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Greg DeMarco’s Top 5: AEW Dynamite “Holiday Bash” 12/21/2022

Greg DeMarco’s Top 5 format continues with a look at AEW Dynamite “Holiday Bash” from 12/21/2022!

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Ricky Starks AEW Dynamite Holiday Bash

Greg DeMarco’s Top 5 format continues with a look at AEW Dynamite “Holiday Bash” from 12/21/2022!

As you might know by now, I am testing out formats for potential analysis next year. So far, we’ve had:

Tonight we continue might be an easier format for me–but does it translate for you? We’re looking at my Top 5 moments from AEW Dynamite “Holiday Bash!”

Don’t forget, you can get your full recap thanks to Steven Mitchell here.

Honorable Mention

  • Samoa Joe’s promo was so well done. I hope they appreciate what they have in him.
  • Action Andretti definitely has a future at this top level of this business.
  • I’ve seen the criticism, but I really like Hook. He fit sin in the right ways, and stands out in the right ways. He’s only going to learn and grow in the coming years.
  • Power Slap, the upcoming program for Dana White’s Power Slap League, will debut on January 11 after Dynamite. No, this isn’t a commercial–I’m not getting paid for this. But it IS notable, because it shows Dynamite’s value to TBS in the fact that it can now be used as a lead-in for another vehicle on the network.
  • The whole Mogul debut took far too long, and was probably better served on Rampage than Dynamite, or as an internet exclusive. I don’t think this landed the way they thought it would. It’s not all bad, but I don’t see why people always see the need to surround Swerve with so many people.

And Now … Greg DeMarco’s Top 5: AEW Dynamite “Holiday Bash” 12/21/2022!

5. Jon Moxley vs. Darius Martin

So Rampage has (had?) a huge Thee Kings Christmas Trios Casino Royale for $300,000 on Friday night, and this match was basically a commercial for it. And that’s totally fine. It’s Promoting 101.

But it was also an excuse to have this match, which was a good match in and of itself. Top Flight is full of talent, and AR Fox coming to Dynamite is something that made me very happy–he’s worked for years to get to this point, and deserves a shot.

4. Brian Danielson/Ethan Page promo

With Daniel Bryan Danielson (the character, don’t get it twisted) doing everything he can to focus on how much he loves William Regal and how much he wants to get at MJF,

Thus, Ethan Page was the LAST person anyone wanted to see get involved. But that doesn’t make it a bad thing, not at all. Ethan Page is very talented, but can’t seem to find that one thing that gets him over the hump, that makes him a bigger stay in the eyes of the fans. count That be a match with Daniel Bryan Danielson?

We’ll know sooner than later, but I am doubtful. I feel like it would take a clean win to elevate Page in this mini program, and that doesn’t make sense if Danielson is going to end up challenging MJF on PPV.

3. FTR vs. The Ass Boys

TAG. TEAM. WRESTLING.

No one in the world does it better than FTR, and that was on display here. The Ass Boys (aka, “The Gunns”) have a ton of potential. They have the look. They have the size. They have the promo chops. They have the pedigree.

“Great match with a terrible ending” is a sentiment that I have seen throughout the internet when discussing this match. And I have to be honest with you–I don’t see it. The Gunns, a heel tag team, beat the better team by cheating. This feud has been brewing for a while now, and it shouldn’t end with just one match. This finish makes perfect sense to me, because this far from over.

2. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida in your Dynamite main event

Women were placed in prime positions on the two biggest wrestling programs on cable this week, Bayley vs. Becky Lynch on WWE Monday Night Raw, and Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida for Hayter’s AEW Women’s World Championship on tonight’s Dynamite.

Damn good match, and a perfect opportunity to go “commercial free presented by _____.” Obviously that didn’t happen, and instead was a stark reminder of why I hate picture-in-picture. There seemed to be some good shit going on during that first break, but the commercial for Align Probiotics and Jared Jewelry was far too large for me to enjoy it. I was better off not seeing it at all instead of getting “here’s what you COULD be enjoying” (and that was just one break, they seemed to have two really close together).

Hikaru Shida was the perfect first defense for Jamie Hayter. Hayter should have a long run, that’s the type of performer she is. But what do you do with Shida? Honestly, I’d love for her to be the one to eventually unseat Jade Cargill, whenever that time comes.

1. Ricky Starks Next Program Is With Chris Jericho

If you ask Ricky Starks, he’s always been here. I called it when I booked him in 2016. But man, it’s really coming together now. More than ever. He steps up his game in a new way each and every week–meaning we haven’t even seen a fully evolved Ricky Starks. But after the loss to MJF, I was slightly concerned about what would be done next with ol’ Absolute.

Enter Chris Jericho. It’s absolutely what Ricky needs next. Chris Jericho remains one of the biggest stars in the world, and inarguably one of the top three most recognizable names on the AEW roster. Their first interaction really has Ricky coming off as the second coming of The Rock. But he’s not that–his delivery is completely different. You’ll never get away from the comparisons until The Rock himself puts Ricky over on social media, and I can see that happening soon enough.

But for now, it’s all about Chris Jericho, and he’s the type of wrestler that you can have a good, longer feud with. And I can see Ricky getting a huge PPV blowoff with Jericho in a cage, with a dog collar, who knows. This was “Day One” for Jericho/Starks, and it’s off to what I perceive to be a perfect start.


Let me know what you thought of my analysis for this edition of AEW Dynamite, and if you want me to continue this format over the other option! As I said, I want to get to writing more often, and this could be a good way to make it happen.

Hit me up:

Until next time, remember: enjoying wrestling is a choice…make the right choice!

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Opinion

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

Powered by RedCircle

@TheMindlessPod @PCTunney @ChairshotMedia

prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – TONS of Great designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY – Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY – Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

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THURSDAY – Keeping the news ridiculous… The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

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SATURDAY – The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE’s PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS…IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O’Dowd’s 5X5

Classic POD is WAR

 


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About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

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THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

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SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)

SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast 

CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!

All Shows On Demand


Powered by RedCircle


Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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