14 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (Oct 29)
5. A Better Balance
Last night's Dynamite felt like the most balanced two hours of AEW has produced to date, making it a significant triumph after two weeks of hard, fast, wrestling-centric action.
Things were substantially varied between the ropes. Page vs. Guevara was brimming with character, Shida vs. Shanna pushed the women's division towards a higher average, and Best Friends/Orange Cassidy vs. the jobbers was a fun comedy squash. After that, we got the obligatory Elite big moves buffet trios match and a heated, well-build tag team tournament final between SCU and the Lucha Brothers.
The balance between what happened in the ring and what went down outside of it is more important, though. The show-length "Inner Circle causing chaos" theme presented any wrestling fatigue from setting in. Cody and Chris Jericho's contract signing was a well-placed break and we finally got a proper in-ring promo, with Jon Moxley the star. Throw further bits and pieces like the Cody/Schiavone segments into the mix and Dynamite proved variety was the spice of life.