AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 12/29 - 1/4/26

AEW Collision 1/3/26

Darby Allin vs Wheeler Yuta

MD: Darby Allin vs Gabe Kidd from World's End didn't hit for me. It may have hit for some people and I get that, because there was nothing wrong about the match or how it was laid out. Moreover, it had build. It had story. Kidd wanted to make a mark. His stop/start, off/on role as a Death Riders associate is a little shaky given his NJPW commitments and the fact that he only partially seems to fit the ethos (a lot of tearing down, not a lot of building up, but that maybe works well with Mox's hypocrisy). He came out of nowhere to help put Darby through a flaming table. He showed up again later to toss him down some stairs. Darby wanted revenge. It wasn't a cold match, even if it had a sputtering build due to Darby's participation in the C2 and subsequent injury. 

I don't think it hit for the crowd though. Some of that was the build, sure, and some a lack of connection to Kidd overall. Some was the way the PPV was set up. By the time the crowd got to this match, they'd already made it through the plunder-laden chaos of FTR vs Gunn/Robinson, which had at least two incredibly memorable table bumps, not to mention Babes of Wrath vs Athena/Mercedes which was a more conventional all-action spotfest. There were diminishing returns in the moment.

I think there were even more diminishing returns at play though. This is my fifth year in a row writing about Darby, albeit with some gaps. He's amazing at what he does, one of the best I've ever seen at telling an in-ring story about absorbing punishment and getting the fans to get behind him as he survives and survives and survives until he can find a way to overcome. They fans believe in him. Incredible babyface. But there's a sense like many other great babyfaces over the years, maybe he had his moment and it passed him by. He chose a different accomplishment, climbed Everest instead of climbing the AEW mountain and taking the title. And now, while Moxley is moving on to bigger and better things, he's still waging a war against the Death Riders that seems to matter less every day.

There's something compelling about that, maybe, something interesting and tragic, a World War II soldier trapped on an island of his own making, an island that exists wholly within his mind, with no one to tell him that the world had moved on without him. But I'm not sure that entirely came through in the Kidd match.

It did, however, come through a little more clearly vs Yuta, and I thought the match in general worked far better.

Some of that was situational. There are different constraints and possibilities and responsibilities to be a Collision main event on a residency show on a night where a lot of the core audience is more focused on the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show, than to try to fight for air on an overpacked AEW PPV. 

Some of it is that, unlike Kidd, Yuta is one of the most over heels in the country. People will deny it. These people are wrong. He appears on the screen or comes out from off screen to interfere as he is so apt to do and the place reacts immediately. That reaction isn't just that they want him to go away. It's that they want him to go away specifically by getting killed by a babyface. That's very different. Are they paying money to see him getting killed? Is he impacting ratings? I have no idea. But I do know that he gets a more consistent, more visceral reaction than almost anyone. 

He wrestles in a manner that ensures it too. There's nothing to latch on to. Look at the layout here. Darby took control almost immediately during the feeling out process. Yuta was smarmy and it looked like he'd get immediate comeuppance, but he hid behind Marina on the floor and got a cheapshot in. Even then, he couldn't press the matter. He went for a suplex and Darby kneed him in the skull. He charged in and Darby clowned him in the corner. It was only when Marina got involved once again that he was able to take over with another cheapshot and a brutal neckbreaker onto the apron. Then when he was on top, he preened and taunted, mocking both Darby and the crowd (and the crowd's love for Darby). He was vulnerable, upstaged, outgunned, reprehensible. Not a single cool thing about him, but laser-focused on getting a reaction the whole way through.

Yuta spent the whole match serving Darby and his gripe with PAC, serving Marina and her upcoming with Toni Storm, serving the need to end the show on a high, serving everyone but himself. He took over in the stretch only due to Marina getting tossed, Storm rushing out to brawl with her, and Garcia sneaking in to get a cheapshot. Even then, he was able to hit his finisher on the apron (another amazing Darby bump) but not capitalize. His attempt to do so was to mock Darby with a Scorpion Deathlock only to have that be his quick and decisive (two Coffin Drops and lifted up for a snap Scorpion from Darby). In being so vulnerable, in being so unlikable, Yuta finds a strength that very few wrestlers in 2025-6 are willing to find. He made this work in ways that Kidd, presented far stronger, couldn't. Situations were different, yes, but you get the sense that Yuta can be counted on to make just about anything he's asked to do work. 

