Vulnerability, Dissonance, Commitment. KJ Orso vs. Effy

KJ Orso vs. Effy GCW Code of the Streets 1/17/26 

Vulnerability is everything. 

Now you might say that vulnerability is everything for a babyface, but no, it's everything for a heel as well. The key to heat is dissonance, that gap between expectation and reality. Big John Studd might have been over because he was a menacing giant, but he was super over because he was a menacing giant who played the coward and refused to engage at the start of matches. 

That brings us to KJ Orso. As Fuego del Sol, he was bombastic, dynamic, a high-flyer. He was larger than life energy in a compact package that lit up the sky, always more over than his push. He could bound, flip, and twist with the best of his peers. He still can. The fans know it. They know it to look at him. They know it by how he moves. 

When he decided it wasn't working, that the fans weren't getting him where he needed to be, that he was ready to trade away easy certitude of the mask and gimmick to bet on himself, he changed his entire style of wrestling. He gives them nothing now, nothing to cling on to, nothing to embrace. He's dug deep into footage to reclaim old moves (like Jo Labat's shrugging shoulder attack from 1957) and spots. For a normal heel, just giving them nothing might be enough, but the GCW crowd knows him, knows who he was, and for them to watch him wrestling this way is like sticking a finger in the wound because they know he's still capable of it.

Every now and again you see a glimpse of it, a big bump, a key top rope move at a key moment, something strategic, opportunistic, there not to pop the crowd but to take advantage of a moment. It serves as dissonance in its own right, shows him to be a hypocrite, committed to who he's become right until it's convenient not to be. For the most part though, you wouldn't recognize him. 

This is a crowd used to seeing everything: chaos, mayhem, every excess known to man, and they're just happy to be there, happy to see it all and soak it in, but they're not happen to see Orso. He betrayed his friends, betrayed the crowd, betrayed the very aesthetic idea of modern spot-heavy wrestling. And they know, deep down, it wasn't due to strength but due to weakness. That means that when he succeeds, when he takes over in a match, and heaven forbid, when he wins, that makes it all the worse. 

And the key to the act? The confidence to be vulnerable. 

Watch him here. He comes out to the ring sneering and scowling at the camera, jawing with fans young and old, and he trips on the way to the ring. When's the last time you saw someone trip on the way to the ring? When's the last time you saw a heel do it? He trips and he sells it. He snatches a hat off someone's head, uses it to clean off the floor (because it had to be the floor's fault, not his, always someone to blame), and then punts it into the crowd.

He makes it into the ring and ring announcer Emil Jay, unable to hide his disgust, calls him KJ Asshole. He sells it by whipping about in fury, but then recoils back the other way as the fans start chanting asshole in turn; it's as if he took a one-two punch, and everyone there knows that they got under his skin, that if they stay invested, if they chant and boo, they can affect reality around them, they can make a difference. He makes the crowd feel like they matter, gives them a reason to care, to be invested, to not just cheer and chant 50-50 to not just be happy to be there and see spectacle before their eyes. All it takes is a little confidence and a lot of vulnerability. All it takes is to allow himself to be affected and to look the fool.

Effy gets in on the act too, mocking the trip. I've seen a decent amount of Orso this last year. I haven't seen a ton of Effy lately, so we'll lean just a little into this data point. Dissonance doesn't just create heat but it opens the door for all emotion. From the way he basks in the ring as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road plays in the background to how he's constantly adjusting his gear for the moment, to his mind games and his connection to the crowd, he presents himself with a lot of confidence and just enough vulnerability. If Orso's vulnerability is internal, here Effy's is external, based upon what happens to him in the match, real and meaningful acts of violence instead of imaginary slights in his head. He recently lost the GCW Title and it's clear that affects him, but he doesn't wrestle like a man who is lost and grasping for significance and meaning at every turn in the way that Orso does. He gives the fans just enough human vulnerability to connect to while giving them tangible results, substance to latch on to. It makes his accomplishments seem more admirable just as Orso's come off as endlessly frustrating and aggravating.

Effy certainly has a lot to work with. Orso, stinging from the trip, from the Asshole chants, from the disrespect, from not getting everything he's convinced himself he deserves, is a prime target for Effy's humiliating offense of butt attacks and gyrations. It does more than just getting under Orso's skin. It wounds his pride and his pride is everything. It's too tempting for Effy and he leans into it harder than he does his chops and other more conventional offense and that allows Orso to take over. Of course, as noted, Orso has his own failings, and he ends up too busy clapping the fans up so he can mock them and potentially deny them a dive, and he gets caught as well. Character drives everything here and that gives the fans so much to work with as well.

That plays out as the match goes on. Orso opens up on Effy's leg, but he can't help but steal the headband and taunt. Effy comes back but he goes for one too many vertical splashes and gets caught. The difference is that Orso is blindly lashing out at the world and Effy is trying to hit KJ where it hurts the most, the difference between a heel and a babyface, even if it leads to similar transitions nonetheless. 

Over time, those disparate wants start to lean in Orso's favor. He goes back to the leg time and again, chipping away it. It leaves Effy a half step slow. Even down the stretch, Orso, all too human and driven by the chip on his shoulder, would lose focus and Effy, embracing and leaning with his humanity, would capitalize, but in the end the leg gave way at a key moment and Orso was able to steal one out.

On some level, the fans knew what they saw was entertaining. They understood the skill involved. But due to the commitment, due to Orso giving them nothing and Effy giving them quite a bit, they were left legitimately frustrated and aggravated by the result of a match. In 2026. Emil Jay made the announcement, using Orso's name as written. He had no choice, Orso had won. He, just like the fans, was held hostage by the result. Orso had sold so much up front, shown so much vulnerability, and now he had snatched away the fans' joy and was gloating about it. Next time they'll hate him all the more and the circle will continue. In 2026, the beautiful art of pro wrestling can still work, can still move people, can still delight and infuriate. All it takes is a little vulnerability and total, absolute commitment.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Mimi! Rimi! Kai! Kumano! Ikeshita!

Disc 2 

3. Jackie Sato, Mimi Hagiwara & Rimi Yokota vs. Leilani Kai, Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita 1/4/81

K: AJW traditionally do a good Korakuen show on or around January 4th where you’re almost guaranteed to get a quality main event even if they’re not almost the most consequential. This match is such a good example of what these shows were going for. Here we have probably the top 3 babyfaces in a company going up against the top 2 heels and one of the currently residing foreigners (who almost always align with heels) in a ⅔ falls match, which the main event tag matches usually were. 

Another note, Rimi Yokota vacated the Junior Title before this show to focus on challenging for the WWWA Singles Title (and I guess, outside of kayfabe, no one at the junior level was ever going to beat her for it). Before this match Tomoko Kitamura (later Lioness Asuka) defeated the obscure Noriko Kawakami to win the vacated title.

The heels are in control for an unusually long time to start off with here, especially since it’s Jackie Sato who they’re dominating first. I thought it was cool how Leilani Kai would have a lot of choking-centred offense, and when Yumi Ikeshita came in, she continued on that theme by switching up her offense to target the throat. For example she just stands on Sato’s neck disdainfully, and a bit later she changes her “plant opponent’s face onto sticking up toes” move so that she plants Jackie’s throat on it instead. When Rimi is able to tag in, there is no hot tag, as she just gets dominated as well. The comeback actually comes from Mimi Hagiwara, whose new gimmick is that she’s taken up boxing training and is now a fearsome striker. It’s a bit ridiculous when you describe it when she has such spaghetti arms, but I think it works at neutering a weakness by insisting in kayfabe actually Mimi is strong and punches really hard. The conviction she puts behind those haymakers and that they actually work in taking down Kai and getting the comeback going after everything else had fails puts her punches over as legit. You can make all kinds of things work in wrestling if you commit to them. They even come back to this in the 2nd fall, when Mimi clenches a fist at Kai and that’s enough to get Kai to back off into her corner.

The 2nd fall has a fantastic final few minutes where Jackie manages to tie up Leilani Kai and Mami Kumano in the ropes and so they can’t help their partner. Then we get ‘Flew Too Close To The Sun’ sequence where Yumi Ikeshita just gets battered with one move after another by Jackie & Rimi making quick tags in and out, before she gets pinned with a very spectacular move where Rimi runs at the corner pad and kinda dropkicks it to spin around into a running splash but with extra oompf. Great stuff.

In the 3rd fall all the tension and violence we’d seen building up in the first 2 just explodes. They’re quickly on the outside brawling and just punching each other hard like rival football hooligans. A chair gets introduced to Yokota’s neck. There is an unfortunate bit after this where Mimi Hagiwara’s in the ring with Leilani Kai and goes for a few poorly executed takedowns which hurt the previously ferocious momentum a bit, but Rimi rushes into to rectify that. We get a more measured cooldown when the heels take over on Mimi and get a measure of revenge when they trap her in the ropes and drop her throat first into it. This lasts just about enough for the crowd to get their energy back because before you know it all hell breaks loose, they’re all running into the ring and brawling and Jackie Sato & Yumi Ikeshita look like they’re damn trying to murder each other choking over out on the floor. The match fall gets thrown out and the match is called a draw.

Great match. Exciting all the way through, we got memorable interactions in a bunch of pairings and Mimi Hagiwara’s boxing deal is getting over (she’d done it before this but this is the first time you’ll see it on this set). They achieved all that without giving anything away, not even a real finish.

****

MD: On the one hand this devolved into chaos and got thrown out. On the other, some of the checkpoints along the way felt almost evolutionary as we move into 1981. Moving into 1981, I am acutely aware that we’re on borrowed time with some of these wrestlers. We’ll lose Kumano and (for the most part) Jackie, of course, by the end of the year. So I guess we appreciate what we have while we have it. 

Kai seems like she’d come along in the year or so since we’ve seen her. Still a lot of choking and Moolah-ism but more presence and confidence. The start was clever as she went to the floor to call out Jackie only to set up a distraction so the Black Pair could nail her from behind. They controlled from there on Jackie then Yokota (whose frame makes her a great FIP) and then Mimi. But apparently Mimi had developed as well because she had gloves on her hands and was now a great puncher apparently. She ducked a Kai shot and laid in a bunch of blows to turn things around. That let them do a big corner spot where Jackie and Mimi held all three of the heels so Yokota could come flying at them repeatedly. Ikeshita took back over with a nasty headbutt though and they dismantled Mimi with missile dropkicks, Ikeshita’s fall away slam, release bombs from Kumano, and then a big suplex by Kai to win the first fall.

