AEW in October 2021: Hangman Returns, Danielson Wrestles, Full Gear Build

“LET’S GO @AEW FANS, WRESTLERS, STAFF! EVERYONE, LFG #AEW !!!!” – Tony Khan

Sometimes you have to adapt your language for the comically spectacular situation you are in. Welcome to another month of a wrestling company filling buildings and trying stuff out.

October 2021

September was the fallout from All Out, October was getting in full gear for… a pay-per-view in early November.

AEW continued doing the things that make them fun, mainly putting effort into building out new acts or canon that will presumably lead to exciting moments or matches. In addition to the setup for a match they’ve been building for 2 years and the on-screen endorsement of a Four Pillars of homegrown star talent, there were quality bits of randomness like a mini Bobby Fish run and like eight great Bryan Danielson matches.

There was also that night (10/15) they went head-to-head with an episode of SmackDown, aired Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki on YouTube as a lead-in, and CEO Tony Khan talked all sorts of shit on Twitter. That was wild.

In the lead-up to Full Gear, AEW did what you do when you need to re-establish the landscape a little: wrestling tournaments! There were two of them, one an AEW World Title #1 Contender Tournament that will conclude at Full Gear and one to decide the first TBS Champion (more on that in a bit).

Hangman Page has come home too (10/6), and cowboy won himself back a shot at Kenny Omega and the AEW World Title. It provided a great promo, some gigantic pops, and one Dynamite (10/27) ending with Page emerging from a Stay Puft Marshallow Man costume and attacking all of The Elite with his friends in the Dark Order.

Speaking of The Elite, Adam Cole and The Young Bucks had a little reunion tour this month and scrapped with, among others, Jurassic Express, Christian Cage and The Dark Order. With Kenny Omega they form The Super Elite and continue to provide AEW an Actually Great central heel act.

CM Punk and Bryan Danielson are just part of the show now, but in a good way. In pro wrestling one’s “lack of direction” is another’s “room to breathe,” and all month The Fans kept getting surprised with random awesome things like Punk vs. Matt Sydal, Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes, and Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston which put Danielson in the finals of the World Title Eliminator and setup Kingston vs. Punk. It was all kind of beautiful.

Even if there’s one or two folks I’d swap, the balls go with an endorsement of a new generation Four Pillars by AEW are impressively sized. In addition to the ongoing quests of the Jungle Boy, Sammy Guevara began his reign as TNT Champion while MJF and Darby Allin ended up in a rivalry that like Omega/Hangman felt inevitable since the beginning of AEW. Sidenote: MJF has assigned Wardlow an Accountabilibuddy: Shawn Spears.

Sammy stayed close to The Inner Circle too as Chris Jericho and Jake Hager began a feud with Dan Lambert and his American Top Team, which at this point includes Scorpio Sky, Ethan Page, Paige VanZant, Jorge Masvidal, and Junior dos Santos. The material pandering to a teenager of the 90s is awful, but otherwise it’s been a fun freak show diversion.

With his Rhodes to the Top reality-ish show airing every week, Cody Rhodes returned to AEW TV full-time too. Besides getting bitched out by Arn Anderson though, he struggled to find a role in a company that took quite a few jumps while he was gone. Eventually his waning rivalry with Malakai Black ran into another couple guys struggling to find a role: Andrade el Idolo and PAC, and I won’t say it all made sense but it did get more interesting. As far as things used to kill time until a role pops up too… a couple random Andrade/PAC matches and Cody getting bitched out are at a minimum top 5 options.

Andrade also paid off MJF to have FTR put on masks and beat The Lucha Bros for the AAA Tag Team Titles (10/16), which gives FTR a new annoying wrinkle and setup an attractive match for The Bros’ AEW Tag Team Titles at Full Gear.

At the start of the year Dynamite will move to TBS (and Rampage will stay on TNT — don’t ask), so enter the TBS Championship and a tournament to decide who holds it first featuring basically anyone not friends with Baker. Serena Deeb returned to action too and immediately made an impact by preventing the re-emerged Hikaru Shida from a 50th TV singles win.

