Reunited, and... | AEWeekly #183

Welcome to the #AEWeekly review discussion where PWM contributors reflect on the highlights of the last week in AEW. The eligibility week always includes the most recent episode of Dynamite and Collision, plus any social-media exclusives up until publication.

This week’s contributors are Abel [@loza3.bsky.social] covering Match of the Week, Sachin [@sachin0mac.bsky.social] talking Best Interview, and Emiliana [@emilianartb.bsky.social] giving us the MVP of the Week and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] editing and organizing it all, and this week only: also Story Beat.

 A page of links to prior installments may be found here: #AEWeekly

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Old Bucks

"...it feels so good!"

by Sergei.

This story goes all the way back to a previous hug almost two years ago when Christian Cage told his recently-debuted erstwhile parter: "Go Fuck Yourself!" Back then it was clear, to me at least, that the idea was to set up a singles feud for a time and delay, not deny, an eventual nostalgic reunion and one last tag-division run. Which raises the question: did they pull it off convincingly?

After all, Christian Cage is still at least mostly a heel, he hasn't really lived up to Adam Copeland's recent callback exhortation: "Go find yourself." This reunion certainly doesn't have the layers to feel as earned as the slow rapprochement between Hangman and Swerve. One could make the case that this clinch was an unearned cheap appeal to nostalgia.

But in my view, this development works in spite of everything and there are two big reasons for that. The first of these is predator pressure. There is nothing to get two characters semi-reluctantly on the same page better than needing one another's help. Both of them each having a violent dispute going on with two different pairs of guys accomplishes two things at once: it gives them strong motive to overlook any lingering differences, and it sets them up with two tag-team feuds from the jump.

The most important reason, though, is decades of history.

You and I have history, or don't you remember?

It makes rational sense that Adam Copeland still wouldn't (and maybe shouldn't!) trust or forgive Christian Cage. And it makes rational sense that Cage might still feel that teaming with Copeland might hold him back, both in the sense of potentially overshadowing him, and in the sense of limiting his (villainous) tactical options. But people don't always make rational choices when weighed in the balance with decades of history and nostalgia.

I'm really looking forward to what the future holds for this reunited pair.

Brody King, Hologram, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiromu Takahashi vs The Don Callis Family & The Young Bucks

"The Forbidden Door has officially been opened."

by Abel.

There has been a lot of online discourse about Tony Khan's booking of All-Star tag team matches. The critics have said it's too often, and there is no story behind them. That couldn't be further from the truth. Each All-Star tag match has its purpose and also highlights one of the best aspects of AEW: the variety of wrestling. Styles make fights, and that is why All-Star tag team matches hit more often than they miss:  Strong style, a giant, a technician, innovators,  high flyers, hybrid, and everything in between are in the ring at the same time. GIVE ME MORE ALL-STAR TAGS!

All those styles plus more were represented on this week's Dynamite, which is why this week's 8-man tag – Brody King, Hologram, Tomohiro Ishii & surprise-announcement Hiromu Takahashi vs Kyle Fletcher and Josh Alexander with The Young Bucks, was the match of the week.  

From the get-go, there was an element of surprise and intrigue to the match – until his music hit, all we knew about the mystery fourth opponent for the Don Callis Family was: a New Japan Wrestling star & "the best of the best." That star turned out to be Hiromu Takahashi, genuinely one of the very best of NJPW as advertised, and one who blended perfectly with this style of match. Takahashi uses every part of his body and every part of the ring to his advantage, and moves so fast that it almost feels as though there are two of him in the ring.

There hadn't been much "forbidden" in the build to this year's version of the Forbidden Door pay-per-view up to now; however, Takahashi's appearance and his subsequent win made it official that he will be competing there for the TNT title against Fletcher.

This match makes two weeks in a row now that Brody King and the Young Bucks have been part of the Match of the Week, as they have become staples in this category. King continues to show off his incredible strength and agility – I mean, his Topes Suicida are unhinged – and will continue to be part of Tony Khan's larger picture as long as he can keep wrestling at this pace and quality. Even King's taking and selling moves look incredible.  Brody being dumped out of the ring into a Meltzer Driver from Fletcher and Nick Jackson was a stunning visual, but more importantly, a great way to neutralize the big man and remove him from the match for a while. This allowed the Don Callis Family to take over the match and highlight their side of the ring. 

For the Young Bucks, it seems as though they might have turned a corner with this “loser/jobber” gimmick. Their stereo superkicks to Justin Roberts was a way to keep the Young Bucks' edge and a way for them to fight back against both the company and the crowd. This may turn out to have been the turning point to the boys getting back some of their mojo at Forbidden Door.

This match helped continue the build to what should be an excellent PPV, and finally gave it that crossover feel that we hadn't seen for this year's edition. 

The Hurt Syndicate 

“I feel hurt.”

by Sachin.

Note: This is not the interview of the week because it was good objectively but rather because it pissed me off a great deal.

The passage of time goes by pretty quick. Each day you move further away from your dreams and closer to your death. The ideas and thoughts that had shaped you turn out to be false propaganda engineered by people much smarter (and more evil) than you to keep your mind diverted away from their shady dealings and corrupt schemes. By the time you get a rude awakening and start to realise what's going on, you come to the conclusion that not much can be done. You become cynical, start to feel lonely, get overwhelmed easily and become alienated.

