Christian Cage remains one of the best heels in the business

The way the Detroit crowd booed and jeered Christian Cage during the May 10 episode of Dynamite, you’d have thought the multiple time World Heavyweight champion (suck it, Arn) was talking about their dead dad...

Some of the heat Christian helped generate in this and other AEW promos since his heel turn last year are the result of low hanging fruit like going after Jungle Boy Jack Perry and Wardlow’s families. And the fans in Motor City deserve a ton of credit for bringing energy like they gave Christian to the entire show.

But a lot of this is just a master working his craft, using techniques he’s perfected over his nearly three decades in the business. He’s almost certainly doing little things I don’t even pick up on, but an obvious one is how he knows when to pause to let the crowd react and when to plow through like he did during the looong “Edge is better” chant.

As for his material, while the “dead dad” thing is almost as good for the memes as Christian’s love of a form-fitting turtleneck is, it’s also an example of how he insults his babyface opponents in ways that don’t denigrate their talent or abilities. For an even better example of how Cage makes us hate him AND respect his opponents, check out the in-character work he did during Perry’s Four Pillars video package for the World title match at Double or Nothing:

If you only think of him as a kazoo-playing goof because you missed his TNA run, or the World Heavyweight title feud with Randy Orton after Edge’s retirement, you may be caught off guard by the reactions Christian’s getting. If you’ve followed those Instant Classic and “One. More. Match.” days, this is just a refresher course.

Either way, Captain Charisma’s still got it.

Let us know what you think. While you’re on your way down to the comments section to do so, check out the highlights from the May 10 edition Dynamite below. We’ve put all the YouTube videos AEW has released as of this morning in a playlist, and since they don’t release everything that way at the same time, we’ve got Twitter clips of the other big moments and matches below that.

• Claudio Castagnoli & Rey Fenix pushed the limits in this Double Jeopardy match
• Orange Cassidy & Daniel Garcia collide for the AEW International title
• NO HOLDS BARRED match was pure chaos between Anna Jay & Julia Hart
• Best Friends & Bandido enters House of Black looking for AEW trios gold
• It was a shocking conclusion in the steel cage match between Omega & Moxley

For complete results and the live blog for Dynamite click here. To read a complete recap & review of all the night’s events click here.