“I’m sorry … I threw away our friendship, I cost you a shot at the Tag Titles. But, you cost me a shot at the World Title … the way I see it, we’re even now. So Saturday, if you so much as lay a hand on me: I swear to God, I will ruin you.” – Hangman Page to The Young Bucks
Week by week (and quarter-hour by hour if you’re into that sort of thing), the pro wrestling from AEW in November was not just “good” but jostling around how this bewitching industry actually works, all while the sports-entertaining elephant in the room does the same (just differently). AEW employs a dinosaur and alien and over half the legends who kept American wrestling awesome after McMahon won the Warz (plus lots from before).
The tone could easily be chaos, but as they powered through growing pains and that whole pandemic deal, hard work was put in to keep it all focused: honorable good guy chased and beat the shitty bad ones, complemented with an endless supply of fan service and general gratification in case someone wanted to stick around and obsess over it or something. They also actually introduced the New Japan stable CHAOS.
Welcome to another month of Happy Wrestling Land’s coverage of the wrestling show on TNT, All Elite Wrestling. It’ll be on TBS soon too.
Hangman Page Wins AEW World Title
Adam Page overcame thoughts, feelings, and the mean girls of The Elite at AEW Full Gear to become the AEW World Heavyweight Champion. “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson won the right to challenge him and CM Punk wrestled a bloody classic too. It was a loaded card featuring a rapidly expanding AEW roster, and also managed to point to a chosen few and say: “These are the ones.”
Cowboy overcame doubt, disappointment, and a drinking problem to become Heavyweight Champion of the World and is celebrating with his friends. That simplifies a 3+ year story that occasionally got sidetracked, but this was Adam Page’s hero journey that actually got steered to a feel-good destination in the middle of the ring in the middle of November. Sometimes in wrestling that’s just the triumph itself.
The additions of Hangman’s chase, Adam Cole, and an outrageous wardrobe helped the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega really figure their deals out too. They were always high-level in-ring performers, but at some point the bad satire became pretty good satire. Hangman Page had no trouble settling into the role of popular World Champion the whole audience agrees on either. Another triumph.
In the era of many options in many places (most of which don’t even involve wrestling), one of the smartest things AEW did was cut through the shit and position Hangman’s chase out front then see it through. It kept a focus as stuff like Cody Rhodes trying to get his groove back and other dubious wrestling business decisions sorted themselves out.
Oh My God, It’s CM Punk and Bryan Danielson
The other smartest thing they did was an outright rigorous curation of offerings for the kind of person who might be wondering why there wasn’t more Four Horsemen or CM Punk or even just reasonable outcomes in their wrestling.
CM Punk and his former colleague Bryan Danielson spent November running through a collection of promos and matches that felt out of something I’d book with pals over late night banter and impossible dreams of major American wrestling actually getting “great.” Punk and The American Dragon were supposed to be the ones and they were for a short while, and now they’re in AEW doing the greatest ever versionof This Is 40.
Danielson spent his TV time going 5-10 minutes with young Anthony Bowens, guest star Rocky Romero, and a few of Hangman’s Dark Order friends including Colt Cabana in Chicago. He went from casually good WWE system TV matches to casually good traditional wrestling matches, and after seeing way too much of both I definitely prefer the latter. He beat Miro at Full Gear in one of those matches then immediately flipped a switch and became an arrogant big leaguer opposite homegrown Hangman.
CM Punk didn’t wrestle as much, but convincing promos and one classic match was a better deal. He went from condescending uncle to unhinged mad dog to upstanding wise veteran over the course of the month as he spent November in two of the most anticipated feuds in wrestling: first half with Eddie Kingston, second half MJF. The blood-soaked brawl with Kingston at Full Gear saw Punk’s ROH dog collar energy re-emerge, while Kingston took another leap forward as one of
4 or 5 Futures to Look Forward To
The Full Gear card was packed, but admirably maintained focus on moving The Kids forward: MJF beat Darby Allin in the opener, Jungle Boy pinned Nick Jackson, and Sammy Guevara took a night off accepting questionable championship challenges to team with his boys and jump off a ladder.
