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

3. A Deliberately AND Accidentally Good Match

Mark Briscoe and Rush were well on their way to putting on a fabulous match before they had a very different but no less engrossing match by accident.

Unless he was selling, and strap him up as the top babyface if he was, Rush suffered some sort of injury to his leg early in a match that, prior to the defining moment, was an awesome hard-hitting sprint premised on the simple, glorious idea that the winner would be the man who beat the other to a pulp as quickly as possible. An injury is always unfortunate, but it was particularly unfortunate here. It's very rare that a back-and-forth US TV match is worked so well that you can buy it ending within five minutes.

The injury slowed everything down, but Briscoe, who you could call a master with no hyperbole whatsoever, sold so well that it never really felt like he was waiting around for Rush to flood himself with adrenaline. Briscoe also took a demented header to the floor from an apron suplex, which helped the match retain its realistic feel. In an awesome moment, Rush, injury and all, hit his finish so well that it turned Bryan Danielson into an animal on commentary.

That display of guts will ironically only help Rush, whom fans are already embracing as a cool, super credible human shotgun.

Briscoe lost, which is a shame and, potentially, a strategic error. There are few better babyfaces in all of wrestling and he's a quarter hour hitter, too. Here's hoping he gets a big, shocking win late to set up a PPV rematch.