Be Elite | AEWeekly #184

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] with the Moment of the Week, and Emiliana [@emilianartb.bsky.social] giving us the MVP of the Week and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] editing and organizing it all.

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

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Adam Page vs MJF

"How ‘bout that Cowboy!?!"

by Abel.

Forbidden Door 2025 was another great Pay-Per-View for All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling, one in a long line of PPVs that have been the best bang for your buck in professional wrestling. The highlight match of the night was the one that pitted the Day 1 protagonist vs the Day 1 antagonist of the young company: "Hangman" Adam Page versus Maxwell Jacob Friedman III. The win for the Cowboy puts him up 2-1 in all-time singles matchups against MJF. 

From the very get-go, the London crowd – which was hot all night – was into the fight. Chanting “Cowboy shit” and “dada da da da da-ing” MJF's entrance song the entire time. This World title bout had a big-fight feel, and "technically" was the main event, since the last match of the night was unsanctioned. 

Pay-Per-View MJF and Hangman are two of the best wrestlers in the world, bar none. They give everything they have for the crowd and company, and that comes across on the television screen. The panting of exhaustion rings bigger as the match goes on, and the blood, sweat, and tears more pronounced as each of the 31 minutes of the match ticks along. For as good as these two men are on the microphone, they are just as good in the ring and have unmatched chemistry with each other. 

That is why fans love to watch these two face off against each other; they have a real chemistry, both in the ring and on the mic, that is unmatched by other rivals. The only one that does it better with Hangman is, of course, Swerve. Every great face has its own personal Rogue's Gallery. Hangman has Swerve Strickland, and now, we can add MJF to that list. They are forever now linked to each other as the ultimate Day 1 rivals.

This was a very evenly booked match. The two athletes went back and forth, swinging the momentum from one to the other to give us a great title match. MJF did a great job of making his challenge feel like a monumental task that Hangman couldn't escape. The stipulations before the match were set: The championship could be lost on a Hangman DQ or a countout, and MJF made Hangman work for it. This was present throughout the match, and a lesser Hangman would have fallen for the Devil's tricks. 

The character growth of Hangman is still fluid and evolving in every promo, match, and moment. Old Hangman would have brained MJF with the Diamond Ring; This version of Hangman does not. MJF is the best heel wrestler in the business and is an excellent foil to Hangman's continued redemption. His tactics, which blend old-school and new-school psychology, always make for a great match. His taunts, his underhanded deeds, his running, and shortcuts all work so well. 

Side Note: Bryan Danielson at commentary is great. Being part of the creative team, he can fill in the gaps for fans who might not be as familiar with the story as others. His insight into past opponents and sharing his decision-making process if he were in their situations is something AEW should consider doing more often. 

There has been some pushback online about the "overbooking" of this AEW World Championship match. However, this is every MJF match. Bumping the referee, trying to remove Hangman's foot off the rope, and hitting him with the metal clipboard, all of it makes the finish that much sweeter for Hangman. He's the cowardly villain who will try to cut corners anytime he can. 

MJF having the contract still in play clearly indicates that this rivalry is not yet over. It will be exciting to see how they can top Hangman/MJF III with Hangman/MJF IV. Surely that match will also be the match of the week. 

Luchasaurus Returns 

"You can't keep a good dinosaur down…"

by Sachin

I mean I know a lot has happened this week: Mark Briscoe, MJF and Hangman were involved in a mind-numbing segment, Will Ospreay died for our sins, Wardlow is back, Takeshita returned from New Japan, Golden Lovers returned, Tanahashi had his final UK match, MJF mjf-ed, Hurt Syndicate hurt-syndicated, Young Bucks (the greatest tag team of all time) continue to be mistreated by an unappreciative and ungrateful production crew and BTE came back (Ahhhhhhhhhhh).

Nevertheless among all this barrage of Returns and comebacks the one that didn't get as much attention as it should've was the return of Luchasauras/Killswitch. And since I haven't seen much talk about what a great moment that was, I figured I'll just talk about it myself. As the old bit of wisdom goes: “if there's something you want to read but it hasn't been written yet then write it yourself’’. 

Austin Matelson (That is such a cool last name btw) was hospitalised in late September due to complications arising while suffering from pneumonia.

If I remember it correctly and I think I do, this wasn't the kinda illness that threatened to just severely handicap his wrestling ability or end his wrestling career entirely but rather it threatened in all likelihood to put him under severe disability or even end his life as pneumonia in both lungs carries the survival rate of 5-10% within the first month and 20-50% if they are immediately provided intensive care.

