AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/8 - 6/14

ROH TV 6/11/26

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs The Workhorsemen

Punch in. Knock out.

That's the creed of the Workhorsemen. It's built into their name. Carpenters. Good hands. Guys you want to anchor your card. Solid. Unshakable. They'll give anyone a tough match. Can credibly beat any other team on any night. Do work that anyone would be proud of. 

So that's on one side. On the other? Eddie Kingston and Ortiz. Eddie's here in ROH not to give back, not to teach, not to train, not help even, but to give the young lions of the company someone to push off against, someone to show heart against. 

That's well and good for Billington, for Price and Oliver, for Cole Karter or Griff Garrison. 

Not JD Drake. Not Anthony Henry. They've been punching in and out for years and they've seen one kid after the other get the fame, the fortune, the recognition, the opportunities. Life happens. It's happened to both of them. Maybe if things had gone a little different, one of them would have been the Continental Champ, the ROH champ, would have gotten Ortiz' chance to shine. Eddie fought for what he had. Ortiz made the most out of opportunities. But they would have too. 

Do they whine? No. Do they quit? Never. They keep punching in. They keep knocking out. They keep fighting. Maybe there's a chip on their shoulder, but given how they use it, that's a good thing.

This was just a really good mid card tv tag. The characters and the expertise drove it. That chip on the shoulder? They found the middle ground between that driving everything and classic tag team knowhow. For the latter, Ortiz especially was so good at being in the right place at the right moment for the right effect. I wasn't a huge fan of the Ortiz/Santana combo because it was a little too much of the same, maybe a little cute when it came to some of the tandem offense, but you put him in with contrast, and so much of what was great about that team gets to shine without any distractions.

Then you put him against the Workhorsemen who excel at controlling the ring and creating opportunities both for themselves and their opponents and then making the most of the former and cutting off the latter, and it just works exactly like it's supposed to. Maybe more than anything else, I love how they created time for one another. Henry would hang on against an opponent just long enough for Drake to recover and assert himself. Drake would just do the same, biding time until Henry was in the right spot so he could push his opponent into their corner for a trip. There's an element of trust and understanding that most teams never quite reach, but when you see it in practice, it's a special sort of magic.

And then Eddie was there to add the spice and, despite what the Workhorsemen might want, to be someone for them to push off of. Certainly Drake did, jawing, chopping, slamming into Eddie. Henry did as well, going so far as to throw a bunch of Kawada kicks just to make him angry. Then, when it came time for the comeback, one that was very much earned through missed tags and drawn refs and other Southern tricks, he came in like the folk hero he is, chopping away and giving everyone grief (most of all himself, like always), before a leapfrog from Ortiz set Henry up for the DDT.

Just a really good way to spend twelve minutes. Yeah, there are tag team belts stranded in Mexico right now, but this was pro wrestling for the sake of it, guys fighting for pride, fighting because the bell rings and they're faced off against each other, fighting because they're wrestlers and pro wrestlers wrestle, and we, as pro wrestling fans, watch them wrestle. Hell of an arrangement we have here. 

I don't get a lot of feedback out here. That's part of why I post on Twitter now too. Even then, I don't get a ton. But I did get sent a post a year or two ago on BlueSky where someone said that not everything needed a thinkpiece or a review of 1000+ words, that, in this case, Rhino vs Manders didn't and that it just diluted everything. Now, of course, I was going to write earnestly and honestly about a DEAN match, but I think it's something worth poking at.

Pro wrestling criticism, writing about pro wrestling, is fairly underdeveloped. I don't think what I do is honestly all that great relatively. I do my best but this is a hobby. It's just a sparse ecosystem.  In a world where the bones have been picked for years and years, I don't think anyone would need me. Wrestling isn't like that. Most of the writing has gone to the best, most lauded, most canonical stuff. You can probably read a decent amount about Flair vs Steamboat. You probably can't read a ton about 1981 German footage. You also probably can't read a ton about a mid-card match from 1993. 

You can probably read a lot about Okada vs Tanahashi from January. You probably won't read a lot of people thinking about Workhorsemen vs Eddie Kingston/Ortiz tag from ROH. But there is beauty to be found in this. I don't know how many stars someone might give it. 3 and a half? The show itself has 7 votes and a 5.something on Cagematch. But limiting yourself to canonical five star matches misses so much of what makes pro wrestling amazing. 

