10 Ups & 0 Downs From AEW Dynamite: New Year's Smash (Jan 13)
9. Don't Trust Matt
Last week saw Private Party ink a managerial contract with Matt Hardy that they thought granted their mentor 30% of their salaries. On Being The Elite, Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen found out that number was 50%, not 30%, and they brought this to television last night, with Quen challenging Hardy.
'Big Money Matt' flipped out, particularly when Marq called him a "money-grabbing carny."
"I'm the only guy in AEW who cares about you!", Matt said. "When I say 'jump', you say 'how high?'".
Twisting Hardy towards a more villainous persona works for a character whose AEW run has felt snakebitten from the start. This also gives Private Party some beefy character work to sink into, having suffered from a general lack of exposition since entering AEW. It's nothing mind-blowing, but good, solid stuff.