Before I start, I want to give my congratulations and best wishes to the Hardy family – Matt and Rebecca having announced on Friday evening that they’re expecting a baby girl!
With that being said, it’s been a bittersweet week in the AEW universe but no less full of joy than we’d hoped. Generally our week starts with the genius that is BTE and Sammy’s Vlog. These are usually filmed at the previous week’s tapings, but given that last week was Brodie Lee’s tribute show it’s understandable that people’s hearts weren’t in it.
Because of this, on Sammy’s Vlog we got an awesome roundup of 2020 with some of the familiar faces from the vlog telling us their favourite moments and then Sammy finished things up with a lovely tribute to Brodie telling the story of when they first met. BTE started with a tribute package for Brodie, followed by a speech from Eddie Kingston backstage before Brodie’s tribute, all topped off with a shot of Dark Order and Adam Page sat in the Dark Order lair in silence. The first six and a half minutes of this episode, yet again, had me a blubbering mess of tears. There were a couple of short bits that followed, but the episode ended off with the premier of Mikey Rukus’ Ghost Town. The song is fantastic, the music video is brilliant and it was a refreshing way to finish off the episode.
AEW Games 2.Show was the first in what seems to be playing out as a series of announcement shows with game updates, the debut episode starring Kip Sabian. Kip and Kenny went through a series of frequently asked questions ranging from game style to announce dates ect, but the big news we got was that the Double or Nothing Cassino mobile game will be out at some point in the next 60 days. Whether that 60 days was from this wednesday or last wednesday when the show was set to debut hasn’t been made clear but either way I’m looking forward to it, it should be a fun way to pass some time.
Before we get to the wrestling though, this week’s AEW Unrestricted featured the one and only STIIIIIIIIIIING!!! Sting goes into his history in wrestling, living the Monday Night Wars and how he first met Tony Khan and eventually joined AEW. He talks about why he’s here and what he wants to get from his time with AEW. It was a great interview and as someone who was too young to remember Sting’s early work, it was great hearing him talk through everything.
Highlights of the Week
Dark:
Tuesday night we had a huge 16 match card with the episode clocking in at just short of two and a half hours. Not a single match or segment disappointed. No matter what style of wrestling you enjoy, there was something there to tickle your fancy. I can’t even cover a third of the episode today and narrowing this down has been really difficult; ranking my top 5 has been even harder.
5) Ivelisse and Diamonte vs KiLynn King and Tesha Price
If you follow me on twitter, you’re already more than aware of my love of tag team wrestling and when you get awesome women’s tag matches like this I just can’t get enough. Diamante and Ivelisse are absolutely fantastic in singles or tag action, and turns out Kilynn King and Tesha Price are equally as good in tag competition together as they are in singles. The match started off hot right out the gate with Price and King turning the dial up to 11 from the moment the bell rang. The tables quickly turned and although King and Price worked well together, Diamante and Ivelisse maintained control for the majority of the rest of the match. King got the ‘hot tag’ and ran wild before getting caught in a variation of Diamante’s arm lock submission and was forced to tap out. It was a heck of a lot of fun with some really talented women and even though they were in control for the majority of the match, Ivelisse and Diamante helped make King and Price look absolutely brilliant.
4) Jungle Boy vs Nick Comoroto
Jungle Boy came out to Tarzan Boy by Baltimora: Comoroto looked brilliant; Jungle Boy sold to his heart’s content; and after a fantastic match got he Comoroto locked into a jaw lock submission for the win. But. Jungle Boy came out to Tarzan Boy. It was perfect.
Turns out that Tony Khan has purchased the rights to the song for Jungle Boy as a christmas present.
I love this company.
3) Rey Fenix vs Aaron Solow
I don’t think I’ve seen a Fenix or Solow match recently that I haven’t loved every second of. Both of these men are so unbelievably talented it actually hurts. The second I saw this on the card I knew this was going to be a great match but even then it seems I underestimated just how good this was going to be. Fenix and Solow were really evenly matched, neither one being able to maintain control for long with a back and forth that gave us some great false finishes. Fenix did manage to get the win leading into his title match with Omega but Solow looked like an absolute star having managed to kick out of some devastating moves. It was a DDTish move from Fenix followed by a Fire Thunder Driver that finally ended the night for Solow, though with a fight like that under his belt it’s only a matter of time before he finally gets his first win.
2) Fuego Del Sol vs Danny Limelight
Having seen Limelight vs Rey Fenix last week, I just knew going into this that stylistically this was a fantastic match up and the match lived up to the bar set. No, Fuego and Limelight aren’t on Fenix’s level, but seeing the improvement they have both made over their time on Dark has been fantastic and they’re both going to be on that level before we know it. The match itself was brilliant with both of them showcasing their agility, athleticism and skill and looked phenomenal.