I think there's plenty of joy to be found in the crates, in the trenches, in the margins. It's work looking fir the greatness in the smaller moments and even a sort of craftsmanship and serenity in moments that aren't conventionally great. 

These four are so good at what they do and what they do has value and worth. So long as you open your heart to it, it will make you feel something and isn't that what this is all about? These are complex characters who have lived full lives and that can not just distill that not just through promos, but in their ringwork itself. They played with the conventions of the form, remixing and refracting complex emotions through it. There is room for it in this world. The world (of pro wrestling but in general) is better off for it. And to me, that's absolutely worth writing about.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/17 - 11/23

AEW Full Gear 2025 11/22/25

Darby Allin vs PAC

MD: There were people that questioned why this needed to be on the PPV when it was announced. On paper, maybe it was just a good match for the sake of being a good match, the sort of thing that has been used for years now to fill out AEW PPVs and tilt those Observer Thumbs Up and Cagematch ratings. And maybe that would have been enough. But there was more at play here.

Darby came in literally hot, having been burned by PAC (or more accurately put through a burning table by him, with Gabe Kidd's help) at Blood & Guts. But this is a Darby that had come down from Everest, one that's at peace with himself. He came in hot but he used that heat to fuel a wrestling machine. He didn't fly in with strikes but instead with headlock takeovers. The purpose of this was twofold. First, PAC had come in saying that they were going to wrestle a clean match and the better man would win. By outwrestling him early, Darby would hurt PAC more than any single punch to the face. More than that though, Darby was bandaged up. He had to wrestle conservatively, even if aggressively. While he had the luxury, he wouldn't use his own body as a weapon.

That luxury wouldn't last long. After barely escaping a makeshift Scorpion Deathlock attempt, PAC was able to catch him on the apron and press slam him to the floor. What followed was a brutal heat section where they did a great job mixing up big bumps/moves (that press slam, though that was a transition, Darby's absolutely brutal bump past the corner to the floor, even the neck-first catapult into the bottom rope) with PAC being a malicious maniac, tearing off the bandages and giving Darby an Indian burn. Everything came together for the latter: Darby's distorted skin, the way the bandage flew through the air, the look of exultation on PAC's face and agony on Darby's, how shocked and horrified the commentators were. It got as big a reaction from the crowd as both of Darby's huge bumps. 

Anything in pro wrestling can matter so long as it's presented correctly and much, much more effort should be made in making small things like this matter as much as possible. Not only is it safer and more varied than big bump after big bump, but it also allows those bumps, if framed correctly, to mean even more through escalation. The proof is in the audience reaction here (and yes, they did go up even higher as Darby crashed through the corner).

Darby mounted a comeback by catching PAC in the apron (and the sense of struggle here was great; PAC was desperate to get out in a way that others in that rare spot often aren't), setting him up for a dive and then a gnarly dropkick from the top to PAC seated on the floor in a chair. 

Darby was obviously hurting and PAC presents himself successfully as one of the best in the world, so they would go back and forth from there. PAC was able to catch Darby off the ropes turning a Coffin Splash into a suplex. He was unable to put him away with the Brutalizer though. Darby was able to get out of the way of a Black Arrow and it looked like he was going to put PAC away with the Scorpion Deathlock.

But there was a plan for this. The Death Riders have quit a little too much lately (even if it's almost all been on the head of their leader). PAC had vowed that this would be a fair fight, that the best man would win. So in some ways, he'd already lost when Wheeler Yuta rushed up to the apron to distract Darby and the ref, and doubly so, when he used the bat to knock Darby out. But moral victories don't exist in the record books, only wins and losses. 

And later on when Moxley faced O'Reilly there was a plan as well. Once it was clear that O'Reilly had an answer for every bit of wrestling Moxley could throw at him, Marina handed Mox the fork and he used it to take over. The plan worked for PAC. The plan only failed in the Casino Gauntlet because Matt Menard chose to punish Garcia and run him off instead of trying to win the National Title. The Plan here worked right up until the point it didn't, until the point where Moxley, having broken Kyle's arm, still managed to tap out to a chain reinforced ankle lock. Maybe he went back and finished the job after the match but even if he won the war, he lost the battle, and in this case, the battle was more important than the war. 

