AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 2/20 - 2/26

AEW Dark 2/21

Slim J vs Matt Sydal

MD: A rare week where all we had was a great Danielson brawl and a Dustin promo, so let's check in on how Segunda Caida stalwart Slim J is doing at the Universal Tapings. The answer? He's doing pretty damn well. One of the fun things about this run is that we get to see him up against a bunch of guys that are brand new opponents for him. Sydal, despite wrestling for almost as long, had a completely different path to this episode of Dark. 

They made for solid dance partners in this one. Given their physical adroitness, their dexterity, balance, and flexibility (elements that all but define Sydal and that serve as aggravating and undeniable points of dissonance relative to his appearance and persona when it comes to a heel Slim J), they were able to not only take each other's most complex and tricked out stuff, but to push the needle just a little bit further. They matched up perfectly in the early feeling out segment, with Slim J providing Sydal two or three flowing counters before Sydal could finally gain an advantage. They went around that circle a few times, Slim J showing his frustration and aggravation by stalling out on the floor or rushing into yet another failed attempt. Ultimately, though, he had the numbers game on his side, that and a brazen shamelessness that let him all but embrace Bryce Remsburg so to enable interference. Just as Slim J had been able to help Sydal put a little extra torque into something as straightforward as a side slam, Sydal was able to base steady for the sailing reverse ddt off the top, but from the middle of the ropes instead. They'd go back and forth from there, Sydal getting comebacks and Slim J leaning on interference to take back over, ultimately leading to a finishing stretch where Sydal got turned inside out by the most complex wheelbarrow half-nelson twisting driver imaginable, but one that the two of them somehow made look absolutely believable, maybe more believable than Sydal's subsequent kickout. The Trustbusters lived by the interference and they died by it in the end. 

AEW's a weird place. Slim J is one of the better babyfaces we've ever seen, and crazier things have happened then him potentially blowing up in that role on Dynamite or Rampage in the years to come. But if all we get are these YouTube studio matches against other great journeymen he never encountered before, we're happy to have that too.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/12 - 12/18

AEW Dark 12/13

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs Trustbusters (Slim J/JVSK)

MD: Sometimes AEW will tape something and then not show it due to changing circumstances. This was taped all the way back on 11/4 in Atlantic City, and Eddie, post Akiyama, has apparently cooled down. He was still pretty hot for this one. Still, they came through and showed it nonetheless and we're glad they did. Slim J vs Eddie Kingston is about as much of a Segunda Caida match as is possible. If Punk doesn't come back, then Slim J becomes the fifth finger sort of by default. This got a ton of time too and was a good showcase for everyone involved.

Eddie and Slim J got really stretch to start with Slim just absolutely driving Eddie nuts and goading him into things. Eddie came back by responding to some more goading with a perfect eyepoke. Later on the Trustbusters would get to really lean on Ortiz, looking pretty good working as a unit for a team that has maybe one or two Dark matches together. Slim J has been around forever but he's traveled in different circles than a lot of the other AEW guys. I think Davari said that he'd first met him the day that they started as a unit. And I don't see any signs of VSK working him before either (even though VSK has been around for fifteen years). This broke down to some pretty wonderful chaos with Eddie suplexing everyone, taking Slim J's flying reverse DDT perfectly (which not everyone does), and less perfectly eating another dive. They had Eddie break up a couple of lesser things by VSK but made Ortiz kick out of the Amityville Horror/Cradleshock, which I think is JVSK's finisher, so that was a dubious choice but it fit the moment of the match, I guess. I liked the little bit of Sonny Kiss we got as a second in this one, including to set up the finishing miscommunication. Trustbusters are just such a weird and random unit but it somehow works. Excalibur was trying one last ticket sale read as Ortiz made the final hot tag and Eddie spun into the backfist and he carried that manic energy forward into the call. If this is the only Eddie and Slim J encounter we get in AEW, it'd be a shame, but it still felt pretty substantial for a month and a half old Dark main event and I'm glad we got at least this much.

AEW Rampage 12/16

Dustin Rhodes/Orange Cassidy/Chuck Taylor/Trent vs Kip Sabian/Trent Seven/Butcher/Blade

MD: Feel good way to end a yearly themed AEW taping, especially important considering the big hometown babyface lost to end Dynamite. Lots of moving pieces here but they came together pretty well, with everyone more or less where they should be when they should be and plenty of gaga. I enjoyed the Trent-off to start and the fans got into it. Seven is a guy with a couple of unique ideas, a slightly different body type. I think there's probably more value to AEW overall to bring guys like him in occasionally instead of full time, that sense that anything can happen at any moment as opposed to just making a huge roster even huger, but he was more than happy to play along with everything here. Probably my favorite moment in this one was when he was taking Dustin's punches by really throwing his head all over the place. Sabian is someone I give some credit to, as while I don't entirely think the act works, I like how broadly he thinks about things; there was a moment during Dark a week or two ago where he was mocking Alex Reynolds about the Preston Vance turn that is something almost no one else on the roster would have done in that spot. Sort of a galaxy brain approach to his matches.

I get that WWE is better in many ways than it was at the start of the year, but it's always refreshing to highlight someone like Dustin in Texas. It's so intuitive and so special. It's part of what WWF was doing for years at the start of the war in the 80s, bringing in people like Wrestling II in Louisiana or Mad Dog Vachon in AWA territory. All of Dustin's interactions with Danhausen (constantly staring at one another) or Cassidy (playing air guitar to the theme as Cassidy leaned upon him on the entrance) were enjoyable and the sort of things I'd hope would lead to something more. I feel it's off brand to note on Segunda Caida that I would have liked a hug with everyone involved, but I kind of would have. The bits with Danhausen and the faux low blows (and the one actual one) set up the finishing stretch in a fun and different way than a dive train would have. They could run a match like this once every few weeks or once a month, highlighting a local guy, pulling together some characters and some feuds, to send a crowd happy, and it'd be part of what will always make AEW special compared to a lot of what we've been forcefed over the last two decades. I still hope this is leading to Dustin challenging Cassidy for the All Atlantic Title at some point though. I'd even take Dustin and Danhausen interacting more.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends): 10/17 - 10/23

AEW Dark 10/18

MD: Eddie was our only guy this week and he was on Dark, so I figured I'd just do the whole show. It's been a little over a year now since I've been watching AEW. One interesting thing about the promotion relative to other ones over the years is that different people from different generations get very different things out of it. Punk and Danielson coming back drew me in. Kingston and Dustin and Darby, among others, kept my interest, but on a week to week basis, it was the webshows that really worked for me. If Dynamite feels like crash TV with original ROH style dream matches, and Rampage feels a bit like late 91-early 92 WCW Saturday Night with a Dangerous Alliance match and a few midcard matches, Elevation and Dark feel like WCW syndi shows. Squashes and a few midcard matches. It's one of those things people of my generational tolerated for years, maybe grumbled about, but ultimately had no idea how good we had it.

In an ecosystem like what I described above, squashes are a amazing, right? Guys like Naylor have been so good at highlighting them and why they were special over the years, but they highlight moves, characters, give the announcers room to breathe. They're not exhausting like sprints can be. They're pro-wrestling comfort food while giving wrestlers the ability to really express who they are. You can tell a story in them or not depending on what you're trying to achieve. All the talk about how wrestlers are wasted not being on TV is irritating, to say the least. The nature of AEW's roster is that people get rotated on and off to keep things fresh. Someone like Ruby Soho coming out to her theme on Elevation gets the fresh and excited crowds going. Emi Sakura is the MVP, having hard-hitting entertaining tag after entertaining tag with partners that can vibe with her act and opponents that are better off for getting reps with her. It's the perfect place for Dalton Castle and Danhausen and Brandon Cutler and the Wingmen, giving the crowd extra value for their ticket and helping to keep acts over. It lets them try out new talent or new tweaks upon a gimmick. I was excited when Deeb, for instance, finished up her title match programs and was interacting with people like Emi and Skye Blue again.

The problem, as much as fans being small-minded, is AEW not doing enough to use the shows to build to everything else going on. There was a patch back six months ago where if someone was going to have a match on Dynamite or Rampage they'd often get featured on Elevation, and they did some things, like building to the ROH PPV with Dark and Elevation, but in general, it's underutilized. I don't know a single person who watches the webshows and feels like they're not valuable or worth watching though, no matter how much griping you get from the people who don't watch (the most worthless griping of all). This was an especially star-studded episode given they were in Canada and it was taped before a live Rampage, but don't sleep on the studio Darks either. Studio wrestling is great given that with AEW we get all sorts of variety. You may not want it as your only wrestling but as part of the whole, it balances things out.

Hikaru Shida vs Vanessa Kraven

MD: I've been giving a lot of thought about 'aces' lately. I think it's due to watching a ton of Inoki over the last year. It could be because I want to watch some Big Daddy and make some calls for myself soon. Don't hold me for that. One aspect that I think is important in an ace is to leverage the cachet you have with the crowd to find ways to highlight what makes your opponent unique. Shida absolutely did that here, making full use of Kraven's size and strength. This was not at all the same sort of match that she would have had with someone smaller or with a different background. Some of that was leaping into the catch on the outside off the chair and eating that samoan drop on the apron (which then, thanks to the AEW house style, she could use later in the match to escape the Samoan drop and set up the finishing stretch). Some of it was the struggle for the falcon arrow, barely getting her over, and then letting her kick out of it. The creativity and imagination and care that went into how she laid this out was definitely appreciated however.

Dark Order (Evil Uno/John Silver/Alex Reynolds/10) vs Tyler Tirva/Shane Hawke/Zak Patterson/Jordano)

MD: Again, we get the freedom of the web shows here. They're not trying to hit any major time marks. They're not worried about picture-in-picture commercial breaks. This was in Canada. This was about showcasing Uno, as well it should have been. It's one of those things AEW does best and that we spent decades getting denied due to weird piques of spite "up north." Though some of this was diluted by Taz poking Jose the Assistant on commentary, but certainly not for the live crowd.

This was surprisingly complete, with Reynolds getting some shine to start (useful given that he plays FIP a lot), a tease of Uno early only for him to get swarmed, some heat on Silver (including eating a huge gutwrench), and everything set up to combine the big Dark Order spots and all of Uno's signature spots mixed with all of his showmanship. They could have just had Dark Order run through these guys but they gave it enough substance to make Uno's spots mean just a little more.

