8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (November 29 - Results & Review)

2. A Fitting Main Event

Swerve Strickland Vs. Jay White overcame a less than ideal dynamic to get really, really damn good by the finish.

Throughout, both wrestlers hit each other very hard with vicious chops, agonising suplexes on the thin edge of the barricade, neck-jamming DDTs. With no true babyface/heel dynamic, this was instead imagined as a shoot-out. As much impact was felt throughout, it was difficult to feel much emotion. Swerve was the default babyface but stayed true to his conniving, remorseless character.

As such, this didn't build nor flow elegantly into the finish. With nobody to get behind, really, sometimes the wrestling, gruesome as it was, was just happening in front of your eyes. Then, two of the best craftsmen in the game clicked into a higher gear.

With no traditional structure with which to draw fans in, Swerve and White relied on their immaculate execution. Every head drop looked near-fatal. White sells the frantic terror of being hit by moves in the spaces between better than the vast majority of his peers (and seniors), and Swerve's arsenal more than justified his flailing. The near-falls were scorching in a very good (if a touch weird) and unpredictable match.

While it did feel like 5 awesome minutes tacked onto the end of a curiosity - and shouldn't White have sold his arm a bit more? - those five minutes were awesome.