AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash Results – December 22, 2021
This week’s holiday-themed edition of Dynamite on TNT kicks off with the usual cold open video and then we shoot inside historic Greensboro Coliseum to formally get the second-annual “Holiday Bash” special event underway.
From there, the commentary team welcomes us to the program and then they send things down to “The Dapper Yapper” Justin Roberts, as we get ready for our opening contest of the week.
Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy
With that said, we hear the familiar sounds of the entrance theme music of Adam Cole. The Elite member makes his way down to the ring as the fans sing along with his theme, particularly the “BOOM! Adam Cole…Bay-Bay!” portion when he hit the ring apron and stepped through the ropes.
As he settles inside the ring, his music dies down and then the equally familiar sounds of the theme music of Orange Cassidy hits. Out comes “Freshly Squeezed” as the commentators tout his win/loss record in AEW, which flashes across the screen as he heads down to the squared circle.
Things are slow to get started, as Cassidy plays up his too-cool-for-school, casual style, taking his time as he removes his sunglasses and other ring entrance gear. We finally see Cassidy and Cole go face-to-face in the middle of the ring. Cole taunts Cassidy by doing his “BOOM! Adam Cole … Bay-Bay!” routine once again, with the fans loudly doing it along with him.
Now we see Cassidy grab Cole’s hands and then the action gets going, as these two start exchanging head-locks and takedowns. Each make it back to their feet and reverse things so that they are controlling the action. The fans seem split, with them giving huge babyface reactions to both guys thus far. Cole swings and misses after seemingly establishing control of Cassidy.
Cassidy capitalizes by taking Cole down again, but once more we see Cole reverse him and take top position on the mat. Cassidy escapes and makes it back to his feet. He and Cole close in on each other, and it is Cole looking to isolate and control the arm of Cassidy. Cassidy reverses and controls the limb of Cole until Cole sweeps him and takes him down to the mat for a quick roll-up attempt.
We see Cassidy kick out at two and then Cole slaps a rear chin lock on him. The fans clap and rally behind the “Freshly Squeezed” one, which works as Cassidy gets back to his feet and escapes. He snatches up a side head lock on Cole again and takes him down for a deep-roll-up attempt, but only gets two. He goes for another pin attempt but again Cole kicks out.
He throws Cassidy into the corner of the ring face-first, and then follows behind him, catching him coming off the turnbuckles with a back-stabber. He hits a biceps pose as he is feeling confident now at how the match is going. He whips Cassidy into the corner again. He blasts Cassidy with a big right hand after sitting him on the top-rope. With Cassidy dazed, Cole climbs up after him.
It looks like Cole is attempting to secure a superplex. Cassidy eventually fights it off and pushes Cole down to the mat before executing a diving cross-body splash that connects. He then hits the ropes and does a hurricanrana, twisting around into a DDT that plants Cole face-first in the mat. He goes for the follow-up pin attempt, however Cassidy kicks out before the count of three.
As Cassidy heads to the top-rope, we see Brandon Cutler and The Young Bucks — Nick and Matt Jackson — making their way out. The trio heads down to the ring and when they arrive at the ringside area, we see Cassidy leap off the top-rope out to the floor, splashing onto Cutler and taking him out. From there, we see The Best Friends hit the scene to even up the numbers game outside the ring.
The Best Friends and The Young Bucks brawl away from the ringside area, but the distraction alone helped Cole regain the offensive lead, as he blasts Cassidy and begins working him over at ringside. He ends up getting whipped into the steel steps on a reversal from Cassidy, which leaves him clutching his knee and rolling around on the mat at ringside in pain.
On that note, we see Cassidy following up and adding more punishment to Cole as Excalibur talks us into a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break as the match continues at ringside. When we return from the break, we see both guys on their knees in the ring trading shots, however Cassidy is barely touching Cole, to the point that Cole looks at his chest in disbelief after Cassidy “connects.”
This continues until we see Cassidy start to put some stank on his shots, as they begin having the desired affect. This doesn’t last long, however, as Cole ends up pulling into the offensive lead, taking control of the action. He works over the “Freshly Squeezed” one in the middle of the ring, blasting him with a big pump-kick. He goes to follow-up, however, Cassidy catches him with a reversal and connects with a Stun-Dog Millionaire.
