AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/20 - 5/26 Part 1

AEW Dynamite 5/22

Bryan Danielson vs. Satnam Singh

If there is an art to this thing called pro wrestling that we all love, it is this: creating the biggest emotional impact by doing as little as possible. That does not necessarily mean that one should never do anything and it doesn’t even mean that one should never do much. It means instead that every bit of effort should maximize the amount of possible impact. Whatever a wrestler does should carry with it the greatest possible impact in the moment, done in a way and at a time to create the greatest possible impact as part of a greater whole. And in order to achieve that, one should likely do as little as possible at each point, so as to increase the value of increased effort when it is most impactful. Pro wrestling is manipulation. Pro wrestling is conditioning an audience. It's using every tool imaginable to move hearts and minds relative to the needs of the moment and the match and the card. If you do more, it should matter more. It should be the means and not the end. Getting this wrong devalues every individual action for everyone and unbalances the possibilities of pro wrestling. Getting this right over time can create possibilities so that when escalation occurs (even and especially at times where it is not expected if done sparingly), it blows minds and sends an audience into a meaningful, mindful, focused, driven fervor, where they are not chanting for sensation and to hear their own voice but instead towards a purpose and narrative destination.

It's about using every emotional hook at one's disposal, everything with inherent value. That could be a geographic connection with a crowd, or a personal story that resonates with people, an injury, a difference in hierarchy or age, sheer athleticism used smartly, or an angle or storyline. It could be anything under the sun natural or contrived that can be used in lieu of action for the sake of action.

And yes, it can most certainly be the sheer existence of a towering giant. Giants are to be protected. Everything is to be protected in its own way (why? so you can cash in on that value when it matters and so that you can establish a meaningful baseline so that everything can matter in its own way; nothing for the sake of itself and everything with purpose!). Satnam especially should be protected. He's a legitimate giant in an industry that's shrunk over the last two decades with the right voices in his ear and as much agility as anyone his size ever. If we learned anything from the journey of Paul Wight, it's that hours of weekly primetime TV with featured matches devalues everything and everyone, but AEW with its cycled roster allows for someone like Satnam to be an attraction and to be special.

I've mentioned this before, but I learned so much from watching 89 Andre. He was mostly immobile and had lost much of his physical strength due to his injuries, but he was still a giant, in some ways even more so than he had been fifteen years earlier, for now he was wide and not just tall. He was one of the world's most famous wrestlers, a legend in his own enormous boots. He was considered a force of nature, and so long as he was treated that way by the other wrestlers and so long as he could leverage his own amazing instincts on when and how to act and when not to, his presence could be leveraged in the most amazing ways. He could accomplish more with a small move of his arm or an emanated sound and grimace than almost any other wrestler in history could do with a half dozen moves strung together.

Satnam has shown up on Dark or Rampage or ROH or a pre-show. We've got a match or two from a house show on tape. But generally, he's been used sparingly. In a world without Dark, it's tough because he needs reps too, and you can't move him from territory to territory. But he has been treated, if not as an attraction, then as someone used carefully. This was his biggest spotlight so far and it was against someone who knew how to make the most out of both the least and the most.

Here, that meant standing face to chest with Satnam to let the image burn into people's minds. It meant coming in with a gameplan of kicks in the best Inoki fashion only to get shoved away with ease. It meant letting things sink in with the chop in the corner and the stalling delayed vertical suplex. Satnam should take his time, should control the pace, should create a heavy, imposing atmosphere and here he did. At the same time, there was no need to rush right to the chokeslam on the apron when it's already established how deadly Satnam shoving Danielson away or tossing him into the stairs was. Teasing it was enough. Instead, with the accidental break of the table as either a planned spot or an inadvertent distraction, Danielson was able to get a few big jumping knees in. Satnam staggered but didn't fall. Then, when Satnam cut him off and did hit the chokeslam on the apron, it meant all the more for the build.

They moved into the finish with Danielson getting the low blow and using multiple knees to take Satnam down. Low blows aren't done every match or done right in front of the ref. They're protected and because they're protected, Satnam was protected by the tide turning because of one. It taking multiple knees to drop him didn't hurt either the knees or Satnam and in some ways helped both. And then Satnam was protected from the tap. Danielson had found a way, as the best in the world should. Satnam was shown to be a monstrous threat that could do damage to anyone at any moment and that couldn't be overcome cleanly. If they ever ran it back, people would be prepared for Danielson to have a nearly impossible hill to climb. And the storyline progressed towards the pay per view.

So much has been devalued over the years due to a penchant for excess, slavish devotion to sensation for the sake of sensation, and the burdens of weekly big match TV, so that any chance to restore weight of meaning like this should be lauded and appreciated. Wrestling can be this still. It can be this again! It’s not a lost art. It’s right there, just waiting for people to embrace it once more. The things that worked in the past worked for a reason and that reason lives in all of our hearts. The evidence is right here. People just need to reach out and rediscover the possibilities. Wrestlers have to stop working with us, stop working for us, and start working us again. A match like this can light the way.