8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (6 September - Review)

2. A Very Dramatic Main Event

While far from one of the best in Dynamite history, Darby Allin Vs. Nick Wayne was a very accomplished, exciting and dramatic main event. Closing an episode premised on this exact theme, it was a very promising look into their series.

After a lung-bursting early exchange, the tenor of the match changed when Darby Allin took an absolutely terrifying header into the barricade. As is always the case with Darby, it wasn't for nothing. His excellent selling informed the story of the match, as fans, who sadly weren't that loud, slowly bought into the idea that a conflicted Nick Wayne might pull off the shocking upset.

Allin himself slowly fought back into it while not once neglecting the damage he had suffered. This did descend into corny melodrama - Allin refusing to hit the Coffin Drop, grabbing a mic and imploring Wayne to hit him like he meant it - but one over-used trope was deployed to excellent effect.

The finisher theft trope is sometimes done for the sake of it, but Wayne borrowing the Last Supper was inspired. Of course he knows that hold: Allin is his mentor and hero.

Allin won, just, with a very, deliberately cruel submission compounded by sick kicks to the scalp. The finish was great: Wayne has experienced nothing but cruelty in AEW thus far, so is Darby any different to anybody else in the badlands of AEW?

A very thoughtful means of twisting this friendship into a grudge rivalry.