The January 22 "AEW Dynamite" concluded with The Death Riders once again getting the better of Cope, while FTR and The Rock N' Roll Express were tied up and attacked backstage. It was a show closing angle thatWrestling Observer Newsletter author Dave Meltzer found a lot of holes in, with his biggest problem being AEW's continuity issues.
The main problem Meltzer has, apart from the fact that the beatdown of Cope seemed to last forever, was that the original premise for The Death Riders angle was to have the younger members of the roster stand up to Jon Moxley and his group, elevating them in the process. However, the likes of Mark Briscoe, The Dark Order, and Top Flight were nowhere to be seen, and even though they have all been proven too weak to fight Moxley's group, the fact they have been dropped in favor of FTR and Cope is something Meltzer is extremely puzzled by. Powerhouse Hobbs is also someone who has been involved with The Death Riders, but despite being fresh and popular after his match with Moxley, he has been moved over to feud with Chris Jericho and The Learning Tree.
As things stand, Moxley's main challengers heading into Grand Slam: Australia and Revolution are Cope and Jeff Jarrett, and while Meltzer can understand the Jarrett story, it doesn't look good for the company, as it implies they can't find the right balance between young and old stars, and that the company can't produces fresh new babyfaces. Meltzer closed by saying that all of the segments are perfectly fine in isolation, but when they are brought together it proves that there are serious continuity issues that need to be dealt with before things get worse.