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs Mo Jabari/Jake O'Reilly

MD: Just a stylized mauling. Jabari and O'Reilly might get one shot in but they sure wouldn't get two in a row. Ortiz knows this is his moment to come into his own and showcase his own identity and he's been doing that with the Rick Rude or the crotch chop before the veg-o-matic or the tiger style (which, now that I think about it, may not be his own identity at all). Those crossfaces in the corner were nasty though, and Eddie's chops sounded as good as they ever did. The anger management angle for Kingston made sense in the Sammy match; I'm not sure if it's totally believable moving forward, but the Pac match it seems to be building to should be fun at least.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy/Chuck Taylor/Trent) vs Kobe Durst/Steven Mainz/Jessie V

MD: This was a straight up crowdpleasing squash on the heels of the Cassidy/PAC main event one day earlier. Occasionally they'll run these where guys can just do whatever and they don't even give the enhancement talent a hope. It was pretty brutal with Trent not quite getting all of the flip into a spinebuster (and he save the same sort of shrug that Silver got when he tried to suplex two guys at once). The Sole Food into the Half and Half looked great though. Cassidy then came in and punched everyone. I'm not sure if it's Keith Mitchell retiring or what but they don't seem to time the hug nearly as well as they used to. Anyway, this was never going to be much but it was fine for what it was.

Ari Davari vs Brandon Cutler

MD: Like I said, people watch AEW for different reasons. There are some people who are thoroughly into the Elite, to the point of having Omega avatars and whatever else. I don't have a ton of time for any of them for reasons no one needs to hear right now, but I do think Cutler's been one of the bright spots of the company over the last month. He's a guy who throws himself entirely in the act, who's unafraid to do anything necessary. He cares so much that the fans care, and as the only bastion of the Elite remaining, they care just a little bit more. You put him up against a guy like Avalon (like we'll see this week) or Danhausen or Serpentico and you get a fun comedy match, but if you put him against an actual wrestler like Davari, and you get a kind of interesting, contrast-laden match, where he can work from underneath. Here, Davari threw a lot of simple, driving shots, credible stuff that put over his annoyance of the entire situation. Cutler would comeback with fun 80s offense but Davari would cut him off by going for the eyes or with Kiss' help or through something just as conniving that sort of defies hierarchy and highlights how offended he is that he has to lower himself to wrestle Cutler. It made for a pretty fun match. I would have rather Hook had to go through all of the Trustbusters first before getting Davari, though part of that was just beacuse I wanted to see Hook vs Slim J (who is the new 5th finger if Punk isn't coming back, by the way).

Willow Nightingale vs Seleziya Sparx

MD: In a lot of ways this was an inversion of the Shida match. Willow still wanted to give some shine to the local, even if she was working heel, but she made her work for it and chip away, not going down easily, leaning hard into her size. It's hard for a babyface with a size advantage to know just how much to give while still showing the right amount of vulnerability, especially given the hierarchical difference here, but I think she nailed it. Willow has great emotive reactions in her selling, able to switch between ebullience, exhaustion, and aggression. All of Sparx' stuff looked pretty good, even some of the overwrought things like how she vaulted over the turnbuckle to hit a running kick. That's the sort of thing that is maybe a bit much but you can't fault it if the kick looks good. Jody Threat got a lot of attention last week, but Sparx should get some as well.

QT Marshall vs Dante Martin

MD: A year ago, when I first encountered him, I thought QT should wrestle more like a manager. He's capable of a lot of things (including missing a 450) but just because he can, doesn't necessarily mean he should. That said, for a lot of this period, AEW's needed credible mid-card heels to eat losses. Having the Trustbusters now help a little bit, but that's really been the Factory and the Wingmen, and Lethal, and as such, it does make sense for QT to stretch his wings a bit more. He's good at it and especially good at engaging with his opponent and the audience. They were all over him, despite having sat through all of the previous matches and even if no one necessarily bought a ticket for him, they all had a seemingly great time getting on his case and it'll be, consciously or subconsciously, part of their enduring good feeling about the night in the months and years to come.
 
Dante, in the meantime, probably through no choice of his own as he'd rather be teaming with his brother, has had a lot of ring time to improve. I thought he was already pretty far along in the singles match with Black last October, but his expressiveness and interactions with the crowd have developed since then. He's a great seller on top of his ability to seemingly freeze time as he flips around the ring and soars through the air. He's a case where the sum is greater than any specific part, as his flipping rana into the ring here would be the most spectacular thing in almost any other match in the world but felt almost subdued alongside his huge dive to the outside and stuttering splash to avoid the cutter. The finishing stretch worked to protect QT in loss but still felt like an accomplishment for Dante. Definitely the sort of match that Dusty would have been proud to call the Moo Match of the Week on WCW Prime in 1995 even if maybe it wouldn't make a comp tape for the year.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death: Week of 5/23 - 5/29 (Part 1)

AEW Dynamite 5/25

Eddie Kingston/Jon Moxley vs. Private Party

MD: Absolute mauling with a little bit of polish for Private Party at the end before they got crushed. The polish was them throwing themselves at Mox and Kingston and a shooting star press by Quen. Amusingly, Regal, much like us, was more interested in the way Moxley turned his hips on the kickout than the beautiful top rope move and was trying to get the replay to last long enough to show it. Where Private Party shined the most was bumping all over the ring: Nasty over-rotations on power bombs and clotheslines, including when Moxley came back the other way on a poetry in motion, and Quen crashing so hard into the rail that he knocked some guy's drink out of his hand. Still, this probably would have been a little more interesting structurally a few weeks ago when they weren't doing such a hard sell for the PPV match. The act, overall, works better against young faces than young heels, as between the guest announcers sniping and the fact that no one was really rooting for Party, I don't think they got enough credit or rub for surviving the beating they took to come back at the end. 

ER: I agree that Private Party was the wrong team to take this specific beating, even if the match benefitted from the way they physically took this beating. Private Party have gotten good enough that she should be past matches like this, but will likely always be put in matches like this because it looks fucking great when Isiah Kassidy vaults off Quen's back and gets folded all the way across the ring after connecting bad with a Moxley kneelift. I can't believe this is the first time Moxley and Kingston have teamed since September. Their vibes are so good that I have been thinking about them as a team for the entire time that they have not been teaming, bonded together in my brain because of their substance abuses and open faced honesty about them, they're just a perfect natural pairing. Moxley looks as inspired as he has in years, and Kingston played all of this with the right intensity. Quen's shooting star press looked awesome, with a flat rotation that look slightly against physics, and I loved the way Kingston ran in before the finish to lay him out with a running spinning backfist. 

AEW Rampage 5/27

Bryan Danielson vs. Matt Sydal

MD: I can't say enough good things about this one. Great build. Great big moments. Great little moments. This was one of my favorite AEW Danielson matches and seemed to pay off the promise more than when he was running through the Dark Order, for instance. Right from the beginning, there was incredible gamesmanship between the two, things like Danielson sneaking in a forearm on a Greco-Roman knucklelock or just how hard Sydal had to work for that flying mare. Once they got going, Sydal may have needed to put an extra bit of effort into his transitions, but he could; that was the point, speed and athleticism in hitting a leg lariat out of nowhere or landing on his feet to counter a snap mare. Danielson had maybe three just massive moments here: the roll forward to the Romero special, the roll through on the meteora into a crab, and then when he hit the knee at the end, but Sydal had his own with the top rope sunset flip power bomb. They gave Regal and company plenty of little things to note and plenty of big ones to pop for on commentary. About as good of a Rampage opening match as you could possibly hope for.

ER: My brain thinks of these two as "frequent competitors" and that's probably because I had burned DVDs of their one ROH singles match and their one FIP singles match from 15 years ago but can't actually comprehend that happened over 15 years ago. Sydal managed to have 400 matches in WWE and was rarely in the same ring as Danielson. So my brain just thinks of them as natural opponents from the same indy wrestling boom era, and yet they've mostly avoided each other in-ring. I feel like an idiot repeatedly saying things like "This may be my favorite Danielson performance in AEW" but I guess I'm just going to say dumb things like that. Probably the only thing I didn't care about here was Danielson hanging Sydal over the top rope like an evolved piece of Scoot Andrews offense. That might be the weirdest piece of offense to survive from year 2000 indy wrestling. It's almost shocking that there isn't You Can't Powerbomb Kidman throwback offense. 

That move felt weird to me only because every other piece of offense in the match felt *worked for*, and that was the one thing that felt *waited for*. The match starting knucklelock was an absolute struggle, both with shaking arms that allowed Danielson to sneak in an elbow across the jaw. Danielson threw European uppercuts with his entire body, making contact not only on the uppercut but throwing his full shoulder and hip into Sydal. I don't think Fit Finlay would have elbowed and uppercut Sydal as hard as Danielson did. Both broke out more spectacular versions of things they've been doing for years. Danielson's kicks looked more like Kawada stiffing up Kikuchi, Sydal's meteora looked like a guided missile and the Danielson reversal was finisher worthy. However, Danielson rolling through the Romero Special and then elbowing Sydal in the neck until the forced break felt like such a spectacular spot that it should have been saved for the finish of a huge match. That's also a part of Danielson's AEW charm, though, the fact that it instead came 4 minutes into a Friday night match with Matt Sydal. Sydal's sunset flip powerbomb reversal of a top rope back suplex was incredible, impactful enough to believably get a win and pulled off so well that it looked like an organic reversal. I swear Danielson is hitting harder every week on those downward elbows, and they always look like they earn the stoppage finish. This really made me want to look through some spindles and binders for those ROH and FIP matches. I'm not certain they'll be able to top their future selves. 

PAS: This was really great, one of the top minor key Danielson performances, not at the level of Kingston or Dustin or Moxley, but a throwback to us getting cool Danielson singles matches every week. It is fun we have gotten to see this mini Sydal vs. BCC feud for a couple of weeks now. This felt very FIPish which is ironic considering their previous match, just two wrestlers going out there and performing. We all know how perfect Danielson's execution is, but Sydal looked great too. That deep stack on the powerbomb reversal was a thing of beauty, and the Meteora looked super forceful. Love that Danielson has so many ways to take people out, and a weekly Rampage match seems like a great way to keep him relevant for his next big moment.

AEW Special Dark 5/28

Darby Allin vs. Brandon Cutler

MD: Very short match to set up the PPV here, but I liked Cutler running around the ring only to eat Darby's explosive dive anyway. The timing on that and the staggering catch by Cutler were both excellent. I could have lived with Cutler stooging a little more and then having a comedy spot or two, but better to have the match the promotion needs than the match you just happen to want.

