AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 8/19 - 8/25 Part 3

MD: I don't have a lot to say about the Coffin Match. In some ways it was weirdly minimalist in not a lot happened but everything that did happen was monumental, but ultimately a bit too much DID happen overall for me to say that. Also not a lot to say about the Dustin 10-man. It was really just a finishing stretch with a bit of prelude. I did want to double back to some other things however.

AEW Collision 8/24/24

Big Bill vs. Hook

MD: Part of the joy of pro wrestling is that that it is interactive. It's live television, sure, but it's live television in front of a crowd, where the crowd can be conditioned, can be manipulated, but cannot be completely controlled. Nine times out of ten, when the crowd loses control, it's to the detriment of the match. In those situations, it's also usually due to some miscalculation in the match itself. But wrestling, at its best, is at least partially improvisational, and an out of control crowd is a possibility to live in the moment and create something special.

Hook's rarely, if ever been in a situation like this, but Bill's pushing 40 and is a fifteen year vet. There was a miscalculation here. I won't go too deep into the angle itself, but it's problematic at best and everyone knows it. Leaning into the fact it's problematic only partially mitigates the problem. In some ways, it makes it worse. This match was set up to protect Bill and to make Hook work from underneath to overcome a much larger opponent and look all the better in victory. It was meant to chip away at him on the heels of a big return so that the angle could be heated up and both he and Jericho could claim momentum coming into All In.

A couple of problems. One, the crowd wanted to cheer for Bill anyway. He's larger than life, charismatic; people have fond memories of him. Two, the match was set up for Hook to charge in early and maybe get a shot or two in from underneath or to have Keith attack him when the ref was distracted so that the odds were against him and you could explain away him not firing back more. It was all to build first for him to hit a suplex on Bill (and on Keith to take him out) and then for the Redrum to finish it. Basically, Bill was taking not a majority of this, but 95% of it. It's almost impossible to get behind a babyface who isn't constantly fighting back, even if he's cut off. Against the right opponent and in front of the right crowd, that's fine. This was neither. And the fact of the matter is that it's not all that novel to see Hook suplex Bill. We've seen it before, not just here but in previous feuds and it's not like Hook has even had that many feuds. So it went from 50-50 support for Bill and Hook to 60-40, to 70-30, to an overwhelming tidal wive as the match went on.

So Bill had this incredible crowd to deal with, one that was going to cheer whatever he did, and he went all the way with it. He yelled at them that they couldn't support him now when they never had before. He gave every hand motion imaginable to every corner of the ring. He crossed his arms to look as dorky as goofy as possible and stomped around. He leaned hard into his offense in the meanest and most unfair and conniving ways. Nothing worked, but he justified all of it with the effort. He had posed and preened and bounced a bit at the start, just a bit of cool heel trappings, but when he realized the damage that caused, he went as far from it as possible. None of it did Hook any favors, but thanks to Bill making it seem like the adulation was the absolute worst thing in the world, it probably didn't do him any longterm harm. And then he worked it all into the finish by playing to them and turning around between chops while Hook was on the top rope so he could get caught in the Redrum. People may look at this as a failure, but I see it as Bill masterfully averting disaster. All of this now going to be there, potential energy to be tapped into when the time is right. The time just wasn't last week.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Ariya Daivari

MD: And sometimes everything goes exactly how it's supposed to. This was the same exact crowd, only one segment later, and it went perfectly. It was such simple stuff, Daivari posing in the corner to boos, Jarrett to cheers. It was Daivari doing the strut repeatedly as he got the better of Jarrett only for Jarrett to clock him, then Jarrett teasing it but unable to do it until the final comeback. It was Jarrett counting along with Aubrey and the crowd while Daivari stalled and stooged outside the ring. It was Daivari menacing Karen to distract Jarrett so he could take over and then later Jarrett getting cut off because he checked on her. It was Jarrett working from underneath in a sleeper so the crowd could get behind him and throwing punches that the fans could chant along to. And all the while, there were the tiny bits of connective tissue to ensure everything made sense and was timed and placed perfectly. The crowd just wanted to be involved. They wanted something to get behind. They wanted to feel like they were part of it all. The Hook match wasn't set up to give them that. The Jarrett match absolutely was. Pro wrestling can be fascinating when it goes wrong, but man is it ever beautiful when it goes right. 

AEW All In 8/25/24

MJF vs. Will Ospreay

MD: I'm not disappointed in Ospreay.

I'm not even disappointed in Max, not really. Maybe a little.

Mostly? Mostly I'm just disappointed in myself.