8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (1 Feb - Review)

1. A Godly Main Event

Darby Allin Vs. Samoa Joe was a snuff film.

Darby entered the ring wearing a jacked studded with thumbtacks. In a tremendous spot, one brimming with that magic, only-in-AEW creativity, Joe neutralised it using the towel he always carries to the ring.

This excessively violent, terrifying match was an unreal, demented spectacle in and of itself and a promotional masterclass. This was Tony Khan operating in prime Paul Heyman "accentuate the positives, hide the negatives" form.

While Joe is far from some of the plodders that Heyman contrived to get over in the mid '90s, he's also far from the wrestler he used to be. Khan sensed this, and in programming him with the most demented bump machine in the game, he cast a resourceful magic spell. Contrast this ultra-dramatic insanity with Joe working Karrion Kross as if both men were wrestling underwater.

There is absolutely zero comparison. Khan at his best is a genius promoter and matchmaker.

The punishment Allin took here was gruesome even by his standards - without even taking into account those table bumps, Joe at various points threw Allin out of the ring like a fan had tossed in a beer can to his irritation - and it all worked to rehab Joe's monster aura to a level not witnessed since his mid-2000s heyday. At one point, Allin took a horrifying spill over the ring steps and somehow conspired to land on his feet after his momentum took him over the guardrail. It looked like a WWE2K glitch, like Joe was capable of inflicting physically impossible levels of punishment.

At the finish, after Allin spent too long exposing the wooden boards, Joe pulverised him with a muscle buster on the unyielding surface. In every definition of the word, that spot was f*cking sick.

An unpredictable, dramatic, barbaric, exhilarating slaughter, this was a video nasty. Ban this sick filth.

Or don't, because it was absolutely incredible.