AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming - Every Match Ranked Worst To Best

2. Darby Allin & Cody Rhodes Vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs

Darby Allin Ricky Starks AEW Dynamite Winter is Coming
AEW

The biggest takeaway from this part of this week's Dynamite is obviously the shocking debut of Sting. Before the Stinger made his presence known, though, fans were treated to a cracking tag bout as TNT Champion Darby Allin teamed with former champ Cody Rhodes to take on two of Taz's boys.

From the get-go, this bout started off hot, with the heel duo of the ever-charismatic Ricky Starks and barrel-chested Powerhouse Hobbs attacking their opponents before the babyfaces cleared the ring. It was an opening minute that instantly grabbed your attention, and the match barely relented in pace during its 11 minutes.

Starks taking the pinfall here may have been a little surprising, but then the freshly-turned Hobbs taking the fall would have taken the wind out of Powerhouse's sails before he's really got going as a villain. With AEW having done so much to establish the TNT Championship as such a big deal, though, Starks being beat by the TNT Champ doesn't harm him all that much - and Absolute and Powerhouse were able to get their heat back as Brian Cage joined them in laying down a post-match beatdown on Allin, Cody, Dustin Rhodes and even Arn Anderson.

All four guys involved in the match were great in their roles here, with Darby doing fantastically as the babyface in peril as Cody desperately looked on from the apron. As for their opponents, Starks was yet again gold as the cocksure prick who loves to talk trash, while Hobbs is already growing into his new role as if it were a second skin.

If there's a slight gripe here, it's that the way Darby pinned Starks pulled Absolute's shoulders up off the mat during the three-count, which was an unfortunate blip on an otherwise stellar contest.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.