AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 9/9 - 9/15

AEW Collision 9/14/24

Wheeler Yuta vs Anthony Henry

MD: There are only so many stories in the world. That's what some people think at least. You can find literary theory listing seven, for instance: 1. Overcoming the Monster; 2. Rags to Riches; 3. The Quest; 4. Voyage and Return; 5. Rebirth; 6. Comedy; 7. Tragedy. It's all about the execution though, all about the details. You can immediately see some parallels to wrestling and the stories that can be told, not just in general, but specifically in the ring. I won't try to categorize along those lines. It's more the general idea I find interesting. We've seen so much, but so much falls along a few different lines: babyface vs heel; shine, heat, comeback; who's the best?

You get different results, different manifestations, different details. Looked at in another way, it's all about something that has to be overcome: a size differential, cheating, an injury. You can watch a thousand matches and see five or six things over and over again, and that's okay because you can find appreciation in small alterations and massive ambitions.

But when you see a match that's worked differently, that plays upon one of those elements in a different way, that commits to an unusual, yet still believable and human idea, it stands out.

That's what we had here. Wheeler is a man cratered, a miserable man, a man at his lowest. We would find out he just lost a family member; moreover, his found family is forever shattered. For all the things I know and all the things I've seen, I have no idea how hard it is to actually go in a ring and wrestle, to keep track of spots or to call them, to hit things with perfect precision to protect yourself and your opponent while creating the illusion of fireworks to move and wow a crowd. I'm pretty sure it's pretty damn hard though, and to do all of it while portraying an emotional anchor dragging you down, to change every aspect of your body language without a moment's lapse? It feels akin to wrestling in a mask for the first time or wrestling underwater.

In no part of the match was Yuta not on, not feeling it, not portraying it, not channeling it. I can think of performances where someone sells the leg throughout, but Yuta was selling his soul. At one point early in the match, he managed a small comeback only to clutch at his chest, afflicted by the effects of a broken heart.

He managed it throughout the first third, and in all honesty, this might have been the most challenging of all of it. It meant working rote wristlock-based chain wrestling a half step slow, going through the motions with all the normal skill but none of the energy or passion. He'd hit a sunset flip but would linger and leave himself open. He'd get knocked through the bottom rope but be unable to shoot himself back in with his signature recovery. Those were the big things. The little things like listlessly moving through a headlock exchange were somehow far more impressive; the idea is that most can do something fast and wild but it takes a real expert to do it do it tortuously slow.

Henry pressed his advantage on the floor and changed the tenor of the match by suplexing Yuta into the guardrail. For the most part, he played his role perfectly. Henry's a guy with a chip on his shoulder, with plenty of chips actually. Let's look at the character. He's a veteran trapped beneath an artificial ceiling, and he knows how good he is. He almost lost everything due to injury earlier this year; so did Yuta, but Henry's the one pressing his opportunities now as Yuta sleepwalks through this match for emotional reasons. His partner's on the shelf so it's not like he doesn't feel his own grief. He's stuck with his an irritating (and wildly successful) second cousin by marriage in Beef so he's got a burr that Yuta can't begin to understand. Yuta's a trios champion! He's got success right before him. All he has to do is man up and embrace it. That was the emotion underpinning every one of Henry's actions here. Yuta needed contrast to push off against: a vibrant, seething energy to provide the light that let us see the shadows creeping into his every movement.

You could hear it in the crowd in the first third, an unsettled hush. You could hear them in the second third when they started to get behind Yuta. Even then, things were off. His hopespots were lackluster. The commercial break ended and he didn't start to fire back like we'd usually see in most other AEW matches. He'd hit a big move like his German Suplex but would be unable to capitalize. He'd buy space and make it to the floor only to stumble into a chair exhausted and get nailed. I'd say that the attention to detail was amazing, but like I noted, those few big ideas (like not being able to shoot himself back in) were the (relatively) easy bits; what made this work was how the depression consumed him all the way from his pre-match interview with Lexy where he noted he hoped to find himself in the ring like Bryan did, to him trudging out towards the ring to his usually rousing Punch Out theme, all the way to the very second that Henry took it too far. That was the genius in this performance, the consistent mood he created through his total commitment, not one or two clever moments of misery.

And Henry did go too far. If I could change one thing in the match, maybe I would have had him not verbally goad him with the "sad boy" comment and the comment about Bryan. It would have been enough for it to be implied probably. On the other hand, this is such a unique story that they're telling that it's better to overexplain. I think the slap itself could have been enough to awaken the fury within Yuta, but we can't be sure. Regardless, it worked. It absolutely worked. Everything Yuta had been holding within burst out of him to create suffering upon Henry's frame. He beat him around the ring, around the ringside area (even getting revenge in that selfsame chair), and then put him down with the elbows and the Mutilation. Once unleashed, it took everything he had to bottle it back up; he was seeing red.

All in all, it was as unique a performance for a television match as I've seen in ages. It could have been overwrought or over the top. Yuta could have gone out and made faces and forced it into the realm of self-parody. He played it subdued save for the one moment where his passions boiled over and Henry took it too far. This storyline feels different than everything else in the company, then everything else in 2024 wrestling. It has the potential to be something more, something that grips the hearts within our chests and refuses to let go, something that moves us in the best of ways, something that leads to triumph but only after the longest, hardest most worthwhile road, something that both transcends and glorifies pro wrestling as the unique and amazing art form that it is. What it'll take more than anything else is commitment and care. If they care, we will care. And Yuta cared so very much here. This was just a small match on a small show, but it felt like the second ripple signifying the tidal wave that may come.