6 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (15 Mar - Review)

Downs...

3. QTV: Half-Decent Idea, Wrong Players

QT Marshall QTV
AEW

QTV wasn't...utterly terrible in and of itself.

The reveal - that last week's car break-in angle was a work all along - was well thought-out. AEW deserve credit for booking a clever multi-platform angle that wrong-footed the babyface (who wasn't as a result a chump) and audience alike. 'QTV' and its TMZ riff might have worked out in a low-stakes way if, for example, they had targeted Orange Cassidy and QT Marshall was in cahoots with a Tony Nese type - a smarmy, good working heel who needs something else to enhance his presentation on television. They have located a fantastically snooty blonde antipodean for the...news crew?...and QT was scathing in his put-downs of Wardlow. He does have a punchable face, but you only want to see that face punched in prelim comedy matches.

The odd half-decent line reading aside, this positively reeked of chronic midcard fare. Powerhouse Hobbs feels simultaneously like he's above it and doesn't belong to it. His life story, told well through the Book Of vignettes, was too admirable. The idea of Hobbs, a colossus, crafting zany schemes with QT Marshall is irreconcilable. It is impossible to believe in.

It's hard to receive him as a heel at all, and now he's playing the wrong sort of heel.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!