AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/10 - 11/16 Part 2

AEW Collision 11/15/25

FTR/RUSH/Sammy Guevara vs Kevin Knight/Mike Bailey/Juice Robinson/Bandido

MD: An eight man tag can be an opportunity or an excuse.

It can be an opportunity. 

You have eight wrestlers. How do they interact? Both the partners and opponents. I want the camera to linger on what happens when FTR gets into the ring with LFI for the first time (Cash was quick to go slap hands and greet). These are disparate characters, disparate styles, disparate personalities. It's interesting. It makes the world seem more robust. Hiptosses are great. It's not always about hiptosses. I want to see who these people are and what they think about each other. What the hell does Dax think about Rush? That's interesting. Likewise, Juice hanging back and waiting for Bandido to show up so he could do Guns Up with him and then Bandido realizing what he wanted and getting excited and into it. That's interesting. That's compelling. It's vivid and real and immersive. It draws you in.

It's about the narrative opportunities of having more wrestlers and their attributes to work into the match. It opens the door for creative possibilities. You have Rush's intensity, Dax's hard hitting, Bandido's strength, Bailey's agility, Sammy's attitude, Knight's explosiveness, Juice's charisma, and Cash's wild abandon. And that's just one attribute from each of them. The wrestlers can mix and match all of that. Everything can be bigger. The stooge spots can involve more people. You can go for a double heat instead of a single. There are choices for who gets the hot tag, how to do the cut offs. It's more options, more room for creativity. Maybe most of all, it's also a way to further multiple stories at once and seed future interactions and matches.

It can be an excuse.

Eight people. Eight sets of signature spots. Eight guys who can take bumps. The action can flow and flow and flow and never stop. Someone can bump and the next person can be right there, fresh and on his feet, ready to jump right in and get revenge. You can drown the fans with an endless waterfall. Everyone gets their stuff in. Everyone gets to shine. Everyone gets to show off. The spots escalate endlessly. There's no ceiling. There's no bottom. There's no reason to ever stop. 

Except of course there is, because without stopping nothing can have meaning. Without leaning into tag rules, nothing can truly resonate. But it can be an excuse not to do those things, because you can just keep cycling people in and out forever. 

Cleverness for the sake of cleverness, spots for the sake of spots. It seems to be some wrestlers' fondest wish. Endlessly entertaining, almost certainly ephemeral. 

Usually, depending on who's in the match, an eight-man tag in AEW can be one or the other. 

This one, given who was in it, sort of straddled the middle. There was just enough connective tissue. They let things get chaotic, but then they brought it back to the center. There were foundational moments: Knight mocked the heel corner with the tranquilo pose and when he got thrashed by LFI they did it back to him. Sammy teased a swanton early only to leap down and screw with the fans. When he tried the same thing later, it cost him and helped lead towards the hot tag. Speedball hit his moonsault kneedrop in the ring to finally get that hot tag but then wiped out on the apron, clearing him out of the way for the finish. 

There were excessive moments, most especially early chaos which built to FTR eating Juice's stylized punches, Rush trucking him out of nowhere, and simultaneous JetSpeed dives. 

Ultimately, everything came down to Rush and Bandido, then opened back up as everyone got involved for one last bit of excess, only to cycle back around to Rush and Bandido once more for the finish. Moreover, it came back to the characters at play, their familiarity with one another and lack of familiarity with one another, as Rush got shoved into FTR to position himself for a slightly askew 21-Plex. 

If I had my way, I'd prefer something a little more grounded with chaos even more controlled than this, but it's a big tent promotion and sometimes an excuse is what's needed. Thankfully, here, that excuse didn't leave the opportunities on the table like it so often does.

ROH TV 11/13/25

Athena/Billie Starkz vs Hyan/Maya World

MD: Here's what makes pro wrestling great. 

Athena demanded to start the match. She held out her hand to Maya World for her usual insulting left-handed, draping code of honor shake. She immediately clocked her with the magic forearm, absolutely floored her.

And all that? That was Athena selling.

That was her selling the frustration of eating a rare pinfall from Harley Cameron (of all people) during the tag tournament, of having to defend against Harley now, of being eliminated from the tag tournament when she and Mercedes were the favorites, of Kris Statlander getting into her business, of Billie letting her down, of Mercedes not doing her part (and being able to claim that Athena didn't do hers), of not being part of the first Blood & Guts. 

Grievance after grievance all going into that one seething, agitated, impatient shot. 

This was an enhancement match. Hyan and Maya are on the rise but this was to continue Athena's story. She'd sell for their offense, but she'd sell more for the ghosts in her own mind, a burgeoning obsession over Harley. She'd call Harley out within the match, even as she punished Maya or Hyan. She'd take it out on Billie, so distracted and distraught that she'd all but chop her instead of tagging her, would get in a senseless argument which would allow her to get dropkicked from behind.

The secret truth in pro wrestling is that true strength lies in vulnerability, that it's selling which draws the fans in to get behind a babyface and that showing weakness, be it physical, emotional, or moral is how a heel gets heat. So even as Athena ate up Hyan and Maya, she was being eaten up on the inside, and her performance made that clearly evident to the world. 

Meanwhile, it was on Billie, Hyan, and Maya to react. For Billie that was trying to soothe Athena's wounds through inflicting collaborative violence, of showing the emotional impact of Athena's abuse upon her, of being distracted herself. For Hyan and Maya, it was being on their back feet due to the brutality and coming in hot when opportunities arose. 

The end result was an entertaining match which was laser-focused on promoting the title bout to come. And it all hinged on Athena selling something bigger and more complex than a punch or a kick from the second she walked through the curtain to the second the camera faded on her post-match. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 7/21 - 7/27

AEW Dynamite 7/23/25

FTR vs JetSpeed 

MD: Wrestling isn't math. 

Except.

And yet, they found a way to overcome.

Wrestling isn't math, except for when it comes to the maximized balance of a southern tag. There became a trend over the 2010s, all the way from the start of the decade, where finishing stretches to tag matches got longer and longer and longer, gobbling up more of the shine and heat. Eventually, half the match took place after things broke down, creating minute after minute of exciting action where all four wrestlers could come in at the same time, cycling in and out, spot after spot, nearfall after nearfall, endless noise crashing into the face of the fans. 

It came at a cost. Ironically, it was the exact opposite of the Bulldogs-driven WWF 80s house style (maybe an overcorrection now that we have even more footage, but not too much of one), where the shine became so long relative to the heat and comeback that matches fell into a "heel-in-peril" mode. Modern tags tend to have everything break down as soon as possible so as to fit the maximum amount of sensation into the match.

The problem is this: it does a disservice to the natural benefits of the southern tag. You ramp up the pressure as much as possible during the heat so that the moment of comeback means as much as possible. The benefit of the tag gimmick isn't that there are four wrestlers in the ring at once as much as possible (that's a Tornado Tag, totally different thing). It's the rules keeping a wrestler out until a tag. That allows for an entirely different sort of hope spot and cutoff than you can get in a singles match, one that hinges on the idea that salvation is just around the corner, one heroic, desperate grasp away. To toss that by the wayside just to do more "stuff" is almost criminal, with the victim being the narrative advantages of the form.

The Revival found a way to compensate in the mid-10s, because they had the canvas to do so in NXT. Less constrained by time limitations in their role as a featured act on a developmental brand, they were able to simply put more into the matches. The finishing stretches were just as long and just as elaborate as ever, but it didn't come at the cost of lengthy heats. They rebalanced the equation by taking up more real estate making those exciting stretches actually mean all the more for how they were earned but it was a luxury that wouldn't carry forward onto the main roster. 

Coming off the exceptional Outrunners match from a few weeks ago, where they raised the stakes on the heat by putting both babyfaces in peril simultaneously, they again pushed the storytelling envelope last week, this time against JetSpeed. Here, they came up with a plausible way to have everything break down extremely early, almost from the start but in a way that still (as a one time thing to be used very, very rarely) managed to serve the possibilities of the form due to the simple threat of paying off narrative expectations. 

