AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/12 - 5/18
ROH TV 5/15/25
Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara/Marshall Von Erich/Ross Von Erich vs Mason Madden/Mansoor/Ariya Daivari/Tony Nese
MD: There are a couple of different ways to do an 8-man tag. You can lean hard into the tag gimmick by creating a sense of danger and difficulty just from the sheer numbers at play. Any time someone gets too close to not just the wrong corner but even the center of the ring ropes, there's a chance that a knee or arm may reach out. That evokes the sense of those 80s New Japan elimination tag for instance, creating a mood where all of these wrestlers are trapped with one another, the babyface getting dragged down as face-in-peril most of all. Or you can just toss the tag rules out the window and run rapid fire spots with people running in and out, making use of those sheer numbers to keep the action going and going with no logical reason for it to ever stop or for anything to sink in.
Anyone who knows me is going to know what I prefer. And this did a pretty good job at it for the first two thirds. In that case, you'd maybe run through individual pairings until you got into the heat but they avoided that for a specific reason, Dustin's more or less cracked a code, or at least I think he thinks he has. When he's with the Von Erichs, he drops back and delays getting in the ring until after the hot tag. They find some way to contrive it, whether he's attacked before the match or just slips back into the scenery of the numbers like here.
In 2025, it's tougher than ever to figure out what the fans actually want. In 1985, they wanted to see the heel vanquished and the babyface triumphant and a clear win or at least a clear beating, or ideally both. While there are increasingly heels on the AEW/ROH working to get under the skin of the fans and get actual heat, and while maybe in time, that will restore some of those old incentives, fans today seem to want their candy. Candy can come in a number of forms, but it's generally something they can brag about seeing or experiencing, whether that's a five star match, a debut, a crazy spot, or just getting to sing along to a theme song or as part of a chant.
Getting to see Dustin Rhodes is a form of candy. He's a legend, an attraction, someone who knows how to work a crowd from underneath as well as anyone else alive. For 80% of the viewing audience, he was part of their childhood, whether they started watching in 1990, 2000, 2010, or 2020. Who knows how many more times anyone will get to see him wrestle live. He's candy. And by holding himself back, he makes the fans earn it and makes his arrival into the ring mean all the more. That also lets him put the Von Erichs front and center for both the shine and the heat, giving them reps and getting the fans used to them in both roles.
The other aspect of an 8-man is all the characters at play, and given the heel side, that was bound to go well. MxM interacted with the Athletes with the cheer at the start, by pushing them out of the way of danger. They were able to switch things up with the spot where Madden drapes an opponent over the ropes and Mansoor hits an apron senton. Last time Madden caught someone trying to hit a tope. This time, it was due to Mark Sterling getting involved as a distraction. It's a great spot but it'll only feel organic if they keep thinking it through in creative ways. Here it was the transition to heel control which made it all the better.
Things did build to Dustin and even more so to Sterling getting hit by the Golden Globes/Shattered Dreams/Unnatural Kick and then the claws. They always have the ref dramatically look away when that happens. Maybe they didn't need to when it was the manager getting kicked? Anyway, it was a crowd pleasing finale and a good presentation overall. I would have liked another minute or two of heat but they were probably working against the clock, but other than that, I had a good time with it.
AEW Collision 5/16/25
Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Lio Rush/Action Andretti
MD: This was a #1 contender's match for the shot at Double or Nothing. I can't say it really felt like one, especially when Dustin was doing his fake dive bit in the middle and given a relatively anti-climactic finish where Sammy jammed Andretti's torture rack neckbreaker finisher to hit his own. In general, I like matches ending like that now and again, without a clear exclamation point, but maybe not a match with stakes?
Of note, we got much more of Dustin in this one, including him working face-in-peril because the alchemy is different in a straight up tag than a six or eight-man and there's less of a need to showcase Sammy. That said, Dustin was excellent at slapping the mat at various points and selling the leg and really doing his half to explain why he wasn't making it to the corner despite making it look like he was fighting as hard as possible.
We know that about Dustin though. More importantly, this was the first time that I really got CRU as a team. The Top Flight breakup/feud did no one any favors but seeing them up against some contrast, they really came off like a swarming menace, in the way they took over, in cutting the ring off with Dustin, in that late match flurry against Sammy. Real Kaientai DX actually, in a way that I'm not sure anyone else is matching right now. There's maybe something there and I hadn't felt that before. They need something else. There would be worse fates for them than to become Ricochet's guys, for instance, especially if he ever lands a singles title and has to be protected more (he's pretty bulletproof right now). So this was pretty good for what it was, but I didn't quite feel the weight. I do think the PPV match could be good if Dustin can hook the crowd.
Labels: 5 Fingers of Death, Action Andretti, AEW, AEW Collision, Ariya Daivari, Dustin Rhodes, Lio Rush, Mansoor, Marshall Von Erich, Mason Madden, ROH, Ross Von Erich, Sammy Guevara, Tony Nese
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