AEW Five Fingers of Death 10/30 - 11/5

AEW Collision 11/4/23

Darby Allin vs Lance Archer

MD: As monsters in AEW go, Archer's up there. When I was first getting into the promotion in late 2021, his act on Elevation (dragging his opponent out as part of the entrance, mocking the fans by teasing chops or a dive, scaring kids) worked for me. He's capable of a couple of more agile spots without doing ridiculous or terrible looking things for the sake of getting a pop. He's experienced enough to take his time and let the beating resonate. He might have gotten the best, most productive singles match out of Hangman Page by short circuiting all of his poor match layout judgment. Plus he never wears out his welcome. You're always left wanting more. 

Darby is, of course, a natural opponent, and someone that never takes a single moment of a match for granted. He came in with a gameplan to chip away at Archer, only to get ragdolled about as you'd expect. He'd try to sneak in comebacks only to have Archer escalate the violence (most memorably the chokeslam over the top rope to the apron) in response. Having it be so one-sided protected Archer and made it more momentous when Darby beat him, and not just with a fluke roll up either, but with a high impact reversal to avert an almost assured flattening. The Jake stuff was a bit odd. He obviously got tossed so he'd have time to walk to the back (which takes time) to bring the Righteous out post-match. The announcers covered for it in fairly unsatisfying and contradictory ways. Part of me wonders if this isn't to set up a Copeland/Sting/Darby trios in advance of the PPV and with Danielson's injury they feel like they have to rely more on Copeland for Collision for a bit, but that's me laying down too many words on a booking decision we'll know about in a week. I will say that Copeland vs Archer is a weirder and more interesting idea than Copeland vs Luchasaurus was.  (EDIT: They just announced it, actually. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing I'm vibing so heavily with TK's booing).

Mark Briscoe/Keith Lee/Dustin Rhodes vs Kip Sabian/Workhorsemen

MD:  This was structured for the time it had. The early bit where a proper Briscoe shine was replaced by him out-maneuvering a series of the Workhorsemen's best attempts at clever double-teaming worked for me because it highlighted just how good of a tag wrestler Briscoe is in a kayfabe sense. Also, while they were stretching the count as far as it could go on the inside, the actual moment of transition happened once JD had made it to the floor. Once Mark got the hot tag, that was pretty much it for the match, as he hit his dive and Dustin and Lee did their thing. The heat is the emotional core of a tag like this. It's the substance. It's the story. It's the second act. It's the drama. There's a little bit of intrigue over the heels getting outwrestled or outsmarted early and the question of how they're going to get ahead, but what carries the weight is the babyface eating a beatdown, having hope spots, getting cutoff, with the built-in pressure ratcheting up and up and up until things come to a head with the hot tag. The shine was practically nonexistent here. The comeback was lightning quick. The match still worked overall because it leaned in hard on the part that matters the most.