The name of the game here was pressure. This was part of an eliminator series for a title shot. The stakes were high. There are spots and then there is strategy, and when the former is underpinned in a character driven way, everything shines. It sounds simple but it actually happens in a relatively small number of matches. Some of the best wrestlers of decades past were able to do it instinctually. In today's comprehensively planned out style of pro wrestling, it has to be baked into the mix.

Here, it absolutely was. FTR charged in early and attempted an immediate Shatter Machine. They wanted the quick win. When that failed, they just kept pressing and pressing, trying to pull JetSpeed under. 

They never could for long though. I'd argue that this didn't necessarily have a shine. I'd argue that it didn't really even have a heat. I wouldn't call this the sort of "sputtering heat" you'd get from 80s Guerreros matches. It was simply constant pressure from FTR in a way that needed an absolute purity of vision to work. The heat was constantly threatened but it was never allowed to manifest. 

They tried using Dax's jacket to cut off the ring (early enough that the ref would allow it). They tried pile drivers on the outside. They had Dax slam JetSpeed into Cash's elbows and knees (not his fault as he was still holding the tag rope, as he was quick to point out). They tried the PowerPlex, twice. When they went to the legs for Bret's figure four around the ringpost, it worked right until it didn't, leaving Dax as an open target for Speedball's kicks. They pressed and pressed and pressed, but they couldn't hold the offense for more than a minute at the time. 

But it was that pressure even in the face of JetSpeed's comebacks, that gave the match form and substance. It never came off as "Your Move, My Move." It never even felt like momentum shifts to me. It was the constant, incessant, groaning pressure from FTR and JetSpeed using their skill, speed, finesse, and heart to constantly push back against it and get their shots in. 

I'm not sure I've ever quite seen a tag like it. I led off by talking about southern tags, but after a second watch, this really wasn't a southern tag at all, because it never really came together in a way to break down in the first place. For it to still feel coherent, for it to still feel story-driven, for it to feel purposeful and not just like a tornado tag spotfest, for it to still somehow feel like a conventional tag match that threatened, at any and every point to become a southern tag and to start a heat segment that JetSpeed never quite allowed to come, is, to me, very impressive in and of itself.

A structural achievement and a testament to both teams. I thought there was still meat on the Outrunners bone, different variations of that same story that they could do with another team in another way six or nine months down the line.

With this, I think they stretched it just about as far as it could go without it falling apart completely and losing cohesion and focus like so many other spotfest tags of the last fifteen years. 

That said, part of me wants to see them try to prove me wrong. 

AEW Collision 7/26/25

Dustin Rhodes vs Lee Moriarty

MD: With Fletcher looming later this week, it's hard to say how many Dustin defenses we'll actually get, but I'm glad we got this one. It had time to breathe, a dueling limb story, and Lee served as a very game, very unique opponent.

He's the ROH Pure Champion, and it made sense for Dustin to not try to face him along those terms. But this was Dustin's first defense of a major singles title in decades and the TNT belt, itself, can switch between being a TV type title and something more prestigious depending on who has it. You got every impression that Dustin wanted to come in like a classic champion and take things to the mat. Lee kicking the hand away on the shake to the start only drove that thought home, as did his early bits of finesse leading to a Border City Stretch out of a rollup.

That was right down Moriarty's alley as Pure Champ, to burn rope breaks early even on moves that wouldn't get him the win, ones that were more about bluster and opportunity than actual damage. In fact, if you look through the match, Dustin would have burned his third rope break towards the end on the bodyscissored anklelock. That's great cover for Moriarty in losing because if this was a Pure match instead, he very likely would have won with a hold shortly thereafter.

It wasn't though, so that served more as insult than injury and led to Dustin taking things to the outside and unloading on Moriarty's arm. Shortly thereafter, Moriarty was able to get a Dragon Screw out of nowhere and hone in on Dustin's leg. 

And that was match for you. Dustin, given his reach advantage and Moriarty's arm, was going to win on a standup strike exchange. Moriarty, on the other hand, could lean hard into his own youth and speed advantage to hit Dustin quickly and from odd angles to take him off his feet. At one point, for instance, Dustin kicked Moriarty all of the way out of the ring on a figure four attempt. It was just a hope spot however, as Moriarty was able to dart back into the ring at high speed and take the leg out once more. Even after Taylor worked his arm out on the outside, Moriarty still couldn't get every hold he wanted every way he wanted however. 

Solid substance for the match and they worked it through the break until Dustin could come back with a powerslam and a pretty interesting Destroyer which Dustin, himself, took as a flat back bump instead of seated. No idea if that was intentional or not but if not it was a happy accident that served the match, since it allowed him to plausibly protect his leg on it. They went around a bit on the finish, including Dustin going for the Unnatural Kick and paying for it (but only to the tune of a one count, maybe not the time or place for it, but if this is his one title defense, what the hell, right?). Lee got a more legitimate naerfall after that and Dustin only managed to sneak out a win on a roll up on a second figure-four attempt. It'd be lovely if we had another five or six of these types of matches from Dustin against all sorts of comers, but I'm glad we got this one and I'm glad that it had the time it did.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 6/30 - 7/7

AEW Collision 7/5/25

FTR vs The Outrunners

MD: I had gotten most of the way through the review down below (MD1) and decided that I wanted to see what it would look like if I hit it from a different direction (MD2) so here are two very different reviews of the match. I liked it that much.

MD2: The Outrunners had everything going their way. Oh, FTR had tried both mind games and dirty tricks on them. Of course they did. Dax had done it from the start, pushing for a clean break on the first exchange only to throw a cheapshot on the second. When things boiled over, he ran around the ring forcing Truth to give chase. When they slid back in, Cash completed the ambush by leaping halfway across the ring like a madman. Truth fired back quickly and made the tag but they then dragged Turbo down, cutting off the ring and laying a beating on him.

They wrestled a mini match here, a satisfying few minutes with shine, heat, and, as Turbo reversed a Cash suplex and kicked off a charging Dax to make the tag, comeback. Truth came in hot and FTR pinballed for him, all building to a bulldog/clothesline combo and the set up for the mega powers handshake elbow drop, that itself generally a precursor to Total Recall. 

But there was Cash again, flying in out of nowhere, an absolute maniac using his body as a wrecking ball, slamming one Outrunner into the other and down to the floor. Once there, things took a bleak turn as an entirely different match unfolded. After pummeling Truth a bit, they lodged Turbo's leg between the stairs and the ring, crushing it with the force of their bodies. Turbo incapacitated, they turned their attention entirely to Truth, opening him up and honing in on the face, head, and neck. 

With a gleeful sort of efficient cruelty, Cash would leave his vantage point on the apron multiple times, running around to jam Turbo's knee onto the stairs senselessly, or, in moments where Truth was able to get a shot in and maybe, just maybe, earn an iota of hope, pulling Turbo off the apron with purpose. For long, grueling minutes, there was no true hope to be found, not even in the face of bravery, toughness, and heart. 

Moreover, there was lingering doubt and concern. Let's say Truth, through skill and pluck and luck, might find a way to make it to his corner, might find Turbo actually there, what condition could Turbo actually be in? What fight could he actually put up? Regardless, the hope spots escalated, with as much focus on Turbo's struggle back to the apron as Truth's within the ring. Cash came around again one last time but Turbo was ready for him, only for Dax to knock both off the apron and Truth to capitalize with a roll up, a hope spot of his own that wasn't even about the tag but instead a desperate swipe at victory. 

Escalation built up the pressure leading to a volcanic eruption as Dax missed a diving headbutt and Truth pulled himself to Turbo for the tag. But now Turbo had to face off against a nearly fresh Cash Wheeler with one leg and little hope, with only his guts to push him towards glory. He attempted a slam, powerhouse that he is, only to come up wanting. Cash charged in, had he had twice before, now for the kill, but Turbo, in a last burst of defiance, put everything he had into a countering clothesline. Bolstered by the heroic effort, he hefted Cash up for the slam and reunited with Truth. The two grasped hands in a heartfelt gesture of survival and triumph and pulled each other up so that they could finally drive the elbow down. No matter what would come next, that was a victory that could never be taken from them.

But what came next was in their favor! Dax and Cash tried to get an advantage on the apron but Turbo fought them both off and the Outrunners were able to come together one last time to hit a Shatter Machine of their own. This time, however, it was Dax who flew in and sacrificed his body to break up the pin. This last burst of hope turned once more into tragedy as Truth went sailing off the apron after a suplex attempt. As Stokely cravenly grasped Truth's leg on the outside, Cash managed one last reversal on Turbo and FTR hit a heartbreaking Shatter Machine. The Outrunners were defiant to the last but FTR was too much, too cruel, too merciless, too precise, and too underhanded. 

If this was a morality play, good vs evil, evil would only grow in power on this day. Yet the light of the Outrunners would give FTR reason to fear their own shadow, reason to fear an inevitable comeuppance that crept ever closer. If it was not around the next corner then maybe it would be around the one after that, even if it wouldn't come in the here and now at the hands of their former friends.

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MD1: A remarkable match. I'm going to get right to it. I want to talk about the structure. After some start-of-the-match stooging from FTR (Dax especially) and a really nice momentum shift tease which had Truth chase Dax around the ring and Cash take him out as organically as possible (so much of it coming down to Cash's wildman execution), they played out a very early short/quasi FIP, the sort of phantom FIP you sometimes get in a shine. It culminated with Truth and Turbo going for the megapowers handshake elbow drop. That was broken up. That's important because in denying the fans that moment, it allows the Outrunners to pick up a spiritual win late in the match when they finally earn it (I'd say that they get another in the late match when they hit their own Shatter Machine on FTR but honestly, in this match, the fact that they even came back at all was the sort of accomplishment that is so often just taken for granted in modern tags; let's get into THAT now). 

The crux of the match was Truth Magnum getting bloodied up and working FIP with FTR pulling out every Southern Tag trick in the book to build anticipation and draw heat. But what put it over the top is that they had taken out Turbo Floyd's leg with the stairs as part of the transition to heel offense. As Dax was doing some woundwork in the ring, Cash was hitting shinbreakers onto those steps off to the side, out in the background. 

Look, there have been tags where the guy on the apron gets taken out both at the start and later on. There are tags with double FIP where a limb is worked over and the initial FIP has to recover enough to allow for the hot tag. There are Japanese tags from the late 80s-early 90s which are built on someone holding out long enough for his partner to recover. I love Tenryu/Hansen vs Rusher/Baba from 89 which is built around Tenryu ambushing Baba with a dive as he's coming down and Rusher getting worked over until Baba is ready to come back. But I can't remember the last tag I've seen with a structure quite like this. I was actually thrown by it completely because I thought they were going to work over Turbo's leg after going out of their way to crush it with the stairs. But that was just in support to the face-in-peril and to set up a level of doubt after the hot tag.

And it was exciting! Not just the match, or the fight to come back, but even the way they put this together excited me. Not only was Truth a bloody mess but Turbo was on one leg. Basically, both wrestlers were in peril simultaneously even though it was a standard tag that followed standard rules and drew within the lines. They would go back and take Turbo's leg out more to cut off hope spots so Truth couldn't make the tag. There were all sorts of possibilities at play here, all sorts of different ways they could have gone with it. For instance, what if Truth didn't get bloodied up until later in the match? What if he was able to make a tag earlier but then Turbo had to fight for another five or six minutes getting his leg worked over? Maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday down the line they can come back and do a twist on this and it will feel fresh. 

Just as this felt entirely fresh. Compared to most current tag matches which are back heavy (unbalanced in my mind) with loads of spots after everything breaks down post-hot tag, they got in and out of things pretty quickly after Turbo burst in. Every moment felt like a struggle and a triumph though. Turbo came in hot but his broken body betrayed him. Unable to slam Cash, he had to push through it all to hit the huge clothesline (for a huge pop), and then the slam. That led to the truly wonderful moment of the Outrunners not just clasping hands but helping each other up to their feet to hit the elbow. They followed that by spitting in FTR's eyes and hitting their own Shatter Machine before the unfortunate fall off the apron by Truth and Stokely getting involved to ensure the finish. 

Just a total masterclass of how to create drama and build heat before paying it off in a way that was very specific to the match. They didn't throw out everything that came before in the name of high spots and sensation. Instead they built the fire bolder and brighter. While some people might see this as incredibly conventional, I thought it was pretty daring in how it pushed the form (within the lines! within the rules! within the norms!). This is the FTR that was so dynamic and exciting as the Revival in NXT and this is the FTR that can still revolutionize tag team wrestling by taking everything that has always worked and push it in new and bold directions. All they need are the right opponents and the right platform. They certainly had both here.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 10/21 - 10/27

AEW Collision 10/26/24

FTR vs. Rush/Dralistico

MD: Look, I got exactly what I wanted out of this match. The initial pairings were Dax and Dralistico and RUSH and Cash. While Dax has a good punch and all the personality you'd want and a Foley-esque sense of knowing how to create big, meaningful moments that stand out, there's just something to Cash. My go-to description of Ashura Hara is that he wrestles like a guy with a gambling problem in the best way. Cash wrestles like a guy who's just one bad day away from snapping. In any other walk of life, that wouldn't be a plus. In pro wrestling, it's a godsend. Of course, RUSH had his bad day close to fifteen years ago, a series of them, one after the next, when the Arena Mexico crowd refused to get behind him as an up and coming young tecnico and he decided that the world just had to burn down. He never looked back. All I wanted from this one was the two of them, either with an early exchange or one in the finishing stretch, getting to slug it out with each other. I knew RUSH would awaken something in Cash, the sort of thing which could make him a top singles act if he could channel it constantly without going so method that he was in constant backstage altercations. And so he did. All it took was one little slap and Cash was all over him. RUSH turned Cash into CASH. RUSH is less about big spots and more about cracking people in the jaw. No one else in wrestling is going to do a complex bypass only to slap someone. Only RUSH. What a guy.

Prior to that, we did get Dax and Dralistico to start. Dralistico's an interesting case. People more focused on lucha tend to have disdain for him, but I think he's kind of self-aware. How do you stand next to RUSH as your brother and see how Dragon Lee carries himself on the other channel and not, after all these years, have some sort of self-awareness? There's another reality where Sin Cara became a big star up north and Dralistico got to coast on being Mistico II forever (whether the crowd was behind him or not). Here though? Here I think he kind of gets it. He knows he can walk all over Dax (literally) and then after getting smacked slink off to the corner and tag in his brother to hide behind. I kind of wonder if he doesn't get quite enough credit for his act. Maybe he doesn't stick to it consistently enough, but there's something to "failed idol who decided to go into the family shitheel business," right? If you squint, the lack of smoothness at times can almost be a boon if he's leaning into it somehow. It's the little things. After RUSH redirected Dax into the corner to set up the heat, Dralistico added insult to injury by giving him a halfhearted shove into the post again. It's a little bit understated in a world of larger than life characters, but I kind of dig it. Eric's already the world's biggest Bestia del Ring fan so maybe I should watch myself here. 

I got what I wanted right from the get go, so the rest was sort of gravy. They focused on Dax's shoulder. RUSH knocked Cash off the apron to delay the hot tag. Dax had to really work for it. Cash came in hot. Dralistico hit that wild crucifix driver. They went home strong with the Mortos miscommunication. Maybe you didn't want LFI losing so early into their revitalized run, but this is the RUSH/Dralistico pairing where the money pairing is the RUSH/Mortos one. They more or less got their heat back after the fact. It'd probably be good for them to get a couple of single wins coming out of this even if you don't necessarily want FTR or Outrunners to lose on the way to whatever they're doing. Run Truth vs Mortos, Dax vs Dralistico, Cash vs RUSH (Yes, please, run CASH vs RUSH) next week. Have them split wins 2-1 with LFI on top. Then figure out how to glue together a six-man or eight-man. They can get a few more weeks out of this on Collision. That's the joy of Collision. This was great fun. Now we just need that CASH vs RUSH super libre match. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/19 - 8/25 Part 1

MD: No PR this week due to some power issues on the island. Good stuff coming though so stay tuned. Thought I'd get a jump on some AEW since there's a lot coming this weekend.

