It’s both a compliment to the regular quality of AEW Dynamite and criticism of a rank Four Pillars promo train that this overlong mini-tournament announcement instantly became one of the worst opening segments in the show’s history.
If one can put aside the reliance on interruptions, race-to-the-bottom negging remarks and the impromptu main event established in contrived circumstances, the content and performance was unforgivably lame until MJF showed up to try and salvage it.Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin and Jack Perry came across as petty and unlikable tossers, which is less than ideal considering the babyface status of the latter two and the ‘Devil’ they wish to oppose.
This was shockingly poor in a very literal sense - everybody involved from the creative forces behind it to the performers themselves have proven themselves above this sort of thing countless times. How it conspired to reduce the status of every challenger made the segment a failure on an almost remarkable scale.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 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. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, 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
