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) 5/19 - 5/25

AEW Double or Nothing 5/25/25

Ricochet vs Mark Briscoe (Stretcher Match)

MD: What a tricky line to walk. The first half of this was full of comedy, full of real shine. The back half was a bloody horrorshow. It was, from start to finish, a stretcher match, a grudge match. From the second Ricochet walked out in his cosplay robe, he had heat. From the moment Mark Briscoe walked down with his mohawk, he was lauded. There was a "This is Awesome" chant towards the end despite it all.

So many disparate things on paper. If you had read that paragraph to me a year ago, I would have told you that the match had to a discombobulated mess, something that refused to commit, that tried to be everything to everyone and ultimately was not enough of anything.

But that wasn't this match. Not at all. Everything in that first paragraph came together to form a singular vision. That actually doesn't do it justice. It gets it backwards. All of those things didn't come together to create a vision, they were created by the vision itself.

It all comes down to how thoroughly Ricochet commits as a performer. The nexus of the character is that he is so gotten to by the crowd, by his opponents, by his own place in the world, that everything becomes a slight and every slight becomes a drive towards lashing out, towards a level of violence that far exceeds the transgressions.

There's never a sense that he's in on the joke, never a sense that he's out there "entertaining" the crowd. It's always that they're getting under his skin, always that they're causing an affront, always that he wants to strike back at them and the babyfaces they love so much. He never looks down. When he's in charge, he's gloating and sticking it to him. When he's getting his comeuppance, he throws everything into it. Even though he hits "cool" offense, he makes it so it never seems as such. He makes amazing things irritating just by doing them. He went so far as to tease the table and push it back under the ring just to deny the fans even a little bit of what they wanted. That takes an amazing level of commitment and confidence. It's laudable. It's almost the exact opposite approach that one would have thought he would have taken in AEW.

And Briscoe, as a wrestler, as a character, is wise to the world. He is confident in himself and confident in the crowd. He wants to cause Ricochet as much pain as possible but he knows there's more pain to be inflicted on the inside than on the outside. He married humiliation (even the mohawk!) with physical damage here. And it went well for him (and for the crowd) right until it didn't.

He used the cleaning spray on Ricochet's head. Ricochet used it in his eyes. He meant to use the chair as a springboard. Ricochet tossed it into his face. The response was an escalation to the action, because Ricochet was well and fully gotten to, because, in his heart of hearts, he was selling the pain he felt on the inside.

Once he took over, he didn't look back, he didn't stop. Once he drew blood, he meant to keep drawing it again and again and again. But then Mark Briscoe, a folk hero, once awoken, wasn't one to stop either. He could go forever, the human representation of that memorable, symbolic image of a crutch stopping the ambulance door from closing.

In the end, it went even a step even farther, Ricochet hiding the scissors around the ring, a preemptive attack even before Briscoe did the first thing to his bald head (one that shows the hypocrisy of Ricochet's argument all the clearer). When even that wasn't enough, he was ready with a low blow, a low as could be for Ricochet has no bottom. He'll sink forever selling his emotional damage all the way. And that's why this worked when so many similar things simply never would. That's why the This Is Awesome chant was about Ricochet getting comeuppance and not about fans enjoying spectacle for the sake of spectacle. Embracing vulnerability is a hell of a thing. More wrestlers should try it.

Hurt Syndicate vs Sons of Texas

MD: When we look back at this one down the line, we'll think more about the MJF moments, accidentally distracting the ref for the Unnatural Kick, offering the ring to Shelton which let Dustin and Sammy get back into it, that ultimate moment of Lashley embracing him after teasing dissent and then crashing through the barricade and his opponent. The story will play out and we'll see the match for the things that went right and went wrong for MJF.

As it's own entity, it was probably the best Hurt Syndicate match so far. When Dustin was in there with Shelton, they were scrapping hard. When Shelton was in there with Sammy, he knew exactly what to give. That's no small thing. Shelton's a big guy but he spent a chunk of his career in the land of the giants. For him to shift to a relative super heavyweight this late into his career is impressive. And of course Lashley vs Sammy was all sorts of amazing feats of strength (and agility for Sammy taking them).

Because this followed the Ricochet match, we didn't get that bloody Dustin face-in-peril we might have gotten otherwise. The point of this match was to further the broader story while giving the Syndicate a good challenge. It wasn't abut Dustin reliving his Double or Nothing past. Here, the Syndicate had to lean a bit more unlikable. That meant we didn't get to see Shelton pinball Sammy back and forth between the apron and the barricade (which  I badly wanted). Instead he did it once so that MJF could choke him while the ref wasn't looking. It's ok. Sometimes a match has to be what it needs to be and not what I want it to be. And this was what it needed to be and a very good version of that as well. Maybe someday in the future we'll still get to see Sammy pinballed. One can always hope.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/12 - 5/18

ROH TV 5/15/25

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara/Marshall Von Erich/Ross Von Erich vs Mason Madden/Mansoor/Ariya Daivari/Tony Nese

MD: There are a couple of different ways to do an 8-man tag. You can lean hard into the tag gimmick by creating a sense of danger and difficulty just from the sheer numbers at play. Any time someone gets too close to not just the wrong corner but even the center of the ring ropes, there's a chance that a knee or arm may reach out. That evokes the sense of those 80s New Japan elimination tag for instance, creating a mood where all of these wrestlers are trapped with one another, the babyface getting dragged down as face-in-peril most of all. Or you can just toss the tag rules out the window and run rapid fire spots with people running in and out, making use of those sheer numbers to keep the action going and going with no logical reason for it to ever stop or for anything to sink in. 

Anyone who knows me is going to know what I prefer. And this did a pretty good job at it for the first two thirds. In that case, you'd maybe run through individual pairings until you got into the heat but they avoided that for a specific reason, Dustin's more or less cracked a code, or at least I think he thinks he has. When he's with the Von Erichs, he drops back and delays getting in the ring until after the hot tag. They find some way to contrive it, whether he's attacked before the match or just slips back into the scenery of the numbers like here. 

In 2025, it's tougher than ever to figure out what the fans actually want. In 1985, they wanted to see the heel vanquished and the babyface triumphant and a clear win or at least a clear beating, or ideally both. While there are increasingly heels on the AEW/ROH working to get under the skin of the fans and get actual heat, and while maybe in time, that will restore some of those old incentives, fans today seem to want their candy. Candy can come in a number of forms, but it's generally something they can brag about seeing or experiencing, whether that's a five star match, a debut, a crazy spot, or just getting to sing along to a theme song or as part of a chant. 

Getting to see Dustin Rhodes is a form of candy. He's a legend, an attraction, someone who knows how to work a crowd from underneath as well as anyone else alive. For 80% of the viewing audience, he was part of their childhood, whether they started watching in 1990, 2000, 2010, or 2020. Who knows how many more times anyone will get to see him wrestle live. He's candy. And by holding himself back, he makes the fans earn it and makes his arrival into the ring mean all the more. That also lets him put the Von Erichs front and center for both the shine and the heat, giving them reps and getting the fans used to them in both roles. 

The other aspect of an 8-man is all the characters at play, and given the heel side, that was bound to go well. MxM interacted with the Athletes with the cheer at the start, by pushing them out of the way of danger. They were able to switch things up with the spot where Madden drapes an opponent over the ropes and Mansoor hits an apron senton. Last time Madden caught someone trying to hit a tope. This time, it was due to Mark Sterling getting involved as a distraction. It's a great spot but it'll only feel organic if they keep thinking it through in creative ways. Here it was the transition to heel control which made it all the better. 

Things did build to Dustin and even more so to Sterling getting hit by the Golden Globes/Shattered Dreams/Unnatural Kick and then the claws. They always have the ref dramatically look away when that happens. Maybe they didn't need to when it was the manager getting kicked? Anyway, it was a crowd pleasing finale and a good presentation overall. I would have liked another minute or two of heat but they were probably working against the clock, but other than that, I had a good time with it.

AEW Collision 5/16/25

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Lio Rush/Action Andretti

MD: This was a #1 contender's match for the shot at Double or Nothing. I can't say it really felt like one, especially when Dustin was doing his fake dive bit in the middle and given a relatively anti-climactic finish where Sammy jammed Andretti's torture rack neckbreaker finisher to hit his own. In general, I like matches ending like that now and again, without a clear exclamation point, but maybe not a match with stakes? 

Of note, we got much more of Dustin in this one, including him working face-in-peril because the alchemy is different in a straight up tag than a six or eight-man and there's less of a need to showcase Sammy. That said, Dustin was excellent at slapping the mat at various points and selling the leg and really doing his half to explain why he wasn't making it to the corner despite making it look like he was fighting as hard as possible.