Jackie asserted herself right at the start of the second fall, but the heels took back over, including with an Ikeshita seated senton out of nowhere. The babyfaces turned it around with one of the best things I’ve seen out of all of the footage so far. Kai and Kumano came over to menace Jackie on the apron but she and Mimi were able to get their heads tied up in between the ropes, allowing the babyfaces to switch around and completely demolish Ikeshita finishing with Yokota pressing back off the top turnbuckle with a ricocheting splash. The third fall had some spirited stuff on the outside, including a chair getting stuffed down upon Yokota by Kai’s partner (maybe Wendi Richter in overalls?), but it devolved into chaos and got thrown out. This built to some great moments and, like most of the 80s matches was a little more even than the 70s beatdowns so felt more complete. It was a good way to start the year. 

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Found Footage Friday: LOST LUCHA~! HIJO DEL SANTO~! BABE RICHARD~! KONNAN~! REY SR~!

Shogun/Faisan vs. Babe Richard/El Master Arena Coliseo 1984-1985

MD: It's rare that lucha this old pops up and I don't think we have a ton of Richard pre-reffing. Shogun is the Ramirez from the last few months.  Master was Richard's brother. They had a pretty good act as heatseeking rudos. Constant motion. Faisin did a spot early where he took one's hands up to the top rope and when the other rushed in, he faked a kick, then stepped on his head/shoulders, to bound off and armdrag the other. I'm not sure I've seen it done quite like that. Then Shogun came in and they played right into a bunch of rudo stooging. Once they took over (and got the primera with a foul), they were constant double teams and pulling feet in from the outside to be weapons. Just constant nuisances. The handheld nature of this meant we heard all the laughter as they were getting theirs and the heat when they were dishing it out. Comeback became quebradora city until Faisan took an errant palm strike and fell down, getting a foot up as he did to foul one of his opponents before the ref and draw the DQ. Very weird finish that I am glad is lost to time because no one seemed to like it.

Rey Misterio Sr./Arana Negra vs. "Huracan Ramirez Jr."/Konnan LA Early 90s

MD: A series of finds from the family of this Ramirez. Arana is going to be Misterioso and we come in with a rudo beatdown. He works the crowd well enough here. They all do more or less, and the crowd is very into Konnan (and Ramirez knew his job was to get them chanting along for him). It's fun to watch Misterio beat on him. Most of the Rey Sr. I've seen has him as a tecnico but it's always fun to watch him play rudo now and again. He was quite good at it. Konnan was quite good at making sure people's faces ended up in his crotch, including when Arana tried to do push ups. Rudos took back over with chairs (including a drop toe-hold onto them) and Konnan was good at looking like he was constantly trying to get back in it or fight back, even with a rudo ref. Finish had Misterio get a foul on Konnan behind the ref's back but he spent too long celebrating and got nailed himself with a Konnan foul. The fans seemed pretty happy about all of it at least. An interesting look at how certain instincts played out in front of a crowd like this and of a relatively svelte Misterio Sr.

Huracan Ramirez Jr./Hijo del Santo vs. Mosco de la Merced/Tornado Negro Anaheim Late 90s

MD: We get about ten minutes of action here and I'm not sure if it's just the primera or if it's the whole thing, but it is fun. This is parking lot tent lucha. Ramirez looked pretty good here, starting and then being part of the finish. I don't know if Tornado Negro was a natural enemy to him or what but they matched up well with armdrags and what not. The fans wanted to see Santo and so do we and he had a few minutes of playing the hits with Mosco, sweeping him out of the ring, doing the headstand headscissors, a headscissors takeover, the rowboat. It's all rousing stuff and the fans eat it up. Then Ramirez comes in for some rudo miscommunication stuff, including yanking the ref down, before he hit a power bomb out of the corner and Santo flew off the top with his headbutt and they brought it to a finish. We're not going to refuse seeing Santo we haven't seen before and the setting was nice but it was pretty lightweight stuff.

ER: My girlfriend and I are in Reno for a birthday weekend getaway, and we watched this in bed at like 1:30 AM after getting some of the best pizza (shout out Noble Pie Parlor). We had just talked about El Santo movies the day before when she saw a couple in one of my many dvd and blu ray stacks, and I had given her a brief history lesson and told her about the times I saw El Santo's son live, explaining that he is regarded by me and everyone else as one of the finest wrestlers in history. Lo and behold, the next day, new Hijo del Santo appears in the wild and here we are watching him. This is probably not the greatest intro someone could get to Hijo del Santo, but I loved her reactions and insight. Mainly, she wanted to know, that if he was such a big star, then why was he working this show under a tent outdoors without a very big crowd. I told her he was a major star who was still a man of the people, and as long as someone paid his rate he would play any venue and still put on a performance worthy of the Santo name. 

I have never seen him turn in a Less Than Santo performance, and in that way this was a good way to introduce someone to him. Because once Santo entered the ring, she understood his star power. She has been absorbing wrestling through osmosis, it being regularly on in my place, but she has never seen anyone who moves like Hijo del Santo. I told her that I hadn't either, and would recognize his motion anywhere. She was captivated by how light he was on his feet, his cross ankle headscissors, all of the things we are so familiar with, captivating yet another soul. We have all seen dozens and dozens and hundreds and hundreds of Santo matches more essential than this one, but I don't know if there's a wrong place to jump into this man's career. Even in this venue, you can feel the star power and see what's special about him. I'd watch him work his magic with anyone, anywhere. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: For Each Show Host, A Match

Week 56: For Each Show Host, A Match

EB: We continue on the road to Aniversario 91, as four matches have been officially signed. The main event is scheduled to be Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin for the Universal title, but Dino Bravo has been making noise about wanting that title match for himself. Bravo made a surprise appearance at Noche de Campeones where he made a surprise attack on Carlos Colon. It looks like we finally have a decision with regards to whether Bravo gets the match or not. Meanwhile, Carlos is dealing with the Polyneasian Prince, Gen. Akbar’s latest recruit and someone who seems to be focused on injuring Carlos before Aniversario. They faced each other last week in Caguas after having quite the brawl at the TV taping, and it looks like the rivalry has escalated. They are set to face off once more in a barbed wire match.

In other Aniversario news, Bronco remains out due to the fireball attack but promises revenge on Akbar at Aniversario. Meanwhile, Profe keeps spiraling a bit with the idea of having to face Monster Ripper, in part due to the constant needling from Hugo Savinovich over the situation. One final piece of news, TNT has been cleared for action and has set his sights on getting back the TV title from King Kong. Now let’s go to the west coast version of Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre from June 1 and see what the decision regarding Dino Bravo is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0tpp1n8IWI

Hugo welcomes the viewers to the show and goes over what we will see today, including Universal champion Carlos Colon (in a rare tv studio match) taking on King Kong. During the rundown Hugo makes mention of Dino Bravo being the number one contender for the Universal title and the man who will face Carlos at Aniversario, so it looks like the commission made the decision to change the match to Colon vs Bravo. Since this is the west coast edition of Super Estrellas, all mentions of Aniversario are focused on the Friday card in San German. Hugo updates the viewers on the most recent developments for that card, but not before hyping up the air conditioning, ample parking and security available at the facility in San German. The main event for Friday July 5 is Carlos Colon defending the Universal title against Dino Bravo. It is official, since Bravo and Profe were alleging that Carlos was ducking Bravo out of fear. To help Bravo’s cause, it seems that Profe went to Ron Garvin and paid him off to step aside. Garvin called the WWC commission and relinquished his title shot. Add to that Carlos wanting payback for the attack Bravo did at Noche de Campeones and here we are with Bravo now challenging Carlos at Aniversario.

Also scheduled is a first time ever match in Puerto Rico as a man faces a woman, and Hugo says that Monster Ripper is favored against Profe. Dick Murdoch vs Giant Warrior and Bronco vs Skandor Akbar in a vengeance match round out the signed matches so far, there will be 6 other matches so stay tuned as new updates are made. Next week there will be information about where you can purchase tickets for the show, and with that let’s go to the ring for our first match. 

King Kong vs. Carlos Colon

Our first match is a surprising one, as Carlos Colon takes on King Kong. This is a non-title match and Hugo mentions this is a dangerous opponent for Carlos. Akbar is not at ringside with Kong, but Hugo says that it will be a big boost for Devastation Inc if Kong defeats Carlos here. The first minutes of the match are all about establishing Kong’s size and strength advantage, he shoves Carlos down a few times and works him over with nerve holds. The match continues with Kong in control, with Hugo saying it's surprising that Kong is having such a dominant showing against Calros, who trains diligently. Hugo sends a hellos to the viewers watching in the different countries the program airs and it sure seems that this match is to help establish if Carlos can handle bigger and stronger opponents such as Dino Bravo. After six or seven minutes, Colon makes a comeback after dodging a corner splash. The offensive flurry is ended when Kong uses his weight to belly bump Colon on a corner charge. Kong picks Colon up for a slam and Carlos grabs the ropes to prevent it. The referee tells Colon to let go and kicks Colon’s hands off the ropes. The sudden momentum shift seems to unbalance Kong and he falls down with Colon on top. The ref makes a count and Carlos wins the match, although it looks more like it was luck. This may be a sign that Carlos may have a tough time against Bravo unless he really prepares.

MD: Not a long match but kind of an interesting one since we haven’t seen Colon face someone this size in a while. Kong really had Colon’s number for the first two thirds of this, overpowering him and then leaning down on him hard with clubbers and nerveholds. Colon dodged a corner charge and took over. There was some sense that he had worn him down with a rope-a-dope though it didn’t quite have enough time to play out. Kong was so active that it sort of worked though. He came out of the corner with a Vader Attack though but Colon held on to the top rope on a slam attempt and when the ref kicked the hands out, he fell on him for a quick three. If Kong was leaving the territory this was a good way to have him do business on TV on the way out. Otherwise, it was a weird thing to give away.

EB: Dino Bravo is in the studio for another promo about facing Carlos Colon, only this time the match is officially a go. Bravo says that he tracked Colon to his backyard and on his first visit to the island almost broke Colon’s neck. Bravo has his number and he will become the new Universal champion at Aniversario 91. Carlos Colon is next and says that Aniversario 91 is going to be an important night for him. Not only is he facing the world strongest man and a great wrestler, Colon has a personal score to settle with Bravo after the humiliation he received at Noche de Campeones. Hugo makes note that this is not only for the title but also a chance for Carlos to represent Puerto Ricans well. Carlos says that the fans know Bravo's accomplishments and it is a tough task he faces, but with the fans support he will come out with the win. The segment ends with an Aniversari 91 card rundown featuring the four announced matches so far.

MD: Bravo just seemed happy to be there, talking about how Colon was the ambassador to the world but that Bravo had come to his backyard and could have broken his neck. He had to ask Profe for confirmation on the fact it was called Aniversario but said that Colon should bring his heart and his belt and he’d take both. As a kid from New England in 1991, I would have probably seen Bravo as a bigger star than Ron Garvin but I still have my doubts here.

