7 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite: Big Business (Results & Review)

1. That Didn't Feel Like A World Title Match

Sadly, Samoa Joe Vs. Wardlow was a nothing match with an anticlimactic finish. It wasn't actively bad. In fact, there was a certain intelligence to it. Wardlow doing a fake-out aerial to trick Joe into the nope spot was a creative sequence. It just never came together as an absorbing, big-feeling super heavyweight prize fight. There was no escalation of drama nor violence. Every time something cool happened, and momentarily jolted the crowd, Joe and Wardlow seemed to sell for an age. Since few are as invested as they were in Wardlow in 2022, and Joe feels increasingly like the dreaded "safe pair of hands", this all dragged.

Nobody was begging them to rise to their feet and continue the war - especially since the war felt nothing like, for example, the defiant urgency of Batista Vs. Undertaker. That was a hoss fight. This was a mediocre match made all the more glaring in its mundanity in the shadow of AEW's new super-roster. Quite good was never good enough in AEW. It is unacceptable now.

This was a poor decision by Tony Khan, which is strange. He's doing a magnificent job elsewhere. Wardlow and Joe simply have zero chemistry. Their TNT title programme was bang average as well. Joe won out of nowhere and very decisively with the Coquina clutch.

What next for Wardlow?

Wrestling is a harsh business. Not everybody can make it, and not for the first time, Wardlow didn't tear the roof off the arena when positioned in a key slot. He doesn't have the main event aura, credentials, or craftsmanship. The AEW x NJPW partnership is woefully lopsided. Could Wardlow do the G1? Are there enough great wrestlers in New Japan these days for that to be a true test of his mettle?

Or could he succeed in a company - WWE - that isn't quite as obsessed with match quality?