The initiative stayed through the rest of the month as MJF moved onto Punk, Sammy stayed TNT Champion, and everybody seemed to want a piece of Jungle Boy (now mentored by Christian Cage). Darby Allin even got to beat Billy Gunn.
She didn’t make the “four pillars” t-shirt AEW weirdly produced, but AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker continues to stand out as a homegrown success story, a fact so apparent that Punk got a pop for saying it. The movement of the entire AEW women’s division can feel slow-moving and the Tay Conti title challenge at Full Gear wasn’t great, but Baker’s promos and entourage (and just how she carries herself) provide a strong framework for the division while everybody else figures their deal out.
Conveniently, there’s a second championship now. The TBS Championship Tournament is allowing a lot of personalities to figure their deal out including Thunder Rosa, Ruby Riott, and Jamie Hayter. This combined with trios matches on top of trios matches on Dark… if statistical progress means something, this might be the greatest wrestling division of all time by next June.
Cassidy Has Friends and Cody Has Frenemies
Then there’s Cody Rhodes. The head of the Nightmare Family spent November caught in a web of ideas involving Arn Anderson, Tag Team Champions The Lucha Bros, PAC, Malakai Black, and a sort of offshoot of The Pinnacle involving FTR and Andrade el Idolo. It resulted in the worst match at Full Gear.
In other AEW faction news, Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle got their gimmicks off at Full Gear with American Top Team and moved on. Dante Martin defied Lio Rush and accepted a recruiting pitch from Team Taz, who are short a man or two with Ricky Starks still on commentary and Hook just waiting for the right moment.
Also, Orange Cassidy and Tomohiro Ishii beat The Butcher & The Blade on Dynamite. It was a fun time amid speculation that AEW might go one step further and have Kazuchika Okada become the next New Japan guy to wrestle in AEW. It didn’t happen this month, though Chuck Taylor and Rocky Romero did announce that Okada had accepted all of the The Best Friends as members of his CHAOS group. Like I said earlier: something someone could stick around and obsess over.
The Hardy Family Office seemed peripherally involved in nearly all of this too.
Elsewhere, Mostly on DARK
A loaded AEW roster and slightly over-ambitious amount of matches resulted in a few loaded Dark’s (11/2, 11/9, 11/16), both from arenas and Universal Studios. Highlights from the YouTube included keeping up with faces missed, FTR‘s squash matches, and Fuego del Sol. There were also a ton of tag/trios matches involving Riho, Ryo Mizunami, Kris Statlander, Emi Sakura (with Lulu Pencil then Mei Suruga), and probably The Bunny.
Tony Nese had to be there at some point too.
November concluded with Kenny Omega taking time off, CM Punk/MJF heating up, Bryan Danielson 3-0 against Hangman Page‘s friends, Jurassic Express as Tag Title #1 contender’s, the TBS Title semi-finals almost set, and something with Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho. Kazuchika Okada‘s new friends appeared headed towards something with Okada’s old friends The Young Bucks too. Just something to think about for next time.
Top 10 Matches
- CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston (Full Gear 11/13/21)
- AEW World Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Hangman Page (Full Gear 11/13/21)
- Darby Allin vs. MJF (Full Gear 11/13/21)
- Kenny Omega vs. Alan “5” Angels (Dynamite 11/3/21)
- AEW World Title Eliminator – Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Miro (Full Gear 11/13/21)
- Falls Count Anywhere: Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Full Gear 11/13/21)
- Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero w/ Best Friends (Dynamite 11/10/21)
- Matt Sydal & Lee Moriarty vs. Lio Rush & Dante Martin (Dynamite 11/10/21)
- TBS Championship Tournament – Quarterfinal: Thunder Rosa vs. Jamie Hayter w/ Dr. Britt Baker and Rebel (Dynamite 11/24/21)
- Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia w/ 2point0 (Rampage 11/26/21)
1. CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston (Full Gear 11/13/21) – There’s the match I was looking for. No filler, no frills, serious and confident and violent but mostly just awesome. Punk and Kingston finally ended up in the same place at the same time and they’re punching and bleeding and trying to wrestle each other to the mat as hordes of dedicated yet deprived hardcore wrestling nerds felt something resembling validation. A goddamn fist fight.
