11 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (7 Sept)

4. Daniel Garcia Does It In Buffalo

95% of the time, the best way to handle a wrestler's homecoming is to avoid overthinking it and do right by the performer, giving them a night to remember and something for the audience to savour. There is unquestionably value to breaking this formula every now and then, but not too often. Continually booking hometown wrestlers like losers on their own turf comes off as cruel.

AEW has never had that problem. Generally, the promotion handles these things the right way, which was the case with Daniel Garcia last night.

Rapped to the ring by Westside Gunn (also of this parish), Garcia was over huge in Buffalo, New York. He continued his long-running rivalry with Wheeler Yuta in another technical chess battle in which the performers barely left touching distance of each other. The Pure Rules limitations play to both wrestlers' strengths, too, and while this wasn't the duo's best match together, it was a great, strategic battle between two wrestlers who know each other better than anybody.

Catharsis came for Garcia in the form of a Dragon Tamer with jerky torque on Yuta's legs, forcing the Pure Champion to tap out. Afterwards, Daniel had the honour of sharing the moment with his favourite wrestler, Bryan Danielson, who strapped the belt around his waist after the Code of Honour had been observed.

And on the ramp, Chris Jericho aghast at Garcia once again demonstrating split loyalties as Danielson's pro wrestling ideology's tug of war with Jericho's sports entertainment continues.