AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/13 - 5/19

Ring of Honor 5/16/24

Athena vs. Nicole (Matthews)

MD: It's been way too long since we've had an Athena match of any length or with any weight behind it. And this was definitely a fun one. Someone asked me the other day to give them my thoughts about Negro Casas as he wasn't entirely clicking with them, which is understandable if you only catch certain parts of his most lauded 90s work. Casas is actually fairly hard to explain, because he's such an exceptional talent. While he excels in a number of conventional ways, what really makes him special are things that other wrestlers generally don't share. He checks a number of the normal boxes, but quite a few boxes that no one else checks. It's like trying to explain Terry Funk. And it's like trying to explain Athena.

The common ground between all three of them, however, is that you never, ever want to look away. No matter what's happening in the ring, no matter what their opponent is doing, no matter how the crowd is taking it, you want to see them react to literally everything that happens from the moment they come through the curtain until the moment they leave again.

And what made Matthews such a great opponent for Athena is that she gave her so much to work with. There was their history which should have put Athena on edge. There was the crowd being very into a local legend which certainly did put Athena on edge. But more than that, Matthews is just so good at doing all of the little things. She hits the big things smoothly, but not so smoothly that it doesn't feel organic and engaging; there's a bit of grit on her whips and grabs and grinds. It's those little things though, an extra shift of leverage with an unexpected body part on a pin attempt, torque on a hold coming from an interesting angle, that put it all over the top. It's style and substance both, something extra that feels additive and not extraneous, something that is visually interesting and unique but that fills in a narrative gap as well, making suspension of disbelief easier and not harder.

In this case specifically, more than just engaging the crowd and filling in between all the lines, this meaningful effort (that somehow still seemed effortless) gave Athena even more to react to. She reveled in Matthews' pain while trapped in the corner. She scrambled all the more, horror and determination flashing across her face, when she found herself in a hold or in one of those ever so slightly enhanced pin attempts. Athena is going to come into any match more alive than almost any other wrestler today, but when you put her up against someone who gives her just so much material to work with, such a vibrant and rich tapestry to color upon, she soars. So yeah, in the end, this was a sub-ten minute proving ground match. There was a hierarchical difference. It was there to set up the post match with Aminata making the save and basking over the belt. But in watching it, you didn't want to look away for a second.

AEW Dynamite 5/15/24 

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb/Kyle Fletcher

MD: I don't have a ton of big thoughts on this one. I liked it more than the Top Flight match (and I wanted to like the Top Flight match!). It served its purposes, letting Danielson be a star in Washington, both with the music-laden entrance to save Moxley and then by being the one to get the hot tag while Mox worked FiP; having Moxley look dominant both in the shine and down the stretch; keeping the stories churning towards the PPV, starting the show off hot, etc.

Moxley brawling to music always looks right, as if he's somehow choreographed to it, no matter what he does, like a fight scene a movie with a Hans Zimmer score. Here we had the novelty of him brawling to Danielson's theme instead of his own and it worked for all of the high points in the song. Like I said, I enjoyed him asserting himself early back in the ring even if I think that superplex on Fletcher was maybe not the best idea. It was a move that was starting to get protected more in 2021-2022 and there's value to at least making the attempt. Let's not do one in the first couple of minutes of a match

Speaking of protection, Fletcher is the least protected champ I can imagine, but it's gone so far that it's come around to being ok. He's clearly a top guy in a minor league promotion able to stand up to the competition there but unable to face the guys in a major league promotion. You appreciate the attempt but know he's going to get swept under, like a junior heavyweight fighting up in a higher weight class. It was chafing while that was being established by now that it is established it's fine. You can look at Mark Briscoe's Continental Classic record along the same line. Having Cobb in there was a nice change in the mix, both with his strength moves and in him knowing what he had with a homestate Danielson playing to him and the crowd. I'm not sure if the effect would be lessened if we saw him every week but it was nice here as a one-off and teaming the two TV champions was a nice touch and makes me regret we never got more with Samoa Joe/ZSJ last year. Overall I don't think people will remember this much past the brawling over Danielson's theme to start but it was a fun way to spend twenty minutes. 

AEW Collision 5/19/24

Bryan Danielson/FTR vs. Lance Archer/The Righteous

MD: Not much to say about this one. I thought Collision was very effective overall in building things towards both Dynamite and the PPV. Having Trent and Roddy out there for their opponents' matches, letting Toni do her thing, having Wayne use Swerve's move to build to their match, using the bounty as a way to push AitA, and especially having the three FTW eliminator matches back to back with some rampway interaction. It was a very effective cog-in-the-machine show, just good pro wrestling TV. I liked Taylor vs Ospreay especially. I think Ospreay is actually most special when he's being grounded in traditional pro wrestling storytelling. Having Roddy out there, having Ogogo get the cheapshot in, having to overcome the size differential, being able to channel what makes him so spectacular not in an ever-cascading escalation competition but instead in the tried and true narratives of pro wrestling means that he enhances a match instead of distracts from him.

So I liked Collision. As for this, they did a good job with the time they had (closer to 10-15 than 25, as a lot of the big Collision tags go). The goal seemed to be to delay and deny the fans Danielson (save for some extra-curriculars on the outside going into the commercial break and Dutch catching Dax to star the FIP). When he hit the hot tag, he looked like the star he is against a massive opponent in Dutch and then as they went into the stretch, they were able to finally do some team spots with Danielson and Cash, all of which were fun, to build up AitA. The finish was a little cutesy but this was more celebratory than anything else, and the weight of it would come through in the post-match, including the absolutely brutal Blackout on the chair to Cash. Bring on Satnam.