2. AEW World Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Hangman Page (Full Gear 11/13/21) – Omega dropped the strap in the main event of Full Gear in a match that had an incredible old-fashioned babyface vs. heel vibe for something with so many Best Bout Machine spots. Hangman can pull off either. Spectacular wrestling with a satisfying conclusion, it could be the best New Japan main event all year. I’m so sorry.
3. Darby Allin vs. MJF (Full Gear 11/13/21) – On mechanics alone, this is good: crisp and confident delivery, a few threads to follow, a few peaks rooted in feats of mind-altering human athleticism and possibility. Everything from the early body part work to later near falls was delivered with all the extra physicality or punctuation the opener of a big wrestling card could want, and it was all enhanced by AEW actually carving out a space for it to stand out as a big deal.
4. AEW World Title Eliminator – Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Miro (Full Gear 11/13/21) – Suplexes, strikes, submissions… selling. That’s pro wrestling, folks! This match stayed solid but ended before it could go elsewhere, though the sudden finish was consistent with the tone of a match where a man gouged another’s eyes to escape a triangle chokehold. Very good grappling from two of wrestling’s most interesting grapplers.
5. Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight: Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Full Gear 11/13/21) – Some of this could’ve been dialed back a little or completely, but it’s a whole variety show of a wrestling match with Adam Cole taking huge ladder bumps, Luchasaurus wearing blue jeans, and the SuperKliq doing pretty much every wild thing they do before it got around to being about Jungle Boy.
6. Kenny Omega vs. Alan “5” Angels (Dynamite 11/3/21) – This is a rematch from the early COVID times where Omega gave a nearly unknown Angels a bunch of offense before the routine near falls and knees to the face. I didn’t like it, as Omega seemed to do that with everybody so it ended up another athletically impressive but forgettable match. A year-and-a-half with each guy more defined and a live audience there to react to the athleticism, they were cooking.
7. Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero w/ Best Friends (Dynamite 11/10/21) – Danielson gets revenge for the 2005 Best of American Super Junior semi-finals in a match where these two just kept locking up and grappling, grappling, grappling. The match was still early enough in Bryan’s run too that folks were still wrecking him head on, like Rocky’s brutal dropkick in the ropes.
8. Matt Sydal & Lee Moriarty vs. Lio Rush & Dante Martin (Dynamite 11/10/21) – On the same show, these teams just kept squaring up and flying, flying, you get the point. The quasi-cruiserweight division of AEW put on a TV match that could live up to the name of the really good one from WCW.
9. TBS Championship Tournament – Quarterfinal: Thunder Rosa vs. Jamie Hayter w/ Dr. Britt Baker and Rebel (Dynamite 11/24/21) – This was another one where they seemed to just lockup and kept grappling, though there was also a suplex right on the floor in there too. Snug, credible, very good wrestling.
10. Jurassic Express vs. Adam Cole & Bobby Fish (Rampage 11/19/21) – Jungle Boy shows out in a good old-fashioned tag team wrestling match as your TV main event.
