8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (9 Feb)
AEW comes SO close to episodic TV perfection. So close...
AEW needed to deliver a top-to-bottom awesome episode of Dynamite last night to prove that it is in fact still 'All Elite'.
"Uneven", sadly, is the best word to describe AEW's 2022. The highs remain intoxicating. Hangman Page's blood-drenched triumph over Bryan Danielson in a classic that stripped the "back and forth" of every artless crowd conditioning trope; Sammy Guevara somehow contriving to make a ladder match feel spectacular again; CM Punk and MJF restoring the lost art of selling and controlling a crowd with body language for 40 masterful minutes.
The lows are either a bit drab (the Inner Circle split tease), a bit disheartening (the decline of Ruby Soho), or a bit actively f*cking horrendous (Dan Lambert and Brandi Rhodes playing a game of "Who's The Most Insufferable Person In AEW?").
No multiple backstage interruptions that do more to remind you that an undercard match is taking place than create any actual excitement about it. No further attempts to do slow-burn storytelling for the sake of it. No last-minute announcements that they didn't mention on TV previously for obvious reasons (chief among them "nobody gives a f*ck").
Just a top-to-bottom awesome episode of Dynamite.
Did they deliver?
Just...