He heads to the top-rope and leaps off, catching Cole on the way down with a beautiful diving DDT for an ultra-close pin fall attempt. The commentators begin running down some of the action still to come as both guys are slow to get back to their feet. Cole hoists Cassidy up and hits him with a big move that leaves him laid out and lifeless on the mat. The fans chant “Adam Cole!” as he heads to the top-rope, with the commentators speculating that he is looking for his Panama Sunrise finisher.
Cassidy, sensing this, backs away out of range, forcing Cole to hop down off the top and head after him. Cassidy blasts him with a shot as he was coming in, which leads to another offensive shift in the match. Cassidy lays Cole out and then heads to the ring apron. He puts back on his sunglasses and then climbs to the top-rope. He puts his hands high in the air once settled in on the top-rope. He then goes to do his dramatic hands in his pockets routine. When his hands enter his pockets, he leaps off the top.
“Freshly Squeezed” comes down right into a super kick from Cole. Moments later, Cole hits his Panama Sunrise finisher off the ropes, however Cassidy manages to kick out of the follow-up pin attempt. From there, Cole takes his knee pad down and looks for the boom baby blast to the back of Cassidy’s head. Cassidy avoids it and ends up laying Cole out with a Beach Break. Before he can follow up with an Orange Punch or anything else, we see Bobby Fish run down to the ring and distract Cassidy.
While this is going on, on the other side of the ring we see Kyle O’Reilly arrive through the crowd. He blasts Cassidy with a shot, which leads to Cole following up and finishing him off for the pin fall victory.
Winner: Adam Cole
After The Match: Kyle O’Reilly Helps Cole & Fish Take Out Best Friends
Once the match wraps up, we see Cole approach O’Reilly. As that is going on, The Best Friends arrive on the scene and look to even things up for Cassidy. Instead, they get gobbled up by Cole, Fish and O’Reilly.
The former trio known as The Undisputed ERA pose together in the ring. While this is going on, we see The Young Bucks — Nick and Matt Jackson — re-emerge from the back looking confused / disappointed. They head to the ring and approach Cole, Fish and O’Reilly.
Cole ends up in between the duo of Nick and Matt Jackson on one side of him, and Fish and O’Reilly on the other. The commentators do a good job of explaining this on the broadcast. Cole ends up exiting the ring with O’Reilly and Fish as his music plays and The Young Bucks continue to look upset. They head to the back as we head to another commercial break.
Hangman Page & Bryan Danielson Comment On Announced Rematch For Jan. 5
When we return from the break, an official match graphic flashes across the screen announcing “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson II for the AEW World Championship on the first episode of AEW Dynamite on TBS on January 5, 2022 from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
From there, we head back inside the Greensboro Coliseum where we see Tony Schiavone standing in the ring. He introduces his guest at this time, none other than AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page. Page makes his way to the ring to chants of “Cowboy sh*t!” from the fans in attendance.
Schiavone brings up the 60-minute time-limit draw Page had with Danielson on last week’s Winter Is Coming show. Page talks about how he doesn’t feel like a winner or a champion right now. He goes on to ensure that he will when he and Danielson meet inside the ring again in two weeks for their rematch.
On that note, the “American Dragon” makes his way out and stops on the ramp with a microphone in hand. He talks about Page being scared and says if he hadn’t hurt his leg one week earlier in a match, he would have easily beaten Page. He doesn’t want things to end in a draw with Page just milking the clock and trying to keep his title, which he claims Page did the first time around as well.
With that said, he suggests they have judges in case the match goes the time-limit distance once again. If it does, the judges will determine a winner. Page ends up agreeing to this.
MJF & The Pinnacle Backstage Segment
After this, we shoot backstage where MJF is with The Pinnacle. He talks down to Wardlow for not doing what he was told on last week’s show and then begins delivering a message to CM Punk.
He mentions that when Punk doesn’t get his way, that’s when the real CM Punk comes out. He goes on to hype their AEW Trios match on tonight’s show, before FTR closes out the segment with some additional comments.
After this, we head to another commercial break, with the commentators plugging that Wardlow will be in action when the show returns.