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 1/10-1/16

AEW Dark 1/11 (Taped 1/8)

Eddie Kingston vs. Joey Janela - GREAT

MD: The leg selling here. Kingston teased it early. Janela capitalized later on by catching him with a dragon whip as he was coming back in. And the moment of comeback was Kingston stuttering midway through a tope run only to sell for a second and then finishing the motion. It was a little thing but it told the audience everything they needed to know about Eddie in one moment. He was hurt. He was in pain. He was taking a risk and was too hurt to manage it. He did it anyway and it worked. That's Eddie Kingston in a nutshell. Sometimes he pays for it later. Sometimes he doesn't. Janela tried to steal the show here, bumping big, including bumping himself off the top rope to distract the ref so Rossi could hit her big standing moonsault on the floor. He stooged for Eddie, chopping and posing and getting killed, going for the Flair strut in NC before getting kicked out of the ring when he went for the figure-four, etc., but he still managed to come off as a compelling if not convincing threat. Also nice to see Eddie dig into the 90s Japan bag of tricks for a finish he doesn't use as often. Good TV match.

PAS: I really enjoyed this. People assume Janela is one of the guys whose contract is going to expire, but I really like him as a Rip Rogers flamboyant enhancement guy, really a perfect Dark wrestler. This was a Northeast indy main event somewhere, so Kingston gave him a bunch of moments to shine, but of course this is another brilliant bit of Eddie. All of the leg selling totally ruled and I loved the standstill tope, where he just says fuck it and flings himself at Janela. I also really liked the contempt he showed for Janela's striking, firing back with a nasty slap on the outside in response to a chop, and powering though his superkicks. Janela can finds ways to work an advantage on Kingston, but the idea of him trading shots with him in a fight is silly, and Eddie treated it that way. Too many times in wrestling everyone sells every shot by every guy like it drops them for a back bump. I like when people have strengths and weaknesses, and Kingston isn't going to act like Janela can out punch him even a little. 

AEW Dynamite 1/12

CM Punk vs. Wardlow

MD: This worked better on a second watch for me, though the ending was overwrought and, despite the crossing of the legs, the finish was a little hard to buy. Otherwise, it was Punk doing everything he could to help put Wardlow over and Wardlow holding up his end. When Wardlow managed to catch Punk, Punk paid. When Wardlow overreached or gave Punk an opening, Punk used it. It was a strange match as MJF's distraction hurt both wrestlers. Punk continuously had Wardlow's number anytime he went for the powerbomb right up until when MJF distracted him after the corner knee, allowing Wardlow to wrench Punk out of the corner with the first bomb. Everything after that could have lost about two whole minutes, which doesn't sound like much but when it's pure drama and power bombs, it really was.

ER: I really liked this up through powerbomb number five, loved all of it. Wardlow was really running over Punk and Punk was really good at building sympathy and then laying it in stiff when trying just to budge Wardlow. I really loved when Punk started throwing everything he had at him, throwing several stiff arm lariats off Wardlow's chest and back, and a solebutt that drops Wardlow to a knee. The story of Punk avoiding the powerbomb was simple, and I thought once Wardlow caught him in the corner and hit the first one, then planted him with the second one, that this was getting great. Punk sold the powerbombs really well, splaying out his limbs and rolling to his side and getting dragged back up to his feet. The MJF extended finish felt too overindulgent and the more powerbombs Punk took the more silly I knew the eventual finish was going to look. I would have gotten a kick out of Wardlow taking the victory for himself, and then when Punk won with a real sad small package, I wanted that finish even more. The bulk of the match was still a success, and a good confident Wardlow performance that he'll get a chance to do even better. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 12/20-12/26

AEW Dark 12/21 (Taped 12/3)

Eddie Kingston vs. Colin Delaney

PAS: Delaney and Cheech have been one of the best tag teams in the world in To Infinity and Beyond for the last several years, and would be perfect regulars on Dark and Elevation at a minimum. I can imagine their young guys like Private Party and Brock Anderson would improve by leaps and bounds if they got a chance to regularly work TIAB, and Delaney would be a great utility player on his own as well. This was a fun short match which let Delaney get in a bit of offense before going down. His springboard stunner is a nifty move and he certainly takes a nice beating from Eddie. The Delaney fan in me would have liked this to go another 2 minutes or so, but this was still solid stuff.

MD: You got the sense Kingston respected what Delaney could do. That bled through in the ringwork itself. I could have used a few more minutes on this but again, hierarchy says probably not and Kingston understands hierarchy as well as anyone on the roster, even as he peppers in opportunities around it. There are too many cutters in AEW but there's probably room for Delaney's springboard stunner. It's always fun when Kingston just starts to unload with the suplexes and I liked the little wrinkle on the finish. This ended up a bit like a Tenryu vs Teranishi type match. Tenryu (or in this case Kingston) was going to give him everything he deserved based on who he was, but not a lick more than he should have based on his role in life and on the card.

AEW Dynamite 12/22

Darby Allin/CM Punk/Sting vs. The Pinnacle (Dax Hardwood/Cash Wheeler/MJF) 

ER: This was a long match paced out over three different hot tags for our heroes. It sometimes felt a bit long, and not every sequence worked, so it basically came down to a series of whose hot tags worked and whose heat segments were the best. Darby always has the best of both, and Sting continues to do the best work of his last 20 years on hot tags, while the Punk stretches all felt like they underdelivered. Darby can make anything come alive, so while the focus for awhile was on MJF running from Punk (even going so far as getting Punk to blow himself up chasing up and down the concourse stairs of the Greensboro Coliseum), Darby is doing small things like aiming for Cash's eye socket with a back elbow and wrenching him around by the neck on snapmares and cravats, but then takes the Punk/MJF chase up a huge notch. Darby - as he does - hits one of the hardest topes possible into The Pinnacle while they're starting to approach a heaving abdomen Punk. Darby's topes are almost always the best reason to rewind a wrestling show, and this one looked like a helmetless tackle. He twisted his body at the moment of impact and it made him crash perfectly through all three of them. 

Sting has been so fun in ring, and I loved how he took fight to Cash as well. That legsweep kick to set up the Scorpion Deathlock is a cool thing I don't remember 1998 Sting doing, and his tug of war with MJF avoiding Punk was paid off nicely with a stiff short arm clothesline. Sting really seemed like he had it out for Cash here, boxing his ears and raking his back, then bringing him into the ring with a hard landing vertical suplex. Sting somehow throws a vertical suplex like a 30 year old, honestly a crazy spot for a 62 year old to be doing (and this was before he did something much crazier). Darby making his transitions back to opponents' control as entertaining as his own time on offense is something Darby does best, getting stuck in enemy territory and thrown recklessly by Cash hard and fast over the top rope (bouncing off the edge of the apron on his way down) and FTR shine when they're hitting combos on him. I thought things dipped a bit with Sting's ring time going on a bit too long and Punk's long portion not fully clicking, but an awesome FTR power plex on Punk and an unhinged Darby crossbody that took him and Cash to the floor kept this constantly threatening to be spectacle. Sting and MJF had a couple of chippy moments (loved how Sting took a bulldog to break a Scorpion Deathlock) but things peak incredibly when Sting hits an insane hiptoss that throws MJF headfirst to the floor into FTR, the guardrail, and the floor, and then unleashes one of the oldest man planchas to the floor. Insane. The match might not have needed the full 24 minutes, but they still kept managing to keep upping the ante and making this a big main event. 

MD: As celebratory attraction matches go, this was up there. It felt like bringing Andre or Dusty in for Xmas to team with Watts and JYD, but in some ways, it was even more effective than that because it furthered storylines better and paid off other things. One advantage of the AEW style of not doing a lot of rematches is that the Punk interaction with Darby and Sting still feels fresh and unresolved. They had one match. Punk won it. Maybe a year from now, Darby beats Punk. Maybe not. But here they could team and all all honor one another and feel like a unit with a connection because of that one prior match. The Pinnacle doesn't always seem the most unified stable, but here it all came together with the matching yellow trunks and MJF really taking the fair weather camaraderie to extremes, celebrating FTR at every opportunity. He took everything to extremes, coming in off of the big win against Dante and the big workrate performance against Darby, and felt the freedom to go full chickenshit heel, teasing a lock up with Punk before tagging out, hitting Sting before immediately begging off, letting Punk chase him around the arena, and later on doing things like teasing a punch on a held Sting only to tweak his face instead. Like everything else in the match, it paid off, though not with Punk getting his hands on him, which will come later, but instead with Darby's dive from off camera or Sting lawn darting him out of the ring.

The structure of this worked pretty well. They had all of the feeling out process (with a new match up in FTR vs Punk, which played out both early and late) and antics, with the actual shine on Cash during the first commercial break, taken nice and slow with things like Punk's ten punch in the corner and cutting off the ring. When they came back that transitioned to heat on Darby after he got taken out with the top rope, the first hot tag to Sting and then the second heat on him during the second commercial break. Then they went into the big comeback, first with Punk vs FTR (including the Powerplex which Excalibur was really happy to call) and then with the MJF lawn dart and Sting dive, before Dax took the bullet for MJF and ate everyone's finish.

Everyone got their moments, even if MJF's were mostly underhanded and they missed Darby taking him out through the timekeeper's table. Punk seemed a little bit off with his timing and execution now and again, more so than in a lot of recent matches I've seen of his; maybe half a step behind at times and it added up, just not enough to really detract from the match as there was so much else going on. In general, both sides worked together well. I loved all the bodyslams. It's like Punk's infected everyone around him with them, but they were all used in important ways, setting up BOTH hot tags for instance. For something that is organic and accidental, it's striking to me how much FTR are like Les Blousons Noirs, with Cash as dangerous Gessat and Dax as Manneveau. Dax stooged all over the place in this one and Cash was pretty slick, including one little moment where he won a wristlock by slipping a knee in that was right out of 60s French Catch. So good big moments. Good little moments. Nice commercial management. Solid structure, though maybe it went a half segment too long. The good guys win. The fans are sent home happy (well, they would be if not for the Rampage taping that followed). And the bad guy gets to escape and to live another day and bluster on the way out. Nice piece of business that knew exactly what it was trying to accomplish and pretty much nailed it.

