6 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (17 May - Review)
4. Toni Storm & Ruby Soho Vs Dr Britt Baker DMD & Hikaru Shida
AEW
It was late on Wednesday that Tony Khan confirmed that AEW Women's Champion Jamie Hayter hadn't been cleared to wrestle on Dynamite, and the switching of the match from trios to tag should have resulted in this match falling short.
If anything, the opposite was true. The Outcasts/Homegrowns feud has worked, and this was some objective proof. The crowd came unglued for the entrances and stayed electric for a bout not short on slick sequences and stiff shots. Saraya's interference to set up the victory for the heels felt a bit played out, but this was presumably the destination anyway based on what we got later.
Toni Storm being confirmed as the Double Or Nothing challenger for Hayter presents the best possible singles combination out of all six, and while a title change feels unlikely, the lingering possibility of a Baker turn keeps the whole programme hot.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