Wardlow vs. Shawn Dean
We return from the break and hear the familiar sounds of Wardlow’s theme song. He makes his way out accompanied by Shawn Spears. The Pinnacle duo settle into the squared circle where Wardlow’s opponent is already waiting for him.
It will be Wardlow going one-on-one against “The Captain” Shawn Dean. The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with our second match of the evening. Immediately we see Wardlow grab hold of Dean and execute a powerbomb.
He decides to hit another. He does this a total of four times in a row and then puts his boot on his chest and scores the easy squash match pin fall victory. After the match, Wardlow is joined by Spears in the ring, who pushes past him to beat on Shawn Dean some more. He then forcefully grabs Wardlow’s hand and raises it in victory.
Winner: Wardlow
Dan Lambert & The Men Of The Year Criticize 12/25 TNT Title Match
We see a vignette hyping Sammy Guevara vs. Cody Rhodes for the TNT Championship and then when we return, we hear the commentators get interrupted by a familiar voice.
On that note, the camera pans over and shows Dan Lambert of American Top Team accompanied by The Men of the Year — Scorpio Sky and “All Ego” Ethan Page.
He goes on to talk about how AEW fans have nothing to worry about other than whether or not they should download the latest update on their phone or their turn light out to go to sleep in their mother’s basement.
From there, he gets to his point — which is that despite Sky and Page being more deserving, they are going to be sitting on the sidelines and watching Cody Rhodes get a TNT title shot against Sammy Guevara on Christmas night.
He says he doesn’t care who wins, all he cares about is getting one of The Men of the Year a shot at whomever emerges with the title after the 12/25 match.
Christmas Party Featuring Dr. Britt Baker & Tony Schiavone
We shoot backstage to a heavily decorated holiday-themed area where Tony Schiavone is standing by with AEW Women’s Champion Dr. Britt Baker, as well as Rebel and Jamie Hayter.
Baker goes on to complain and gripe about other women’s contenders, such as Riho, getting an “undeserved title shot” against her. She says she knows all Riho wants for Christmas is a women’s title match.
She says that Riho is out of her league. She says they’ll shoot her eye out. She does the “D.M.D.” hand gesture, which Schiavone, Rebel and Hayter do along with her, to end the segment. We then head back to another commercial break.
Owen Hart Cup Vignette
We return from the break to the vignette for the Owen Hart Cup Tournament, which kicks off with the men’s and women’s tournaments in 2022.
The video features a look at Owen Hart through the years, including his wrestling in Japan, some home movies and other never-before-seen footage.
While this is being shown, we see talking head spots with various AEW wrestlers giving their thoughts on the legacy of Owen Hart, as well as some of their earliest memories of seeing him perform.
The video package wraps up with the Owen Hart Cup tournament being hyped for next year, with the finals of the men’s and women’s tourney’s scheduled to take place at the AEW Double Or Nothing 2022 pay-per-view.
TBS Women’s Championship Tournament Semifinals
Nyla Rose vs. Ruby Soho
From there, we shoot back inside the Greensboro Coliseum where we hear Nyla Rose’s theme hit. She makes her way out and heads down to the ring accompanied by Vickie Guerrero. She settles into the squared circle and her music dies down.
Now the familiar sounds of “Ruby Soho” plays as the women’s contender of the same name makes her way out and heads to the ring. The commentators talk about Soho having the toughest path to the semifinals thus far in the ongoing TBS Women’s Title tourney.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with this semifinal bout in the TBS Women’s Championship tournament, as Rose bum-rushes and attacks Soho straight out of the gate. This match gets off with a bang, as Rose continues beating Soho down. The action hits the floor where Rose smashes Soho into the steel steps.
Soho is laid out and yelling in pain on the floor at ringside while Rose stalks over her landing additional punishment. On this note, the commentary team talk us into a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break as the action continues.
When we return from the break, we see Soho still getting worked over by Rose. She ends up shifting the offensive momentum in her favor, but this doesn’t last long. The commentators mention that she may have missed her one opportunity to pull off the win in this one. Rose ends up taking back over the offensive control from there.
Rose hoists Soho up and lays her across the top-rope. She remains laid out hanging over the top-rope as Rose heads up to the top-rope in the corner. She leaps off and blasts Soho with a big knee on the way down. We see some replays of this high spot. Soho ends up surviving and taking over again, nearly finishing Rose off, only for Vickie Guerrero to hit the ring and provide a distraction.
