Ongoing Best Of 2022 Matches

#2. CM Punk vs MJF, AEW Dynamite 2/2

I am probably in the camp who thought this was more "very good" than "MOTYC", it seemed to reach a certain level and stay there, rather than boiling over and reaching a crescendo, but there was still a lot of content here I liked spread across the long 40 minutes. MJF once again delivered a really fun heel performance in his quarterly showing, from the obvious stuff like the cheating and running away through the crowd to the smaller stuff like his face-biting and see-sawing in the ropes off Punk’s punches.

The false finish was executed superbly, for once AEW refs looking competent and the crowd trying to rally Punk as he went down was a tremendous moment. All the limb-work stuff was solid and gave the match some focus though I’m not sure it justified the length. Punk’s bar since returning has been very high and this was a great performance built around his selling of the cumulative damage and fatigue. I dug how he folded on himself off that reverse rana, usually guys hit that move too cleanly and suddenly - it’s a high risk move and this one looked like it hurt Punk on it too. I can’t say I have missed the Pepsi Plunge, but it was neat to see it brought back as a big match moment.

I wasn’t too hot on the finish despite it being very well executed, felt like they chose furthering the Wardlow story at the expense of a cleverer finish, and we have seen the Diamond Ring bit done a thousand times now. Still, I thought this was a strong bit of business and a good effort from both men, and you could tell MJF was geeking out by the end.