IT’S WEDNESDAY NIGHT. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!
Heya folks! Has it been a week already? I really feel like AEW should have taken this week off so we could all have seven extra days to absorb that Thunder Rosa/Britt Baker match from last week. My heart eyes haven’t even gone away yet and they expect me to watch a full two hours of amazing, non-stop wrestling action? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a do it but everything may be covered with a red love-tint! Speaking of love, did you happen to catch AEW Dark and Elevation this week? Alison did and she wrote all about it! AEW is well on their way to taking over the wrestling world and lucky us! We’re all here for it! If you missed last week (were you living under a rock?!?) here’s a recap to the festivities. Alright, now that we’re all caught up, let’s jump into this week’s episode and hoo-boy, was it fun!
POP: A Bourne Identity Crisis
Because AEW likes to be efficient with their minutes, we jump right in to the action with an AEW World Championship match between Kenny Omega and, for some reason, Matt Sydal. Let’s send it to Justin Roberts for our Kenny Facts this week:
The man who has not lost a singles match in 571 days
The man with 16 straight singles victories
The only man with two AEW singles victories over Jon Moxley
He was voted 2020 Outstanding Wrestler of the year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as well as a 2020 inductee into their hall of fame
He is 2-0 in singles competition versus Matt Sydal which includes a 2015 NJPW Junior Heavyweight Title defense which took place in Japan and not…. NOOOOORTH CAROLINAA
He is a humanitarian Good Brother and for 112 days now, he is the reigning and some say greatest AEW World Champion of all time
*Cue the sweeper girls*
Sidenote, I love that the sweeper girls come out through the face entrance tunnel even though Kenny Omega and Callis come out the heel entrance tunnel. It’s just a great aesthetic because EVERYONE loves the Sweeper Girls.
Callis calling Sydal a young, up and comer being immediately followed by Jim Ross showing utter disdain by pointing out that Omega is younger than Sydal is just fantastic. I love how much JR hates Don Callis. Give me more of old man JR calling Don Callis an idiot. Matt and Kenny have a hell of a back and forth. I’ll be honest, Sydal got way more offense in than I expected since he hasn’t been groomed as a main event star in AEW. I mean, he pinned a guy who literally had his pants down to win a shot at Omega. Anyway….at one point, they show Mike Sydal on the outside and he’s smiling as big as can be. This while Matt was getting beat up. He’s not a Good Brother. Kenny hits three different V-trigger knees at the end to set up a One-Winged Angel and that’s all she wrote for young upstart, Matt Sydal.
Marvez catches up with Johnny Hungee (Hungy? Hungie? Hungi?) and the rest of the Dark Order (including a random cowboy at the bar) in the back. Silver has his TNT title match with Darby tonight and the Dark Order shows he’s ready by doing trust falls at Silver (that they call coffin drops) and Silver just moves out of the way. New champion confirmed. Page comes up to make sure Silver isn’t nervous and tells him the Dark Order will be proud of him no matter what happens.
POP: Anyone Got a Good Recipe for Cowboy Squash?
Speaking of Hangman Adam Page, he comes out next to face Cezar Bononi, who received the jobber entrance this week. Bononi is a huge man. Hangman doesn’t care though and goes after him. He Hogan sells a chop from Cezar and then immediately tries to bodyslam him like it was Wrestlemania III. One Buckshot Lariat later and Hogan is the new cham– I mean, Hangman beats Cezar.
We find Lance Archer in a dilapidated warehouse. He puffs up Sting by saying he’s the reason there is a Murderhawk Monster and how much he’s always looked up to him. He holds up Sting’s bat and says it used to stand for justice and people would pay attention to Sting but that now people are going to pay attention to Archer and remember him. He’s coming for Sting, y’all!
TNT shows us Thunder Rosa’s post-match promo last week where she says she put women’s wrestling on the map. Tony shows up on the ramp with my hero and yours, Dr. Britt Baker, DMD who is wearing her brand new, absolutely beautiful t-shirt. Buy it here! – Britt Baker – Main Event Role Model (shopaew.com) She immediately cuts a promo on the audience and snatches the mic from Tony. She goes in on Thunder Rosa first and then yells at Mick Foley saying it took him 20 years to be a hardcore legend and it took her one night. She calls herself a legend and says she put AEW on the map even though AEW isn’t as important as the most important three letters in wrestling-D.M.D. She’s the truth.
