AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/14 - 11/20 Part 1

AEW Dynamite 11/16

Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho/Sammy Guevara)

MD: Just a high quality, functional tag to start the show and set up the PPV 4-way. The ultimate goals were to make Claudio look strong coming in, make Jericho look vulnerable, and lean in hard on the preexisting vulnerability from the previous week with Danielson's eye. All three factors will likely come into play in the title match. They've mentioned the idea that Sammy might go into business for himself, but that wasn't really touched on in the text itself here. I mentioned last week that in some ways he's the perfect 2022 Bryan Danielson opponent, even if he's not the wrestler I'd like to see him up against the most. It's not far off to say that about Claudio too. The hangtime he was able to off of Claudio's power on a few spots (like the pop up uppercut) was just amazing. Outside of that one specific pairing, the other three have been married to one another off and on over a good chunk of this year. Again, it's maybe not what I'd want for Danielson, and even, at this point, not what I want for Jericho anymore (I was all for the idea of a JAS vs Neo-Pinnacle w/Joe feud back around the Canada shows), but familiarity, at the very least, can breed creativity. Three matches in, Danielson's able to twist and contort certain spots and a certain comfort level on things like dives. Sammy hit a spectacular one on Danielson to get the two of them out of the way for the Claudio/Jericho Giant Swing/Walls bit. Danielson hit a visceral tope on Sammy to get them out of the way for the finish. Likewise, that giant swing spot with Jericho holding the bat and Aubrey recoiling back into the corner so she didn't get clocked by it on the rotations was brilliant. So there's value in the continued pairings. So when I truly, deeply hope that with the ROH PPV up coming, if not this PPV ahead of us, we're at the end of this feud, it's not necessarily because the content is stale or no longer worth watching. I'm just ready to see these four wrestle other people.

AEW Rampage 11/18

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs. Jun Akiyama/Konosuke Takeshita

 

MD: Different people will give you different answers about this, but if you forced me to come up with a single, unified theory of pro wrestling, it would be this: Pro wrestling is about anticipation and payoff. Here the anticipation was for seeing Jun Akiyama and Eddie Kingston fight each other. And the payoff? Well, we only got a taste of it as it was, in the best and carniest pro wrestling fashion, building towards another show and another match and another moment. I have to admit that the anticipation was pretty glorious in and of itself. They did everything they could to keep Eddie and Akiyama out of the ring together, starting with Kingston vs. Takeshita, with heat on both Ortiz and then Takeshita so that partners could cycle in and out without the two facing. Ortiz knew the match wasn't about him but also that he'd have to carry a lot of it in order to prevent the teased pairing and he rose to the occasion, hitting hard, but taking all of Akiyama's stuff. Akiyama was sudden and decisive in his violence. For all of the anticipation in the match, when he struck, it was without flourish or hesitation. He'd reach for Ortiz and spike him with a pile driver with no pomp, just impact. Kingston let himself get distracted but then shut down every opening. His eyes wandered. His fists did not. All of my issues with Takeshita tend to be structural and almost all of them were alleviated by this being a tag match. 

The match built and built to the possibility of Kingston and Akiyama facing off. When they did it was to prevent the exploder, with Ortiz still the legal man and Eddie doing his best Taue impression to rush in and break up an opportunity and break down the match, the way so many All Japan tags broke down. The encounter disappointed only so much as it was a tease for something more. As a tease, it was everything you might want though: thrown blows, traded exploders, with Akiyama's snap quick, tight and snug. He didn't take shots as you so often see, but registered them and sold as he fired back, and if anyone watching this in the back learned anything from him here, I'd hope it was that. But in the end, the payoff was all just a tease after all, bringing us back to anticipation for what yet remained ahead. That's pro wrestling too.  It never ends and it always leaves us wanting more.