AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/18 - 9/24 Part 2

MD: AEW's producing a lot of content right now. We've got another PPV this weekend with Darby vs Christian (2/3 Falls), Kingston vs Shibata, and Danielson vs ZSJ. Even with Punk gone and Dustin used infrequently, I have to pick and choose a little. So no Sting tag, which was good but on a Rampage so full of tags that even I got a bit overwhelmed by faces-in-peril, and no Danielson vs Starks. I don't have a ton to say about the latter anyway; I think it achieved its goal of elevating Starks. I liked how he came in unfocused and violent, shifting from strategy to strategy and weapon to weapon while Danielson was centered and focus and thus victorious. I thought they flubbed the Texas Death Match rules just a little and cut off some of the drama because of that. The pinfall > count element is a feature, not a bug. Getting everyone, including the ref, on board is important. 

AEW Collision 9/23/23

Darby Allin vs. Christian vs. Luchasaurus

MD: This was one of the better triple threat matches I can remember, which says more about three ways than it does about the match itself. It was a bit of a cheat overall because it had an entirely different story engine powering it. Is a triple threat match really a triple threat match when it's just worked like a handicap match without tags and where anyone can get pinned? Technically yes. Usually a triple threat is an excuse to get someone else on a card and to just keep the spots constantly going. More often than not, unique possibilities created by having three characters in one match are tossed to the wayside along with, you know, the notion of selling and letting things breathe, to instead tap into the ability to always have something happening. In some ways it's the opposite of creativity because it's just the lowest common denominator. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

Therefore, this being worked as it was gave it an unfair advantage over all other matches of its ilk. Even just the first minute of this was cleverly thought out: Darby came in with an immediate strategy for victory, throwing powder at Luchasaurus, taking out Christian (who had his own strategy by sending in Luchasaurus first and going to the floor for a chair) with a dive and then going for the immediate victory with the Code Red. From there Darby would get some swipes in or would be able to dodge out of the way and clear the ring of one of his opponents to try to score a quick victory, but he would get overwhelmed again and again. It was great inherent storytelling in that regard, feeling like a competition with set odds or even like actual sport in a way wrestling usually doesn't (and unless you're watching Steve Grey, probably shouldn't). They made sure to put in a couple of car crash spots that would be contrived in a match where you didn't have a third guy to set things up, most especially the gut-churning chairlocked German Suplex.

And yes, there were those character bits in there, not just in how Christian pressed advantages and how Darby worked to find openings and capitalize on them from underneath but Christian trying to steal the belt and Luchasaurus finally starting to value it. The last part opened the door for the finish and Christian at least temporarily getting his due for all the work he's put in lately. Speaking of that, Punk obviously has to be replaced for our fifth and I'm leaning Christian's way, though I do ultimately prefer him as a TV working babyface. I want to give RUSH a chance to come back and get a couple of matches under his belt though, so we'll see.