Considering AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker is used as sparingly as Hogan in ’84, the introduction of a second championship makes wonderful sense. Not that I’m complaining about Baker either — establish your star and bring in pieces around her, you know? Even if Thunder Rosa is still just right there, and her current feud has her calling out Tay Conti‘s ass. The match with Abadon at the end of the month (10/29) was a trip.

Malakai Black had an effective side-feud with Dante Martin that also introduced Lio Rush as first Dante’s adviser then his tag team partner and then his advisor — something like that. In addition to Rush, Bobby Fish and Tony Nese made their AEW debuts. Fish was especially present, having like 12 matches with all of the greats for some reason before CM Punk ran him off to a heckuva pop.

The Dark Order Civil War appears over with Hangman Page back, Ricky Starks beat Brian Cage in a Philadelphia Street Fight (10/8), and after losing his TNT Championship Miro cut a series of promos on God (that one). AEW World Title Eliminator competitor Jon Moxley seemed real goddam grumpy too.

Daniel Garcia and 2point0 cooled off quite a bit, as did the Orange Cassidy/Hardy Family Office feud after Jack Evans got his head shaved (10/1). The Gunn Club was still mean mugging Paul Wight on AEW Dark, while Colten dag nabit Gunn is as of this writing 30-0. Also Crowbar wrestled Joey Janela when they were in Philadelphia.

Top 10 Matches

1. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki (10/15/21)
2. AEW World Title Eliminator – Semi Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston (Rampage 10/29/21)
3. AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes (Dynamite 10/23/21)
4. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Kenny Omega, Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Dynamite 10/6/21)
5. TBS Championship Tournament – Round 1: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/27/21)
6. Hikaru Shida’s Possible 50th Victory: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/6/21)
7. PAC vs. Andrade el Idolo (Rampage 10/22/21)
8. Bryan Danielson vs. Nick Jackson w/ The Elite (Rampage 10/1/21)
9. CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal (Rampage 10/15/21)
10. AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Jon Moxley vs. Dark Order’s 10 (Dynamite 10/27/21)

1. AEW World Title Eliminator – Semi Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston (Rampage 10/29/21) – Danielson has all top 4 spots for the month locked down because he had a great variety of opponents, is having the time of his life stretching his wrestling muscles post-WWE, and most of all because he’s Freakin’ Great. I went back-and-forth between this and the Suzuki match at #1, and at the end of the day this match didn’t just keep a faster pace but was somehow more violent too. It’s a sprint of a Japanese-influenced shit-kicking between two guys who know how to sell that sort of thing, a dream match that still felt like two guys in their prime having the most current match they could.

2. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki (10/15/21) – Sometimes life feels too short, and sometimes just before 53-year-old Minoru Suzuki’s U.S. tour concludes he gets to have a match with a guy who was known as Daniel Bryan just six months ago. The serotonin boost of this match coming together with just a couple days notice could help along any match, but this would’ve gotten by either way. They traded knucklelocks and kneebars and kicks and chops, all enhanced by each guy’s ability to get across violence despite a general sense that everyone was just happy to be there. Each guy ran through all the hits, but they are the hits of two of the best ever and thus you got a pretty complete awesome match.

3. AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes (Dynamite 10/23/21) – Big Dustin and the American Dragon had a match completely different from the two above, Dustin playing veteran trying to keep up and Danielson playing guy at the top of his game. It was less about strikes and withstanding violence and more about build-up and selling from 1991 wrapping in a crowd from 2021. Piledrivers and superplexes, baby.

4. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Kenny Omega, Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Dynamite 10/6/21) – At some point towards the end of this, Tony Schiavone uttered “What a freaking match” and I know it’s Tony Schiavone but it really did kind of nail it. The Super Elite are astoundingly good at the multi-man tag and just look at that babyface lineup.

5. TBS Championship Tournament – Round 1: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/27/21)
6. Hikaru Shida’s Possible 50th Victory: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/6/21) – It is unbelievable how under wraps AEW kept Shida over the last year, especially given her two first non-squashes in a while were both great matches and fired up a dormant women’s midcard. Serena Deeb has been gone for a while too, but that was because of injury — here she returned to the awesome form she was in prior to it, a less gawky Zack Sabre Jr. or something. These matches built on each other, the first a misdirection and surprise finish then the second with a whole finishing sequence built around dramatic near falls, like they just re-invented the whole idea of wrestling or something.