This not only helps Rose survive when she may have been finished right there, but she also takes back over control of the offense. She hits her big power bomb finisher and goes for the cover, however Soho finds it in her somehow to kick out and keep this match going. The commentators talk about the damage Soho’s arm has taken, yet she manages to get Rose to the top-rope and connect with a big spot for the pin fall victory.
With the win, Ruby Soho becomes the first women’s contender to emerge to the finals of the TBS Women’s Championship tournament. She will meet the winner of the other semifinal bout, which features Jade Cargill going one-on-one against Thunder Rosa. The commentators show the updated tourney brackets before sending us back to another commercial break.
Winner and ADVANCING to the finals of the TBS Women’s Championship Tournament: Ruby Soho
Malakai Black vs. Griff Garrison
After a Serena Deeb-Hikaru Shida vignette airs, we head back inside the Greensboro Coliseum where the lights in the arena go out. We then hear the familiar sounds of the ominous, creepy heavy metal theme of Malakai Black.
The House of Black is represented as Malakai makes his way down to the ring for his advertised one-on-one showdown against one-half of The Varsity Blonds tag-team — Griff Garrison.
We see highlights of how this match was set up, as the backstage segment where Malakai sprayed his black mist in the eyes of The Varsity Blonds’ own Julia Hart airs, followed by Garrison’s worked-up promo directed towards Malakai.
From there, The Varsity Blonds’ theme hits and out comes Garrison accompanied by Brian Pillman Jr. The two head down the ramp and Garrison enters the ring. He and Black go at it as the bell sounds to get this match off-and-running.
This one doesn’t end up lasting too long, as Garrison gets in very little offense — essentially nothing outside of a couple of strikes and moves. Malakai ends up getting Garrison down and he focuses his offensive attack on the leg of Garrison.
This softens the limb up for the leg-submission finisher that Black applies to get the win. After the match, Black refuses to let go of the hold. He keeps cranking back on it until Pillman Jr. hits the ring and tears him off of his Varsity Blonds partner.
This doesn’t bode well for Pillman Jr., as he ends up turning around into a roundhouse kick from Malakai that nearly takes his head off. Malakai stalks and stares at Pillman Jr. as the commentators talk us into another commercial break.
Winner: Malakai Black
Matt Hardy, Private Party & Christian Cage, Jurassic Express Hype Rampage Match
When we return from the break, we hear the commentators plug the upcoming AEW Trios main event. They then begin running down the lineup for this week’s edition of AEW Rampage: Holiday Bash, which takes place on Saturday night — Christmas Day. We are informed that Jungle Boy vs. Isiah Kassidy of Private Party has been added to the lineup.
This leads us to a quick backstage segment from Matt Hardy and Private Party. They vow to pound Jungle Boy’s ass on Rampage: Holiday Bash. From there we shoot to another part of the backstage area where we see Christian Cage and Jurassic Express. Jungle Boy makes it clear that nobody is pounding his ass on Rampage (this is the actual verbiage that was used). Instead he vows to cram a lump of coal up Kassidy’s ass. Christian Cage then plugs the limited edition Christian Cage and Jurassic Express t-shirt.
After the backstage segment featuring Hardy and Private Party, as well as Christian and Jurassic Express, we shoot back to the commentators. They finish running down the lineup for Friday’s show and then plug some matches for next week’s shows. They close out the promotional segment by advertising the return of Jim Ross to his spot at the commentary table in a couple of weeks.
AEW Trios Main Event
MJF & FTR vs. CM Punk, Darby Allin & Sting
Now we head back down to the ring where we hear the familiar sounds of the theme music of MJF’s theme, followed by FTR’s entrance music. This leads to the ring entrance of the three members of The Pinnacle, as Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood head to the ring for our main event of the evening.
The trio settles into the ring and their music cuts off. We then hear the iconic sounds of Sting’s theme and out comes “The Icon” to his usual snowy blue ring walk. He is wearing a CM Punk AEW t-shirt and gets a noticeably huge pop from the fans inside the iconic Greensboro Coliseum.