We know that about Dustin though. More importantly, this was the first time that I really got CRU as a team. The Top Flight breakup/feud did no one any favors but seeing them up against some contrast, they really came off like a swarming menace, in the way they took over, in cutting the ring off with Dustin, in that late match flurry against Sammy. Real Kaientai DX actually, in a way that I'm not sure anyone else is matching right now. There's maybe something there and I hadn't felt that before. They need something else. There would be worse fates for them than to become Ricochet's guys, for instance, especially if he ever lands a singles title and has to be protected more (he's pretty bulletproof right now). So this was pretty good for what it was, but I didn't quite feel the weight. I do think the PPV match could be good if Dustin can hook the crowd.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/17 - 2/23

ROH Global Wars 2/17/25

Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara) vs MxM Collection

MD: When people wonder why they should sign up for Honor Club and why ROH exists in the first place in 2025, this is a very easy answer. This sort of match doesn't exist anywhere else in the world right now, especially with so few house shows actually happening. It had that perfect combination of shtick and athleticism, all structured with a double heat and a big celebratory start and finish, getting exactly the time it needed with no commercial breaks or interruptions in front of a very game crowd, with everyone in the arena (ref, wrestlers, crowd) playing their parts perfectly. Maybe it's not the most marketable or lucrative sort of match or the most exciting overall but it's clever, engaging, and in a lot of ways a comfort when we need one the most.

I got a real kick out of the early comedy especially as they managed a good two minutes on the Rougeaus Kip Up act. Allan had posted a clip of that the other day. Not saying that's where they got it but if they did, more power to them. They had Mansoor do one, then teased Dustin doing it hard, building up anticipation, making it seem like Sammy would do it instead, and finally setting the stage for Dustin to go for it, only for Mansoor to try for an elbow drop. Dustin has a way of not showing ass on these little antics which on the one hand, may limit heat a little, but on the other, makes total sense given he's such a vet that in kayfabe would have seen it all and done it all. It ended with Sammy kipping up after all. Then they did the same sort of thing with dives, with Dustin doing the spineroonie and Sammy doing a ridiculous 450 to the floor. Some of his stuff in here looked astoundingly good and while it wouldn't be my thing normally, it works well as part of the contrast with Dustin.

They cycled through heat on Dustin and then Sammy, with MxM having enough interesting and varied stuff and playing to the crowd with their act to make all of this compelling, especially given how good Dustin is at selling and how much of a force Mason is in general. Yes, the MxM act, as is, probably has a ceiling. They commit admirably nonetheless, and within that ceiling they are entertaining and absolutely belong on the card weekly. Wrestling is broad and varied and there's room for all sorts of acts so long as the talent and commitment is there. And speaking of entertaining, the whole finishing stretch was just that, shattered dreams and all. This event felt like a Clash of the Champions overall (compared to Grand Slam's Insurrextion feel) so this would have been fine for a blowoff. Unless they end up doing something crazy like a blindfold match, I'm not quite sure where this feud now goes, but this hit the balance extremely well overall.

Athena vs Alex Windsor

MD: I talked about how MJF worked a traveling champ type match last week against Dustin in Austin and in some ways this was even more so than that. What was striking, as much as anything else was how Athena really made Windsor come off as a threat. That's not to say Windsor didn't bring anything to the table. She did, a nice mix of strength and speed and technique, and loads of confidence, especially on a stage like this, but it was how Athena reacted to it and how serious she, notoriously known for taking opponents lightly due to her own dominance, took Windsor almost from bell to bell.

It was probably most evident early as Athena came off as almost wary, quick to retreat, even to the floor. Yes, she'd celebrate and milk it once she was there, but she's one to charge in forearm first, not to let her opponent define the pace. Moreover, she had to really rely upon her athleticism with a couple of very fancy bits of acrobatics that we don't usually see out of her. It all added to the idea that Windsor was a real threat, which, of course, made every advantage that she was able to get on her and the ultimately win mean all the more. This was more World Champion 70s Terry Funk than completely unpredictable 80s Terry Funk, still a little unhinged but more savvy than destructive. I liked seeing that slightly different side of her here and it bodes well as she continues to keep the act rolling that she's able to call upon that extra degree of versatility.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/30 - 1/5

Stardom New Year Dream 1/3/25

Athena/Thekla vs. Mina Shirakawa/Tay Melo

MD: Pretty fun attraction tag here with a lot of moving parts. You had Athena debuting in Japan, her first time teaming with Thekla, her first time facing Mina, Tay's first match back in forever. Lots of interesting stuff. Athena was absolutely herself here. There was a moment relatively early on when Thelka was taking it to Tay on the outside where Athena seemed to be just soaking it all in and Thelka yelled at her to go after Mina, but other than that, the full Athena experience. She didn't adapt her act, but then she didn't have to. The stuff early on where she was able to react to Mina in her natural element was excellent (and I get the idea that Mina is thought to be underutilized relatively in Stardom, but she also felt entirely natural and confident here; more on that in a second). Since not that many people saw this, they can easily play this back in the states to high effect. The bit where Mina had Athena trapped and forced her to clap to We Want Mina was a great bit I'm not sure I'd seen out of her before and of course Athena's facial expressions during it were gold.

I really liked Thelka here too, incredibly vocal, always talking to Athena, to her opponent, to the ref, to the crowd. I'm not entirely sure it worked but I think a lot of that wasn't necessarily her fault. Just match card placement and lack of familiarity maybe. Tay looked good coming off such a long break. I don't think they nearly tapped into what they could have with her as an over the top heel, but she has a natural likability that mixes well with the MMA stylings. She'll be a fresh opponent for Athena if they wanted to go that route, but one great thing about Athena is that she came out of this with natural, organic animosity towards everyone anyway, even her own partner.

WrestleDynasty 1/5/25

Athena vs. Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Persephone 

MD: Honestly, this was one of the most enjoyable four-ways I've seen in forever. Usually they're a doomed sort of match because of contrived spots, nothing resonating, people acting completely out of character to make things work, and wrestling physics getting thrashed, plus lots and lots of people laying outside the ring. This had some of that but not much at all.

What made it work was that everyone stayed true to both who and what they were. There was a sort of different styles feel to this at times and there were mini stories within and then individual moments that both played on them and happened around them. Persephone worked well with Willow as a base but she also seemed absolutely intent to run gutsy strength spots against her and she managed around three throughout the match each one hitting better than the next. While I don't think Momo was the biggest presence here, she had a strong heel vs heel standoff with Athena. 

Then you had the moments. Athena, Willow, and Persephone reacted so well to everything that happened around them (with Momo not quite getting the same opportunity to do so that I saw). Athena would nail Willow with a forearm in the corner, the biggest most natural and organic smile and turn right into a shot from someone else. Likewise after Willow snuck in to make a pin or Persephone realized she had and opening. They were feeling the moment and riding the high of it all. Nothing (not even the dives) felt overly contrived. The finish was not just clever but played off the previous tag and was gripping visually. It looked like Watanabe took Athena's head off. Definitely one of the best 4-ways I've seen in ages. It just worked (and that is no small thing).

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs. Sho/Kanemaru

MD: This is a fun bonus to 2025 that you would not have predicted, maybe ... well, ever. Just a fun pre-show match where Sammy really got to shine. That meant the big moonsault early, a nice face-in-peril performance including absolutely sailing across the ring on a back body drop. I was kind of sort of wondering how many more chances he'd get but maybe he deserves one more to reframe himself as a big-bumping upper mid-card heel (a la 1989-90 Mr. Perfect) who can make the up and coming babyfaces look great. Down the stretch you got Kanemaru/Dustin shtick which is really what you wanted in the first place and wouldn't mind seeing again. I liked the bit during the heat when Sho stepped on the belt too. You don't see that specific jerk move often. This hit the right marks.

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I don't repost every twitter notepad essay here (so if you want to see them all, give me a follow: https://x.com/MattD_SC) but I think this one maybe deserves it.  

The Emperor and his Clothes: Will Ospreay Coming off of World's End

Kyle Fletcher had an amazing Continental Classic. Coming off of Full Gear, he was that rarest of beasts in 2024, the heel who actually had heat. On that first night against Shelton Benjamin, the fans let him know it. Both he and Shelton leaned hard into the opportunity and they had maybe the clearest, sharpest heel vs face matchup AEW offered in ages. He went on to have similarly remarkable matches against Okada and Briscoe before ending the round robin section against Garcia in a match that felt like a prelude to a bountiful, vibrant future before us.