7. PAC vs. Andrade el Idolo (Rampage 10/22/21) – Two of the most athletically impressive wrestlers of all-time both in delivery and ability to base for their opponent had a pair of matches, one at the end of September and this one right here. A top rope brainbuster was delivered exceptionally well and an apron DDT was received the same.

8. Bryan Danielson vs. Nick Jackson w/ The Elite (Rampage 10/1/21) – Before a life or death battle with Kingston, YouTube dream match with Suzuki, 90s classic with Dustin, and 8-man tag with the Super Elite… Danielson did a bit of showing off with Nick Jackson. Two gentleman of Shawn Michaels’ influence casually worked in so much cool stuff that HBK would never dare, a
Tiger suplex hold or Nick’s ridiculous plancha all delivered with a trademark kind of precise recklessness.

9. CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal (Rampage 10/15/21) – I seriously actually saw this match live in 2004 at an IWA Mid-South show and what struck me then and has always struck me is how each Punk and Sydal never made matwork a core component of their styles, but they were always pretty dang smooth at it. The revitalized CM Punk is making the most out of bodyslams and dropkicks, and Sydal’s sell of the GTS was tremendous.

10. AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Jon Moxley vs. Dark Order’s 10 (Dynamite 10/27/21) – Not quite Akiyama/Shibata but bizarrely close, with Moxley in ass-kicker mode but young Preston “10” Vance briefly (like 5 minutes worth) putting up not a fight but a whole war. Mox might not be able to German suplex big 10 but he rips his mask, makes him bleed, and kicks his ass anyways.

Other Cool Matches

• CM Punk vs. Bobby Fish (Dynamite 10/27/21)
• CM Punk vs. Daniel Garcia w/ 2point0 (Rampage 10/8/21)
• Bryan Danielson vs. Aaron Solo (Dark 10/26/21)
• Casino Ladder Match: Orange Cassidy vs. PAC vs. Andrade el Idolo vs. Matt Hardy vs. Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Page (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Matt Sydal vs. Dante Martin (Rampage 10/29/21)
• AAA World Tag Team Title: The Lucha Bros [c] w/ Alex Abrahantes vs. Two Masked Men (FTR) (Rampage 10/16/21)
• Ruby Soho vs. Emi Sakura w/ Lulu Pencil (Dark: Elevation 10/11/21)
• If Sammy Loses, He Leaves the Inner Circle – TNT Title: Sammy Guevara [c] vs. Ethan Page (Dynamite 10/27/21)
• Fuego del Sol & Marko Stunt vs. Wardlow & Shawn Spears w/ Tully Blanchard (Dark: Elevation 10/4/21)
• Joey Janela w/ Kayla Rossi vs. Crowbar (Dark: Elevation 10/11/21)
• Chris Jericho, Jake Hager & Sammy Guevara vs. Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky & Junior dos Santos w/ Dan Lambert and Jorge Masvidal (Rampage 10/15/21)
• Cody Rhodes w/ Arn Anderson vs. Malakai Black (Dynamite 10/23/21)
• Dark Order’s 10 vs. QT Marshall w/ The Factory (Dark: Elevation 10/25/21)
• Eddie Kingston vs. Jack Evans (Dark 10/26/21)

Best Angles and Promos

• Ricky Starks vignette (Rampage 10/1/21)
• Jon Moxley promo on the Ladder Match (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• CM Punk in-ring promo on Philadelphia (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Arn Anderson/Cody Rhodes meet over a fire (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Malakai Black answers Dante Martin’s open challenge (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Serena Deeb lays out Hikaru Shida with her 50th Victory trophy (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Darby Allin accepts MJF’s challenge but a limo arrives and a masked group attacks him (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Hangman Page returns as the Joker in the Casino Ladder Match (Dynamite 10/6/21)
• Hikaru Shida attacks Serena Seeb backstage (Dynamite 10/16/21)
• Miro promo on God (Dynamite 10/16/21)
• Hangman Page in-ring return promo (Dynamite 10/16/21)
• MJF assigns Wardlow an Accountabilibuddy (Dynamite 10/23/21)
• Bobby Fish attacks Anthony Greene and CM Punk makes the save (Dynamite 10/23/21)
• Jon Moxley promo on the Eliminator Tournament (Dynamite 10/23/21)
• CM Punk runs off Bobby Fish (Dynamite 10/23/21)
• Jon Moxley promo on the Eliminator Tournament (10/23/21)
• Darby Allin returns and challenges MJF (Dynamite 10/27/21)
• Marshmallow Man reveals himself as Hangman Page (Dynamite 10/27/21)
• Eddie Kingston runs into CM Punk (Rampage 10/29/21)

