8 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming (15 Dec)
1. The Best Match In Dynamite History
'Hangman' Adam Page and Bryan Danielson went 60 minutes in Winter Is Coming's opener, wrestling an exquisite time-limit draw that dominated more than half of the night.
AEW's belief that great matches draw viewers for them is backed up by the data. Still, 60 minutes is a demanding runtime, regardless of quality, so it'll be interesting to see how the viewership held up across these four-and-a-bit quarters. If it popped, hats off to Tony Khan.
And it probably will.
Page wrestled the best match of his career, entering an excellent performance opposite the greatest wrestler working today, doing so with fire, endeavour, and outstanding selling. Moreover, this was the making of him as a World Champion. In a match that told the gradual, slow-burning story of him learning, growing, and strengthening opposite an opponent driven by a near-sociopathic urge to prove himself the best in the world, Page didn't miss a beat.
Danielson spent the opening stages trying to worm his way inside Page's head. He would break away from exchanges smiling. Then, he'd slip through the ropes and smile some more. When he had time, he'd stretch his arms to his sides and bask in his greatness, or stand in the corner and perform jumping jacks, often with his back turned. This sustained him for a long time. Throughout the first act, Page was outclassed. Danielson was simply too much for him. While Bryan's control wasn't absolute, Hangman's comebacks were fleeting and pithy, with his opponent able to regain control relatively easy.
But slowly, surely, the ease with which Danielson marshalled the ring subsided. Page grew in character as the second act progressed. His perseverance forced Bryan to attack not one, but multiple body parts, switching focus from the knee, to the midsection, to the shoulder. Against Page, his usual strategy of honing in and obliterating a single limb wasn't working. The World Champion made him reconsider his usual ironcald gameplan.
Later, with Page growing in fire and spirit, Danielson's glee fell to pieces. He was visibly shaken towards the end, flustered as his grasp on the bout started weakening, which played into Hangman's hands. Busted open, limping, and stretched to hell, Page survived a DDT to exposed concrete, landed on his feet from an avalanche backdrop, gave Danielson a taste of his own medicine by apeing his signature stomps, survived the Lebell Lock, and put the challenger down with a standing lariat.
The Buckshot followed. Danielson was down. Defeated. Done.
But saved by the expiring time limit.
'Hangman' Adam Page matched the best wrestler in the world. He didn't win, but he didn't need to in the end, such was the story. This was a full hour of the AEW World Champion shedding whatever doubts still lingered in his own mind, at least when he steps between the ropes, proving himself worthy of standing across the ring from anyone AEW could ever throw at him.
It was the making of him as a wrestler, a World Champion, and, indeed, a man.
And it was one of the best matches in AEW history.