AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/19 - 6/25 Part 2

AEW Forbidden Door 6/25/23

Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada

MD: If you've been following the site for any length of time, you know that this isn't a dream match for us. But hey, it's been nice to have Final Countdown stuck in my head for half a week, right? That said, we certainly value Danielson. He's one of five, right? I've personally got nothing against Okada. Heck, if I was actually watching his "grumpy" phase, I might not mind him one bit, and in a world of wrestling that has a tendency to get smaller and smaller as time goes on, the ability to project one's self as a star is no small thing.

Still, this match was a bit snakebit, wasn't it? The crowd was still in shambles from the 40-minute epic that preceded it. Danielson got an injury with ten minutes to go. Some of the choices he made in dealing with that injury had a chilling effect upon the crowd. That said, I probably personally ended up liking what we did get here more than what we would have gotten if all went well. Moreover, I think the Danielson performance that was distilled through adversity was much unique and far more interesting than the channeled perfection we might have gotten otherwise. We're never going to judge "greatest wrestler ever" just from who can go hardest (hit hardest maybe, but not go hardest). You learn so much about a wrestler not when things go right in a perfectly planned match against an ideal opponent, but when things go askew and the wrestler has to adapt, or in moments where things are inherently less than perfect. That's when real wrestling genius shines through and in my mind, at least, that's what we got here.

Here's what made this match fascinating: upon first watch, there was every impression of Danielson selling the damage to the neck by favoring his arm, and committing so thoroughly to the act that he leaned instead on the Knee, that he channeled the Yes chants for the first time in AEW to fire up but only used one arm for them, that he powered through a submission using every limb but the one that was damaged. In this scenario, he was so vulnerable, so off center, that he feigned a seizure-ridden neck injury in order to draw Okada in (which didn't work by the way; Okada went right in for the kill after a few seconds of deliberation). That in and of itself would make the match mirrors within mirrors.

Except for it turned out to be mirrors within mirrors within mirrors, for Danielson's arm really was hurt. Whatever match they did or did not plan became something else in response. I read into it that Okada targeted the neck because Danielson's aggression got him up on points early, but would that have happened otherwise? Would there have been the Yes Chants? Would he have gone to the knee twice? Would he have worked the seizure spot? Would the struggle and uniqueness of the submissions at the end felt so offputting and gnarly and desperate? Probably not. Instead, it was a master whose body was failing him, who was in a match that should never have been possible, one that was denied to him the year prior, pasting together what was meant to be a dream match in front of a dream crowd using old tricks and new and making people feel. The crowd felt things that they wanted to feel, things that they dreaded feeling. Every movement carried with it layers. The calling out for the Yes chant wasn't just a Yes chant. It was one of the first ones in AEW (if not the absolute first; he's consciously not done them). It was half of one with a damaged arm. It was one by a desperate wounded Danielson. It was a ploy by the real man behind the American Dragon mask to engage the crowd despite the match going off the rails. So I don't know about this being a dream match but as a dream performance by a dream performer, it contained multitudes. It's the sort of dream that will linger, the sort that will stay with us in the months and years to come. 

CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima

MD: I liked MJF vs Tanahashi a lot, much more than the Swerve match from Collision, but that was MJF doing his best 1990 Flair vs JYD match. Tanahashi was limited but charismatic and MJF used that to the fullest. This was not dissimilar in some ways, as Punk leaned hard into the crowd reaction and wrestled big, but Kojima came off like an old vet leaping from the bench with fire still in his heart wanting one more swing for glory. Both wrestlers realized that they had a special crowd and a special opportunity and even though it likely came as a surprise to Kojima, he made the most of it. If Tanahashi is a star that has been treated like a star even as he became more limited, Kojima met this moment with a great reawakening, and Punk was right there to join him. The dueling pec popping might be what I remember from this show as much as anything else, really, but what I probably enjoyed the most in this match in specific was the way Punk chose to work it. He was as disrespectful as possible as a character, playing to his own ego by making callouts to Gabe and shouting along in Japanese to the ten count and doing the Hogan legdrop but at the same time being as respectful as possible as a human being working with the guy by throwing his whole body back for every Kojima strike and being incredibly wary of his lariat almost to the level of Buddy Rose stooging for Stan Stasiak's iron claw.