So yes, Darby vs PAC was great, but it wasn't just a great match for the sake of having great matches. There was a grudge coming in and it was worked to that. More importantly, it set the stage, through a begrudging plan of the Death Riders coming to fruition, for Mox vs O'Reilly where a similar plan, unveiled far sooner and far more desperately, nonetheless failed. That contrast hangs over Moxley like his own personal Sword of Damocles, just waiting to fall.

AEW Full Gear 2025 Collision Tailgate Brawl 11/22/25

Eddie Kingston/Hook vs Workhorsemen

MD: It's amazing what you can do in two minutes. Look, I'm not going to say anyone should or shouldn't have done whatever they did or didn't do. We never have the full story and it's always complicated and we do far too much speaking up on matters that we're just blind men touching elephants on.

What I can speak on, however, is this match. They had two minutes, less than two minutes according to cagematch (just 1:48). But the Workhorsemen punched in and showed what they could do. They ambushed Hook and Eddie on the way down. Drake took Eddie out, and that's the way things have been for Kingston as he builds up his fighting strength from match to match. That meant they had Hook isolated and though he tried to fire back off the ropes or out of the corner, they went to work. 

That meant hitting their signature flurry of a Drake apron clothesline, the Henry headtwist, and Drake flying in with a slingshot somersault senton. Hook was finally able to get out of the way causing a bit of miscommunication and then launching Henry. By then Eddie was recovered and he did the same to Drake setting the stage to hit a quick DDT out of nowhere and scoring the win. 

But in two minutes the Workhorsemen, professional as can be, got a spotlight to show that they could take the initiative, knock Hook around the ring, and hit some polished, brutal offense on the guy who was going to be the hingepoint of the PPV's main event. No small thing even for two men who are very, very good at what they do.

ROH TV 11/20/25

Athena vs Harley Cameron (Ported: https://x.com/MattD_SC/status/1991866317486555505)

Throughout the years, we've created a critical system of reviewing and ranking matches that's based on things like action, execution, big spots, and exciting finishing stretches.

It often leaves more performative elements behind. These would include facial reactions, body language, character driven creative choices, and yeah, even selling. 

In fact, over the years, matches that lean too hard on some of these elements tend to be judged by some as unfortunate because they can "negatively impact the action" and make it so a match isn't considered as conventionally great as it might have been if the wrestlers had just been allowed to go hard and lean into workrate instead.

A recent review I saw of Demolition vs Brainbusters from SNME 21, a match that trades workrate for a clever and consistent story of Demolition getting increasingly frustrated leading to a DQ, comes to mind.

Along these lines, some of Jon Moxley's recent performances where he's been leaning hard into the role of a mad king who saw his pro wrestling kingdom crumbling, a man who claimed to stand for things but was slowly being revealed as an emperor with no clothes, an animal with his back against the wall desperate for victory, for revenge, but forced to look himself in the mirror and see a coward, quitter, and hypocrite, have been excellent.

But there are different lanes for different sorts of performances, and I think there's no one as good in the world right now at letting her character drive her physicality and matches as Athena. 

That was evident in her 11/20 ROH TV title match against Harley Cameron. 

Despite being champion for over 1000 days, she came in on her back foot, having been pinned by Harley in the tag tournament (albeit after eating Willow's doctor bomb).

That was maddening for Athena (the character) for multiple reasons. First, she and Mercedes were a sort of super team and they were defeated in the first round. Second, she's been pinned only a handful of times in the last few years. Third, there's a massive difference in hierarchy and experience between Athena and Harley. Harley's treated as plucky and determined, hard-working and fiery, but also as an upstart underdog and often as a comedy act.

That gave Athena a ton to work with but it meant shaping the match and her performance around this mentality as opposed to shooting to have the most exciting, spot filled match possible.

She came out to the ring without her usual celebratory fanfare, scowling instead. She offered a normal handshake instead of her usual left handed princess dangle. Then she ran right in, impatient and irritated, charging into Harley's armdrags. That Harley's execution wasn't perfect only added fuel to the fire here.

