9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (17 Nov)
Daniels goes full Dragon on Page, MJF meets CM Punk, Lethal vs. Guevara, Ishii debuts.
One week after coming close to perfecting its often underwhelming pay-per-view go-home show formula, AEW did the same with its fallout blueprint last night, delivering two compact, economical hours crammed with character and storyline development.
This was about foundations rather than peaks. AEW threw down markers for the majority of its most important players ahead of the upcoming arc, drawing a line under some things that happened at Full Gear 2021 while using that show's offshoots to build anew. The kind of stuff that compels you to tune in next week for a plethora of reasons.
Jay Lethal challenged for Sammy Guevara's TNT Championship in his first AEW match, Tomohiro Ishii opened the Forbidden Door for a tag bout pitting him and Orange Cassidy against The Butcher and The Blade, and 'Hangman' Adam Page celebrated his World Title win on Cowboy Sh*t Day. Elsewhere, Nyla Rose met Hikaru Shida in the ongoing TBS Title tournament and Bryan Danielson tapped into his inner Dragon opposite The Dark Order.
A very effective night of television that once again showcased the strong grasp Tony Khan and co. have of their weekly episodic model.
Let's light the fuse...