5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (8 Mar - Review)
4. Lacking Juice
AEW
Ricky Starks was a late but shrewd addition to the Dynamite line-up.
The supposed "benefit" of him beating Chris Jericho at Revolution might have been lost if 'The Ocho' was back on Wednesday no-selling the defeat and 'Absolute' himself was nowhere to be found. Starks taking television time to openly question what was next for him felt liked a lived in character choice for somebody desperate to pull away from the recent vortex he was trapped in.
The problem was with who extended their arm in rescue.
When the Bullet Club logo flashed up on screens and the iconic entrance theme played, the arena fizzed with excitement that known free agent Jay White might well have made his choice. This made the surprise appearance of Juice Robinsion doubly disappointing - not only did he feel like a step down the ladder for Starks, but Robinson not being 'Switchblade' (after an indifferent on-screen run in AEW thus far) was itself a letdown.
Everybody's mostly blameless for that, but does it even track narratively? Starks got ostensibly the biggest singles win of his career on Sunday, and now has a lower card filler match with Robinson as the provide. As for the man he defeated...
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