Billy Joe Travis & Gran Mendoza vs. Ricky Santana & Tito Carrion

EB: We go back to Miramar for our next match but it seems that an argument is happening at the commentary desk. Billy Joe Travis is there with El Galana Mendoza and El Profe, they are up next. Instead of being in the ring, Travis is angrily yelling at Hugo Savinovich, it seems Travis is angry about comments Hugo has made about him. Hugo dismisses Travis and tells him to get in the ring, he doesn’t want to talk to Travis right now. Profe has to drag Travis away so they can go to the ring for their match. As Travis and Mendoza enter the ring, the camera shows Hugo and Eliud at the commentary desk and Hugo is angry, explaining to Eliud that this guy Travis brought up Hugo’s wife again and Hugo is not having that. It looks like there have been some verbal jabs between Travis and Hugo in recent weeks but we haven't seen them on the TV episode versions we have. Still, Hugo says that if Travis has any issues with him that’s fine but he should stick to talking about Hugo and not his wife. Eliud adds that Travis took it further by shoving Hugo and Hugo says he’ll compose himself because he is a professional and has a job to do. 

In the ring, Mendoza and Travis are facing Ricky Santana and Tito Carrion. Travis and Santana lock up and Hugo asks Eliud to continue with the commentating for now. Santana and Carrion get the early advantage on Travis, as Hugo has calmed down enough to join Eliud on commentary. Hugo says that he's pretty sure that El Profe is behind all of this by goading Travis and getting him riled up to go after Hugo. Hugo thinks it’s because of all the comments and grief he has given Profe over the Monster Ripper situation. Hugo draws the line at having his wife and family brought into this though. As Travis and Mendoza take over on Carrion, Hugo continues going off, saying that this has to be Profe and other people that are likely jealous of the good work Hugo does on the TV shows and that he’s not going to continue letting this go. The rudos continue working over Carrion and Profe decides to go over and needle Hugo about what happened. Hugoa accuses Profe about being behind all of this and Profe just laughs, saying all he did was tell Travis the truth about all the garbage Hugo was saying about Travis. In the ring, the rudos continue isolating Carrion and, despite a brief flurry from Carrion, win the match after a Mendoza DDT. Post match, an angry Travis once again makes a beeline towards Hugos and starts yelling and shoving him a bit before being pulled away.

MD: Travis was an awesome heatseeker. He has some things I love in USWA Texas right around this time if I’m not mistaken, and he was getting right in Hugo’s face before the match. It’s funny that on a card where they already have Profe vs Ripper and (if I’m not mistaken) Akbar vs Bronco, they’re looking to maybe do Hugo vs Travis too, but I guess it would fit a theme. This was effective (in part because it was so unusual) nonetheless.

Travis was a natural fit here, leaning his face in so Santana could take a swipe, then nailing him with sweeping punches and slaps of his own. He stooged big when it was time, and then, once they got Tito in, they leaned hard on him, drawing Santana in a couple of times that just made the double teaming worse. Real mauling. Carrion finally got a comeback but it was brief as he ran right into Mendoza’s knee and ate a DDT. Post-match Travis jawed with Hugo at the desk some more.

EB: Skandor Akbar has an interview and talks about not being certain that Bronco will make it to Aniversario. Akbar is retired and pays other people to fight for him, but he is not happy at being forced by the WWC to face Bronco. But he has a plan and Bronco better be careful. Bronco responds by telephone as they replay video of the fireball incident. Bronco says he has burn marks, blisters and scars from Akbar’s fireball but promises that at Aniversario he will get his revenge. 

MD: Akbar wasn’t happy with having to face Bronco. He said he was the godfather, the general, and retired, rich enough to pay others to wrestle but WWC was forcing the issue. He sounded frazzled, focusing both on the idea that Bronco might be too hurt to wrestle due to the burn but also that it could happen again or he might have a trick up his sleeve. Bronco, despite not being in the studio, was spirited as ever and fans would certainly think he was showing up for this one.

Rod Price vs. Herbert Gonzalez

EB: Rod Price is in action against Herbert Gonzalez and this match is a showcase for the man who says he is the perfect wrestler. Herbert gets no offense and Price shows off some nice moves as Hugo and Eliud talk up Price's credentials and background. Price gets the win after a shoulder tackle. Let’s see what waves Price can make in Puerto Rico.

MD: On paper, Price really fits in too but I’ll need to see something more competitive. He steamrolled Herbert here, belly to belly, hotshot, leg drop, fist drop, a goofy roll into an elbow in the corner and a great jumping shoulder tackle, all while Akbar gloated on the outside. 

EB: Giant Warrior is in the studio to talk about his scheduled match against Dick Murdoch. Warrior says that Murdoch won’t get any vindication at Warrior’s expense. He'll keep an eye out for Joe Don Smith but his main focus is on Dick Murdoch.

MD: Interesting bit here is that they did half, translated, and then did the other half. You don’t usually see Hugo actually ask a follow up question (this time about Joe Don Smith) that way. I can’t say that Murdoch vs Giant Warrior is exactly what I’d want for my #2 match on the PPV relative to Murdoch vs Invader or TNT but they had run through some of these pairings already I guess and it’s not like Warrior wasn’t heavily established by now. 

Brad Anderson vs. Huracan Castillo Jr.

EB: Up next is Brad Andersn taking on Huracan Castillo and there may be fireworks considering that Profe and Monster Ripper are at ringside. And immediately Ripper tries to go after Profe but instead Profe hides behind Brad Anderson. Ripper still goes after him and Profe decides to flee to the locker room instead of getting caught by Ripper. Profe stays in the shadows of the entrance as Ripper calls him a chicken, but runs back out when Ripper goes back to ringside. The match starts and it is pretty even in the first minute until Castillo catches Anderson with an atomic drop that sends Anderson through the ropes to the outside. Profe rubs Anderson’s booboo before  Brad gets back in the ring. As the match continues, Profe heads over to the commentary desk and explains that he’s trying to avoid any incident since the commissioner has been going around levying fines as of late and Profe doesn’t want to risk his license (although he wants nothing more than to give Ripper a slap in the face). Anderson works a chinlock on Castillo and Ripper again tries to chase after Profe (who hides behind the commentators). This match is really a backdrop for the Profe and Ripper rivalry. Castillo ends up making a comeback but it’s the managers that lead to the finish. Profe distracts the ref so that Anderson can get the advantage, but Ripper takes that opening to shake the ropes and cause Anderson to fall from the turnbuckle. Castillo gets the pin right after and he and Ripper head back to the locker room.

After the match we get promos from El Profe and Monster Ripper. Profe says that he is fed up with the insults and has reached the point of not caring about being a gentleman. Since he is being forced to do the match, Profe will take this opportunity to use Ripper as an example that a woman's place is in the home, tending to their husbands and doing the household chores. . Maybe Ripper is infatuated with Profe and that is why she wants to get her hands on him but Profe is going to forget she is a woman and will beat her up at Aniversario. Monster Ripper responds by saying Profe will respect women and reminds Profe that she is not like the women from around here. She will fight on behalf of all of the women in the world and she will hit him hard.

MD: Ripper was out with Castillo. Profe was out with Anderson. Really, the match took a backseat to their antics as Ripper chased Profe to the back once or twice. I’m not sure about the chemistry between Castillo and Anderson (probably down to Anderson), but there also wasn’t a lot to latch on to here. Castillo had his nice jumping knee on the comeback. Finish was muddled as Profe distracted for no reason as Anderson was going to the top, allowing Ripper to shake the ropes and Castillo to steal a win. Post match promos seemed to be what you’d expect for a man vs woman match. I’d almost rather have had Ripper defeat a guy (Exotico would have been perfect but we haven’t seen him for a while) as part of the build instead.

EB: Skandor Akbar is in the studio with Rod Price, a recent arrival to his stable. Price has several nicknames it looks like. Akbar talks up Price's physique and wrestling skills. 

MD: Akbar touted all of Price’s attributes and called him Rugged and Mr. Perfect. Price said he was a Dude with a Tude and Hugo had to figure out how to translate it.

Dino Bravo vs. George Anderson from WWF Superstars

EB: We get a Dino Bravo squash match courtesy of the WWF. We still haven’t seen Bravo wrestle in Puerto Rico but that will change soon.

MD: Bravo has some weirdly babyface coded offense, both an inverted atomic drop and an airplane spin. I hate how he sets up the side slam with a kick to the gut. If he had done it after the airplane spin, it would have been much better and less stilted. The WWF heat machine is droning and distracting in a way I don’t usually notice. Wonder if it has something to do with the Hugo voice over on the sound mix. It would have been nice to have Bravo in studio for a squash. I bet it’d have a different feel.

EB: Dick Murdoch and Joe Don Smith offer some comments about the scheduled match with Giant Warrior. Murdoch is miffed that he is booked against Giant Warrior because he wants Carlos Colon again. If Murdoch has to annihilate someone else to get that, he will do that. The episode then ends with the previously seen TNT and Ron Garvin music videos and Hugo's sign off.

MD: Now I feel bad for questioning Giant Warrior because Joe Don and Murdoch feel the same way I do. But Murdoch says Warrior should say bye to his loved ones because he’s going to lift him up for the brainbuster and send him to the hospital.

EB: So we’ve seen how Aniversario is shaping up on the west coast, but we have a big card scheduled for tonight in Bayamon. Let’s go to part of the Campeones episode from June 1 to get the latest news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcbvxgQmpMk

The video starts with Hugo in the Aniversario 91 control center, where he is explaining the confirmation of Colon vs. Bravo and the whole deal with Ron Garvin stepping down. Hugo also talks about the incident that happened last Wednesday in Miramar with Billy Joe Travis. It’s the same incident we saw on Super Estrellas but we get some additional footage. It seems Carlos Colon has come out to the commentary desk and Hugo is asking Carlos if El Ejercito de la Justicia would help Hugo train if he decides to challenge Travis to a match. Carlos says of course they will and promises in front of everyone that he will be the first one to train Hugo. Hugo yells out ‘You got it Mr. Travis’ and it looks like we have another match for Aniversario 91. Giant Warrior also approaches Hugo and offers his help in training Hugo. The control center wraps up by reminding the dates for Aniversario 91.

MD: We see a little bit more of what occurred after the match from the last show. Because (at the urging of Profe, says Hugo) Travis insulted both Hugo and his wife, he said he’d fight Travis. Colon offers to help. Giant Warrior offers to train, and we’ve got another non-wrestler vs wrestler match for Aniversario. After this we get just a glimpse of a pretty cool looking Road to Aniversario video.

