I’ll be honest: in these times of lockdown and what appears to be a pulling out of the professional wrestling business by WWE, AEW has not just been good wrestling TV but a genuine source of … sigh … comfort.
Revolution ended with a dud, but I’m happy to report the boys and girls of Wednesday night (and Tuesday night… and Monday now) recovered from a few bad angles with like ten good ones.
The World
The world continues to be interesting, but the world needs something cool at the end of the journey occasionally – so Revolution showed problems, even if Wednesday showed that AEW can power through them. Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston did their best to save the situation before saying just move on, and yeah: I think we just have to.
The PPV might not matter as much given their emphasis on TV, but I also don’t know why you’d want your expensive shows associated with over-promises and matches that go too long. Fool me once, shame on you, blah blah…
Regardless, the saga of QT Marshall, Dustin Rhodes, and maybe their entire training camp is more interesting than both title programs on NXT, and that is just one story on a show that is always telling them.
They had more interesting setups (Scorpio Sky heel turn, Penta going at Cody, Matt Hardy with a new team, Lance Archer messing with Sting) versus big angles here… with one exception.
The Inner Circle War Council ended up a classic and then some: we have a new heel faction led by MJF and Tully Blanchard; we also have the Inner Circle as wronged babyfaces. THIS was a payoff and then some, triggering an explosion that is establishing or re-establishing all sorts of star power — most notably MJF himself, who as the most interesting guy in the company is making himself even more so by going from silly douchebag to conniving villain.
The Wrestling
Just some good solid wrestling this week, nothing big time but everything was at the very least pretty good. Rey Fenix/Matt Jackson opened and was no Rey Fenix/Nick Jackson but was very cool.
I also like how seamlessly AEW can move from a match based around armdrag and dives to a Cody Rhodes squash where Arn Anderson grumbles on the floor as they make the most out of three simple moves: elbow smash, powerslam, figure-four.
Ethan Page had a solid TV debut against fellow newcomer Lee Johnson, as did Maki Itoh who formed an incredible axis of evil with Britt Baker and Nyla Rose against Thunder Rosa, Hikaru Shida & Ryo Mizunami.
Darby Allin vs. Scorpio Sky for the TNT Title was one of those good matches that will probably be better next time now that there are actual roles established.
The Entertainment
Maki Itoh singing her entire entrance song right through her team and opponents brawling on the floor was the right kind of chaos.
Those interesting setups mentioned above provided quality entertainment, especially Penta El Zero Miedo pulling out a wrestling classic and using family (and a translator) to goad Cody into a fight. They took 5 minutes of TV and made gold.
AEW is taking advantage of the current state of Christian Cage’s star and making his first order of business a challenge for Kenny Omega’s Word Title, which I think might be a really great match.
Heel Scorpio Sky could be interesting. Like everyone though, might need a stable.
Room for Improvement
- Don’t promote it if you can’t deliver it
- Don’t mock it if you don’t deliver it
- Stop fucking around
My Favorite Things
- Wardlow’s powerbomb
- Scorpio Sky’s tope cutter
- “I was too busy building my own.” – MJF
