AEW's Five Fingers of Death Week of 11/1-11/7

Slow week this week, with only one match from our five fingers. We did get an electric face off between Eddie Kingston and CM Punk, one of the great bits of non-wrestling business in years. I love how both guys came in as babyfaces, and left as babyfaces but you totally bought the aggression and hate coming off of both. Hopefully we get a long feud.

Bryan Danielson vs. Anthony Bowens AEW Rampage 11/5

MD: This felt like the most WWE of Danielson's matches so far. It actually felt a little more like an AEW Punk match. You got the sense he wanted to give Bowens some shine and let him get his stuff in and control the tempo. It didn't hurt Danielson at all as he was going to win definitively and it probably did Bowens some good both for his craft and his standing. It was very different than the Solo match along those lines. Bowens and Caster tend to be very hit or miss for me but he hung well here, even if it was hanging with a Danielson that wasn't showing the same levels of insane aggression that he has been recently. The way Danielson blocked the suplex with a kick to set up the cross-armbreaker was really slick. Then, it took both Bowens catching the foot, hitting the electric chair, and then Caster getting the cheap clothesline (which didn't look so great) for Bowens to really take over, which protected both acts. Bowens is good at projecting confidence and acting like he wants to be there, which is appreciated, though I could do without the corner twist DDT thing. Danielson's comeback was decisive and matched the hierarchy. I've seen Garcia win on the indies this year via ref stoppage using the repeated stomps and that would have worked here as a finish for me if they wanted to use yet another finishing move. Instead they went with the Lebell Lock, which was fine. Ok match but it didn't have the extra oomph that we've gotten from AEW Danielson so far.

PAS: Bowens really feels like a performance center guy, which is why this felt like a WWE match. Still Danielson had a lot of great WWE TV matches. I actually liked the corner twist DDT, thought it looked cool and gave Bowens a bit of signature offense instead of just slotting him into the Danielson show, and the same applies to the electric chair on the ring apron. The LeBell lock was good, and Danielson does a nice job of being inevitable but sprinkling in some moments.