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

1. Plunder Brawl Falls Short

Set up, logically, when Joey Janela staked a claim after being ruled out of a World Title Eliminator tournament clash with Kenny Omega, Dynamite's main event could have banged. The duo let rip with an awesome plunder brawl on an early episode of Dark, then followed up with another mini-ripper on the main show a few days later. That was plenty of evidence to suggest something wild, raucous, and fun would go down here, but alas: the clash was undone.

Hitting the ring with less than 10 minutes of the show left wasn't ideal, though the duo could have compensated with a sprint. That's kind of what this was. 'The Cleaner' enjoyed the bulk of the offense, beating Janela up for so long that this resembled a pseudo squash, only falling short during Joey's pre-match flurry and later, when Omega got too cocky for his own good. 'The Bad Boy' leg-dropping the champ through a table was his biggest highlight; seconds later, he was pinned following two V-Triggers and a One-Winged angle.

An okay in and of itself, but Christ, Don Callis was obnoxious here. Not oh-my-god-I-can't-wait-to-see-this-annoying-heel-get-punched-in-the-face obnoxious, either. This was change-the-channel obnoxious.

Armed with a microphone, the Impact EVP provided a running commentary on Omega's domination, with Kenny joining in himself midway through. This rendered parts of the bout unwatchable. In shooting too hard for annoying heel heat, they drew the wrong kind.