Death Riders vs Don Callis Family Monster Army (AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/28 - 10/4 Part 2)

AEW Dynamite 9/30/26

Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli/Gabe Kidd/Wheeler Yuta/Daniel Garcia/Bryan Danielson) vs Don Callis Family Monster Army (Josh Alexander/Wardlow/Jake Doyle/Lance Archer/Mark Davis)

MD: This speaks for itself. I'm not sure if I really can add anything to it. You saw it, right? You felt it. It was the capstone on a tribute to PAC, an incredibly emotional show. 

It'd be easy to write about Kingston vs TRENT instead, a perfectly solid TV match that went time and had some great selling from Eddie and Trent being a jerk, even if it felt a little like 1998 Big Bubba up against Vincent on Saturday Night. 

I could write about Collision, all of it, a show very much made for me week in and week out (Thanks Tony); write a Workrate Report, one where basically everything worked. 

But Bryan wrestled. 

While we have all learned over the last few years that Bryan Danielson loves to lie, he's not the only data point on this one. We've heard from TK and others. I honestly believe that the wear and tear is what the reports say it is. I believe that it's hard for him to fly. I believe that he will never step in the ring again lightly, maybe never at all, that maybe he never should again. Look, Phil posted on Twitter the other week that Bryan was pumped after DEAN 2 and wanted to get in there against Mad Dog Connelly. I know Phil. He wouldn't have posted it if there was any chance that it would possibly happen. I want nothing but a healthy, happy ending with his family for Bryan, even if it means I never see him wrestle another match.

So there's every possibility this will be Bryan Danielson's last match ever. And I should write about that.

And even if it wasn't, there IS something to say about this match. 

Maybe I don't have to write about the cathartic power of pro wrestling, something that has been helping people, in-ring and out, for over a century. Maybe I don't have to talk in general about how it can help us work out our personal issues, our societal issues, our aggression, our pain. Maybe I don't have to go on about how it can be a morality play where right can triumph through heart (yes, and visceral violence as well) no matter how unfair and complicated our red-tape laden world is. 

And I don't have to talk about my last few weeks. I don't have to talk about how this match actually landed on my birthday, how it came a few days after my nine year old's birthday, how my parents who are pushing 80 real hard and I see twice a year came this last weekend, how the cat likely has pancreatitis or how we're trying to get a new boss up to speed at work. I don't have to go into detail about how I've been online for over two decades talking about pro wrestling with people and how we've carried each other through the losses of the 2000s and how everyone came together here over the last few weeks as well. And how balancing those two worlds threw me at times over this period, or how, yeah, I cried once or twice. You guys have all been living it too.

But I can talk about this match and what will stick with me from watching it.

I love this version of the Don Callis family. Maybe I'd have wanted Brian Cage in there instead of Alexander, but Alexander is probably taller and he's got the head gear and the tattooed arms and he looked like he fit in with all the other monsters. It's a Monster Army in a world of wrestling where that's far less of a thing than it once was. I'm watching 1990 NJPW where Bam Bam Bigelow is teaming with Big Van Vader and Dr. Death Steve Williams and this feels similar. Larger than life, with Wardlow returning to bring up the rear. 

The Death Riders huddled around PAC's chair. Marina lingered with it though the camera cut, so we didn't see how. We did see Danny go out of his way to get a kid's attention and then Marina linger with the kid as well. That matters. All of this does. Mox came to the desk, and while I had likened Eddie Kingston to Columbo recently, Mox was leaning into it hard here. It was cute, yeah, cute, endearing. "Oh it's live wrestling. Let's just let it play out." Something like that. "Just one more thing."

The Death Rider sting hit. Bryan's music hit. And people smiled. You just saw flashes of faces in the crowd. It was easier to see the hands go up and down for the Yes! chants, but you clearly could see the smiles too. Even on this night, people lit up. Tony and Excalibur were laughing heartily. It was wonderful. The power of one person, one song, one movement. A burst of sun through the darkness, dragonfire lighting the sky.

They got right to it, brawling around ringside, big, broad, over the top wrestling. Larger than life. A lot of the above, I didn't notice on a first watch. I was just living it. 

