8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (26 Jan)
Rhodes & Guevara climb ladders, Cole & Cassidy put the lights out, MJF and Punk bring the heat.
Bookended by two big gimmick matches, last night's Beach Break special hit Cleveland, Ohio with a loaded card following a well-received Dynamite the previous week - on which AEW successfully righted a handful of recent wrongs.
Cody Rhodes and Sammy Guevara contested AEW's two TNT Championship belts in a unification ladder match at the top of the show. Later in the night, the lights went out for Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy, which has been brewing for months, with the duo and their respective crews throwing hands in various forms across multiple matches and angles.
Elsewhere were advertised appearances from Britt Baker and CM Punk, whose feud with MJF remains the biggest and best thing on the show. It's peaking at the right time, too. With AEW hitting Chicago next week, making it feel like the most important storyline in AEW is the right move. Nothing is getting a bigger reaction than Phil Brooks in his hometown.
Dynamite delivered a crowd-popping debut, a frenetic trios brawl between The Inner Circle and the 2point0/Daniel Garcia group, a dominant squash for hometown boy Wardlow, and more. Another good show, albeit with concerns.
Let's light the fuse...