5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (June 22)
1. Should The Forbidden Door Have Stayed Shut?
![Zack Sabre Jr](https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2022/06/6f7d04887ac6b288-600x338.jpg)
The job of this edition of Dynamite (especially with fewer people than ever making time for Rampage) was to ensure the hype for Sunday's pay-per-view reached its peak at the right time.
Online discourse on the event has been divisive to say the least, but the confusion and lack of focus that defined the build to Double Or Nothing has ultimately served to overwhelm this first-of-its-kind show too.
WWE's Invasion pay-per-view popped a monster number for the company at the time, and that card featured such encounters as The APA Vs Palumbo & O'Haire, Chris Kanyon, Hugh Morrus & Shawn Stasiak Vs The Big Show, Billy Gunn & Albert and Earl Hebner Vs Nick Patrick. Point being, the draw was the over-arching concept first, match-by-match layout a distant, distant second.
There's a certain nobility in attempting to fold weekly episodic storytelling into the show, but its failed badly in execution. Sunday's event will absolutely deliver quality, but WWE's premium live events do too. AEW and NJPW going to war (or even coming together) was supposed to represent a single destination for the best professional wrestling in the world. A mishandled build has created serious questions about if this is remotely the case...