What I did notice on the first watch? The spin. I noticed the giant spin. And I noticed super babyface Marina Shafir spinning along with it at ringside (and selling the dizziness). 

Marina interjected herself a few times in this one, once putting Archer in a dangling armbar in the ropes, once joining in during the team corner charges, and once giving Danny permission or at least a stamp of approval to do his dance. The dance? That served as a lure to set up the corner charges. 

Every time Marina got involved, everything felt so alive. The intensity was through the roof. I know I say this phrase too much and now that I write this, you'll see it whenever I use it again, but I don't care, because it's true. The living, beating, endlessly dynamic lifeblood of pro wrestling was pulsing through her. She was doing all of these bombastic things, but she was still herself, still as intense and driven and in the moment as ever and it all felt so alive. 

And the other Death Riders did such a good job of distracting the ref and covering for her. Things could have broken down, fallen apart, and no one would have cared. Everyone would have just looked the other way or forgiven it, but they care enough about their craft and in turn in crafting an immersive reality that we can delve into that they put the attention to detail in. That is everything, even on this night (especially on this night given what we know about PAC), and I appreciate it so much.

Wardlow got to assert himself cutting off Yuta, hitting him with a fireman's carry Michinoku Driver (I call that the Amityville Horror because of Chris Chetti, but I can't imagine most other people do). Then Yuta played face in peril and the fans got behind him. (I need to fit this in here somewhere but I love the way Doyle makes a bit more space to his his forearms). I don't want to talk about the future or consequences, not really, because this wasn't about that, any of that, because very little could have mattered more than this match on this night. I will say this, however. They came back out on Collision and Yuta was enough of a heel against Austin Gunn that while he maybe couldn't fully get the crowd to boo him so soon after this, he could help them cheer the Bang Bang Gang instead and that is no small thing.

Just as it was no small thing that the crowd was so behind him here. Again, everything felt so alive. The Death Riders went to the floor and slapped the mat and got the crowd going and Yuta survived through the commercial break and got the hot tag to Bryan.

Yes, Bryan had a shirt, but it was a PAC shirt. Yes, he stumbled on the back flip. But he back flipped! Mox mentioned muscle memory. People train for a comeback. He had some gear made for him that day and just went out there. He'd been gardening and helping his kids with homework and who knows what else, and here he was, Bryan Danielson, lightning in a bottle, magic from a lamp, the American Dragon. When he was on the apron and Yuta was struggling, you could see the sweat down his face just from the opening brawling, but it didn't matter. He came in and it was all the more special because it was all the less perfect, because it wasn't effortless, because it was hard and because he was doing it nonetheless.

He had a complete exchange with Alexander, a first time encounter, eating German Suplexes, put in the ankle lock, putting Alexander  over as a threat. He didn't have to do any of that (but of course, he did). He could have been the centerpiece of the match, but instead he made another hot tag to Danny who would get his dance spot and ultimately get the pin.

Things cycled through. Bryan ended up standing next to Yuta. They were going to do the Yes Chant, were going to hit tandem knees. There's a little moment there where Yuta looked to him to get the timing right on the hands and that was as emotional as anything else in the match.

The Death Riders swarmed in the corner. Gabe hit PAC's endless run lariat. Danny got in the Sharpshooter. Claudio hit the stomp. The Death Riders hugged. Mox, while leaving the booth, quietly told a fallen Wardlow that he did a good job even in defeat, one last bit of Columbo on the way out. Danny hugged Yuta from behind and that will stick with me too. 

And I should tie it all back together, right? The emotional power of pro wrestling, how the realness and the genuine emotion is what fuels the engine and how special this all was. How this helped us and how I hope it helped them. But if you made it this far, through this match, through these words, through life up until this point and the last few weeks, I know you know, and I know you can make it the rest of the way too. 

I will say this on the way out though. Pro wrestling can be amazing. When the wrestlers care and when the fans let themselves care, it can do absolutely amazing things. And in a world often full of darkness and uncertainty, we need every amazing thing we can get.

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