Winners, News And Notes As Jay White And Keith Lee Debut

AEW Dynamite featured two surprise appearances who walked through The Forbidden Door. First, Jay White appeared during a backstage segment with The Young Bucks. Then, Keith Lee debuted with AEW, defeating Isiah Kassidy to qualify for the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match.

AEW Dynamite advertised Hangman Adam Page vs. Lance Archer for the AEW Championship in a Texas Death Match, MJF addressing the biggest win of his career over CM Punk, an Inner Circle Team Meeting and a Face of the Revolution Qualifying Match pitting a mystery opponent against Isiah Kassidy.

Last week’s broadcast of AEW Dynamite garnered 954,000 viewers, which was its lowest viewership since its move to TBS.

• February 2, 2022—954,000
• January 26, 2022—1.100 million
• January 19, 2022—1.032 million
• January 12, 2022—969,000
• January 5, 2022—1.010 million

• AEW Dynamite Venue: Boardwalk Hall (Atlantic City, N.J.)
• AEW Tickets Distributed: 5,500
• AEW Tickets Available: 1,680

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AEW Dynamite YouTube Viewership Last Wednesday: 5,074,470

• Most-Viewed: Bryan Danielson Recruits Jon Moxley (1,700,657 views)
• Least-Viewed: Lance Archer Destroys Hangman Adam Page (261,033 views)
• Median Viewership: 368,007 views

AEW Dynamite Results | February 9, 2022

MJF Celebrates win over CM Punk

This show opened with Wardlow unceremoniously walking out to sett up life-sized MJF cutouts against his will. The babyface turn still seems to be in effect, but has AEW waited too long?

MJF’s intro was incredible, and Justin Roberts’ deadpan delivery was on-point. MJF’s hometown of Plainview Long Island, New York got almost as much heat as he did.

This segment was designed to get Wardlow over while promoting MJF’s career win, and it did both fantastically.

CM Punk has to choose a tag team partner that isn’t Sting or Darby Allin against FTR. If Punk wins, he gets to face MJF anytime, anywhere. It’s looking more and more like MJF is going to beat Hangman Adam Page for the AEW Championship and drop the title to CM Punk at AEW All Out in Chicago.

Wardlow def. The Blade

Wardlow didn’t wear fist tape in order to put over the fact that he took this match on short notice.

Fans chant “Wardlow” the same way they chant “Goldberg.”

Surprisingly, Wardlow sold throughout this match after The Blade took out his knee early.

Wardlow aped Brock Lesnar’s strategy of one suplex after another, and none of them garnered “one more time” chants the way they do for his Powerbomb Symphony.

The Inner Circle Team Meeting

Proud and Powerful’s new theme music is a significant downgrade from their prior music.

Santana made a worthy case against Chris Jericho for being selfish and Proud and Powerful playing second fiddle. By the end of the promo, fans loudly cheered Proud and Powerful.

Somehow, Santana managed to cut a heel promo on Chris Jericho, yet a babyface promo at the same time because of how much he put over the crowd.

Chris Jericho calling himself an “influencer” is a heel line whether he knows it or not.

By the end of this exchange, Chris Jericho felt like a full-fledged heel, especially when he told Sammy Guevara to shut up.

Keith Lee def. Isiah Kassidy; Jay White Debuts

MORE FROM FORBESKeith Lee Debuts In AEW, Beats Isiah KassidyBy Alfred Konuwa

Jay White made his AEW debut in a backstage segment where he helped The Young Bucks take out The Best Friends and Rocky Romero. It seemed as if he was the mystery signing to take on Isiah Kassidy. It proved to be the ultimate red herring as Keith Lee made his debut to a massive pop.

AEW and Keith Lee nailed this debut. Keith Lee felt like the biggest star in wrestling throughout this match.

For more on Keith Lee’s debut, click here.

CM Punk and Jon Moxley def. FTR

This match, with CM Punk and a surprise appearance from Jon Moxley, might have been the only match that could have followed Keith Lee’s debut.

Jon Moxley and CM Punk pulled off an impeccable Doomsday Device where Dax Harwood flipped off Moxley’s shoulders.

Expect CM Punk to cash in his “anytime, anywhere” clause against MJF at AEW All Out in Chicago. Possibly for the AEW World Championship.

Jade Cargill def. A.Q.A.—AEW TBS Championship

A.Q.A. previously competed as Zayda Ramier.

Jim Ross referred to Jade Cargill as “inexperienced,” which plays into the moronic IWC narrative that she’s “too green.” Wrong. AEW needs to take hold of this narrative by marveling at how she became a champion just 26 matches into her career. Brock Lesnar was celebrated for winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship three bouts into his career, Jade Cargill should be celebrated the same exact way.

AEW refuses to let Jade Cargill consistently win squash matches. Her wrestling ability (which continues to improve) isn’t as much of an issue as the mystique of Cargill as a killer.

A.Q.A. got off balance after teasing a second Shooting Star Press, just as fans were really getting into it.

Serena Deeb def. Katie Arquette

This was Serena Deeb’s five-minute rookie challenge and the rare occurrence of more than one women’s match on AEW Dynamite.

Katie Arquette has no relation to David Arquette, but they have met.

Hangman Adam Page def. Lance Archer—Texas Death Match

During a backstage segment earlier, Adam Cole noted he was going to make a statement, which suggests he’ll challenge the winner of this match. That’s exactly what would end up happening.

Both Adam Page and Lance Archer bled like crazy throughout this match.

Lance Archer stopped Jake “The Snake” Roberts from doing the DDT and got so much heat for it.

Lance Archer used a fork to stab Hangman Adam Page’s face and put the fork in his mouth during a pandemic.

Dan Lambert cut the top rope to prohibit Hangman Adam Page from doing the Buckshot Lariat. It didn’t matter as Hangman eventually vaulted off referee Paul Turner and hit the Buckshot Lariat through a table.

Hangman Adam Page retaining the AEW world title was, maybe, the fourth-biggest headline on this show.