5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (30 August - Review)
3. A Puzzling Development In The Women's Division
This Trios match is chaos!
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The women's match, singular of course, was strange.
Hikaru Shida, Britt Baker and Kris Statlander defeated Nyla Rose, Marina Shafir and Emi Sakura in one of those matches that seemed to evaporate from the memory as it was still in progress. There was nothing distinctive about it whatsoever beyond one curious story beat (and a fun Statlander hot tag, in fairness).
Baker and Shida weren't on the same wavelength. Baker tagged in Statlander where Shida tagged in Baker, this perfectly sound strategy in a trios match was somehow enough to create tension between the two, and Baker struck Shida with an accidental thrust kick.
If a gang of baddies rampage through the company like the Outcasts did for as long as they have, doesn't it make more sense to have the faces beat them in a gimmicked stable war before the split?
What does Sunday's self-implosion of the Outcasts story do for the babyfaces who got outsmarted and beaten down for about nine months, and who are now scrapping amongst themselves? Why is this company increasingly piss-poor at paying things off?
It's no wonder that Baker has never been less over. Fans don't buy into her as someone they can get behind anymore.
Also, continuing the dire All Out build, Ruby Soho laid out Statlander with a sneak attack in the most bog standard bit of booking you'll ever see.