Elite Win Trios Title, No Mercedes Mone

This week's AEW Dynamite was built up as a huge show. The buzz surrounding the potential debut of Mercedes Mone hung over the show, but the matches AEW offered made up for the lack of her appearance. The best-of-seven series for The Trios Titles came to a conclusion and it was a whale of a match, maybe only second in terms of entertainment to Bryan Danielson vs. Konosuke Takeshita. Adam Cole returned and Jon Moxley appeared to have suffered an injury.Here are your winners and losers for AEW Dynamite, January 11, 2023:

Winner: Jon Moxley vs Hangman Adam Page

This was a physical match and a strong way to open the show. These two acted like they don't like each other and their wrestling style suggested as much. Page picked up a big win with a Buckshot Lariat. It's not entirely clear if what came after the match was planned (Moxley appeared to be shaken up), but if it was, it's an interesting choice.

This is only the second time Moxley has been beaten clean one-on-one match. That should equate to a big boost for Page, who has been on the unfortunate end of some bad creative decisions involving his character.

Winner: Adam Cole's Return

A huge surprise moment on the show that will go down as one of the feel-good segments of the evening, Adam Cole returned to a monstrous pop and let the crowd know that his in-ring career wasn't over. He talked about how concerned he was that he might have to call it quits, seeing doctor after doctor, but he is back and he's vowed to win the AEW Championship before all is said and done. He got a massive ovation when he said, "Now for the bad news. The bad news...it's not for me. The bad news is for the AEW locker room because Adam Cole is back! I'm not going anywhere!"

Cole is a big star for AEW and there was real concern that his wrestling career might be over. How big it is that he's good to go and is planning on coming back to compete in the main event scene in AEW can't be understated.

Winner: Hook

The match between Jungle Boy and Hook vs. Big Bill and Lee Moriarty wasn't wonderful, but no one cared. All the fans wanted was the spot when Hook suplexed Big Bill. They got what they came to see in that regard and the pop was enormous. There's a pretty good chance Hook-Jungle Boy as a team won't be a one-time thing. The fans seemed to be into them and they are two of AEW's young, good-looking pillars. It makes sense to put them together until they are ready to go out on their own and become big-time stars.

Loser: Jericho Appreciation Society

It's hard to call this promo anything other than awful. This was not good from start to finish and even some of AEW's better talkers couldn't save it. This entire segment was the low point in an otherwise strong show.

Winner: Danielson vs. Takeshita

Bryan Danielson vs. Konosuke Takeshita stole the show on Wednesday as diehard wrestling fans figured it might. MJF interrupted before the match got underway to cut a promo on the Los Angeles crowd and poked fun at Freddie Prinze Jr. and Ken Jeong, who were both in the audience.

This was a hard-hitting affair that showcased how great these two competitors are. There was fun and innovative offense, with some wild reversals and Danielson won, building his stock towards his championship challenge of MJF. There was a moment in the match where it looked like Danielson hurt his knee. Fortunately, he was able to battle through.

Loser: No Mercedes Mone

It's not fair to the four women who wrestled in the tag match, but AEW should have expected that not being able to deliver on the hype that was Mercedes Mone was going to cast a dark shadow over this match, which it did. Even the fact that they announced Toni Storm as the mystery partner last week didn't stop fans from anticipating a swerve that might see Hikaru Shida take out Storm and leave Saraya without a partner. That's not at all what happened, even if what did go down was fairly well done.

Shida tried to help her team by throwing a kendo stick into the ring, but the wrong team picked it up and used it to secure the victory. This is all likely going to lead to a heel turn for Shida and the only hope is that fans put the idea of Mone joining AEW in the back of their minds so this storyline can play out as it should.

Winner: The Elite Win Trios Titles

The best-of-seven series came to an end during Dynamite with the final encounter between The Elite and Death Triangle the main event of the show. They certainly delivered with a match that was full of high spots and risky moves that had the crowd in awe and chanting, "fight forever." Both teams made use of multiple tables, there were some incredible, heart-pounding moments off of the ladders, and the timing was impeccable as this was likely the best of the bunch when it came to in-ring action and the six men trying to deliver for the fans.

All that said, a number of fans are glad to see this series come to an end. It dragged out a bit and became fairly predictable by the time it was all over. Some will even question whether AEW chose the right team to go over here. The crowd was really behind the former champions.