10 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (Sep 30)

1. One Of The Best Dynamite Matches Ever

This was just great. Truly excellent, detail-rich professional wrestling performed by two future stars whose flashier work catches your immediate attention before the subtler stuff pulls you in, as was the case here.

Weeks of going at each other's throats meant this was always going to be heated, so it began with Ricky slapping Darby hard in the face. From there, the pace was intense, with Allin trying to tear Starks' limbs off with fluid, transitioning mat work. This was something 'Absolute' hadn't gameplanned for, as Taz confirmed on commentary. More than that, it was a great demonstration of Darby's range as a performer, showing that anyone who writes him off because he enjoys leaping off of very high things doesn't know what they're talking about.

An interfering Brian Cage was nullified by Will Hobbs before he could make a mark. This allowed Starks to take control by whipping Darby to the floor and the crowd were hot, willing Darby back into it. They sold excellently, too. That might have been the most impressive thing about this match. From the very first moment, Starks and Allin portrayed anguish, pain, desperation, and later, exhaustion, giving the impression they were going through hell to beat each other. Starks has always been a low-key master of this: here, it was encouraging to see Darby match his level.

Slugged off the top rope and Coffin Dropped for the end, Starks was eventually pinned. A cathartic and perhaps overdue babyface triumph for Allin, though both men deserve props here, having delivered a match on par with anything AEW's weekly show has produced so far.

An easy ****1/2.