Winners, News And Notes On January 12, 2022

AEW Dynamite advertised Sammy Guevara vs. Daniel Garcia for the Interim TNT Championship, a live appearance from AEW world heavyweight champion Hangman Adam Page Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb, Dante Martin vs. Powerhouse Hobbs, and CM Punk vs. Wardlow amid reports that Wardlow has garnered interest from WWE.

AEW also featured the long-awaited debut of Brody King.

Last week’s broadcast of AEW Dynamite was back over one million viewers, garnering 1.010 viewers.

• January 5, 2022—1.010 million
• December 29, 2021—975,000
• December 22, 2021—1.020 million
• December 15, 2021—948,000
• December 8, 2021—872,000

• AEW Dynamite Venue: PNC Arena (Raleigh, North Carolina)
• AEW Tickets Distributed: 4,739
• AEW Tickets Available: 2,405

Jay Lethal Missing from AEW Television (Pro Wrestling Bits)

AEW Dynamite YouTube Viewership Last Wednesday: 3,324,763 (Up from 2,962,973)

• Most-Viewed: CM Punk GTS’ Shawn Dean (803,348 views)
• Least-Viewed: Jim Ross Interview with Serena Deeb (58,516 views)
• Median Viewership: 265,309 views

AEW Dynamite Results | January 12, 2022

Adam Cole Appears Live

Matt Jackson bragged about kicking COVID’s ass in two days, but I’m not sure that’s how that works.

The Elite vs. The Undisputed Era is inevitable, but apparently not before The Young Bucks vs. reDRagon.

Bobby Fish was surprisingly good on the mic.

When Adam Cole said they were the greatest faction in AEW history, I didn’t know what faction he was talking about. Between The Superkliq, The Elite, reDRagon and The Undisputed Era, there were multiple factions being represented by these individuals.

Given all the constant interruptions and the ring filling up, this seemed like a Raw segment.

Fans really popped for Britt Baker’s involvement with Adam Cole as she attacked Kris Statlander and kissed Cole.

CM Punk def. Wardlow

AEW aired a great video package for Wardlow that really advanced his character development as a conductor of violence through a “symphony” of powerbombs. I just wish they would do the same for the Will Hobbs of the world.

MJF, not Shawn Spears, accompanied Wardlow to the ring, indicating it would be MJF who would screw things up for Wardlow.

Wardlow really wasn’t too much bigger than CM Punk, which took a little shine off his mystique as a monster.

CM Punk might have become the first AEW star to escape the Powerbomb Symphony.

As Wardlow finally began his Powerbomb Symphony for CM Punk, fans were hesitant to chant “One More Time” despite Wardlow egging them on.

Wardlow had CM Punk beat. In fact MJF interrupted a surefire three count when Wardlow had his foot on Punk’s chest.

Punk took eight powerbombs and won. That has to be some type of record.

MJF berated Wardlow by saying “you never win the big match! You do well against the jobbers, but you never win the big match!” Things seemed like they might finally come to a head until Shawn Spears played peacemaker.

Dante Martin def. Powerhouse Hobbs

AEW books Black talent a lot like how WWE used to book them. They’re all left to their own devices to feud and team together, and AEW doesn’t really tell you why.

Jay Lethal emerged from his 35-day disappearance to save Dante Martin. It’s great to see him back, hopefully this leads to good things for Jay.

Lance Archer Destroys Hangman Adam Page

The second Lance Archer walked out, I knew he was going to attack Hangman Adam Page, but they did a good job hiding it by having Archer go after Lambert, with Lambert screaming “there’s a world champion in the ring!”

Archer-Page feels like a television feud but it’ll be a quality win for Hangman.

Serena Deeb def. Hikaru Shida

Serena Deeb attacked Hikaru Shida before the match, injuring her leg, and from there you knew exactly where this was going.

This was one of the rare finishes where the referee stopped the match due to injury rather than have Shida tap out like she already did against Deeb weeks ago.

Anna Jay and Tay Conti and Skye Blue were way, way, way late in saving Hikaru Shida.

Penta El Zero M def. Matt Hardy

Reby Hardy was in the crowd, and it’s always a shame that AEW doesn’t take advantage of her entertaining, take-no-prisoners personality and put her in an angle.

Penta El Zero M and Matt Hardy started the match off with dueling taunts. Penta’s “Zero Miedo” vs. Hardy’s “Delete!”

Penta and Hardy collaborated for one of the worst tilt-a-whirl backbreakers you’ll ever see.

Following his win, Penta El Zero M called out Malakai Black, who answered. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like Penta El Zero M will get lost in the shuffle with his brother on the shelf one week after winning the AEW Tag Team Championships.

No company gets more heat by ripping Lucha masks better than AEW.

Julia Hart came to the defense of Malakai Black, beginning her inevitable defection to the House of Black.

When the lights turned out the second time, fans popped hard because they knew it was Brody King.

The Acclaimed def. Bear Country

Max Caster’s freestyle consisted of timely references to Novak Djokovic in addition to sending shots to Darby Allin and Sting.

Last week, The Acclaimed vowed they would have a viral video for Darby Allin and sting, but they still have yet to drop it.

Darby Allin and Sting responded to The Acclaimed’s comments over the past few weeks by brawling with them after the match.

Daniel Garcia def. Sammy Guevara—Interim TNT Championship

AEW announced Cody Rhodes would return next week with the TNT Championship. Cody was booed, of course.

This was a highly physical main event that, at times, felt like a shoot.

Sammy Guevara landed a picture-perfect double springboard to the outside, which really brought this crowd into the match.

Guevara and Garcia had some trouble with the GTH toward the end, but other than that, this was a pretty good match.

This match went long, but TNT stuck with it for as long as it took.