All Elite Wrestling understandably doesn't want all of its existence to still be determined and defined by if something happened before or after CM Punk - not least because of more christ-like connotations the former AEW Champion certainly doesn't need - but until at least after this Saturday's Full Gear, that's what will happen.
He's an emblem of the type of chaos that has defined AEW's 2022, and Dynamite has been almost as illustrative of it on a weekly basis. The new signings don't stop, the Ring Of Honor overlap continues to jar, and the nagging sense a lot of your favourites are being underserved by booking failures lingers unglamorously underneath the hundred mile-an-hour wrestling show never taking its foot off the gas.
Yet, since All Out, the top programmes have been tight enough that we find ourselves approaching the weekend pay-per-view staring down some of the biggest and most intriguing matches of the year. Full Gear looks every bit the quarterly supercard it absolutely needed to be. But did another busy Dynamite fulfil its role as vital go-home show with similar aplomb?
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