ROH TV 8/22/24

Dustin Rhodes/Marshall Von Erich/Ross Von Erich/Sammy Guevara vs Matt Bennett/Mike Taven/John Silver/Alex Reynolds

MD: If I was in the live crowd, this one would have baffled me a bit. This was taped before the tag title change on Collision so it followed most immediately from the high heat end to the last ROH show. It was a fun, quick-moving, high spirited celebratory match, anchored by a frenetic finishing stretch and from Dustin making the most (as he always does) of being face-in-peril. But in chronological filming order, it had to seem a little offputting to be just so over the top. The crowd had no way of knowing that the emotional beat in the middle would be the action (and interference) packed title change after all.

Watching it on TV, on the other hand, it worked very well for what it was trying to do. That meant the claws came early. It meant Sammy got to take someone's phone and film himself during the shine. It meant Bennett and Silver stooging all over the ring for Dustin. It meant some heel miscommunication before they settled in on the heat. I've said it before but pro wrestling isn't math. Except for sometimes the southern tag formula kind of is. You don't want a heel-in-peril scenario where the shine is way too long. You don't want everything to break down too early so people are rushing in and out for the last half of the match without any structure or trappings. The one thing that can rectify either problem and most other problems, is if you have a really dynamic heat section, even if short. A lot of times that's on the heel team; The Midnight Express could make so much out of just a few minutes, but having a great face-in-peril working from underneath works too and Dustin's the best in the world right now.

So when things did break down, it was ok. Having Silver/Reynolds in there to help direct traffic like the savants they are didn't hurt. Some of the Kingdom's stuff worked right into their wombo combo stuff and it just felt right. And then it all built to a really huge claw/over the shoulder powerslam move by Marshall that we don't actually see that often but that is very impressive. While the tag title match was really how the residency ended, this is our last look at it, and in both cases it ended up on an up note.

AEW Dynamite 8/21/24

Darby Allin/FTR vs The Young Bucks/Jack Perry

MD: I scooted through this quickly the first time and I wasn't going to go back for it; perfect excuse with all the wrestling going on. Hell, I could write about Jarrett vs Daivari or that Big Bill vs Hook match that sounds fascinating instead if I needed another match for a Part 1, right? I might still. But then ol' Joseph rated it 4 stars and I had to admit that I moved through it pretty quickly the first time and... well, let's give it another look.

I really enjoyed the way it stemmed from the Okada vs Claudio match. As I noted in my thoughts on the company the other day, Dynamite does have a tendency to move too quickly from one thing to the other and not let moments resonate. Excalibur is a master of "And now"-ing and "But whatabout"-ing. When it happens organically like this, in that old ECW way, it adds an air of both excitement and connectiveness. There are some tricky bits with that. What does FTR feel about Claudio, for instance? While I understand both the presence that allows for it and the utility of it, the BCC being so mutable is overall problematic. Yuta can't be a shitheel rat boy one day and working from underneath against Swerve sympathetically the next. He just can't. You end up, over time, with 60% gain that you'd otherwise get on both. 60% of Claudio is a lot still, but it's not 100% of Claudio and the company needs 100% of everything they can get. Last note: everyone got the message that if you're going to use time announcements, you have to do it more frequently both within a match and overall, right? No need to reiterate that, I hope. Consistency is everything in pro wrestling.

Ok, on to the actual match; enough stalling. Back to southern tags. This had a very short shine, but one with Darby flying out of the ring twice, heavy brawling, and the double Sharpshooter tease, followed by a great transition with the Doomsday Device kick. Then the heat was on Darby, where if Dustin's #1, Darby might be #2, so that helps. We haven't seen a ton of straight up tags with the Bucks and Perry (it felt like they established the Okada/Bucks combo better) so this felt fresh and dynamic, with a great hot tag and good rousing comeback by FTR.

After that, things broke down a little too early for my liking maybe, but this is a teaser for the weekend and they didn't have a few more minutes to loop into, let's say, a second heat segment on Dax. So it got the job done. Sometimes the job isn't to have the best match possible. Having the Elite try to pack their bags and go got over the bigger picture story better than leaning hard into pure quality for the sake of quality so good on them. Cash's dive was a hell of a thing. I like Dax, the way he thinks about wrestling, how hard he works. But as I think about the necessary moneyball replacement scenario for Bryan Danielson facing AEW in the future (and TK can do moneyball so long as he thinks about it that way), Cash is a guy that almost feels like the middle ground between Mox and Danielson in a way that even at 37 still seems untapped. The last thing he seems to want to do is wrestle singles matches, but in a post Danielson world, maybe people have to be made to stretch (they need to tap into the untapped). Anyway, I always love the Powerplex combined with whatever their partner has, and the Coffin Drop is a great choice there. So yes, this was effective, absolutely got the job done, and hit a lot of positive marks along the way.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/13 - 5/19

Ring of Honor 5/16/24

Athena vs. Nicole (Matthews)

MD: It's been way too long since we've had an Athena match of any length or with any weight behind it. And this was definitely a fun one. Someone asked me the other day to give them my thoughts about Negro Casas as he wasn't entirely clicking with them, which is understandable if you only catch certain parts of his most lauded 90s work. Casas is actually fairly hard to explain, because he's such an exceptional talent. While he excels in a number of conventional ways, what really makes him special are things that other wrestlers generally don't share. He checks a number of the normal boxes, but quite a few boxes that no one else checks. It's like trying to explain Terry Funk. And it's like trying to explain Athena.

The common ground between all three of them, however, is that you never, ever want to look away. No matter what's happening in the ring, no matter what their opponent is doing, no matter how the crowd is taking it, you want to see them react to literally everything that happens from the moment they come through the curtain until the moment they leave again.

And what made Matthews such a great opponent for Athena is that she gave her so much to work with. There was their history which should have put Athena on edge. There was the crowd being very into a local legend which certainly did put Athena on edge. But more than that, Matthews is just so good at doing all of the little things. She hits the big things smoothly, but not so smoothly that it doesn't feel organic and engaging; there's a bit of grit on her whips and grabs and grinds. It's those little things though, an extra shift of leverage with an unexpected body part on a pin attempt, torque on a hold coming from an interesting angle, that put it all over the top. It's style and substance both, something extra that feels additive and not extraneous, something that is visually interesting and unique but that fills in a narrative gap as well, making suspension of disbelief easier and not harder.

In this case specifically, more than just engaging the crowd and filling in between all the lines, this meaningful effort (that somehow still seemed effortless) gave Athena even more to react to. She reveled in Matthews' pain while trapped in the corner. She scrambled all the more, horror and determination flashing across her face, when she found herself in a hold or in one of those ever so slightly enhanced pin attempts. Athena is going to come into any match more alive than almost any other wrestler today, but when you put her up against someone who gives her just so much material to work with, such a vibrant and rich tapestry to color upon, she soars. So yeah, in the end, this was a sub-ten minute proving ground match. There was a hierarchical difference. It was there to set up the post match with Aminata making the save and basking over the belt. But in watching it, you didn't want to look away for a second.

AEW Dynamite 5/15/24 

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb/Kyle Fletcher

MD: I don't have a ton of big thoughts on this one. I liked it more than the Top Flight match (and I wanted to like the Top Flight match!). It served its purposes, letting Danielson be a star in Washington, both with the music-laden entrance to save Moxley and then by being the one to get the hot tag while Mox worked FiP; having Moxley look dominant both in the shine and down the stretch; keeping the stories churning towards the PPV, starting the show off hot, etc.

