AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/10 - 6/16

AEW Collision 6/15/24

Blackpool Combat Club (Castagnoli/Danielson/Moxley/Yuta) vs. TMDK (Haste/Nicholls)/Lio Rush/Rocky Romero

MD: Right before the finish, Tony Schiavone called the giant swing a work of art. He was close but not quite on the mark. The real work of art was that entire sequence, everything from Danielson's knee (and Nicholls crashing hard into the ropes in a way no one ever does as they take the move), Haste's dropkick, Yuta's sweeping Angle Slam, Rocky's Shiranui, and then finally the double leg into the swing. All of that worked in a rhythmic motion to become something greater than the sum of the parts and greater than most "everything breaks down" finishing stretches. I'm not one to wax poetic about specific visuals in wrestling. I'm a substance over style sort of guy, but the "follow the bouncing ball" wind-swooshing motion here was truly spectacular. I can't really believe it was intentional because creating the sort of visual effect that pulls your eye in exactly the right direction at exactly the right time over multiple moves while still feeling at least somewhat organic would take immense coordination between multiple wrestlers at least somewhat unfamiliar with one another, not to mention the camera crew and producers. I'd worry that any attempt to intentionally replicate the effect would create the most tragically artificial and stilted pro wrestling imaginable. Honestly, I'm not even sure if it even hit anyone else quite like it hit me, but hit me it did.

Speaking of things that are just hitting me, there seems to be an extra bit of magic to Forbidden Door season this year. Part of it is that I wasn't a big 2010s New Japan guy so a lot of these dream matches aren't that dreamy for me. What does appeal, however, is the wild WAR feel of it all in the build, the sense that there's a greater world out there, one that is only enhanced by CMLL and Stardom being in the mix this year. With that in mind, and this being a cold match, I thought they made the most of it. That meant letting Lio Rush go wild against Danielson and Yuta to start. It meant having TMDK act as a unit in almost everything they did. It meant having Danielson play face-in-peril yet again, another stellar such performance in a long line of them now. It meant having Rocky get cocky and then having his coccyx crushed by the absurd and sublime top rope inverted atomic drop. It meant Claudio as the hot tag, running through every bit of interference they tried to throw his way, and Moxley as the monster unleashed who they had antagonized throughout the match but who didn't really get to come in until it was time to end things. Add in the pro wrestling version of The Great Wave off Kanagawa that I recounted in the first paragraph and you ended up with a very fun way to kick off a Collision during Forbidden Door season. Hopefully we get at least one more of these before it's all said and done.

AEW Dynamite 6/12/24

Dustin Rhodes vs. Jack Perry

MD: I had reason to watch some 1984 Tully Blanchard lately. Now, due to the law of transitive properties (We know Perry didn't listen to SOME advice. We know SOME people didn't listen to Tully's advice. Therefore...), we can assume that Jack has probably not been watching 1984 Tully. Tully had this amazing way of starting most of his matches like he was a gentleman, wrestling by the rules, going hold for hold, breaking clean. Only after the babyface got one up on him did he break bad. It made things somehow more hypocritical and underhanded and got him loads of heat.

So, Jack doesn't do that. Dustin came in with a punch to start and Jack immediately went for the eyes. He was pulling the turnbuckle pad off just seconds letter and tossing Dustin into the stairs the first chance he could. He was pulling the padding up and going for a pile driver. Then, later, when had capitalized on the exposed buckle, he hit a DDT on the floor. After that, he nailed Dustin with a (revenge, admittedly) low blow even when he didn't have to. And you know what, I have to admit that it kind of works for me. Yes, there could be some issues with it (and Perry's promos) being out of sync with the Elite's ironic gimmick but no one needs the dripping irony in 2024 anyway. This is far more genuine and visceral. In a singles match where he can be his own thing, he should be the most direct shitheel imaginable; just straight to the point, no filter, no hesitation, not an attempt at sportsmanship or even the very notion that such a thing might be worthwhile or admirable. It kind of works. It makes him stand out. You can have shades of grey matches. You can have Piper vs Bret. You can have Punk vs Page. But more often than not, there's something to the most direct and straightforward approach, especially if no one else seems to be doing it. No one else on the roster is an unmitigated, petulant jerk like Perry (not even the guy that maybe he is listening to, Christian, who professes to be a paragon of paternity, even if it is just the thinnest of patinas).

Of course, this is Perry having Dustin Rhodes, one of the best babyfaces of this century, to play off of,. Dustin is pretty much the only guy on the roster getting the the fans to clap up for him with his selling and his hand motions alone. But still, efforts like this matter. I'm rooting for Perry to build off of it.