AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (1/7): MJF-Bandido exchange, Jake Doyle’s debut was “something,” Moxley vs. Benjamin, Jim Ross commentary, Willow’s celebration, lighting issues

Happy New Year! After a slew of holiday shows and a solid PPV event, AEW set the stage for a new direction in 2026 and it began Wednesday night in Tulsa.

HITS

MOXLEY VS. BENJAMIN

To be honest, I was ready to split this up, writing that the match was a “Hit” and the finish was a “Miss” as I’d guess the majority of those watching expected this to be a draw. Happily, I got to put this entire match as a “Hit” when Mox got it one with seconds to spare. This was a solid technical wrestling match, and while it wasn’t non-stop action, it kept my attention the entire time. I really liked the directing at the end when Shelton lost, immediately showing MVP with his head down in disbelief.

I also loved the commentary. It was great to hear Jim Ross’s voice once again, but MVP did a great job discussing Benjamin’s strategy and what they worked on to prepare for the match. This made everything seem authentic. In addition, expecting a draw and then having a quick pin with just seconds left was another example of AEW’s recent run of not being predictable.

I’ll take a quick moment to say that it’s completely ridiculous that Benjamin or Josh Alexander can vie for a title that it took Moxley seven matches to win in an annual tournament. I’ll never understand why this title is defended throughout the year, but it’s something I have to get over and move on, even though it’s dumb!

THE DEMAND VS. PERRY & THE BUCKS – THE MATCH

For this one, I’m going to praise just the match. It was a typical Bucks tag match, but that usually means it was a ton of fun and this was. I loved the storytelling in this one because while you got all the cool spots, it did a good job showcasing the athleticism as well as the brute strength of Toa Liona.

The fans were into this as you would expect, and that makes it so much more fun to watch. Have any of you noticed that Ricochet is losing far more as the National Champion than he did for months prior to winning that title?

MJF-BANDIDO PROMO

I had some doubts, but this ended up pretty entertaining. Bandido is continuing to garner big cheers from the crowds which is well-deserved because he is a big talent. MJF had a strong promo bringing up his prowess in Mexico in an attempt to get to Bandido. I also love when Max calls wrestlers who are older than him, “kid.”

MJF resisted the urge to go overly low-brow and picked a good time to throw shade on the crowd in Tulsa to get the best reaction. I liked Bandido responding in English and getting the better of Max at the end.

The only issue that should have been cleaned up was MJF standing and holding the rope for Bandido’s finisher for what seemed like two minutes. Max should emulate Jon Moxley who does a fantastic job getting into positions for moves by stumbling around and making it look more authentic.

QUICK HITS

– I always get a kick out of “heel logic.” Ricochet says, “It’s not a bounty, we just offered to pay a large sum of money to someone if they injured Jet Speed!” That’s good stuff.

– As usual, AEW does a great job honoring and respecting wrestling legends, so it was nice to see a video on Hiroshi Tanahashi’s final match at WrestleKingdom 20 last weekend. What I thought they should have done, though, was show the AEW stars who came out to honor him in the ring afterwards. Jay White, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega were among those who were there and that would have been cool for fans to see if they did not watch the show.

– The Willow Nightingale celebration segment was okay. Willow had good moments on the mic and some shaky ones, though she handled the strange lighting issue well. I am enjoying seeing Mercedes lose her mind. However, I can’t remember rooting so hard for a heel turn than I was for Kris Statlander to lay out Willow. Instead, she ended up just being a sidekick and that’s the last thing you want for your World Women’s Champ.

– It wasn’t a complete “Hit,” but I have to give a lot of credit to the wrestlers in the main event for keeping their composure and fighting through the light issue at the start of the match and being able to go with the flow when things didn’t quite work out like they planned, like when “Hangman” Page’s piece of drywall kind of fell apart before he could whack Powerhouse Hobbs with it. They ad-libbed with the staple gun and were able to keep the fans into it. Much of the crowd was standing for this one and they saw a very good “lights out” match.

The only thing I would have changed was the finish. The fans were really into it and they would have received a very loud “1-2-3!” for a pinfall rather than a hanging.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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MISSES

THE CALLIS FAMILY POST-MATCH EXTRAVAGANZA

It’s not as if I don’t like The Don Callis Family or that they keep adding to it. By the way, the NWO called and said, “Wow! You guys have a ton of members!” My head was spinning after the six-man match when Mark Davis and Jake Doyle (formerly Jake Something from TNA) hit the ring. Doyle was shown earlier with very little explanation except for his name. If you didn’t want to talk about where he came from, that’s fine, but how are fans supposed to think he’s a big deal if it’s not brought up when he arrived.

It’s as if we were expected to know exactly who this guy is. I write this column, do a podcast, and I’ve been a wrestling fan for 40+ years. I don’t watch TNA regularly, so I had no idea who this guy was. If I don’t know, they need to do a better job explaining it to the viewers.

We also had the return of Andrade El Idolo. I am luke-warm on him in general, so we’ll see what he will bring. Then, you had FTR show up at the top of the ramp. I have no clue what this was all about, though seeing Stokely in a wheelchair was humorous. There was way too much going on in this segment and I would argue it left viewers more overwhelmed and confused than excited.

Don’t forget to check out the weekly free podcast I’m part of, “The All Elite Conversation Club” that typically drops on Fridays the PWTorch Dailycast lineup. Joel Dehnel and I have a great time breaking down all things AEW. Search “pwtorch” on your podcast app to subscribe. Send questions and comments to allelitecc@gmail.com.