It all led to the semi-final (re)match against Will Ospreay. If you had asked me a week and a half ago, I would have told you without hesitation, without doubt, that AEW had to strap up Will Ospreay as soon as possible. He had to be the guy to lead the company, the hot hand. The Death Riders experiment stumbled because of a lack of commitment by the company to let it be a true central focus. Now with the soft reboot onto MAX, they should run with a hot babyface and push him hard. I like Ospreay as a personality even if he's not my favorite wrestler. He's earnest and warm and amiable. He can obviously make a splash with his physical prowess.

And they had assembled a sort of Ospreay-verse of suitable opponents over the last year: Fletcher, Ricochet, Takeshita, Okada, guys who had that extra gear to keep up with him. Even better, all four of them were starting to stooge and stall and play to the crowd differently, so not only did they have that extra high gear, but the low gears they needed to serve as contrast and get under the skin of the fans so that it wasn't all fireworks all the time, so that the fans weren't just glad to be there and witness Greatness but that they also wanted to see Ospreay triumph and the heels fail. It seemed like a pretty solid engine for success, even despite my own misgivings.

After World's End, I have second thoughts. As spectacular as he is, I just don't think Ospreay has the wherewithal to be the sort of breakthrough ace they need. He can make a splash, but to diminishing returns. It's all because he leaves so many narrative opportunities on the table in his matches. He takes up the air in the room so nothing can breathe. It's fine with an attraction. It's fine with the International Champion there to have matches like this; it's not fine on the guy you want to build the company around. Not as he is now.

The Fletcher match started out well. Ospreay shined early and Fletcher, scoundrel that he was, retreated from the ring and stalled to force it to breathe a little,  to give it weight and contrast. This built to Fletcher catching Ospreay on the floor and lawn darting him into the barricade, opening him up. From there, it was lovely pro wrestling, Fletcher working the wound meticulously, wretchedly. Eventually, he savored it too much giving Ospreay a hope spot, which Fletcher cut off with another lawn dart into the turnbuckles.

All of this was to set up the big counter spot to send them into the finishing stretch, a third lawn dart attempt turned into a poisonrana. All well and good. The problem is that in between the cut off and the comeback, Ospreay had an extended 50-50 segment with strike exchanges and escalating counters. By the end they weren't booing Fletcher (unlike every other Fletcher C2 match despite him being more vile than ever) but instead cheering the match.

Likewise, in the Okada match, Ospreay, coming in damaged, survived a first round of heat only to get caught up in the ropes and hurt his leg. Okada started on it but it was just a tease as they went into 50-50 for the entire second half of the match.

There isn't one right match structure. There isn't one right way to tell a story. But if you're going to run with a babyface ace, there may be a best way. There are human impulses that manifest in most fiction. You build up emotional pressure. You pay it off. For some reason, Ospreay seems mostly disconnected from this notion.

Vs Fletcher, it would have worked so much better if Ospreay, despite brief moments of hope, didn't get to come back and stand tall until after that third lawn dart attempt. The pressure would have built far more and they could have done strike exchanges and everything else down the stretch to greater effect. Vs Okada, they wanted to mimic the NJPW tournament final style, but they could have still done so much of that after Okada worked a second round of heat. He was losing and he would have more protected him more after gutting through two heat segments.

I'm not telling you you're wrong for loving these matches. They are spectacular and exciting, but these great things can be even better if he stayed focused on letting them build without throwing in a bunch of counter sequences mid match. He jumps to sensation too soon and leaves emotion on the table. Without realizing that (or having someone that understands the ebb and flow of wrestling matches help him with it, be it a coach, someone like Jake Roberts who has spoken about it at length and in the most wonderfully vulgar ways, or TK himself who I know gets it), I don't see how he can possibly be the babyface ace they need.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/16 - 12/22 Part 2

AEW Collision 12/21/24

Claudio Castagnoli vs Darby Allin

MD: This had a great beginning and a great finishing stretch and both were somewhat invalidated by what immediately happened thereafter. Claudio is a guy who, like Christian, is used to working matches against the same opponent multiple times. While Christian is a genius in that area, Claudio is no slouch. The C2 in general has allowed him to play upon spots and finishes and invert them over time.

In this case, Claudio and Darby played off the start of their last match together, where Claudio kept moving out of the way whenever he got knocked to the floor early, thwarting Darby's attempt to dive on him. This time, he didn't wait for the bell. Instead he leaped right at Claudio, clinging on to him all the way up the ramp and enabling the balcony dive. That was a great start considering what had come before, but I don't think it meant much in the grand scheme of the match. Once the bell rang, Claudio hit a lifter and followed it with a ridiculous Giant Swing. That did give him the advantage but it also gave him a huge round of applause. Remember, this is the guy who betrayed Bryan Danielson. At times, the crowd is going to have to "give it to him" because he is so impressive but doing one of the biggest swings ever in AEW in front of this slightly smarkier crowd was probably a mistake. There's been too many such things out of Claudio as of late and it's not doing any favors for the Deathriders storyline, already struggling as it's cordoned off into one small area of the main event and not creating any overarching effect on the show overall (save for the first few weeks). 

Of course these two are a natural pair for heat and hopespots and comeback and it was all impressive. I liked how Claudio would at times just lift Darby up by the waist and that's something he ought to do more if he can. And then the finishing stretch hit just right with another big spot through a table on the floor, and Claudio going for his recent finishing move, that clothesline after an opponent barely makes it in from the count. Sometimes patterns can get too repetitive and take you out of a match because it's no longer believable but I buy these guys getting into this situation given the physical force that is Claudio Castagnoli. So Darby ducks it and they keep going through levels of escalation, with Darby finally getting hit with it and kicking out, with Claudio going for the Ricola Bomb only for Darby to turn it into a Code Red, for Claudio to get his knees up on the Coffin Drop, and then to hit the Ricola Bomb leading to a kickout not once but twice. With anyone else it might be a bit much but with Darby, at this point so late in the C2 it felt like proper escalation.

It built to a pretty clever finish where Claudio, frustrated by Darby's resilience in the face of his best moves, went for a chair. The ref took it and when distracted, Claudio hit him with knucks. Clever finish, right? 

One little problem.

Red Velvet had turned heel the night before doing it to Leyla Hirsch in an even more clever way since she used a turnbuckle rod and a hidden wrench she had gotten from under the ring. Same finish (which is not a common finish! I've barely ever seen the sort of switcheroo played out here, ever!) two nights in a row in front of the same crowd, one of which being a heel turn. Not to mention that the knucks would be a better gimmick for Velvet anyway as a puncher (I've got a campaign going for her to dust off the Heart Punch; I think it'd be unique and super over). I don't even know what to say. I haven't seen a lot of complaining online so they probably get away with it, but you'd almost have to put Velvet in the Deathriders and say that Claudio had been inspired by her actions or something otherwise to cover it. They lucked out I guess, but it, like the Swing and the opening flourish not meaning anything, definitely put a blemish on an otherwise excellent match. 

ROH Final Battle 12/20/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs The Righteous (Double Bullrope Match)

MD: This was a good complete package with a solid build that added something different (and violent) to a pretty well put together PPV overall. I think, especially given the build, I would have wanted a bit more of a straight brawl instead of something so plunder-filled with tables and ladders and what have you, but that's hard to avoid in almost any match of this sort in the era that we live in. We see what Blood and Guts and War Games look like these days. 

That said, my favorite parts of this were when Dutch and Dustin were brawling out on the ramp (even if it devolved quickly into Dutch's Bossman slam) and surprisingly Sammy laying in forearms on Vincent on the floor (which quickly led to Sammy hitting the post and eating an Orange Sunshine). I could have used about thirty percent more of that (or sixty, or ninety, but I get it). Speaking of Sammy taking that, despite the Tornado Tag nature, they did a good job of getting people out of the way so that the big themes could play out, most especially through Dutch going through the barbed wire table of course. And Sammy wiping out as well. 

I thought those key moments hit. The nearfalls with Sammy making a last second save all worked for me. What worked even more was how at one key juncture, it was Vincent, having escaped the Rope, using it to choke out Dustin. You'd expect that moment and the subsequent comeback by Dustin to belong to Dutch, and Dutch was the one Dustin beat in the end, but despite the familial connection being Dutch's, Vincent was the one who was pulling the strings, and in this case, pulling the rope around Dustin's neck. 

