8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (24 May - Review)
6. It'll Be Lore-Right On The Night
I really didn't like the first attempt at spooky lighting when the House of Black introduced the Open House gimmick.
I suspect I'll find it hokey, distracting and ultimately pointless when I watch the show back on FITE. But as a live show experience, even as a lore skeptic, it was an effective spot of theatre. It helps that the House of Black are as over as f**k. They were as over as anybody on the roster. They're almost impossible to dislike as a wrestling fan. They embody the range of the form as a unit, everything they do looks like death, and they register the imminent destruction brilliantly.
They are so good, with their body language, at conveying that their opponents have just been sentenced to death. And when Blake Christian looked like he had been decapited, his selling put the stable over all the more. Brody King strangled what remained of Christian's neck in a great finish to a fun, all-action sprint that almost certainly benefited from the bias of attending live.
With a two-hour show imminent, Christian could be slotted in as a competitive job guy on Collision. He made the House of Black look almost disturbingly vicious.