5 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (April 3 - Results & Review)

3. More Of The Same But The Same Is Good Enough

In order to further convey the idea that Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson cannot be separated, after each went over Katsuyori Shibata last week, on last night's Dynamite, they each defeated a hoss.

Bryan Danielson's win over Lance Archer was the weaker of two essentially pointless matches. Everybody is quite aware of how great Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson are at this point. That's why they are wrestling at Dynasty. It wasn't a terrible idea - the hope is that by having each man mirror the other over, the PPV result becomes less obvious - the execution last night generally made for a familiar and uneventful first hour lacking badly in hooks, drama, all that which makes pro wrestling TV surge at its very best.

This in and of itself wasn't remotely bad, hence why it appears in the 'Ups' section. The sequencing was just strange and flat. Danielson used his immense ring IQ throughout, fitting every piece together to build it seamlessly. In one moment, he met Archer with a running knee off the apron seconds after Archer had rolled out of the ring to escape the LeBell lock. Danielson had to be relentless against such a huge opponent. The match could not be faulted for its logic nor layout, but while good it just felt like a slog.

If the excellent Lance Archer had any sort of aura left, really, this exact beat-for-beat match would have played a lot better - but he was booked into oblivion a long time ago and is a territory heel in an episodic TV world.