One last thought on Darby: as I said, he's a natural babyface given his bumps and his resilience. Six years is a long time for anything, however. It's only in the last month or two that I've started to wonder if something needs to give. If you have a few minutes and haven't seen it yet, check out Darby Allin on Hey EW with RJ City. There's a heel there just waiting to happen, one that channels some of Darby's natural personality, and I think maybe it's time for him to explore it.

 

Shelton Benjamin vs Dante Martin

MD: This should have worked. It was a good story on paper. 

Scorpio Sky has a certain level of credibility. He's a former singles and tag champion. He's got some size, presence. But he's been snakebit and he wasn't there on that night. So Dante Martin steps up. Yes, Dante's somewhat bigger than he was a couple of years ago, but he's all about speed and agility when up against the monster that is Shelton Benjamin. Shelton was always an amazing athlete, but the world had gotten smaller around him and now he towers over his opponents, a force. 

Shelton would toss him around. Dante would use his speed to create opportunities. Shelton would give exactly as much as he should give. Dante would earn (not take but earn) moments of offense and the fans would appreciate them all the more for the effort put in. Contrast makes the world go round.

Yes, the crowd saw Benjamin as a bigger star. Yes, they wanted to see Benjamin toss Dante around. Yes, they wanted to see Benjamin hurt people. Everyone knew this was just to heat Shelton up for Mox, but Dante's a likable young man, and the match had a secret weapon in its pocket.

As they went towards the break, Dante leaped up to the top rope only to get shoved off, crashing down on the guard rail chest first, a nasty bump. The match stopped. Christopher Daniels and the doctor went to check on Dante during the commercial break. MVP walked over and cut a little promo that Dante should call it a night; there'd be no shame in it. Dante, obviously hurting, told off MVP and Shelton, and they were off to the races.

At least they should have been. It was a moment of defiance that should have worked. Yes, the crowd would still go up for Shelton, but they should have gotten into Dante's comebacks. It was a good idea on paper. 

It didn't work. Shelton honed in on the chest, and I'm just not sure Dante's selling was consummate to what was happening. Dante fired backed with forearms and either got cut off or made openings for himself, but I'm not sure the crowd bought those openings were enough. Maybe he should have been a little more opportunistic in dodging Shelton to show just how high the stakes were? Dante sold to a degree and he hit stuff, but there was never a sense that he was appealing to the crowd, that he needed them, that they should get behind him. He didn't give them enough to latch on to. Daniels is relatively new in his role as a second. Babyface mangers are tough in general, but the idea is that you slap the mat and lead the fans at the right times and get them going, right? If you had an Amira Blair or Matt Menard out there, I think this might have worked, but Daniels didn't quite hit the mark. 

If this didn't work, it's not because Shelton didn't give Dante enough or because he ate him up. Yes, he hit big stuff on him, but I almost felt like he gave Dante too much after the huge bump when before it he had made Dante work a little more. 

I'm glad they did this. I'm glad they tried it. I think the idea was sound. I think there are things to learn here, especially when you compare and contrast this with Wheeler Yuta's performance against Darby. Details matter. They have to matter. The second you surrender to the notion that they don't matter, then there's no point of doing anything. You can have the best idea in the world, the best spots, the best bumps, the most exciting action, but if you don't get the details right, then it's not going to hit nearly as well as it could have, or nearly as well as it should. When that happens, it's not a call for nihilism and permission to just give up and hit spots and try to pop a crowd by overwhelming it. To me, it's the exact opposite. No matter how much the crowd wanted to see Shelton hurt people, this not only could have worked, it should have worked. In trying to figure out why it didn't (and why Darby vs Yuta did), there things to learn that can make anything and everything work better moving forward.