PAS: I think this would have been a strong MOTY level match at 15 or so, but felt a little draggy at 23. Still excellent, big star, super entertaining stuff. The Greensboro Coliseum saw a ton of these kind of matches over the years, whether it was Dusty, Steamboat and Dick Slater vs. Tully, Black Bart and Ron Bass 12/29/84, Dusty and the Rock and Rolls vs. Arn, Tully and Flair (4/20/86) or even Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Eddie Edwards, El Generico vs. Roderick Strong, The Briscoes and Michael Elgin (12/4/11) (actually that match went an hour and twenty minutes?!? What the fuck was going on in 2011 ROH?). This delivered all of the big beats of a great big star six man main event, and even some shit like the Sting plancha which we had no reason to expect. MJF was fun as Jimmy Hart (which is actually a pretty good role for him), and FTR are way better in this kind of cut the ring off stuff than when they try to do PWG shit with the Young Bucks or the Lucha Bros. Also, what a treasure this AEW Sting run has been. I have loved every single second of it, and Sting in tag matches with workhorse partners seems like it could go on forever. 

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AEW Dark Worth Watching: CIMA vs. Darby

Darby Allin vs. CIMA AEW Dark #1 10/8/19 

ER: Going wayyyyy back to the early days of AEW Dark, and these were the kind of matches that filled out Dark in these early episodes, when it was used less for squash matches. Allin/CIMA not being on at least Dynamite is pretty amusing in retrospect, but these were large shows in a full attendance world. And this was a really good "only happened once" kind of match, not sure when these two would ever be in the same place at the same time again, already seems like an oddball one off 18 months later. CIMA has been having fun matches like these for 25 years now, his entire adult life, and he's a cool different version of Darby. Darby packs a lot of insanity into a 7 minute match, with this awesome wrecking ball tope and a coffin drop that lands him squarely onto CIMA's knee. He makes all of CIMA's offense look great, like when he gets torpedoed into the middle buckle and crunches the back of his neck, then crunches it right after when CIMA dropkicks him back into it. CIMA locks in a great stretch muffler/bow and arrow that looks even better with Darby's flexibility. CIMA also blasts him in the back of the head with a cool meteora, which leads to a great moment where CIMA goes for another meteora and just does a hard missed double kneedrop. I'm just a couple years younger than CIMA and the idea of jumping up and landing on my knees for anything at all sounds like certain death. There's a fun transition where CIMA is bringing modern puro into things and starts a mid match chop exchange, but Darby just punches him and throws body shots when it's his turn to derail a match with a dumb standing exchange. Not taking the bait on a pointless chop exchange? A babyface after my own heart. Darby's comeback is really great, and has him landing fast hip attacks at CIMA's knee while CIMA is in the tree of woe, and the match finishing coffin drop is a beauty. Darby has such great accuracy with the move, and the match finisher is so high arcing and perfect.  

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 11/29-12/5

AEW Dark 11/30 (Taped 10/24)

Infinito vs. Ray Jaz

PAS: I am not sure the point of this Danielson gimmick.  He gets a chance to work some fast exchanges with Jaz - who looked good - and I really liked Jaz's bumps on the monkey flips. The shtick of the match was Infinito winning with the airplane spin, but it wasn't a great looking airplane spin. For an airplane spin to really work they need to be fast, and I thought the Infinito one was pretty slow. Long slow airplane spin isn't going to do much. It's fun that Danielson gets to experiment, but this was a miss for me.

AEW Dynamite 12/1

Bryan Danielson vs. Alan Angels

ER: I like Heel And Loving It Danielson, laughing that he's getting booed against Alan Angels just for showing up, not working disrespectfully but cutting much more to the point. Angels is fired up in front of his home crowd and Danielson works the vibes of a guy who is underestimating his opponent, who isn't actually underestimating his opponent. His smile is infectious as he hits chops and running dropkicks and the crowd boos, and I liked how he responded to a nice Angels backslide with a sick butterfly suplex into an armbar that I thought was going to polish off Angels right there. Angels got to have his fun hometown comeback, hitting a dive and a Spanish Fly, but misses a moonsault. Once that moonsault missed you could tell Bryan was going to shut this thing down, and stomping the guys' face a bunch before just locking in a kneebar is a cool bad guy way to finish a match. 

MD: This never quite boiled over like I thought it might. We've seen Angels really go and I thought this might be an opportunity for Danielson to turn it up a notch. What we got was fine though. Dragon's most interesting right now with his little mannerisms, laughing off the crowd chanting for Angels, pointing to his ear to draw the boos to a couple of different sides of the ring, indicating his knee after grinding it into Angels' face. Angels sold big for Danielson, leaping into the corner after getting chopped. The transitions and cutoffs were ok: Angels using a backslide to get some kicks in, Danielson cutting Angels' strike attempts off by whipping him around to plant him with the double underhook into the cross arm-breaker, the knee counter to a suplex attempt which is 100% the novel zeitgeist AEW spot of 2021. None of it really told a broader story though. And with that broader story absence, I sort of wanted them to just go harder. I don't always want that, but I wanted it here. Good reactions all around though, especially that smile on Angels' face as the crowd greeted him to start the match. He'll have that with him the rest of his life.

CM Punk vs. Lee Moriarty

ER: Well this stunk. I have no idea how Lee Moriarty became a guy people want to see, because I don't see it. I thought Moriarty looked awful here. None of his offense looks good, he sells every move the same  way but doesn't sell actual parts of his body that get worked over, sets up spots incredibly lazy, and has no punch whatsoever behind any of his dreadful chain offense. How is this guy getting 12 TV minutes against CM Punk? The match goes from bad to worse when Moriarty breaks out one of the dumbest wrestling reversals (taking a top rope huricanrana fully and then just rolling into a bad sunset flip) and then straight into a brutally bad Malenko/Guerrero sequence. This was some not ready for primetime shit, and it made Punk look weaker being associated with it. MJF on commentary was even laughing about how Punk couldn't beat this guy, and when the man is right, he's right. 

PAS: This was just an awful matchup for Punk. I am not a Moriarty guy, but his best stuff has been doing that kind of slick reversal match with guys like Alex Shelley and Daniel Makabe, and that is something that Punk has never really been good at and definitely isn't his strength now. Moriarty really hasn't been on TV, and took way too much of this match for the crowd who didn't know or care about him. It made Punk look bad and didn't do much to make Moriarty look good, especially with MJF clowning him on commentary. That rana into the Malenko/Guerrero stuff looked awful, and the final reversal run wasn't much better. The mic work between Punk and MJF basically worked last week, and it really didn't work this week. None of the jokes landed and it felt very WWE Rawish. The first real complete miss of the Punk era and cutting the incredible Kingston feud short to run this seems like a bigger error each week. 

MD: I had a hard time even paying attention to this one because of MJF on commentary. I'm under the belief that there's payoff to all of this, but it's not to be found in this program. Punk beating MJF doesn't change the fact that he's been presented as struggling with guys like QT and Moriarty, to a level that the jeering heel has more than a point. In that case, it makes MJF look worse for not being able to overcome the guy struggling against QT after his faction has been sent away. If MJF beats Punk, he's beaten a Punk that's obviously diminished. There can be a payoff which is Punk finding his fire or going heel or whatever, but I don't think it can happen within this program. Even done open-eyed, it feels like a missed opportunity for the guy who came back with the most buzz in years. It makes people like Darby and Kingston look worse in defeat, since it was this obviously lesser Punk that still managed to defeat them. As for the match, I'm not arguing with Eric or Phil. A lot of this comes down to presentation. They made the point that Punk was working a heavier schedule than MJF but just like they didn't press in hard enough on QT's low blow, I don't think they were able to hone in on Moriarty's specific skills that'd give him an advantage and make him hard to deal with. They called him young and talented but it was hard to talk over MJF's absolutist bluster. I still like Punk using the bodyslams in various ways. The best of the dancey counter stuff was the Pepsi twist. But they're not putting the exacting care they need to in this presentation. This needed to be much clearer and more focused both in-ring and on commentary.

49. Darby Allin/Sting vs. Gunn Club

ER: I really liked the Darby/Billy Gunn match, and the Darby/Billy moments were my favorite parts of this tag. Gunn really plants Darby with a full nelson slam, like he was trying to put him through the ring. We miss some cool things during the commercial break, which is a shame. The picture in picture caught a lot of the Gunn Club cutting Darby off from Sting, but cut to an actual commercial when Gunn was about to hit a big slam, then came back and Darby had a cut on his head. Darby is always cool with blood (I guess that goes for every wrestler though so), and he hits two classic unhinged Darby dives, a great tope into the guardrail on Austin, and a tope con giro that bounces him off Billy Gunn's head. Sting was fun on his hot tag and the Gunn Club is a strong act, but I just love that weirdo Billy/Darby chemistry. 

MD: A lot to like here. They work the first couple of minutes almost like a mixed-tag with Colten feeding for Darby's speed. The transition when Billy tags in works great. Someday I'll revisit his "The One" run because I look at things differently now, but I didn't have a lot of time for it back when it happened. Even then, I loved the One and Only cobra clutch slam and him catching Darby into it was so good. Darby's hope spot where he landed on his feet after the fall away slam right into the crucifix and the subsequent cut off with Billy's slam was all more than solid. I saw a feed with no PiP which helped. Austin would have been preferable to Colten for that slowed down commercial heat since he's just more naturally irritating, whereas his brother needs to work for it. Darby is the world's most sympathetic Sabu. The second we see the top of his head bleeding, he immediately hits a jawbreaker with it. And those pinball dives. Putting over Sting in Atlanta is as good a way to end an undercard streak as anything.

PAS: I thought this was really great, and it is amazing how effective Sting is at this point of his career. He shows up every couple of months or so, and has these great Southern tags. He is a really good in the corner worker, and is a tremendous hot tag. I loved Darby using those insane topes as cut offs, giving Sting the chance to clean house. The flip stunner into the Scorpion drop was awesome, and the Gunn Club were great stooges, even Austin's big punch ruled. What a great bit of business. There are so many match ups I am excited to see the Darby/Sting tag team work, how great would a Darby/Sting vs. Hook/Dante Martin tag be?

