AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/26 - 7/2

AEW Collision 7/1

Dustin Rhodes vs Powerhouse Hobbs

MD: In some ways this felt like a restart for Hobbs with QT as his manager. He didn't get to hold the TNT title long enough to really establish what that would look like and it was pretty smooth here. QT grabbed the foot to cut off the shine. QT slammed Rhodes' head into the post to start the heat. One of the three biggest babyface spots of the match was QT eating a punch and doing a ridiculous Heenan bump on the apron. QT got a punch back into set up the finish. Maybe QT got a bit too much of the heat, even with Hobbs doing his best. That best was the focused woundwork during the commercial break, including punching the wound repeatedly and then wiping Dustin's blood on his own gear. They snuck in a few little bits to make this feel important enough for the tournament, Hobbs jamming Dustin's powerslam, that big pop one count kickout on the first spinebuster, one of the ugliest destroyers you'll ever see. I was for all of it. Dustin didn't hulk up after the kick out; it was defiance but he still had to fight back. That destroyer (which should have been a code red) felt more natural and organic than almost every one that's hit clean. It felt like Dustin, using his size, somehow struggling Hobbs over. And while you sometimes see people stop short to dodge the powerslam, you never see it blocked like that, and of course that made it matter all the more when Dustin actually hit it. Very solid quarterfinal tournament match overall.