AEW Five Fingers of Death: Week of 4/18-4/25

AEW Dynamite 4/20

CM Punk vs. Dustin Rhodes

MD: Hey, it's two of our guys wrestling each other. Phil, unsurprisingly, covered this over at the Ringer, but here's my take. I love how organic this felt. Some of that is Punk adapting, both in the obvious ways, like when the bow and arrow didn't work, but also how he responded to the crowd. The match had spots but it wasn't about them. Punk knew that the crowd was going to get behind Dustin when he was in holds, but he couldn't know what the split would be or how best to capitalize on it before the fact. It gave a pretty good preview overall to what Punk vs. Page might look like and how Punk might adapt with the crowd.

The other half of it was how both Dustin and Punk responded to the moment. They sold everything, both physical and emotional. At one point a CM Punk chant broke out, even when he was on top, and he gave Dustin a sly grin. Likewise, when he taunted Dustin later with the Goldust bit, the crowd turned on him and he again reacted accordingly. The turning point of the match was after Dustin went flying through the ropes and hurt his knee. There was a chance Punk wasn't going to capitalize on it, but Dustin kicked up at him and it visibly pissed Punk (the character) off and he started on it. Later on Dustin had control and hit the ten punches in the corner only to sell the leg huge as he landed back on it again. Everything had weight and consequence, not just the spots but every incidental movement, every interaction between the two wrestlers, every reaction from the crowd. The wrestlers cared about everything and then the wrestlers care the fans care and when the fans care you can get real emotion and something like the hug and the handshake at the end resonates and stays with you. That's what the masters do, they take something fabricated and artificial and they give it substance and make it real. It may not be spectacular or conventionally breathtaking in a 2022 sense, but it still can manage to take your breath away in how it engages your heart and mind and gut.

Blackpool Combat Club vs. Dante Martin/Lee Moriarty/Brock Anderson

MD: This had a great beginning and a great finishing moment and some good ring time for Brock Anderson (past maybe landing on his head with Moxley's Half and Half) in the middle. Yuta's turned a corner in his ring-work which is exactly what needed to happen. One of the first things he did in this one was to pull Martin back to his corner by the ear. The early Martin vs Danielson stuff was really good too. I know we're not getting those long single epics from Danielson right now but there's still a lot of value in seeing him with little exchanges like that in tags. Everything built to Moriarty coming in to get the hometown pop and he made the most of it. Danielson turning the Border City Stretch into a capture suplex was fairly magical too. Things felt a little bit out of control and unhinged towards the end until the Blackpool Combat Club got control with the stomps and hammer and anvil elbows and Dante went way up for the Paradigm Shift. Overall, this was a functional piece of business with a couple of unique, fun exchanges that furthered along Yuta's development and everyone else some ringtime or shine.

Darby Allin vs. Andrade el Idolo

MD: A lot of the spectacle of this one was in the first half leading to the Sting dive. The back half had a little too much set up or getting things into position, but the payoffs were all good so it only matters so much. Because it was structured to have all of the nonsense up front and end with Andrade vs. Darby, I could have used another minute or two in that section, maybe a little more back and forth, even if a totally believable aspect of Darby's MO is to survive everything and win with a big one-two shot where he sacrifices his own body, as happened here. If this is the feud blowoff, it feels a little past due, but they have a lot of masters to serve. I'm curious where both wrestlers go next.

AEW Rampage 4/22

Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia

MD: Apparently about half of this was cut. I rewatched it with that in mind and the biggest takeaway was that the gaps weren't too easy to pick up on, except for that the damage done to Garcia was not equal to what we actually got to see. Kingston's so good at sneaking shots in from every angle when he's working from underneath but still, Garcia's chest would just be lit up or his lip would be opened and you weren't quite sure when that happened. So this explained that. There were a few things going on here, the hierarchical beating and finishing stretch where Garcia kicked out of the exploder and it took both the Saito Suplex and the backfist to put him down; the great equalizer in Kingston taking his stomach/chest/ribs out on the stairs and Garcia using that in his offensive focus and the cut offs. I liked the Big Josh log roll in the corner but it really hammered home how while Yuta is changing up his act, Sports Entertainment Garcia is just Garcia with a new hat. He really needs to work in Road Dogg's shaky legs knee drop or the Worm or a bunch of catchphrases or something. It's not enough to just troll people with the gimmick. He needs to figure out what being a sports entertainer actually means in ring and then work that into his matches. Otherwise, what we actually did get of this was unsurprisingly very good, clipped and all.