5 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (August 9 - Review)

2. The Blackpool Combat Club Vs The Lucha Bros

Is it too generous to use this match as this week's example of how All Elite Wrestling is a victim of its own success?

There'd have been a time where it'd be enough just to have the mere tease of Jon Moxley mixing with Penta or Rey Fenix, or WWE's Cesaro finally getting to flex his polymath-adjacent skillset to a mass audience on a weekly basis, or a prodigy like Wheeler Yuta getting a massive platform to grow and flourish within a system that supports him. But four years in to the company's existence and 200 Dynamites later, and none of those genuine gifts AEW have given generate the buzz they used.

Ahead of time, this felt more played out than a rinse-and-repeat Monday Night Raw match, removing the particular inspiration to fantasy book winners, losers or dream spots. Good job too - there weren't really any to speak of here, and Penta's mask getting stolen for the umpteenth time wasn't even interesting for the camera to catch it before the replays.

"Eagles don't hunt flies", exclaimed Moxley in a promo lightyears better than the match it built. Why, then, do these birds of prey keep circling creative sh*t? For years, the company has presented Lucha Bros and Best Friends as jobbers-to-the-stars, and that's precisely what they've done for The BCC in consecutive weeks. But this is functional, not fun, and in Moxley's case particularly, Wembley and Chicago are merely weeks away.

What are we (and they) doing here?