AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 5/25 - 5/31

AEW Collision 5/30/26

Konosuke Takeshita vs Daniel Garcia

Konosuke Takeshita is a very special wrestler.

While size is relative when comparing modern wrestling to the wrestling of old, Takeshita clearly jumps off the screen. Whether due to sheer height or the combination of size and his theatrical presence, he towers over opponents in a way that most current wrestlers do not. When it comes to his athleticism, he reminds me of Barry Windham at his prime. There's an electricity to how he moves, to the intensity he brings to the table. Given his size and his proclivity (academic and practical) for the German Suplex, you might compare him to Jumbo Tsuruta but his seething stares and alacrity of motion reminds me more of Riki Choshu. 

He's a star. He looks like one. He moves like one. Most often, he carries himself like one. Yet, he is a star specifically made for AEW. He balances the brooding seriousness with a super indie excessiveness in his match layouts (for good and ill) and under the surface of it all is that DDT-crafted smile.  In a perfect world, he would be in that Conglomeration opening credits tron instead of Ishii. 

But this is not a perfect world. It's one where the character of Konosuke Takeshita felt spurned by New Japan, spurned by the Blackpool Combat Club and the Elite, where he allowed Don Callis to whisper dark thoughts in his ears on what he needed to prove, on how he needed to prove it, where he went from a young man who found his way to America and fell in love with Cinnabon to the Alpha of the Don Callis Family. What he found, time after time, was that no matter how much he proved himself to the world, there was always something else. He always came up unsatisfied. 

He rose all the way to IWGP Champion, but he was overshadowed by Okada when he walked in to the Tokyo Dome to defend his title. Even that might have been fine; Okada was a legend after all, but despite being stablemates, Okada rubbed salt into the wound again and again and again. Takeshita could find no peace. Then, finally, after defeating Okada for the International Title, his found family turned on him, his brother-in-arms Kyle Fletcher being the one to turn the knife. 

So he stands on his own, reconnected with the fans, holding the International Title once more, but in other, more important ways, alone in the world again.

Daniel Garcia is a very special wrestler. 

All of those things Takeshita has? Garcia's got none of them. He fails the airport test. His music hits and the fans don't quite pop, not really. He's stumbled from one identity to another (in character and out), picked up a sports entertainment dance, lost it. Tried to pop people with triple superplexes no matter how far away that his from his own personal true north. 

But.

Unlike almost everyone else in pro wrestling today, he's move over by the end of a match than he was at the beginning. 

We're trapped in a world where people are arguing that WWE matches should be shorter and entrances should be longer. That sort of world would drive Daniel Garcia to extinction. But he defies it. He gets people to care about what happens in the ring at every moment, not just finishes and looking to the back for run-ins. He gets them engaged in a way that has nothing to do with "This is Awesome" chants or even "bald" chants. 

Why? How? First, he's genuine. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He's relatable. He's not a big superhero. That's his strength. He's a guy who put in the work, who loves pro wrestling, who cares, who picked himself up from a car crash and dragged himself every step up the way to being on TV. You see it in his reactions. You see it in his face. What you see is what you get and in a world built upon fabrication, that stands out far more than any Phoenix Splash or Fosberry Flop ever could. Far more than any triple superplex might. 

Second, he's pays attention to details. He's going to stay on a body part, and when he falls off of it, it'll be due to a character reasons not just to enact some cooler spot. He's going to set something up to pay it off later. He's not going to meander on a side trip. He's not going to do something for the sake of it. He's not going to fall into excess (except for those self-conscious triple superplexes). The thing is, he has to pay attention to details. Other wrestlers can lean on athleticism and pop the crowd again and again and play to the 5* Observer checklist. Garcia can't, not better than them. So he has to build something that stands on his own instead. He builds matches that are timeless, that work in the moment and move the crowd in the right way, that will still work in thirty years even while those other ones fall to the wayside as athleticism continues to advance.

Putting Garcia and Takeshita together led to one of those matches that will stand the test of time.

Takeshita does best against contrast. You give him someone else who is explosive, who will push him to the physical limit, and it often all becomes noise. Garcia was going to push him to emotional limits, to push his body in far more single-minded, driven ways. 

Early on, Garcia's reactiveness gave Takeshita so much to work with. They chain-wrestled to start. Garcia fell prey to Takeshita's superior reach but pulled hair to get out of a headlock and made sure to flex when he turned it into a headscissors. But they both had a chip on their shoulders, and as Takeshita escaped, he stared Garcia down and smacked him on the chest, sending a message. Garcia returned the message, piefacing and paintbrushing Takeshita in the corner before smacking his chest. Then, when Takeshita tried to take off Garcia's head in the opposite corner for his affront, Garcia ducked out of the way. Takeshita held the pose, forearm against turnbuckle, for just long enough for it to sink in with the crowd, a great visual. And then, of course, Garcia ran right into a big boot, because in this match, he was a heel and when it comes time for it, he was the sort that stooges to make the star bigger.

Takeshita would go for the running boot again but this time Garcia scurried to the floor for a time-out. You could see the panic and hesitation on his face as he did so. He laid himself bare for the world, vulnerable, human. Takeshita gave chase and Garcia went all the way from one side of the ring to the other. When Takeshita made it out to the apron, stomping away, Garcia took the blows (which made this feel less like a planned spot and instead like something more organic, something so important, and something he's so good at), and used the ringskirt to trap Takeshita's leg. 

Garcia attacking the leg and most especially using it to cut Takeshita off would drive the rest of the match. Of course, Garcia did it as meanly as possible, a bulldog, a shark smelling blood. He placed it on a chair on the outside and just stood on it. He refused to reenter the ring until he twisted the ankle one last time. He countered Takeshita's cradle tombstone attempt by turning it into an ankle lock. Likewise with the Blue Thunder into an inexplicable but amazing STF. He caught the running knee and took advantage when Takeshita stumbled on another attempt. Even when he seemingly lost focus, like when he started to pop off push-ups right over Takeshita's knee, he pivoted quickly and turned the motion into a kneedrop to punctuate the final push-up (even as Mox left commentary to yell at him). Focused detail-work. Once upon a time, maybe, you could give the crowd some more rope to work with. With someone other than Garcia, maybe you can do that and even if they don't get entirely where you need them to be, they'll still get somewhere nice and happy. Garcia doesn't leave things to chance. He ties it all up in a bow and presents it to the world, to history itself, like a present. He did that here and Takeshita was happy to go along for the ride, selling, wincing, limping, struggling the whole way.

Which brings us to the real moment of comeback, the elephant in the room, that pile driver.

Oh there had been a hope spot or two first. Takeshita created some distance with strikes but as he turned to hit the ropes, Garcia took out the leg. Then, of course, was the Blue Thunder attempt, where no one expected Garcia to turn things over with a headlock. Garcia had been using the legwork to control the match as the great equalizer, but it was also a key to unlock a door, and he meant to go through it with his pile driver. Takeshita had jammed it once, but he couldn't jam it on the attempt that followed so quickly after. Garcia hit it clean.

And then time stopped. Takeshita slowly, painstakingly, drew his head back, locked eyes with Garcia, rose, struck him down. 

And that's the cardinal sin, right? To "no sell" a pile driver, one of the most sacred and profane of all moves. It's one thing if you're Hawk (maybe not a good thing) and it's one thing if you're Clon and use technique to dull the impact.

Takeshita is neither, but he is, maybe, just maybe, the one guy on the roster who, now and again, should get away with something like this. He's so tied to the notion of fighting spirit, of carrying all of that brooding, seething power within him. He has the size, the presence. He's larger than life. Now and again, so long as everyone else isn't doing it, so long as no one else is doing it, he should get to assert himself and take up all the air in the room.

Rules are structural. They create a foundation where someone like Daniel Garcia can succeed, where everyone does better and everything matters more, where the spectacular can be grounded and have meaning. But they also give people something to push off of now and again, when it makes sense, when it will have an impact, when it turns a wrestler into a star. 

Konosuke Takeshita is meant to be a star and Daniel Garcia is so good at what he does that he can help make someone a star. 

Just as important, the detail work was there. Garcia had targeted the leg the whole match, not the head, not the neck. Those were healthy, strong, vibrant. Garcia had unlocked the door but he hadn't done the legwork (figurative since he'd ONLY done leg work) to drag Takeshita through it. In a different match where there had been bomb after bomb, that might have played differently. I saw people complain about Takeshita's selling as he looked up and pulled himself together, but given the context of the match, it more or less worked for me. When you're breaking all the rules, you're treading new ground. It was a callback of sorts to Takeshita escaping the headscissors early in the match. It cost him something but was worth so much more. 

It didn't feel like that perfidious tendency that is "delayed selling" to me so much as an act of defiance, of assertion, of staking a claim to something greater in this world. 

Just this once, it worked for me. Maybe next time it will to so long as it's built well enough and sits well enough within a match. Like anything else in wrestling, it is entirely situational.

Things moved into a finishing stretch from there. Garcia escaped a Blue Thunder. He positioned Takeshita for that Superplex, but Takeshita countered, only for Garcia to turn his top rope lariat into an armdrag and then, ultimately the Dragon Tamer. It was a great spot because it didn't feel rote. It wasn't a signature spot. It was the character of Garcia adapting in the moment. And then, after landing, he let everything sink in for a moment, letting the crowd take a breath after what happened and before what was about to happen: The Dragon Tamer. 

It would ultimately fail (Garcia's wrench back is the ultimate gambit; it either works immediately or costs him the hold) and Garcia's second attempt to hit a tricked out takeover on Takeshita would fail as well. Konosuke, channeling his preternatural strength, held Garcia there clung to him as time stood still. He slapped his own leg to give it life once more, and managed to suplex Garcia over. The beginning of the end.

Wrestlers are not one size fit all. There's not only one way to be talented, to channel that talent, to connect with crowds, to create matches and moments that resonate with people. Konosuke Takeshita and Daniel Garcia bring very different attributes and skillsets to the table. When you put them together, however, you can create a unique sort of magic built out of contrast and driven by details, one that highlights everything that makes Takeshita special by being underpinned by everything that's special about Garcia.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/10 - 11/16 Part 1

AEW Dynamite 11/12/25

Death Riders (Wheeler Yuta/Daniel Garcia/Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley/PAC) vs Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy/Kyle O'Reilly/Roderick Strong/Mark Briscoe [Blood & Guts] 

MD: Everything was going Jon Moxley's way. 

It was a long road, but this was where it always had to be headed. Blood and Guts. 

Yes, October and November hadn't gone to plan. He'd quit against Darby Allin at WrestleDream. He'd been on his back foot, barely surviving without quitting (twice) against Kyle O'Reilly. Roderick Strong defeated him by countout to decide the advantage.

But it didn't matter. None of it mattered.

They were in the cage and everything was going his way. 

He'd turned on his partner, his brother-in-arms, had started a reign of terror, been champion and locked away the belt. Even though he lost the belt, it could all still be worth it. He was a mad king, an emperor that had been deposed, but he could get all of it back, and even more than that, he could rain vengeance down on all of his enemies. 

Hangman wasn't there, but the rest of them? Front and center. 

And they were bleeding out. 

The advantage might have been an issue. Yuta had been sent out first, the sacrificial workhorse. He'd stalled and drawn Darby out after him, had been tossed into the cage and used it as a weapon himself. He'd been opened up by Darby's modified skateboard (after going for it himself), had been thrashed further by Darby and Cassidy when it became two-on-one. But he just had to hold out long enough for reinforcements, and he did. Garcia came out to even the odds and two-on-two with one man just a little fresher, they fought even. Until they didn't. 

When Mark Briscoe's music hit, they were wrapped around in a chain, beaten and battered. But that's when everything turned. 

Briscoe had been left laying in the back. Maybe it was the Don Callis family, maybe it wasn't. It didn't matter. Moxley didn't care. He'd take opportunity where he found it. 

Roderick Strong came out to make it 3-on-2, but the advantage time had been cut into severely. He hit a few moves but that was all he could do before Claudio's music hit back.

The plan was always Claudio, infinitely strong, infinitely reliable, always a step behind. He tossed Strong into a chair and then swung both Darby and Cassidy at once. O'Reilly came out next, but by then it was too late. Even with a 4-on-3 advantage on paper, the damage was done. This wasn't the happy-go-lucky world of the Conglomeration. It wasn't even Darby's world, one with open skies to leap and dive and crash. It was the post-apocalyptic world of the Death Riders, and they made use of every weapon, every opportunity. Here, no matter what the numerical advantage might say, the odds were always in their favor.

So instead of sending PAC out next, Moxley himself came to survey his gloriously ruined kingdom, to inflict violence and vengeance. He came in with a fork and immediately opened up O'Reilly more (for his transgressions were the worst of them all). He jabbed it into Darby's back, scraped it up and down, offered it to his newest disciple Garcia in a morbid ritual that let him join in. The women had set the stage for this earlier in their own Blood & Guts match and Moxley casually walked behind the timekeeper desk to seize all of the weapons they had left for him. He dropped broken glass in the ring and scraped a shattered mirror across O'Reilly's bloody skull opening him up more. They dropped Darby on his skull and dragged him across the glass for good measure. 

Life was good. All that he had lost? None of it mattered because he'd craft a new gospel in blood and viscera. He'd show the world that everything he'd always said was true. He would be vindicated and validated. 

And when Darby climbed to the top of the inside of the cage and dropped down upon all of them, even that didn't matter. Because that was just one last gasp of futile hope from a man not meant to climb mountains but to fall off of them and PAC was the last man in. Chaotic order was restored. The door was locked. The key was stolen. The Death Riders had a 5-on-4 advantage and could now punish their enemies to their hearts' content.

Everything was going Jon Moxley's way. 

But fate had a way of turning, bolstered by hearts that simply wouldn't quit, hearts very different than the beleaguered, hypocritical organ beating all too quickly in Jon’s own chest.

Despite being ambushed and assaulted and left for dead, Mark Briscoe arrived, wild look in his eyes and bolt cutters in hand. 

-----

Let's stop there. You know how the story ended. Briscoe turned the tide. Yuta faced him on the top of the cage and despite multiple cheapshots ended up eating a Jay Driller onto the steel. Kidd interfered and they put Darby through a flaming table. The Death Riders were ready (with a stapler of all things) for Cassidy to put his hands in his pockets only for Orange to care more than he'd ever cared before as he ripped the staples out of his own flesh. That let him save a defiant Kyle O'Reilly who was being choked out. Kyle refused to quit and in due course, with a few more twists and turns, he made Moxley tap out once more. A poetic ending to the last month and maybe, in some ways, to the last year. Questions remain: Who attacked Briscoe (the Callis family denied it)? Will this elevate Kyle to the next level? What does this mean for an increasingly out of touch Moxley and his leadership of the Death Riders?

As War Games go, modern ones always lean more towards CZW than JCP, more weapons and theatrics than wrestlers just beating the piss out of each other to solve their issues. In some ways, I thought this was a better mix than usual though of course Mox is a Cage of Death guy, so you knew what was going to happen when he got in there. I'd like to see them try the other way just once though. There are enough opportunities especially now that they're doing two of these on one show. 

That led to its own issues too, where they had to switch things up and play around with the advantage. Between Briscoe being taken out, Strong having less time to press the advantage as a substitute, and the sheer force that is Claudio, I thought they handled it remarkably well. Before and after, the characters drove things in interesting ways. One quick example. Right before Briscoe's music hit, when it was two-on-two, Garcia and Yuta had Cassidy down and were kicking him. Garcia, full of bluster and attitude, did the mocking Cassidy kicks and threw it over to Yuta but Yuta, like an animal that had been kicked too many times itself, couldn't help but kick him full-on. The match was full of little interesting character bits like that while maintaining the overarching story. 

-----

Feedback I've gotten lately is that people really like the dramatization approach to reviewing these matches, where I dig deep into the characters and emotions at play and recount the narrative as presented on screen. It feels almost like 80s PWI or something to me and I don't want to lean too hard into it all the time as opposed to a more analytical approach. 

But here's the point: I can only do it at all because the coherency, consistency, and commitment in what's being presented. If wrestlers are just doing a bunch of stuff, even if the stuff is clever or full of workrate or stiff or whatever else, you can't necessarily draw those throughlines. It's the selling, especially the emotional selling, like what Jon Moxley has been doing as of late, which lets me even find the dots to connect. 

Not every match has this. Not every conventional five star match has this. A lot of times, maybe there's some lip service towards it but it doesn't hold up under scrutiny no matter how exciting and action-packed the match might seem in the moment. You don't have to sacrifice it for "Greatness," because if done with care, it enhances it in every way. It just takes more effort and care.

Maybe that's self-evident, but I honestly don't think you can as easily do what I did up above for the Forbidden Door 2025 cage match main event in the same way. There were too many goofy tonal shifts and funny spots that were done just to pop the wrestlers involved. Specific moments stood out and popped and were impressive but it didn't come together as a narrative in the same way. 

Pro wrestling is an amazing narrative artform that can tell amazing stories almost entirely in ring, through the work alone. This Blood and Guts was built from the Foundation of the I Quit match with Darby and then the subsequent O'Reilly/Strong vs Moxley matches. It was built upon pro wrestling matches that were full of emotion and character development and great emotive performances. That's what made all of the excess here resonate and matter. 

There's a lot to be learned from all of this and I hope the people who make decisions and the wrestlers of both today and tomorrow take the right lessons and not the wrong ones.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/3 - 11/9

AEW Dynamite 11/5/25

Athena/Mercedes Mone vs Willow Nightingale/Harley Cameron

MD: Mercedes Mone is a star. Athena makes her shine all the brighter.

I'm quite high on Mercedes for much that she does. I think her reactions in the moment are believable. Her matches are ambitious in many ways. She has an incredible work ethic. As an ace, she's tremendous at treating each and every opponent differently; I loved seeing her switching up her taunts and crowd interactions for Olympia's strength for instance. 

That said, there is often a rehearsed feel to her matches. It's a perfectionist's bent, a practice makes perfect sort of feel that's impossible to escape. While the matches feel alive in the moment, sometimes the overall effect is a little plastic, a little blunted. It's more DDP than Randy Savage. That's fine. 98 DDP was great. But it's not transcendent.

Athena, endlessly reactive, endlessly electric, as dynamic as any wrestler in the world, helps Mercedes transcend herself and become her own personal Randy Savage.

They worked so well together here and it felt natural as could be, a meshing of two disparate but tangential egos, two parallel characters, two parallel paths to a flawed sort of kayfabe greatness. You could see it right from the get go when Mercedes pulled a seething Athena to fawn over the belts and how it transitioned right to the two of them almost immediately switching gears with Mercedes seething behind Harley as she entered the ring and Athena posing with her big Yaaaaaay! after their successful initial ambush of the babyfaces. 

The structure was double heat, but Harley carried both face-in-perils. That fit the hierarchy very well. It allowed Harley to gain sympathy, allowed Willow to come in like a wrecking ball after the first hot tag, and allowed Athena and Mercedes to look like the very best in the world as they took over with a tandem backstabber out of nowhere, the wild Athena dive through Mercedes' legs, and an absolutely perfect but still chaotically organic double team move where Athena basically hit Mercedes with the MoneMaker but right onto Harley. 

That unique no shine/double heat structure let them utilize a Willow blind tag (instead of a conventionally hot one) after the break and allowed for things to break down a little early without it feeling unearned or unbalanced. The finish, with Statlander coming out to disrupt Billie and the belt and distract Athena (who had just hit one of her super impressive strength spots), furthered the Full Gear title match and set up a few matches in the future including Athena vs Harley for the ROH title. 

My big takeaway, however, is that while I understand Athena and Mercedes going out like this (they were almost too big to continue on in the tournament and this furthered other storylines) the pairing, either feuding or teaming, is just too good not to go back to sooner than not. 

It's pro wrestling. You need your stars shining as brightly as possible as much as possible, and Athena burns brightly enough to be the perfect spotlight for Mercedes Mone.

Samoa Joe/Powerhouse Hobbs/Katsuyori Shibata vs Eddie Kingston/HOOK/Hangman Adam Page

MD: Keep your eye on Eddie Kingston.

I came across an obituary of Gene Wilder a week or two ago. In it, the writer noted it was a known secret in the acting industry that actors that wished to "better themselves would do well to watch a movie with Gene Wilder in it and pay particular attention to him in a scene when someone else is speaking, someone else has the focus. He was always acting in those moments too, reacting or listening in perfect character and supporting the scene with his presence. A lot of good actors are good when they have something to do. Gene Wilder was good all the time."

I had immediately connected that to Negro Casas actually, and the work he did in trios matches when he wasn't the main focus of a feud.

But then I saw this match and it clicked here as well.

Eddie's not even in this feud. Eddie is HOOK's plus-one. But he managed to do something that was absolutely a contradiction here: he not only stole the show, but he then took what he stole and donated it back to his partners. 

Here's the key: he's constantly, consistently both engaged and engaging. Someone can be the one but not the other and it goes both ways. I love watching Ultimate Warrior on the apron in tags, but he's not necessarily responding to what's happening in the moment and adding to the overall match. There are also plenty of guys able to put their arm out for a tag but not also able to use it to draw you into the match. And Eddie draws you right in while making it about what's going on in the ring and not about himself. 

Some of that is his strength as a storytelling but I honestly believe so much of it is his foundation as a fan. He remembers caring. Hell, he watches certain matches over and over and over again because he still cares. He cares as much as anyone reading this and as much as the person writing this and he's able to channel that feeling into what he was doing here. 

That meant he showed his disgust when Samoa Joe started the match by dodging Hook and tagging out to Shibata, that he sold chops as if they were hurting him, and that when Hook was trying to fight back (and after Hook hit the suplex that threw his back out the rest of the way), he'd lean halfway into the ring to try to will him over to the corner.

And when it was time for him to get in there, he did exactly what he should. That meant getting beaten on by Samoa Joe in the corner, his comeback chops ineffectual. It meant being able to fire back against Shibata but cutting himself off due to the fact he's still working his way back to full strength. It meant that when it was time to mount a comeback, he climbed that hill and almost, almost worked with Hangman to hit a tandem Uraken/Buckshot (we need to see that at some point, TK, just saying; you've teased it now and let the heels rob us of it so you have to pay it off). 

And then after Hobbs crushed Hangman at the top of the stage, he found the inner strength to fight back against all the odds one last time. That's the only shame here. If this match had five more minutes, it could have been not just a double heat, but a triple heat, with Hook making that first tag to Eddie, with Eddie coming back after a 3-on-2 beating, and then with Eddie having to crawl back after Hangman got taken out, lasting just long enough in that All Japan Trios style for Hook to recover, even if it would all end in brave but futile heartbreak. 

But that's still out there on the table for another day. What we got was the best supporting player in all of wrestling pouring his heart out for yet another one of his award winning roles (not that he'd ever admit it, but those who watch closely... we know). 

Don't believe me? Next time you get a chance, just keep your eye on Eddie Kingston. You'll see it too.

Darby Allin vs Daniel Garcia

MD: Styles make fights. Contrast makes the world go round. Character drives action. 

Three sentences. Three true statements. You put them together and you get this match. While Darby is accomplished on the mat, he's no Daniel Garcia. While Garcia has a chip on his shoulder, has been training with Moxley and has been fighting full of grit, he's no Darby Allin. The difference between these two drove this one. In the ring, whether it be in the early feeling out process or trying holds down the stretch, Garcia had an advantage. When things hit the floor or got dirty, Darby tended to have an advantage. 

But Garcia was going to blink first again and again, because he had more to prove, because he couldn't get out of his own way (that's the character bit). That meant teasing the dance after choking Darby with the turnbuckle connector protector. It meant trying for an additional suplex (or neckbreaker) after hitting a superplex. It most especially meant mocking Sting when he had the Scorpion on, which ultimately cost him the match. 

There was a third character in this one as well ( and I don't mean PAC who set up a nice nearfall countout), the ring itself. They could have done this straightforward, eye gouges, ear biting, armbars and headscissors, but they chose to go inventive with it instead. After using the turnbuckle protector, Darby stuck Dany's arm in side the ringpost. Garcia's big transition to heel offense was trapping Darby in the apron. The stairs were used liberally. Garcia hooked Darby's chain to the corner. Pretty clever stuff all around which added to the chaotic nature of the match while keeping it character-driven and laser-focused on the contrast between the two. 

Three sentences that point to true north for almost every match and Darby and Garcia followed the map to their destination here.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 10/27 - 11/2

AEW Dynamite 10/29/25

Jon Moxley vs Kyle O'Reilly

MD: I covered their last match last week and people seemed to enjoy it. Part of me wanted to go super stylized once again. 

Kyle O'Reilly was a man who lost it all. 

After failing to defeat Jon Moxley for a world title opportunity in 2022, he underwent neck surgery. He still does not have full strength in his arm. There was a time immediately thereafter when he never knew if he'd be able to hold his newborn.

But what he lost in strength he gained in focus, redoubling his efforts to train and to let technique push him back towards victory. Along the way, he found friends and lost them again, Paragon only barely forming before Adam Cole ended up on the shelf, possibly indefinitely. But he's a man who rolls with the punches, and with a smile on his face, he found the fun-loving whimsy still within him that was necessary to be the heart and soul of the Conglomeration. 

So on and so forth. I'd write about how this time, after scoring one of the biggest victories of his career but having been robbed of an even greater one by Jon Moxley's cowardice, he marched down to the ring with a more serious expression, how he had one more chance to snatch glory long past a point that anyone thought he'd still be in contention for it. 

But then he hit the ring and Moxley, after taking a few shots from Marina to warm him up, followed him in, and I saw the match and now that's just not what I want to write. 

I think that was a great way to remind everyone of the greatness of the first match, but here, it's worth really delving in to the storytelling at play.

Look, we take it for granted. In 2025, just as often as not, maybe more often than not, the logic is flipped. Wrestlers think up big spots and then they work the match around them. They work backwards from the special effects instead of crafting a story worthy of those fireworks and then inserting them in.

This was the very opposite of that.

What I wrote above and what I wrote last week... those things aren't just fluff. They're not just stylized dramatizations. They distill characters. Characters have motivations, hopes, fears, things that drive them. In a perfect world of fiction, these things then intersect with their attributes, physical and skill both, and impacted by environment, then underpin every single action and reaction. This should be the bare minimum in any fictional narrative but all too often in wrestling, it's an afterthought at best or ignored or shoehorned completely in order to try to pop people with something cool or with endless excess.

Not here. 

You could see it from the initial exchange. Character drove the strategic approach of both wrestlers. O'Reilly rolled to try to pick a leg right from the start. Moxley backed off and then tried to bully his way into holds, combining technique with aggression. O'Reilly had an answer to everything, in part because his technique was superior and in part because Moxley was out of control. Mox would go to the eyes, to the nose, to the ear, to anything soft to try to squeeze out an advantage, but O'Reilly was ready for it. In countering those underhanded tactics, he got a little hot though, could maybe feel Moxley's desperation and he charged in with a knee in the ropes that Moxley was then able to use to heft him up and over the top, truly taking over for the first time.

You can continue to follow these threads. Moxley attacked the hand first, worried about O'Reilly's cross arm breaker. But he couldn't help rubbing it in, couldn't help grinding down, couldn't help stomping away. That gave O'Reilly an opening to snatch the leg and starting to work upon it. Moxley, panicking, went right back to the eye and then, not just wanting to win but needing to main, shifted to the neck, the same neck that had been damaged out of their match back in 2022. But O'Reilly knew he had him rattled and he met him standing with strikes getting a seeming advantage but really falling into Moxley's trap, a pile driver.

It's all right there in the text, all shaped by the context, driven by the subtext. Moxley had his back against the wall, respected his opponent, hated his opponent, wanted to stick it to the fans. He'd not just run him to the stairs to slam his head in but would carefully bring him over in a full nelson. He'd lose the advantage by focusing too much on the fans and charging shoulder first into the post, allowing O'Reilly to utilize a dragon screw leg whip. He was cruel and careful one moment and entirely erratic the next. When he was in the ankle lock this time, he was staring at Aubrey Edwards and everyone had to wonder if he'd slug her too.

And O'Reilly balanced the opportunistic counters of a level-headed practitioner with a man with so much left to prove. He occasionally overshot but never so much that he couldn't recover. Moxley would catch his foot when he tried to stand even with him and throw punches and kicks, but he'd be able to spin out and hit something else. When Moxley went for the Gotch Pile Driver, he kept a cool head and turned it into a triangle. This match was his moment, and while he never stopped knowing it, he refused to let it shake him.

Watch this again. At every moment, it was character driving the action, character informing the reactions, character creating outcomes. 

That took them all the way to the finish. This time, back in the ankle lock, Moxley doesn't attack the ref. He dives towards the ropes instead. That throws O'Reilly off but they both end up on the floor. After one or two rotations, O'Reilly locks in a floating guillotine. The count ticks up and Kyle, lost in the moment (his moment), loses sight of the bigger picture. Aubrey counts them out, Moxley survives again even in symbolic defeat, Shafir turns out to be the one to attack Aubrey, and the tension builds in a very organic way for Blood and Guts where Moxley will not be able to escape. 

It's all right there, and in truth, it shouldn't be worth me having to lean so hard into. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to. If every match operated like this, like so much of other fiction does, then we could take this for granted. But matches aren't like this. This is an outlier. This is special, and the only reason I even could dramatize it and stylize it like I did last week is because they put so much into it. We should expect more. We should expect this. But until we get it match in and match out, we should raise this sort of pro wrestling onto the pedestal it deserves.    

Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs Wheeler Yuta/Daniel Garcia

MD: Just a couple of paragraphs about this since Darby is someone we write about and I really enjoyed this match. It was there to further the Death Riders vs Darby/Conglomeration story. On paper, you wouldn't necessarily want this to be a tornado tag, even if it does suit Darby, but the four way for the tag title shot was going to follow it, and the two matches needed to feel different. 

With a tornado tag you usually get a spot-first approach as mentioned above. Here, the characters were really driving it, Darby's intensity, Cassidy's mind-games, Garcia's chip on his shoulder, Yuta just being an irritating menace. Garcia's particularly great at showing (selling) how Cassidy going to the pockets gets to him, but he also got drawn in by Darby teasing with the skateboard. Character-driven spots. My favorite bit might have been when Cassidy leaped over the rail to stymie a Garcia whip only for Yuta to nail him from off-screen (both for Yuta's trademark appearance from off camera to cheapshot, and because of Garcia's reaction). That led to Darby diving onto all of them. Or it might have been how, after jamming Cassidy's skull onto the guardrail with a brainbuster, Yuta shoved Darby off the top and Garcia and Yuta both jawed with the fans, drawing real, true, honest, genuine heat in 2025 by being as obnoxious and proud and unlikable as possible. Yuta going under the ring and only finding his middle finger to piss off the crowd would be a not distant third.

They built to a big comeback (set up by Cassidy putting his hands in his pockets while the two were on the outside) and them paying off what they had set up earlier (including, literally, a table). I hadn't expected Garcia and Yuta to lean into each other like this. It felt like they were heading towards immediate dissension. Bowens/Caster and Takeshita/Okada are already in that lane though, so it can always come later though. For now, this is a (death) ride worth enjoying.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 9/1 - 9/7

AEW Collision 9/6/25

Jon Moxley vs Daniel Garcia

MD: Jon Moxley saw something wrong with the world. Bryan Danielson came to him in 2022 with a vision. Wrestling was broken, but they could redirect its fate, could band together and bring up the next generation how they saw best. They could reforge the youth through iron clashing with iron and force hammering down, tempering steel. And yes, they took Wheeler Yuta under their wing, his path forged in blood. But then the things went astray. They ended up feuding with the Jericho Appreciation Society, with the Elite. They bounced without purpose all over the card, sometimes beloved by the fans, sometimes reviled. They lost their way. 

So Mox took matters into his own hands. Deciding that Danielson wasn't up to the task, he put a knife in his back and a bag over his head and called it love and mercy. He took the title for himself, locked it in a briefcase, and went about to create the future.

Except for that's not what he did at all. After Private Party bounced off of the Deathriders, they found their nerve and became champions. He didn't say a word. On the same show that Mox won the title, Daniel Garcia became TNT champion. He didn't say a word.

Because maybe it wasn't about the future. Maybe it was about the present. Maybe Jon Moxley was just an animal deep down, a beast that needed to sit as king of the mountain and do anything at all to make sure he didn't fall, even if it meant keeping anyone else from rising and destroying or ignoring them when they did.

And Daniel Garcia? He became TNT champion, literally carried the flag of AEW, vowed to restore the feeling, encapsulated an earnestness of babyfaces of old, and then spent six months trudging through mud. He meant to be the front line against the Deathriders, but Moxley wasn't actually interested in that fight. Instead, Garcia fought through the C2, defended his title against figures as beloved as he was if not more so in Briscoe, Shibata, Adam Cole, when he should have been facing all the villains of the world. It was hard to maintain his purity of vision in the face such blurred lines and eventually he came up lacking. 

He needed iron to brush up against, needed the hammer coming down upon him so he could press back, fire back, prove himself. 

But the iron was nowhere to be found and the hammer was busy elsewhere protecting its own kingdom. 

Eventually, that kingdom came together in revolt and toppled the king. Mox was left wounded and vulnerable, a beast with his back against the wall. Garcia had been left aimless, frustrated, barely hanging on to the feeling he meant to restore. 

But now on the other side of All In, with no rankings to get in the way, no title defenses to distract either man, the path was clear. Garcia could now do what he had wanted to do back in Fall and throw himself at Moxley, to test his mettle, to show the world that Mox was a hypocrite, that his words had always been empty, that he was a false leader selling a false bill of goods.

The 2300 was the perfect venue, stifling, closed in with nowhere to run, blood soaked into the floor, intimate. And on Dynamite, Garcia pushed Moxley to the limit. You could see it down the stretch. Moxley had him beat on the floor, was content with a countout win, wounded beast that he was. But Garcia literally grasped the hands of the fans, and with them behind him, pulled himself up and beat the count as Mox fumed and raged. Moxley doesn't just defeat people. He beats them. He drops them on their heads or chokes the life out of them. But in order to best Garcia, he had to rely upon a roll up. He didn't beat Garcia in that first encounter; he survived him. 

It made sense that after the fact, and then again before Garcia's next match, that Mox tried to get in Dany's head. He was paranoid. Darby Allin was haunting his steps. He couldn't face a war on two fronts; he was already bleeding out after the title loss. Losing now to someone beneath him in his own mind like Garcia might have opened the door to Darby doing more than just beating him. It might have ended him for good.

But Garcia had chased this for almost a year, had lost so much along the way in part because he didn't get it, didn't get the attention of Mox, the recognition, the respect to even just fight him. He'd been underlooked, overlooked, and he knew just how close he had come. 

He was going to challenge Mox again.

And challenge him he did. 

Garcia started by wrestling, by dragging Mox down into the STF. Moxley responded by goading him in. Garcia was happy to comply, throwing shots into Mox's face, but that put him into Moxley's world, and there, Moxley still reigned, belt or no. Once it became a fight, Moxley took over. That trend continued. Garcia caught a leg in the corner, hit a dragon screw and stared to work it over. But when he took it to the floor, Moxley regained control. 

But even in control, he couldn't put Garcia away. He'd kick out again and again, fight back again and again. He survived a pile driver, endured the cross arm breaker. He continued to find his courage and, strengthened by the support of the fans, he refused to back down. He reversed Mox on the apron and hit a pile driver of his own. He turned the bulldog choke into a belly to back. Garcia pressed on with a twisting neckbreaker into the superplex (a better and more logical combo than the triple superplexes or a superplex into the twisting neckbreaker).

They inverted roles from the the first match as Mox tried to add insult to injury with a scorpion deathlock and Garcia rolled him up for a nearfall (the same way Mox won the Dynamite match). Garcia went for Mox's Bulldog Choke and got absolutely planted by a DDT for his hubris. But Garcia not only survived that, he was able to capitalize on the escape by locking in the Dragon Slayer. Moxley tried to grasp the head as Garcia leaned back but to no avail. Instead, Jon Moxley, the great mat scrapper, had to get to the ropes, a wounded animal looking for a way out.

Pushed against the wall like he was, both by life and fate in general, and by Daniel Garcia in specific, something awoke in Moxley, something that we haven't seen for the better part of a year. Just for a minute there, we saw the Jon Moxley of old, all but begging Garcia to throw his very best at him, meeting him head-on, the two firing off on one another inside the ring and out. This was the Jon Moxley that backed up what he said, that stood for something, that would face down anything in the world that came his way, and just as he had brought out something special in Daniel Garcia, Daniel Garcia brought something back in him. 

He blinked first, catching Garcia with an elbow off the ropes. Garcia tried one last flourish in response, channeling both Moxley and his recent partner Nigel McGuinness with a comebacker clothesline. Moxley ducked it, went for the rear naked. Garcia was ready and turned it into a roll up, only to get rolled back and pinned. Once again Moxley had to escape with the banana peel, opportunistic win instead of planting Garcia on his head definitively or choking him out. Once again he scrambled away, leaving Marina Shafir to clap for the dejected Garcia. Post-match, Garcia cut a heartfelt, real, unpolished promo about how all the good and all the fighting just wasn't enough.

I don't know where they go from here. A week ago, I was sure that this was going to lead to a Garcia heel turn, one that almost felt like a mercy killing and a necessary shame given that he's such a great babyface. After this, the lines all feel so blurred. Maybe Garcia's hit bottom, but the fans are more behind him than they've been in almost a year. Maybe that means he can turn from a place of strength and not weakness. Even then, it makes it all the more important to ensure that the reasoning and the explanation and the moment itself are all ironclad with no holes.

What stands out the most however is how real and human this story feels. This isn't a pro wrestling story, not someone pointing at a sign or wanting to best some sort of imaginary record. It's not about main eventing a big show or making moments for a universe. A path back into the light and a possible descent down into darkness. There's pathos here. A fallen king. A tarnished hero. Hypocrisy and truth. All the frustrations of life. This speaks to the human condition. And it's not just the story behind it, not just promos and angles. So much of it is in how the matches themselves play out. It's all integrated, all organic, exactly as pro wrestling once was and exactly as pro wrestling should be. 

I'm not sure where it's going to go next, but I can't wait to find out.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 8/11 - 8/17

AEW Collision 8/16/25

The Technical Spectacle (Nigel McGuinness vs Daniel Garcia vs Hechicero vs Lee Moriarty)

MD: My dislike for 4-way matches is pretty well documented at this point. I went into detail back during Double Or Nothing a few years ago. In short, 4-ways are the ultimate immersion killer. They're quite possibly the least organic form of pro wrestling ever invented. They're excuses for big spots and big set pieces that are elaborately set up in ways that have nothing to do with winning a match. They force wrestlers to act outside of their established norms, often contriving them to do things in parallel in a way that doesn't hold up under scrutiny. You end up with people laying around for far longer than they would in any other match and it all becomes a muddle with too many cooks and too many ideas. At best, you get some cool and memorable things, but we're so desensitized to that anyway that it barely registers after the fact. 

Quick pause on that. I've been watching a lot of Newborn UWF/UWF 2.0 lately. It's almost all on YouTube so I suggest people go and do the same. It's helped me refine my thoughts about shoot style and how best to engage with it. I'd seen my share of UWF 1.0, but that's so centered around a few characters and they were still figuring out the style so that you're not necessarily watching a distillable shoot style match so much as you're watching a Super Tiger or Fujiwara match. With UWF 2.0 though, everything is more locked in and refined. You can best understand the matches along three axes: technique/physical attributes (this is self-evident), opportunity (what openings exist in any single moment and how can a wrestler take advantage of them), and personality (who are these people and how do they approach the fight). You can't necessarily look at things through a traditional narrative (shine/heat/comeback) lens. Instead, by trying understanding those three things you can jump in and see how, let's say a smaller fighter apt to tire his opponent out and fight defensively like Shigeo Miyato will face off against a larger fighter who has to make use of his size and press hard early (but that might still get one powerful blow in late) like Tatsuo Nakano. Who are these people? What drives them? How does that create opportunities and how do they respond to them? What opportunities do those responses then create in the moment and throughout the match?

Still with me? Ok, so maybe people wouldn't necessarily define the Technical Spectacle as shoot style (maybe they would), but it was at least a sibling or cousin to it, and so many of those same tenets operated here. Unlike almost every other 4-way I've ever seen, this was set up around opportunities and personalities. Nigel carries the weight of the world on his shoulders knowing full well the possibility of every impossible opportunity (a different sort of opportunity, but related), having had so many of his dreams slip through his fingers. Garcia is watching his own dreams start to slip as well, stumbling through a series of failures and wanting to wrench back his future. Moriarty sees himself as the present, the time-tested Pure Champ, but without the recognition or respect he deserves. And Hechicero is just a malignant spirit, Bandido and a title shot ahead of him, a wretched, brilliant creature that just wants to ply his craft and hurt people. 

In parts of the match technique drove things and the wrestlers grappled evenly, looking to create opportunities. But when those opportunities arose, it was their personalities that defined the action, this a direct opposite of so many 4-ways where the necessary over the top spots override and overwrite personality. Moriarty was the one who went out of his way to get multiple people in a submission at once, leaning into his bravado and swagger. Garcia always had an eye out for what Nigel was doing, seeing him as the biggest threat, as the one he'd never faced off against (only teamed with). And Nigel? Nigel may be a sympathetic figure given his journey, but there's something of the rogue within him, of the scoundrel, but even more than that, the stone-faced realism of a man that has been through life's wringer. When his opponents were in simultaneous submissions, he laid in an opportunistic stomp to break it up. In a similar moment, he dropped an elbow on Garcia. And then, when it seemed like Garcia had his Scorpion Deathlock on while he himself had the London Dungeon locked in, he threw a nasty, chippy, possibly even underhanded elbow, flooring Garcia. It wasn't personal; in fact, it was even regretful on some level, but it was life, the only life Nigel knew and the only life that he could possibly have left.

And all throughout, the technique was as compelling as the personalities. Handfighting, moments of leverage, tricked out takedowns, lightning fast pin attempts that never felt like needless waterfall spots existing for their own sake. They solved the problem of someone laying out by almost constantly having wrestlers paired off, and here it worked because success for one wrestler didn't mean a headdrop or huge bump but instead gaining advantage over a limb or locking in a hold. 

While watching this, I had the sense of something incredibly rare in 2025: the feeling of watching something brand new. Usually things that are touted as new are instead just "more." Bigger spots, more excess, more people, more risk, brighter colors and flashier fireworks; adding another few floors to a tower that already exists. Here though, even the foundation felt new. This feels like something that could be done again with the same wrestlers or different ones, with huge stakes, incredible techniques, and opportunities driven by personality.

They could have done this the old way, could have had all of the holds be tandem things, could have done so many more suplexes, could have slipped in a tower of doom spot and some dives, could have gone around the world a few times with all of their finishers. That would have been safe as crowds tend to be more favorable towards those things than I am. This was not safe. It was brave and it was daring and in its own way, it was brilliant. So much of that was on the courage to trust that the crowd would come along, that their own skill and personality and commitment would win the day. But win the day it did, and in doing so they broke ground on something that felt brand new and very worthwhile.

CMLL 8/15/25

MJF vs Zandokan, Jr

MD: Another data point has arrived from Arena Mexico and the results are conclusive: the system works. Pro wrestling is a wonderful, gripping, engaging, vibrant art form, and it is as strong as ever in a fabled place where the fans can live and breath on every heroic and villainous act and find exhilaration in every single punch (yes, there are punches there too, not just chops and forearms).

The combination of MJF, with Jon Cruz at his side, in Arena Mexico, is the best act in wrestling today, and so much of that is due to the sheer commitment to everything that's always worked, the timeless, universal elements of pro wrestling, an appeal to the heart based on morality and identity and pride. 

This replicated a number of the elements from MJF's previous appearances in Arena Mexico, most especially the recent title win over Averno, but in every way, it took the act even further. Now Cruz was out dressed like Abraham Lincoln, still taking editorial license on MJF's insults stretching them this way and that, as his twisted, fawning C-3PO. Zandokan's response was perfect, shutting it all down instantly so the match could begin and getting a crowd that was already inclined to support him due to his upstart rudo charisma fully behind him. But then, of course, Max hit the floor to massive boos. The game had begun.

And what a game it was. At Zandokan's first touch, Max rolled back out and complained (on the mic with translation) about hair pulling. Then, of course, later, when it came time to cut Zandokan off, he pulled the hair and mask himself. Perfect hypocritical pro wrestling symmetry meant to get heat. When Max was in control, he made sure to punctuate each and every offensive move or cut off by rubbing it in the face of the fans, and they booed huge. Whenever Zandokan fired back, MJF sold for the back row and the back row was duly elated. Cruz intervened all the more which meant that when it was time for Zandokan to really come back, Cruz got to bump huge for him as well. Chekhov's Gun was loaded and fired and the universe was placed in perfect balance. 

The dive, when it came, was singular and spectacular, smashing MJF who had been draped on the guardrail (again a likely unintentionally but wholly meaningful parallel to how he lounged on it when he ducked out of the ring a first time). And they build to an exciting series of finish attempts before Max had to go an extra mile to get the ref out of position so he could hit another foul and steal the win, a payoff to the match and a set up for the post-match Mistico challenges to come. 

With so many different opponents each with their own quirks and history (imagine him against Blue Panther or Ultimo Guerrero or Barbaro Cavernario, etc.), this match, as much as anything else, was proof positive that the act isn't just one spectacular firework meshing old and new, but instead something with real legs and that can bring real joy each with each and every outing. 

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

AEW All In 7/12/25

Dustin Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara vs Kyle Fletcher vs Daniel Garcia

MD: Look, at the end of the day, we don't know what we don't know. I'd love to get into the booking here. I'd love to try to make sense of this situation and I will to a degree, but there's a lot we don't know, some of which may become more apparent over the next few weeks as they decide what to do next with the TNT title. Here's what we do know.

Adam Cole is beloved...

Not a hard one here. He comes off like the nicest guy in the world. His peers drop the masks (sometimes literal) and speak incredibly highly of him. I have my opinions of how that has and hasn't connected into his ringwork and if you're reading this, you probably know what they are, but even those have never come from a point of wanting anything other than for the guy to succeed. He's been through some really tough injuries and made a couple of valiant comebacks and I hope he gets to come back and prove me wrong about my criticisms. Nothing would make me happier. 

When the news was first announced, I noted that I wanted them to just do a forfeit; yes, even on a stadium show, because that would have gotten so, so much heat for Fletcher and because enough babyfaces were probably winning at the top of the card (I had thought Omega might be going over Okada at that point but half figured Mercedes was going to beat Toni so it was a wash). I get the sense TK really doesn't ever want to underdeliver on something he promoted but sometimes there's more longterm value in trying to get the heat on the heel and not the booker (and Callis is better than that at most) and it would have set up a Fletcher reign perfectly. You still could have done the Cole theme (which is what the fans wanted the most here) and the speech. Which leads to this:

It was Fletcher's moment...

It's no big surprise that I'm incredibly high on Fletcher. You always saw little sparks during commercial breaks but at some point he went from being Ospreay's young boy clone to the most surprising heel in wrestling. For me, it was right at the start of the C2 and the Benjamin match where he rode the wave of the crowd and helped get Shelton over as a mega-face on that night. You can go back to the Komander match that slightly preceded it though. 

Regardless, he's showing amazing instincts in getting underneath the crowd's skin, in taking his time, in living in the moment, and in adapting on the fly. If wrestling is a form of interactive theater, and if we've gotten into a world with far too many pre-planned spots, sequences, and counters, he's the panacea to that illness, the future of pro wrestling, because he is so able to (whether he knows it or not) pull from the heatseeking tradition of the past.

If the TNT title is a de facto TV title, with open challenges and defended on TV, he's perfect to run out the time limit and survive by the skin of his teeth week after week. No one thought Cole was winning. This was one of the only singles matches on the whole show that wasn't a main event and it was because it was Fletcher's time, his mid-card title coronation. 

But when you make a substitution, you put a babyface over.

Is that a Paul Boesch rule? I think it might be. Regardless, it's generally a pretty good one. It's an even better one in a world where you didn't want to burn a town. From what I hear, the biggest problem with All In for those there was the length of the show (lengthened to assault SNME in retribution or not) and maybe that's something to tackle somehow next year.

As it was, if you were going to do the speech, then yes, it did make some sense to put Dustin over. I do think the fans were down during the match, bummed out by the severity of Cole's words. The concussion rumors came out later but it sounded even more dire than that in the moment. It's a little hard to tell given how the stadium was mic'd though. Given the build of Garcia's ten count punches, for instance, I refuse to believe the fans weren't counting along even if we couldn't hear it on PPV. 

And we love Dustin. Of course I'm glad Dustin went over. I have no idea how banged up he might be. Excalibur mentioned his shoulder and knees (a couple of times). He wrestled three times in two days and the Infantry match was pretty good. They do really deserve the ROH belts sometime soon for how far they've come but I get not doing it in Texas. I will say that the pre-show match was a little rough in general and leave it at that.

But yes, I'm glad Dustin went over and got his moment. I'm glad he's got a new contract. I'm glad that he can still go at such a high level, even if I do think he shies away a bit from his comparative advantage (strikes, selling) in a moment where heels exactly like Fletcher need babyfaces who know how to maximize their value. At one point before Bandido beat Jericho I had wanted him to win the ROH title here so he'd finally have that World Title, but in some ways, him finally getting the TNT title was a better journey. And that leads us to..

The Match Itself

They were still announcing Cole vs Fletcher until the night of the show (and my initial want for THAT was Fletcher to stall, Cole to finally get his hands on him, to go for the Sunrise too soon, and for Fletcher to pull his head up to crotch him and get a quick roll up and run to the back with the belt; sometimes you want to make people feel things). Plus Dustin, even the pro that he is, and Sammy had two other matches in a 24 hour period. 

With that in mind, this came together quite well really. Some of that was having Garcia and Fletcher as your anchors. Garcia brings so much to the table in a situation like this. He can fit into technical matches, spotfests, brawls, sprints. He can go full-on babyface or have an aggressive chip on his shoulder. He's been around AEW so long that he has history with almost everyone. In this case, it was with Sammy, who had given him the long leather pants at one point and was involved with the genesis of the dance. So they got to have a few moments in there working together before they came to blows.

And Fletcher was the straw that stirred the drink, the catalyst who everyone would work against, who would take opportunistic advantages, who would pull Garcia out of the ring when he had the Dragontamer on, who got to eat big crow by having all three of his opponents hit him with the Unnatural Kick in the most crowd pleasing spot of the match.

It was a spot that got him out of the way for a while as well. They did a pretty good job of that, including with a Sammy dive or two. The only spot that came off as entirely contrived to me was the dual figure-fours. Again, the last thing I want to see in a four-way match is a "waterfall" spot of people doing things they wouldn't normally do (it's ok if they do things that they WOULD do). Which is unfortunate because it's in almost every one. Garcia is a guy will use multiple submissions, and Fletcher got to make a scene over it, so ultimately it was plausible and it led to a great payoff after it got reversed. Fletcher seemed to want to reach for Garcia's hand and they almost had a moment before coming to their senses and pummeling each other. So here the cost, not too high in the first place, was worth the moment I suppose. I think Garcia's superplexes spot is a big mistake on multiple levels and that he'd accomplish more standing out with something like a heart punch that could be made to be over with the crowd despite not being nearly as flashy/damaging, but that's not something to litigate now.

I'm not going to say Sammy isn't a useful guy in these things in bringing action, movement, and sensation. I think in some ways he's gotten lapped by, let's say, Kevin Knight who was taking all sorts of gnarly bumps in the tag match that followed this. He hits clean and does what he's supposed to when he's supposed to do it, but I never quite find the soul in what he's hitting. You bought the animosity between him and Dustin towards the end after the miscommunication superkick, but just because you buy something doesn't mean it's entirely compelling (plausibility is a starting point, not the end point). 

All in all, though, it was an accomplishment that this was as solid as it was. Maybe it felt more like it belonged on Collision than in a stadium but it was more or less a cold match that came after a chilling speech. They got the crowd back a match or two later and this was there to stop the bleeding, make sure no one felt let down by something they were expecting, and to give Dustin the big homestate celebratory moment. 

Given the circumstances (and again, I bet I only know half of them, but what I do know is still daunting), it's a credit to the wrestlers involved that it came together as well as it did. I know that sometimes plans change and they never quite course correct. I still think that Fletcher could be an amazing TV champ, and I think that he could have a generational rivalry (think Cena vs Orton) against Garcia, but time will tell where everything falls now. On this night, given the situation they were facing, one that no one would have wanted them to face, I think they did the very best they could.

ROH Supercard of Honor 7/11/25

Athena vs Thunder Rosa

MD: Here's another one where it's best to just focus on the text. There was an intellectual challenge here. I remember watching Athena beat Mercedes Martinez for the title in Texas a couple of years ago. She had just started the heel run and she was gaining a ton of traction and momentum with Martinez presented as the babyface as the situation but the match itself was a bit of a muddle because the local fans really wanted to root for Athena.

So even though Rosa was a clear babyface coming into this one, they knew they'd have a problem and I think they set up the match accordingly. In this case, it was by having dueling bodypart work. Athena (who has plenty of varied and interesting offense) went after the back early, and Rosa sold for much of the match helping to create openings for Athena. Athena eventually ended up with a bum arm and that served as an equalizer. The sum of these two allowed for momentum shifts that weren't necessarily based on heel/face dynamics so the crowd was allowed to chant for both of them.

Then, late match, things took a pivot with Athena trying to escape up the ramp and Billie getting involved (though she got tossed into the stairs and she, herself, was able to sell her abdomen, even into the post match interview). So in order to land the plane they had Athena hit the big bomb through a table on the ramp onto Rosa and lean full heel. After that point, they got out of it pretty quickly, with Athena doing a great job listing to one side as she (still impressively) hefted Rosa up for the top rope bomb. 

I think if they had tried a more conventional heel vs face match for 10+ minutes, the crowd would have been much more of a problem. By leaning on the bodypart selling and introducing the notion of alignment only at the end, they still allowed for a satisfying finishing stretch but without the match collapsing in on itself before that and with Athena not losing any momentum heading into All In itself. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 3/31 - 4/6

AEW Dynasty 4/6/25

Daniel Garcia vs Adam Cole

MD: Let's go back to Full Gear. It was a night of misery and destruction, where babyface hope came to die in the main event as Orange Cassidy, who the company had rallied around as a leader and who had finally found the strength inside to stand tall failed to defeat Jon Moxley. The one bright spot at the bottom of Pandora's Box, however, was Daniel Garcia defeating Jack Perry and winning the TNT title. The post match was brisk moving, but we were left with the image of Garcia, draped with the AEW flag around his neck, belt in hand, walking to the back in triumph.

Immediately thereafter, we started to see something new out of Garcia. He had resigned with the company, albeit without the braggadocious fanfare of MJF and his tattoo. He was going to be a fighting champion, one that could anchor Collision. He reached to the crowd for support, sometimes literally, began using the ten-count punch like stalwart babyfaces of the past. He was a shining, glowing counterbalance to the New Heel army who were trying to get heat instead of just getting themselves over, guys like Fletcher, Ricochet, Okada, Blake Christian, Lee Johnson. 

He was the one holding up that other side of the scale; maybe with Briscoe, maybe with Hobbs, maybe with someone like Hologram, but it was mostly Garcia with a clear path forward. 

And what happened then? He did what he was asked to do. He anchored Collision. He had solid match after solid match, solid babyface performance after solid babyface performance. But look at the opponents they gave him: Mark Briscoe, Shibata, a three way with O'Reilly and Moriarty, and then on to Adam Cole. It was criminal to some degree. Yes, it was good to beat these people, but he needed heels lined up to knock down. Sometimes making a match that is going to be "good" isn't enough. "Goodness" isn't the same as vision. Garcia had the crowd behind him. Garcia was trying new things pulled out of times past, things that would have worked, that would have established themselves in the hearts of the fans, that could have worked against all of these new heels, all the way up to Mox. He could have been Misawa to Mox's Jumbo. But it needed time to grow and develop and for a crowd that hadn't seen it in years (and some of them having never seen it) to be able to latch on to and understand. 

And he was left, in the end, against Adam Cole again and again. Adam Cole might be the nicest guy in the world, but as a wrestler, as a heel, he's a cool heel, and as a face, he's a cool face. Nothing really gets to him. Nothing registers. His promo explaining why he betrayed MJF was the least apologetic, least likable promo I've heard in a very long time. He didn't take responsibility for his actions. He didn't admit even the possibility that he was wrong. He just doubled down on everything he did and their program was a disaster because of it. If he just channeled his own personal vulnerability instead of a Michaels-esque sort of self-conscious need to be above it all, he could be the top guy that people always thought he could be. He could really connect with the fans. But instead he puts on a mask, and will always ever only be (occasionally) the guy that wrestles the guy for one program.

The nicest thing I can say about this match is that it did channel all of the above, and Garcia, being as good as he is, was able to channel a lot of it in a manner which felt in character, even though you can blur the lines thinking about all of the above. You can make it so Garcia, the character, was the dragonslayer, the guy who wanted to be a new hero, to face all the cheaters and underhanded villains of the world and who was instead put up against people that the crowd backed. He was a fighting champion, so that was fine, but he wanted to carry the AEW banner against the people really doing the damage and they were keeping him away from all that. 

You can see him as someone who watched that Adam Cole promo, who had faced MJF himself and managed to fight him without losing his own standards. Yes, he escalated things with the top rope pile driver, but that was different than striking from behind and behind a mask. And now he had to stand tall against Cole, this disingenuous, untrustworthy, unrepentant (and Garcia, with his background and how he carries himself is someone who, like Eddie Kingston, seems to know a thing or two about repentance) scoundrel, who gets shot after shot on goal while the fans sing along to his catch phrase without really giving second thought to his actions. Garcia had to work for everything and Cole, even though he worked his way back from injury after injury, was never gracious about it, and instead made it seem like that was enough, like he deserved it all because of it. And the fans were split at best?

So Garcia, in the match, got more and more aggressive, strayed from the light, and in doing so, lost his way and fell. When what's happening in the ring correlates to what happens outside, it can be incredibly compelling. And I see that with Garcia now. He wanted to be something pure and good, wanted to represent a new, better AEW, one without all of the irony, one where deeds and words mattered, where actions had consequence, one with honor. And he was never truly given the chance, ultimately felled by a cool face who was the exact opposite of what he was trying to represent, and then he had to shake his hand anyway? Where does he go from there? Does he sink into villainy? Does he become just as bad as everyone around him? Does he stop caring and become jaded? Or does he redouble his efforts and find a purity of heart that help him give people hope in very, very dark times indeed. 

It's unfortunate that what he was primed to become wasn't fully capitalized on, but there's still an opportunity now for something special, because as entertaining and refreshing it has been to see heels that are willing to get heat, that are willing to serve the match and the company instead of just themselves, that are fearless and daring and push to make every action mean something instead of just hit clean and look cool, there needs to be babyfaces that can take advantage of that to help move hearts and minds. And Garcia was willing, was trying, was even starting to succeed. There's a feeling out there that still needs restoring, now more than ever, and it's not the feeling of 2019 or 2021. Where does he go from here, a good man that briefly lost sight of his true north and lost all that he had fought for because of it, trapped in a world that he didn't make? I don't know about the rest of you, but that's something I want to find out.

Kyle Fletcher vs Mark Briscoe

MD: There's nothing in wrestling I'm enjoying more right now than the first few minutes of a Kyle Fletcher match. He's bold and fearless, a wonderfully confident and selfless stooging heel. The more selfless he is, the more over the top, the more willing to look the fool, the more he comes off like a star and the more over he gets. And this match, unfortunately, likely because it wanted to hang with the rest of the PPV card and start from a more "elevated" place of action, tossed that entirely out the window. 

From a story perspective, it did make sense for Kyle to begin with a dive. He had lost two of his previous matches with Briscoe. He knew how dangerous it was. They went right on to apron spots (albeit with some fun vocalization by Fletcher) and then Briscoe going for the chair (with a great moment of Mark telling the fans to boo the ref when he stopped him). That all made sense in character. For the sake of the match, it was about getting a hot spot and feeling PPV worthy. I think that was a mistake. While the show had some fun stuff overall (like the headslapping bit with Ricochet which was one imaginative sequence out of 20 in that match), contrast makes the world goes round and five minutes of Fletcher stooging and stalling and letting things sink in at the start would have stood out far more on this card and would have stayed with people far more than the aforementioned 'hot start.'

What it did allow, perhaps, was Fletcher to really take his time on the heat. I saw people complain about Moxley's "plodding" heat segment in the main event and I honestly that was pretty good with how he moved from one hold to the next smoothly and worked the wound. But even if that isn't for everyone, Fletcher's approach is more engaging. He has big pieces of offense and then he milks them after the fact, really posing and preening and playing to the crowd and let it all sink in until his theatrics lets Briscoe come back and Fletcher cuts him off with something big again, going right back to the preening. It's less, but it lets each thing that actually hits, already impressive on its own, mean so, so much more than if he had just went from spot to spot to spot. No one in AEW is really letting everything sink in quite like he does and if they couldn't have both the early match stooging AND the time-taking in the heat, then I guess it's good that they gave us at least one of the two. 

It worked down the stretch as well, as they threw bomb after bomb and they really, truly needed the weight of Briscoe being so hurt that he couldn't capitalize after, for instance, the cutthroat driver. That became believable because the weight of what happened during Fletcher's control segment and so much of that resonated because Fletcher was so engaged and engaging throughout it. But I think this could have even been better if they did 1/3rd less down the stretch and reallocated some of that time to an opening third where Fletcher could have stalled and posed and used his new tearaway pants and gotten some early shine comeuppance from Briscoe.

AEW Collision 4/5/25

Athena/Julia Hart vs Mercedes Mone/Harley Cameron (Parejas Increibles)

MD: This wasn't actually a parejas increibles match, but at the same time, it really, truly was. Athena and Julia Hart, despite celebrating together after the match was over, were absolutely strange bedfellows. This wasn't Julia and Sky hanging in the ropes together pre-match. It wasn't Athena and Billie (or Diamante currently) with meanstreak MIT appeal up against Ronda Rousey and Marina Shafir (what a fever dream that was). Harley and Mercedes did get it and were allowed it in the build to this, but the circle wasn't squared and all the pieces didn't quite fit together. 

That's not to say both Athena and Julia didn't get individual moments. There was a palpable buzz even from a very exhausted double taping crowd whenever Athena and Mercedes shared a ring. Julia's comeback against Mercedes when she lifted up out of the tree of woe was memorable, especially for Mercedes' bump. Very on point for Julia. It's just that they never quite came together and interacted the way you would have wanted to. A parejas increibles match is all about those interactions, the weird mix of alchemy of putting these robust, dynamic, larger than life characters in situations they wouldn't normally be in.

And it's important to make the most of that, because there are some natural shortcomings. In lucha, you often see partners refuse to cooperate to the point of a match breaking down or one rudo helping his opponents instead of his partner, and while that can be chaotic, it doesn't exactly lend to compelling narratives over time (like over the entire CMLL Parejas Increibles Tournament for instance).  Here, the problem was one of sympathy. Julia and Athena are tweeners at best with Athena being positioned as an outright heel on ROH TV. The Hounds of Hell have been babyfaces this year but Julia is maybe less of one depending on who she's facing. Harley is clearly a babyface; not only is she a babyface but she's one of the most sympathetic ones in the company, up there with Orange Cassidy and Mark Briscoe, beloved. 

Here she was expected to help Mercedes work over Julia, and the fans, on one level, would be glad for her when Mercedes accepted her and praised her, but on the other, it all made it tough for the Julia/Athena team to get sympathy. I think this situation would have been hard for anyone on the roster let alone two wrestlers (in Julia and Harley) that had around 150 matches under their belt between them. In a company that's so good at coming up with clever spots and set pieces, I do wish sometimes they'd pause and think about what the most interesting squeezing out of characters and interactions would be in any situation, that could put more emphasis on character motivations and how they feel about what's before them and the broader world. That would have helped Julia here and it probably would have helped Harley too. This was a good effort and an entertaining match (with a great, if muddled, comeback moment with the puppet), but I think in a situation like this, there's still so much more that could be mined with just a little more thought behind it all.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/20 - 1/26

AEW Collision 1/25/25

Undisputed Kingdom (Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly/Roderick Strong) vs. Daniel Garcia/Matt Menard/Angelo Parker

MD: I haven't made it a big secret that I'm high on Daniel Garcia and what he's trying to do. We've got a few heels who are showing signs of life when it comes to stooging, mugging, stalling, getting actual heat (Nick Wayne was great against Samoa Joe along these lines for instance). You need babyfaces willing to be earnest and honest and vulnerable, to show that they care even if it means they're not "pro wrestling cool." A lot of my problems with Adam Cole last year is that he's come off as a "Cool Face" who refused to take any real responsibility for what he did with MJF or his heel run in general. Maybe there's something to that in 2025 when you're supposed to just tweet through it, but I refuse to believe that life or pro wrestling works like that. I believe that things can matter, that choices made in and out of a match can matter, that believe need things to believe in and not just to blandly root for because they happen to win.

It's not easy though! It's not easy for people to be vulnerable, especially when not everyone's doing it. Cole refusing to do it doesn't just hurt the fans' ability to connect with him, but it potentially hurts the fans' ability to connect to anyone. If Cole doesn't care and Garcia does, it risks presenting that openness in the wrong way. The trick is being consistent, refusing to falter, not giving up. That's what a babyface is all about in 1985 or 2025. 

The problem is this: Garcia needs contrast to work against, and a "cool face" or a "stoic face" like Shibata aren't enough. Mark Briscoe, the only other guy on the roster who can match that same level of earnestness, is definitely not it. Garcia needs heels. I get that there have been some weather-related issues, some scheduling issues, but they've spent the last month putting him up against other babyfaces. This is the time where he needs to establish the ten count punch, to establish the charge at ringside, to get over the jackknife pin all the more. And by putting him up against faces instead of heels, it's been setting him up to fail. 

But he hasn't. Maybe the crowd didn't go up for his entrance, but they were absolutely with him by the end. What did the trick? Part of it was having Menard and Parker at his side. Menard's affection for him is so honest and believable that it's infectious and he's so over the top that you buy into everything he does. 2.0 was always a breathe of fresh air in the tag division because they were able to act as contrast for the more high-impact, spot-heavy teams while still taking all of their stuff. It was great to see them back together again.

It was the spots during the commercial break that really got the crowd going, exactly as they were meant to: the multiple ten-count punches, the body slams one after the next. They built to each bit, both in the moment, and by doing three in a row, and by the end of it, the literally freezing cold Jacksonville fans had been heated up not by crazy spots but by simple things that the wrestlers put their heart into.

And the Kingdom did their part. O'Reilly and Strong make for such a fun babyface duo, both in how they interact with one another, and in their tandem offense. As did Shane Taylor Promotions at ringside, the Infantry being over the top, Taylor being full of bluster, and Moriarty seething at the spotlight that he was denied.

Garcia would have been far better served by knocking down heel after heel for six months (and getting knocked down a few times and getting back up along the way). Then, once his act is established, he can go up against faces more frequently. It's asking a lot to get the fans behind what he's trying to do, when it's so different from what anyone has been trying to for years otherwise. It's reeducating the fanbase from scratch, but if it's allowed to work, the gains for AEW could be huge. Its an investment though, and it's working through willpower, talent, and dedication alone, but its up to Khan not just to be a matchmaker here, and to make exciting matches, but to ensure that the investment is protected and set up to succeed. If he does, we'll all benefit.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/6 - 1/12

AEW Collision 1/11/25

Daniel Garcia vs. Katsuyori Shibata

MD: My favorite part of the entire WrestleDynasty card was watching Shibata and Tanahashi lock up. I'm not a big 2010s NJPW guy so I don't have a lot of nostalgia for the specific pairing but I am a big 1980s NJPW guy and it had the same sense of Inoki struggling for a grueling, tortured minute against every inch of a hold. Wrestling is the very best when the wrestlers put so much effort and care into even the smallest of things; if they care, the crowd will care. I certainly did.

Unfortunately, Garcia and Shibata couldn't start with that same sort of lock-up. This goes back to a tricky pothole that we all often fall into with match reviews. A match doesn't exist just for your star rating, to be reviewed and written up. It's part of a nexus of a show, of multiple shows, of the history of a promotion. That grueling lock up? It was needed far, far more for Jericho vs Dax at the end of the night. They needed all the help they could get and complex spots weren't going to cut it. Starting off with that wild intensity as they spilled out of the ring and jockeyed for position? That they could (and did) do.

Tanahashi and Shibata followed the lock up with chops, neither moving, just endless fighting spirit hard shots and that didn't do a single thing for me. They looked tough but there was no cause and effect, just endless cause for no effect until the time was up. Once it was up, it was too late.

Garcia and Shibata went right to chops as well, but it was an entirely different world. Remember, the last time they faced was for the Pure Title and Shibata in so many ways ate Garcia up. He was just crushing people during that run and despite Garcia coming in with bluster as the champ, he didn't have a chance. Here, a more seasoned, elevated Garcia stood tall, but got knocked down. He took the chops like they came out of a shotgun and then got back to his feet and fired back only for Shibata to eat them like they were nothing.

But Garcia kept getting up. He fell down. He got up. He fired back. It didn't work. He fell down. He got up. He fired back. That's a babyface. That's someone the crowd can get behind. That means so much more than even someone like Eddie Kingston, a folk hero in his own right, standing tall and going even with Shibata. That's admirable sure, but it's not heroic. It's not brave. It's mythic, but it's not relatable. Eddie doesn't need us to root for him. It's fine if we do, but he doesn't need us. Garcia does. And that changes everything.

Which meant there came a moment mid match where Garcia who had took shots and took shots and took some more finally found strength within him through channeled the crowd to stand tall and drive Shibata back. Because he had given so much early and because Shibata had given nothing at all, this mattered so much more than guys just shooting bombs at each other trying to impress with sheer quantity alone. This didn't overwhelm. It inspired.

Chops aren't the only part of Shibata's game though. Down the stretch, Garcia locked in the Dragontamer out of nowhere. Shibata is all technique, all struggle, yet he seemed to just let it happen. Once locked in, he calmly pushed himself up and flipped Garcia over into a leghold and then the figure-four leglock. Garcia, selling huge, struggled to make it to the ropes. That's not Inoki but instead Fujiwara, that sense of defensive wrestling, of gamesmanship where he's luring a trap for his opponent. You almost never see it in wrestling today so to watch it play out so beautifully is worth noting.

As is Garcia's Bret Hart-ian (and Darby Allin-ian) ability to snatch victory out of nowhere. Watching Cope vs Bill to start the night, I thought to myself that the spot where Bill hit his head on the exposed turnbuckle and then Cope somehow hit him with a huge power bomb would have been a perfectly fine finish. They instead went around a couple of rotations with some big kickouts (including of the spear) until they did the bit where Cope emulated Moxley (on commentary, Tony picked up on it but didn't go far enough with the idea that you become the monster you're fighting). Maybe the match needed that. Maybe it could have been in the post-match too. But that was such a memorable spot that it would have been even more memorable if it ended the match and it would help further that feeling that a match really could end at any point. AEW matches almost always use those moments for a big kickout and only end matches on set finishers after multiple rotations to get there. We'd be in a much more interested world of matches could end a minute or two earlier on a big, unexpected move.

Garcia's so good at finishing a match with the jackknife now, that I actually buy some of his other roll ups. Garcia's confidence to be vulnerable (with the chops, with having to pull himself to the ropes in the figure-four, with letting himself win with roll-ups out of nowhere instead of a dominant finisher) is a strength. It means the fans feel concern for him in the moment and then share in his triumph when he overcomes an opponent. It means his opponents look strong in defeat and feel like truly meaningful entities to defeat. It's babyface wrestling 101 but so few people over the last decade have dared to do it with open and earnest hearts and it makes Garcia stand out even more week after week.

ROH 1/09/25

Trish Adora vs. Harley Cameron

MD: First and foremost, this was a very good effort. Technically, this was Harley's first or second real babyface match and she only has so many matches under her belt in general. She had good energy. She tried to get the crowd into it. She sold sympathetically. She had a good comeback. All good things. Past the handshake right at the start and one shout in the middle, though, I didn't really see enough of what made her stand out over the last few months. 

In fact, Trish came off like the star here, not just basing like a champ (maybe even too good at times), hitting some standout strength spots (a few killer suplexes including two very different Germans), playing to the crowd and the camera and almost just riding the wave of the crowd like it was music at times. 

That's the sort of thing I've come to expect from Harley more. It's tricky. What was getting Harley over were the antics, but there has to be some real worry that without channeling some traditional babyface techniques, she's not going to stay over as a face and get the crowd behind her; she'll just bewilder them. I don't think that's the case. I want Garcia to go fully into those tropes. With Harley, I think she can be more Looney Tunes or Marx Brothers (or Bugsy McGraw or Les Kellett). She can confuse and frustrate her opponent with a sort of mad surrealism and still get swatted down and come back. 

It's a tricky balance. The first time she goes with the Wrath of Harley Cameron, it's funny. When she thinks it's a thing and it's not, that's funny. When it becomes a thing and it's in her tron, then it loses a bit of its appeal. It should come when you least expect it and maybe even when it's least appropriate.  I always thought that the weakest part of her act was coming out to the Outcasts music to the same choreographed moves. She should be interacting with the crowd and the camera on the way down, maybe starting to do some of those moves and getting distracted by the first shiny thing she sees and then try to go back to them and forgetting her place. Something like that. The spontaneity is the key with her. You tune into a Harley Cameron match because you know you're going to see something unexpected and it won't be the same the next time around. If you miss a Harley Cameron match you're going to miss something unique forever. That's the appeal. 

Ritual and meeting expectations are good. But for Harley, the expectation is the unexpected. That would be difficult for a ten year vet, let alone a 50 match rookie, but that's the position she's talented her way into. Big task, huge opportunity. But this (and the Mariah match) wasn't it.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 12/2 - 12/8

AEW Collision 12/7/24

Darby Allin vs. Komander

MD: Full disclosure. I want to talk about Kyle Fletcher and Daniel Garcia, even briefly, and I'll do that down below in something of a C2 roundup. I don't want to shortchange this match though. Even within AEW where we have all sorts of match-ups on a weekly basis, the C2 is unique. I'd argue that this year's is even more unique than last year's. Last year you had RUSH in there, sure, but he's a little more conventional, a lucha brawler. Likewise Andrade who had worked a more conventional US style for years. This year, the C2 really shows the diversity of the roster. Styles make fights and all that, and it's true to a degree with wrestling as well. Komander seems like the poster child for this notion. His match vs Ricochet was like vs like to a degree, even if it was different flavors of like and even if Ricochet had some extra fun with it during the break. He'll be up against a deity of basing in Claudio and an absolute monster in Brody. They're all going to be very different matches and of course wildly different matches than what we would have gotten if Juice had been in there still. It's a great opportunity for Komander and for AEW to elevate him, even as a guy likely in there to eat falls. On some level, even with the loss of the Lucha Bros, it's exciting to think that there'll be an almost more dynamic tecnico engine of Hologram, Komander, and Bandido soon. That feels especially important with Texas looming.

Maybe what was most interesting with this match specifically was how Darby got to stretch. If you forced me to define him in a bucket, I'd almost call him a Cruiserweight Bully here. He was able to jam Komander at the beginning with a technical prowess that he can only ever show mere flashes of and he jammed him at the end out of nowhere in a beautiful sort of boy-scout knot tying. In the middle, he did his best to match Komander's speed and high risk daring and paid for it more often than not, each time more spectacularly than the last. In some ways it reminded me of the escalation in the Darby vs Jeff Hardy match but here there were more defined roles. Here, the This is Awesome chant was appropriate and fit the match perfectly. At some point, you got the sense that Darby realized it and that he wasn't going to be able to beat Komander how he wanted to, by playing Komander's game (one that more often than not is at least parallel to Darby's usual one), and he shifted gears, scratching at the back and then finally putting him away without pageantry or daring, no matter how badly you knew that Darby wanted to find a way to leap off a high object just one more time. It was a star coming to grips with the reality of the situation and making the mature decision and the sort of random complexity that you're only going to find in the C2.

 

Kyle Fletcher vs. Daniel Garcia

MD: I'm not writing a full blown essay here but I am noting what is plainly clear to see. Kyle Fletcher is wrestling fearlessly as a heel. The match with Shelton may be one of my favorite AEW matches ever. Ever. Some of that was due to a game crowd. Some of it was due to Shelton being willing to lean into it. So much of it was Fletcher though. I've seen comparison with Tully, but to me, the comparison point is young Gino, someone so fearless and confident that he's able to get under the skin of everyone in the crowd and get them to react accordingly, react the way that makes wrestling different than any other performance art out there. He's taking his time. He's interacting with the crowd, the ref, his opponent. He's inhabiting every moment and taking up all the air in the best way. It becomes a loop. They feed him. He feeds them. He gives them something to react to. They give him something to react to. It's all better than the sum of the parts or the sum of any carefully constructed spotfest. He's giving them noting positive to latch on to and he's cheating to win. The end of the Okada match where they eschewed a finishing stretch in general and went with the low blow and Brainbuster instead felt like a heelish repudiation of the very notion of fighting spirit. In some ways it's the purest, most distilled pro wrestling that I've seen in years. It's a beautiful thing and it needs to be protected and fostered. It's like the first sprout of a plant growing in an arid, barren wasteland. That's not to say there aren't industrial towers a hundred stories tall, impressive marvels of modern architecture and technology in the wasteland. But this is different. This is green. This is life. And I thought maybe it was gone forever.

And on the other side, you have Garcia doing his very best to create an earnest, positive relationship with the crowd, one that doesn't rely on him being cooler than what's going on, but that instead has him embracing it. He's slapping hands, slamming the mat, reaching out while in pain, holding the hands of kids to draw upon their power. He shined against Okada. Against Mortos it was tricker, because that's not a match that would normally be booked at this point. It was like 89 Steamboat vs Muta. That wouldn't have been fair to Steamboat, but people seemed to like it nonetheless. Then he turned around vs Briscoe, someone who would be more over than almost any babyface in the world, and played up his aggression, brought back the dance for the first time in ages (which felt like Danielson using the Yes Chants for the first time in ages in the first Okada match after he got hurt because he realized he needed an extra bit of connection with the crowd). He was put in a difficult position twice in one week and held steady while finding ways to adapt to the moment. 

Sometime in the next two weeks, maybe even this week, we're going to get Fletcher vs Garcia. There's a world where this is the Steamboat vs Flair or Cena vs Orton of the next ten years. They're tapping into something almost no one is even trying to do (Max is Max and I acknowledge what he accomplished at Full Gear; different pros, different cons; these can complement each other). And I'm not going to lie, I feel more hope for the future of pro wrestling this last week than I have for a long, long time.

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