EB: We then get a card rundown for tonight in Bayamon:  Carlos Colon vs Polynesian Prince in a barbed wire match; in a super challenge Invader #1 vs Ron Garvin; Giant Warrior vs. Dino Bravo; rematch for the TV title as King Kong defends against the returning TNT; Super Medico #3 defends the Caribbean title against Dick Murdoch; Galan Mendoza & Billy Joe Travis defend the Caribbean tag titles against the Caribbean Express with Monster Ripper handcuffed to El Profe at ringside; Brad Anderson defends the World Junior title against Ricky Santana; and Invader #4 & Mr. Ito vs. Rod Price & Action Jackson. Also, tomorrow they will be in Caguas with Carlos Colon vs. Ron Garvin; Invader #1 vs. Dino Bravo; TNT & Giant Warrior vs. Polynesian Prince & Dick Murdoch; Super Medico #3 vs. King Kong, Castillo, Perez & Santana  vs. Mendoza, Travis & Price; Invader #4 vs Brad Anderson; and Mr. Ito vs. Action Jackson.

We cut to Skandor Akbar and Polynesian Prince in the studio, with Akbar talking about tonight’s barbed wire match. Clips are shown of last week’s match between Colon and Prince, with Akbar saying Carlos gave Prince his best shot and it didn’t get the job done. Tonight Prince will finish Colon and then Colon will call Akbar master. Prince just chews on some straw while Akbar is talking. Then Akbar talks about tomorrow’s tag match against TNT & Giant Warrior.

MD: The card they’re promoting with the Prince vs Colon barbed wire rematch is really good. Invader vs Garvin. Giant Warrior vs Bravo. King Kong vs TNT. Super Medico III vs Murdoch. Caribbean Express vs Travis/Mendoza with Profe and Ripper handcuffed together. Anderson vs Santana. Plus Invader IV. Mr. Ito. Rod Price. And Action Jackson. That’s a really strong show. Another show has Colon vs Garvin, Invader vs Bravo. TNT/Warrior vs Prince/Murdoch and Medico vs Kong. So some good shows in the lead up to Aniversario. The most interesting part of the Akbar promo was him talking about how many favorites Murdoch had done for Devastation Inc. over the years.

EB: El Profe is with Travis and Mendoza, and they talk about tonight’s title defense against the ‘Chicken’ Express. Travis starts by calling Puerto Rico ‘his island’ and insults Hugo Savinovich and his wife. Profe is happy that he will be handcuffed to Monster Ripper so he can stop her from doing her underhanded cheating. Mendoza talks about tomorrow's six man tag and says something that gets bleeped. 

MD: Travis was leaning hard into this saying he’d not just beat Hugo but beat his wife as well.

EB: Ron Garvin is here and is looking forward to knocking out Invader #1 tonight. Invader has to prove to Garvin that he can knock Garvin out. Garvin is confident he can knock Invader out, ask Carlos Colon about that.

MD: Garvin having to come up with about six ways to show off his fists as Hugo was translating his promo doesn’t quite reach Scott Hall levels of amusement but it comes close.

Brad Anderson vs. Ricky Santana

EB: Our main event for this episode of Campeones is the World Junior title match from last week in Caguas, as Ricky Santana challenges Brad Anderson. The match starts with Profe goading Santana into chasing him outside the ring, allowing Anderson to surprise attack Santana when he rounded a corner. Sanatna quickly recovers however, and decks both Anderson and Profe. Santana is back in the ring as Anderson is trying to revive Profe on the outside, but has to race back in to avoid the countout. The wrestlers exchange shoves and punches with Saatana winning the exchange. It looks like Profe massaging Anderson’s booboo is a regular part of their act, as he does it again after Anderson got atomic dropped by Santana. On commentary Hugo and Profe are arguing about their upcoming Aniversario matches and who will fare better, and also about Profe’s insistence of making fun of wrestlers' nationalities. Ricky continued in control as we got to commercial break.

Back from the break and Santana is doing a sunset flip for a two count. Based on the commentary, it looks like Profe had thrown Ricky into one of the posts, which gave Anderson the opening to take control of the match. Profe claims that Santana fell into the post and he was only near him to try to help him back up. Santana is bleeding and Anderson works him over with a rear chinlock. Anderson misses a legdrop and Ricky comes back, highlighted by a foul kick to Anderson when the ref wasn’t looking. As Ricky gets fired up, Hugo has the video crew show a brief moment of when Profe threw Ricky into the post so the fans can see what a liar Profe is. Another punch exchange is won by Santana. Ricky goes for a flying body press but accidentally takes out both Anderson and the ref. Ricky covers but there is no one to count. Ricky starts punching Anderson again, with Anderson countering with a backdrop that sends Santana over the top rope to the floor right by where the referee is coming to. Santana gets on the apron and exchanges more punches with Anderson. Brad tries to suplex Santana in but Ricky shifts his weight and lands on top of Anderson. A second referee runs in and does the three count. Santana has won the title… or so it seems. Turns out the first referee saw Anderson throw Santana over the top rope and awarded the decision to Sanatan by dq. Anderson remains the champion. 

MD: On paper, this pairing was getting old, but this had enough Puerto Rico hooha to make it work. Profe distracted Santana for an Anderson ambush on the floor to begin but when he held him, Santana ducked and Andreson took his manager out on the floor. Fun stuff. Back in the ring, Santana controlled for a while as Brad stooged. One big problem with Anderson is that his transitions tend to be fairly weak, a lot of just pressing someone into the corner and taking over. The big damage was done during the break as Profe had posted Santana though, opening him up. That was a good visual during the chinlock at least. Finish was wonky and Dusty-ish, with the ref getting taken out on a flying body press by Santana and Santana then hefted over the top by Anderson. A second ref came in to count a pin on the way back in but the first one had seen the over the top hefting and ruled it a DQ instead of a title switch. It’s the Junior title. Just switch the thing back and forth, right? Overachieving match overall though, especially fun for Profe trying to explain what he did and didn’t do on commentary.

EB: We have video for two of the matches from the June 1 house show from Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel. Before getting to those matches, let’s discuss some of the other results from that card. As would be expected, Dino Bravo picked up the win against Giant Warrior in his first match in Puerto Rico on his way to Aniversario 91. Titles wise, Super Medico #3 retained his title against Dick Murdoch, while the Caribbean Express and Ricky Santana regained their titles. As for Invader #1 and Ron Garvin, we’ll discuss what happened in their match next time. 

That leaves the TV title match and the barbed wire match, which are the two matches we have footage for. First, TNT has made his return and is getting a chance to get revenge against King Kong  and possibly win the TV title back. Let’s see how that goes for him.

TNT vs. King Kong - June 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x8W7Pcf8aU

We join this match in progress as King Kong is stomping a downed TNT. Kong sends TNT into the ropes and knocks him down with a belly bump.  Kong casually steps on TNT and continues attacking him. As the blows continue, TNT starts gathering himself and fires back. Eventually TNT is able to knock Kong down after two clotheslines. An eye rake by Kong stops TNT’s surge and Kong splashes TNT in the corner. TNT is sent into the ropes and ducks a Kong clothesline, setting up a dynamite kick that staggers Kong. A second one staggers him more but Kong does not go down. TNT comes off the ropes with a flying spin kick and finally knocks Kong down. TNT makes the over and gets the three count. TNT has regained the TV title and defeated the monster that had put him on the shelf.

MD: Just two minutes here. Kong controls for a bit, moving around well and with credible shots. I liked TNT’s hulk up here. Kong still squashes him in the corner but TNT ducks a shot and starts laying in the kicks, with Kong as a big canvas for his offense, making it look great. TNT hits the jumping kick and scores a decisive win.

EB: And now let's see how Carlos Colon fares against the Polynesian Prince as the ring is encased in barbed wire.

Carlos Colon vs. Polynesian Prince - Barbwire Match - June 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9b7r8GSoHc

We join the match with Carlos already in the ring and the Polynesian Prince climbing over the ropes into the ring. The ropes have barbed wire wrapped around them. The match is a bit tentative to start, with Colon doing a side headlock and Prince attacking but not with much aggressiveness. As this is going on, Hugo shills the PPV broadcast of Aniversario 91 on the cable system this is being broadcast on. The match continues with Prince in control, using chokes and biting offense but again it does not come across as being aggressive considering the type of attacks.Carlos starts bleeding and Prince attacks the forehead. Carlos ends up going into the barbed wire off some blows from Prince, but it comes off more as incidental than done with purpose by Prince. The match continues with some standard spots of trying to push your opponent's face in the wire and Prince pulls out a foreign object to attack Colon with. Prince controls the first half of the match but once Carlos makes his comeback it is all Colon. Prince bleeds as Carlos starts throwing Prince into the barbed wire and attacking the cut on Prince’s forehead. Carlos ducks a clothesline and hits a back suplex that sets up Prince for the figure four. Prince submits and Carlos Colon has won the barbed wire match. Post match, Carlos decides to dish out some more punishment to Prince and make sure the rivalry is settled once and for all.

MD: It’s great we have this one but I’m not quite sure it lives up to other Colon barbed wire matches. Some of that could be the muted sound, of course, but a lot of it was how they treated the barbed wire. Prince went into it early. He responded by hitting a foul and taking over for quite a while. Colon came back and punished him for much of the rest of the match, leaving both men bloody. There were a lot of whips back into the wire and Prince was deep into character as he responded with an almost dancing sort of Kamala-esque selling. There just wasn’t enough gravitas in trying not to end up in it maybe? The best bit was actually Colon having to adapt his comeback headbutts and getting Prince from behind. Finish had him locking in the figure-four and the wire here almost was more useful to keep any potential interference out so Prince had no choice but to give up.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, more matches are signed for Aniversario including Ron Garvin getting a new opponent for the event. We also will see who Mr. Ito and Hugo Savinovich starts his training as we continue on the road to Aniversario 91.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/12 - 1/18 (Part 1)

AEW Dynamite 1/14/26

MJF vs Bandido

Way I see it, Max only has one thing left to prove.

Look, he was a very young world champion, main evented one of the biggest shows of all time, has drawn houses and ratings and sold merch, has the Punk feud, has the Danielson match, the Darby match, the Ospreay match, the Omega match. The Mistico match, with the Briscoe match the next night. He's probably a top 10 success story in the wrestler-to-movie pipeline already (but then it's not like he has a lot of competition; Hunter didn't blow the world away with Blade III). He got over incredible babyface bullshit with the Double Clothesline/Kangaroo Kick deal. He's done two musical numbers. I could go on and mention more matches or esoteric things. You can argue any one of these things, but you can't argue all of them. 

So what's left? Going to WWE and main eventing a Mania? That's all politics. It's all playing a game. It's being part of a machine. We know he can play politics. There's nothing real there anymore, if there ever was. Natural heel that he is, he's not going to break Make-A-Wish records or be the best darn spokesman for the Saudi regime you could hope for. 

