AEW Dynamite for January 8, 2020: Results, Highlights and Grades

Chris Jericho came out, and Jon Moxley did as well. Jericho said January 8th was important because he was going to give his answer about joining the Inner Circle. Jericho has already setup a party and celebration with A Little Bit of the Bubbly, assuming that Moxley was going to join them.

Moxley said that he had a lot to think about this week, and a lot went into this decision. He claimed the fans and Chris Jericho didn’t know his motivation. Moxley said he didn’t want a car, or money, or anything. He said he couldn’t be bought. He came to AEW to run roughshod over AEW, and that is why he was going to say yes to Jericho.

Moxley took off his jacket and he had his own custom Inner Circle shirt. Moxley said that Jericho is the greatest of all time, and he will stand with Chris Jericho and that they would dominate AEW for years to come. Moxley asked Jericho to open A Little Bit of the Bubbly.
They celebrated, drinking the sparking wine.

Jericho gave Moxley the keys to the car. The crowd chanted “You sold out!” at Moxley, and Jericho said he did! He sold out every night, and every arena, as he’s Inner Circle. Jericho said him and Moxley both won at the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom, which was the first time NJPW was directly referenced in AEW. The crowd popped for that.

Moxley asked the Inner Circle’s music to be cut. He then said, “I’m just kidding, Chris. Your group is a stupid group.” He then broke a bottle of the Bubbly over Jericho’s head and then hit the Paradigm Shift on Jericho and Guevara before running away through the crowd with the keys to the car. The show went off the air with Moxley celebrating with the fans.

That was absolutely awesome. Moxley made the heel look like a complete fool and took the car too. He left, making Jericho look like an idiot and then took the expensive car too.

Far too often in modern wrestling booking (primarily in WWE), we see the heel outsmart and make a fool of the babyface to get heat on the heel for the babyface to eventually overcome. However, you can’t do that every single week.

Most of the time, for the babyface to get over, he needs to show that he is smarter and better than the heel. The heel can eventually beat him down and get the heat, but it can’t be every single week.

If you do it every single week, the hero we are supposed to cheer is a loser that just keeps getting beaten up. This way, the heel gets booed, and the babyface gets cheered, because he has outsmarted the heel. This was absolutely fantastic, and easily the best part of the show.

Show Rating: ***1/2 (3.5 stars)

The audio on the show was a bit off, as the crowd seemed to be miced poorly. I can tell the fans were reacting loudly to most things, but the whole show it sounded like they were muted. I’m not sure why this is, as the audio on the Fite feed has been essentially perfect for every episode. It seemed like a similar problem they seem to have with AEW Dark.

The show itself was quite good. It was a very easy 2 hours to watch, and outside of the horrible booking of Riho vs. Statlander, everything else on the show as actually booked very well. AEW needs to figure out what they want to do with the Nightmare Collective, because it clearly isn’t working.

Meanwhile, I think tonight’s slow burn heel turn of Hangman Page is brilliant, and they are taking their time with it. He’s going to be such a massive heel when he turns and prove to be a great main event foil to Kenny Omega.

I expect their matches and rivalry to be incredible down the road. AEW knows they have money in Page as a heel, and this turn will make Omega even more of a babyface in AEW as he will be betrayed by one of his friends.

Cody and MJF is developing nicely, as they are taking their time and not giving us the payoff right away. Cody will have to give his answer to MJF’s stipulations next week, but him taking the time to think about it and decide what to do is good storytelling, because that is exactly what a smart babyface should do.

Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley are incredible. Not only was this segment perfectly booked, but it advanced the story very well. Moxley will be cheered more as a babyface that outsmarted the heel. Jericho referencing Wrestle Kingdom was also a nice little acknowledgement, as everyone knew they were there. This was perfect! Perfect, I say! AEW knows how to book a babyface and a heel.