At some point, I really would like to see AEW/ROH trust in a crowd to do a more minimalist brawl, especially when there's a solidly built issue like this one, but maybe this wasn't the match for that (I'm not entirely sure Dustin feels like what he has to offer along those lines is enough for a 2024 audience, though it is, 100% because no one can do it like he can). It certainly wasn't the crowd. More on that momentarily. 

Athena vs Billie Starkz

MD: When you look at a match as a thought experiment interesting things can happen. In this case, they were putting together and executing a match with over a year of build, yes, but also with just a few weeks of build, but more importantly, one where most of the crowd and the audience watching at home weren't actually familiar with either. That's fascinating. I had misgivings about the build, which I noted last week, but the reaction online didn't pick up on my misgivings at all; instead people were just frustrated that Billie didn't win on her second chance and that Athena wasn't freed up to go to the main roster. 

It showed a clear lack of understanding of the week to week storytelling that was occurring. Tourists dipping in on ROH for a PPV and the year end PPV at that, and ones with ulterior motives and interests as well. They didn't plan on hanging around ROH so they wanted Athena where they could more easily and regularly see her. They're more familiar with the idea of Billie Starkz than the Billie Starkz who has been on screen in 2024 and more than that, the idea of an idea of someone like Billie Starkz, a young talent beloved because of her indie run who was ready to take a title. 

I won't speak to real life, but on screen, she wasn't. She absolutely wasn't ready to win. I know everyone made fun of Heyman noting how early the Bloodline storyline was in being completed, but here it's valid. Billie hasn't even really seen the light yet. She's still a heel. She's just a bullied, put upon heel who petulantly stomped her foot until she got a title shot. She wanted more attention not Athena. She didn't outright claim that Athena was evil or wrong or had to be stopped. If anything, she was trying to be her own Athena. If their match last year really got her established in MIT, then ultimately this one should start the road for her to leave it and find herself, but I'm not 100% that's the path they're going to take with her. I do think Athena is headed for bigger and better things, at least in the short term. I'd like to see Billie get some different mentor but outside of Emi Sakura (and wouldn't that be interesting?), no one in house really fits the bill. 

I thought the match itself was good. Just to focus on the finishing stretch, the moment where Athena clearly has an advantage and could go for the O-Face but chooses to use the mic instead out of paranoia/a lack of more fiber/Lexy wanting to please her and then almost losing because of that was a perfect character beat. And that moment in the corner after she had eaten Billie's finisher once and ended up back on her shoulders with the turnbuckle pad in hand is an absolutely perfect encapsulation of Athena as a talent. Yes she's agile. Yes she's believable. But it's her emotiveness in the moment! She went from the worry that she was up in the electric chair position to the surprise that she had the turnbuckle pad in her hand to the savvy bit of control that she could hit the poison rana all within a split second and it played out on her face like a method actor. She was living it and it was all organic and not overwrought. No one else in wrestling today can do that. 

But yeah, it must be weirdly aggravating to book a PPV more or less how you should, but having the fans just unprepared for what they're about to see. The 2024 ROH PPVs have a much better build than 2023 ROH PPVs, with the TV really setting things up, even if I don't agree with every decision, but it's almost wasted on the audience that tunes in a couple of times a year relative to the crazy sort of sickos matches they were doing without build previously. Like I said, an interesting thought experiment. This match certainly deserved a better reception online overall.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/11 - 11/17

ROH 11/14/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Love Doug/TJ Crawford

MD: Dutch having Dusty's cowbell as one of his last students is a good compelling real life wrinkle to the feud. I think on some level, I don't want to think about Dutch having a life outside of being a member of the Righteous though. It's not like they're wildly fleshed out as characters. I don't know why Vincent became who he is. He's just here fully formed and snapping, so it's kind of weird to think of Dutch in development doing promo class with Dusty. It'd be interesting if they were able to link this to how he fell somehow. I guess it's a sort of "don't open the door, unless you are willing to fully walk through it" sort of deal. Unless they're putting the belts on the Righteous, they're kind of okay as two dimensional characters who serve as physical threats. If they're going to try to do anything more out of them, I think we need to get to the heart of what makes them tick more. This could be a good step along that road or it could be messy depending on how this places out.

Likewise, the idea of Dustin and Sammy having a tag match and the Righteous having one on the same show, with a Righteous beat down after the former, is a pretty good bit of work too. Just nice, straightforward booking keeping things moving. Here it let them introduce the cowbell too, carried by the commentary. And the Righteous' new finisher which is Vincent picking someone up in a fireman's carry and then Dutch hefting both of them over his shoulder. 

The match itself was fun fluff with Shot Through the Heart feeding and feeding and feeding, with no care for the rules. Normally, I'd cry foul but they basically just kept running into Dustin and Sammy's offense, save for a brief respite while they were waiting for Sammy to hit a dive. It fit the characters. It fit the moment. It put Dustin and Sammy over strong right before they were about to get wiped out and the emotional element was to be introduced. Just good episodic pro wrestling TV.

AEW Rampage 11/15/24

RUSH/The Beast Mortos vs Alec Price/Richard Holliday

AEW Collision 11/16/24

RUSH/The Beast Mortos vs The Acclaimed

MD: The squash on Rampage was effective. We've seen Mortos basing for smaller luchadores and working against other talent equal, but it was very nice to see him just crushing people. The Buzz Sawyer-esque power slam stood out as much as anything else. 

The Acclaimed match needs to be unpacked a little more. Let's talk about the Acclaimed first. Something has to give. I don't know what that is yet. Traditional pro wrestling booking would have it look like Caster was going to go with the Hurt Syndicate and Bowens be the one to do it first. That would be a mistake. For one, Caster can't be a babyface. He took the FIP here and it felt GOOD. It felt great to see Rush take the cord and flip him over his head to the floor. That was one of the most refreshing, rewarding, satisfying moments of the year in AEW. You want to see him get beat up. And it's wrestling, so he can use that, not as some sort of edgelord heel like he's been as a face, but instead as a stooging, heatseeking, scummy, scuzzy Eric Embry/Rip Rogers type. It's obvious by this point that Perry isn't going to really lean into that so there's still a window. 

That leaves us with Bowens. I think Bowens could be a successful aggressive, athletic heel, sure. But why? He's one of the two most likable guys in the company off screen. He's got a great story. People want to get behind him. He's short which would be a detriment as a heel but works fine as a babyface who can go and who can bring it. Look, I get it. Whatever the company wants to do right now, it's not Tsuruta-gun vs the Super Generation Army. Maybe we'll get there in a few months, maybe not. Daniel Garcia is Misawa in that case. He's 100% Miswa, unquestionably Misawa. Maybe Hook is Kawada, maybe not. There was a world where Yuta could have been Kobashi but he's Taue now, the turncoat. Bowens is one of the only guys in the company that can be Kobashi, that can push up against monsters bigger and stronger with him through heart and intensity and passion alone. Just let him be himself and let him face off against all the darkness in the world. The fans will get behind him. They got behind the Acclaimed an idea, a concept, a hand gesture, an attitude. They'll get behind Bowens as a person. I'm sure of it. He just needs to believe in himself and to have the company believe in him. The fans believing in him? That's the easy part. 

And then there are RUSH and Mortos. Given what's happening with the Acclaimed right now and just the general positioning of LFI I would have much preferred a roll up pin after Mortos wiped out in the corner as opposed to him eating the Arrival/Mic Drop combo. It might be counter intuitive but one protects him more than the other. You can forgive a banana peel roll up more. 

Here's another "Look". Look, I get that RUSH has a history of... you know, everything under the sun, right? Being uncooperative, having a few injuries, supporting Cuatrero, all sorts of stuff. But if you're going to have him on your roster and pay him well and use him steadily anyway, USE HIM. There are maybe four people on the roster (with two of them being Mox and Athena) who can bring the same level of seething, immersive intensity. Rush is a generational talent. When he was gone more often then not, it was fine to use him as a sort of gatekeeper/mercenary for bounty situations because he's instantly credible just by showing up in the ring. Now that he's a more of a weekly character, he can't just be a normal guy. 

