11 Ups & 0 Downs From AEW Dynamite (Mar 31)

1. Arcade Anarchy Rescues Video Game Feud From The Landfill With Help Of E.T.

Arcade Anarchy was a total triumph of an unforgettable feel-good main event, and in a quite marvellous flex, a match that featured as much Lego as subtext.

It was constructed wonderfully, as one would expect from Chuckie T, the King of Tornado plunder. There is an art to this irreverent, silly violence, and the layout yielded a real sense of dynamism. Kip Sabian enjoyed a career peak here by smashing Orange Cassidy through a fairground stand with a basement drop kick in a cool spot in a wild match that was removed entirely from a boring walk-and-brawl. Miro was great. This was his AEW breakthrough. This was evidence that he belonged.

He yeeted f*ck out of Cassidy in a legitimately awesome spot and unlike everybody else in the match, he hardly bothered with the daft gimmicks at all because the character is done with the bullsh*t. He launched Cassidy right into a steel chair, face-first, and when he did throw an arcade cabinet, it didn't land. There was a genuine poetry to this. Miro is a monster who will mess you up on a guard rail and is done with the nonsense.

Couldn't stand the cutesy aesthetic and kitschy plunder?

That, brilliantly, was also the point. AEW will weaponise this as much as they went all in to embrace it when Miro buries the "bullsh*t" and becomes his own man. A touching and nice segment of pro wrestling television that folded in no less than three charming returns, this was fantastic - so good that it was almost worth the wait.

Well it went over half a f*ckin' year, so not really, but what an outside of the box screamer of a last-minute winner.