10 Ups & 0 Downs From AEW Dynamite (25 Jan - Review)

7. Going Through The Motions Amongst All The Emotions

The Matt Hardy/Ethan Page storyline is the ongoing All Elite Wrestling tale that justifies its place on Dynamite least.

With its cod legalese, indentured servitude and the teased returns of Broken Matt at the end, it's felt like a copy of a copy of a copy of all the characters, gimmicks and stories that just haven't worked in AEW. It overwhelmed their match on Rampage and did again here, despite the immense and incredible popularity of JungleHook.

The contest had very little to it, and all that was there was signposted in fifty-foot high lettering in that way pro wrestling sometimes does. Hardy and Page can't co-exist but nobody stops to ask what anybody really gets from either side of the relationship. Meanwhile the out-and-out babyfaces pick up another win but it's harder to enjoy the journey when the destination is unclear.

The mind wanders when a match is merely wrestling happening in front of you rather than pulling you in, and here, your writer's stopped to ponder the sad axing of AEW's rankings system. When everything had a purpose, even things like this did. JungleHook once upon a time would have ostensibly been one step closer to The Acclaimed with this win. This was a nice moment on a night that needed it, but the narrative implications were wafer-thin outside of the sentiment.