The sneaky cameraman finds Christian Cage in the back having a discussion with Griff Garrison, Brian Pillman (Jr) and Dante Martin. When Frankie Kazarian shows up to accuse Cage of not even saying hi to him, Christian says he’s giving tag team advice to Dante and the Blonds. Dude hasn’t even wrestled a tag team match (or any match!) and is already pretending he knows how to tag team. At any rate, we get Cage challenging Kazarian for next week and Frankie accepts!
BOTCH: Say Nothing, Do Nothing
Speaking of Dante and the Blonds, they’re up next against The Pinnacle. This version of The Pinnacle is FTR and Shawn Spears. It’s interrupted by a commercial break but that actually broke up a pretty boring trios match. It ends with Spears hitting a C4 on Dante for the win. They kick Martin out of the ring with Griff then Wardlow grabs Pillman and throws him onto the top turnbuckle. The camera angle was terrible but I think he yanked him down into a knee? I’m not 100% sure but it apparently killed Pillman.
Tony Schiavone is in the ring but Cash takes the mic and says he will die for The Pinnacle. In a great moment, he gives the mic to Dax who forces Tony to hold it. He cuts an impassioned promo about family. There is a theme here regarding The Pinnacle being family. MJF then cuts a promo on Jericho who challenges The Inner Circle to come out. Tony defends the IC but MJF gets in his face about it and give him a little slappy-slap.
The five members of Team Taz are hanging out in the back. Taz explains that Brian Cage apologized to the entire team and specifically Ricky Starks. Cage gives quite the confusing looks throughout but says he’s good. Actually he says “Who’s better?” but clearly he doesn’t know that it’s Kanyon.
We find Schiavone back on the ramp with a microphone and QT Marshall this time. Marshall points out his wife who he has known since they were 8 years old. He mentions that he outworks everyone (ooooh, Christiaaaan) except Tony Kahn himself. He’s upset about being labeled Cody’s friend and living in his shadow, which quickly starts a “Cody’s Friend!” chant so QT challenges Cody to a friendly exhibition so he can prove he’s not just Cody’s Friend but that he can hang with the best in AEW. Surprisingly, this brings out Cody (complete with shoulder sling!) who says his heart isn’t into this but he’ll accept the exhibition match and Arn Anderson can be the referee. Cody patronizes him for a bit then calls QT not just a friend, but possibly his best friend. Is this how friendlies start in soccer, too?
POP: Trio’s a Crowd
Burgeoning superstar Rey Fenix and his Lucha Bro, Penta El Zero M, found the Laredo Kid somewhere down in Texas and brought him to Tampa to fight the Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler. I’m telling you, I’m still all in on Rey Fenix – Superstar, and that’s just from their entrance. The man just makes me want to wear denim and a lucha mask. Don’t judge me. I’m not a big fan of Brandon Cutler, I’m warming up to the Bucks of Youth and I’m a big fan of the Lucha Bros. I don’t know nearly enough of Laredo Kid to form an opinion. I like that he shits all over Brandon Cutler when they get face to face. I also notice he has the same tattoo on his left shoulder blade as Rey Fenix. That’s it, that does it. I’m a fan of Laredo Kid. The way these guys all go after each other reminds me of WCW’s cruisers back in the 90s. Just incredible. Laredo Kid ends it with a sick Spanish Fly on Cutler and holy shit, what a burner of a match this was. I am tired just from watching.
Kenny Omega jumps Laredo Kid from behind because he heard I like him now. Damn you, Kenny. DAMN YOU! I’ll never forgive you for this. Kenny hits the Bucks with a promo about how he didn’t choose AEW, he chose the Young Bucks in their quest to make this the best wrestling action on the damn planet. Kenny rightfully points out that he chose the Bucks and they chose Brandon freakin’ Cutler. He tries to get them to do the Two Sweet and Young Bucks and Cutler walk out. The Lucha Bros hit Kenny from behind with a vicious double superkick and then a spike piledriver wherein the spike was actually Rey stomping on Kenny’s butthole and balls from the top rope. My 13 year old nephew is still confused as to why a guy would treat another guy that way.
