AEW Dynamite Holiday Bash Results: Winners, Grades, and Video Highlights
AEW Dynamite Holiday Bash was a stacked card, featuring an excellent AEW Tag Title Championship match in the main event. The Young Bucks faced The Acclaimed, who came into the bout with a strong eight-match win streak.
AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida was also in action tonight, ahead of a championship bout against Abadon next week. AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin saved Sting from an attack by Team Taz, and more.
We kicked off the night with The Inner Circle, who faced one of AEW's fastest rising teams, Top Flight, in the AEW Dynamite Opener.
The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho and MJF) w/Jake Hager vs. Top Flight (Dante and Darius Martin) on AEW Dynamite
Chris Jericho started things off with Darius Martin, as the youngster lit up the former AEW Champion with a series of kicks. Top Flight was able to outmaneuver the Demo God in the AEW Dynamite Opener, hitting some quick-paced tandem offense.
Dante lost control eventually, though, allowing Jericho to tag in MJF. Momentarily, at least, as Dante rocked MJF with an impressive standing dropkick, sending him to the floor. The Inner Circle and Top Flight came to blows, with Top Flight rocking both men with corner punches and dropkicks.
With some misdirection around ringside, MJF was able to clock Dante with a clothesline, turning things back in favor of The Inner Circle. MJF and Jericho took turns battering the younger brother, all the while antagonizing Darius.
After several minutes of fighting from underneath, Dante was able to counter a superplex, dropping Jericho to the mat and hitting an excellent flying crossbody. MJF and Darius tagged in, and Darius lit up the Inner Circle. After sending Jericho the floor, a rebounding Spanish Fly planted MJF. Darius followed that with a shotgun dropkick for a two-count.
Dante tagged back in but was planted with a powerbomb. Jericho followed up with a Lionsault but couldn't get the pin. As Darius sent MJF into the barricade, Dante avoided a Liontamer. Top Flight snuck a pin while Jericho's back was turned, and Dante hit MJF with a dive.
Jericho broke away from a sunset flip and tagged in MJF to beat the eldest Martin brother down in the corner. Darius caught them with a double DDT and set his sights on the legal MJF. As Darius went for a dive, a distracted referee didn't notice Jake Hager yanking him off the apron. MJF followed up with the apron pendulum piledriver for the win.
Results: The Inner Circle defeated Top Flight via pinfall on AEW Dynamite.
Grade: B-
Jake Hager congratulated The Inner Circle over yet another victory but called out Wardlow for failing to appear last week, instead choosing to deal with family business. Hager told MJF that next week, we'd be getting Hager vs. Wardlow. Neither MJF or Chris Jericho knew this was coming.