7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (22 Mar - Review)
3. Hook Vs Stokely Hathaway
The live crowd loved portions of this, but the live crowd deserve an up all of their own for being hot for the whole show. This match felt more like a beneficiary of the audience than something truly earning the praise.
It wasn't bad per se, but the build to this individual showdown and the never-ending Firm/Matt Hardy nonsense needed something extra special to elevate it beyond, well, Elevation fare. A few weapon spots (there was a lovely callback to one of his father's most famous ECW Tazplexes by Hook) and Big Stoke cracking jokes and trying to keep out of trouble was all just a little too lightweight for the end of this chapter.
If only it was the end of the entire story. Hardy convinced Ethan Page to be the next one to challenge Hook before Hathaway was even carted out.