AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/21 - 11/27

AEW Rampage 11/25

Darby Allin vs Anthony Henry

MD: I'm sort of curious what the mindset behind this one was. They knew that there'd be less eyes on the Rampage show but maybe some different ones. There was no real need to heat Darby up with a lengthy win since he just came off the win on the PPV. Maybe they wanted him to go even further than that based off of eating a fall to Lethal just a couple of weeks ago? You almost figure Lethal/Jarrett (or Lethal/Satnam) vs the Workhorsemen would have been more productive considering they'll be targeting the Acclaimed for a match/program soon? I can't imagine this is leading to a Winter is Coming Sting/Darby vs the Workhorsemen match, but I'd love to see it certainly. Maybe they just knew that if left to my own devices, I'd write about Willow vs Shafir and Tay vs Skye from Dark?

This got a decent amount of time and they worked hard. The premise was that the two of them knew each other extremely well so it was counter-laden. Almost nothing in the match happened without at least one little tweak or twist or turn, even when it would have been perfectly fine for something to just happen. There was a moment where Henry hit a sweep on the apron, following up on previous offense; they just had to put in a Darby clothesline attempt to set it up. The match probably didn't need that. When it hit just right, like the Coffin Splash counter where Henry just helped Darby along right into a German Suplex, it was excellent. Other times, like the three reversals to set up that spot, it was all a bit much. Towards the end, the stuff with Drake really stood out while the Superplex into a suplex attempt was, at least, countered, but to even attempt it left a bad taste. All that said, this ended with Darby drawing from the fans and Sting hyping up the crowd, and that sort of electricity firing him up to push past things. That's the sort of connection he needs to really hit the top of the card and it's exactly what they should be doing with him now. If this match was yet another means to that end, more power to it.