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 11/8-11/14

AEW Dark 11/9 (Taped 11/5)

Darby Allin vs. QT Marshall

MD: This was about getting a crowd that was owed stars a look at Darby. The pre-match promo by QT saying he'd do a favor to a friend and soften Darby up for MJF was just a way to try to put a little more heat on a throwaway webshow match. I have a lot of thoughts about QT actually. He's apparently Khan's Bruce or Fink (probably somewhere in the middle), the guy he'll call to talk booking plans at 4 am and that conveys a lot of the messages forward. Wrestling in AEW wasn't actually a given for him; it just sort of happened. He's also an experienced journeyman wrestler, has fairly decent size, can hit stuff. I saw him vs Danielson in 2010 in Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago. AEW has an unbalanced, large amount of undercard heels though, and while it's possible, maybe, if all the stars align, that he gets some sort of DDP run that gets over, he'd have so much more value to the promotion if he started to work more like a manager. There are a bunch of managers and seconds on the roster, but they're all older and shouldn't be bumping or more non-wrestling looking guys like Andrade's assistant. I get why QT wants to go out and be more of a player/coach than just a coach of the Factory though. I just don't think he has as much value as he might leaning hard, at 36, into being what Paul Jones and JJ Dillon were five years later in 83.

Ok, the match: Early on, I liked how all the motion was about getting over Darby; Marshall would use his strength to redirect Allin or force him up, but it was all about Darby smoothly recovering and keeping the motion going. Darby countering the suplex in midair with a kick is the third time in a week I saw that sort of spot. Have I just not been paying attention or is it a new zeitgeist spot thing? I like it, but not if it's overdone. Anyway, it's not that Marshall's belly to belly and top rope headbutt didn't look good, but he probably would have stood out more on the show with a chinlock with his feet on the ropes and a Memphis headlock hiding a punch. I liked the comeback and the suddenness of the coffin drop, where instead of just sitting around, you could buy that Marshall had no idea where he was or what was about to happen. Ok showcase match for Darby for the crowd but I still think it would be good for Marshall to see the hole in the promotion and gravitate towards it.

AEW Dynamite 11/10

Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero

ER: I've heard recently of the Rocky Romero Renaissance, but I'm still a skeptic. If Danielson is going to have matches that I've already seen him have 15+ years ago in CA, then I am still more excited for the upcoming matches against Larry Blackwell, Scott Lost, and Jardi Frantz. Still, this is the same kind of very good TV match that Danielson has been having for a long time now, and those will always be satisfying. I liked how Danielson took Romero's offense, like catching a rana off the ring steps or taking a hard back bump off a tope, and I liked Romero trying to spam the cross-armbreaker (as if anyone in attendance thought Danielson was going to tap to a Rocky Romero submission). I wish Romero did some more interesting things to set up the armbars, as other than a cool knee to Danielson's shoulder it was pretty much him doing Rocky Romero Offense and then just trying for the same cross-armbreaker from the same position. They sold throughout like they had already each worked a match, and that was kind of odd, and it felt like there were missing steps in this, as if those glue moments happened somewhere else and nobody will ever get to see that full match footage. But this was a fun Danielson TV match, and it's his own fault for consistently crafting matches better than this one that a match like this can come off Less Than. 

PAS: I am coming off watching Romero kill it with Negro Casas live, so I am at a high point in my Romero fandom. I was into this, it is fun to watch Danielson work as a skilled counter mat wrestler. Romero isn't Drew Gulak, but this match had some of that same energy. I especially loved the last couple of minutes, which were all about trying to grab something and twist. The finish with Romero flattening out to stop the LeBell lock, only for Danielson to switch to the Tequila Sunrise was sick stuff. Danielson is a guy who can come out of nowhere to get you and this was great example of that. 

AEW All In 11/13

33. Darby Allin vs. MJF

MD: I get the build was about MJF winning with a side headlock takeover, and everyone lauded the Malenko/Guerrero opening bits, but they built this with MJF mocking Darby Allin's dead uncle, so maybe that wasn't the way to go? It worked out fine, as Darby would be stepping on MJF's throat on the apron a couple of minutes later and with the goading skateboard finish, but it was all a little too cutesy with mirrored body language and synchronized timing on lifting shoulders up and what not. I think there would have been a way to do this with MJF going for the side headlock over and over and Darby having to reverse and counter that would have been both more logical and story-driven as opposed to chain wrestling for the sake of it. Once the match actually got going and became about Darby's back and ultimately, after backbreaker after backbreaker, MJF's leg, it was very good. Darby's going to bump and sell around the ring as well as anyone on the roster and I liked the variations. If they felt gratuitous, it's because MJF is such a troll. Shame on the announcers for not being able to call the Billy Robinson backbreaker though. 

The leg was a way for Darby to believably stay in it without ever totally taking over the match. MJF's timing for Darby's tope and the camera angle for Darby running across the ring wasn't quite as good as the one with Sting and 2.0 but it was a close second. I liked how MJF used the Scorpion Deathlock and Darby used the figure-four which almost felt like the heel was using the face submission and the face the heel submission. MJF shouldn't have been able to turn it; the heel ought to get to the ropes in that situation instead. That's a nitpick though. The things that hit well, like the code red reversal into a power bomb, hit really well, and the match more specific spots that worked than didn't. I liked the finish. Maybe I would have liked it a little more if he had taken the ring bell because they were aping the Savage/Steamboat stuff as well. The deal with the Savage/Steamboat Mania match is that they'd already worked all of the hate-filled revenge matches around the loop so all that was left was wrestling and the title. This match tried to balance the two a little more and the ultimate result was impressive but maybe a bit uneven.

PAS: I thought this was really excellently worked, but had one too many ideas. I thought the opening of the match actually worked well. Darby was trying to answer MJF's taunts about his wrestling ability by hanging with him with counter wrestling. Darby has such incredible body control that it is really a pleasure to watch him do that stuff. I also liked MJF getting frustrated with being matched move for move and unloading with the cheap shot. The second part of the match, with Darby having the bad back from the missed apron coffin drop and MJF constantly crushing his own knee trying offense was neat too. That avalanche powerbomb counter of the code red, and the powerbomb on the knee were both incredible looking offensive moves. I didn't love going back to the Malenko vs. Guerrero roll ups, felt like that part of the match had passed, and MJF doing the spot with the skateboard and the ring felt like something this match didn't need. Almost like a TV show with too many plot lines, it felt like you could have saved some stuff for a future match.

ER: This was an incredible match yet I wish they had decided to drop a few of their ideas (as if they won't fight again and won't need something to use in that next match) and I wish it didn't have the first couple and last couple minutes. This match is something that excelled far past the headlock takeover and Malenko/Guerrero roll-ups and it's the bulk of the match that I loved so much. Once things moved past fast count roll-ups where shoulders aren't even touching the mat and moved into MJF working over Darby's back, they hit on something really special. I think MJF is an underrated in-ring guy and a vastly overrated promo guy, and this match was a testament to how far his in-ring has come. I loved the story of him destroying Darby's back at the expense of killing his own knees. Darby splats fantastically onto the ring apron on a missed Coffin Drop, one of those falls that would have me laid up for a week, and MJF wastes no time exploiting it. MJF's best in-ring attribute at this point might be that he's really great at being the "smart dumb guy", planning out a smart strategy but able to be lead away from that or continuing his strategy as it hurts him. This was a great match for that, and his work over Darby's back was really punishing. 

"Big move onto my own knee" offense almost always looks stupid, but MJF's powerbomb onto his own knee looked absolutely crushing, like Darby's spine should be completely misaligned. There's an incredible spot where Darby fights for a code red, and MJF fights it into a kind of cursed splash mountain. He drops Darby with backbreakers that look devastating, and his knee selling is so good that even as Darby is getting crushed you get the sense that he has ins. I am happy the crowd rose to their feet while they were both rolling around like goofs getting 2 counts for things that weren't even close to pins, but I hated that choice with a passion and thought it really distracted from everything they had done. The match had become something different and much better than they had initially started with, and it felt like a major regression - not a callback or joined loop - when we went back to that shit. The cheapshot leading to the side headlock takeover win was well done, and the bulk of the match is incredible, bookended by some things that a 22 minute match did not need. 


16. Bryan Danielson vs. Miro

MD: This one was all about Miro controlling the pace. Danielson would try to turn on his asylum-escapee-no-longer-straightjacketed adrenaline and Miro would just shut him down. It's interesting Danielson didn't target the neck earlier. He even went out and said that would be his gameplan when he was on commentary on Dynamite. The leg was bandaged but he didn't gain much ground there either. What's going to stand out, what we'll remember years from now about this one, was Miro taking three shots from Danielson just to hit one of his own. Miro, being one of the great vulnerable monsters in wrestling history, knew exactly how much to give and in doing so put over both the kicks and himself. The finish was sudden and ugly but in a good way given that you needed something out of the ordinary to explain Miro's collapse after a match where he was getting chipped away at but still seemed to have a lot of armor left.

PAS: Danielson has been such a force during his AEW run, it was really cool to watch him run into someone he couldn't just overwhelm. Miro's strength allowed him to shrug off Danielson's submission attempts like Kimo on Royce Gracie, and Miro has one punch KO power. Miro does really cool versions of my two least favorite current wrestling tropes: his religious fanatic cursing god is the best possible version of NXT shocked face, and the Bolo Yeung style offering of his ribs is the coolest strike exchange you can get.  I loved the finish, it looked really awkward in the best way, with Danielson just spiking Miro on his bad neck from the top in a way which almost looked like an accident. Breaking someone's neck is a great way to crack a brick wall.

ER: You know it's a great match when you get a classic fired up Danielson performance where he's leaning  into the prospects of getting a potentially deadly concussion, and get to see an equally fired up career high performance from his opponent. For several years now Miro has felt like an absolute dead in the water guy, doomed to either not live up to or not get the chance to ever really show how far he can go. I had completely written Miro off, a guy whose big run feels much further in the rearview than its actual six years. Rusev Day was four years ago? Feels like a decade. When he joined AEW and immediately started goofing around with the worst act on the roster? I thought he was unrecoverable. Now, Danielson has been on a genuine tear in 2021, having high end matches all year with everyone, and it's really easy to credit Danielson and Eddie Kingston for Miro's big resurgence...but he is clearly a changed man. 

Lean mean crazed eyed murderous Miro looks like the star that Believers have been saying is there since before the Cena win. Danielson *could* have worked this great match with just about anyone on the AEW roster, but Miro helped this get to a higher level because Miro felt legitimate. Miro looked like a New Japan Red Army psycho here, hammering into every part of Danielson's body and responding to Danielson's kicks and elbows with more violence. Miro took all of Danielson's offense and made it look damaging, while making himself look properly unmanageable, and it's a really impressive window to hit this well. He threw Danielson so wildly overhead, and Danielson is a maniac who will take great throws on his head and shoulder, and that kind of give and take punishment made this feel like a FUTEN fight. Miro takes a DDT on the top of his head that made him look like the guy on the cautionary Check Pool For Water sign, and the KO stoppage from that looked great, like Kurisu shoot knocking a dude out but still locking in a submission. 

2. Eddie Kingston vs. CM Punk - EPIC

PAS: An absolute classic. The build on this match was tremendous and they went out and delivered everything in the ring. So many brawls these days are full of elaborate set-ups for stunt bumps or weapons shots, so it is great to see an old fashioned fist fight. I enjoy someone getting hit with a chair, I love it even more when it is a fist.  Kingston laying Punk out before the bell with a backfist and laughing maniacally was a great start, as was a dazed Punk flipping him off from the floor. We were off from there with great hard shots from both guys, Kingston delivering some of his epic selling (both GTS's felt like he got hit in the head with a shovel), and Punk leaning into his assholeness. I thought the Cena taunt was great (although I could have done without the Guerrero tribute, I get why he did it, but not this match), and Punk really looked deranged with blood flowing down his face. I loved near the end when both guys were slumped in the corner, and they rose up to maybe the only good looking Frye vs. Takayama exchange in wrestling history (non-Necro Butcher division). I am torn on the finish. I really am so invested in Eddie at this point that any time he loses it pisses me off, but hopefully they keep this going and its leads to Eddie's moment. There is so much meat left on the bone.

MD: Totally unique, unbridled match, with a lot to pull apart. Was it a case where the match got away from Punk in the most amazing ways or was it the plan all along? They definitely got the mood right here to start, with Punk skipping all of his usual pre-match antics and getting right to it, only to walk right into the backfist. That said, while it never really let up from there, it did take a somewhat bizarre turn. The blood came early, to the point where Punk worked most of the match with it and the back half of the match with it basically dried all over his face. I'm not sure I've ever been more disappointed with announcers than in this one. They left so many potential hooks on the table, and with Khan's post-match comments about the boos for Punk being like Rock's at Mania vs. Hogan, I can only imagine some of the way the match turned wasn't entirely the plan. Those boos came late in the match when Punk pounced on a mostly defenseless Kingston with the elbows and knees, though. They weren't facile boos. They weren't boos in a bubble. They weren't goofy Canadian nostalgia boos. The fans specifically disliked what Punk the wrestler chose to do in that moment. It was heat. And it had been something building in the match until then. 

Before that, Punk clearly disrespected Kingston by hitting the Cena spots. Even with the blood coming down his face, that's what he chose to do against this opponent, with this issue, in this setting. Then there was the moment that the crowd first went from dueling chants to chanting solely for Eddie, a real turning point in the match. How did Punk respond to it? By deciding it was time to do the Guerrero tribute (the third or fourth of the night at that). Whether or not it was genuine and heartfelt and whether or not it just happened to be the point in the match when it was originally planned, it came off as a complete jerk move, using Eddy's memory as a way to willfully (and pettily!) misunderstand and twist how the crowd had decided to solely get behind Kingston with their chants. In the end, even if the announcers didn't pick up on virtually any of it, even if Khan seemed to indicate it was something else in the media scrum, I'm pretty certain Punk knew what he was doing, and it all added to the animosity in the match and got the crowd more and more behind Kingston and his defiance. Ultimately, I had a sense that Punk, the character, was punishing Kingston for ruining his fun, and though it seemed like he was offering his respect with the handshake post-match, to me, there was something else going on entirely. Hopefully this isn't the end of it, because there are still places for this one to go.

ER: Not many matches can come off as both a feud blowoff and a feud starter that's merely laying the groundwork for the danger to come, but this managed to do that while being 25% shorter than the next shortest match on the PPV. I had no idea how the fans would react to this one and wasn't sure they would turn on either man (I was expecting far more Both These Guys type chants) and loved how Punk was able to draw those boos WHILE being busted and without resorting to any kind of actual cheating. Punk drew heat by just choosing the best moment to throw grounded punches at Eddie Kingston, a man who talks constantly about how much he loves punching and being punched. Punk and Kingston understand the moments and the context within their matches, and they understand how to use it to add even more depth and then pay that depth off. 

I'm with Phil, in that Kingston matches are some of the few in modern wrestling where I stop thinking about who will be booked to win, because I only want to see Eddie Kingston win. Eddie Kingston makes me root for his victory in the same way I root for the Giants to win (presumably) shoot baseball games. But he's so easy to connect to that I also root his stupid decisions, especially if they seem like its what he personally wanted. I didn't want to see Kingston get nailed with a GTS, but I cannot deny the man the joy of popping up before getting hit with one. Kingston took both GTS as effectively as any man can, and I love how Punk has shifted his delivery and selling of the delivery. The move doesn't look sloppy, as it used to, and now just looks difficult to hit, and like it takes more out of him TO hit it. Those are conscious changes to a small part of a wrestler's game, and seeing someone evolve their game like that always catches my attention. These two catch my attention, and I want to see them evolve this feud. 

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AEW's Five Fingers of Death Week of 10/25-10/31

A couple of years ago we did weekly posts when the WWE was running cool weekly TV matches with Oney Lorcan, Drew Gulak, Jack Gallagher, and Brian Kendrick. Those guys got buried deep, cancelled, or retired, but we're bringing it back! With AEW running plenty of killer weekly TV matches featuring all-timers Darby Allin, Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, CM Punk, and Dustin Rhodes. We're running it back with a twist!

AEW Dark 10/26 (Taped 10/24)

Eddie Kingston vs. Jack Evans - FUN

PAS: Crazy that these two guys had never had a singles match before considering how long both guys were on the indies. Evans is best known for flips, but he is a world class guy at getting beaten up and he is at Chris Frazier level here, with Kingston caving his chest in with hard chops and twisting him like taffy with the stretch muffler. Evans gets in some spin kicks, and Eddie does some nice nerve selling before putting him away. I think this would have been better in a different time with less of a hierarchy difference, but it was definitely an enjoyable TV match.

MD: Unsurprisingly, this was really good. Good on Jack for being irritating enough to get heat after coming in so flippy and entertaining. To be fair, it's pretty evident that you don't get anything like a normal tourist crowd with these studio shows, which is probably a shame. Still, it went from the studio wrestling comedy with Bryce and Jack's new look to Eddie leaning hard into Jack's kicks very abruptly. Then Evans not just leaned into the chops but ran into them (but in a way that made total sense for his character and the match). Evans bumped himself on his own Michinoku Driver which is on brand. Both of these guys made what their opponent did look amazing throughout. Took two tries for the Saito suplex because that's the house style; everything either takes effort and fails the first time or hits the first time and gets countered the second. It makes sense to have Eddie win with the Stretch Plum since to help (re)-establish it as a weapon for the Danielson match; it let Excalibur point out during that match that he won with it here.

Bryan Danielson vs. Aaron Solo

PAS: Danielson is going to work a long match with pretty much anyone, and throw enough fun stuff in it to make it worth a watch. Solo has a very power plant offensive resume, I liked his double stomp, but otherwise it was very Evan Corageousish. I dug how Danielson interacted with Factory outside the ring, getting clocked by a nice QT Marshall right hand, and taking out Comoroto with a tope. I dig WCW Pro American Dragon, but there are a lot more interesting opponents for him in the enhancement pool.

MD: One good thing about enhancement or JTTS matches is that it lets people actually hit moves that will get countered almost every other bigger match. Most of the time Danielson goes for his corner flurry that ends with the top rope 'rana, some aspect of it gets countered. Here it worked. Basic Flair hitting moves off the top rope occasionally logic. Unfortunately, Solo was intrinsically less interesting than Comoroto or QT as an opponent. The deal with AEW Danielson is he's going to push you to your point of desperation and Solo's point of desperation was pretty mild. The most interesting things here were when QT was getting involved and how Danielson leaned into those late 80s WWF narrative opportunities. Honestly, given it was his first studio match in forever, I'm a little surprised Danielson didn't do anything more experimental here. I suppose that he's saving that for hooded nonsense?

AEW Dynamite 10/27

19. CM Punk vs. Bobby Fish

MD: I'm starting to see some patterns with Punk's matches. Structurally, the first acts are pretty complete, to the point where I could have seen things legitimately ending after the tope and being a nice, little TV match. Instead, that's the predecessor to the heat. The Garcia and Sydal matches had similar moments where they just broke open. In general, Punk looks as smooth and physically sound as I may have ever seen him. I'm guessing it's either due to the time off or all the training he did for MMA and just changing his body and his way of moving. The early knees in the corner looked great. The switch around neckbreaker looked so smooth. The way he's able to adapt to working on one limb while making some of his stuff, like the elbow drop, look as good as ever, is pretty impressive. And that's just the half of it. Punk was getting fans to pop huge for bodyslams. In 2021. Three times. There's so much value to that and so much skill and so much daring and fearlessness to just lean into something simple and trust that the fans will go along with you for the ride. They did, 100%. 

There's value in having matches paced like this on an AEW card to help (re)train the fans. Once this got going, I liked how Fish varied his offense, which made things a little different than the Punk/Garcia match. The hurt leg was often a means to his other shots, which themselves were a means to let him target the leg again. It was a good 65/35 balance between leg shots and cutoffs and other bits of offensive striking. That was obvious and overt. Less obvious was the early transition where he picked Punk up in a fireman's carry and in my head, that was to goad punk into going for the GTS too early. A leap? Maybe but these guys earned plenty of good will here. As for that kickout right on 3 on the GTS? It was the guy's birthday and more importantly it was earned and set up by Punk's inability to get over there quickly and the fact he couldn't cover Fish how he would have wanted. The move was still protected. Fish was protected. No problems there.

PAS: Fish is a guy who had Shawn Michaels NXT and Davey Richards era ROH stink on him for me, but man did I dig him here. He seemed to cut any superfluous nonsense out of his work and focused instead on vicious looking leg kicks and Thai knees. I am going to be into a guy who basically works like Mitsuya Nagai and he was a fun foil for Punk. Fish was really obliterating his leg with those heavy kicks, nearly knocking him over with every shot, and it allowed Punk to do some fun selling with the one legged elbow drop and the delay on the GTS. Punk does look physically great (working once a week will do that for you) and his stuff has way more impact than I remembered. Great match, wasn't really expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. 