When Athena took over, she was constantly distracted. At times, after her running punch in the corner or when putting on a hold, she'd start to unveil her usual grin only for reality to hit and the scowl to return. Just when she started to relax and enjoy herself, the fans began clapping up Harley and she became irate. She jawed back with them, delusionally claiming that they were taunting Harley and not her. 

The match was built around Athena's character-driven mistakes (rushing in, losing her cool, being distracted by the crowd, trying to use Harley's own finisher) creating openings for Harley in order to counteract the hierarchal differences. It demanded absolute consistency from Athena in both what she did and in how she did it. It demanded selling that's far more complex and nuanced than remembering to limp now and again, a selling of the soul. 

These performances tend not to earn stars, but they move hearts and minds. And in 2025, Athena is as good at them as anyone.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/27 - 6/2

ROH TV 5/23/24

Workhorsemen vs Angelico/Serpentico

MD: We've got no Fingers of Death active this week and it's going to be a little bleak for a while with Kingston out. The fifth one is eternally floating and there are various people that will get rotated in there like Christian and Rush and Athena, but today, we're playing moneyball with the Workhorsemen and friends.

Anthony Henry is right off of an ill-timed jaw injury and a sort of a strange journey of being gone and being back and you can tell that he was rearing to get back in the game. JD Drake is the very definition of a DVDVR/Segunda Caida guy and I'm happy for whatever focus he gets. These ROH matches really do buck a lot of the current AEW criticism. They're closer to ten minutes than twenty, not stretched out by a commercial break, and very often, you don't know coming in who's going to win. There was just as much chance that Angelico and Serpentico took this as the Workhorsemen. And given that Workhorsemen won this, just as much chance that they were going to win as Top Flight in the match covered next.  

While the comeback was a lot of fun, my favorite part here was the opening exchanges. Where the Workhorsemen excel most is enabling their opponents to really be the best versions of themselves possible. They're versatile, contrasting in size and shape and style. Drake's excellent at knowing when to give and when not to give. Here he was matched up with Angelico and combined one or two slick and smooth little counters with jamming Angelico on a trip, only to miss a senton a moment later to put himself off balance for Angelico to actually hit. He was able to be there for Angelico so he could hit some of his more tricked out stuff but not make it look overly collaborative either. Then Henry and Serpentico did an extended tit-for-tat exchange that veered just far enough away from looking choreographed to work even though it was all done at high speed with everything hitting. Then, as the crowd was cheering, Henry nailed a cheapshot to take over and start the heat. Maybe it's because he appreciates the roar of the crowd and the thirll of the action more than ever post-injury but he was really living in the moment in these matches, pumped up and gloating during the spaces in-between. He's always a "hit it clean" guy but he was projecting for the last row in the best way in these. They made it seem like Angelico and Serpentico were going to take this before Maria's guys came out for the distraction, but that's part of the Workhorsemen's strength as well, making it all believable not matter what 'it' needs to be.

ROH TV 5/30/24

Workhorsemen vs Top Flight

MD: More of them enabling their opponents to be their absolute best. That meant that Dante was bounding off of Drake's back or leaping over and under and in between the ropes with Henry on a hook for a big move. It meant that Darius was able to storm in after the hot tag as scrappy and gritty and fiery as can be, with big and broad canvases to attack. Darius has pretty snappy punches in a world where no one's doing punches anymore and he stands out even next to his own brother because of it; that said, you couldn't overly fault Dante's rapid-fire forearms right into Henry's recently injured jaw.

And in between those moments, when it was time to grind down on Dante, the Workhorsemen kept things moving while being oppressive and interesting at the same time. Drake's took full advantage of Dante's jumping ability in the transition to heat as he pressed him up against the ropes and smashed him on the outside. It's a move that always looks great and effective, that was especially so here, and that is used at varying times in the match by Drake, but I'm actively glad it didn't show up in the Angelico/Serpentico match because while it can be a 75% of the time move, it really shouldn't be an every match one. It's too unique and conditional for that. This had just the right balance for a competitive mid-card TV match that could have gone either way, the sort of thing people occasionally lament is missing these days.