TONY KAHN LOVES ME! He gives me more Eddie and Moxley hanging out. This time they’re in what appears to be an RV. Moxley with his leather jacket and sunglasses indoors is just SO cool. Eddie Kingston saying anything is my favorite. Eddie is in a cast with his broken ankle. He threatens the hell out of the Good Brothers and Kenny Omega. Moxley takes over the promo to ask if the Good Brothers are willing to take it to a further level than he and Eddie. He then goes in on the Bucks and if I get Mox/Kingston as tag champs, Tony Kahn, I don’t know what I can give you as a possible token of thanks but DUDE. You just let me know what I have to do if it ever happens.
BOTCH: Dark Order, My Ass
Nyla Rose comes out to face Tay Conti. When Conti comes out, the Dark Order appears to throw their support behind Tay. Conti and Nyla actually have a pretty good match. This Botch, however, goes to the post-match shenanigans. Vickie and Nyla jump Conti after she wins with a hammerlock DDT (which Nyla took beautifully). Hikaru Shida storms out in my favorite outfit of hers, the all-white power suit. She drills Nyla with the kendo stick. This brings out The Bunny (?) who smashes the kendo over Shida and the heels continue to beat up Shida and Conti. Matt Hardy, the Butcher and the Blade show up and Hardy promotes The Bunny as the future of the Women’s Division. He even has the gall to say the AEW Women’s Eliminator Tournament was a sham. YOU’RE A SHAM, MATT HARDY! Sooooo, can anyone tell me what happened to the Dark Order? Why wouldn’t they come out and save Tay? That would’ve went a hell of a lot further in recruitment, I’ll tell you that much! I’m disappointed in you, guys.
POP: So Long, John Silver
First, let me clear up the obvious confusion above. This match is an absolute Pop. John Silver getting hurt and being out for awhile sucks. I hope they keep him around for vignettes and whatnot because dude is hilarious. I think we all knew the outcome of this match going in. One of my favorite moments of the match was Silver hitting a spinning back elbow on Darby that knocked him to the outside of the ring. Silver’s urgency and Darby’s selling made the move look absolutely vicious…especially after the match had started so slow and plodding. It was a great contrast in styles. Naturally, the Dark Order got involved (ish…Darby actually hit them first). Sting came out to fight after Silver hit a back suplex on Darby after jacking up his left shoulder diving over the rail. .
Another one of my favorite moments was Excalibur giving credit to Anna Jay when Silver locked Allin in the Queen Slayer submission. Seriously, how many times have you ever heard someone give a woman credit for a move? It was small but so cool. This match was overall a high spot of the show. Darby winning on a Code Red instead of a more definitive Coffin Drop was great. Silver looked like a million dollars and gutted through a match way longer than he needed to for our entertainment. The Matt Hardy empire attacked after the match but Darby, Sting and the Dark Order (including Tay Conti!) were able to prevail as TNT switched over to Tarzan or whatever. Does the TNT Champion get to decide when it cuts to Tarzan? Is that the biggest perk (besides the new belt, which is 10x better than the old one) of being champ?!? Now I want to be TNT champ so I can switch it over when Brandon Cutler shows up.
Man, wrestling is awesome. AEW is doing things that hit me a certain type of way and in ways that they haven’t in years. This show was great top to bottom even if we had to go another week without Chris Jericho. Or a Miro match. But the good news is, Tony Kahn gave me what I want with Mox and Kingston but hey, you give me an inch and I’ll take a mile as I’m now demanding Mr. Kahn PLEASE give Mox and Kingston a run with the tag strap. INJECT IT IN MY VEINS, TONY!
Anyway, that was fun! Can’t wait to see where these stories lead and what actually comes from them! That’s it for me today! Enjoy your week everyone! Feel free to leave a comment below (good or bad, I’ll answer them all!) and share the column with your friends, family and followers. And seriously, join the Discord for good talk with good people. Wrestling united!
