7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (Dec 18)

3. Jungle Boy Soars

This was televised pro wrestling perfection.

It was the sort of deal that only works on TV - Jungle Boy isn't ready for a major pay-per-view match - because it occupies Chris Jericho ahead of his match with Jon Moxley while at the same time further connecting Jungle Boy with the fanbase. It was anti-Vince Russo booking, and all the better for it; virtually everybody watching knew the pitch, and the result, but it was rendered unpredictable in the dramatic heat of the moment. Everybody saw the big picture - Jungle Boy wasn't losing - but the success was in its illustration.

The borrowed-signature-move trope is worn at this point, but was put to phenomenal use here; when Jungle Boy hit a more spectacular Lionsault on Jericho, it put over the idea that he is the better, younger athlete - one capable of beating Le Champion - and it made for a sensational near-fall. So too did the callbacks to last week's superb building angle. The room to manoeuvre informed the drama: would Jungle Boy defeat Jericho in an instant, or would he have to survive? - and Jericho answered it with an excellent, graduating finish in which he cinched in the Liontamer to increasingly disgusting angles as the seconds wound down.

Exactly how it should have played out, but not how you saw it playing out.