8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (26 Jan)

6. Hirsch & Velvet Do Well With Cold Crowd

Leyla Hirsch and Red Velvet deserve immense credit for what they crafted in front of a dead crowd last night.

Cleveland went cold as soon as they hit the ring, then barely raised their temperature before the final bell. This, ultimately, is the promotion's fault. Given little reason to care about the grudge match heading into it, the audience members were reacting to what they've been fed. A handful of cagey interactions based on a couple of miscommunication spots in a hastily-assembled trio with Kris Statlander wasn't enough, objectively.

But good grief, did they work hard.

Velvet and Hirsch threw themselves into this match. With Velvet charging down to the ring as soon as her music hit and Hirsch increasingly composed in her technical dominance, the match felt like one between two people who don't care much for each other at all. Leyla snatched limbs out of nowhere, heaping punishment on Red's leg, and Velvet sold it well. Hobbling around the ring clearly hindered her fiery comebacks. In kayfabe, this put her in a terrible situation, which Hirsch capitalised on towards the end, countering a kick, grabbing a handful of tights, and getting the three.

The earlier limb work enhanced the post-match angle, as Hirsch cruelly put Velvet in the Legit Lock before Statlander made the save. A feud-settler between the division's two most improved wrestlers of 2021 sounds great.