11 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (Sep 9)
Happy Miro Day!
The disappointment and controversy emerging from All Out left AEW with ground to recover on Dynamite.
Marred by various issues, from the subjective (the Tooth and Nail match) to the objective (Matt Hardy's apparent concussion), the PPV was an overlong, inconsistent watch that delivered in some places (Moxley vs. MJF was spectacular), but fell short in others. Moreover, everything on it felt disparate. While "identity crisis" is a strong descriptor, it's appropriate: All Out's pieces looked like they didn't belong in the same puzzle.
AEW didn't respond by blowing the bloody doors off, hot-shotting protected, PPV-calibre bouts in hopes of popping a number and "bouncing back." Instead, they set the table. In a ballsy move, AEW treated Dynamite as if it were any other PPV follow-up show, moving the Full Gear arc's pieces into place, loading the undercard, and limiting themselves to a single knockout moment. It paid off. While not the most explosive show of the year, this was a faith-restoring episode that showed one dodgy supercard can't jam AEW's meticulous storytelling mechanisms.
Headlined by TNT Champion Brodie Lee vs. Dustin Rhodes and stolen by the biggest free agent left in the game coming off the board, most of Dynamite worked. Let's start with what didn't...