9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash

3. The Women Rise Above

Nyla Rose Ruby Soho
AEW

Yes, Ruby Soho's tight jacket proved a bit embarrassing and distracting, but Nyla Rose used her excellent improv skills to laugh at her plight. After that wardrobe mishap, despite toiling for little reward, the women put something very intelligent together.

Soho measured Rose's threat and sought to gradually chip away at the wall in front of her. She performed slippery, acrobatic transitions purely to wrench her elbow, knowing that she was totally physically outmatched. Then, cycling through babyface qualities, she went ham on Nyla's collarbone with a rapid barrage of elbows.

Nyla was great value on the heat, as ever, by attempting to rip Ruby's face in half with a fishhook before Soho, drawing on pure guts, rained down headbutts. Nyla's strikes looked even more gruesome - how did people not react to this? - when she smashed a prone Soho with a storm of fists to the forehead.

In a creative comeback sequence that underscored her intelligence again, Soho countered a powerbomb attempt by feigning to flail and using the ropes as a slingshot to generate the momentum needed to execute a DDT.

At the finish, Soho, completing an elegant story after selling a shoulder injury informed by her real history, used Nyla's plight against her by dragging her from the top rope into the No Future.

This was great pro wrestling storytelling that despite not being blow-away great deserved a much louder reaction.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!