BEAT UP MJF! Wardlow warns Punk about the ring and MJF slugs him with the ring to win! MJF BEAT HIM TWICE. Unreal! Actually, the replay shows he threw the ring to him while "warning" him.

Outstanding match and MJF's best ever. Easy five-star affair and something both men can be proud of.