AEW Collision 6/1/24

Workhorsemen vs Daniel Garcia/Katsuyori Shibata

MD: Got to admit that it seemed like a nice neat way to do it this week. Three Workhorsemen matches over two weeks. Three very different sets of opponents. I didn't know that JD's leg was going to go out here putting a bit of a damper on all of this.

That said, it makes for a completely different sort of watching experience, right? It's 2024. When you peel back why we watch wrestling, old wrestling, new wrestling, it doesn't matter, it's not the same as why and how someone might have been watching it in 64 or 84. A lot of the time when I watch matches, I already know who goes over, right? I want to see the journey. I want to see it play out. I want to see the creative choices and how they're executed. I want to see if they zig in the way I want them to zig or zag in a way that I'd never seen before. I want to see them take the old structures and overlay new bits of execution. I want to see them tug at those most human emotions like only wrestling can do in ways both classic and novel.

Rarely do you really, truly connect with who you're watching though. When you do, it's special. It's like watching a perfect game in baseball a little bit, right? That butterfly in your stomach feeling where you don't want to jinx it. You want them to hit the landing. You think to yourself "man, if this thing just has the right finish and they make it the rest of the way..." I'll admit to watching some 2023-2024 Danielson matches and thinking to myself "I hope he's ok," but then he's been a jerk like that (and has landed on his head errantly a few times too).

Where I'm going here is that shortly into this one, JD Drake messed up his leg or his foot. They could have went home. They persisted. He could have stayed on the apron and had Anthony Henry work the lion's share of it. That would have been a pretty tough sell overall though. For a minute, it seemed like they might go that route, that we might have actually gotten something of a heel-in-peril structure for good or ill. Truth be told, they needed JD in there to shut Garcia down, to turn the tide, to justify a team of two killers like Shibata and Garcia getting dragged under.

Shibata and Garcia are like a modern day Raging and Ravishing, except for Shibata is more cold steel than hot fire and Garcia has a ton of steak to go along with the sizzle. When it happened and they were checking on Drake, Shibata dropped down into his pose and after a moment, Garcia did the same. Then we got that extra bit with Garcia and Henry, with Garcia hitting his new triple twisting neckbreakers (with a Henry heelbutt in the middle to keep it interesting), before Drake came in and asserted himself. The guy could barely walk but he is such a presence and an imposing figure that he could control the center of the ring with sheer gravitational force. Garcia created motion and movement by coming towards him and he powered through and did the rest.

There were moments in the back half where you maybe looked twice or wondered at something feeling just a bit off. Shibata has a great way of making his violence look natural, of just walking over and getting a shot in as opposed to setting up a complex spot (the world's big enough for both approaches), but some of those Tenryu tribute shots looked a bit hesitant which might have had to do to filling in necessary gaps. But like I said, they didn't just go home with it even though no one would have blamed them for that. They kept going. Shibata and Garcia needed a win that meant something, one that had heft and weight to it. Shibata and Garcia didn't need to just win; they needed to overcome. That meant when Drake finally did make it up and hit his moonsault, the fans knew full well what they were witnessing, the effort at play, the gutsiness in front of them, and they popped big accordingly. And when Shibata interjected to set up a win for his side, it meant something. It meant everything that it needed to mean, really a hell of an accomplishment, all things considered.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 1/1 - 1/7

AEW Collision 1/6/23

Darby Allin/Sting vs. Workhorsemen

MD: I was going to start this one with "Everything has to matter." I'm not quite sure I can get away with that though. I mean, I probably can. If you're reading this, you know what you're in for. I'm already sparing you guys another dissertation on how the commercial break saved Darby vs. Takeshita from itself (you're welcome). I just think sometimes it's worth spelling this stuff out lest it get overlooked in the sea of sensation and innovation, right? 

This was a short match full of things mattering. Let's lead with purpose. Why does this match exist? They wanted to get Sting in front of the Charlotte crowd one last time. They wanted to heat things up a bit for the Takeshita/Hobbs match. Maybe it was a bit of an achievement award for the Workhorsemen too, to be in their home base and up against a lifelong hero. It was there to start the show off hot, maybe even to help with the first quarter rating? In and out in ten minutes with Flair and Sting/Darby's entrance, outroing to a video package for Wednesday's tag, with their promo coming later in the show. So you can't just have Sting and Darby run over the Workhorsemen, but you couldn't have the Workhorsemen take too much of it either. You needed a wedge, a point a reason. You needed Stan Hansen smashing his arm into the post on the outside and then having his arm worked over by someone who needed a wedge to get the advantage and stay in it. 

