9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming (14 Dec - Review)
4. Action Andretti
Due to what later scanned as an intentional production flub, Action Andretti didn’t even get a graphic with his name on ahead of playing Chris Jericho’s designated jobber. He got one at the end.
An angle as much as it was a match, the elongated exhibition only existed to placate Jericho’s bruised ego after he was forced to tap out to Claudio Castagnoli’s big swing at Saturday’s Final Battle.
The former ROH World Champion used Andretti to still look and feel like a titleholder, but the fight at the top of the hour went through a commercial when the youngster remarkably kicked out of a codebreaker. This brought the entire building to life, and they remained loud throughout the break. It felt like something was happening because it was, and everybody was clued in and locked in from there.This was wizard sh*t without need for fireballs from the old pro, as it was when Andretti successfully pulled off his last successful flurry of aerial offence, dumped Jericho on his head with nothing in particular then beat him clean as a whistle with a running shooting star press.
Jericho’s evidently slumping hard in the story, but this was yet more 2000-era-Triple H stuff from ‘The Ocho’. He kicked ass, showed even more, and has immediately pivoted right back into one of the most interest stories on the show. When yet another AEW starlet fails to get more over working with him, he'll have this in his back pocket as "proof" that he still does right by others. 2022's been his year, alright.