6 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (29 Dec)
Dynamite bids farewell to TNT, but were most of the explosives were saved for TBS?
AEW deserves a modicum of credit for making some effort over a season often overlooked by wrestling full stop.
December has an earned reputation for being the closest the industry has to an off season thanks to years of WWE creatively dogging it or running best-of's, but the decision is rooted in a certain logic, Whilst the festive period has typically been a hot live event ticket dating back to some monster gates in the 70s and 80s, the weekly TV churn established in the 90s hasn't been so hot.
People do other things than watch wrestling during the holidays, and wrestling's response has typically been to hold off on the really, really good stuff as a result. All Elite Wrestling can claim the opposite in 2021 - as with the Christmas Day edition of Rampage, this "New Year Smash" edition of of the flagship wasn't without incidents and talking points. It's just a slight pity some of those weren't all that all that jolly.
Let's light the fuse.
(Andy H Murray will be back with his regular review next week)