6 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dark (Nov 17)

Downs...

5. 'Waiting Room' Doesn't Land

Britt Baker's first Waiting Room segment didn't hit the mark, but consider this the gentlest of Downs for the reasons mentioned in the introduction. Dark is the perfect place to trial things like this. It's the best platform for untried projects as it allows AEW to consider what did and didn't work, tweak the nuts and bolts, and come back with something stronger, without having to go through this process on TNT.

The Waiting Room shouldn't make it to Dynamite until it has been tightened up - and that's okay. That's how this system is supposed to work.

Baker's performance was on point and she had a particularly sharp barb for Eddie Kingston and his lovely, lovely eyebrows. The window dressing and runtime were the issues. The Waiting Room dragged itself through a say-nothing Hybrid 2 interview with its studio audience, canned crowd reactions, and a set that at least fit the segment's name.

There's a lot to work on here, so let's hope they nail it. As the women's division's strongest personality, Baker is the ideal person to anchor such a segment.