7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (22 Mar - Review)
3. Hook Vs Stokely Hathaway
AEW
The live crowd loved portions of this, but the live crowd deserve an up all of their own for being hot for the whole show. This match felt more like a beneficiary of the audience than something truly earning the praise.
It wasn't bad per se, but the build to this individual showdown and the never-ending Firm/Matt Hardy nonsense needed something extra special to elevate it beyond, well, Elevation fare. A few weapon spots (there was a lovely callback to one of his father's most famous ECW Tazplexes by Hook) and Big Stoke cracking jokes and trying to keep out of trouble was all just a little too lightweight for the end of this chapter.
If only it was the end of the entire story. Hardy convinced Ethan Page to be the next one to challenge Hook before Hathaway was even carted out.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
