AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 3/10 - 3/16

ROH 3/13/25

Gates of Agony (Toa Liona/Bishop Kaun)/Top Flight (Dante/Darius Martin) vs Frat House (Preston Vance/Cole Karter)/Premier Athletes (Ariya Daivari/Tony Nese)

MD: Different matches have different purposes. Different wrestlers in different matches have different goals. Greatness comes in a lot of forms and not all of them are well captured by star ratings. While I don't have a taping schedule in front of me, this was filmed in Oakland with a Collision and I'm almost certain it came on post-show as part of an ROH taping that ended with a Mistico trios. ROH is very much wrestling for wrestling's sake, a way to fill out cards, give people work and reps (develop talent), to create a well of extra content in a post-Elevation/Dark/Rampage world, to build up a product which may be more lucrative/marketable at some point. I think it brings TK some joy, both because of his affection for the brand and because it lets him put together matches without any external constraints (commercials, demos, network notes, etc.). For me, it harkens back to being a kid in the 90s and watching Power Hour or Worldwide or Prime Time (or later on Velocity/Heat/Jakked). The big story beats weren't going to happen there, but you'd get to just watch an hour of wrestling and enjoy it just for what it was. I think there's a disconnect with people who didn't grow up with that maybe.

Anyway, for the crowd that hangs around, it gives them an added bonus, just fun wrestling, to a degree 'house show wrestling' during a time where there are very few house shows. That's absolutely what this was, and if you look at the broad history of pro wrestling, this has its place and its value and it's honestly a really worthy entry along those lines. I am so glad a match like this is still allowed to exist in 2025, a match anchored by incredibly giving, unlikable heels, 100% willing to do their job as opposed to trying to make it about themselves, and two very diverse, very talented babyface teams, with one absolute shining star at the heart of it all in Toa Liona. 

Let's talk structure quickly so you know how they put this together, and then I'll double back to that thought. Match started with chaos as Gates came down and Toa beelined to Cole Karter (with Kaun going after Vance). Daivari pulled Dante's hair to drag him to the corner and we got a mini FIP early. Eventually, Dante made it to the corner (Karter the weak link) and they ran a sequence where everyone slingshotted in on him one after the other, with Toa being the last, after really milking it; after he did it (to big reaction), he had the biggest smile on his face; more on that later too. With some chicanery, the heels were able to isolate Darius on the floor (including some cheapshots from the associated managers and hangers oners, Sterling and Jameson, ultimately broken up by Toa rushing around ringside with a chair to a big pop). From there, we entered into a second FIP on Darius, during which the fans chanted that they wanted Toa and Dante, reading the room, hyped that idea from the apron (which, given that his brother was getting beat on was pretty selfless in serving the match when you think about it). Darius finally came back for the hot tag and everything went into a wild finishing stretch.

I don't usually do this, but I think everyone should go check out the climax of that wildness and the finish itself. I clipped it because people needed to see it and I'd like everyone (and I mean everyone, even if you've seen it before, even if you helped conceive it) to go and take a look and then come back so we can close this out. Sound on is better, but even sound off will give you the idea. Just do it.

https://x.com/MattD_SC/status/1901244037081788581

This misses Kaun (a surprisingly natural babyface) shutting down everyone and hitting a poetry in motion leap and maybe another dive or two from the assembled mass of talent, but it gives you what I need you to see. First we have Toa using Dante as a weapon twice, both to kick at an opponent and then by press slamming him into everyone; great emotive reactions by Dante here. If the two weren't so ingrained in their obvious partnerships, I could see real money in a big/little tag team between the two of them. Obviously the crowd loved that.

But then Toa just... dropped the chain, broke through the limiters, and for about a minute looked like the biggest attraction imaginable, slapping the ground, charging up, looking for prey, and absolutely bursting through everyone in sight on the floor, all leading to him hesitating only slightly as Sterling got in the way before plowing right through him and send him careening into Nese (great work all around by everyone). The crowd went wild, even here for an (on paper) disposable post-show ROH match with absolutely no stakes. And yes, it was a good crowd, absolutely, but there was magic in what they did. And it was magic that all came to fruition as Toa rolled back into the ring and slammed the mat again, his gaze set on the last man standing in Preston Vance. 

As Toa was slapping the mat, as the post-Collision fans were going nuts for him hyping them up, there was the biggest smile on his face. Toa portrays a wild man, a bestial presence, a throwback to decades past, a killing machine, but my god, that smile. This was a guy absolutely living in the moment, basking in the crowd's excitement and adulation, realizing the sheer joy that he, through his presence and physicality brought into the world for at least those in attendance and living his very best life. You can't fabricate that smile. You can't bottle it and sell it. It was an honestly beautiful thing during a time where we need as many honestly beautiful things that we can get. And of course, that made it all the better when he had his leg grabbed from the outside and Vance (who has a history of robbing people of joy) cut him down with a very credible clothesline before the Gates fired back and won the thing. 

