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All Elite Wrestling hit State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois, for this week's edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT. While there was good in-ring action, the storyline advancement felt uneven throughout the show. AEW champ Chris Jericho has a final title match of 2019 set, though Jon Moxley remains the main focus as a future challenger. Also this week on Dynamite, Brandi Rhodes introduced a new "cult" clique: The Nightmare Collective.

Let's take a look now at what went down in AEW's first show in December.

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What happened on AEW Dynamite?

  • The Young Bucks & Dustin Rhodes def. Sammy Guevara, Santana & Ortiz via pinfall when Nick Jackson pinned Guevara following a top rope senton by Matt Jackson. This was a wild -- and extremely hot -- opener for the show. Rhodes kicked out of a 630 senton from Guevara late in the match, a move that was opened up by Santana & Ortiz using the sock full of baseballs. The finish came with Nick Jackson coming off the top rope, licking Santana & Ortiz for spike piledrivers by Rhodes and Matt Jackson while landing a senton on Guevara, allowing Nick to get the pin. Grade: B+
  • Fenix def. Trent via pinfall with the Spinning Muscle Buster. This was a measure of revenge for the Lucha Bros. after Trent had pinned Pentagon Jr. in a singles match on AEW Dark a few weeks back, and pinned Fenix last week on Dynamite to give Best Friends a big tag win. There was really fantastic action in this match with both men picking up momentum before Fenix delivered the finishing blow. Grade: B+
  • Cody cut an in-ring promo discussing his recent failures and the attack by Butcher and The Blade, saying he'd wrestle them tonight. He even added that when they do wrestle, they may pick his tag team partner. He then said he needs to wrestle MJF, despite MJF's claims they would never wrestle, calling him "hood rich" and his scarf fake. He then said he'd give MJF his truck, his watch and his shoes ... as well as a briefcase filled with over $50,000 ($100 of which he gave to a kid in the crowd) just to agree to a match. Later in the show, it was announced Butcher and The Blade had selected Q.T. Marshall as Cody's partner for a match next week. Grade: B-
  • Nyla Rose def. Leva Bates via pinfall with the Beast Bomb. Rose was destroying Bates when Peter Avalon entered the ring for a distraction. Bates hit Rose with a book to no effect, and Rose chokeslammed both of them before hitting the Beast Bomb for the win. Shanna ran in to attack Rose after the match while Rose continued to attack Bates. Rose eventually turned the tables before actually bringing out a table, which she powerbombed the referee through as he attempted to intervene. Rose then powerbombed Shanna onto the ref. Later in the show it was announced Rose has been suspended indefinitely. Grade: C
  • Chris Jericho cut an in-ring promo saying AEW officials have informed him he is contractually obligated to defend his championship one more time in 2019. He introduced The Lexicon of Le Champion -- a replacement for The List of WWE fame -- and read a lengthy list of who he would not defend the title against, repeating Jon Moxley's name multiple times throughout. Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt interrupted the list reading. Jericho then said The Lexicon included dinosaurs and little children. Luchasaurus touted his own masters degree and said Stunt may be "small for his age" but is more man than Jericho will ever be. Jericho said Jungle Boy could not last 10 minutes with him, which led to Jungle Boy saying he knows he can and throwing down the challenge for Dec. 18.
  • Kris Statlander def. Hikaru Shida via pinfall after hitting the Big Bang Theory. This was one of the better women's matches in AEW history. Following the match, however, the lights went out before Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes made their way out. Rhodes said the pair make up The Nightmare Collective. Rhodes then asked Statlander to pledge herself to the group and they would take care of her. Before Kong and Statlander could throw down, a female fan at ringside shouted she would pledge, entering the ring, allowing Kong to cut her hair off. This feels far too similar to the Dark Order cult storyline and left the segment flat after a good match. Grade: C
  • Pentagon Jr. def. Christopher Daniels via pinfall after a low blow and package piledriver. Fenix ran in as Daniels had hit the Angel's Wings, sliding Daniels' mic stand into the ring. Daniels avoided Pentagon using the stand but in the chaos found himself caught with a low blow to set up the finish. Grade: B
  • Jon Moxley def. Joey Janela via pinfall with the Paradigm Shift. Janela got a fair deal of offense in, with both men going toe-to-toe in both mat wrestling exchanges and big striking battles. Janela came close to getting the win, putting Moxley through a table at ringside and hitting a top-rope elbow drop for a near fall. In the end, Moxley was too much, getting the win before Jericho and the Inner Circle entered the arena through the crowd as Moxley had done the week before. With Jericho holding up the belt in the crowd, the show went off the air. Grade: B+