6 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite Title Tuesday (Results & Review)

2. A Very Good If Predictable Match

Jay White is a tremendous professional wrestler.

His matches take on a gripping, realistic quality because he creates the illusion that he spends every waking hour strategising. He's such a cerebral, tactical performer, and while those are synonyms of tedious in wrestling circles - and White has his critics - he had the fans here. He had them wanting to believe that Hangman Page would overcome.

The skeleton of the story told was basic: Jay worked over Page's leg in order to neutralise his power advantage. White was so clever with it. He's taken the dragon screw from Hiroshi Tanahashi, but more impressively, he's taken his impeccable dramatic timing, too. Jay, the chessmaster, anticipated that Page would throw some up kicks in desperation and used this to trap him in an Indian death lock. White, and this was awesome, countered Page's lariat attempt with a seamless Flatliner. It looked incredible, like a video game dash mechanic. Only a blur effect was missing. Page sold the leg convincingly throughout and never lost the thread when on offence.

Great as this was in terms of pure working ability and sheer depth of thought, they have better in them. This was a match that functioned to build or enhance two other matches, and the events of the opener allowed a certain cynicism to creep in. If you were less generous than that, you might say that the events of the opener rendered this match a formality; the fans could sense a table being set in front of them.

The 2019 NXT-style booking was predictable and a bit cowardly. Across the two best matches on Title Tuesday, the better man was never really determined. This wasn't the all-or-nothing drama of AEW's original vision, sadly.

The All Out 2019 main event and its gravity feel some way off. White needed a bigger push, especially since Samoa Joe is still lurking. The timing of Joe's second match with MJF could really damage the Full Gear main event.