AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 3/24 - 3/30

AEW Dynamite 3/26/25

Kyle Fletcher vs Brody King

MD: Kyle Fletcher is the most interesting wrestler in AEW. I'm not 100% sure they know what they have in him. He's the honestly surprising frontrunner of what I'm more or less calling the New Heel Movement (Neo-Heelism? Probably I stick with New Heel Movement). Yes, he looks like a star now, in his own way. But it's not his looks but how he carries himself. So long as he's kept away from some of the worst perpetrators of action for the sake of action on the babyface side, he expands and takes up the air in every match that he wrestles in the most selfless, entertaining, productive way. 

He's a counterbalance to three decades of cool heels who refused to take anything seriously and show real vulnerability and at least a decade and a half of selfish spottiness that has honestly plagued pro wrestling, pushing fans away from caring about outcomes and characters and towards rewarding sensationalism and celebrating the means, not the ends. And he's not alone. You see it up and down the card, from people like MxM, Blake Christian, Red Velvet, and Lee Johnson on ROH, all the way to guys like Ricochet and Okada at the top of the card (and of course there's MJF when he's at his most MJF-ish). 

But none of them are managing it quite like Fletcher. You actually expect it more on ROH with looser time cues and more creative freedom and less need to clutch onto every ratings decimal. But there he is, taking his time, basking in every moment, leaning hard into every opportunity to push things over the top and get under the skin of the fans. And they respond in turn, chanting against him, chanting for the babyface, chanting anything at all except for "This is Awesome" or "Fight Forever." In this case, they were going after Callis too and I wonder how much of that was the fan in the first row dressed just like him, but it's still all way more of a positive scenario than having fans blandly celebrate the match simply existing as a spectacle instead of being engaged in its outcome. 

And he keeps adding to the act (which is much more of an overall philosophy and mindset than a series of spots/bits). Here, he had the pullaway pants at the start. He ambushed King and then took the time to really show off the new gear to the crowd, smiling, posing, all but preening, even as King crept up behind him. It was honestly beautiful stuff and he leaned into it 30% harder and 30% longer than anyone else on the roster would have and that investment paid off huge in reaction and how memorable it all was. 

It's incredibly hard for a heel to balance the sort of corpsing, stooging, sprawling bumping and selling that Fletcher did here while still maintaining credibility, but he managed it. Some of that is simply putting him over enough (as they did here), but so much of it comes down to the heel figuring out how to be vicious and making the most of his time on top in a match. Fletcher, in the midst of cracking the code, seems to realizes that it doesn't just mean hitting great looking dynamic offense, but making sure to engage with the crowd, with the ref, with the opponent, with the world while doing it, and then letting it sink in and resonate after the fact. Basically, everything he's been doing while taking offense applies just as much when he's on top. That could be as simple as living and breathing and being the Protostar while stepping on Brody's face. It's showing that he cares about what he's doing instead of just rushing to hit the next spot and spoonfeeding the fans action on top of action. It sounds so simple but it's become increasingly rare and it doesn't just make him stand out, but it makes both the moments and the overall effect of his matches mean all the more. 

It also means that when he does something truly impressive, like hefting up Brody for his tombstone, the fans are even more frustrated, for they have to give it to him, and he's given them nothing to latch on to before that. It means that instead of supporting him or thinking the match is simply great, they end up resenting him all the more, and that he gets real, honest, meaningful heat that maybe, just maybe can drive the sorts of business metrics that had seem dead and dusted, the notion that you want to see a heel get his comeuppance at the hands of a babyface. And of course, just when they had the fans begrudgingly handing it to Fletcher and resenting him all the more for it, Mark Davis came out to take things over the top and push everything the other way, distracting Brody so that Fletcher could steal the win. That he did it with the corner brainbuster, yet another impressive move on a massive opponent, just increased the dissonance and writhing, churning feeling in the stomach of the fans.

Fletcher's become a heel that poisons everything he touches in the very best of ways, something that frankly, we haven't seen on top in a US company in ages. He's gold, and in some ways, he's going to be bulletproof as long he can continue to lead with bluster and live in the moment, as long as he doesn't lose his nerve and get pressured to speed things up and rush to the next thing like so many of his peers. But he still needs to be protected and valued. Everyone around him, from the wrestlers he faces, to the commentators, and all the way to the top of the company should be shown to care as much as he does, in both his successes and his failures. If that can happen, way I see it, the sky's the limit.

ROH TV 3/27/25

Athena/Diamante vs Jordan Blu/Mazzerati

MD: I honestly love matches like this. Yes, it was a squash. Blu/Mazzeratti got almost no offense in. But if you watch five hundred matches in one year, you're probably not going to see another match that tries to tell this specific story. The last time I can remember something quite like this was back during the Mercedes Martinez vs Serena Deeb feud where they were trying to one-up each other. This wasn't quite that but it was a similar idea, with Diamante trying to show her value to Athena. I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the story overall (for one thing, it's going to clash with the main roster story, almost like Lawler doing one thing in Memphis and another on WWF TV). Diamante doesn't quite seem minion material, but she also seems like she might go with the flow if she sees a success bully successfully bullying, so who knows. 

The match itself was a lot of fun though, because Diamante kept looking over for approval and to see what Athena had to think about things, and Athena would react accordingly. My big regret here (and it's a shame because I can't see them doing this again) is that I wish they had an Athena cam set up. I'm not sure what the rationale for it would have been, kayfabe-wise, but I'm sure they could have thought of something. And she could have been a corner insert for the entire match as we just saw her reacting to all of Diamante's stuff. Otherwise, this was fun because it was so different and told so unique a story. I love the idea of a tag match where the focus is equally on the person on the apron as it is the person in the ring. It just expands and stretches the limits of the form. It's one of those things you can really get away with on ROH that you can't quite get away with as easily on Dynamite or Collision.