Other Cool Matches
- Tomohiro Ishii & Orange Cassidy w/ CHAOS vs. The Butcher & The Blade w/ Hardy Family Office (Dynamite 11/17/21)
- Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia w/ 2point0 (Rampage 11/26/21)
- Bryan Danielson vs. Anthony Bowens w/ Max Caster (Rampage 11/5/21)
- Bryan Danielson vs. Evil Uno (Dynamite 11/17/21)
- Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana w/ Dark Order (Dynamite 11/24/21)
- PAC vs. Dax Harwood w/ Cash Wheeler (Dynamite 11/10/21)
- Ethan Page vs. Fuego del Sol (Dark 11/30/21)
- AEW World Tag Team Title: The Lucha Bros [c] w/ Alex Abrahantes vs. FTR w/ Tully Blanchard (Full Gear 11/13/21)
- AAA Tag Team Title: FTR [c] w/ Tully Blanchard vs. Samuray del Sol & Aero Star (Dynamite 11/3/21)
- John Silver w/ Alex Reynolds vs. Adam Cole w/ The Young Bucks (Rampage 11/5/21)
- Dante Martin w/ Lio Rush vs. Ariya Daivari (Rampage 11/12/21)
- TBS Championship Tournament – Quarterfinal: Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose (Dynamite 11/17/21)
- Darby Allin w/ Sting vs. Billy Gunn w/ The Gunn Club (Rampage 11/19/21)
Dark Matches Worth Noting
- Kris Statlander & Ryo Mizunami vs. Nyla Rose & Emi Sakura w/ Vickie Guerrero and Lulu Pencil (Dark: Elevation 11/1/21)
- FTR w/ Tully Blanchard vs. Waves & Curls (Dark: Elevation 11/1/21)
- Tony Nese vs. Fuego del Sol (Dark 11/2/21)
- Powerhouse Hobbs w/ Hook vs. Danny Adams (Dark: Elevation 11/8/21)
- Ruby Soho & Ryo Mizunami vs. Nyla Rose & Emi Sakura w/ Lulu Pencil and Mei Suruga (Dark: Elevation 11/8/21)
- Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver & Alex Reynolds w/ Colt Cabana vs. The Acclaimed & 2point0 (Dark: Elevation 11/8/21)
- Too Fast Too Fuego vs. Aaron Solo & Nick Comoroto (Dark 11/9/21)
- Matt Sydal & Lee Moriarty w/ Mike Sydal vs. 2point0 (Dark 11/9/21)
- Tay Conti w/ Anna Jay vs. Miranda Gordy (Dark 11/9/21)
- Ruby Soho w/ Billy Roc vs. Charlie Kruel (Dark: Elevation 11/15/21)
- John Silver vs. QT Marshall (Dark: Elevation 11/15/21)
- Riho, Kris Statlander & Ryo Mizunami vs. Nyla Rose, The Bunny & Emi Sakura w/ Vickie Guerrero, Lulu Pencil and Mei Suruga (Dark 11/16/21)
- Riho vs. Trish Adora (Dark: Elevation 11/22/21)
- Wheeler Yuta vs. Serpentico (Dark: Elevation 11/22/21)
- Wardlow vs. Rolando Perez (11/23/21)
- Lee Moriarty vs. Nick Comoroto (Dark 11/23/21)
- Tony Nese vs. Vic Capri (Dark: Elevation 11/29/21)
- Infinito vs. Ray Jaz (Dark 11/30/21)
- Matt Hardy & Jora Johl vs. Baron Black & Prince Agballah (Dark 11/30/21)
Best Angles and Promos
- CM Punk on Jon Moxley’s recovery and Eddie Kingston (Dynamite 11/3/21)
- CM Punk/Eddie Kingston confrontation (Rampage 11/5/21)
- CM Punk/Eddie Kingston video package (Dynamite 11/10/21)
- Hangman Page warns The Young Bucks (Rampage 11/12/21)
- Bryan Danielson interrupts Hangman Page’s Celebration (Dynamite 11/17/21)
- MJF’s promo after Full Gear (Dynamite 11/17/21)
- CM Punk interrupts MJF (Dynamite 11/17/21)
- Team Taz promo on Lio Rush and Dante Martin (Rampage 11/19/21)
- CM Punk/MJF in-ring promo (Dynamite 11/24/21)
- Daniel Garcia and 2point0 interrupt Eddie Kingston (Dynamite 11/24/21)
- Hangman Page interrupts Bryan Danielson (Dynamite 11/24/21)
Areas of Excellence
- The setups for Punk/Eddie (11/3 and 11/5) and Punk/MJF (11/17 and 11/24)
- The handling of Jon Moxley’s recovery announcement
- Not publicly firing 15 people every quarter
- How the Rosa/Hayter semis in the TBS Tournament organically ran into the Baker/Conti build
- Bryan Danielson is just doing all sorts of wrestling.
