9 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming (14 Dec - Review)

Winter Comes, MJF Runs And ANDRETTI WINS! ANDRETTI WINS! ANDRETTI WINS!

Chris Jericho Action Andretti
AEW

Tony Khan took a big L after Saturday's Ring Of Honor Final Battle show.

The AEW president announced that the company wouldn't be getting a television deal for ROH, instead confirming what many have suspected for a while - the organisation will run a weekly television show on a rebooted Honor Club streaming service, with pay-per-views airing on a 90-day delay so not to cannibalise the buys on the night.

All speculative, but it's likely this wasn't the first choice for anybody involved. Khan's focus has been divided by his added workload since the March purchase, and while it's far too easy to simply blame AEW's 2022 creative decline on Ring Of Honor, the news that he'd be phasing the latter out of the former was pleasing to those that want a version of Dynamite in particular operating at a higher level. Especially considering how the quality of the shows have been consistently up as of late; MJF as World Champion has freshened up the top of the card, Hangman Page and Jon Moxley is an all-star clash Khan sometimes shies away from promoting, The Elite/Death Triangle series promises a weekly banger and last week's Acclaimed/FTR and Samoa Joe/Darby Allin encounters were proof that an over-abundance of titles doesn't entirely kill the prestige of them when booked well.

It's been the story of this year, in a sense - AEW builds momentum while ROH's involvement slightly tarnishes the vibe. With the latter finally out of the way, could the former find something resembling a former glory on what's now become an annual tradition?

Let's light the fuse...

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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.