12 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite: Bash At The Beach (Jan 15)
In which Jon Moxley inexplicably becomes a pirate.
Last's week's Dynamite may have been the worst of the show's three-month run by a wide margin, but AEW still cruised to ratings success with an impressive 947,000 viewers tuning in.
That this misfiring show drew such a solid number was a product of strong promotion and momentum. Not only was the episode well advertised and marketed, but it came on the back of a lauded New Year's Day show and retained much of that excellent night's audience. It'll therefore be interesting to see how last night's Bash at the Beach special does; this was a vastly superior show, but how many of those 947,000 will have been driven away by the previous week's shortcomings?
Regardless, Bash at the Beach was loads of fun. Boasting a different lock, a stacked lineup of matches (PAC vs. Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara vs. Jon Moxley, and more) as well as Cody finally responding to MJF's ridiculous demands, Dynamite promised a lot and generally delivered - though it wasn't without a few major problems.
A roster buoyed by yesterday's good news (largely) delivered when it mattered. Let's run through its successes, failures, and everything in between...