However, as long as your life goes uninterrupted, you are… fine. As long as my Wi-Fi is running smoothly, the food guy keeps delivering, electricity is stable and the Magic Screen keeps showing my favourite pictures — I AM FINE. From time to time you'll like and repost a tweet that tackles issues you wish you had the willpower to fight for, but ultimately you never do anything to contribute to the cause and you just keep being what you are. You are used to your own misery and too apathetic to help anyone out with theirs.

But from time to time you realise just how shitty this world is. It could be anything. For me, it's usually a terrible piece of news that makes my head turn away from the screen… leaving me alone with my thoughts (a terrible place). However, this time it wasn't a real world event that made me feel an unutterable rage towards everything… No, it was in fact something that happened in the fake world of pro-wrestling that jolted me out of my kyphosis-inducing posture, and made me pace around the room and start mumbling to myself.

When The Hurt Syndicate were introduced I was skeptical far more than others as to whether they would be able to keep up… after all, the combined age of this group is 150 years old. But Sheldon’s singles run made me decide to change my mind. Then Bobby came into the fold and destroyed Swerve Strickland, who was fresh off his world-champion run, in his first PPV match in AEW. I didn't like it, but I figured Swerve would get his win back and it'd be fine. NOPE. Shortly after that I started to sour on the Hurt Syndicate. They weren't having any good matches, they buried their opponents for no purpose, the tag division felt stale, and the whole act seemed like a net negative to me.

But then magic happened. It was like capturing lighting in a bottle. Oh what an enthralling start to a roller coaster of a story, huh. MJF meets MVP. Max looks at Montavious. Montavious looks at Max. And then… they hug?! Turns out they had been friends all along off television and because of their totally real friendship MVP offers Max a chance to join HS. But later it turns out Bobby and Sheldon don't want MJF. And thus starts the months-long (felt like years) journey of typical MJF segments that lasted about 20 minutes and built to answer one question – is it going to be thumbs up or thumbs down? Prostitutes were brought in, acts of bribery were committed (to show that MJF can be trusted) and then MJF was trusted, and then … Nothing happened, and then MJF was out of the Hurt Syndicate. 

What the Fuck. 

This week MVP addressed the drama in this enthralling Interview of the week (Quote of the week really), saying:

“Drama? What drama? No, there's been no drama.

Gentlemen, you know, of any drama?

Just the drama that the idiots drum up in the internet world, perhaps.”

Ah yes after months of putting out dogshit matches and a storyline that was a complete waste of time, the time has now come to call the fans idiots and gaslight them by saying “it's all in your head bro. Go touch the grass.” No. Fuck you. MVP strikes me as someone who must have really supported the HHH promo in 2014 where he mocked the fans for complaining and then Raw was down 3 million viewers the next week. (Here's the clip, btw.)

This entire storyline was built for months and months and anytime I saw anyone complain anywhere they got the response “let it play out” … “the payoff is going to be worth it”.

Well there you go. That's the payoff. One backstage segment to kick MJF out of Hurt Syndicate, another to confirm it and then this one to deny that anything ever happened. Cool bro. 

I guess that's the average experience on the delulu ride. Nothing ever happens and yet a substantial amount of time has been wasted and you are worse off than before, closer to death and further away from your dreams. 

Weird thing is that I stopped watching after MJF did the sex trafficking segment, but it's hard not to know what's going on as you do end up catching this stuff in parts through social media. I can't imagine the disappointment that must be felt by people who actually watched the whole thing. But then again perhaps they are still waiting for it to play out and hoping the pay off will be worth it. 

Kris Statlander

"Wallflower"

by Emiliana.

Kris Statlander is a really divisive character in wrestling right now. You either love her and are willing to put logic aside in defense of her in-ring performances (which are always stellar), or you’re clowning on her out-of-ring character for being inconsistent and confusing. The truth is, this is probably a good argument that goes either way. But what does your heart tell you? I know how I feel.

Stat put on a great performance in a multi-woman line up on Collision this past week, but that was a given. What I’ve slowly been enjoying more and more as the weeks go on is this anti-hero type schtick she’s pulling. Because she doesn’t really fit in anywhere right now. She’s not a babyface, she’s not a heel. The crowd loves her, but she doesn’t care what they have to think. She is constantly teasing the babyface women’s roster like a girl who is just…lonely, and doesn’t know how to cultivate relationships with others.

And I guess that’s where the Death Riders come in. We’ve seen Yuta giving her cheeky little grins, Marina taunting her behind Yuta’s shoulders, and perhaps most arousingly of all — Jon Moxley circling her, dropping nuggets of wisdom, and most recently – congratulating her on her win. Whether she believes what he says or not, the truth is – the Death Riders are the only ones paying attention to her. Maybe I’m projecting, but it’s easy to fall prey to a cult when you’re a wallflower that nobody in the locker room likes. Your former best friend hates you, nobody else could give a shit about you, and your reaction to it all is to just piss them all off even more.

I’m not sure where this leads, but hell if I’m not intrigued. She’s been doing great work, in spite of the last 1.5 years where her character has not made much sense. This feels like she’s sewing the past and the present versions of her together, and I think that it’s working.