AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 3/28-4/3

AEW Dynamite 3/30

CM Punk vs. Max Caster

MD: Real game crowd for this and Punk was more than happy to lead them through the motions, but I don't think this had the complexity of a lot of his AEW matches. For instance, when this one went home would be where the longer, more extended heat would start in a lot of his other recent bouts. That worked in this match's favor, though, as it never wore out its welcome and it'll make people buy into an earlier finish on Punk's future matches. If they're building him towards a title shot instead of into a feud with MJF about whether he still has it or not, winning some one-segment matches makes a difference. As a side note, he should definitely end some other matches vs. midcarders with that pile driver/Anaconda Vice combo. The early chain wrestling was probably the best executed part of the match, with things getting just a little rough now and again later on (like Caster's A for Effort high ambition dropkick off the top with Punk dangling). It was a hot crowd all night and this was straightforward and to the point and unquestionably moved them.

Bryan Danielson vs. Wheeler Yuta

MD: I'd been sitting on a write up of this one pretty soon after it happened as I anticipated having to watch a lot of other wrestling between Wednesday and Monday, but the CPU crashed and I lost it. Point being, I had to watch this again, and I came out of it once again deeply appreciative of the little bits of close-up magic Danielson does with manipulation of his opponent's body. What popped me most here was a little turn of the jaw that he did before laying a headbutt in. Just one shot but it was so great in the context of what they were doing.

As for what they were doing, it was masterful. You really need the right opponent to fit in all of Yuta's bits of offense (though he didn't do the "through the leg" bit here), but Danielson is absolutely that opponent, and it meant for fun, tricked out, still competitive early matwork and feeling out of each other. When Danielson started to really lay it in and brutalize Yuta through the break, it was as varied and interesting and violent as you'd want it to be. Yuta began to come back towards the end of the break and the second they came back, he was backing Danielson towards the center of the ring and meeting him head-on. The spot where he ate the rolling forearm only to skin the cat horizontally back into the ring and capture a German, only to end up in Danielson's very rare Dragon Suplex was the sort of exchange that can make a guy even on the wrong end of it. And then that defiant spit in Danielson's face as he knew the boots were about to rain down upon him took it the rest of the way. I've seen a lot out of Yuta including his hour long match with Garcia, but I've never really believed in the guy until this one. If he keeps down this path, pushed by opponents like Danielson, with more grit splattered over his indy flash, I'm really curious just what he might become over the next few years. In the meantime, Danielson remains the guy to get him, and everyone else, where they need to be.

ER: I'm pretty bearish on Yuta, and this felt like Danielson pulling out a minor miracle (which is something we are used to). Yuta is one of those modern Rocky Romeros (which Rocky Romero isn't really one of anymore) who is a jack of all trades wrestler of several current styles, who doesn't do any of those styles very well. I don't think he has good offense, I don't think he misses offense well, and I think there's often a disconnect on his selling and bumps. The man looks like a real gruber in the ring, and yet I could see him doing sincerely improving just by working often enough with guys like Danielson. I mean, he's already wrestled a ton of guys I really like (and been undeservingly lumped in as their in-ring peer) and hasn't gotten better through osmosis, but there were a couple signs here that was changing. Danielson brutalized him on every strike exchange, but Yuta didn't come off and wasn't supposed to come off as his equal, so I thought it worked when Danielson kept elbowing and kicking him and Yuta came back for more. The horizontal skin the cat looked incredibly stupid and is the kind of disconnect that will hold him back: Yuta taking a tornado elbow and then pausing, looking for the ropes, then jumping through them, making sure that his stupid reversal didn't look like anything that was caused by the actual elbow. But, when he spit up into Danielson's face right before his face got stomped in? That actually felt like someone reacting to the real moment, knowing that he was not getting out of this without a stomping, and doing the only thing he could do with his arms neutralized. Danielson's stomping, piledriver, and disgusting Yes lock (ripping back on Yuta's nose and mouth while sinking it) was deserved. 

Darby Allin vs. Andrade el Idolo

MD: While we focus on individual matches, at some point you have to stop and recognize that they're stacking these shows. These five guys are not the only guys we like on the roster, but they're almost always going to give you a good match or at least a good performance, and they're all over the shows every week right now. Moreover, these matches often feel very different week to week and within a show. This one was all about Andrade with the early ambush, one that he was able to press with his superior strength despite Darby fighting back. Everything before the bell was imaginative while just barely falling on the right side of the line of still being believable and natural enough. It felt like things these guys would do. Andrade then leaned into the beatdown methodologically, with a few hope spots and moments of Darby's endless resilience but Andrade coming off as a total package in how he cut him off. The pivotal moment of comeback with the crucifix counter off the top was spectacular. Darby will almost always make the decision to leap outside the ring onto interlopers instead of back into the ring against his opponent and it doesn't often cost him in tag matches but in singles matches, it protects him in a loss. Just well executed, high quality, straightforward (in concept if not necessarily execution) stuff.

ER: I loved the layout of this, with Andrade jumping Allin before the match with a high crossbody to the floor, and Darby being at a disadvantage all match because of it. I'm not sure there is anyone else in current wrestling who can believably come back from punishment the way Darby can, as we've now collected a ton of video evidence of this man taking bumps and levels of punishment that other people just would not recover from. Darby gets dumped on ring steps and ring barricades, and eventually he tries to crash into his opponents instead of into inanimate objects, and it always rules. I thought this was the best of Andrade in AEW. His impact felt much more immediate and he was less focused on cute offense, and more focused and running his boot and knees into Darby's torso. Darby took a backdrop bump so high that it flipped him into a 450 crash, and I liked the big and small ways he made inroads back into the match. His ollie across Andrade's back had to hurt like hell, his code red looked good and was sold appropriately and delivered with as much desperation as you can deliver that move, and his insane top rope crucifix bomb was something that easily could have ended the match (and probably a smart move by Andrade to flip all the way over into a moonsault rather than take it like a typical crucifix bomb). The interference finish (that everyone saw coming) knocks it down the MOTY List a bit, but I loved how hard Sting came storming in with a lariat (running gut first into the apron to slow his momentum) and how it kept Allin strong. 

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