The War Report - February 10 2021: NXT Falls Flat As AEW Dynamite Steps Up

The Whole Damn Show

For a go-home show, this week’s NXT fell a little flat.

That there were two men’s Dusty Cup semi-finals on this and only one women’s gave the show a strange feeling - the men’s matches should have been staggered too - while the lack of any real meat for the World Title matches was a massive mis-step. And let’s be honest, the little tussle between the Women’s Title competitors and the spot-lit face-off between Pete and Finn were both a bit rubbish. Can see what they were trying to do, but no.

Like I said, NXT’s match quality was perfectly fine, and the main event especially was very good. In fact, a Grizzled Young Veterans vs Mouldy Old Bastards feud would be great, and really it would have made for a great Dusty Cup final.

The Cameron Grimes section was a waste of time really, but I await to see where it goes. Will he be the new Ted DiBiase, or was this just a throw away segment based on the recent Wall Street madness?

AEW: Dynamite was on another level this week though. After the mixed bag that was last week (that wedding segment - woof) this week’s Dynamite was a concise affair packed to the gills with meaningful development.

While the PAC squash match was unnecessary it’s always nice to see the miserable Geordie sod batter people, and Lee Johnson and Cody’s win - while predictable - served as a nice platform to get Johnson’s career properly kickstarted before inevitably dropping back down to Dark for a while.

The Sammy/Inner Circle split was handled well, just a shame there wasn’t a proper crowd for it. And, again yes, that main event was must see. Easily one of the best Dynamite matches I can recall.

As always, the fact there was just the one women’s division segment was a bit poor, and I hope there’ll be more of the Women’s Title Eliminator Tournament on Dynamite in the weeks going forward. Don’t relegate it to Dark or a random Twitter video, I beg you.

Winner: AEW