I'm pretty sure that one of the biggest matches they can put on for the Texas All In, at least if you care about walkup, is finally getting LA Park to put his mask up against Rush's hair. Rush's hair was one of the biggest draws in Mexico for years in the 2010s. Granted, I don't know the lucha politics nor do I want to in this case. The point more is this. He draws the eye. He captures attention. He has that feel to him of "Well, it's not all real, but maybe it's a little real when this guy is in there." Someone said a few days ago that if Rush knew what Caster had been saying on his rap, the match might have gone very differently. Obviously on one level you don't want that, but it's a double-edged sword. Genius and madness go hand in hand in pro wrestling, and you have to tap into the talent you have as much as possible. Give him a brass knucks title and feud him with the wildest people on the roster. Build to he and Moxley completely dismantling the set in the world's craziest no contest. Make him the threat that Bowens has to overcome over time like Hansen to Kobashi. Something. Anything. He's lightning in a bottle. Use him to light up the world.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/16 - 9/22

ROH 9/19/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Alex Reynolds/Evil Uno

MD: This was a Proving Ground match and was touted to me as the Dark Order going full Larry stalling. And that's not quite what this is. When Larry stalled, it was to build up heat for the first bit of contact in the match, ramping up the pressure and getting under the skin of the fans. What people often don't understand about him, having just heard the stories or working off decades' old memories, was that when it was time for that first bit of contact, he was super high energy and paid off all the build. 

This was a different flavor to stalling. Here, it was about the Proving Ground time limit and all about the Dark Order running out the clock to get a title shot. That's the unique wrinkle of the ROH eliminators. I've seen a bunch of these in the last year or two and while there might be moments down a stretch where someone just tries to stay alive or even lock in a hold, I don't think I've seen one where the heels tried to avoid contact from the get go and do everything they could to just pass the time. Obviously that, too, gets under the skin of the fans because they want to see action, but in some ways it's better (in the eyes of the fans) and in some ways it's worse. It's more underhanded and craven since there's a goal behind it but it's also a little bit clever and purposeful as opposed to Zbyszko just being as obviously irritating as possible. In both cases, there's mind games at play too, so that bit's a wash.

To me, this isn't deconstructing pro wrestling but is instead leaning hard into the rules and the norms. It's not tearing it down but building on the inherent logic. I don't think you'd want to see it in every match but like I said, this was one of the first time I've seen it out of dozens and dozens. And it worked. It was different. It was interesting. It presented a unique challenge for Dustin and Sammy and they had to be as aggressive as possible just to force the Dark Order to engage. That in and of itself, opened them up to make mistakes and fall into traps, especially with Silver on the floor running (literal) interference. So when they did go over in the end, paying off a lot of the things that had been teased but denied due to the avoidance by the Dark Order (like the dives) and going deep with things like Dustin's very unexpected Shining Wizard, it meant all the more. Not only did they beat the Dark Order, but they also beat the passage of time as well. That was a good double triumph to set up the 6-on-2 beatdown to end the show. I still haven't seen that pristine and perfect stalling performance I want in 2024 where one gives one's self totally up to the spirit of it all, but this was an enjoyable TV match cousin to such a thing.

AEW Collision 9/21/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Mike Bennett/Matt Taven (Bunkhouse Brawl)

MD: Everyone's focused on the blood and Taven's bumps into the chair, but there was some very smart stuff here. Taven and Bennett are from MA (though admittedly Boston, or, you know, Carver, and Springfield aren't exactly the same) so not only did Dustin and Sammy come out in the local hockey team's shirts (with new tandem music), but they were also in their street clothes while the Kingdom were in their wrestling gear. Somehow that made them seem less genuine and more heelish. 

The big thing, however, was that they made sure all of the tables and plunder was set up pre-match. This started the show (after whatever ROH matches they taped or dark matches they had) and they had the luxury of having everything ready. It meant that Dustin's dive off the stage through a table with his bulldog or Sammy's cutter out of nowhere through a table didn't need any set up. They were brisk and sudden and shocking. Then, during the commercial break when things calm down a bit as the TV format forces, they were able to set up another table or two. Barring having a Fonzie or Nana out there, this was a really effective way to prevent the match being a quarter setting things up. 

That made everything else easier. The heel transitions/cutoffs were good (Dustin getting reversed into his own set up in the corner, Sammy getting tagged by a chair on his dive, the double superkick as Dustin charged up the ramp with a taser). Likewise the comeback spots: Dustin's double groin claw, Sammy turning the Dirty Deeds into his GTH, worked just right. The high spots were memorable, those brutal landings on chairs, including Taven's after they hit the Doomsday Device over the top and he errantly landed on one on the ramp, Sammy going off the ladder. And all the weapons fit in, the chairs, the belt, the cowbell, the barbed wire Shattered Dreams. It was definitely a lot of stuff, but the Kingdom and Dustin knew what they were doing and Sammy added that extra bit of energy and panache. I'm not sure how this will stack up against everything else this year, but you can't say it's not another notch in the belt of Dustin and another great Fight Without Honor from the Kingdom.  

Darby Allin vs Evil Uno

MD: With Danielson at home selling the injury, there was definitely a worry of a sort of overwhelming NWO-esque doom and gloom with Mox and company. The combination of Yuta's very existence and the fire he's showing mid-way through his matches and Private Party foolishly but bravely standing up for themselves is pushing back against that, giving what Mox is doing the sort of traction to push off against that he himself is saying he's providing to Zay and Quen. Darby's front and center for Grand Slam, however, and while we've seen him act in contrast to Mox and physically stand up to him up til now, the backstage promo leading up to the Uno match and then the match itself took things to an entirely different level.

It's war. For this to work, it can't be Mox running through everyone as they try to act sportsmanlike. People can't just play the 1985 Jumbo card as Choshu came in infecting everyone and everything around him with violence. They have to be Tenryu and meet the violence head on. And Darby not only fought with that level of intensity here, but he also forced it out of Uno. Even if Darby manages to triumph over him and keep his title shot, Mox isn't just going away. You don't make a statement with a turn like that and just go back into the woodworks and have another fishing trip. The darkness is here to stay and the dark intensity and violent passion is the thing that can make AEW stand out. It's not the grisly excessiveness of Hangman vs Swerve from All Out, not every week, but it's a Hansen-ian impulse of wrestlers pushing each other to the absolute limit week in and week out. What that looks like, what those limits are, how it all plays out, the different mix of alchemy when you have fliers and technicians and brawlers, when you have luchadores and disciples of the territories and walkers of the King's Road all clashing against one another... well, that's what's going to make it interesting. 

And it was interesting here. Uno took every advantage, but more than that, he wrestled like a man infected, like a feral beast, throwing his hefty frame into Darby from every angle. He was an out of control locomotion. Sometimes it worked, sometimes he crashed and burned, but he kept coming. Darby, in turn, fought as he always did, but instead of just throwing his own body at Uno, he ripped at the mask and bit at the skull. There's so much interesting to be mined here. Just as Uno threw himself with wild abandon to rise to the level Darby inspired in him, Darby made his own potential mistake, choosing to use Moxley's bulldog choke to prove a point instead of something of his own that might have more easily won the day. You push people this far, and much like Darby's facepaint, you see all the skeletons in the closet of their soul. It's the most fascinating, most human element you can distill in pro wrestling.

There's a change in the air. You can all but taste it watching the show over the last few weeks. Something is lurking in the hearts of the combatants. Something is awakening within them. Jon Moxley opened Pandora's Box and if they can fully tap into this energy found within, maybe this company can find a comparative advantage that no one else can match. TK, if our old DVDVR decoder rings are still working and you're picking up on the signal, this is the noise. Play it loud, play it hard, embrace it. Ride the wave and it'll take us all as far as we can possibly go. 

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

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

ROH TV 8/22/24

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

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

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

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

AEW Dynamite 8/21/24

Darby Allin/FTR vs The Young Bucks/Jack Perry

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

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

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

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

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/12 - 8/18

Ring of Honor TV 8/15/24

Dustin Rhodes/Ross Von Erich/Marshall Von Erich vs Brian Cage/Kaun/Toa Liona

MD: Really fun studio wrestling. I have definitely loved the AEW ROH Studio tapings, both the first sets and these ones. It's a big dump of results that you know you're going to get. Here you didn't get results after the fact (less people sending them in relative to the Orlando regulars?). You got some of the match ups at least, but not even all, unless I was looking at the wrong places. So I knew this one was coming and I knew there's an 8 man next week, but I think I had the order a little confused. It's nice to be surprised now and again is what I'm saying, even if my natural inclination is to go out off my way not to be. 

This ended with a big heat mobbing beatdown angle in a way that you can only really do in a studio. First though, the match. The more I see them, the more I feel ok putting it down in writing. They're kind of sort of not the Von Erichs so much as they're the Fantastics; Marshall is Fulton, flashier, more charismatic, even if he has a bit of the size. Ross is Rogers, hitting stuff cleaner, a bit more workrate-y, a few more moves. Here that meant Marshall hit a slightly off dropkick, sure, but then worked well from underneath for a minute or two getting sympathy. He made a warm tag to Ross who hit some stuff clean (not a surprise), got the crowd fired up, and then carried the brunt of the actual heat after a smart sequence of first Cage and then Toa interfering from the outside. 