Areas of Excellence

1. Bryan Danielson was just wrestling all sorts of people.
2. Opening a show (10/8) with an 8-man tag intro ending with “…and The American Dragon, Bryan Danielson” was the ultimate flex.
3. The Malakai Black/Dante Martin angle was a pretty perfect use of guys at different rungs of the ladder.
4. Tournaments = Good
5. Junior dos Santos was tremendous in the 6-man tag (10/15).
6. There were more women’s trios matches this month than there were last month (10/18 and 10/19), a trend that should continue.
7. There was a callback to history between Orange Cassidy and Powerhouse Hobbs.
8. Jim Ross giving into the power of Minoru Suzuki
9. Bless them, even Tony Nese got a unique introduction.
10. CM Punk/Bobby Fish seemed suspect but worked as Punk is a guy that spent years getting something out of WWE formula in kickpads.

Favorite Parts

1. Andrade el Idolo shits on Cody Rhodes’ tattoo (10/27)
2. Orange Cassidy comments on the Hair vs. Hair match: “I don’t know what this is” (10/1)
3. CM Punk shows respect to Matt Sydal (10/15)
4. The show-closing shot of a bleeding Ricky Starks celebrating in Philadelphia with Taz and the FTW Title (10/8)
5. Darian Bengston wiped his brow as he was introduced against Wardlow (10/12)
6. FTR wins with an immediate Big Rig (10/4)
7. Dark Order steals a kiss from Adam Cole (10/16)
8. Stu Grayson always wilds out (10/19)
9. “I don’t know what’s going on anymore because I have a 3-month old at home and she’s INSANE” – Jon Moxley (10/6)
10. Lance Archer bodyslams and chokeslams a man onto Eddie Kingston (10/23)

Favorite Things

1. Hangman Page’s pop (10/6)
2. Ricky Starks’ fire (10/1)
3. Kris Statlanders’ Theme Music
4. Jungle Boy’s tope (10/23)
5. Emi Sakura’s cradles (10/11)
6. Billy Gunn (10/5) and 10 (10/25)’s punches
7. Daniel Garcia’s apron work (10/19)
8. Jamie Hayter’s energy (10/19)
9. Ethan Page’s Shirt (10/23)
10. Cody Rhodes’ Tiger Driver ’98 (10/23)

Things That Didn’t Work

1. Chris Jericho’s unbearable flashbacks to the year 2000
2. Rampage 10/22 up until Andrade vs. PAC
3. Paul Wight and Mark Henry on commentary
4. Red Velvet calling Cody Rhodes a piece of shit
5. The runtime of the eventual Malakai Black/Dante Martin match

HWL’s AEW Power Rankings: 10/1/21 – 10/31/21

1. Kenny Omega [-]
2. Bryan Danielson [New]
3. Britt Baker [4]
4. The Young Bucks [2]
5. MJF [-]
6. Darby Allin [-]
7. Hangman Page [New]
8. Sammy Guevara [New]
9. The Lucha Bros [-]
10. Miro [3]

HWL’s AEW Movers & Shakers: 10/1/21 – 10/31/21

1. CM Punk
2. Eddie Kingston
3. Adam Cole
4. Malakai Black
5. Cody Rhodes
6. Andrade el Idolo
7. Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky
8. Chris Jericho
9. Lio Rush
10. Bobby Fish

HWL’s Dark All-Stars: 10/1/21 – 10/31/21

1. Santana & Ortiz
2. Daniel Garcia
3. Dante Martin
4. Emi Sakura
5. Riho
6. The Acclaimed
7. 2point0
8. Lee Moriarty
9. Wardlow
10. Fuego del Sol