Is it getting star ratings? We don't care much about that here but he's got the highest WON star rating ever for a US TV match, or something like that. Does quantity really matter all that much? Maybe it does to some people, but wrestling isn't math. 

Wrestling is, however, broken.  

More than just about any fictional medium out there, it has an antagonistic fanbase. It's not about real vs fake. It's not about working people and kayfabe. But it was for a long time, and as wrestling fans trended older, as the product became more niche, more about itself than real life human issues, it became all the more essential for those remaining fans to feel like they were smart, to be above it all, to not compare themselves to the people screaming and shouting and letting themselves get caught up in the moment. 

The social contract between performer and audience broke. 

I'm not saying that wrestling is the only medium with a spoiler culture or people obsessing over box office or fans nitpicking every thing. It's 2026 and we're in an age of social media and that's a lot of things now. Wrestling’s more interactive than most others, however, and it asks more of the live audience. And that live audience today are the heirs of the 80s sheet writers and readers, the ones that looked down upon people who cheered for Hogan or Dusty, who were self-conscious about their hobby, the hobby that they put so much time and effort into. The rise of the internet let that mentality spread like a disease. The end of WCW and rise of MMA peeled off a lot of the more casual fanbase. And then social media brought people closer to the wrestlers allowing the Elite to use irony to get over by tossing the suspension of disbelief to the wayside and creating a relationship with the fanbase, showing everyone the strings all the time so they could feel nice and comfortable and superior. 

All this led to a shift in how matches were worked and a shift in the reward structure. The super indy style became more prevalent as was mimicking bloated Japanese style epics. Getting star ratings or high cagematch scores became more important in getting over. Hitting viral spots might get you over the top. Yes, we're seeing it in all forms of entertainment and hearing stories about how people can't get cast unless they have a certain amount of Instagram followers because movies can't be greenlit unless some total number is reached. But because of the interactive nature of wrestling, the end product shows it all the more. It’s become an endless race to a sensational bottom, nothing allowed to breathe, nothing allowed to sink in, nothing allowed to resonate. Everything has to be so awesome and overwhelming that nothing can actually move people and force them to feel.

Which brings us back to Max and what he has left to prove.

He says he’s a generational talent, says that he wants a legacy, to be remembered as one of the best ever. We’re in a quantitative checkbox world. How many spots? How many counters? How many kickouts? How many likes, retweets, views? And he can be one of the best at that. We’ve seen it. He’s proven it. He’s proven it too many times, actually, because it never seems to take with the fanbase and that just drives him to prove it again, just so it won’t take again. He can be another number in a world of numbers.

Or he can leverage his push, his track record, his spot, his skill, his success outside wrestling, and prove that one last thing.

He can save pro wrestling. He can reset the balance. He can make people WANT to feel again, to value it.

What an uphill battle he faces. Look at this match. He’s in there against Bandido, one of the best babyfaces in the world, with a real, true connection to the crowd, who lets himself be earnest and heartfelt, but look at what he had against him? The crowd he’s in front of. Not only have they been watching years of this stuff, following it online, living and breathing it, but on this very show they’d already seen a Darby Allin car crash trainwreck match with some bumps that should be highlights for the entire decade AND a crazy multi-team tag full of coordinated, collaborative, over the top spots. Moreover, he has Bandido himself to face, because for as wonderful Bandido is, his finisher, the 21-plex, is one of the most disruptive moves in pro wrestling, forcing his opponent to move into a spot that he’d never be in for any other match. Feeling is about immersion, and nothing breaks immersion quite like that. 

Max would have to wrestle basically a perfect match, a perfect performance in order to make this work, to save the crowd from itself, to save wrestling from itself, and quite frankly, to save him from himself and his own need to prove once again everything that’s already been proven and not the one thing that he still needs to prove the most. 

—-------------------

Every detail mattered. That’s half the battle here. The other half is selflessness, confidence, channeling the spirit of Terry Funk to throw yourself fully into every moment, to make every moment seem to matter, not necessarily to the story or to history, but to the wrestler in the ring. Everything has consequence, physical but especially emotional. If the wrestlers care, the fans will care. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but over time. 

The fans were split to start, behind Bandido but willing to chant for MJF. They sang along to his theme song. So he immediately disengaged and told them to shut up. That turned them immediately.They weren’t going to get rewarded by MJF, no pat on the head, no playing along, nothing to latch on to. That would continue. 

The early feeling out process hits the right marks. MJF underestimates Bandido early, stepping over a dropdown and playing around with Eddy Guerrero’s mannerisms, with Ric Flair’s. That builds up the pressure for him to get outwrestled by Bandido. Bandido punctuates it with the finger gun. MJF responds with an eyerake. The fans boo. This is Act I. The characters are being established. The stage is being set.

MJF runs into a press slam and stumbles into 21-plex position, hands on the second rope, crouching. It’s the gun in Bandido’s holster, Chekhov’s Gun, and by going to that position early and often, by setting it up as a possibility at multiple points, it becomes more believable, more strategic even. Was MJF trying to lure Bandido in? Had he actually stumbled there? Other matches, other sequences couldn’t be controlled, but this match could be. Regardless, here MJF rolls to the outside, just a tease, and walks away from Bandido’s first dive attempt, tapping his head, showing his superiority, making it impossible, only to walk right into a second dive attempt. MJF gives the fans nothing. Bandido gives them everything. MJF shows himself to be despicable, arrogant, cowardly and gets instant retribution. And the fans? They don’t chant this is awesome. They chant for Bandido instead.

Bandido is giving the crowd everything. MJF tries to stall on the apron and Bandido doesn’t give him an inch. There’s a cost to that though. It lets MJF take over on the arm, to introduce the wedge that will help drive the narrative of the first half of the match. MJF hits a pumphandle facebuster. But then he lets it breath, walking it off, interacting with the crowd. He chokes in the corner. The fans boo and he leans into that booing, amplifying it. More than that, he sets up a logical hope spot. There’s an ebb and flow. Bandido tries to fight out of the corner. MJF uses the arm to cut him off. MJF taunts Bandido and the crowd by teasing the Macarena. That lets Bandido fight back again. MJF cuts him off, hits a shoulder breaker, basks more, gets a reaction. All emotional responses. All character driven. All structurally sound. Wrestling isn’t math. Sometimes it’s physics, and here pressure is building and letting off only to build all the more. This has time to live and breathe and worm its way into the hearts and souls of the crowd.

They make the most of the commercial break. MJF throws Bandido arm first into the corner, hammerlocked. He goes for it again. Bandido turns it around and starts the ten punches in the corner. Interactive. MJF cuts him off at nine as he was hyping up ten, stealing the candy from the fans. He hits an inverted atomic drop and jams the arm. The fans chant for Bandido. Back from break, he goes for the Three Amigos. It’s always a borderline face spot when Mercedes does it, but there’s no joy in MJF’s heart. It’s a sheer insult. Bandido blocks the third and starts firing back. MJF tries to cut him off, can’t. The crowd expects Bandido to reverse it clean, but MJF bites him. The crowd boos, thinking they weren’t going to get their reward once again, but Bandido, leaning into his strength powers through.

This is where they start twisting and inverting things. MJF avoids the 21-plex again, but Bandido reverses the Salt of the Earth. It all builds to a huge moment where MJF thinks himself safe by retreating back over the barricade but Bandido dives from the top all the way over it, defying MJF’s cowardice, defying that sense that he could prevent the fans from getting what they wanted. Bandido is brave, courageous, a man of the people, a folk hero, and he goes above and beyond to ensure justice is done.

From here they continue to invert, continue to escalate. Everything that had happened so far in Act I (defining the characters and the tone) and Act II (MJF controlling with the arm and the hope spots and cutoffs) set the stage for things boiling over here into a hot extended finishing stretch. There’s one moment after MJF turns Bandido jamming the Heatseeker pile driver into a pulling cutter that the fans chant Fight Forever, but it’s not many and it soon fades. Why? Because MJF went back to the well and tried it again only for Bandido to get the best of him. He selflessly stooged and showed vulnerability to disrupt the fans even thinking of treating this like a 50-50 scenario.

They move into big spots and roll-ups and nearfalls, keeping things exciting, cashing in all of the emotional capital they invested in the first two acts of the match. After so many teases and lures, Bandido finally hits the 21-plex, but can’t hold the bridge given his arm. MJF goes for the Salt of the Earth but turns the reversal into a LeBell Lock (which Danielson on commentary lets slip, emotionally, as a Yes Lock in a great accidental call; he was just as engaged as the crowd, a testament to him and the match). Bandido passes out. MJF wins, but still manages to sell, seeing Bandido as a threat too dang the emotional weight post-match, seeing Bandido as too dangerous to let live and attacking after the bell, only for Brody King to make the save.

—---

One slip from one part of the crowd, but in general, it worked. Max and Bandido controlled for the 21-plex, survived the carcrash and spotfest before them, kept the crowd, gave everyone a memorable moment, and made people feel. They can go back to this again later, build it not bigger but deeper. Bandido came out better than he came in. Max came out better than he came in. Wrestling, I think, came out better than it came in. But it’s one step on a road and there’s so far left to go.

Why do I think that this on Max? Why not Fletcher? Why not Ricochet? Why not FTR? They can and should be part of it. They need to be part of it. But to me, it’s needs to be him. Because he’s on top and has the freedom. Because he’s a student of the game and as such understands what has been lost. Because he had that taste of Arena Mexico. Because he clearly feels alive when the fans are booing him. Because this is what he has left to prove. He can’t do it alone, but he can help change the incentives. He can help convince wrestlers that this is something they want to be a part of, that it won’t be career sabotage, even if maybe, just maybe, there’s one three quarters of a star less in it for them. 

He can help convince crowds that this is something they want to experience. They don’t have to be fooled into believing that it’s real. They can be convinced that it’s worthwhile to come and be part of the experience, to boo the heels and cheer for faces and embrace the text for its own sake once again without trying to force themselves above it or feel self conscious about it. Like if they went to a movie. Like if they watched a TV show. Like if they read a book.

I’ve felt that way in the past, that need to be a part of something. I get the notion. I wanted to see Black and Gold NXT live, to be part of that. I went to the 2015 Royal Rumble mainly so I could do the Yes! Chants at least once. I think fans can be convinced that it’s not just about seeing a big spot or athleticism or witnessing a 5.25 star match (or sing along to the songs and pavlovianly respond to catch phrases like in the other place), but instead being part of this unique emotionally gripping live experience that they can’t get anywhere else. 

They can do it with open eyes and leave their troubles at the door and Max can help show them that it’s worth it, that even in 2026, it’s worth being genuine and not ironic, that not everything’s a meme or a gif.

