AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/27 - 4/2

ROH 3/30

Eddie Kingston vs Christopher Daniels

MD: There was a lot of reason to question just what the difference between AEW and ROH would be. There's overlaps on the roster. Most of the belts overlap to some degree, especially once AEW introduced trios titles. Calling out the Pure Title and a few different wrestlers didn't quite cut it. From the PPVs alone, you couldn't really tell. They were a bit more "dream match" focused, but it's not like AEW didn't main event Dynamite week before last with a "dream match." We're a month in now and the difference is pretty clear. ROH is for the 5%, those 15K people subscribed to Honor Club, the most focused of the focused, the list-makers and tape traders and match analyzers. It's Tony getting to talk to his own people without any of the constraints or the chains or the pressures of TV. It's him working out of those old battered notebooks in a controlled environment, to have fun, and to share with like minded people.

And it's pretty great. No commercial breaks. No start-of-show constraints. No time marks to hit. A goal, vague, off in the distance, with the next PPV, but very much wrestling for the sake of wrestling. Obviously Eddie Kingston and Christopher Daniels can work in that environment. As much as anything else, this match was there to show that Kingston could take what Daniels threw at him and outright outwrestle him; this presented him as a leveled up challenge to Claudio. I think the commercial breaks force heel control and the build and comeback narrative that comes with that to matter more on AEW TV; it forces things to be less 50-50, but that doesn't mean every match needs to be that way. That doesn't mean that every wrestler needs those sort of structural training wheels and constraints. These two could work in counters and transitions to make the momentum shifts measured and meaningful. In some ways, Kingston is a perfect opponent for Daniels to highlight his strengths and minimize his weaknesses. He hits harder and heavier than he did twenty years ago, age bringing him down to earth and letting him kick the dust up, but Eddie's going to lean into everything and encourage that all the more. So they went out there with no constraints but the goal they were trying to accomplish and went at it and it gave Eddie that extra little push and that extra bit of credibility leading into the PPV. If ROH only exists to give them the freedom to ply their trade and Tony the freedom to create exactly how he wants to create, it's still a pretty worthwhile endeavor if you ask me.

ROH Supercard of Honor 3/31

Claudio Castagnoli vs Eddie Kingston

MD: I'm writing this Monday morning before the Ringer post goes up but I'm certain I can't outwrite Phil on this one. A lot of this writes itself, really, with Eddie, whose best and biggest matches over the last few years have all been about proving himself either against someone who doubted him or against the weight of his own inspirations and history itself, being as Eddie as possible. He wore his pride on his sleeve, congealed it into toughness and intensity, with Claudio's own pride as an athlete and champion and pinnacle of excellence being the perfect contrast. You could write paragraphs about that and they'd be as primal and rousing as the match itself. 

So, let's talk about selling instead. You know who I'm a low vote on? Takeshita. I think he's got amazing physical skills and great charisma but pretty crummy instincts and takes shortcuts. Case in point, when Willie Mack finally hit the Stunner (that he had worked to hit throughout the match, as is the AEW/ROH style - see Eddie's tope suicida here) Takeshita popped up, hit a spot, fell down. I get the arguments about fighting spirit and delayed selling. I'm not so rigid and dogmatic that I don't think that's ever ok, but I do think that there's a cost every time something like that happens. Meaning in pro wrestling is entirely based on selling. Selling isn't just showing showing pain, it's showing consequence and turning physical impact into emotional impact. Wrestling is about creating an expectation in an audience over time and then subverting that expectation when it matters the absolute most. They absolutely nailed that with the one-count kickout of the Neutralizer. It might not be Claudio's primary finisher anymore now that he's been using the swing, that he's been getting wins with the European uppercut, that he's able to use the Ricola Bomb (and presumably the UFO) again, but it's something he gets wins off of, and Eddie kicking out at one sent a bolt of electricity through the crowd. Maybe that's the entire point that makes my misgivings meaningless that Takeshita's pop up after the Stunner didn't matter; the crowd went up with a gasp for Eddie anyway, but when you're creating an immersive experience, consistency over time matters. I guess what I'm saying is "save the most impactful bits of narrative stretching for the main event." It was still a great moment though and one that fit the characters and where they were in the match perfectly. 

Let's talk about the leg selling then. Early on, after losing a strike exchange and getting flustered and trying to bring a chair in, Eddie went low to the knee. Claudio powered through this, while selling the damage for the next few minutes and then they moved on from it for the most part. Every match is its own unique story and own unique bit of execution. There are times where that would actually bug me, not for its own sake, but for how it played out within the confines of the match. Sometimes limbwork is done to kill time. Here, it was utilized as an equalizer, a key. Eddie didn't want to win the match with a figure-four. He wanted to win it with the Stretch Plum. He had wanted to submit Jericho with the Stretch Plum and Claudio had stolen that from him. He wanted to knock Claudio out with the backfist. He wanted to drive his skull through the mat with the Northern Lights Driver. Where I have a problem is when the legwork is an end unto itself that is then ignored as they search for another end. Here it was a means, and the means was to open Claudio up to the things Eddie wanted to hit him with, to slow him down but just enough that Claudio couldn't power straight through Eddie's preferred attacks. It provided Eddie for opportunities to chip away at Claudio how he wanted and because of his overt decision not to stay on the leg, Claudio was able to shake that one set of pain off as he was rattled by shots to his head and body. The selling was consummate to the limited attack (and Claudio's own usage of his leg) and when it was time to move on from it, no one watching the match closely had reason to outright wonder why Claudio wasn't limping anymore. They were too busy watching Claudio fighting for his life to stay in the match and keep his title in the face of Eddie's broader assault instead.