- I like The Acclaimed.
- The integration of the concept of CHAOS (11/10) was so casual.
- The catchphrase power of “IT’S TIIIIME… FOR THE MAIN EVENT!”
- Nyla Rose, The Tournament Spoiler
- Beefs lay dormant but stick around (i.e.: Taz/Punk, Miro/God)
Favorite Parts
- Eddie Kingston knocks down CM Punk with a backfist (11/13)
- Hangman Page coldly warns The Young Bucks (11/12)
- ARN AND TULLY (11/24)!!!!
- Tomohiro Ishii and The Butcher throw hands (11/17)
- Eddie Kingston does a promo from catering (11/24)
- Dante Martin accepts Hook’s potato chips (11/24)
- Bear Country Electric Chair Drops themselves into Wardlow’s finisher (11/30)
- Chris Jericho chooses Dan Lambert for the Full Gear 10-man tag (11/3)
- Nyla Rose counters a Julia Hart crossbody with a chop to the stomach (11/29)
- Ariya Daivari goes head-to-head with 205 Live AND gets one of the first mid-match “A-E-W” chants (11/12)
Favorite Things
- Thunder Rosa’s pops
- John Silver’s spinning Liger Bomb near fall on Adam Cole (11/5)
- Colt Cabana’s moonsault near fall on Bryan Danielson (11/24)
- Wardlow’s toss of small Rolando Perez (11/23)
- Dark Order’s tag team run (11/8)
- Lee Johnson and Max Caster’s double kip-up (11/23)
- Infinito’s Airplane Spin (11/30)
- Dani Jordyn’s Burn Book (11/30)
- Santana’s powerbomb (11/29)
- The start of Matt Hardy’s theme song
Opportunities for Improvement
- What is with all the Conchair-to’s? Stop it.
- The MJF/Darby build could’ve used the blood that the Omega/Page build didn’t need
- Cody…
- The Pinnacle, Death Triangle, Andrade and everybody else stuff leans more confusing than complex.
- Sometimes I think Luther has it figured it out, then he bumps over the top rope (11/29)
- Cody Rhodes…
- Tony Nese’s WWE theme knockoff needs a lot more work.
- Maybe Just move on from American Top Team, yeah.
- Cody, I thought I followed your whole thing. I don’t know that I do anymore.
- Also, Jay Lethal?
HWL’s AEW Power Rankings: 11/1/21 – 11/30/21
- Hangman Page [7]
- Bryan Danielson [-]
- Britt Baker [-]
- MJF [5]
- CM Punk [New]
- Eddie Kingston [New]
- Darby Allin [6]
- Sammy Guevara [-]
- Thunder Rosa [New]
- Jungle Boy [New]
HWL’s AEW Movers & Shakers: 11/1/21 – 11/30/21
- Kenny Omega and Adam Cole and The Young Bucks
- PAC and The Lucha Bros
- Cody Rhodes
- FTR
- Andrade el Idolo and Malakai Black
- Lio Rush and Dante Martin
- Jamie Hayter
- Chris Jericho
- Miro
- Orange Cassidy
HWL’s Dark All-Stars: 11/1/21 – 11/30/21
- The Acclaimed
- Santana & Ortiz
- Emi Sakura
- Fuego del Sol
- The Dark Order
- Riho
- Wardlow
- Matt Sydal
- Kris Statlander
- Daniel Garcia and 2point0