Unlike one house and one buyrate and one match, it’s the work of a lifetime, the work of a generation. But there’s no greater legacy he could possibly have.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Nancy!

Disc 2 

2. Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi (WWWA Singles Title Tournament Final) 12/16/80

K: This will be far more of a write-up than a ‘review’ as only about ⅓ of the match was broadcast so there’s not much to meaningfully assess. I generally didn’t even consider including such incomplete matches in this set but I made an exception here because the narrative importance to the promotion. Simply put, you gotta see who won the tournament!

This felt like an elevation of Nancy Kumi. She’s not depicted as being Jackie’s equal here I don’t think. For instance in the opening she’s able to grab a hold on Jackie briefly before Jackie’s able to escape. They then lock up again but this time it’s Jackie who is able to apply the hold, but when Nancy tries to escape the leglock Jackie just switches into a headlock on the mat, and then moves up into a standing headlock as Nancy tries to fight her way out but it takes her a relatively long time to break out. 

The clipping makes it impossible to follow what the narrative is after this but we do get a pretty dramatic finishing stretch for the last few minutes of it. Nancy’s able to hit some big power moves. It’s cool to see her like this where she’s clearly wrestling on a higher level than we’re used to seeing her. But it’s almost as if the story here is that Jackie’s big moves are just a bit more damaging than Nancy’s are, and once she gets to hit a few Nancy’s just not able to recover quickly enough for anything before she’s hit with another one. It helps that Jackie’s execution is really snug and powerful, I think you wouldn’t need any pre-existing knowledge of the promotion to recognise she’s the top dog here. She’s finishes Nancy off with a big tombstone to begin her 3rd world title reign.

No rating.

MD: Interesting match, though we definitely lose a lot of it and potential coherence from clipping. Apparently this went 35 and we have about ten of it. This was the finals. Jackie had beaten Yokota in overtime. Kumi had somehow bested Monster Ripper. What we do get here is very good. Kumi starts with a go behind trip and then Jackie follows suit. That doesn’t sound much but we really haven’t seen that sort of parallel construction much in these matches so far. Things open up with Jackie getting a roll up and a few moves in and then Nancy taking over with a roll up and some stretching and a few moves of her own. 

There was a very strong sense of sport and competitiveness here. They were both babyfaces but they rode on different buses and were in different units. The camera shots were great to capture the struggle, with Nancy pulling at Jackie’s hair to get her into a hold and you could see Jackie emoting pain and frustration. I’m not sure we can fully extrapolate out the ebbs and flows of this one overall, even if we can get a good sense of the tone and feel.

They did have a hot and iconic finishing stretch. Things spilled to the floor with brawling and Kumi took clear advantage on the way back in, stringing together one move after the next after the next. It felt inevitable maybe, a changing of the guard, but Sato slipped behind her with a roll up and took right over, dropping her again and again with her big bombs. Kumi managed to survive but only right up until the point where Jackie crushed her with a tombstone. We’d seen the Black Army use tombstones before to varying effect, I think, but they were fairly rare. This one was brutal and as Jackie celebrated her victory, Nancy was carried off to the back in a heap (if results I see are correct, it would be a bad couple of days for her as she’d lose the tag titles to Hori and Yokota the next day). From what we saw here, this was clearly good, especially considering Jackie had already worked a long match and Kumi had probably gotten tossed around by Ripper earlier in the night, but I find it hard to say definitively.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/5 - 1/11/26 (Part 2)

AEW Collision 1/10/26

Mark Briscoe vs Hechicero

There's nothing quite like pro wrestling.

Look at what we have here, two of the greatest, most stylized and over the top characters you'll find in any medium in 2026. 

There's Mark Briscoe, bearded, teeth missing, zany practitioner of redneck kung fu who likes to dive off of chairs and thirsts for violence, a wildman chicken farmer with a bombastic vocabulary and a canny glint in his eyes that you'd find in any folk hero out of the Americana canon. But he also carries with him the weight of fatherhood, the weight of carrying his late brother's legacy, of being a staunch and loyal friend, of never giving up even in the face of injustice and hardship, and he carries it all with a sort of humble, accepting spiritual grace that, in turn, humbles us all.

And then there's Hechicero, the alchemist of the ring, a fire-bending, dynamic, larger than life luchador, looking like something out of a medieval horrorshow, a mask over his face, a hood over his mask, and contacts over his eyes so as to be unknowable, yet so capable of making his reactions known to the world as he reaches out and grasps the attention of the very last row. He's possibly the most creative wrestler of his generation, able to add twists and contortions to every hold and construct elaborate technique-driven entry points for every move, the ultimate middle ground between style and substance, and isn't that the true ideal for what pro wrestling can and should be? 

Here they are then, on a random Saturday in a Texas residency, anchoring the changeover from 8 pm to 9 pm EST on TNT, fighting over Briscoe's TNT title. 

So it is that styles make fights, and contrast makes the world go round, and characters draw the eye, pulling us away from our phones, from social media, from the responsibilities of the day. With these two, with the styles they bring to the table and the contrast between them, how could anyone possibly look away?

To begin, Hechicero, well versed in the most arcane arts of llave and lucha, raised every possible question for Briscoe, locking in holds, putting painful torque on limbs, invoking the Conjuro backbreaker. But Briscoe's wisdom is the sort that you wouldn't find in dusty old spellbooks but by living life, and he had answers, landing on his feet on a mare, on a back body drop, putting his hands up in exultation even as Hechicero recoiled in surprise and disdain. This was the wizard's world but Briscoe could walk through it, head high.

He walked all the way into a world of his own, maneuvering Hechicero out between the ropes deftly and laying in the redneck kung-fu, ridiculous but effective karate chops, on the floor. He set up the chair to leap, but Hechicero disrupted it, making sure to punctuate his clever act to the crowd (as he punctuates all things, a living, breathing exclamation point), only to turn around and eat Briscoe's flying feet.

But just as Briscoe could walk through Hechicero's world, Hechicero could slink about in Briscoe's. As Mark went for the Cactus Elbow (his punctuation an opening parenthesis of "bang, bang"), Hechicero laid in wait on the floor, capturing him in an unlikely and impressive cross armbreaker on the floor. He followed it up by grapevining the arms and charging Briscoe into the post, and the blink of an eye, the alchemist had turned led to gold once more.

Over the next many minutes, Hechicero plied his trade, locking in all manner of unique submission. Briscoe made it to the ropes, surviving again and again as the wizard seethed and scowled (with his head, his arms, his torso, using his whole body to emote and accentuate the mask). The fans, perhaps given the locale, perhaps given that Don Callis was conveniently abroad, remained split, unable to deny the skill and flair they were witnessing but never about to abandon Briscoe and his struggle.

When Briscoe did start to fight back it was with one arm (and his whole body, and especially, at a key moment, his teeth). Hechicero invited punches but made sure to turn his body so Briscoe would fire off with the bad arm. He liked to play with his food. Briscoe was able to get the better of him and get him back to the floor and this time, he did leap off the chair, even if it was an awkward, desperate leap, even if the simple act of opening the chair was a pained labor given his arm.

Perhaps Hechicero was too eager to play with his food, too confident. After Briscoe couldn't lock in the Jay Driller, as that relies on a butterflying double underhook and both arms, Hechicero lifted him into the position himself. Instead of dropping him straight onto his head, he dropped him to the side as well so as to lock in one more submission.

When that failed, he showed his frustration again and charged in wildly. Briscoe, just like brer rabbit before him, moved off to the side and dodged, causing Hechicero to crash into the ropes. That was all the opening Mark needed for a second attempt at the Jay Driller. This time, with fate and momentum on his side, he found the strength and the grit to heft Hechicero up and drop him down. 

He very much stole out this win. If Hechicero had went for the Jay Driller instead, this might have been different. If Callis had there, maybe this would have been different. If he'd locked in even one more submission, maybe even Mark Briscoe would have had to quit. 

But he didn't, and he wasn't, and he hadn't. Maybe next time he would. Pro wrestling is a never ending story, and next week might be different. For now though, Mark Briscoe survived to defend his title another day. And we were left watching two styles that did make a fight, and two characters that made the fight into a folk tale for modern times, one full of skill and spirit and sensation, one that we were fortunate to get to bear witness to on one random Saturday in Texas. 

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Found Footage Friday: CENA~! REIGNS~! TAMBA~! TINIEBLAS~! MAGNUM HALL~! MALUMBA~!

Tinieblas Sr. vs. Tamba [Mask vs Hair] WWA 9/19/87

MD: LA was a dead territory. Obviously WWF had success there in the 80s, but in the midst of that, these Olympic Auditorium shows were happening and they're very much a missing piece of wrestling history. There's a lot of talk about what was happening in the 90s, but these were just there underneath the surface the whole time. And while I wish we could hear the crowd a little bit better, you can't deny the trash being thrown in at the end here, and this was overall a wild scene.

Tamba is a pudgy babyfaced guy with no shirt and no mask and he was putting his hair up against Tinieblas' hallowed mask. The commentary indicates that maybe he was being nudged into this by his partner, Super Halcon, and there was a build here where they had gotten some cheating tag wins apparently. There was also an indication that the promoter too had been goaded in and that other promoters wouldn't have put up Tinieblas' mask like this. 

Halcon hangs out on the apron at the start of the match. Tinieblas nails him and Tamba gets Tinieblas from behind and we're off to the races. Tamba's stuff is, shall we say, rough around the edges. He had size and he had size and he had size and that was pretty much what he had. His forearms did not look great, but you sort of bought them given that size and Tinieblas made sure to spin and backpedal on each one on the floor. He used a chair as well. Back in the ring he hit maybe the worst top rope splash I've ever seen, just sort of falling down on Tinieblas' legs but that scored in the primera. The segunda had a couple of Tinieblas comebacks where he beat Tamba around the ring, but that size kept coming into play. Here though he missed a second rope splash after laboriously getting up the ropes, and that allowed Tinieblas to slap on La de a Caballo.

The tercera, then, was all over the place. The video cuts in and out a bit but by the end of it, Tinieblas had hit Tamba with a chair and opened him up (though maybe not a gusher). Tamba manages to come back with not just one low blow, but two, and he pulls at the mask and goozles Tinieblas. When the ref tries to get involved, Tamba tosses him off repeatedly, until he climbs on both Tamba and Tinieblas in the ropes and Tinieblas hefts both Tamba and the ref over. That allows Halcon to come in and interfere and Tamba to steal a three fall. The trash came flying, and they were very, very quick to get on the house mic (lowered from the ceiling) and let everyone know that they were reviewing the tape because of the fouls. I thought they were going to maybe restart the match, but no, they just gave it to Tinieblas and probably avoided a riot in the process, and we were left with the image of Tamba and his giant with a wound right in the middle, getting sheered with expert speed. It was more of an experience than a match but you really get a sense of the time and place.