Moxley brawling to music always looks right, as if he's somehow choreographed to it, no matter what he does, like a fight scene a movie with a Hans Zimmer score. Here we had the novelty of him brawling to Danielson's theme instead of his own and it worked for all of the high points in the song. Like I said, I enjoyed him asserting himself early back in the ring even if I think that superplex on Fletcher was maybe not the best idea. It was a move that was starting to get protected more in 2021-2022 and there's value to at least making the attempt. Let's not do one in the first couple of minutes of a match

Speaking of protection, Fletcher is the least protected champ I can imagine, but it's gone so far that it's come around to being ok. He's clearly a top guy in a minor league promotion able to stand up to the competition there but unable to face the guys in a major league promotion. You appreciate the attempt but know he's going to get swept under, like a junior heavyweight fighting up in a higher weight class. It was chafing while that was being established but now that it is established it's fine. You can look at Mark Briscoe's Continental Classic record along the same line. Having Cobb in there was a nice change in the mix, both with his strength moves and in him knowing what he had with a homestate Danielson playing to him and the crowd. I'm not sure if the effect would be lessened if we saw him every week but it was nice here as a one-off and teaming the two TV champions was a nice touch and makes me regret we never got more with Samoa Joe/ZSJ last year. Overall I don't think people will remember this much past the brawling over Danielson's theme to start but it was a fun way to spend twenty minutes. 

AEW Collision 5/19/24

Bryan Danielson/FTR vs. Lance Archer/The Righteous

MD: Not much to say about this one. I thought Collision was very effective overall in building things towards both Dynamite and the PPV. Having Trent and Roddy out there for their opponents' matches, letting Toni do her thing, having Wayne use Swerve's move to build to their match, using the bounty as a way to push AitA, and especially having the three FTW eliminator matches back to back with some rampway interaction. It was a very effective cog-in-the-machine show, just good pro wrestling TV. I liked Taylor vs Ospreay especially. I think Ospreay is actually most special when he's being grounded in traditional pro wrestling storytelling. Having Roddy out there, having Ogogo get the cheapshot in, having to overcome the size differential, being able to channel what makes him so spectacular not in an ever-cascading escalation competition but instead in the tried and true narratives of pro wrestling means that he enhances a match instead of distracts from him.

So I liked Collision. As for this, they did a good job with the time they had (closer to 10-15 than 25, as a lot of the big Collision tags go). The goal seemed to be to delay and deny the fans Danielson (save for some extra-curriculars on the outside going into the commercial break and Dutch catching Dax to star the FIP). When he hit the hot tag, he looked like the star he is against a massive opponent in Dutch and then as they went into the stretch, they were able to finally do some team spots with Danielson and Cash, all of which were fun, to build up AitA. The finish was a little cutesy but this was more celebratory than anything else, and the weight of it would come through in the post-match, including the absolutely brutal Blackout on the chair to Cash. Bring on Satnam. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/26 - 3/3

AEW Dynamite 2/28/24

FTR/Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley

MD: If this wasn't on a PPV week, I'd give it more words. Let me go quickly. Structurally, it had to cover a lot of ground. Two commercial breaks. Two feuds. Double heat. Guys who never teamed together. A rare chance to do Danielson vs FTR. Needing to make the faces look strong even though you were putting over the heels. A lot of ground to cover. There was a wonkiness to the timing of the commercials too. They teased Danielson vs Kingston before having Bryan heel it up and avoid contact. A brief exchange or two lately and they were brawling on the floor to lead into the first break. The match probably would have been stronger with clearer pairings and exchanges but you have to factor in the masters the match was trying to serve. At least I think you do. Maybe that's why I don't do star ratings. 

First heat was on Cash and the second on Dax. The Cash/Moxley interactions were molten lava. There are a few guys in the company (RUSH) that Mox just syncs with perfectly and while you might not think Cash would be in that category, you'd be wrong. There's something roiling underneath with him that he can channel in the best way. I'm very sympathetic to Dax. He wants everything to make sense. He wants everything to fit. He thinks about consequences. He strings together complex narratives. I blame myself for this for listening to the podcast and him breaking down his own matches, but I do occasionally see those strings in ways I might not have otherwise. On the one hand, it's fascinating. On the other, it takes me out of the match a little. I don't have that problem with Cash. Anyway, this built and built until it was Danielson and Kingston in the ring finally, which is how you want a match like this to go. We'll probably forget about this one in a few months but it worked very well in the moment.

AEW Revolution 3/3/24

Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston

MD: I don't think we're going to forget about this one. That said, AEW puts out so many great matches on an almost weekly (if not weekly basis), and we have big stops ahead of us for both Danielson and Kingston in the months to come, I wanted to memorialize it. More than not forgetting it, I barely have to write anything. The match spoke for itself. Excalibur has been on the top of his game with these matches, hitting the high points during the matches themselves, and if you don't get it there, there's always the Danielson post-match interview where he lays it all out after Eddie leaves. But again, life moves quickly, so best to at least try to do this justice.

Much of 2023 was about Eddie Kingston's journey to become his best self. As this year goes on, he'll continue to serve as a whetstone to sharpen those around him and eventually, at some point, will have to deal with cracks in his own armor for even the best Eddie Kingston is still Eddie Kingston. For now, though, he's a constant, a paragon, consistent, stalwart. Danielson, on the other hand, is coming to grips with his own mortality the fact that his life as a full-time wrestler is winding down. You can draw a direct line through Danielson's last few big matches. He lost to Kingston in the finals of the Blue League bracket of the Continental Classic; he sought to break Eddie, was sure he could break Eddie. He could not. He defeated Hechicero, yes, but only after getting stretched and humiliated for the entirely of the match. Therefore, when he came out against Sabre, Jr., he wasn't his usual reactive, passive, opportunistic self. Instead he was aggressive, taking much of the match, even in a losing effort (one where, maybe, he had psyched himself out at the very end). I think he needed that performance against Sabre to reconfirm to himself just how good he was. This isn't a straight line. He came out weaker after the win against Hechicero and stronger after the loss to Sabre. It put him in a headspace where he could wrestle the match he wanted to wrestle against Kingston though, one where he was no longer going to try to break him mentally but to lay in wait for the right opportunity and dismantle him physically instead.

The problem for Danielson, however, is that Eddie Kingston is just a special sort of wrestler. Even though Danielson's plan played out perfectly, the benefit was limited and the struggle incessant. Danielson wrestled defensively. Usually it's more of a subtle thing, an almost Fujiwaran element to how he wrestles. Here, it was overt. His hands kept popping up to try to snatch a limb off of a Kingston strike. The problem was that Eddie was just too good at striking. It took Danielson goading him on the apron, both of them slightly off balance, to force a mistake; Eddie chopped the post and Danielson would have a wedge to pry his guard open for the rest of the match. With almost any other wrestler or even any other version of Kingston, this would be enough for Danielson to achieve his goal. It would be an academic dissection of a body part over the span of minutes. This version of Kingston, however, was just too much. It gave Danielson an edge (Kingston's shots weren't hitting as hard and he had to pause to recover in certain moments) but while it created an imbalance, Eddie was able to wrestle or tough his way out of any attempt to deepen the damage. 

Danielson is endlessly adaptable, though, and he moved with fluidity from one opportunity to another. It meant that he controlled much of the match, and when Eddie came back, it even meant that he did everything right in cutting him off, in opening him up, in creating exactly what he needed, like when he kicked the hand away so that he could hit his first knee. It was just that Eddie, on this night, in this moment, was too good. For much of the duration, Danielson wrestled a perfect match. For Bryan Danielson, of all people, to wrestle a perfect match, his perfect match, and to not be able to keep someone down? Of course it drove him to distraction. Eddie had been lured into a mistake early. Danielson, disgruntled, allowed himself to make one late, getting into a striking contest with Eddie. Even one handed, the jabs and out of nowhere shots that Kingston was able to throw were heartstopping. They weren't enough to put away Danielson though. This was almost a case where both wrestlers were simply too good, a battle of attrition, trench warfare where they fought to gain inches on a map. Danielson's mistake was just a bit too late in the match. Eddie just had a bit more down the stretch. On this night, he was just slightly, ever so slightly, the better man.

But Danielson wrestled a match without regret. He had wrestled his best match, not one where he got in his own way due to preconceived biases. This time around, Danielson did not defeat himself. He gave it his all and was beaten fair and square by the best wrestler in the world today, the AEW Continental Champion, the holder of the modern Triple Crown. And you could see it after the match, as Danielson came to grips with it, and in the post-match promo after Eddie left. By losing against this wrestler after a match where he gave it everything he had, Danielson ended this small journey of his own, a journey that started and ended with Kingston, and with Okada, Hechicero, Nagata, Sabre, and Akiyama along the way. As he winds down the last half-year of his fully active career as a wrestler, he can move forward with a restored peace (and openness) of mind. And Eddie Kingston can walk forth, head held high, dragging his titles behind him, the respect of his peers warning in his beaten and battered heart.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/7 - 8/13

AEW Rampage 8/11/23

Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage

MD: There are two times when I want to see Cage, when he's up against someone ridiculously over the top like Willie Mack and the match will be so dumb that it's enjoyable and when he's up against someone small who is going to bump all over the ring for him. This was as much the latter as you could possibly get. Contrast makes the world go round. We are most easily defined by what we are not. The most straightforward stories involve two opposing forces. And no one is going to make a behemoth look better than Darby Allin. Some of the bumps in this were just gnarly. I thought he was going to helicopter to the top of the arena on the F10. He had a way of overbouncing on the outside-in suplex and a power bomb. That one topple off the top rope had him landing like an accordion. It's Darby and he has Gates of Agony, Christian, the Swerve/Fox coffin match, and Luchasaurus all ahead of him over the next few weeks, so we're probably not going to remember any specific bump here, but the overall picture is ever memorable.

I thought Cage had solid presence throughout. He was a little more methodological than usual, a little less cute, full of trash talk and posing when the time was right for it (like during the commercial break). Darby snuck in some hope here and there and got squashed for his trouble (with Nana being the deciding, disrupting factor in the stretch). While Darby made all of Cage's stuff look absolutely deadly, some of Darby's stuff seemed a bit off and weirdly labored against Cage. You'd expect a guy so big and strong to be able to hold for it better maybe? I would have liked a slightly more elaborate finish with a couple of Darby roll-ups leading to the Last Supper, but a single one causing the banana peel probably did protect Cage a little more. I'm just not sure he needs it given what Darby has a head of him. Still, what a bumping exhibition by Darby here.  

AEW Collision 8/12/23

House of Black vs. CMFTR

MD: When you write about AEW week in and week out, you end up talking a lot about the commercial breaks. When you write a lot about Collision main events that tend to go closer to 30 than 20, you end up writing a lot about multiple commercial breaks and how they structure the time. Here, they had two to deal with, which, as you can imagine with a team as monstrous and dominant as the House of Black, probably meant some sort of double heat. That's how AEW manages most commercial breaks. They end with some sort of bang and then do heat in the Picture in Picture. Here, it wasn't quite so simple. They finished the shine/initial pairings/exchanges teasing Punk vs. Malakai Black, with the crowd absolutely buzzing for it before settling into CM Punk chants that were drowned out by boos. That tease culminated with both in the cross-legged seated position and everything threatening to break down. The commercial break started with brawling on the outside (CMFTR gaining the advantage) and the challengers getting too cutesy; this time it was Cash who did the Hogan pose, to more boos than cheers even in North Carolina, and a pretty pedestrian transition moment of Black getting a reversal in on Dax in the corner. 

When they came back, we had Punk's comeback and another bit of connective tissue of CMFTR dominance that took them to the second commercial break, where Julia utilized a distraction (albeit a bit mistimed) to let Black knock Punk off the top so that Brody could crush him in the corner. That led into the commercial break and the real section of heat for the match. In truth, despite going thirty minutes, this whole thing was a tease for stories they're not going to tell right now. Joe caused the finish to set up All In, FTR are moving on to Wembley and the Bucks, who knows what's going on with House of Black yet (but some consistency with the House Rules might be nice?). But they can go back in a month or two to Black vs. Punk or FTR vs. Brody/Buddy or even Punk vs. Brody, because he was absolutely protected during the early going. That's a testament to all of these guys, that they could put together a match so long and really just leave everyone wanting more and more.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/19 - 6/25 Part 1

AEW Collision 6/24

CM Punk/FTR/Ricky Starks vs Jay White/Juice Robinson/Gunns

MD: This is a pretty fascinating match and I, much like the crowd, am just going to focus on one thing primarily, Punk. The crowd was chanting for him and at him when he wasn't in there. I'm a big proponent that you wrestle to serve the match and that wrestlers that don't do that, who wrestle for themselves, guys like Michaels and Brody, are to be punished with a critcal eye for it. I'm also a believe that you lead the crowd instead of follow it.

That said, there are exceptions. Not every match is built equal, not every moment. Moreover, there are matches down the line. Stan Hansen's a guy who doesn't always have the most interesting match possible with every opponent, but he'll churn through three matches that aren't so interesting in order to keep himself protected to a certain level for the match where the payoff is necessary. While you couldn't look away from it, this match became structurally confusing and structurally confused because the face/heel balance switched to a good degree every time Punk tagged in or out. The finish required the crowd being up for Ricky Starks plowing through the nominal heels with spears before White finally got the best of him, but it also needed the crowd to go up for White catching Punk off the top... right before he caught Starks with the same move to set up the finish. Thankfully, it was a crowd that was going to be hot for everything, but just thinking that through from a narrative level is kind of maddening.

Here's where it absolutely worked, however. Jay White seemed important. Last week, it was all about the build to Punk vs Joe. This week, it was all about the build to Punk vs White. It automatically put him on the same level that Joe was presented at last week. They did a good job of keeping them apart, or only teasing it before paying it off during the long heat during the commercial (which, I guess wasn't heat, but heel-in-peril? Except for it was heat because half the crowd was for Punk... you get why this is tricky, huh?).

As for leading the crowd, Punk rode the wave. He started the match, all the way at the top of the ramp, thinking he'd have to go full heel, even as his partners would lead face and just be like a sports team who have the one controversial player that they have to support and put up with, but it was obvious that half the crowd was with him. He gave them something to celebrate and the detractors something to hate during the first commercial break with the Hogan Legdrop (placing it very carefully during the break). By the end of the match though, he'd cracked the code. At the end of the second commercial break, as he was making a comeback to a White bearhug, he put his arm out to fight when the fans were chanting CM Punk and then dropped it when they chanted Let's Go Switchblade. It was the logical evolution of 97 Bret and more overt than Cena's reactions to the Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks chants. It also felt like something he was workshopping in the moment. There are probably other things that deserve mention here, like how well Juice and Austin Gunn mesh together as annoying loudmouths or Cash's dive, or how you can't unsee the fact that Dax absolutely refuses to interact with the legal man on the other side when everything breaks down, but this was rightfully all about Punk and partially about White and I'm just going to leave it at that. As for serving something bigger than the match, though? Yes, the moment, but even more than that would be if the finals of the Owen tournament are Punk vs Starks. We may look back at this one differently if that's the case.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/12 - 6/18

AEW Dynamite 6/14

Sting/Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy/Keith Lee vs Mogul Embassy (Swerve Strickland/Brian Cage/Toa Liona/Bishop Kaun)

MD: You watch enough wrestling on TV and you start to think about formatting as it pertains to the structure of the match. Maybe it's because the fact they went thirty to start the show but this had a commercial break during the entrances and then another one in the middle of the match. In order to deal with that, they started hot and then took things down. Most Sting matches tend to be brawls around the arena but this turned into a standard tag getting heat on Darby. Before that though, there was a barrage of Coffin Splashes and Stinger Splashes on Swerve, followed by a Code Red and a tease of the Coffin Drop. You can get away with hitting stuff like that right at the start of a match, especially right at the start of a tag, where a wrestler is fresh and then can recover on the apron, but it's probably something to be done carefully and something done with the specific programming needs of this match in mind. 

Cage made the most of things in his 80s Sting cosplay, coming off as bombastic and larger than life. Kaun hit a spot or two but was a bit of a non-factor while Toa was there to knock people off the apron and play crowd control. I like 2023 Keith Lee as a guy who leverages his size as much as possible while still hitting one or two breathtaking spots. I like that more than when the balance leaned further towards athleticism. Everyone in AEW is athletic. Only a few people are his size. It didn't help here that the athletic spot didn't quite work though. Cassidy didn't do much in this one but break things up and set things up (like the finish for Sting); speaking of setting things up, he also shared the Stundog with Darby, who used it to create the opportunity for the hot tag. They've been teaming lately so it's a shame the announcers didn't pick up on that. It's hard to blame them though, because once things broke down, they really broke down. They probably want to move on but there's still meat on the bone here for a street fight if they needed to fill time right after Forbidden Door.

AEW Collision 6/17

CM Punk/FTR vs Jay White/Juice Robinson/Samoa Joe

MD: Very nice to have the 5th Finger back in action for the first time in ten months, and paired up against Joe for the first time in over 6000 days (at least according to Kevin Kelly). Wrestling is all about anticipation and there was plenty of anticipation here, anticipation even from the beginning of the night to the end, anticipation from the Sports Interview Punk piece from the day before, anticipation from Khan and his media partners making one announcement after the next, week after week (the existence of Collision, that Chicago would be the first venue, that Punk was back, that this was the main event), and anticipation in the match itself: the first lock up between Dax and White, first time Punk would get tagged in, the first encounter with Joe, the hot tag to Cash, the hot tag to Punk, and finally, that final encounter between Joe and Punk, the last one only increasing anticipation for a singles match to come. And of course, there was the anticipation for Punk hitting the GTS after failing to multiple times within the match.

This match, as much as any I'd seen in AEW in a while, certainly had time to breathe. There was quite a bit of back and forth to begin with, double heat, the discipline not to have things fully break down until it was time for Punk's big entrance in the back third of the match, and then an exciting finishing stretch with all the drama you'd want as Punk gasped for air in the Coquina Clutch while Dax and Cash desperately tried to get to him or at least each other in order to do something, anything to turn the tide. Punk didn't seem to have much ring rust at all, though he was buoyed by a familiar opponent in Joe and two very game ones in Juice and especially White. This was the best I've seen Dax look in months. He'd seemed off somehow during the Jarrett feud, maybe still healing up from a slew of injuries but he was sharp and absolutely on point here. Cash is always that. Joe is as comfortable in his own skin after years of portraying a very consistent character as anyone in wrestling and Juice, the absolute definition of trying too hard, somehow manages to transcend that artificiality to succeed more often than not for his efforts. Sometimes you go so far in one direction that you come back around the other way. 

This was a show full of hubris, from Punk's initial interview all the way to not having some sort of big angle at the end, with Dax trying to stand toe to toe with Joe representing it as much as anything else in the match, but to have faith in a great wrestling match to be enough to carry the load? Well, that's the kind of hubris I suppose I can get behind.

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2022 Ongoing MOTY List: FTR vs. Young Bucks 2

7. FTR vs. Young Bucks AEW Dynamite 4/6

ER: These teams had a nearly 30 minute match several months before this one, that I imagine was the exact kind of match that every Revival fan wanted to see them have in AEW. I preferred this one, and not because I'm a joyless sack, but because this felt much tighter, less bloated, and felt much more like a wrestling tag than a This is Awesome performance. Now, it's not exactly profound for someone to state that a match 2/3 the length of another match is "tighter", but it's an easy observation. This is 20 minutes that felt like it hit a dry patch for awhile around 15 minutes in, but still felt like it hit the sweet spot. Keeping it shorter avoids unnecessary kickouts and cuts down on superkicks. 

I liked every guy in this, with Matt Jackson standing out especially, a grating ass who actually backs it up before getting shut up. FTR were a great team here and really seemed to be operating as one, with smart tags and awesome dedication to making the small stuff work. FTR is a team that makes sure their drop toeholds look good, and I think that's fantastic. The Bucks are great at making fun of FTR's Bret/Arn idolatry while also clearly doing it as heels. It's an easy target, and after the Bucks did the tandem sharpshooters, Matt hit a Hitman elbow off the middle buckle and stood up doing the douchiest Bret pose, I was laughing my ass off. The douchebag balance is very important: If the Bucks are too cool then FTR look like dweebs who once saw a gif of Arn doing a fake-out punch to set up a DDT and decided to do that every single week. The mockery keeps the Bucks heels and it keeps FTR honest, and I loved when Harwood did a fake-out to spike Matt with a piledriver. 

I thought they built to cut off spots well the entire match, like Nick stopping a powerplex with a big rana, FTR stopping the Meltzer Driver (surely it still doesn't have that stupid name?) with a Dax powerbomb, or the way FTR were always there at just the right time to blast into frame with a partner save. The Bucks leaned into cheating down the stretch and I dug that, and thought they came up with enough plausible ways for Wheeler to keep winding up near the ropes, hurt but not dead. My only real gripe with the match is that Nick came back into the action way too quickly after getting nailed with a Dax brainbuster on the floor. The sprint directly after was the only time the match felt like it was letting the moves dictate the match instead of the wrestlers. That said, I don't think the match ever went full overload, really loved how they all worked together, and thought FTR's selling was super strong throughout. We'll get a third match before long, and I assume that one will swing back the other way and be closer to 40 minutes, but man I'd love to see them go wild for 15. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Five Fingers of Death: Week of 5/30 - 6/5

AEW Dynamite 6/1

CM Punk/FTR vs. Max Caster/Gunn Club

MD: Obviously, it's hard to watch this one back and not be on the lookout for how Punk is hurt. They really build to him coming in the first time and he's there for the hot tag at the end, so there's not a ton of it but it was a little striking how often he went up to the top in that short time he was in there, a double axehandle to start, the body block back off the ropes, the elbow drop on Caster, the springboard attempt that goes wrong on his way in. The Gunns, Austin especially, with his manic energy, have a lot of potential, but they're not there yet. I've come around on Austin's chop block to take out the legs. The first times I saw it, it felt inadvertent, a move of opportunity that shouldn't come up every match, but now he seems to look for it more, as part of his overarching strategy. He's great at reacting when he knows something is coming, when it's a planned spots, but you never know when the crowd is going to start an ass boys chant and he's not always so great at organically working that in. Punk, on the other hand, old pro that he is, can switch a facial expression or little appeal to the crowd mid-sequence depending on how they're reacting. Most of the match was the heat on Dax, and it was good, with a great cut off to lead into the commercial as Dax knocked two of his opponents out of the ring only to have them rush around to take out Punk and Cash off the apron. The fact he put them in position to do so made it even better. Having Billy to sneak in a punch and Bowens to use the crutch only helped matters. Any issues with the match down the stretch were due to Punk's foot, and the internal feeling in your gut that we'll be missing out on what this pairing might have been the start of.

Matt Hardy/Christian Cage/Darby Allin/Jurassic Express vs. Hikuleo/Young Bucks/ReDragon

MD: This was the homecoming match for the Bucks and was going to showcase them while also theoretically giving a little attention to Hikuleo in advance of Forbidden Door, given that Cole is apparently banged up. It wasn't going to be for me but I thought the structure was generally effective for what they were trying to do. Here, there the sort of shine where everyone got to get their stuff in before the dives were all to set up the transition, by clearing the ring so that you were left with Christian and the Bucks. The most interesting moment in there was Christian interacting with Matt Hardy for a moment. Anyway, it meant that Christian worked as face-in-peril during the commercial which is always where they stick the heat, and even though it was a fairly pro-Bucks crowd, by the end of it, there was a chant for him because he's one of the best traditional babyfaces in the company. I know people are itching for the Express to lose the titles and Christian to turn on Jungle Boy but I've always much preferred Christian as a face and there's about another thirty match-ups I'd like to see him have in the company before such a turn. After the hot tag to Luchasaurus it all broke down like you'd expect, an extended, chaotic finishing stretch leading to the Bucks ascendant. Hikuleo got to show a few things here defensively, jamming the chokeslam attempt, catching a dive, no selling Hardy's slams into the corner, but he didn't do much of anything on offense which seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity. This wasn't anything I was particularly looking forward to but it gave the crowd things that they wanted and had enough good things that it did me no lasting harm.

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AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/22/21

21. Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega

PAS: This match started as a Bryan Danielson match in the first section, and moved into a Kenny Omega match in the finish. I am always going to prefer the Danielson match, but can't deny the effectiveness of the near fall heavy final. It is fun to watch wrestling with such a wild crowd, going crazy for the lock up, so much of wrestling over the last year has been in front of video screens or tiny crowds, and it really works only as a live event. Super physical match, Danielson especially had a bruised up chest and a gross purple bruise on his forehead, I don't love Omega's style, but I appreciate him laying it in. My favorite part of the match was Omega viciously working the bad neck, the full sprint V-Trigger was gross, and Danielson really looked loopy. It got really into near fall 2 count wrestling by the end, and I thought we probably two many kick outs and shifts of momentum. I did love Danielson breaking out the Cattle Mutilation and head stomps though. I understand the reasons for the draw, but I think they probably just should have had a finish. A loss doesn't hurt either guy, and sets up the rematch better then the draw.

ER: This might not have 100% been the match I wanted to see from these two, but full credit that AEW clearly knows exactly what its fans want to see and does their best to deliver that, and I think that's awesome. Dream Match Wrestling got really out of hand 15 years ago and before long every single indy main event (and a few on the card below the main event) was worked like a Dream Match Epic. But there are truly only so many dream matches to go around, and Danielson vs. Omega is undeniably a dream match for most modern pro wrestling fans. Dream matches are a funny thing, as when you look at your personal dream matches it really speaks to your specific pro wrestling interests at that specific moment in time. My current dream match would probably be something stupid like Eddie Kingston vs. Ron Bass Jr. or Omos vs. Otis, but I remember how excited I was the first (and second, and third) time I saw Mike Modest vs. Christopher Daniels live. It was the exact match I was dying to see in 1999/2000 and my energy couldn't have been higher when it finally happened. I love that energy and it was exciting seeing a huge crowd simultaneously having that reaction. 

I would have liked to see their 20 minute debut match, but fighting forever is what the fans wanted, and they did a really great job of fighting forever (forever being their allotted 30 minute time limit). They were smart about not telegraphing a 30 minute draw as every fan in there would have started groaning had they suddenly started doing 5 minute announcements. Omega and Danielson weren't working like they were trying to finish within 30, they didn't do any cute "2 count right as the bell rang", it was just two guys beating the hell out of each other until they were told to stop, and that's a cool first match for them. They played off the live atmosphere really well, and they really laced into each other so every person in every back row could feel it. Danielson had a purple chest minutes in and eventually wound up with a nice wound on his forehead that looked like the beginnings of a gnarly hematoma, and meanwhile he was kicking away at every part of Omega. They did a lot of back and forth and move trading without it ever really feeling egregious until the 3rd or 4th V-Trigger, and it's hard to work a stiff 30 minutes without things getting too egregious. 

Things really jumped up for me with that Snapdragon on the ramp, with Danielson skidding his way down the ramp on his neck. The ramp run V-Trigger that followed was finish worthy, and really my only problems with the match were that there were several finish worthy moments that obviously did not finish anything. I honestly would have loved that ramp run V-Trigger leading to a stoppage, as they could have gotten a lot of mileage out of Danielson's injured neck and it could have lead to a huge return match. I loved the buckle bomb that sent Danielson bouncing over the ropes to the apron, and I loved how Danielson fought to neutralize Omega. Watching Danielson holding the turnbuckle with one hand and ring post with another to block a top rope Snapdragon was the kind of detail that you expect from Danielson, and it's the kind of detail that most guys forget about during an Epic. I'm a big fan of only getting one OWA attempt, as it's a completely preposterous move, so seeing Danielson immediately get the poison rana to shut the door on further attempts was nice. I didn't love the stretch, where they did devolve a bit into Omega selling a head kick by being the first to go back on offense, and I wish the final V-Trigger was closer to the ropes so Danielson didn't need to kick out. But we still got great stuff like Danielson taking advantage of Omega's sillier offense and doing cool reversals, like grabbing the LeBell Lock out of Omega unrolling his arm. This was always going to be an intensely scrutinized match and I don't think they could have done much better first time out. 

CM Punk Interview

PAS: I think these happy Punk pep talks have a shelf life. They aren't there yet, but eventually they are going to need to switch something up. This worked fine, and the "tuck you into bed" line was nice.

MJF vs. Brian Pillman Jr. 

PAS: This was OK, it probably didn't need as long as it was and I thought the first part wasn't great, but it picked up with the arm work after the commercial break. I thought using Julia Hart as a shield was a nice bit of heel business, and the Fujiwara counter of the Air Pillman was a cool idea. Still not an MJF guy, but he has improved a lot in the ring.

Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black

PAS: I thought Black had some cool individual moves here, like his scissors kick into the ankle lock, and he really wasted Cody with his wheel kick. Still they seemed to be on different pages for much of this match. The spot where Cody ran into Arn was mistimed and I don't think Cody's entire act is working right now. Not sure what I would try with him, he clearly is a big part of the promotion, but they need to try something.

16. Darby Allin/Sting vs. FTR

PAS: This was delightful. FTR have the gimmick of an old school tag team, but their AEW stuff has been mostly modern workrate tags. This was an classic Southern tag with FTR really working over both Sting and Darby, with two great hot tags and two good long heel beat down sections. Sting was really impressive, he moved really well, and still has great timing on his big spots. Even his simple stuff like the big right hands and kicks looked good, and FTR was clearly having a blast bumping for him. Darby's explosiveness is so much fun to watch, and the Coffin Drop on the apron to clean out Cash for the Scorpion was the kind of big memorable moment which Darby excels at. 

ER: Excellent tag match, I believe FTR's best match of their AEW run. This felt like the FTR they've been promising us (and a thing the confusingly named Dirty Dawgs have been doing all year) and extended the Sting mileage to a point I wasn't expecting. I didn't have the nostalgia for Sting's return, and yet here he is as a very important part of a very great match. FTR looked like they were having the time of their lives getting into position for everything. You could practically see the glee in Dax Harwood's face every time he slid into position to cut off hot tags. FTR was incredibly in sync, got perfectly into position for two guys with very different ring styles, and knew just when to come flying in to cut everything off. Sting looked like he was hitting hard for an old man, all his strikes really landing with explosive speed. His punch/backhand combo was really effective, he knows how to cut guys off with a strong stomach kick, and they worked a couple of strong Scorpion Splash spots really well into the match. 

Sting missed one splash chest first into the turnbuckles, and then later when Dax was trying to sucker him into missing another one and hitting a chair, they did a great twist where Sting stopped himself and then threw Dax threw the chair, past the turnbuckles. The nearfalls were all really effective, and Darby/FTR were awesome at milking hot tags. There was an awesome moment where Wheeler and Harwood came together at the perfect time to catch a midair Darby hot tag, holding him on their shoulders inches away from Sting's hand. Sting had powerful lariats and shoulderblocks, loved him sending Wheeler to the floor with a clothesline, and the finish of Darby stopping Cash by hitting a Coffin Drop to the apron was insane. This might have been my favorite tag match of the year, and it happened on a show featuring one of the most highly anticipated matches of the decade happening (and delivering). 

Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Ruby Soho

PAS: This was a good match with some very big moves which was hurt a bit by Danielson and Omega doing a blown out version of the same kind of match as the opener. It is tough to do two big near fall matches on one show, and that opener burned me out a bit for dramatic two counts off of huge top rope moves. Really liked Ruby's offense here, and the BS ending worked for me. I think Ruby is over and talented enough for her to branch off into a second women's angle on the show. Let Britt feud with other women for the title, let Ruby get into a big feud with someone else and keep them apart for a bit.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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