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

Ups...

6. A Good If Not Amazingly Effective Idea

Powerhouse Hobbs Vs. Chris Jericho was a bold match without being particularly compelling.

Chris Jericho is a lot of things. He's hardly shy about telling you about his various gifts. He's obviously very over in every building and a legend of the industry - but one thing that he isn't is an inordinately sympathetic babyface. People love Jericho, but he doesn't have that Mick Foley or Ricky Steamboat quality. He can't play the doomed, gutsy babyface all that well. People love him for his daft and brilliant mind, not his soul. This undermined the execution of the prolonged squash.

Nobody's heart really sank as Jericho took spinebuster after spinebuster. It didn't exactly work as an emotionally devastating story, and it probably would have scanned better had it been over within seconds, but conceptually, this was very strong - even if Jericho has taken so many losses that it didn't register as some earth-shaking result, either. Nonetheless, the time to take risks and to get guys over is now.

Jericho has his cynics, who interpret every last thing he does as some sort of shadowy play that only benefits himself in the end. He was pinned handily, and made to look like a total jobber. You can't not praise him for that.

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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!