8 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite: Fight For The Fallen (28 July)

2. Jim Ross, Unfortunately

A reminder that Jim Ross is among the most iconic (and best, being honest) professional wrestling announcers of all time and deserves great respect for all he has accomplished in the business. His résumé and body of work speak for themselves. His peak period is the benchmark.

But Ross was at his worst during last night's 10-man elimination tag.

Barely able to contain his transparent disdain for the style of wrestling unfolding before him, J.R. highlighted flaws instead of hiding them, which is supposed to be the job. Audibly complaining whenever a wrestler broke a pinfall, the officiating wasn't up to his standards, or the match became a big ol' brawl, he was a grumpy, disruptive presence who detracted from the match when he is there to enhance it.

If this was the first time he had entered such a performance, it would be more forgivable. But it wasn't. Ross' AEW copybook is unfortunately blotted by several nights like this.

AEW's house style demands fast-paced, fluid action, with multiple parties flooding tag matches. This isn't the traditional United States ruleset but one that incorporates lucha influences as well. People break up pins. It happens - it's an accepted part of AEW psychology.

Tony Khan isn't in the business of curbing excitement, as he explained to Bully Ray earlier this month:-

"And so, right, and so since I don't do a lot of ref bumps when they're double teams and when things turn into like Lucha matches a little bit, which I do a lot of trios matches and tags with luchadores so that there is going to be Lucha aspects of this stuff. You know, it's going to happen because I'm not going to just knock the referee over out of nowhere so that I can do some fun Lucha spots, so I don't really see it as a problem, and I know I haven't noticed that or thought it was an issue."

A disappointing performance Dynamite ultimately could have done without.