9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite (Sep 16)
Downs...
1. Start Angry, End Wacky
Best Friends vs. Santana and Oritz was a brilliant display of professional wrestling violence that felt more Blood and Guts than anything AEW has done since Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley - until it wasn't.
More on the match later, but a jarring tonal shift took place towards the end, transforming a vicious, brutal battle into funny ha-ha's.
Orange Cassidy popped out of a car boot to blast Santana and Ortiz, facilitating his friends' victory. He spent the match's entire length waiting for this spot while Trent and Chuck Taylor were getting battered. This logic leap, plus the bout devolving to comedy, made the last few minutes hard to swallow, with Sue showing up to whisk the trio off after the fall. Appropriate to the storyline? Absolutely, but the clash didn't need to get wacky.
Santana and Ortiz's situation is troubling, too. The tandem has suffered from being presented in a comedic light for much of their AEW run (Chris Jericho's Jon Moxley feud aside), yet they fought like nasty, violent brutes here, coming off more dangerous than at any other point in their AEW run.
And then they lost to a comedy spot.
Anyone can be reheated in this promotion, but this felt needless.