4 Ups & 6 Downs From AEW Dynamite (22 Feb - Review)
Buckets of blood, Revolution takes shape and just how important was that announcement after all?
Tony Khan has promoted announcements in the past before.
He made a “huge” in April 2022 when he announced that Forbidden Door would bring together AEW and NJPW for the first time since the former was launched amidst acrimony between the two sides. Huge.
Six weeks before that, he had a “major” one. He had purchased Ring Of Honor. Its past, present and future weren’t sold to Vince McMahon via Samoa Joe but in the hands of a man that happened to be a major fan and somebody keen to keep the brand very much alive. Major
Back in 2019, a “big” announcement amounted to being a homecoming show In Jacksonville in January 2020. It was pretty deflating on the surface but ended up extremely significant in hindsight - it marked the first show Khan booked on his own, it ruled, it steadied the ship right before a vital TV deal was struck before the pandemic hit, and The Elite actually felt like their name for the first time since the company launched. Big.
Going into this show, with little on the show worthy of significant speculation - a familiar problem in recent weeks - the most interesting aspect was Khan’s “important” announcement. Importance is in the eye of the beholder as the saying doesn’t go, but it felt like one of those calls that would be a gut feeling. Mich like a genuinely great Dynamite, you’d just know if it lived up to the billing.
Did it? And, when the Revolution build needed it, was this a genuinely great Dynamite?
Let's light the fuse...