9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (31 Aug)

Downs...

1. An Ill-Fitting Return

W. Morrissey is deserving of the nice things that have happened to him over the past year or so. The former Big Cass endured some rough personal times before showing up in IMPACT Wrestling in 2021, enjoying a healthy monster run in the Anthem-helmed promotion before dipping out this June. Now, three months after guest-starring opposite Wardlow prior to Double Or Nothing, he is back in AEW, having flattened the Wingmen last night.

It was an angle, unfortunately, that fell flat. The Wingmen are effective jobbers but not over to the extent that live crowds are going to beg for somebody to come out and kick their asses when they try to hijack the show, which was the goal here. Thus, Morrissey emerged to what sounded like a flat reaction, though his run of Chokeslams and Big Boots on Cezar Bononi, Peter Avalon, JD Drake, and Ryan Nemeth at least looked good.

Stokely Hathaway continued building his group of wrestlers as part of this, handing Morrissey a business card after observing the destruction. On their way out, Morrissey and Stoke refused to answer Tony Schiavone, who asked what was going on.

This, too, does little to inspire investment. Stokely has thus far focused on male wrestlers who aren't over with live crowds. While this can absolutely change in time, it makes for an uninspired start to AEW life for Morrissey.