It all has to matter. Hierarchy has to matter. An ambush before the match has to matter. Henry's slick skill and Drake's size and timing have to matter. Sting's preternatural ability to stand up to a chair without flinching and Darby's preternatural ability to take endless amounts of punishment have to matter. Darby fighting from underneath has to matter. Henry's ability to cut him off has to matter. The potential of a guy Drake's size flipping feet over head and landing with all of his weight from the top rope has to matter. The impact of that missing has to matter. Darby's dive from the top to the floor has to matter, and Sting being able to destroy someone twice his size with the Stinger Splash and Scorpion Death Drop, well, it has to matter.

And they nailed it. The ambush created the wedge but not without having to overcome Sting being Sting (which allowed for a tremendously short shine on the outside given the overall length of the match). That wedge, combined with Henry's skill, was just enough to sweep Darby out on the apron and take out Sting's leg. Darby immediately fought back but was cut off in the ring. It built to Drake going for and missing the moonsault, and then Sting taking care of business on Drake while Darby hit the coffin drop to the floor on Henry, taking him out of the match. The Workhorsemen are great. This match could have been greater with another five or ten minutes. It wasn't supposed to be a "great match," though. That wasn't its purpose. For one thing, they couldn't overshadow the main event. This was to be a celebratory moment of Sting (and Flair) in Charlotte, with just enough friction and tension to make it feel earned and worthwhile for the crowd that got to enjoy it. They don't give out stars for that, but everyone in this one absolutely shined for what they were set out to accomplish.

Eddie Kingston vs. Trent Barretta

MD: As I've written about (at length, it feels like), we've generally seen Eddie Kingston as ROH champ ace, primarily in Proving Ground matches against younger competitors. We've seen him grow into the next evolution of that role during the Continental Classic, getting torn down so he could build himself back up. In this, his first defense of the newly formed Crown, he came in poised and centered and up against, interestingly enough, someone who had his own chip on his own shoulder. 

Eddie has a few years on Trent, but you can argue, quite easily I'd add, that Trent had outpaced Eddie throughout much of his career. He made it into WWE developmental, and even won titles there. He made it onto the main roster, even if without a big splash. He was a champion in New Japan. He was a debut AEW talent. Yet here, after Eddie's ascendant year, Trent failed to capitalize big opportunity after big opportunity after big opportunity. 

So he came in swinging against Eddie, who held back, game and ready. He got a few shots in early, but in a lot of ways, it felt like Trent was wrestling as Eddie had in the past. He was wrestling to prove his toughness, to prove that he fit in, to prove that he deserved to be there. He wasn't wrestling to win. Suddenly, Eddie wasn't just a guy carrying a brand or a roster or a show up on his shoulders. He was the bar. Somewhere along the line over the last tumultuous, hard-fought months, Eddie had taken that "Proving Ground" moniker and made it something real. He was the paragon, the iron that honed iron, the symbol of excellence for professional wrestling.

And Trent needed to throw everything he had at him in order to show the world (and his mom) that he belonged. Unfortunately, that didn't mean wrestling a perfect match but instead a chippy, aggressive one. It meant that Trent always had a show to fire back with, even maybe when he shouldn't. As Eddie was blasting him in the corner with the rapid fire chops, Trent was able to get a shot in. Eddie, almost reflexively, chopped him right between the eyes and opened him up. That took the tone of the first few minutes of the match and led them to doubling down on it. Trent wrestled Eddie's match, comported himself well along those lines, proved his toughness, proved that he belonged, proved that he could stand and fight with the best of them, and absolutely, unquestionable, undoubtedly lost, his nose busted open by the bar that he couldn't make it past, Eddie's chopping hand. One wonders if after the match Eddie might have looked in the mirror and saw in Trent who he had himself so recently been, but the answer is probably no. Eddie's the ace now. He can't look back, only forward, to Wednesday because he wants to keep the defenses coming.

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