5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite: Homecoming (4 Aug)

1. Cody Rhodes' "Retirement" Doesn't Land

Cody Rhodes' show-closing promo was delivered well and hit the right sympathetic points, but his (probably fake) retirement speech didn't land for a Daily's Place crowd that sung the "goodbye" song to him while he was getting teary-eyed and emotional.

This was supposed to tug at the heartstrings. Instead, like a lot of this show, it fell flat. The crowd responded well to pro-AEW, rabble-rousing lines on the promotion's rise and success where many predicted they'd fail, but veering towards Retirement Town failed for a couple of reasons:-

1. It's impossible to buy into most wrestling retirements. These things don't tend to stick. In Rhodes' case, the guy has spoken about not wanting to wrestle forever before, but he's 36 years old. That he's looking to step away at this specific point in time is tough to get behind.

2. It was over the top. Perhaps Cody wants to take some time away from television to rest up and be with his young family. If that's the case, just sell the Malakai Black beating. Not everything needs to be this huge, big-theatre drama, and the unnecessary weight piled onto this angle ended up sinking it.

Black battering Rhodes with a crutch and looking down at his untied boot at least meant the moment belonged to him in the end. The content preceding it was the kind that plays into the hands of those bad-faith Triple H/Jeff Jarrett comparisons, though. Rhodes enables AEW's worst critics in melodramatic spotlights like this, which is something he should look to avoid going forward.