Dante Martin vs. Malakai Black

[7.0] "Dante Martin will never be a star, but he does his best to make Malakai Black look good here. Of course, the audience is chanting "This is awesome" five minutes into the match, which is only good, not great."

[7.0] "Smooth and smart progression along with an organic flow. Black's display of his prowess in martial arts and kickboxing was enchanting and so was Martin's counter-attack in the form of high-flying offense. Black targeted the leg of Martin which would trouble Martin throughout and eventually led to his fall where his ostensible novelty and immaturity cost him dearly which allows Black to execute the Black Mass for the win. Martin had an impressive showing against the most proselytizing, well-built and lively supernatural wrestling characters in AEW. ***3/4"

[7.0] "Nice showcase for both athteles: Malakai's work on the leg was very good and in general his offense during this match looked great. Martin's selling was pretty good and despite that he was still able to hit some of his classic high-flying offense, always while selling the leg. The match was very good despite the short lenght. 7/10 - 3.5*/5*"

[7.0] "This was a nice little match that showcased both men in a positive way. Wish that Martin had better selling as he executed moves with his leg, while his leg was supposedly hurt."

[5.0] "Fun little match, but nothing really stood out. Loved the agression of Black in this match. Dante Martin didn't really impressed me here."

[6.0] "I enjoyed this plenty enough but I am not quite as high as others are on it. Some good work by both and nice opening contest. ***"

[6.0] "This was a fun match. Black was awesome here. LOVED those ARM DRAGS he did early on. Two of the best I've ever seen. His transitions and movements are so slick like how he would get Martin in a leg submission or hit flurries of big moves on him. After getting his leg worked over for a bit, Martin didn't bother to sell it while performing any of his flips or springboard moves. Reminded me of a spotty Ospreay or Rollins leg selling performance where they would perfectly execute the move and then hold their leg afterwards. Besides that Martin gave a good flashy underdog performance. The finish with Black selling the ribs was a bit odd though. ***"

[8.0] "Great exhibition match ! Dante Martin is such a great young talent and it's safe to say this since what he did with Kenny weeks ago! Both men delivered an athletic and competitive matchup with Black kicking the hell out of his opponent !"

[7.0] "One of Black's better matches I would strongly argue. I think great work was put in my both guys here."

[7.0] "Martin is obviously good but he's lacking charisma so much. I have some difficulties to being invest in his matches. Nevertheless, with Black on the track, they did quite a solid storytelling. Martin had his chances but Black took his time, took his pleasure to knockdown him. He's fucking great in AEW."

[6.0] "This was an okay match, Malakai Black carried it and did a good performance. However, Dante Martin did an uninteresting performance, it's the first time I see him but he didn't give me a good impression with all his useless flips. **3/4"

[6.0] "I thought this was a solid match but didn't really feel much hype for the action, nothing bad but nothing that really grabbed my eye either."

[6.0] "The match is good, one of the best performance by Martin for my tastes thanks to the imposition of Malakai Black."

[6.0] "Martin is in that spot Ospreay was in where he'd have a leg injury and still perform several springboard moves without a problem, and then hold his leg as if selling after the fact is all that matters. If a professional fighter injures his hand, he might still throw it, but he'll try everything else first and throw that hand a lot less than he usually would. Martin wasn't deterred from using it at all other than one springboard spot. This kind of thing is why I'm hesitant to be taken in by the flash of high-flying moves from young up-and-comers. Thankfully there's time for him to grow beyond that but he'll need something else to fall back on to tell convincing stories in the future. Other than that, it was a decent match. No idea what happened to Black's ribs(? ) or if that was even part of the match."

[6.0] "This was good. I was so invested in the offense from both men. Great storytelling. Martin continued to look like a star here, turning in another gutsy performance in what was one of his biggest and most important matches to date. As for Black, he is such a refreshing, different and compelling character. He is in AEW what he should have been from day one in WWE. The results are wholly different and his presence on each show is a tone changer."

[6.0] "6.5 - Really good transitions and strikes, as Dante worked well with Black's offense (probably as well as anyone has since Black came to AEW)."

[8.0] "Excellent stuff between Malakai Black and Dante Martin here to open this episode of Dynamite, I had quite a few expectations for this one as I'm a big fan of both wrestlers so I automatically expected something qualitative but it was even better than I had imagined. It's simple, this is Black's best match since he signed with All Elite Wrestling, god it's good to see him out of that horrible rivalry against the Nightmare Family even if his win here is in the context of giving him momentum right before his third match against Cody next week. I already feel like I'm not going to like this as I didn't like their two previous encounters at all so I'm going to stay positive and point again to the fact that this opener was great, very good work by Black on Martin's leg with consistent selling by the later. Everything was in the details, right down to the facial expressions and camera shots, in addition to a very interesting storytelling."

[9.0] "I loved this match. The mesh of the styles, the storytelling, the selling, all aspects were solid-to-great. For his age, Dante is limitless, in this match he showed he's not nearly just a spot guy, he can sell very well and his psychology is ridiculous for a 20 year old. Black keeps getting more comfortable and more established, he feels right at home and on the rise."

[8.0] "The best match from Malakai in AEW so far. Dante has a bright future and his high flying worked great with Malakai."

[9.0] "Very good, their styles gelled well. I was surprised that Dante managed to keep pleasing the crowd even when engaging in more mat-based wrestling or brawling. Malakai is very cool and after getting past Cody, I hope he can move to be a challenger for Hangman."

[7.0] "This was a good opener. Martin's high-flying style meshed well with Black's more psychological style. Martin sold Black's submissions really well and was able to turn a pro-Malakai crowd to his side by the end. It was really predictable, but this entire card was predictable. Good match and another star-making performance from Dante. [***1/2]"

[7.0] "Dante Martin is obviously super talented and athletic, but he still has some experience to gain. His leg selling was somewhat inconsistent, and one or two of his several high flying spots looked a touch off, but he is already very good and the potential is there to become excellent. Black was really sharp in this match. The rib selling at the end was kind of weird, but this was very good for the most part. ***1/2"