5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (November 22 - Results & Review)
A very nice, very evil show books the World's End main event and the Continental Classic kicks off.
AEW has gone a bit mad.
Or to be a bit more realistic about it in 2023, AEW has gone a bit mad again.
The Continental Classic Tournament was immediately and effectively established as All Elite Wrestling's take on the treasured NJPW G1 Climax, promoted as it was by Tony Khan and a specifically a returning Bryan Danielson as the "best wrestling tournament ever". So far so good, and if the full field of 16 had been made available longer than 12 hours before the tournament kicked off, the build could have matched the bluster.
Alas, it wasn't. It took until a "selection special" on the day of the November 22nd Dynamite to flesh out the (admittedly awesome) lineups, and even though a 'no interference' rule had potential, Eddie Kingston's cluttered Full Gear promo about feeding his ROH and NJPW Strong belts into a Continental Championship to make a modern wrestling triple crown title for the winner confused things further.
All of this while Khan finds himself in a multitude of creative cul-de-sacs before settling down to try and figure out arithmetic even genius-era Gedo had to spend weeks and months poring over. If he pulls it off, it'll be one of his biggest achievements to date. If he doesn't, it'll be another perception nightmare he really doesn't need. Time for everybody to put their money where their effing mouths are and see which way the pendulum of public opinion swings.
Let's light the fuse...