Throw a Punch and Eddie Kingston Counters it Quick

Eddie Kingston vs. Orange Cassidy SLA 1/11/19 - SKIPPABLE

ER: I really hated a lot of this. Orange Cassidy is someone I like watching in AEW, but this version a year before AEW could be downright interminable. Kingston is probably the only guy who has the high end facial reactions to salvage these bad jokes that fall flat. This match had the cursed vibe of Kingston working default heel by getting really upset with a ringside fan who was recording the entire match. Kingston smacks the guy's phone out of his hand and swipes at it a second time, while also yelling several times for the guy to stop. The crowd doesn't quite know how to handle it and the reaction for Kingston gets colder (they were chanting for a title change during the ring announcements). But at the exact same time that is happening, the crowd simultaneously decides that Orange Cassidy's comedy has gone on for too long and Cassidy begins getting heel reactions. And, they're right. Cassidy's comedy went on way too long and worse, wasn't funny. He belly crawls through Kingston's legs, rolls out the other side of the ring SEVERAL times after getting rolled in, and the crowd finally turns when he starts doing his stupid "I can barely lift my limbs to strike you" chops and kicks. This might be the only time I've heard people in the crowd audibly groan when Cassidy's comedy keeps going. 

Kingston's beating is satisfying, and he treated the comedy with more dignity than anyone else outside of maybe William Regal would have been able to handle. It's tough to be the guy who keeps being made to look stupid by fake offense, and any part of it that was entertaining was because of him. Things were way better when Kingston was fully on offense wasting Cassidy, but Cassidy didn't even take that great of a beating. It's pretty amazing how much tighter his work has gotten in AEW. Had I watched this match when it happened I would have been even more shocked by the first Jericho match. His offense didn't look like anything that could put down Kingston, but King did a great job at leaving himself vulnerable after a shoulder injury slowed him. Really, the best part of the match was Kingston's honest and open-faced post-loss promo, where he apologizes to the fan and explains the wrestling economy, and says he was in a bad mood because he might have dislocated his shoulder, and also because he got blown up chasing after Orange Cassidy and all his bullshit. The promo is good enough that it might have made the journey through that unfortunate match worth it. But this era of Cassidy was fully Not For Me. 

Eddie Kingston/Darby Allin/Jon Moxley vs. Daniel Garcia/Matt Lee/Jeff Parker AEW Dynamite 8/4/21 - GREAT

ER: I was excited to see Ever-Rise immediately show up on TV challenging my favorite AEW wrestler, that's the kind of thing that just endears them to me even more. They've felt like the weirdest duo of wrestlers signed to WWE for a couple years now, and this match felt like when the Horsemen battle a team of Men at Work/Joey Maggs on the Pro and the latter team gets more offense than you expect. I loved Lee getting in there against Kingston and hyping himself up to hit the King, doing a full circle all the way around Kingston while King just stands in the middle, before delivering a chop that Kingston immediately laughs off. 2.0 and Garcia get a full control segment on Kingston, and it's really good. It happens entirely during the picture in picture, but I suppose I can't argue with that production choice. Parker does little things I like, little pieces of offense that are rarer and rarer with every passing wrestling year. Here he does something like that whenever he's tagged in, like sliding in with a fist to Kingston's face (Parker was also the only guy in WWE doing fistdrops over the past year, this was similar to those) and scraping his boot eyelets across King's eyes. 

Lee gets completely obliterated by a blindside Darby tope, Darby crashing into and through Lee while Lee was standing in awe of Sting, Garcia takes a big backdrop bump over the top to the entrance ramp, Moxley murks Parker with the Paradigm Shift and Darby flattens him with the Coffin Drop. The Darby tope was especially insane, as Matt Lee didn't appear to cheat at ALL and sneak a peek. He was turned completely to the side and HAD to know a tope was coming, but he somehow resisted the temptation to take a peek, not even gauge where Darby was at. You rarely see that kind of commitment to a spot, making it look 100% like a tope that only Allin knew about. Incredible. This match was what it should have been, it obviously could have been even better if Garcia/2.0 had been treated like actual threats but....that wouldn't have really made sense within context.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON