5 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (January 24 - Results & Review)

Ups...

5. A Decent Promo Duel...BUT...

Does AEW deserve a modicum of credit for booking two feature segments - a match and a live promo duel - that showcased the women’s division?

No.

This was the bare minimum.

Now, the Toni Storm character, when she’s on form, is really funny. She always has a popper of a one-liner in her, and the “nuru massage” line was another out-of-nowhere, “out of pocket” bit of character shading. The problem is that Timeless Toni exists on such a different wavelength that it’s hard to tether whatever she is to another character. Any attempts to add emotional weight to any of it just feel…weird.

Toni and Deonna Purrazzo are shoot great friends in real life, as underscored last night in a weirdly affecting and very real twist: the people behind the personas have matching ankle tattoos. The idea is that Deonna wants to wrestle the real Toni to determine who the better wrestler is, urging her back out of the bizarre psychological state in which she finds herself. Shouldn’t Deonna simply want to win the title? At this point, what fun is it for the audience to want to see Toni abandon the affected persona?

Boil it all down, and the babyface wants to see the back of the fun character that the audience likes. The crowd therefore can’t get behind the babyface.

What, ultimately, does any of this have to do with pro wrestling conflict?

The character does not co-exist with AEW’s storytelling framework, and any attempts to reconcile those two things is doomed, as this segment only highlighted.

Now, on a positive note, as much as the dynamic is flawed, Deonna showed poise on the microphone and Toni was a riot. It worked and it didn’t at the same time.

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Contributor
Contributor

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!