AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/7 - 9/13 Part 1

AEW Dynamite (Rebel Heart) 9/9/26

Darby Allin/Steven Borden vs Josh Alexander/Mark Davis

MD: Brief programming note to start. I thought I'd drop this on Monday regardless of what aired Saturday night and I'd just catch up on that later in the week if I needed to but then we were told that The House Always Wins was being released on Sunday and I sit here Sunday morning rushing this one out since I know I'll want to cover something off of that. I'm also only one match in to catching up on Collision (Mox vs Bailey: good! with some great moments. Probably went a minute or two too long and too cute with the counters at the end but I'd argue it was right for that night and that crowd regardless) and there's both a priest match and what sounds like an emotional Battle Royal, so I don't know. Plus we (we being Eric, Phil, and JR, and all of us watching it) have DEAN~!!! Summer School today. My gut says I'm dropping a review all at once so it may take a little bit, and I will have a special guest for that. Tuesdays With Daddy, 80s Joshi, and Found Footage Friday should all drop. We're working on getting back to 91 Puerto Rico as well but real life has gotten in the way. We'll get there. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Bear with me on this one. I'm rushing it out.

ANYWAY, I've been watching a lot of 1990 NJPW lately. ALL 1990 NJPW that we have actually. I know it's challenging to find but I would suggest it. In 1989, Inoki left for politics, Sakaguchi retired with him, the heir apparent Fujnami went down with a brutal injury. They were bolstered by the Soviets as an attraction and the rise of Hashimoto (and to a lesser degree Chono) and the creation of Liger, and Muto (and to a lesser degree Sasaki) would be returning. But they needed a great hope, and that great hope was Koji Kitao. He was an already controversial sumo figure, but like Wajima in AJPW a couple of years before, brought great attention with his arrival.

They had him train with Brad Rheingans and Masa Saito for basically a year (with just a handful of matches in AWA as preparation) and then debuted him big at a huge show, with Bigelow (who is excellent at this sort of thing) to carry the load. In the months that followed, he'd be close to the top teaming with Choshu and Saito against guys like Vader, Bigelow, Larry Cameron, and Punisher Dice Morgan (Undertaker). They dressed him in Hogan's colors. They gave him the legdrop. Often times, they let him take the brunt of the match, eating a beating and coming back big to try to get the crowd behind him. 

And it was a disaster. Showcased like he was, with strikes that really didn't hold up relative to his peers despite his size, the crowd turned on him. They started chanting for Vader and Bigelow in a way that hadn't happened at all over the last few years. Choshu or Saito would try to get the crowd back into it but it was a failed experiment which then got even worse (even as maybe he was starting to turn the corner a little) due to his terrible backstage attitude. He'd be gone by summer.

At the same time, on the first or second match of the card, Osamu Matsuda was toiling away, facing off against guys like Black Cat, Nogami, Hata, or Iizuka. He'd start to pick up wins as the year went on, getting better as he went. He had the luxury of a slow and gradual growth, followed by an excursion in UWA where he could develop the El Samurai character so that when he returned, he could make an impact. 

Two different paths. Two wildly different results. 

And here, in the middle, seems to be Steven Borden. Obvious he has the genes. He certainly has the look, evoking Brandon Lee in the Crow more than his father as the Crow, fitting in perfectly with Darby despite being his own thing. But he's come into wrestling very late in life. They've had him work dark matches and indies, so the preparation is there, but they're starting him on TV right in an upper mid-card tag. No Punisher Dice Morgan here though. Alexander and Davis are seasoned and know their jobs.

They also treated him like an attraction on the apron. He came in to start, working a couple of simple sequences against Davis and highlighting his vertical leap on a leapfrog. There was a moment early where, after a collision, he ran up and hit an armdrag and it seemed wonky. Most wrestlers don't do that in that way. People come to them for an armdrag. But it almost felt like playing chess against a layperson. If they're just figuring it out, they might do something out of the norm that you'd never expect and it'd caught you off guard. 

Then Darby came in and got chop blocked by behind by Alexander, crumbling legs under him in a way only he could. One senton later and they were right into a face-in-peril. As Davis and Alexander made quick tags as if they were competing on who could toss Darby through the mat the most, and as they decided to do it together by lawn darting him across the ring, Borden stood on the apron. I'll admit I only focused on him when the camera focused on him, but whenever the camera did, he was high energy, chomping at the bit to get in there. 

Alexander and Davis tried to take him out from the apron once or twice but he was resilient and made sure he was there for Darby when the tag came. Then something magical happened. His comeback was simple and straightforward. Basic moves done with high energy. The crowd, this special Athens Georgia crowd, channeled the spirit of Georgia crowds of old. You know all of that Omni footage that has been released the last few years, that absolute treasure trove from even the faltering days of Georgia Championship Wrestling? Every time a babyface made a punch or hit a move, there'd be this beauty burst of sound from the crowd. An "Oooooh." And without prompting, without warning, they were doing it here for Borden. The most advanced thing he did was running up the stairs on the outside to hit a jumping clothesline, but the fans were treating it all like something special. By being so straightforward and basic (and maybe by reminding them of his dad) he stood out in a sea of complex moves and counters.

They went into a back-and-forth finishing stretch. Darby tried a go behind on Alexander and to flip into a stunner, but he got caught and German Suplexed. When Alexander tried to catch Borden on a floatover, however, his long legs let him take over, trapping Alexander in Death Drop position for the tandem Coffin Drop finisher. 

As TV debuts went, this felt special. It was partially the time and the place, partially how Borden was protected and highlighted, and partially, quite frankly, because there;s something special about him. He's not going to be a Kitao. That's clear. He's also not going to have the slow and careful opportunities of a Matsuda, however. He's here on TV, learning as he goes, already in the deep end, maybe not on top, maybe not the great hope, but now it's up to the company to give him a lifeboat and it's up to him to paddle. 

I'm excited to see him try though (and I'll be all the more excited when we finally start to hear Sting's 1990 theme Turbo Charged while he's doing it).