AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/11 - 9/17

AEW Collision 9/16/23

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricky Starks/Big Bill

MD: I take no joy in writing this one, but come on. What was Claudio even doing here? I get the constraints. Punk is fired. Danielson is rushed into that spot. The BCC is an entity. Claudio makes sense as Danielson's partner. Yuta might be hurt (maybe? You wouldn't want him straying from heel either though) and Mox just wrestled Bill on Wednesday and Claudio makes a lot of thematic sense as a counterbalance to the big lug. Moreover, part of the appeal of the BCC is that they can fight anyone. That's part of the gimmick. Except for Claudio vs Kingston, a blood feud, even if one side wants blood more than another, is Wednesday and anchoring Grand Slam as much as anything else. 

Is this an insurmountable situation? No. In a match with Bryan Danielson in it, it really ought to be an opportunity, right? It's not an easy or painless opportunity. It's actually pretty hard. How do you, Claudio Castagnoli, wrestle a match in an appropriate way when your opponents are heels, are going over, need to look strong in the case of Bill and capable but vulnerable in the case of a Ricky Starks that will stooge to the point of hitting his pose in the midst of a giant swing. You have to keep heating up the feud for the Texas Death Match. You have to do all of this while continuing to further the Eddie feud, a feud already hampered by Eddie leaning too hard in the fact that Claudio "didn't do business," whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Everything would be better served here if Eddie just said that Claudio ran to New York instead of FIGHTING him one last time to see who was the best man. But he's not saying that because, one assumes, he's too focused on the real life issue that Claudio wouldn't lay down for him and give him his win back? Just a guess, but it's the best one I have, because this wording is definitely not the path of least resistance otherwise.

So so you're Claudio in that situation. Maybe you lean into the aloofness. This is a world you didn't make, in your mind, that you don't want to be in. You just want this over with. You play up being a tough guy babyface strongman and Danielson's partner and you pretend nothing's wrong. Good luck managing that when Kevin Kelly's going on about how you have Eddie on your mind. It doesn't matter. To do that you would have had to play things up even more. 

Maybe you're an absolute bastard in there instead. Maybe you take liberties. Maybe you're the heel who the babyface calls upon when things are dire, Colon teaming with Abdullah the Butcher in Puerto Rico or Lawler teaming with Jos LeDuc in Memphis. That sort of thing, just with a bit more actual bond between the partners. Starks is smaller than you. You bully him and he bumps and sells and stooges for you. He's good enough that he can still be the heel in that scenario. You get right in Big Bill's face. You don't care if he's got inches on you; you're the real monster out of the two. It's a headache overall, sure, but own it. Find a path that makes it work.

What did Claudio do? Not option A, not option B. He was just Claudio. He was present in the match. He wrestled the match. He was competent and capable and this match set up next week's Collision and didn't do a damn thing to help Grand Slam along. It wasn't that Claudio was worried about Kingston or not worried about Kingston or that he was pretending not to be worried about Kingston. It was just that Eddie didn't exist. Mad King's screaming into the night, is pouring out his heart in a promo, is picking at an ugly red scab over a decade old; you wouldn't know it from looking at his opponent. The best wrestlers in the world make the most of the most difficult opportunities. I wish Claudio had done so here.