9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming (14 Dec - Review)
Downs…
1. The Neverending Story...And The Dodgy New One
An otherwise hugely significant Chris Jericho promo - 'The Ocho' foreshadowed a major moment later on in the episode and set up his next programme with Ricky Starks by name-checking him as a "flash in the pan" during his bit - offered a continuation of one story that has to die and the commencement of one that shouldn't have ever been given life.
Jon Moxley Vs Sammy Guevara for Friday's Rampage is a bad version of a good thing. The two men are stars, AEW originals and wrestlers that have resonated strongly in main events for the company in the past. Matchmaking like this on a weekly basis will go a long way to addressing the malaise around the Friday show, but this specific example comes as just about every single hardcore fan of the company is sick to death of the Jericho Appreciation Society Vs The Blackpool Combat Club.
Ironically, the most interesting element was dropped cold halfway through, but it seems as though the booking has asked everybody to forget that. Using his ROH Pure Title loss as rationale, Jericho's latest strange treatment of Daniel Garcia was to have him demeaningly "shadow" Guevara.
Jericho set a fascinating new arc up for himself on this show - fancy that! - but his stable felt like it needed a strategic rethink after Final Battle. It felt deflating that this appeared not to be the case.