10 Ups & 0 Downs From AEW Dynamite: New Year's Smash (Jan 13)

Ups...

10. Jade Cargill Enters The Waiting Room

This was a bit dysfunctional, with sloppy editing, as the Thunder Rosa beatdown reroll and selfie promo were inserted abruptly when Jade Cargill and Red Velvet were being separated, but The Waiting Room offered enough positive storyline developments to finish as a slight net positive.

The format was largely unchanged from Dark. Beginning with Rebel's introduction, the corny music, and Not-Reba's deliberately annoying laughter at each of Britt Baker's dad jokes, it saw Cody Rhodes welcomed as the first guest after a round of ribs. Cargill was the second guest, surprising 'The American Nightmare'. Ripping into Rhodes for not booking her in a match yet and dropping Shaq's name to continue that thread, she was accosted, eventually, by Nightmare Factory prospect Red Velvet, effectively setting their bout up for a future date.

Then came Rosa's promo, and confirmation of her vs. Baker for the 3 February Beach Break show, which the good doctor ran from.

Good to see Cargill in a televised role again. She's clearly somebody AEW is investing a lot of faith in, and positioning her opposite a fellow developmental project like Velvet, rather than a Serena Deeb or other carrier, which suggests she's further along than expected.