2023 Ongoing MOTY List: Eddie vs. Komander

 

13. Eddie Kingston vs. Komander AEW Collision 10/7

ER: I really love the Eddie Kingston King's Road era, and I think it's partly because I'm happy that Kingston got to last long enough in pro wrestling to have the clout to do a King's Road era. A lot of us are of the age where we backyarded (or cleared space in the All Japan matches we didn't understand, and Kingston is a tape trader who lasted long enough to get to do it well. I love what he does, I love his influences, and I love the way his influences are represented. It's so cool that Kingston lasted long enough to be a Dream Match Wrestler they want to put in styles clashes. Kingston came up on this. I go stretches of not thinking about Eddie Kingston as a Chikara Original because he's so obviously spiritually aligned with 2001 Jersey All Pro. I laugh my ass off thinking about Eddie Kingston now - my favorite wrestler to watch on TV if Darby Allin wasn't on that episode of TV - working Komander, because 20+ years later Kingston just gets to wrestle the best possible version of Jolly Roger. We've seen a lot of Kings Road and puro Kingston, and it just feels good to see him have a really great Chikara Kingston match. AEW's roster is filled with the best of the Chikara Guys Who Made It Through, like Orange Cassidy, Claudio, Evil Uno, and plenty of good or even great guys who would have been Chikara Guys, like Dante and Darius Martin or Komander. I'm saying, there is a shocking amount of Chikara influence all over AEW TV, in a way that tightens the match quality and drops almost all of the constant Sex Pest vibes. 

This was different than a lot of my favorite Eddie matches of the last several years, because this is the first time in ages I went in knowing Eddie was going to win. I knew it would be a fun match, I knew Eddie was going to give Komander a fun match, and I knew Kingston was winning. What took my fandom of Kingston to the next level several years ago was when he just became a guy I actually wanted to win. He is great at losing but he is fun at winning, but there is always strife and always a fight. This match promised no Real fight, just fun, and it was a real great version of that match. I like Komander, and he was ON here. Not only did his flying look great - that torpedo dive over the corner with the perfect Eddie catch, or that in-ring tornillo that hit video game flush - but I was surprised at how good he looked in a style clash strike exchange. I knew it was going to be fun when Kingston hit a little guy, but I forget that Eddie is maybe even better at selling for little guys' strikes as he is going to war with a guy who can actually hit harder that he. But he was so good at getting in front of Komander's flurries, great at missing his shots, great at hitting his shots. When Komander chopped him and Kingston made a fun loud sound like they both knew he caught Komander fucking up, it made every chop after that excited OOO sound even better. I don't think Kingston ever caught luchadors - real or fake - better in Chikara than he did here, and Komander would have been a top 20 guy in Chikara, so the fact everything hit so well here thrilled me. Eddie Kingston, knowing he was going to win, laughing at Komander and getting surprised by Komander, 10 minutes fucking flat. One of those matches where you can be proud of 2002 indy wrestling's modern influence, which is one of the main things that AEW has been so good at delivering. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST