12 Times AEW Was Better Than Literally EVERYTHING
2. When Dynamite Was At Its Peak
Yes, Dynamite is rushed. Yes, Dynamite too often features matches that are predictable; it’s not inaccurate to state that up to 90% of them had a clear favourite, who ended up winning, going in. Yes, match quality is too often emphasised over the emotional investment of who actually wins and loses. Can you even remember the winners of the All-Star Eight-Man tags that are nakedly designed to get a ****½ rating?
Yes, the commentary is all too often trivial; it’s not remotely ideal when the booth is missing an ill-tempered, post-prime Jim Ross to ground things.
Dynamite remains the best episodic TV wrestling show of all-time. Peak Mid-South had better angles and gripping show-long storylines, ditto Jerry Jarrett’s Memphis TV, but neither had a match as good as Kenny Omega Vs. Bryan Danielson, or Will Ospreay Vs. Darby Allin. Peak WCW Nitro was incredible, powered by a constant thread of mystery, cool new character archetypes and bombastic action set-pieces, but even then was bloated and convoluted. A lot of the vaunted cruiserweight action was more refreshing then than great now. WWE Raw has ranged from the best and worst TV wrestling ever, the most wildly uneven show of all-time - and it was the latter well over half of the time.
Hangman Page’s epic, super-detailed, emotionally torturous arc played out over Dynamite. MJF’s phenomenal plots between 2019 and 2022 made for genuinely unpredictable and compelling TV, in a much-needed contrast to the endlessly great in-ring fare. The names plucked for the Labours of Jericho, the stipulations set out for Cody Rhodes, the seven-star rivalry with CM Punk: all were great actual television.
Whatever’s good about wrestling TV, AEW Dynamite, at one point or another, perfected it.