Kaun had carried most of that first bit, which made sense; he's not a small guy but his partners are bigger. After the double hip toss into a slam from the Gates, Cage and Toa leaned hard onto Ross. When Dustin finally did come in, everything broke down hard with each guy hitting a signature move. Dustin escaped a F5 from Cage (the second he went for as he had taken out a Von Erich first) and landed maybe the nicest set up destroyer you'll ever see. The physics somehow worked on it after he landed on his feet on his escape. Well, almost worked. It's a destroyer. Then as they were signaling for the triple claws (dubious if Dustin has mastered the technique), the Kingdom and Dark Order ran in, making it 7 on 3. Sammy, Angelico, Serpentico, and Fuego tried to make the save but the numbers were still against them and first the 6 of them and then security guards as well got absolutely demolished by the heels. I don't think they've run an angle like this since ROH came back and it came off like malicious chaos. You wouldn't want it every week but as a one time thing put some heat on the heels, it really worked; probably doubly so midway through a long taping where a lot of this would be paid off or paid forward throughout the day/night. Yeah, it's pro wrestling for pro wrestling's sake, but we all love pro wrestling. Pro wrestling is the point. 

Except for here, there was one extra point as well, because it led into...

AEW Collision 8/17/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Matt Taven/Mike Bennett

MD: I liked the match. There was a nice bit with Bennett dodging Dustin's drop down punch early only for him to get both members of the Kingdom a moment later and Sammy dodging Bennett's apron recoil shot only for Taven to get him a moment later to start the heat. All of that was paid off by Dustin hitting the dropdown punch on Bennett after the hot tag. I could have done without Sammy kicking out of the proton pack clean (get a foot on a rope or have Dustin break it up). Otherwise, a nice tag in and of itself. 

That's not the main thing to talk about though. After Dustin and Sammy won, you had a few malcontents complaining that the titles had been sacrificed to this new team with an main roster regular and Dustin. This is a nice rehabilitation project for Sammy that should lead to good matches until they pull the trigger on a turn (if they pull a trigger on a turn; like I mentioned, Sammy's kind of Lugered, which is not good for a 31 year old). Dustin is the best in the world at fighting from underneath and as seen through the last few weeks of matches, is so inherently and outwardly good at so many elements of pacing, structure, placement, that everyone around him will be made better just by working with him. Sure, it made sense for the Texas Residency, but it also makes sense to keep him featured for the whole year leading up to something special at All In next year. 

Dustin in Ring of Honor feels fresh and I don't see any reason to pull back on it now. We've never seen what a Dustin Rhodes Pure Title Match would look like. Let's see him against Lee Moriarty. I have no idea what Dustin would do in Arena Mexico. Let's see him against Atlantis, Jr. There isn't a better person in the world to potentially be in a King of the Road 2024 match than the current world champion. Let's see him against Mark Briscoe. There's only so much time left to do these things. He's going to enhance the acts of every other member of the roster and potentially make them permanently better wrestlers. He has name value and star power and veteran presence. Use him now in strategic ways while you still can.

At times, the ROH titles serve the broader needs of the company, as they well should. Maybe that grated a little when the Mogul Embassy lost the titles after such a long reign with so many people put up against them (there was a real sense of "Who can beat them?" and then the answer was some top stars from the main roster to serve some other story), but the Kingdom had gone through every team in ROH, some twice. I like the Infantry as much as the next guy (Dean is perfectly solid and Bravo has something special waiting for the right presentation, I think; let's see him as a cocky heel), but they don't really need the belts to serve in their current role. 

This did serve a greater purpose, but not to advance a main roster storyline. The Texas Residency was a success. You got the sense that they were wrestling in front of the same fans week in and week out. Hologram was established. The longrunning ROH feud between Aminata/Velvet and Athena/Billie was paid off. Things were built for All In. And yes, the Von Erichs went from being guests to established players. That meant a celebratory moment at the PPV but also meant a grand finale fireworks spectacular here where, following from the big heat ending of ROH TV (recapped in full for those who had missed it), the rest of the Kingdom and Cage/Gates of Agony ran out only for the babyfaces to come out in force to counter. It created another crazy scene, this time in the match itself as opposed to after it, and gave the fans one last celebratory gesture before the residency ended. These fans deserved cake. Good for Khan to give it to them. Maybe it didn't need to be Sammy, but it did need to be Dustin. I don't think the Kingdom were more or less over for the titles. They're an established act looked upon at a certain level for good or ill. I do think it mattered to those fans in attendance that they got to see something so wild and got to celebrate something that even a month ago would have seemed an impossibility with Dustin. What are the point of the ROH Tag Titles if not to allow for moments like this? What's the point of wrestling if not to create this sort of emotion?

Now bring on Moriarty, Atlantis, and Briscoe. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/5 - 8/11 Part 2

Ring of Honor TV 8/8/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Alex Reynolds/John Silver

MD: I'm tempted to wax poetic for a paragraph about the Problem of Sammy. Let's do it. He's been Lugered/Big Showed, in part due to the Jericho Vortex, and in part due to his own personal situations, and even just the inertia of being a featured guy for five years. It means that maybe he hasn't kept pace with Darby and MJF and even Perry. They kind of tried out the Cole/MJF story with him leading up to the four-way last year but Cole was the one to benefit from him. I don't know if he turns on Dustin or wins the tag titles with him (Dustin holding a bunch of ROH titles and challenging Lee Moriarty in a pure rules match would be amazing but that's beside the point) or what, but coming back as a babyface with a topknot doesn't feel like it's going to work. What would? I have no idea. An excursion? Feud him with Atlantis, Jr. in both settings. Maybe give him the TV Title and instead of having him complain about not getting five star matches backstage, have him defend it week in and week out and give him the sort of "list" that Cassidy in 2022-2023. Regardless, I'm glad it's not a problem I have to solve, because it does feel like a problem.

I praise Reynolds and Silver a lot; a good reason for that, as I've mentioned, is that they're able to somehow instill order upon the "everything breaks down way too early" style of tag team wrestling we've gotten for the last ten+ years in a way almost no one else can. They're also very adaptable. They've been monster heel henchmen, lovable loser underdog babyfaces, pre-show comedy act staples, and now sort of a dangerous mid-card heel act. They don't always do exactly what I'd want them to do, but they are very good at what they do.

I'd call this a studio show main event. Lots of comedy to start with Dustin and Sammy both doing the dive tease/breakdancing/pose. Dustin's comedic timing is great, of course. It was interesting how protected he was as a star when it came to the knee. He was beat down last week; he hurt it again on his own bulldog (he drove the action and reaped the consequence); he then fought off the Dark Order on the floor; Caprice mentions that if he's able to stand up on the apron, then he's ok, and he does; at that very moment, Uno comes in with the chair. Since he was going to take a beating for a while, it was fine, but that's not haphazard. It's calculated and has an effect, conscious or otherwise on the audience. Very canny. When Dustin does get the hot tag, it's entirely based on redirecting Reynolds' own momentum, first over the top and then into the power slam where he really just falls away and turns him. Again, that matters. He's not standing tall and firing back; he's showing the weight of the leg damage and finding another way, as hope does. Sammy was fine here; he works well with Reynolds/Silver, but he's definitely a Problem to be Solved.

Rampage 8/9/24

Darby Allin vs The Butcher

MD: TK's keeping me busy, huh? It's a good problem to have. I'm not sure how to tell you anything you wouldn't already know about this coming in. It was a remarkable match, a remarkable Butcher performance, a remarkable Darby performance. You should watch it if you haven't already. My brain is always going when I watch wrestling. That doesn't mean I'm not connected. That doesn't mean I'm not drawn in. It's part of why I value immersion and suspension of disbelief so much. Here's what I was thinking early on in this one:

Back in the day, old timers used to talk about how the fans knew wrestling was worked but that they wanted to be the one match on the card that made them doubt it. A "Yeah, most of it's fake, but that match maybe wasn't." sort of deal. A modern version of that might be... "Yeah, they work out all the spots in the back, but things went so crazy there that they had to be adapting on the fly!" Something like that. One thing I love about Darby is that he (like an unlikely comparison point, Nick Bockwinkel), as a character, always wants to control the start of his matches; he usually comes in with a bang. Here, he charged right in and got nailed by Butcher's foot. And his mouth started to bleed. Butcher went from slamming him leg first into the ropes to starting to work over that jaw. Darby responded in kind by spitting blood in his face. Savage? Maybe, but I was smiling big at that, drawn in. And yeah part of that is because it felt like an adaptation in the moment, and that, compared to a lot of picture perfect precision counter wrestling, felt more real. It just did. And damn it if that doesn't draw the eye and rouse the heart.

