AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/25 - 8/31

AEW Dynamite 8/27/25

Darby Allin vs Claudio Castagnoli (Falls Count Anywhere)

MD: Johnny Valentine is attributed with the quote "I can't make them believe that wrestling is real, but I can make them believe I'm real," and it's a quote that doesn't have a lot of meaning in 2025, that shouldn't have a lot of meaning in a post-kayfabe world. But Darby makes it mean something. In so many ways, this was a tribute to ECW, the most of which being the tribute to the Bam Bam vs Spike press slam.

But my memory of ECW had a lot more garbage can lid shots. Not quite this. Even that press slam was into the crowd which was somehow softer than the announce desk. That had more of a celebratory feel to it and this was far more grisly, the commentary cutting out so that the trainwreck could happen in deathly silence save for whatever utterances the shocked crowd could make.

And even then, the bumps kept coming. And even then, Darby's primary offense was to use his own body as a weapon, and Claudio flaunted his superhuman strength, something that we all believe is very real indeed. And when Claudio shows real personality like his annoyed impatience at the commentary team taking too long to move? He's even better.

I have things that I prefer in wrestling. My prevailing logic is that the best wrestlers are the ones who get the absolute most out of the absolute least. That's the artistry to me. But I'm not about to deny how special Darby's bumps are, not about to diminish how he puts his body on the line. But I'm also not about to say that's the entirety of the equation. 

Because it's not. 

How did Claudio get Darby into Press Slam position in the first place? Darby had been in the midst of a comeback after all. He had just climbed a support pillar and launched his own body into Claudio. He was in charge for maybe the first time in the match. But then his body simply gave out. In the midst of firing off, he dropped to his knee, held his back. No one else in wrestling is selling like this. No one else makes sure to show the toll of absolutely everything in the way that he moves. So many others would take offense and then move absolutely normally when it was their turn to take over. Not Darby. He makes you feel like he's real, like he's in that much agony, and here it served the story and let Claudio fire back. 

Likewise when he was mounting a defiant comeback on the floor. You can call it late match selling or full body selling, but even just moving away from Claudio, even just leaning into throw a shot, the way that his body lurched and strained and stumbled was best in the world stuff. People may complain about the bumps, but so long as he sells like that, they're not gratuitous. Do I think they're essential? For someone that can sell this well? It's tricky because the audience is conditioned to expect certain things from him and they're conditioned to think he can take a certain amount of damage, but then wrestling is symbolic and fans can be conditioned otherwise. I personally think he could get by with one big bump a match instead of seven. Or even one big bump every three matches and it'd all mean just a little more. He's that good at selling and he'd still make it feel that real.

But either way I can't deny how great it is to have him back on his TV. And either way I'm sure as hell not about to look away because both the car crash and Darby somehow walking away (and triumphing!) are some of the most compelling things in pro wrestling..  

ROH Death Before Dishonor 8/29/25

RUSH/Sammy Guevara vs Outrunners 

MD: And lo, we change out Dustin for Rush and TK continues to get me to write about Sammy Guevara. The good news here is that he was made for the 2300 Arena and these Philly Fans who were born to hate him. And honestly, I really liked the dynamic between him and Rush. I likened Rush to Randy Savage not long ago and the parallels are striking. He has that same unpredictable energy, puts his all into his physicality, expresses a sort of paranoia thinking the world is out to get him in the ring.

And he cares first and foremost and entirely earnestly about his family. He loves his dad, just like Savage loved Poffo. He looks out for his brother, just like Savage looked out for Lanny. And here, Sammy became a new brother to him, and it was touching in its own twisted way. Rush seemed honestly thrilled for everything Sammy did. When the fans were chanting expletives at him, all he heard was the world singing his new brother's praises. 

Sammy fell right in line. It wasn't always smooth but it was always natural. When Rush dropped down into the Tranquilo pose, it took Sammy a second to catch up, but when he did, he did his breakdance spin right down to match him. They weren't always on the same page, but they got there, and once they did, the act worked for all its contrast and for how heartfelt Rush, monster that he is, seemed to be about the arrangement. 