ER: Oh, Tamba, where have you been all my life? Tamba, with his post-peak fat guy body and jack o lantern smile, 38 but moving like a 55 year old luchador, every fall the fall of a formerly great and still unique wrestler. He has among the worst fat guy splashes you've seen, falling in a controlled way on Tinieblas with no jump at all, like Cathy flopping onto her bed after a long Monday at the office. He wins the primera with a top rope splash that was an insult to the name. He landed somewhere near Tinieblas's legs with the form of a man who fell into a swimming pool while trying to fish something out. He looks like he's never climbed the ropes before and yet he's got this unique aura the entire time. He has great heavyweight punches, heavy blows that came from the side, thrown to the face, head, and chest. His punches are great enough that I know 1982 Tamba was an incredible menace. You can see him as a Super Porky who immediately fell off once the athleticism aged out to size. He got great fat guy color and did a tremendous job of almost starting a riot by taking one of the legendary lucha masks in a 100:1 upset. I don't think the lacking or loose execution held this back because the aura was there. It still felt like a big match even if the outcome was so unlikely and the opponent so washed. Underdogs got nothing to lose and it felt like there was more raw emotion in Tamba's toothless face than I expected. This felt like the right match for the occasion and felt like a look inside a scene. 

Scott Hall vs. Atkie Malumba [Cage] WWC 8/4/90 

MD: One great thing about having covered 1990 Puerto Rico so thoroughly is that we can fit this right in. This was after Hall's face turn and after the Aniversario match and they were using gimmicks to keep the feud going. You can see from the finish here that they left more meat on the bone. To me, this was right around the point where everything clicked for Hall. He could have had a serious babyface run in the back half of 1990 somewhere, but I guess he was in Germany as a heel (I saw some of that recently, a Tony St. Clair/Owen Hart handicap match).

This was from an episode a couple of years later so Profe kept joking how there was resemblance to Razor Ramon. I thought it was laid out well though. They went back and forth early, Hall's punches vs Malumba's heft, but it opened up when Malumba was able to toss Hall into the cage a couple of times. From there he leaned on him with a couple of hope spots when he tried to escape the cage through the door and Hall stopped him. There was a long nervehold (maybe too long) but it let Hall power up, the fans behind him, and start firing back. Hall finally got to toss Malumba into the cage (they had protected that), and there was a good nearfall for a cage when he dropkicked Malumba and Malumba almost went out the door from it, a finish we'd seen all too often but that I haven't seen teased like that much. Hall finally got the slam (also protected) to a big pop. He sold it well too stumbling backwards after the fact. And the finish had him go up and over but Malumba make it through the door a second before he landed. Maybe they could have shrunk that nerve hold just a little but overall this was a good piece of business and gave them room to go back for one more. 

ER: I've written a lot about Scott Hall, but almost exclusively 1992-1997 Scott Hall, which is when he became a really great worker. I've written a lot about Kimala II as well. He's probably the worst wrestler who Matt and I frequently write about, and I love him. I love both guys, but it never crossed my mind that they had ever wrestled each other. In another country. I didn't even know Scott Hall worked Puerto Rico or how big the cultural impact of Magnum PI on 1990 Puerto Rico was. I've never seen a Razor Ramon vs. Kamala match but now we have a version of that from an alternate dimension where Scott Hall wrestled like green Lex Luger and worked Gallagher Too in Puerto Rico. 

Scott Hall is an okay Lex Luger, and it's fun to see him sell like 96/97 Lex and use the same kind of punch comebacks. It's weird seeing Hall throwing lesser versions of his punch, before he perfected it, but I like how he sells for Kimala. Kimala's strikes never look great but they look correct for a Kimala. I love his shape and his big smooth back makes me think of him as a Punch-Out!! character. More wrestlers should remind me of a different ethnicity King Hippo. Kimala was a completely different opponent than we ever got to see Hall work, and it's good fun seeing Hall selling his back on lifts and throwing heavyweight dropkicks because he's a hunky babyface and not a greasy foreigner. Kimala's splashes always look good and I think he was able to have a 20 year career because he was a fat guy who worked without kneepads who stayed healthy. His deadweight landings look like they would never hold up over a decade long All Japan run, but these two were just built different. 

John Cena vs. Roman Reigns WWE 12/26/17 

MD: I'm not touching the Cena retirement tour but in watching this, I was stricken by how great a Cena retirement match this would have been, albeit 8 years too early. I don't remember the first thing about 2017 WWE. If I looked things up, I could probably piece it all together. Reigns was the Intercontinental champ apparently. This was at MSG, the big holiday show that kids get tickets for over XMas.

And I really liked it. It was Ace vs. Ace and felt like a passing of the guard moment. It has the room to stretch and breathe that you'd want in a house show. Cena leaned into it right in the beginning, going for a long lock up that let the fans chant at him (Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks). He pushed Reigns into the corner for a clean break and basked in it. There was such a sense of mastery here, of really knowing the value of a moment.  Reigns came back and controlled on a test of strength and then won on a shoulder block.

The match opened up when Cena went for a punch exchange, a traditional strength for him and Reigns clocked him. From there, it became about Reigns having a soft, punch-based advantage on these exchanges, and both men trying to unlock their moves. Instead of hitting things three times, they made getting through each part of the sequence an effort that needed to be built to. The crowd then went nuts when Cena finally hit his dropping belly to back or the five knuckle shuffle or Reigns finally got the Superman punch. There was one finisher kick out. Cena got the AA first and Reigns kicked out. Just that one and Cena wouldn't get it again, though he would cannily come close, hitting the mat as Reigns beat him again on a punch exchange only to lure him in on the pin and roll into a fireman's carry. This time Reigns escaped and hit the spear for the three, though. Just a very clever, very self-aware, very trusting match. Very little excess and because of that, what did happen mattered all the more and felt iconic. 

ER: 2017 was not my favorite John Cena year. It felt fully post-peak Cena at the time and scanning his television and PPV year now doesn't make me want to rewatch any of it. My favorite Cena match of the year had been a TV match against Jason Jordan, which feels like such a 2017 thing to say while also not sounding like it ever happened. I think I'd believe anything you told me about 2017 because none of it feels real, the timeline fake. It feels forever ago, not 8 years ago. Eight years ago, Jason Jordan was a Rising Star that I liked and wrote about, and Roman Reigns was a guy I thought might have been the best wrestler in the world. I went out of my way to watch and write about as many Roman Reigns/Braun Strowman TV, PPV, and house show matches existed - and there were a lot - and loved them all. In 2026, the idea of watching one Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman match would never cross my mind, and if suggested to me it would make me wrinkle up my nose in decline. 2017 feels like an implanted memory I only learn about from my own supposed writings and observations that I find in various notebooks that the RPG slowly reveals to me. 2017 was when you could go to a house show and see Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto but nobody saw it because it wasn't real. 

Roman Reigns was one of the best in the world in 2017 and was the best wrestler in WWE, and now they are a promotion I do not watch in part because I got tired of the new main event talk and walk style popularized by Roman Reigns. Eight years doesn't feel long, but it was a long time ago. This style isn't the main style in the fed that these two were the aces for, so this match - a great version of that style - feels like something much further back in time. It also greatly benefits from its handheld feel, shot on pro cam in the middle of the real crowd noise, like a concert recording from the taper's pit, but a taper who had a four man team and had been traveling to shows for several years. On TV everything is mic'd different, but in the middle of MSG you got to hear how much people hated Cena and wanted to cheer Roman...which made it so much better that we got to hear Cena winning them over the entire match. By the end of this, Roman's offense is being met with silence, like they didn't want to see Cena lose, and every time Cena made a comeback the crowd got louder with their support. 

Cena had one of his typical sloppy execution matches and some stuff looked hokier when played to the back rows of MSG. That big long lean over the apron while waiting for Roman's dropkick, the way his punches look so much worse than Roman's (until they start getting better when MSG is moved to cheer for him!?) are things that Cena is able to overcome stylistically, because the sloppy execution is baked into his style, and because the most important thing is his timing. Knowing when to bump, knowing when to take a beat, knowing which punch to get knocked down by. His timing was on the top of his game this whole match and it's knowing and perfecting that rhythm that had the entire building on his side within 15 minutes. 

It doesn't not matter in the grand scheme of things that his punches look loopy and cartoon-y, because he is so much better at taking Roman's punches and knowing how to bump and sell for each individual punch. I loved an early spot where he missed a turnbuckle charge and turned around into a nice Roman uppercut that sent Cena pirouetting into the mat, and there was this ongoing story where the punch exchanges never felt like they ended where Cena/Roman planned on ending them, but they ended where the punch quality and crowd reaction dictated they would end. This never felt like a match that they laid out and then worked exactly how they laid it out, it felt like something worked with room to grow into whatever the crowd wanted it to be. When Cena's tornado DDT maybe 7 minutes in got a big nearfall reaction, it's like that moment gave people a reason to believe in Cena, thus ROOT for Cena, and the dynamic change was huge. That's when this became something that felt a bit bigger and different than your usual send 'em home happy house show main. 

This was technically for the Intercontinental Title, but that seems laughably quaint. IF someone cared about that title before the match started, the title became an unimportant part of the match midway, if not sooner. This never felt like an IC Title match and by the end it only felt like a main event epic, a crowd worked to perfection, and moments timed for maximum impact. Neither man was able to hit their spots clean. Within a couple years, the WWE main event style was just finisher kickout spam, and this match got by with only one big surprise kickout (Roman kickout out of the AA, and to a lesser extent Cena kicking out of the Superman punch) because they wisely kept being unable to hit their various finishes. Finisher kickout is a lazy kind of surprise, but crafting a big main event build around stopped attempts and alternate means of attaining victory before looping back to one big finisher changed everything. Neither could put the other away because neither could connect with the big one. 

The reaction for Cena ducking a Superman punch, sloppily drop toe holding Roman into the STFU, was huge, a crowd chanting CENA SUCKS minutes before suddenly fighting with him, so much so that the pop when Roman lands his first Superman punch actually sounded more like shock than excitement. It got so Roman's offense was being met with silence. He wasn't being booed, but suddenly people were icing him out like they didn't want to actually see Cena lose. When Cena actually hits the AA (or moments where the 5 knuckle is stopped and then hit again later as more of a sudden surprise) the camera can no longer handle the decibels of the crowd and starts to distort. The finish was fantastic, with Cena leaping off the middle buckle for a legdrop but being hit with a sitout powerbomb for a good nearfall, leaping into a great punch exchange. This was the best punch exchange of the match, the one that felt like a gift to the crowd rather than one planned to go a specific length. It was a Boo/Yay exchange with people now booing Roman and cheering every punch a staggering Cena would throw, like they were the ones actually willing the men on instead of having a lengthy punch exchange foisted upon them. Cena deftly went down like a shot for Roman's best punch of the match, and it felt like it wasn't where Cena was "supposed" to go down, it just felt like he went down for the punch that felt (and looked) right. When Cena rolled through the pin and fought to deadlift Roman to his feet, clean and jerking him to his shoulders, it looked like the most triumphant Cena win and that's what everyone wanted to see. It was also the perfect way to set up Roman's win, Cena burning through all his reserves just to give everyone a look at Vintage Cena, doing it for the fans and forgetting he was in there with the new ace. 