The rest of the match was an absolute mauling. Darby would throw himself at Butcher to try to get an advantage. More often than not, he bounced off. Have you ever played one of those little stick figure physics engines sort of games? It might just be picking up and dropping the figure. It might be sending them on a catapult. That was this match, eyes glued to the screen as Darby's body crashes and burns from every angle and every direction in the most sickening ways possible. A beautiful trainwreck. What was the purpose? I don't know. It made Darby look all the more like a star for winning definitively (yet believably!). It made Butcher look like a force. Maybe they can sneak him onto the All Out card? Maybe he'll be there for the Casino Gauntlet and this will get enough word of mouth that people will check it out. The joy of Darby is that while I still overthink it, he's got me overthinking it in all sorts of different and fun ways. Go track this one down.

Collision 8/10/24

Darby Allin/Hologram vs Tony Nese/Josh Woods

MD: I'm three matches in of Part 2 this week, so let's talk about Hologram. TK's alluded that the specific name/character has been in his head for a long time. Allow me to take a couple of liberties here. My guess is that this guy lived in TK's notebook for decades. Hologram is very much the sort of character that someone would come up with while doodling on the side of a notebook in school. He's the sort of guy who could wrestle alongside Mr. JL or Ciclope or Super Calo. It's a rabbit hole and best to just peek down it a little, but I don't think you can understand AEW without thinking about that notebook. It's sort of the "Rosebud" in this equation to some degree, right? And I am not at all unsympathetic. I'm not far off in age and had my own notebooks with my own very rough character drawings in the corner and lists of people who could be in various imaginary factions (be it a New Dangerous Alliance or different reshuffled X-Men teams). Here, it's especially a boon though, because the character is something pure, and true, and genuine, something that should appeal to kids because maybe, just maybe (I could be wrong!), once upon a time, a kid came up with it. It's anecdotal, and you'd want to follow someone who talks about the business and not just breaks down matches, but I get a sense a lot of WWE's recent success with a younger audience is due to the accessibility and ease of Peacock, the fact that they can just find the footage on their own with a few clicks of their remote. If AEW has some streaming solution upcoming, then similar kids discovering the product are going to find a welcome avatar in Hologram waiting for them.

And as for the rest of us? I liken him to Blitzkrieg in WCW. When he showed up in WCW in 99, it absolutely blew people's minds. It's not that he was doing things that much more spectacular than everyone else (though he was doing things that were just enough different to stand out). No, the bigger thing was that he came out of the blue. We were all smarks on the internet following six news sites, reading Al Issacs and waiting for Yokozuna to join the Hart Foundation (that was a couple of years earlier, but you get the idea). We thought we knew everyone and everything, and if we didn't, then we knew someone who did. We had a network of people following everything out of Mexico and every sleazy indy Japanese promotion. And here was this guy that we couldn't place doing amazing things. The fact that he was unknown to us (teenagers and young adults who felt like we knew everything) was half the appeal. Hologram is a bit of the same. It's not that we weren't aware of Aramis here, or that we didn't have some inkling of his contract issues over the years, but he wasn't on our radar or on the the public radars of the people who we trust when it comes to lucha to come in to AEW with a new character and make a mark. The vignette aired. We got word who he was. He debuted. Sometimes it's just nice to be taken by surprise, even for us, especially for us. 

As for the match itself, it was another great showcase that really gave Hologram an extra bit of rub. Despite being a star (and one with a rocket strapped to him maybe), Darby played face-in-peril and let Hologram be the hero, both coming in to clear house after the hot tag and by getting the cradle win on Woods. Before that, they had a great shine where Darby's quick shots got to pair with Hologram's slick shots and they somehow became even more than the sum of their parts. Just great, great basing by Woods and Nese here (and Sterling/Daivari on the Coffin Drop by Darby to set up the finish). They were everything and everything looked great. Just like Reynolds/Silver, Nese is a guy who never shoots for fame or fortune. He's the opposite of getting his shit in. He's an absolute professional, a total mechanic, willing to stooge and get clowned for the sake of his opponent and the match. He's the least cool heel in the world and so much more valuable for it. And Woods is someone that every time I see him, I wish I'd be able to see him more. This did exactly what it set out to do and the Hologram train rolls on. The trick now is to keep him featured so he's on people's minds every week. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/22 - 5/28 (Part 2)

AEW Double or Nothing 2023

MJF vs Sammy Guevara vs Darby Allin vs Jungle Boy

MD: We're almost a month from DEAN's passing now. I think about him all the time and about how he'd feel about this match or that. I miss his presence IMMEDIATELY after every single pro wrestling show was over, when he'd drop his train of thought, endless paragraph full of all the DEAN-isms you'd want. He was wildly positive, so much so that I kind of hate invoking him at the start of what's going to be a pretty negative write-up, but for all that the DVDVR guys disagreed on, there was one thing all of them, even the big guy, were all sure of: four-way matches are terrible. 

And sorry, but so was this.

Let's pull it back a bit and generalize. Why are these matches terrible? On paper, having more wrestlers in there should lead to more possibilities, more interactions. It should allow for more creative nearfalls due to break-ups, a better ability to hit and protect big moves. There should be different stories you can tell: temporary alliances, betrayals, fighting against the odds, etc. Unfortunately, all of that comes at a price. Wrestling is ultimately subjective. We all know that. Different people value different things. I put a lot on coherence and consequence. I want build and payoff. I want things to resonate and matter. You can only get that build and you can only achieve meaningful payoff if everything matters along the way. You get that resonance, that stickiness, that mattering through struggle and selling, through measured escalation and bringing things up and down and up again, through leaning into certain expectations and inverting others. The thread that runs through any match is suspension of disbelief and the ultimate killer of that is anything that raises a question in the mind of the viewer. If they're wondering why something happened or why something more logical or reasonable or simple didn't happen, then something's gone wrong. Thankfully, wrestlers have a lot of tools in their belt. It's not reality or an assurance of objective truth that guides the viewer but instead those tropes and expectations. It lets them accept an Irish Whip or a head going down for a back body drop, certain aspects of physics. It allows the viewer to accept a lot of things, so long as the execution is sharp enough. 

Not everything though, and any four-way is riddled with contrived moments. The language of pro wrestling tends to be communicated with two people in the ring at the same time. That's how lock-ups work. That's how most holds work. That's how struggle-filled competitive spots work. When you put a third or a fourth person in there, it changes the dynamic. All of the tropes and expectations start to fall apart. The natural state of a four-way is to have people asking "why?" and questioning things that are generally accepted in wrestling. It's not sustainable in the way a double team during a 5 second interval or even things breaking down towards the end of the match in a tag may be. When it's an exceptional state, it can work. When it's the baseline for a match, it becomes far more difficult. Therefore, much of the match is spent figuring out how to get wrestlers out of the picture, how to leave them prone on the outside so it can slip back to a more comfortable one on one engagement. 

Then, you couple that contrived necessity with the need to stress all the inherent possibilities in the most creative ways. What's the point of having a match like this if you don't push the envelope with it, right? That leads to guys waiting around for complex and cooperative multi-man spots for the sake of clever visuals. That's not bad in a vacuum but when you're starting from a point where that all important thread of disbelief being suspended is already frayed, it leads to one "Why" moment after the other, when the answer, more often than not, is that in a match like this, the spots are the point and the creativity is the point. Instead of trying to use the inherent possibilities to create a more compelling narrative end, the possibilities become the point in and of themselves. It means you might get one or two very clever, character driven, logical moments, but they get lost in an overflowing sea of sensation and creativity. 

So, those are the generalities. I don't want to get too into the specifics as this had the deck stacked against it to begin with by the nature of the match itself. What made it worse was the metatextual underpinnings of the specific storyline. You already had the dual-pressures of getting guys out of the match temporarily and the emotional need to push the creativity to the limit. On top of that, the wrestlers weren't necessarily wrestling to win but to prove their own importance and show off their legacy and cement their spot. In a controlled environment, you can still make that work. In a four-way with these specific wrestlers in this specific moment? Even the good things (and there were good things, the best of all being MJF's reactions) were drowned out. Let's just leave it at that. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 5/1 - 5/7

MD: Going to be more words than usual this week. I can't fill any sort of void except for maybe in my own heart but I'm feeling inspired. I know to a lot of people Dean was a sort of distant memory, someone who inspired them years ago or that went to shows or wrote with them. Those stories have meant so much to so many to see. Eric's post was wonderful. To people still on the DVDVR board, however, and there is still a board, and it's a pretty damn good place to talk about wrestling in longer form with more permanence than you can get on twitter or reddit, he was still a fixture. Dean retired a few years ago and started to watch every bit of televised wrestling and drop a sprawl of text immediately after it finished. It was distilled DEAN and an essential daily part of my life even just two weeks ago. Go click on this and read some of his posts over the last few months; you'll be glad you did. 

