5 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (23 Mar)
A blistering first hour gives way to a middling second, though Punk, Dax, MJF & more stood out.
The first half of last night's episode of AEW Dynamite felt like this was going to be one of the greatest shows Tony Khan's promotion has ever put together.
Dramatic, energetic, and bolstered by another excellent Texan crowd enraptured by matches like CM Punk vs. Dax Harwood and the Andrade Family Office tornado tag, those first 60 minutes set a bar that the second unfortunately couldn't match. This was a Jekyll and Hyde show. That isn't to say that everything in the first half was good and everything in the second bad, but the drop-off was noticeable and disappointing.
Dynamite delivered some of the best and worst weekly AEW content of the year. Starring some of AEW's biggest and boldest characters, the highs were euphoric. The lows, unfortunately, largely came from wrestlers who were already struggling coming into the show - and now face an even bigger task to correct their creative course.
From Jeff Hardy diving off a concourse ledge and Darby Allin getting launched down a flight of stairs to MJF shelving Wardlow and Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson finally getting a name, a lot happened here.
Let's light the fuse...