ER: Bobby Fish is one of those wrestling weirdos with terrible life opinions who came up in systems entirely surrounded by people with terrible wrestling visions, who also somehow keeps getting better as a wrestler the older he gets. Punk has been out of wrestling the entire time Fish was turning into an old cool limb twister, and somehow Punk has turned into an actual execution guy. Hitting your 40s and suddenly hitting your offense better than you ever have before is a great trick and I sincerely don't think we've seen Punk look this crisp...ever. His strikes look better, and Matt pointed out how the MMA training likely helped that along, but everything he does looks better than it did a decade ago. His attention to detail is different and it makes things like those corner knees more potent, but just the way he works his way through a bit of offense looks so much better. My favorite bit was the final GTS sequence, with Punk fighting Fish up onto his shoulders only to have Fish reverse into a nasty dragon screw that I actually thought would lead to the finish, and I love how Punk fought to get Fish back up into the GTS and struggled through hitting it clean. 

But the match building to that great stretch was filled with cool moments that felt totally different than any CM Punk match I've seen. Fish was mean about targeting Punk's leg, and I flipped out when he hit an inside leg kick that sent Punk's leg shooting off to the side and wide open for a Fish follow up. Fish kicking out at the 3 could have easily felt egregious depending on how it was handled in the immediate aftermath, and it's a tough (and fairly unnecessary) needle to thread. If the timing is even slightly off then the finish looks blown and the entire great match is remembered for that busted finish. But the timing of the entire finish worked really well, with Punk nailing the GTS and then collapsing, making it over to Fish just in time to secure the pin. Great match. 

AEW Rampage 10/29 (Taped 10/27)

1. Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson - EPIC

PAS: Danielson has been so great working within the match styles of his opponents in AEW, working the world's best Omega match, the best possible Suzuki match, and a great Dustin match just last week. I was interested to see what type of Eddie match he would work, as Eddie can do a bunch of different things.  This was slugfest Kingston, and I love slugfest Kingston. Eddie is willing to deliver a huge beating, and absorb a huge beating, but what really makes him a master at those kind of matches is his selling. So many great little moments of Kingston here: the dazed look after the head kick, the hulking up on the strikes while still feeling every shot, his reaction to arm numbness, just a masterclass of the little things. The big things in this match ruled too: Danielson gets every blood vessel in his chest opened up, and was throwing his kicks just as hard. They named dropped All Japan a bunch on the commentary, but this was more Tenryu than Kawada, just a pair of tough guys standing in the pocket and trying to knock each other out. Loved the escalation here, with the big DDT nearfall being spectacular, and the triangle choke being one of the better finishes of the year. 

MD: What a match. I'd gone back and watched the 2010 match between these two, which was Danielson's first match back on the indies after the Nexus tie incident in WWE and it was striking how forward-driving and aggressive Danielson had been working then, very similar to how he is now. In that match, Kingston just ate all of Danielson's stuff, got beaten around the ring, and threw suplexes as hope spots as the fans got what they wanted on that night.

This is a leaner and somehow meaner Eddie though, and he proved to be the wall that could halt the previously unstoppable freight train that's been AEW Danielson. He stormed to the ring, hovered in the corner waiting for the bell, and came out unleashed. From the first unclean break, it was on, and Kingston felt like the protagonist of this story, first surviving Danielson's kicks to his leg, then surviving the armwork. Every moment here felt uncooperative and earned. I got the sense at one point that Danielson was drawing Kingston in to launch the machine-gun chops in the corner too early so that he could switch it and start on the kicks. The match was full of moments that made you wonder like that.

It really opened up once Eddie hit the belly to back on the floor and then the awesome slingshot belly to back using the turnbuckle. From there, it was unmitigated violence, with Danielson trying to open things back up with a well-timed block or shot, but Kingston just able to chop him down. Danielson had the welts on his chest to prove it and it was all capped with that amazing moment of defiance as he was crumpled in pain. If Suzuki was the first guy to really make Danielson lose his zen coolness, Kingston totally shattered it by forcing that middle finger from the corner. Eddie wasn't going to put him away with those though, which eventually led him to the top rope and the really epic battle that ensued, with Kingston punching up every time he got shrugged off and Danielson doing an amazing sell job, slumping all over the place.

I loved how it was a belly to back (avalanche) which turned the tide again. After that, as they went into the stretch, the amazing moments just flowed in one after the other. The kick to the head. The DDT. The attempt at the armbar. The backfist. Eddie collapsing and Danielson showing him absolutely no mercy by swarming him, and the crowd reacting huge to each and every one of these, despite having already sat through two hours of Dynamite. All of it led to the triangle (yet another finishing move) and that last paralleled moment of defiance by Kingston. Each of these moments was timed exactly as it should be. Just a beautifully balanced, perfectly paced, meaningful, uncooperative, character driven, resonant pro wrestling match.

ER: I loved this so much. I think it's the best Eddie Kingston match since he's been in AEW, and I think it's Bryan Danielson's best match since the best match of 2020, which was Bryan vs. Gulak at Elimination Chamber. The match felt like Tenryu vs. Fujiwara's Greatest Son, and since Tenryu/Fujiwara is a match we really only got to see once, that's a welcome match type. For two guys who wrestled full time at the exact same time for over 30 years, Tenryu and Fujiwara only matched up once in WAR (in 1997, and it ruled). Kingston and Danielson were in the all time great ROH/CZW Cage of Death, and then had a 2010 singles after Bryan's NXT debut but before his NEXUS debut. However, as much as I love both of these guys, I don't think this was a match they could have had in 2010.

Both men have injuries they didn't have a decade ago, Danielson has a family, Kingston is an uncle, both have a new decade of risks they didn't have in 2010, both have considered retirements more than once, and both have now wrestled in front of crowds the size they hadn't seen in 2010. Things are different now, and I don't think they could have done this at any other time. I loved everything about this, and the details have been covered well by Phil and Matt. Kingston turned Danielson's chest into meat and hit some of the greatest strikes of his career: his shotei to knock Danielson off the ropes was better than any palm strike I've ever seen Liger hit, his backfist looked like a murder (and Danielson sold it like he just took a bullet into an open grave), and he threw his suplexes with his whole body. Danielson is an execution guy known for his tight offense, and he worked an impossibly tight match here. The timing and pacing of everything was perfect, and Danielson was kicking Kingston as hard as he was getting chopped. Since Eddie Kingston is nuts, he was taking Danielson's kicks in the most painful way each time, getting kicked across the shins and thighs and then leaning head first into kicks while on his knees. 

The nearfalls down the stretch all felt like worthy finishes, and it's incredibly fun watching two masters peak and peak and peak their rollercoaster and still make each turn more thrilling than the last. Kingston refusing to die is one of my favorite things in pro wrestling history, and any time Danielson gets pushed by someone to that next level of aggression and violence, his finishing stretches are unparalleled. The nearfalls all work, and I really bit on that DDT of Eddie's. This was a great pro wrestling match that would be great in any year, but really only could have happened this year. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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The Judge Said is Kingston the Thug From the Kit Kat Club?

Eddie Kingston vs. PAC AEW Dynamite 1/13/21 - GREAT

ER: I thought this was a mostly boring, rote PAC performance, in a match that was only saved by some tremendous Kingston selling and big King bumping. PAC weirdly worked this match like he was 50 lb. bigger than Kingston, relying on Kingston bumping around for all of his strikes and throws, while he himself put in bare minimum effort getting into position for all of King's offense. It was really bizarre. PAC jumped Kingston and Kingston pinballed around the ring and floor from dropkicks, bounced across the ring on a great German suplex bump, and makes every single thing PAC does really mean something, selling more and more injuries as the match goes on. PAC returns absolutely none of these favors. He's obviously super athletic, but PAC looked completely uninspiring here. Any of the care Kingston took to selling offense and setting up offense was the opposite of what PAC did. 

Whenever PAC went back on offense, it was just him getting up from moves and going back on offense, and he kept making Kingston look like a doofus by standing still in his position waiting for a move, not bothering to occupy himself in any way. At one point he runs into Kingston's boots in the corner, and then just bends at the waist and waits perfectly still for Kingston to come off the middle buckle with a knee. He takes a Saito suplex well, but Kingston is out here selling every individual move PAC did the entire match, and PAC just shrugs the suplex off. Kingston does one of the finest superplex sells I've ever seen, first trying to block it with nice body shots the split second before going over (and before that PAC was taking forever without making it look like he was fighting Kingston in any way), then upon impact had his arms straight at his side like his neck and lower back went right out. Down the stretch he's selling all this nerve damage in his neck, trying to quickly do chiropractic exercises like applying pressure to the soft area under the collarbones, selling the pain down his arm, all of it actually giving some meaning to PAC's offense. Kingston worked this match like he was an AEW Dark scrub putting over Cage or Wardlow, but PAC held up none of his end. This felt like that HHH match where he just tried to sandbag Eddie the entire time.   

PAS: I didn't have the same problems with this that Eric did. I liked the idea of PAC coming out after a long layoff firing on all cylinders, like you might see a basketball team who was embarrassed in a playoff series dominate the first quarter when they played them next season. Kingston taking over with a Bunny eyepoke and a exploder on the floor worked for me, and Kingston laid it in on offense. I don't think PAC is a particularly smart wrestler, but Kingston's selling was incredible in this and I thought really elevated your normal meathead workrate PAC match. That superplex was honestly a spot of the year candidate, and while I want Eddie to win every match, I had no beef with how this turned out.

Eddie Kingston vs. Aaron Solow AEW Dark 2/4 (Aired 2/16/21) - FUN

ER: Kingston against smaller wrestlers is almost always good, because he is really good at appropriately selling strikes and offense. It's a difficult thing to do, and only the best can do it, as it's really easy to settle into selling all punches as punches, all elbows as elbows, all kicks as kicks, no matter the size of who is delivering them or how well they connect. It's difficult to sell these appropriately, because you don't know how well a strike will land before it's thrown, but this match had several moments of King selling exactly the right amount for what he was given. There was a kick to the stomach that didn't connect, so King laughed it off and told Solow to hit him harder, leaving him wide open for a punch to the hard that stunned him, allowing Solow to add some more strikes. Kingston sold Solow's so-so elbow strikes as if he had eye strain from staring at a computer screen for too long. The stuff that looked good, King treated respectfully, like the early match headscissors that sent Kingston scrambling for the ropes, or a spinkick that caught him behind the ear and sent him spiraling into the mat. There was a good nearfall off a nice Solow double stomp off the top, and I am happy we have been getting these glimpses of how Kingston would have worked on WCW Worldwide. 