We hear the commentary team point out that this is where Sting had the match at the first-ever Clash of Champions special against Ric Flair that put him on the map as a main event player way back in 1988.
He is eventually joined by Darby Allin. His theme hits and out he comes, as he makes his way to the ring along with Sting. From there, we hear “Cult of Personality” hit inside the arena and the fans come unglued as “The Best in the World” CM Punk emerges — with his face painted like a young colorful-face-painted Sting from the early days of his career.
Sting actually has the CM Punk crossed taped-wrists logo included in his face paint. Darby Allin has special pink and black paint that appears to be a tribute to “The Icon” as well.
We hear the bell and this one is off-and-running. It’s main event time here on the second annual Dynamite: Holiday Bash special event. We see MJF looking to start things off for his team with CM Punk doing the same for his.
As they go to engage, MJF decides against this and tags out, bringing Harwood in instead to start things off.
Early on, we see the babyface trio jump into an offensive lead with Punk shining and the crowd chanting along as they dominate things. This doesn’t last for long, however, as eventually we see FTR use sneaky tactics to take over. We head to a mid-match commercial break as the action in our headline bout of the evening continues.
As we settle back in from the break, we see the heel trio from The Pinnacle still controlling the action. Eventually, Sting gets his first time in the ring and the crowd immediately goes bonkers — giving “The Icon” a huge pop. Sting helps his team into the offensive lead, as he takes it to all three members of the opposition.
“The Icon” ends up hitting a big Stinger splash on them in the corner and goes for the Scorpion Death Lock on Harwood afterwards. We see MJF hit the ring and attack him with a cheap shot to break it up.
On that note, Harwood takes back over control of the offense for The Pinnacle trio. They cut the ring off and get Sting on their end of the ring. We see MJF gloating after attacking Sting moments ago. Wheeler tags in as we head to another mid-match commercial break with the action still in progress in the ring.
We return from the latest break and we see that FTR is still controlling the action. Eventually, the babyface trio takes over and Punk ends up back inside the ring as the legal man. Punk is fighting off more than one person on many occassions after entering the ring, as the heel trio try and use every advantage they can get.
The commentators point out that FTR has essentially been in a handicap match since re-entering the ring, as MJF is nowhere to be found, continuing his trend of avoiding the action all match long. Punk ends up in the corner where he dukes it out with Harwood. The two exchange punches while on the top-rope. Punk ends up blasting Harwood with a shot that sends him crashing down to the mat below. He ends up back up, however, after Wheeler hits the ring and attacks Punk on the top-rope.
Harwood and Wheeler bring Punk down the hard way and then follow-up with a top-rope spot. This leads to Harwood and Punk duking it out in the ring again. They both land a shot and they each end up down and out in the middle of the ring.
The camera pans over to see MJF and Darby Allin still laid out after a table spot earlier in the match. Back in the ring, we see Punk and Harwood duking it out from their knees. MJF returns to the action and hits Sting with a DDT. He turns to celebrate afterwards, however Sting pops up and no-sells it. He pounds his chest and when MJF turns around, he looks like he’s seen a ghost.
Sting ends up launching MJF over the top-rope and onto his FTR teammates, however MJF takes a bad bump and lands directly on top of his head in what was a scary scene. Sting ends up taking things one step further, as “The Icon” climbs to the top-rope and he launches himself off the top, splashing onto all three members of The Pinnacle on the floor at ringside.
Afterwards, we see several different camera-angle replays of MJF taking the bump over the ropes and landing on the top of his head.
Back in the ring, we see Punk hit a GTS on Harwood. This leads to Sting hitting a Scorpion Death Drop. After that, Darby Allin hits a top-rope Coffin Drop from half-way across the ring. They score the pin fall victory and the babyface trio pulls off the win in our main event.
MJF ran away at the end, leaving FTR to figure things out for themselves. We catch up with him as Punk, Sting and Allin are celebrating in the ring while Punk’s theme plays, as he is shown on camera at the commentary section. He puts a headset on and claims that Punk didn’t want any part of him.
He slams the headset down and the commentators plug some upcoming action on Rampage on Christmas Day, as well as the New Year’s Smash specials. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us! Happy Holidays, everybody!
Winners: CM Punk, Darby Allin & Sting
Credit: Matt Boone