Sometimes wrestling is just special and it doesn't always have to be two guys leaping off the top of the cage or wrestlers bleeding buckets. Sometimes it can just be one wrestler using everything at his disposal without hesitation or abandon, just embracing all of the complicated absurdities and simple blissful truths of pro wrestling and everyone around him being selfless and giving and professional in enabling that moment. That's what they had here. The crowd in Oakland was lucky to see it. We were lucky to see it on ROH TV last week. And hopefully, now all of you reading this that went back and clicked on that link feel like you're lucky to have seen it too. I know I feel that 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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2023 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby/Orange vs. Gates of Agony

 

7. Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs. Toa Liona/Bishop Kaun AEW Dynamite 5/31

ER: Yeah, I'm pretty in the bag for Darby Allin matches and I can't see what can drag me out of the bag at this point. I was a huge Spike Dudley fan and that was without Spike running as fast and hard into his opponents as possible. Spike sprinted headlong into danger like few else, while Darby does exactly the same, somehow endures the punishment, then throws his own body as a weapon. He is weapon and he is a projectile and he has the ability to be thrown so hard that I can only watch captivated while not thinking of a day where his body while suddenly shatter into a million pieces. Darby Allin is a supernova who will explode into stardust while doing something stupid like getting pounced out of the air on a tope en reversa or being dropped back first onto the top turnbuckle. Nobody gets blown up like Darby, nobody offers as much of himself in recompense, nobody but Darby has issue taking as much punishment during his opponents' swarms as during his own triumphs. Imagine if Ricky Morton had also murdered himself during his end of match comebacks, or if Spike Dudley's matches had finished not with a cooperative bulldog but with him throwing his own body even more violently into his opponent than they had just been throwing him. 

I liked Bishop Kaun's match against Dustin a couple weeks before this, but I liked it because I thought it was Another Excellent Dustin Match where he bled a ton for no real reason on a B-show and thought Kaun could have been just as well have been 50 other guys on the roster. It was a Dustin match and Kaun was interchangeable. Here, with two smaller opponents, Kaun and Toa looked exactly like the monsters they're championed as. They leaned in for all of Darby's blows and because of the size difference, Darby got to hit them as hard as possible. Darby is fearless, and the sequences where he slaps Toa across the face and then pays for that for the next couple minutes is key to everything. Kaun whipping Darby into railings while Toa sprints around the ring to upend OC, running almost so hard that he nearly flies into the crowd himself; later you can see Darby running full speed back and forth into the corners to send all his weight into these beasts, and you can see the rag in their faces as they get suckered into running after him just as hard. I love moments like Darby using an Irish whip to knock Kaun off the apron, even though it slows him down enough to leave him prone for a nasty Toa hip attack. 

The timing of everything was  - and seemingly always is - so good when Darby is in there directing traffic with his adamantium skeleton. The way he smacks Toa around with back elbows and ducks a big swinging arm just in time for OC to hit the Orange Punch, allowing Darby to hit his cannonball tope which is now so expected that it's almost easy to forget how much of an all time great tope it is. I remember buying a lucha tape and seeing Black Warrior hit a tope so hard that it flipped him upside down on collision, making the tope read like a car crash with the physics causing the elements to fly off into their own trajectories. Darby's topes always look like a man was trying to sneak through a more-red-than-yellow light and getting t-boned, and Darby is the world's most durable Yugo. 

Also, as someone who used to not be amused in any way by Orange Cassidy, he is one of my favorite babyfaces now. I get excited to hear Starship, I give a thumbs up with my thumb barely extended, and I flipped out for how hard he crashed onto his tailbone while hitting Stun Dog, holding Toa in place for a code red. I am a full on OC Guy now. That said, he's even better when Darby is the one setting up the timing of the misdirections. Darby just makes everyone stronger. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST

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

AEW Dynamite 6/14

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

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

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

AEW Collision 6/17

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

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

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

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

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/29 - 6/4

AEW Dynamite 5/31

Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs. Gates of Agony

MD: This had a few masters to serve. It followed right after the massive heatseeking segment with Callis and Takeshita so you had to bring the crowd back to reality with something that balanced heat with big spots and a fun finish. They were rebuilding Darby after he took the pin in the 4-way at the PPV. They were hyping up the big house show draw of the Darby/Cassidy team. They were continuing the story of Cassidy going through a lot of pain and here doubling down on it with Swerve's heaters (they're all heaters for swerve really). 

I liked the Dustin vs. Kaun match but I think this worked better. Here, Kaun didn't have to look up at his opponent which let him tap into just a bit more intensity and come off like a beast. I liked the bit where, once they took advantage off of Toa's pounce, Kaun rushed punctuated the transition to heat by pulling Cassidy in from the outside and taking him out. Toa, of course, always comes off like a beast. Except for in out of character interviews, where he comes off like the best guy. Someday, he'll be a huge babyface. Here, he was a monster. I liked how Darby and Cassidy didn't try all of their signature spots early. That's the house style, to try the familiar things, have them blocked, have them pay off later in the match. They did hit them early in the match but due to the unique qualities of the Gates, they got shut down trying even basic stuff early. It gave things a different feel and really put over the Kaun and Toa. It was a nice balance where Cassidy and Darby did some things that they could only do with larger opponents and Kaun and Toa did some things that could best be done with smaller ones. Nothing was forced or contrived based on spots that anyone felt like they had to get in. I know some people might complain but I'd certainly be happy to see this specific match up with a couple thousand other people in a C-town. 

Speaking of House Rules, as of the writing of this, there were only three matches fancammed and uploaded from the weekend shows. They're all worth watching. Ruby and Britt had a hilarious bit where Ruby tried to explain to Bryce that the spraypaint was for her hair. Lethal had to go far, far out of his way to get the fans to turn on him. And Caster found the best kid to do Bowens' part after having an exaggerated house show work the leg match with heel trainer Pat Buck. They're definitely working these differently than on TV and they're worth going out of your way to find. Hopefully whenever a streaming deal hits, we get to see all of these.

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