2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Kingston/Penta vs. Young Bucks

37. Eddie Kingston/Penta El Zero Miedo vs. The Young Bucks AEW Dynamite 6/30 

ER: This is the exact kind of match anyone who goes to Dynamite wants to see, a match AEW has been delivering pretty consistently since they began. Kingston and Penta weren't really a team I foresaw happening, but they've gotten pretty glued together. The Young Bucks have new facial hair and and dingle ball headbands and look like a couple chooglers who just added a sitar player to their band. Kingston and Penta have some real cool double teams, some good ways to combine their offense. Early on Penta stomps on Matt Jackson's taint from the top and Excalibur says he is "punishing the perineum". There's a couple beats of silence before Schiavone roars in with "Did you say punishing the perineum?" 

The Bucks work this as a cocky team who aren't thinking they will lose, which is a tough attitude to take opposite a guy like Kingston who will fight hard even when he knows he is going to lose. But, the Bucks do a double team fistdrop and that is a kind of cockiness I will always support. There are several great moments of Kingston going up against both Bucks where he decides to not treat their offense seriously, taking both of their little kicks as he stands with his back to them, eating more superkicks than he should late in the match, because Kingston doesn't always fight the smartest fight, and there are no better emotional fighters in wrestling. Kingston gets a nice superplex and makes a hot tag, and there's an awesome nearfall when Penta hits a corkscrew code red for a VERY late kickout from Matt. The crowd thought they saw the win and Jackson was hilarious with prayer hands and upturned eyes thanking the lord above for guiding the referee's hand a bit too slowly to the mat. The back stretch is loaded with bullshit but I thought it was all highly entertaining, a bunch of ECW run-in misdirection, Kingston showing he would have been the all time best Tommy Dreamer, Penta taking out a bunch of people with a tope con giro, a great Nick Jackson ball shot to King, and a sick 1-2 finish of a Penta stuff piledriver and King backfist. Helluva way to start an episode of TV. 

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, maximilist Young Bucks tags aren't my thing, but Eddie Kingston is great at working match styles I don't like and bringing me into them. I loved all of his hulking up, the semi-no sell of the superkick, only to get smashed with two more was great. He is a hell of a face in peril, and my favorite part of the match was Eddie working under and making the big tag. Penta isn't really one of my guys either, but he was fun in the hot tag role. Finish run of nonsense worked well (although I don't miss the Good Brothers at all) and led to a big moment of the Kingston and Penta team overcoming the odds and getting a big win. Really fun TV match. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON