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.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/5 - 6/11

AEW Dynamite 6/7 

Orange Cassidy vs Swerve Strickland

MD: Swerve is one of those wrestlers that I respect more than I like. He's always thinking, always looking, always trying to capitalize on the moment, always trying to get better along the lines that he thinks will get him over and will produce the best result. That doesn't always produce the best result with me, but he's over, he's dynamic, and I see no reason why they shouldn't push him to the moon. He's never rote, never trite, never boring. He's also a lot better as a heel because his offense comes at weird angles, takes an extra aggravating breath, and basically shouldn't work. As a babyface, it kind of drives me nuts. As a heel, you have to begrudgingly give him credit because he executes it and lays it out just well enough to make it almost, almost work. And that gap between working and not gets him heat, at least with me, and probably, subconsciously, with the crowd as well.

In some ways that makes him a mirror image of Cassidy, who takes such a classic babyface trickster formula, the Brer Rabbit/Bugs Bunny approach, overlays it with the slacker character, and underpins it all with more attention to detail and consequence than any wrestler has in years. At the end of the day, wrestling isn't about action. It's about reaction. It's in the word: selling. They're selling the reality of what they're doing through expressing pain, both immediate and lingering. And not despite the character, but because of the unblinking devotion to it and refusing to show any air in anything he does, the crowd buys every bit of what Cassidy is doing. Moreover, they bought everything Swerve brought to the table here, even if it was often infuriating on multiple levels. And most of all, they bought the threat of the title change. This felt like the moment, the straw that was going to break the camel's back, an ascendant force that was going to be too much for even wrestling's most unlikely enduring champion, now at the very end of his rope. 

All of that build, all of the weight behind this, the unique two-sides-of-the-same-coin nature of Cassidy and Swerve meant that they were able to get away with more than usual. They countered one another's mind games. They rode the house style of a full bit of heat and comeback before a big transition leading into the commercial break. They made everything take an extra attempt, an extra counter, and then paid it off with another piece of offense they wouldn't be able to otherwise hit. Then, later on they hit what they were initially going for when it mattered so much more. They called back the battle royal finish. They played with all the tropes: Nana up in the apron, it backfiring, neither of those leading to the actual finish, and so on. I had been a little hesitant to see them in an actual match. I thought it could have been the worst of both worlds, but they're so good and so smart and so aware of themselves and one another that it led to the best of both instead.

AEW House Rules 6/3

Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs Matt Menard/Daniel Garcia

MD: We got this a little late but at least we got it. I, for one, am loving these house shows. The wrestlers are obviously trying things out. The dynamics are different. They have room to breathe. They can really work the crowd. The matches don't have to be built around commercials (though I often see that as a structural feature and not a bug on AEW TV). They really milked this one for all it was worth. Pre-match, Garcia comes out to jaw on the mic allowing Menard to low blow Darby. They then hammer Cassidy's midsection with the skateboard before the bell. He gets dragged out by officials making it two-on-one. Darby survives at first (and is smart enough to go for quick wins both here and in his hope spots) but when he goes for the early code red on Menard, Garcia, having gotten a blind tag, is in to boot him in the face. The heat that follows is solid, with the numbers game cutting off Darby's comeback attempts and Menard and Garcia showing their personalities and letting it breathe.

Obviously, every builds to Cassidy running out, bandaged up. It comes right after another big comeback spot from Darby and you think that the drama might have had Cassidy run out first and then Darby have to come back but it works for the moment as the match had clearly and cleanly established that no matter what Darby did, he wouldn't be able to pin one JAS member without the other breaking it up. Cassidy coming in like this after the hot tag felt like watching Super Astro or someone doing their beloved shtick in the feel good tercera of an 80s lucha trios. Once Darby was sufficiently recovered, they cycled into a fun, bomb filled finishing stretch. Just a nice piece of business overall that they couldn't get away with on TV quite the same way.

Read more!