7 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (19 Jan)

4. Pockets Full

There was some roughness to Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander vs. Adam Cole and Britt Baker, which suffered from a couple of sloppy moments but not to the extent that they spoiled the match.

It's also very, very hard to get a rhythm going in these matches. When the rules dictate the men must fight the men and the women must fight the women, building to hot tags and working prolonged heat segments becomes cumbersome as both parties have to tag out at the same time. Such matches don't lend themselves to traditional tag structures.

This isn't a call for true intergender matches in AEW, by the way. That's a different debate entirely.

Nonetheless, this was a lot of fun. The moments where the men and women did interact were built too well and came off as the most enjoyable parts of the bout. Adam Cole throwing himself atop Baker, as if to say "ha, you can't get her now!" while Statlander ascended on the top rope, only for Kris to say "f*ck it" and hit the Area 451 anyway, was a hoot. Cole teasing a Panama Sunrise on Statlander only for Britt to swoop in and hit a Destroyer of her own was equally pleasing.

And the finish, which saw Cassidy accidentally send Baker through a table after missing an Orange Punch aimed at Cole, was spot on. Adam took advantage there, then cut a p*ssed off backstage promo to set up the Lights Out match for next week.