PAS: Kingston has to be the best opponent in wrestling, he is going to just make you look great, whether he wins or loses. Solow didn't show much, but Kingston made everything he did look great. He sold that spinkick like he was beaned with a baseball. I do love the WCW syndie vibe of this show, and Kingston would have been amazing in 1997 WCW syndies. Imagine a WCW Pro match against Juvi or a 10 minute WCWSN match against Finlay.

Eddie Kingston vs. JD Drake AEW 2/17 (Aired 2/23/21) - GREAT

PAS: I really think Kingston should work a 7 minute match with a US Indy crowbar every AEW Dark show. Get Manders, Big Twan, AJ Gray, whomever, and just have a punch out. Kingston felt like he was trying to get Drake a job here, as he really showcased him. Both guys laced each other with chops before Kingston went to the body and up top with a slap. Highlight of the match was Drake catching Kingston coming off the top rope with a straight right hand, which Eddie sold like it gave him nerve damage in his arm. Drake got a big run of offense including his great looking cannonball in the corner, before missing a moonsault and getting obliterated with a backfist for the pin. Eddie as WCWSN Finlay is a pretty great use of him, especially if he is a bit sidedrained on the main show. 

ER: This feels like a base level Kingston match, filled with the type of things that he brings to every match, elevated by what his opponent is able to contribute. There have been several examples of Kingston doing his cool thing on AEW over the last year, but I'd really love to see him officially take the Cody-but-better role on Dark, crafting digestible matches with unsigned indy guys that aren't outright squashes, and showing just enough ass. This was a Cliffs Notes version of their two Evolve matches from a couple years ago, with the kind of stand and trade I really love in wrestling matches, because it never devolved to them just standing in front of each other like idiots. Kingston is someone who adds dips and knee wobbles and off timing to strike trading, but here he is far more dominant and focused on cutting off any of Drake's momentum. He throws combos (loved the quick left to the body, right slap to the face, headbutt combo), and whenever Drake threatens to string anything together King just changes the rules. Drake has a chest that always reddens nicely, and I like the way he sells Kingston's strikes as if he's staring into the sun. King is always great at placing breadcrumbs in his matches, hitting a nice shoulder tackle off the middle buckle early, only for Drake to punch him out of the air when he tries it later. Drake's run of offense looked good, and his cannonball might be the best of all the fat guy cannonballs that are used in modern wrestling. The finish is simple, and while I wish we got a little more time, these two always pair nicely. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Eddie Kingston's Rude Ass Carries Three Weapons, He'll Give Your Face a C-Section and Keep Stepping

Eddie Kingston just main evented a PPV that got a lot of buzz, and it felt like a good time to find any Kingston AEW matches we hadn't yet watched and review them, for the purpose of science. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Lee Johnson AEW Dark 9/8/20 - FUN

PAS: This was Eddie's first singles match post being signed, and he methodically worked over Johnson, gave him his one run of offense and then finished him with a running knee and backfist. Johnson's had the least impressive offense run of all the guys Kingston squashed, but he did seem to move well, and took a solid beating from the King. 

ER: Kingston is a guy who fights from underneath so often in his matches that it's cool to see how he works shorter squash matches. He's really punishing with hard chops and a cool delayed high crotch lift suplex, but then runs temple first into a back elbow and jaw first into a boot, and it's cool that even in a one sided match he plausibly worked in Johnson hitting a blue thunder bomb. I dig how much of a comeback he's given to the kitchen sink. He's been using that low running knee to set up the backfist. In a promotion where Omega does 6+ running knees to the face in every one of his matches, Kingston has shown the value of one expertly timed knee to the breadbasket. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Brian Pillman Jr. AEW Dark 9/22/20 - GREAT

PAS: This ruled, unlike the other AEW Dark matches, this was back and forth and competitive, and Kingston is a master at the Tenryu style beat a rookie into looking great matches. Pillman gets in all of his spots and has a bunch of moments, but Kingston is fully kicking his ass throughout. I loved Pillman firing with a bunch of huge overhand and traditional chops and Kingston responding with line crossing slaps to the ear and face. At one point Pillman lights him up, turns his back to celebrate and Eddie half clotheslines and half punches him in the back of the head.  Kingston used the running knee to the stomach as a set up for the backfist in all of these matches and this was the nastiest, I thought Pillman might puke blood.  BPJ looks so much like his dad in his movements, this at times felt like a time machine match. Man, a Brian Pillman Sr. versus Kingston feud would have been incredible. 

ER: Damn have we seen Kingston in the sleeveless Mad King duster and rosary beads before? He's like a character in a Robert Rodriguez movie. I thought this was great. This felt like if WCW had given us Dick Murdoch vs. Brian Pillman in 1991. Kingston gave Pillman such a hard beating that at one point Tazz broke and just started laughing, saying that Pillman must owe Kingston money. Any time you get an announcer to genuinely break character to marvel at the violence it's always memorable violence. Pillman really does take a beating in this match, a real sit up and take notice Kingston beating. He kicks Pillman in the back, lands heavy chops, and then really steps it up with a thunking downward strike clubbing arm to the back. He throws a few of those clubbing downward shots and every one of them looks and sounds painful. 

Kingston also has the kind of excellent, honest selling that keeps brawls interesting and avoids ever feeling same-y. He doesn't react the same to every shot, he really tailors his reaction to a specific strike. Pillman hits him with a weak overhand chop at one point and within a split second of it landing light he was already shaking his head and asking him to re-do it. Most strike exchanges are sold by selling each shot by guessing ahead of time how hard it will be. Kingston's candid selling gives this really one sided brawl a great energy, and makes Pillman's comeback feel like a big deal. Pillman gets a great nearfall off a nasty inverted driver, and Kingston had this dirt off shoulder way of dealing with Pillman. He hits this intentionally sloppy bodyslam, just scooping and dropping Pillman, drops him fast and low with a hotshot on the guardrail, and late in the match hits an all time great uranage. The kitchen sink used at the end of this match is one of the best running knees I've seen. It was a straight running shot right below the bellybutton, not a running blow with the leg held out to the side. He just runs knee first into Pillman's stomach, like a knee to the balls that went high. Is AEW Dark harboring a bunch of under the radar beatings like this one? 

Eddie Kingston vs. M'Badu AEW Dark 10/6/20 - FUN

PAS: Short squash, but nifty stuff. M'Badu is a big jacked guy listed from Nigeria, he had a good look and nice height on his Stinger splash. Mostly Kingston taking it to him though, and ending the match with a backfist and a kimura. Kingston gets on the mic and calls out Moxley, and says he will make him say I Quit with the Kimura like his buddy Josh Barnett. Certainly served it purpose, although a squash is a squash.

ER: This accomplished as much as a squash match could accomplish, and AEW is smart using some larger guys in squash matches and not just making it established guys running over juniors. I wouldn't mind seeing more M'Badu, and squash match Kingston is really good at giving guys one big spot (here an awesome rotating M'Badu powerslam). This finished with King's tried and true kitchen sink > spinning backfist, but I loved the wrinkle of him lifting M'Badu for before 3 and locking in a nasty kimura for the tap, looking into the camera while doing it. Heels need to make crazed faces while locking in a finishing sub, bring that Backlund chicken wing energy. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Baron Black AWE Dark 10/13/20 - FUN

PAS: Another squash match, which sees Kington end it with a really great looking backfist and front chancery choke. Black gets one Exploder and a spinning clothesline which looked OK, although I wasn't a fan of his chops. This was a 3 minute match which got it's point across. They must have a deal with Mr. Hughes' school or something, because they have a ton of black job guys but hardly any black people on the actual roster. I mean Eddie beat as many different black wrestlers on AEW Dark than are on the whole main roster. 

ER: Going through all of the AEW Dark Kingston matches is the first time I've watched any AEW Dark, and I didn't realize the show got its name because all of the job guys are black. I liked Black's spinning lariat/Exploder combo (the guy has a really strong Exploder), and while his strap takedown could use some work it's a good sign that he at least incorporates a strap takedown. This match continues the cool trend of a King kitchen sink/backfist combo (this was one of his best backfists too), then locking in a sub for the actual finish. Establishing Kingston as a guy with several ways to finish a match, not just a guy who needs to focus on the backfist. His standing front chancery choke looked sick, great finishing sub. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Matt Sydal AEW Dynamite 10/28/20 - GREAT

ER: I really liked this. I loved the looks of it on paper and thought it delivered in a bunch of cool ways. I wasn't sure if they had a singles match before (apparently they had one in 2005, anyone know if it's cool?) but they matched up great. Kingston starts us off with an effortless promo, calling out wrestlers at ringside, making inside jokes with sly grins at the camera, really the only guy who can do that kind of stuff and not have it come off like some dumb shooty shoot comments. Kingston is so great at being flustered by Sydal's speed, throwing clotheslines over his head, leaning cheek first into a great solebutt, staggering excellently into position for a hard dropkick; that Chikara background has always made him a compelling worker against speed guys (but really, is there anyone he is not compelling against?). I really loved Sydal's cradle and backslide variations. Sydal really moved around Kingston's body with grace, especially love when he slipped around out of a headlock and swung into a grounded crucifix. Kingston basically had only chops and elbows to work with, and the way he worked made it feel like something could end quickly if he just got Sydal's timing down. Sydal stayed ahead of him, got him on wobbly legs, flipped him off the top with a headscissors, almost took him out with knees. Kingston could not keep up, until I saw it in his face right when he was going to turn things. He missed a clothesline that almost seemed intentional and then knows right when to catch Sydal with a low knee and then locks on that bully choke for the tap. The bully choke is a great finish, really does feel like something that would leverage an immediate tap. Kingston is so good at fighting from underneath against any type of opponent, that even though it felt like Sydal took a ton of this it always felt like Kingston just had to catch that timing. 

PAS: This was a really solid TV match, I thought it was a step below the Pillman match, but not a giant step. I agree with Eric about how smooth Sydal is, he spins around Kingston's body like a breakdancer. I loved Kingston's wobbly leg sell of the high knee, and he has really developed that running knee to the gut/backfist as a television wrestler finishing combo. It is a nice adjustment to the change in his circumstances, he can use it to finish off the Baron Black's and Sydal's of the world, and it will make a great near fall in a bigger match. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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