New Year's Smash - Dynamite recap for December 29, 2021

Jim Ross returns to commentary after beating skin cancer.

FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) and The Hardy Family Office (Matt Hardy, Marq Quen, Isiah Kassidy) beat Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus), The Lucha Brothers (Penta el Zero Miedo) and Christian Cage after Christian Cage tags himself in, causing an ensuing argument between himself and Penta that leads to FTR hitting Christian with the Big Rig for the win.

2point0 (Jeff Parker and Matt Lee) and Daniel Garcia beat Proud 'n Powerful (Santana and Ortiz) and Eddie Kingston after Matt Lee grabs Santana's tights. After the match, 2point0 continue to attack Santana while Garcia grabs the ring bell. Eddie tries to stop Garcia, but he gets stomped, and Garcia nails Santana with the ring bell. Suddenly, Chris Jericho shows up with Floyd the baseball bat and clears the ring. Suddenly, Eddie wants Jericho's entrance theme cut off and confronts Jericho for getting involved, saying this is his fight. Ortiz has to keep Jericho and Eddie from throwing down.

We hear from MJF, who says that he was thrown over the top rope with reckless abandon by Sting, and if he working for a more professional company, this would not be happening. He also says that CM Punk claims to want a piece of him but continues to stay away from him, and MJF says he considers Punk an obstacle towards championship gold. MJF then tells Wardlow to stop with the excessive powerbomb and to start qualifying for the gold before relinquishing it to him, and after having "Smart" Mark Sterling read Wardlow's contract, MJF says he will start racking up wins of his own.

Backstage, Christian Cage confronts The Lucha Bros. (Penta el Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix) and challenges them to an AEW World Tag Team Title match against Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus). Penta says Christian is not a good tag partner, and that Jungle Boy should let go of the past.

Wardlow beats Colin Delaney with four powerbombs. After the match, Shawn Spears smacks Colin Delaney in the back with a chair.

We hear from The Superkliq (Adam Cole, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson), Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly. Adam Cole says tonight will be a historic night as they go down in all of pro wrestling history, then allows Kyle O'Reilly to speak to him privately. The Young Bucks leave, as does Bobby Fish. Kyle tells Cole they may have heat towards each other, but this is a new company. He says he knows Bobby Fish has his back and will find out if Cole does, too.

We hear from Dan Lambert and The Men of the Year (Scorpio Sky and "All Ego" Ethan Page). He says he cannot see why "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes is cool, and that while Arn Anderson is one of his favorites, it makes him sad to see him with Cody and that he's a whore and not a Horseman. He says that Brandi Rhodes is the only woman named Brandi who is currently not a stripper, then makes fun of Cody's neck tattoo and says Cody never really made it until he made it to AEW. After Lambert says that AEW is feeding the fans "a shit sandwich," Brandi Rhodes shows up and calls Lambert out for his comments and asks him when he last got beaten up by a woman and didn't pay for it, saying she will do it for free. Lambert says he is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and that there is no man who wants to does not want to beat the crap out her, to which Brandi replies "I'm a Black bitch; let's go." Dustin Rhodes shows up and holds Brandi back only to get jumped by The Men of the Year.

We see a video package for Bryan Danielson vs. "Hangman" Adam Page for the AEW World Championship next week.

Jade Cargill beats Thunder Rosa to advance in the TBS title tournament after "Smart" Mark Sterling distracts the referee and a hooded, masked assailant nails Thunder Rosa from the outside. After the match, Thunder Rosa jumps Jade Cargill, but the mystery assailant returns and reveals themselves to be Mercedes Martinez before attacking Thunder Rosa along with Jade. Ruby Soho soon shows up with a pipe and chases them both away.

We see a video package for Riho vs. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. for the AEW Women's World Championship.

CM Punk heads to the ring. He says it is great to see Jim Ross back on commentary, saying he is the best to ever do it, then says he is about giving people their flowers when they deserve it. Punk says that despite never being in Daily's Place, it is a home for AEW, and it gets him thinking about Brodie Lee, saying that anyone who minimizes his impact has never met him, saying the Brodie Lee tribute made him want to come to AEW. He then addresses MJF, calling him "a Twitter troll in the flesh" who talks a big game but hides behind either a keyboard or someone else and laced up his running shoes despite saying the people want them to have a match. As for MJF's comments that he is done with him, Punk says he is fine with that as he got the win that he wanted, and says that if MJF is scared or afraid, that is alright, because he is looking to bigger and better things. Punk then says that with MJF wanting to be champion, he wants to be champion, then he calls MJF a waste of his time and a bigger waste of money than Tim Tebow. He says he never wanted to mess with MJF, but MJF found out the hard way that nobody can touch him, and if MJF wants to climb the ladder to championship gold, they will meet again, and that it would be a shame if someone interfered in his quest for the gold.

We hear from "Absolute" Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. Starks welcomes Jim Ross back and thanks him for freeing up Taz's time before telling Dante Martin that by screwing him, he screwed Team Taz. He says that if he cannot win, neither will Dante, then says that he and Hobbs remember what happened last time Dante wrestle Hobbs. Hobbs asks Dante if he really wants to go another round with him.

We see a video package chronicling the recent events in the feud between Hikaru Shida and Serena Deeb where Shida tells Serena to stop whining about something that is her own fault and ask for the rematch.

Tony Schiavone interviews Brian Pillman Jr. He says he will not forget the bell ringing over and over again while Malakai Black tried to end Griff Garrison's career, and when he got in the ring, he ended up on the mat next to Garrison. Pillman says that he has busted his ass to get here, and he says that when he heads to the House of Black, he will not bust the door down and he will not give Malakai his life, because the world will soon see a new Brian Pillman Jr. The lights then go dark, and Malakai Black appears on the stage. He points at Brian Pillman Jr., then the lights go out and he disappears.

We hear from The Acclaimed ("Platinum" Max Caster and Anthony Bowens). Max Caster says Sting and Darby Allin should are considered the "main event tag team" but are not even ranked, and Bowens tells Darby to get in the ring so he can beat his "My Chemical Romance lookin' ass" on Rampage We then hear from Sting and Darby Allin. Sting says he has always treated his matches like the main event, then Darby says people have tried to stop them but have only tried and tells Bowens that he is ready.

We see a video package for Anna Jay and Tay Conti vs. Penelope Ford and The Bunny in a Street Fight on Rampage.

Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly beat Best Friends (Trent Barretta, Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy). During the match, Brandon Cutler shows up only to get punched by Trent and Chuck, but when the ref is pre-occupied with Cutler, The Young Bucks attack Trent and Chuck. Fish and O'Reilly hit Chuck Taylor with Chasing The Dragon to get the win.