7 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (2 Mar)
Tony Khan buys ROH, MJF shows his fangs, CM Punk gets bloodied, Daniels and Darius return.
All Elite Wrestling returned to its spiritual Daily's Place home last night, delivering two hours of programming that succeeded in the intended goal of marketing this Sunday's Revolution pay-per-view.
It's rare for Tony Khan to overload these shows. Perhaps in an attempt at preserving the greatest peaks for the PPV, AEW's go-homes are typically more measured than bombastic, for better or worse. Here, this wasn't the case. Between Khan's "huge announcement", a typically phenomenal segment between CM Punk and MJF, plus the plethora of interesting-looking matches, this was a strong, strong show.
The relatively low attendance may have had something to do with it, but the crowd was Dynamite's biggest blight. Though lively at points, the muted reception much of this show received dragged it down a notch. Perhaps this was a production issue rather than one of passion, as it may have been loud in the building, but it came through on television.
Nonetheless, the endeavour was there. Dynamite felt big, newsworthy, and important for reasons beyond Khan's announcement, though we'll cover that in due course. AEW likely scored themselves a few thousand extra pay-per-view buys in Jacksonville.
Let's light the fuse...