As for AEW, I said I might shift to covering a the webshows a bit more and what they do? Kill the webshows. If it's really because their TV partners didn't want them pushing content out on YouTube and if it speaks to the strength of that relationship, great. I'm really going to miss Dark and Elevation though. Elevation especially was how I got into AEW the most in late summer and early fall of 2021. Squashes and competitive mid-card matches with no commercials or time constraints or even plot progression built up my connection to wrestlers unfamiliar to me, and there were a lot. I get that you don't want to put squashes on TV and I get that sometimes these extra matches wore out crowds, but at its best, it allowed wrestlers to experiment, to get reps, to figure out what worked and what didn't and let crowds see certain stars (the Matt Hardys of the world), pop for their entrances and themes and signature moves, even when they weren't going to be on the main show. It gave us an Emi Sakura or Nyla Rose tag week after week after week after week and they were all a blast. It let the Acclaimed figure out how to be the Acclaimed or the Gunns figure out how to be the Gunns and let Athena as hard as one could go during one night in Canada and suddenly become one of the the best things in wrestling. I'm not sure how things will shake out in the months to come, if Rampage will serve this purpose more and if we'll get that itch scratched with the ROH studio tapings or if extra matches even end up on Bleacher Report, but I'll miss goofy rookie Elevation commentary from Wight and Menard (and Eddie Kingston for a while there!) and even goofier expert Dark commentary from Excalibur and Taz. I hope we see the return of Super Strong Suplex Machine sooner than later.

AEW Dynamite 5/3

Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia/Jake Hager/Angelo Parker/Matt Menard) vs Orange Cassidy/Bandido/Adam Cole/Roderick Strong

MD: Nice big 8 man tag with a lot of little story beats. It's nice to see Strong outside of the WWE system again where he can feel like a big deal. That's part of the joy of AEW. I don't usually have a ton to say about Cole. My main takeaway on him is that he's been woefully miscast as a heel forever. The fans want to cheer him. They want to cheer his song. He has the offense of a scrappy babyface. He has the size of a scrappy babyface. I've seen him in interviews say that it's not an issue because he gets the fans to boo him during the match, but I honestly don't think that has played out in practice, at least not in AEW. This feels fresh. They played up the relationship between Cassidy and Cole but never really did anything with it unfortunately. The only sign of anything off at all was Bandido tagging Cole by slapping him on the back.

I liked how the match turned on the caught dive on Cassidy (with Garcia coming out nowhere with a knee to the back). I like Cole getting taken out when he went for Jericho at first opportunity; in general, even with him getting to tag with Strong again, he portrayed a certain intensity from his entrance to his first big boot, to the finish and both charges up the ramp. The buried what I was looking forward to the most in the commercial break, but 2.0 feeding and stooging for Orange Cassidy was a ton of fun as you'd expect, as was the suplex spots with Bandido. Garcia was a glorious jerk during the beat down on Cassidy, walking over him repeatedly and stepping on the ankle to prevent him getting away. Everyone got to get something in down the stretch. I'm looking forward to Strong against any of these guys and certainly to Hager vs Bandido if they ever want to run that, but Garcia is a top potential AEW Cassidy opponent and they're running that next week.

Darby Allin/Jungle Boy vs MJF/Sammy Guevara

MD: I don't think anyone would say that this main event angle has been a total success, though people can definitely appreciate that they're taking this swing and trying to elevate the pillars like this. What has worked, more than anything else, has been the MJF/Sammy pairing. In fact, given that we're still weeks from the PPV, it's a shame they've gone away from it here. I wouldn't mind if they go back to it at some later point. They were full on Heavenly Bodies/Too Cool here, full of themselves, congratulating one another, constantly jawing (including with the crowd during the commercial break to get big heat), constantly posturing. I would have liked some dumb simplistic double teams but I was ultimately happy with what we got, including the assisted abdominal stretch and Hollywood Blonds' terrible towel with Max's scarf.

Darby and Jungle Boy hit everything clean and played face-in-peril well enough, though the focus was really on the heel antics instead of the come back attempts. It's a bit like seeing Jarrett again. AEW's tag scene has had such a focus on big spots and cut off near falls that bullshit like this is fresh and really stands out. I liked Jungle Boy as a hot tag. We saw him so long with Luchasaurus where he didn't get to play that role. And Sammy looked amazing taking the tiger driver and code red, almost as good as I've ever seen either taken, which was impressive in such quick succession. Max's convoluted killshot looked great too, though he'd probably be better served with something way more simplistic that is just put over as deadly due to superior execution or some such. The finish with MJF and Sammy hitting moves but the other wanting the pin contrasted Darby tagging himself in but to hit a move and then go for the pin instead, making the babyfaces look somewhat more respectable while still playing into the animosity between them and pushing the 4-way to come. I have no idea what Khan has planned between now and May 28 but hopefully it's even more entertaining than the Sammy/MJF pairing; that feels like a bit of a high bar to clear though.

AEW Rampage 5/5

Lucha Bros/Hijo del Vikingo vs QTV (Powerhouse Hobbs/QT Marshall/Aaron Solo)

MD: Figured I'd give this some time too. There are a lot of different possible structures and narratives in pro wrestling. It doesn't have to be shine/heat/comeback. As long as there's a narrative throughline and things have weight and matter, as long as they have some semblance of build and payoff, you can do a lot of different things. Some stories are easier to tell than others. Some are more natural. Some require less work on the viewer. And, it's valid to occasionally just do a your move/my move fireworks spotfest so long as it's driven by a purpose on the card and it doesn't have a negative impact on it. Even then, however, I tend to find that last option limiting. If you pull back just a little on that, if you just take a breath and think things through, you can still hit a lot of those spots but underpin them with a more compelling narrative. Doing that will only make the spots feel more impressive and compelling because there'll be something providing them with actual substance. It's almost always additive if done well and smartly. The best wrestling is when people combine working smart and working hard, when you have both "workrate" and narrative, when one is the means and the other is the end.

So often with the Lucha Bros, I see a heck of a lot of means and not a lot of end. That's most especially true when they're up against similar opponents with similar mindsets. They try to go over the top and in doing so end up completely untethered. It pops the crowd in the moment but you end up remembering spots and moments, not the match as a whole.

One of the great things about AEW is the WAR-like nature of the potential pairings. You'll see Lucha Bros and Vikingo against the most logical guys in the world (let's say Rush and Dralistico) but you'll also see them here against QT, Hobbs, and Solo, three guys with wildly different skillsets. After a bit of posturing, QT took all of Vikingo's flashy stuff. I'll admit I had mixed feelings about his basing. In general, we applaud wrestlers for getting into positions on dives and saving the spot and their opponent. That's outside of the ring; when it happens in the ring however, it always feels a little dodgier. That was the case with the implosion 'rana. QT rushing to position made it feel more impactful but also poked at the suspension of disbelief just a tad. Still, it felt novel for him to be taking all the offense instead of someone like Kommander or Gringo Loco. There's value in that sort of dissonance too. Then Hobbs came in and just shut everything down. Solo is a 14 year vet 34 year old still trying to find his way but he can hit stuff clean and is pretty punchable, so it's not like he's a bad hand to have in there and to follow up Hobbs' stuff with a bunch of annoying offense to get under the crowd's skin. The built through the commercial break to the comeback and went into a finishing stretch. That's where we got the dives and the real bombs and because of the anticipation everything felt bigger than it would have if they were just escalating and escalating through spot after spot after spot. Speaking of escalating, I'm glad we didn't get the 630 through the table here. That shouldn't be an every match move, even if it's teased every match. It's one of the biggest spots in the promotion and they should only use it when it really matters, not against QT on a Rampage with a weird time spot. It was ok to do it a couple of times early to establish it but now keep it in the pocket so that when it happens, it means as much as humanly possible and that it also doesn't devalue other big dives and spots people do across the promotion. The finish felt a little abrupt to me but ultimately worked; Hobbs was distracted. Why was Hobbs distracted? Because he was choking Abrahantes and that's the best reason to lose a match I can think of.

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