AEW Five Fingers of Death: Week of 8/8 - 8/14

AEW Dynamite 8/10

Darby Allin vs Brody King (Coffin Match)

MD: It's a little hard to figure out what to say about this one. We can only mention Darby flying in from off the side of the screen or the bumps he takes and the sympathy he garners and the resilience he believably channels so much or how much better it is that Brody King is wrestling like a monster instead of some sort of hybrid flyer. So, let's talk structure (sorry).

The match was split into basically four parts. As we know, AEW's long matches are broken up by commercial breaks and that will, someday, looking back at these years later, help to define the style. It's a duel-edged sword. Thankfully, later in the night, the live crowd had no idea that Mox was getting out of the break-long Walls right when things came back, so it was probably a very different experience and impact for the TV and the live audience. There's almost always heat in the break and comebacks are almost always timed for the return. In general, I think it does more harm than good as it forces almost every match, including spotfests, to have some heat and some structure to it instead of just endless barrages of moves. Slowing things down for a time to let things mean something and resonate is almost always a good thing. One big problem with this though is that they're forced to do things according to the set timing as opposed to reading the crowd. That gives us debacle moments like the Rayne vs Grey match the other week where Grey went into a chinlock a little too early and the crowd was more than done with it and getting hostile by the time the break ended. 

Anyway, what we had here was the quick opening, with Darby attacking with the nail-board, Brody shrugging him off, Darby fighting back, Brody putting him down. When they went to break, it was about Brody leaning on him (including the great press-slam over the barrier) and setting up the tables, which were as over as any of the wrestlers on the show. The return from the break was Brody wiping out through the tables. Then things went dark and we had all of the extracurriculars, building to the Sting chant and Sting moment, and then everyone clearing out so that they could go towards the finish with some big moves/spots and Brody's picture perfect crash into the coffin. 

And it worked for me. Darby's early attack bloodied up Brody. Ultimately though, after suffering through the break, Darby relied upon Brody making a mistake to get back in it. The heels took an unfair advantage. Brody took out both of them with the cannonball in the corner. Sting evened the odds. Things built to a satisfying finish where Darby got revenge for being choked out twice. Brody was well enough protected and likely overall elevated by the feud. Darby got to win in his signature gimmick match. It was violent and visceral and gritty and cinematic and over the top and memorable. Nothing wore out its welcome. It dealt with the commercial break. It handled the interference well. It brought things back to the core story. It had a hot crowd up and excited the whole time, including going nuts for the idea of tables in 2022. Sometimes, they really do just get it right.