I don't think the match happens like this if it was on TV or PPV, and I don't think it feels this good without the camera capturing the real crowd sound. This was a match that became more powerful because of its status as a house show main event (a house show in their main venue, but a house show nonetheless) and they seem to have completely forgotten that aspect of the show. Picturing this match done with their classically bad scripted commentary and all of the zoomed in reaction shaky cam and ugly LED displays just makes me nauseous. This was the right match for the right time presented in the best way. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/5 - 1/11/26 (Part 1?)

AEW Dynamite 1/7/26

Jon Moxley vs Shelton Benjamin

Jon Moxley is, in fact, wrestling through it. 

And why not? He wasn't the first. Kris Statlander betrayed her very best friend out of jealousy. She aligned herself with Stokely of all people. Hangman Page burned a man's childhood house down. He brutally ended Christopher Daniels career. They fought their way back into the hearts of the fans, quite literally fought. Maybe Hangman apologized after the fact. Maybe Statlander turned down the Death Riders after the fact, but by then, the fans had already embraced them. By then, the fans had already helped support them en route to championships. 

They won. That's what mattered.

And now Jon Moxley has won as well. In AEW, maybe might does makes right.

It seems to make right for Shelton Benjamin too. The fans love the Hurt Syndicate and why? Because they do what they say they're going to do; they hurt people. Shelton spent a large part of his career forced to be something he wasn't, someone who did too much, who wrestled like a junior heavweight in a heavyweight's body. He was in the land of the giants. His most memorial moment might have been jumping into Shawn Michaels' foot. 

But he's been granted one last chance. He was always big, but now the world's gotten smaller around him. Once upon a time, he had Brock Lesnar beside him and it was a hard shadow to escape. Now, with Bobby Lashley beside him, he still towers over everyone around him. At 50 years old, he's as looming a presence as he's ever been, larger than life.

And here he was with a shot to win, to make might right, to get something he hasn't had in a long time, a major singles belt all his own (maybe the last time was in Puerto Rico in 2010?). He just had to take Jon Moxley to the limit through an eliminator match to get the opportunity to face him for the Continental Championship. 

He's bigger, stronger, more athletic, with sharper amateur skills, and he hadn't been through the crucible of the Continental Classic like Moxley, not this year at least. 

Through twists and turns of fate, Benjamin stood across the ring from one of the biggest stars of the last ten years as an equal, maybe even a superior in many ways. Accordingly, he held out his hand for a shake. 

Moxley slapped it aside. Of course he did. His wounds may have been healing. Given how he came out from the back energized, basking in the fans' unlikely adoration, maybe he felt like the world was healing, but he's no fool. He knew what he was up against. He had to throw Benjamin off balance.

Instead, Benjamin threw him head over feet and with absolute ease, slipping under him and flipping him, getting behind him for a very early German. Moxley dodged out of the way and tried for a choke. Shelton tripped him and went for the ankle lock on that damaged leg (something he had a very direct lineage with). Moxley went for strikes and Shelton met him right in the center, escalating almost immediately to a spin kick that Mox ducked just by the skin of his teeth. Mox tried piefacing him. Shelton hit another effortless German. Moxley went for chops (perhaps weakened ones due to a poor base from his leg injury). Shelton outchopped him. 

But then, Mox got a foot up in the corner, knocked Shelton out with a clothesline over the top, and ah, this would be when the wheels would turn. Now Shelton was in Moxley's world on the floor. The only thing that turned, however, was Moxley as Shelton reversed a whip into the barricade and then clotheslined him over it. They brawled up and down the stairs and into the crowd. Moxley seized a momentary advantage as one might expect, coming back over the rail first and grabbing a chair, but Shelton was right there, leaping over it with a flying clothesline. Mox went in and out of the ring to break the count and buy some space. He got caught on the way out, German'd again. 

Shelton was running him ragged but he was Jon Moxley and still had a lot in the tank. Maybe that was enough to throw Shelton off after all, maybe. They pressed head against head on the floor, and Mox goaded him in, allowing him to pry off an arm and use it to toss Shelton arm-first into the ringsteps.

I'm going to put a marker here because this is where what I've been trying to do (maybe not all that easy already) got a lot harder.

Up until this point, there had been some lip service on commentary on how Shelton and MVP had talked a gameplan and how he wasn't supposed to follow Mox to the floor or around the arena, but it hadn't really played out. You could make an argument that Mox had a momentary advantage after coming out of the stands. You could make one that he had rope-a-doped Shelton a bit on the floor, eating that German to create an opening with the arm. You can make a lot of arguments. I'm not sure in this case that the actual creative decisions, selling, or the overall portrayal holds up.

Let's continue and see how it goes though. So Moxley had created an opinion with the arm. He tries to press it. Shelton struggles against it both by locking fingers on a cross-armbreaker and through punching his way out. Mox does chip away at the arm though and that takes them through the commercial break. At the end of the day, that's ALL it does though, for as they come back, Mox is up on the top rope for no real discernible reason other than to set up Shelton's spot where he leaps up and tosses him off. That arm? That one opening Mox earned? He won't go to it again. Shelton won't sell it again. 

Instead, Shelton tosses Moxley around a bit more on as part of a babyface-coded comeback. The match hadn't given the crowd a ton to work with when it came who to root for. Mox had been valiantly fighting from underneath for a lot of this. But he'd pushed away the shake at the start. He went to the eye once. Shelton worked underneath during the break. There were chants for both men throughout. Time was ticking down and the onus was on Benjamin to either win or last to the limit because even if Moxley loses here, it only sets up a title match. 

They end up working the back third 50-50. Mox comes back with a cutter out of nowhere. Shelton drops him with a power bomb out of corner ten count punching. Mox survives a STF of sorts and follows it up with a low bridge counter and a dive to the floor. He's bleeding now, because of course he is, but he's up and with an advantage. He runs into Paydirt (but kicks out). Shelton goes to the injured knee to hit a superkick but Mox is ready for a second one and hits the Paradigm shift (Shelton survives it). And they go into a fevered last minute, ending with Shelton getting stacked up out of nowhere on a triangle choke with only seconds left on the clock.

And, if you read back through that, it's a bit of a mess. It's ugly. The match was ugly. Some of the execution was ugly. Not everything hit clean. The selling was ugly. The crowd wasn't directed one way or another. There was less focus on Moxley's leg than you'd think and a lot of it was implicit. Past setting him up for a superkick, it had nothing to do with the back half of the match. That armwork that Mox used to contain Shelton? That was just for the commercial break. It didn't connect well with the rest of the match. 

There was no reason why Mox went to the top when he was in control other than to set up a spot to come back from the break to. There was no reason why he didn't do more to go back to the arm later since it had been working for him when nothing else was. You could rationalize that he, as a character, lost the plot and was getting desperate and lashing out or whatever else. And I've done that if you've read what I've written over the last few months. But I didn't feel that here. I didn't get that connective tissue. The text and the performances don't back it up to me. 

What I'm trying to say is this. What I've done lately with Moxley isn't rocket science. It's not Shakespeare. It's pulling together narrative threads from the text and context, from the performances and creative choices and creating a narrative throughline, just pulling it all together to try to highlight the themes and the mood and the big plot points, to highlight the story being presented.

And that was harder here than with other matches. The data points didn't necessarily line up with a clean narrative. What I personally came out with wasn't nice and neat. 

It was ugly and messy and I didn't necessarily enjoy it as much as the other matches. Most of the spots made sense in the moment but they didn't come together the same way for me. The transitions and momentum shifts didn't stand up in the same way. What was being presented on commentary didn't entirely bear out on screen. My understanding of the characters as presented didn't sync with what I was watching and I couldn't easily course correct with the new information I was given.

Maybe that was me. Maybe it made more sense to someone else. I think the live crowd at times weren't sure what they were supposed to feel. 

Now all that said, it was still a pretty entertaining match, and maybe even a successful one. Shelton came out looking strong. Mox came out looking like he just barely survived, but that he survived (and shoot Shelton's hand at the end, another step on his journey or more of his bullshit exhibited, I don't know). It gave people a fresh match-up. Maybe it did numbers to start the show. Maybe it's something they can go back to later. Maybe it'll lead to something more with Lashley. Or maybe it just marked time before Moxley ends up in a more focused feud. 

And not everything needs to be a nice, neat story. Sometimes the story can be that life is ugly and pro wrestling is ugly and two guys fighting each other is ugly and not everything in life does make sense. This did create a sort of mood of being nasty and uncooperative and competitive. 

But I would argue that almost everything is better with tighter storytelling. You can still get that feeling that things are going off the rails without things actually going off the rails and a lot of times, if done with care and focus, that feeling becomes all the more tangible and visceral. Sometimes that is explicit. Sometimes it's just making sure that the things that are done are sold and framed and resonate. 

There are so many matches in 2025/2026 where it doesn't happen nearly as well as it could or it arguably should. I don't tend to write about those matches. I wrote about this one in part to highlight how special so many of those other matches are in comparison, and that even though tight, coherent storytelling ought to be the starting point that everything builds upon, so often it isn't.  

To pull out one thing and get ahead of a counter-argument, the issue here isn't that Shelton didn't sell the arm. It's not about checking a box. The issue is that time was spent (invested!) where it seemed like the armwork was working and then that didn't have consequence in the match and it didn't make sense why Moxley went away from it. For me, the wrestlers didn't do enough to explain why things went from moment A to moment B and explore well enough the consequences of both the individual moments and the moments put together. This match had multiple instances like that and they left aside some natural storytelling beats that would have pulled things together better.

Did that somehow invalidate the work that they did do? No, I don't think so. Could that work have been better enhanced? Yeah, probably, and if it had been, and if it had all come together better, I could have made this last paragraph here more evocative and thematic. Instead of talking at a distance, I could have been leaning harder into the heartbreak of an opportunity slipping through Shelton's fingers when he had wrestled so strong a match and how this fits into Moxley's redemption story despite the possibility of tragedy being right around the corner. The tragedy instead, I suppose, was that the match though full of gripping individual moments didn't quite get me there in the end. 

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