To recover from such an illness and then get back in the kinda shape that he is in and then get back to wrestling requires a lot (A LOT) of willpower and discipline along with impressive mental strength and a deep passion for the love of the game. As you might have sensed in the beginning, I am one of those people who are regularly puzzled as to why Luchasauras is so underappreciated. He has a great character, a lot of experience – around 65 million years – and he wrestles like the big behemoth that he is, but also has the capability and courage to try something that requires a lot more agility and acrobatic talent. He is filled to the brim with top-guy potential in my opinion or at least someone who should always be in the upper midcard spot. 

Nevertheless, if I may divert your attention from Austin Matelson and to the video package that preceded the return of our dinosaur. A person whose face we don't get to see, in kayfabe, seems to have revived Luchasauras via injecting something. At first I thought it was Christian given the kinda jacket they were wearing but that didn't add up as Christian was already in the ring and given that Killswitch turned on Christian a minute later that theory immediately and totally reached a dead end. Who else wears a jacket like that? Maybe the guy who tried to call up the Young Bucks this week on BTE? Nah that's too far fetched. They would never.

Anyhow, as I mentioned, the first thing Luchasauras did after his return was to smash the Patriarchy (very woke) and also take out the other guy besides Christian. I thought that his in-ring return on the Forbidden Door opener was pretty good. He looked like the beast that he is and performed like he missed wrestling. It will be interesting to see what path he goes down towards now that he is off the leash. A reunion with the jungle-man? I'd like that. Continuing his story with Nick Wayne? Maybe still going after Christian Cage for his unfatherly neglect of his son? 

There are a lot of ways to play this and I'm out here praying and hoping for the best for him as not only is he a great wrestler but a fighter too and it's always nice to see a comeback.

Maybe the dinosaurs do deserve to come back. Maybe the real Jurassic park was the friends we made along the way.

The Bucks

“The Power of a Name”

by Emiliana.

Imagine my surprise one morning this week when, mentally and physically exhausted from the school work of the day, happy just to have a moment to myself to read my newspaper (the group chat), and I noticed the elusive “@everyone” notification that is almost never deployed, with a youtube link above. The title of the video is a question, resolved in a little over two minutes by our beloved broke Bucks: “What Should We Re-Name Our Finisher?”

I almost question the hyphenage of “rename” until, once I reach the end of the video, I realize that maybe, heck, it’s intentional – the answer they come up with is that they should call it the BTE Trigger once more. And it delights me that this is the point – in order to name it this for the second time, they have to bring back the thing it stood for, the show that made them the success that they were the last time around, back before they became the broke Bucks. In order for the trigger to Be Elite, they must bring back “Being the Elite.” In story, this is just so clever. It’s been weeks of this issue where they would nearly choke in the ring because Matt and Nick couldn’t get on the same page about what to yell to signal the trigger — and yes, they must call it, because they are, at heart, two little characters in a fighter game.

The second video (yes, there was another!) saw Matt and Nick watching a segment of the match they’d just participated in at Forbidden Door, the lights out unsanctioned steel cage, with pouts on their faces, enveloped in big, comfy looking white bathrobes and lounging on a couch. They were the picture of annoyed privilege as their coffee table sat littered with empty boxes upon empty boxes of Papa John’s pizza, topped off perfectly with six real glass Pepsi bottles, empty, arranged in a neat little row. Just then, Matt’s phone rang, and we could only just make out the name of the contact before he ignored the phone call: Jack Perry. A name we haven’t heard in quite a long time.

10/10. No notes. I haven’t even mentioned the gummy bear spot in the actual match, or the way that I watched Matt Jackson spike Kota Ibushi’s head on the apron and I thought Ibushi fucking died.

They have only released two bite-sized videos, but these mere crumbs are vital to my body. We’ve been stuck out in the vast tundra for so long (like, three years? two years?) and honestly, we’ll take whatever we can get. I just can’t believe it’s happening. And to be honest — it doesn’t even matter how long the videos are, who’s in them, as long as I know for a fact that they’ll keep comin’. This platform was the medium through which a big majority of my love for Hangman and his story originated from, and I’ll always appreciate it with my whole heart.

In the past few weeks, the Bucks have gone from Matthew and Nicholas, to Matt and Nick, to Talent Name, to Max and Jeremy, to Slick Nick and Mr. Instant Replay, to Rod and Todd.

There’s a lot of power in a name, and I don’t care if Shakespeare disagrees. People change their names for all kinds of reasons: to escape persecution, to start new lives, create a new identity for oneself, assimilation into a culture, because society can’t say their names correctly, etc. Just all sorts of reasons. For a long time, it felt like the Bucks lost their agency. Having BTE back feels like a reclamation of that agency, and of their own identities, within the scope of AEW.

This is about more than just re-naming their finisher. This is about re-naming themselves.