5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (May 12)
1. The Pinnacle's Bubbly Bath
The Pinnacle's post-Blood & Guts celebration was disappointingly Stamford.
MJF and Tully Blanchard cut their heel promos, dressed to the nines, when a honking horn interrupted them. Along came The Inner Circle's Chris Jericho, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara, and Jake Hager to douse them in champagne as a way to goad The Pinnacle into accepting a rematch. Drenched from his bubbly bath, MJF's rage was triggered to the extent that he declared a Stadium Stampede match between the two warring parties.
This was a misfire on several levels.
Attempting to recreate the iconic WWE beer bash (or Kurt Angle's milk, take your pick) was too cute and gimmicky for what was presented as a life or death rivalry last week. That The Inner Circle came out on a vehicle emblazoned with a carefully designed logo worsened this. This was a jarring change of tone, a de-escalation, and a big disappointment. Nobody's changing the channel over to TNT because they want to watch rehashed versions of segments the other company did decades ago.
Blood & Guts was undersold, too. None of these men looked or acted like they'd been pushed to the brink of death. Jericho had his dislocated elbow all strapped up, but that was the extent of his selling, as he was more concerned with squirting Max and co. with bubbly than anything else. Last week's divisive fall needed a heavy, heavy follow-up here, and it didn't get one.
The Stadium Stampede is an interesting stipulation for this rivalry and it'll require some creative thought to prevent it from feeling like another de-escalation. MJF, Jericho, and co. should ultimately be trusted not to deliver a comedy match, as the original Stampede was, but they've got a lot of work to do.