AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 11/2 - 11/8

AEW Collision 11/7/26

Death Riders (Jon Moxley/Gabe Kidd/Daniel Garcia) vs Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor/Carlie Bravo/Shawn Dean)

MD: Just a couple of things I want to cover with this one.

First, let's talk about the STP vs Death Riders deal. I know some people are frustrated that STP never get anything over on them. They might get in a back stage beatdown or a post-match one. They might make some big challenges. During the matches themselves, they'll control over the break, but they never actually get a win in this 'feud.' They never move up the hierarchy.

I sort of see it like this. STP is the baseline that the Death Riders find themselves up against on a Saturday night. They're the people who, when the story starts, the Death Riders are fighting. The Death Riders are Spider-Man and they're the Shocker that he's webbing up when something bigger unveil around them. They're the bullies that are causing the protagonist trouble at the start of the story. By the end of the story, the protagonist is going to save the world from a magical apocalyptic threat. They're the established team that the ragtag group of kids have to come together to beat in a baseball/hockey game. The thing is, that's just the first move, and in the second movie the kids, banded together, are now fighting bigger teams for the championships. They're the season 1 villains in a shonen anime. It's just that we're on to season six now. Maybe they're the strongest earth has to offer but we've had five seasons of invaders from space. The thing is, in season seven, you'll get that one episode where they have to pull it together and hold down the fort as heroes against bigger threats. 

They're big fish in a small pond and small fish in a big pond. Having them around creates a sense of normalcy so you can get something like Mercedes and the Cut beating down the Death Riders post-match. If TV was just going to play out week in and week out in the fabricated fictional sports-driven world of AEW, the Death Riders would be spending their Saturdays fighting STP. That's just how it'd work out. Each week STP would come up with a new scheme or plan or plot or strategy to get the Death Riders and it'd just barely fail each time. It'd play in syndication. 

This time around? An ambush right at the start. It didn't work. Gabe Kidd, who as a babyface is dangerously close to George the Animal Steele (but then George the Animal Steele was over! Sometimes people forget that; the Vault just released a five minute match from Houston where he faces Tiger Chung Lee; it's five minutes, go back and watch it.) fired back almost immediately with headbutts in the corner. 

Then Danny Garcia started throwing belly-to-back suplexes.

This is the other thing I want to talk about.

Meaning in pro wrestling is primarily artificial. This is its inherent advantage over real spots and real life. It's up to the company, the wrestlers, and the commentary to decide what to highlight, what to accentuated, what to downplay, what to stress. Any move can be the most or least important thing in the world dependent upon it framed. 

Granted, some things are easier or harder to make matter. Blood is powerful because we all relate to blood. Titles are easy props because we understand trophies and winning. Just winning and losing should be easier to make matter than, let's say, the heart punch or the cobra. Some of these things might have been easier before MMA came around and some things (Rear Naked Chokes for one) might be easier after, but all it takes it consistent reinforcement and total commitment from wrestlers and anything can be made to matter.

Here's something that used to matter a lot more: belly-to-back suplexes. It's the biggest transition move there is in 1980s New Japan. Saito and Choshu would turn matches around over and over again with the Saito suplex. All it took was one headlock hefted up and the whole world would turn around. Likewise when the more dangerous variation started to be used at the turn of the 90s. 

Now? More a dime a dozen. 

But if a wrestler portrays himself as caring about something and if becomes something worth achieving, then it, like anything else in wrestling, can be made to matter.

Garcia got swept under because after hitting belly-to-back suplexes on Bravo and Dean, he tried to throw the far more massive Shane Taylor the same way. Taylor shut him down and STP took over on him. 

And suddenly, Garcia established that there was a mountain worth moving, an obstacle worth overcoming. Through the effort and the failure, suplexing Taylor was granted narrative worth. The protagonist tried and failed. Now, not only did he have to fight back from the enemy corner, but he had to make it back to his feet to try again. Hitting a belly-to-back suplex is not inherently compelling to an audience, but by making it a mountain to climb (and move) and by tying it to Garcia's fall and subsequent rise, it became compelling.

Garcia fought his way back and yes, to the shock and delight of everyone watching, he hit the suplex, earning his salvation, redeeming himself, overcoming, making his own comeback and claiming the tag as his own. 

The Death Riders followed it up with their endless clotheslines in the corner on Taylor. This led directly into the finish as Taylor, having regained control, went away from STP's usual clubbering tactics and demanded that they do their own clotheslines in turn. That let Mox slip and catch Taylor with a cutter, the beginning of the end. While it wasn't as potent or powerful as the belly-to-back, it was another example of established meaning, this time leading Taylor to make a fatal mistake. 

Another Saturday night for the Death Riders and STP. Another battle between lopsided forces where meaning can be found nonetheless. Maybe it's not as satisfying as it could be. Maybe it doesn't have the forward momentum and elevation one might want. But we need baselines. We need established norms. And within those norms, some very good pro wrestling can still happen.

And you know what? I do believe that some day we will get to season seven, and on that day, it's going to be STP's time to hold the fort and save the world. Until then, they'll be there week in and week out to fight the good fight like only they can.

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