And the Outrunners played their part. A lot of that was to give Rush and Sammy something to push against, but they're an act that probably would have gotten grief in the Arena at various points (and probably would have been over big at others; it depends on where they were in their lifecycle), here everything built well to the double elbow. That's one other thing about Rush relative to Savage. Despite his need to look tough and protect himself, he's still willing to give when it's times to give, willing to play ball to serve the match. I imagine that's doubly so when he's going over and winning a belt.

Anyway, on night one, this act worked. We'll see what sort of staying power it has and how consistent Rush can be with it. 

Athena vs Mina Shirakawa

MD: The fact that this match kept the crowd after the spectacle that was Bandido vs Hechicero is remarkable. Some of that is that the finishing stretch in that match was a little more measured than Bandido vs Takeshita despite still being huge and weighty, but so much of that was on the two personalities at play here. 

Mina is magnetic, electric. She is a star. She knows how to work a crowd, to move hearts and minds like an idol is trained to. And Athena has the best reactions in wrestling. And react she did, fuming, seething, furious over Mina's antics, even before the bell as her new Meanie Minion let his eyes and notoriously weak attention span wander and as Mina played right in to the Philly/Dallas rivalry.

They were evenly matched to start, but Athena was a half step off her game, thrown as she was. It meant Mina was the aggressor, and again, Athena's reactions here, just the look on her face as she successfully cartwheeled out of a headscissors takeover only to have to avoid a series of kicks... it's like nothing else in wrestling today. She's so alive in the moment, so present, so able to cut all the strings and just exist as her character at all times.

They set it up early to make it seem like Mina believably had her number, right to the moment where that damaged hand went smack into the ringpost on the outside. Athena dodged, expressed true malicious glee at the mishap that followed, and immediately went to work. She smacked the hand on the commentary booth, smashed it behind the stairs, tied it up in a turnbuckle pad and kicked away. She wrestled like a madwoman unleashed, embodied the chaos that she, a fallen goddess, represents. She took her time, playing to the crowd, dancing, smiling, facewashing Mina with her foot. Sometimes it let Mina get a moment of hope, but she snatched it away. A complete performance by maybe the most immersive performer in wrestling.  

The character of Athena rides these waves of chaos and fury, and sometimes, it doesn't work out for her. Here, she had her heart set on hitting a running kick on Mina while she was seated on the outside. It failed once. It failed twice, and suddenly the match opened back up. Athena's leg was wounded and Mina honed in on it, both with offense like the ringpost figure-four and with cutoffs like a dragon whip on the way back in. All throughout, Athena's selling was amazing, working on one leg, fighting through the pain but making every effort seem almost mythic. 

In 2025, the most interesting way to talk about wrestling isn't necessarily to note dropped limbwork. So long as it's plausible, I look at it more of a lost opportunity than anything else, primarily because of how compelling Athena's limping selling was here, because of how much weight it gave everything in the match. Even then, I don't know if I'd have been frustrated by Mina dropping the hand selling through her working on Athena's leg and the big bombthrowing that following except for the fact that it started with the hand being broken and they went back to it at the end. Just something to note. For me, if Mina gave some lip service to it through the third quarter of the match, it would have kept everything tighter. More of a lost opportunity than an overall blemish.

That's because last quarter of the match was incredibly compelling, with them slugging on their knees, throwing bombs, the drama of the Koji Clutch and the Figure-Four, how Athena stopped the Glamorous Driver Mina by going to the hand and then survived it when Mina finally hit it. And at every point, whether she was kipping up or escaping the third Driver attempt by going up and over, Athena showed the toll of the match by selling that leg, by reacting in the moment, by being the most alive pro wrestler in the world. 

So they kept the crowd even though that was a minor miracle, and so Athena had another great match as she marches on to 1000 well-deserved days.