To pepper this negative with a positive, AEW at least finally got to the point when it came to Jurassic Express and The Lucha Bros following a Christian Cage-led miscommunication between the two sides in a slightly laboured opener.
A post-match interview confirmed the obvious contest for next week's TBS debut, with that match surely existing as some sort of lightning rod for the gently simmering struggle between A Boy & His Dinosaur & An Old Veteran Being A Bit Of A Sh*thouse.
All of this is to say that a clunky ten man tag with the Hardy Family Office and FTR was a classic case of AEW overthinking simple. Rey Fenix had his moment of magic and The Big Rig in Daily's Place at this time of year will forever carry poignancy, but this otherwise-laboured outing kicked the show off on an atypically humdrum note.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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
