6 Ups & 6 Downs From AEW Dynamite (Dec 16)

2. Clusterf*cked

MJF Chris Jericho
AEW

It's so difficult to nail huge multi-man clashes like last night's pitting The Inner Circle (sans Wardlow) against the Varsity Blondes, Best Friends, and Top Flight. The sheer number of moving parts makes it difficult for any individual pieces to truly stand out and the action often becomes a cluttered mess, particularly when the obligatory mass brawl goes down, which happened early in this turn-of-the-hour battle.

The competitors get plus points for putting enough attention on Best Friends' underlying beef with Santana and Ortiz, as well as the up-and-coming Top Flight and their new heat with Chris Jericho and MJF. Still, long periods of this were overcrowded and low on heat. It wasn't wild enough to compensate and while it was full of nice touches, like Jake Hager paying "tribute" to Wardlow with an F10 and MJF insisting he scored the pin himself, the journey was less interesting than the destination.

"Jericho had to resort to using the baseball bat on Griff Garrison!" shouldn't really be necessary either.

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Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.