5 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (December 6 - Results & Review)

2. Jon Moxley Vs. Rush Kicks Ass

Two of the best brawlers of their generation beat the ever-living hell out of one another in an ace opener not without the odd flaw.

Mox won, again, and didn't carry the leg injury he seemed to suffer in his match against Jay Lethal last week. In a great, almost scarily candid promo cut afterwards, Mox wondered aloud whether the last four years have caught up with him. This mindset and ravaged body didn't factor into the match. Also, it wasn't quite as good as their sick, blistering Fight For The Fallen effort last year. Still, viewed on its own terms, this was a lovely, unvarnished scrap. Move-for-move, you've seen it. You might have seen everything at this point. Masculine challenges via chop battles, bird flips to express defiance, duelling strong style forearms.

But Rush looked such a smug pr*ck throughout that you almost forgave the anticlimactic finish: at least that look was wiped off his face with Mox's Bulldog choke. Mox wore a look of defiance throughout, and when he wasn't pulling off those badass facials, he sold big for those stunning Rush chops, involuntarily or otherwise. Mox, as Minoru Suzuki once said, is a great wrestler because he "can't do sh*t" - but he was so dialled-in here that even his wonky suicide dive looked super-charged. Rush threw so much behind a forearm that he almost stumbled over his feet with his own momentum.

Great opener - but still not TV Match of the Year-tier great, being brutally honest. That may read as pedantic, but fans were promised the greatest wrestling tournament ever, and other than the stakes and the refreshing lack of episodic TV trappings, the match quality in the Gold League is actually beneath the top tier of Dynamite matches in 2023.

Kenny Omega Vs. El Hijo del Vikingo, Rush Vs. Bryan Danielson, Hangman Page Vs. Jon Moxley, Omega Vs. Moxley, Chris Jericho Vs. Roderick Strong, MJF Vs. Adam Cole, Swerve Strickland Vs. Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin Vs. Samoa Joe: the Gold League can't yet compare to these matches and several others.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!