7 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (2 Mar)

1. Beyond Redemption

Not content with delivering the best wrestling segment of 2022 so far last week, CM Punk and MJF had another stab at it in Daily's Place.

It began with Punk cutting an excellent promo mulling over morality, saying that for all the sympathy MJF conjured last week, he couldn't help but feel like he was being gaslit. He ran through some of the awful things Max has done since AEW's genesis then put himself on the same level, recalling some of his own terrible deeds. Punk, if nothing else, can empathise. He knows how it feels to be the bad guy.

But Punk's attempts at levelling with MJF by putting himself in his shoes, pondering if he was the Frankenstein responsible for creating the monster, ended in his bloody demise. A long embrace concluded with Max kicking Punk between the legs. Pulling off his button-up to reveal a shirt featuring that photograph below, MJF delivered the night's other big ROH call-back, cutting the perfect promo on the bloodied, claret-soaked veteran while Shawn Spears restrained him in the dog collar.

"You stupid, stupid old man, I'm a snake," MJF said, quoting his rival's defining Death Before Dishonor III promo from 17 years prior. "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist. And this Sunday, at Revolution, I'm gonna show you and all these mindless sheep that I am the devil himself."

Last week's segment accomplish two major goals, aside from building to Revolution:-

1. MJF as a more sympathetic villain, who had become a monster as a product of repugnant antisemitic bullying and associated trauma.

2. MJF as a psychotic, obsessed fan, who blamed his hero disappearing from public view for making him who he is.

Punk recognised both here - and MJF justified them. In bloodying his opponent in such a brutal, visceral way, he has proven himself irredeemable.

A five-star segment.

Again.