9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming (14 Dec - Review)
Downs…
1. The Neverending Story...And The Dodgy New One
AEW
An otherwise hugely significant Chris Jericho promo - 'The Ocho' foreshadowed a major moment later on in the episode and set up his next programme with Ricky Starks by name-checking him as a "flash in the pan" during his bit - offered a continuation of one story that has to die and the commencement of one that shouldn't have ever been given life.
Jon Moxley Vs Sammy Guevara for Friday's Rampage is a bad version of a good thing. The two men are stars, AEW originals and wrestlers that have resonated strongly in main events for the company in the past. Matchmaking like this on a weekly basis will go a long way to addressing the malaise around the Friday show, but this specific example comes as just about every single hardcore fan of the company is sick to death of the Jericho Appreciation Society Vs The Blackpool Combat Club.
Ironically, the most interesting element was dropped cold halfway through, but it seems as though the booking has asked everybody to forget that. Using his ROH Pure Title loss as rationale, Jericho's latest strange treatment of Daniel Garcia was to have him demeaningly "shadow" Guevara.
Jericho set a fascinating new arc up for himself on this show - fancy that! - but his stable felt like it needed a strategic rethink after Final Battle. It felt deflating that this appeared not to be the case.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 65,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast.
He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live.