1) -1 and Marko Stunt
Despite the top notch wrestling the night was filled with, my top moment from Dark this week has to be handed to Brodie Lee Jr himself, -1, coming face to face with Marko Stunt. This kid has so much confidence and at 8 years old is already a killer on the mic and the brawl that followed was one of the most strangely heartwarming things I’ve seen in a long time. Amanda Huber has taken to social media to say that the footage airing was a surprise and I can only imagine the smile it put on little Brodie’s face watching Dark this week and seeing himself out there like that. I said this earlier, but I love this company.
Dynamite:
Well what can I say about this week’s Dynamite other than ‘wow’? How is every Dynamite the best Dynamite? From start to finish this show was absolutely fantastic with wins I could never have imagined, amazing promo’s, phenomenal wrestling, Snoop, the whole thing was just brilliant. An A+ Show if I’ve ever seen one. Every single moment hit home exactly how it was meant to, every single segment paid off and it was a night of dream matches. You really can’t ask for much more than that.
Oh, and the new TNT title was debued!
5) Young Bucks and SCU vs TH2 and The Acclaimed
Going into this, the possibility that Young Bucks and SCU would lose never crossed my mind, not even for a second. During the match though, I certainly had my moments of doubt. At one point on commentary, Jericho said they just “flip, flop and fly everywhere” and I honestly couldn’t have put it better myself; The athleticism, agility and pure skill of every one of the eight men was incredible. I absolutely love it when Dynamite starts hot out the gate with matches like this, it’s high energy, high impact and gets the crowd buzzing for the rest of the night. The match was followed by an awesome promo by Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels who reiterated the stipulation laid down on dark a couple of weeks ago: The next time Kaz and CD lose as a tag team, they’re done as a tag team. Forever.
4) Mox is back!
Angry babyface promo’s always have been and always will be my favourite type of promo, put Mox behind the mic and it’s like a dream. The man is a god. The passion, the fire, the grit and the determination to get his revenge was almost palpable and he did so while majorly putting over Fenix and the Main Event. The best bit about promo’s like this though is the fact you can tell Moxley is loving every single second of it. I’ll leave the fantasy booking for another night, but I cannot wait to see where this path of revenge against Omega takes him.
3) Hager vs Wardlow
This is a match we’ve all been waiting for since these two giants first locked eyes. I have been excited for the potential this match had but with my general dislike for ‘big man’ fights I was somewhat tentative with how hyped I let myself get for this. With this taken into account though, I would happily like to announce how unnecessary and pointless my hesitation was. This match was everything and more than we wanted it to be. Given Hagers undefeated status in MMA, the idea of Wardlow getting the pin hadn’t even crossed my mind, but after a brutal war of attrition, a Senton Atomico from Wardow (which still has me gobsmacked every time I see him do it) followed by a beautiful F10 got him the win. I am very happy for the Ladies Demo God.
2) Shida vs Abadon
It’s been stated repeatedly how little AEW has done with their Women’s division since its creation, but I have to say the last couple of months has definitely been a step in the right direction and I’m absolutely loving this Shida/Abadon feud. I love the backstage stuff, I love the booking, I love the story telling, and I’m really excited to see what else AEW has in store for it’s Women’s division. The match itself was, in my opinion, one of Shida’s best title defenses and Abadon is absolutely terrifying. The spot under the ring was brilliantly done and I love that this living dead girl is just eating people mid match. I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I know there are people out there who literally can’t watch Abadon but I dig it, and I can’t wait to see more. Shida retained here but I think (hope?) this feud is far from over.
1) Kenny Omega vs Rey Fenix… And everything else…
I’ve watched this match four or five times now and every single time I can’t keep my eyes off the screen and notes just.. Don’t happen. As fantastic as the match was though (and it really was fantastic, I preferred it to their AAA title match in 2019), what followed was so much better.
Omega wins the match and on Callis’ order is about to give Fenix one last One Winged Angel to finish off the night when Mox runs down with his trusty barbed wire baseball bat and attacks Kenny. Okay, this is a pretty cool end. But no, then Gallows and Anderson debut! They lay down the law and beat the lights out of Mox. The guys from Dark run in to try and regain some order only to be absolutely dominated by the Good Brothers and Omega. Matt and Nick Jackson run down to try and figure out what’s going on. But then Omega does the sign. Gallows and Anderson do the sign. All that’s left is Matt and Nick. Will they? Won’t then?
Then it actually happened.
