Everything Falls Apart | AEWeekly #198

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, Lauren [@sithwitch.bsky.social] exploring a key Story Beat, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking Best Interview as well as editing and organizing it all.

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

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Jon Moxley vs Claudio Castagnoli

"Brother versus brother…"

by Abel.

Pro wrestling is great. If you're reading this, you know that. Stories like the ones we are getting out of the Continental Classic can't be told in any other medium, or at least not as effectively. What we got between Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley last Wednesday was something… almost magical. The match itself was great. However, the story surrounding it was much better. Two brothers, who have fought side by side, are now pitted against each other for competition and glory. The two brothers are the leader and his right-hand man, and the leader is starting to show cracks in his control. In their battle—a brutal, slow-paced chess match—the leader was good, but he isn't what he used to be, and he was taken out, leaving his status in the tournament – and within his group – in limbo.

For those, and many more reasons, Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli’s Continental Classic match on Dynamite was the match of the week.

From the very start of the match, the crowd's tense atmosphere split them. They were excited; you could see it in their faces. They were also nervous. Would All Elite Wrestling actually do it? Would they actually pull the trigger? An interesting tidbit I didnt see anyone else talking about is who came out with who. Marina Shafir walked out with Moxley, while Yuta Wheeler, Daniel Garcia, and Pac all gave Castagnoli his farewells and good lucks from what looked like the stairwell from hell. All this while Renee Paquette gave her ring-side pre-match report. It felt big.

Mat work and a test of strength started off the match, ironically enough. Soon after that, however, the two comrades did not hold anything back. They had tested each other’s intentions out and did not hold back. The pace was something else —a slow-building, grind-it-out type of match that built tension as it went along. It was brutal, bloody, and perverse, and it almost felt like both men were back in the dojo fighting against each other in a sparring session. However, there were no punches pulled, and they were stiff as hell. They knew what the stakes were and would not let their brotherhood get in the way.  

Bryan Danielson continues to provide us with great insights into the psychology of the match. He let us know that, even when they trained against each other at the Blackpool Combat Club, they went hard. They did not let up, which is precisely what came across on our televisions.

While the finish wasn't surprising, it was shocking. You knew this could happen, and you were secretly rooting for Claudio to pull it off, but you didnt actually see if it would. The final spot, which was built from a Paradigm Shift from Moxley to a running European uppercut from hell, was fantastic. Reminded me a lot of the Will Ospreay vs Bryan Danielson finish at Dynasty. Just two competitors, gasping for breath, nothing else to give, throwing one last punch in exhaustion. Claudio connected, Moxley did not, and Castagnoli got the three points.

Another bit of storytelling that could only come from Danielson is that Moxley was the leader of the BCC because nobody could ever beat him. Claudio beat him. Does that signal the end of this incarnation of the Death Riders? I'm not sure. However, we are in for one hell of a ride as we find out if this was the official changing of the guards. Not that the company needs to prove itself, however: if anyone ever tells you AEW doesn't tell stories, show them this match. It's the quintessential AEW story.

Darby Allin

"...WHICH IS FINE…"

by Sergei.

One thing I've always said is how a pro-wrestling interview isn't acting, exactly, and being good at one doesn't mean you'll be good at the other. An actor needs to convince an audience that they are seeing how someone might speak in a private setting. A wrestler, on the other hand, you only see how they would speak in a public setting – because the audience in wrestling is diegetic! (Unless it's a promotion like WWE or LU that uses the "magic camera" that, in my view, has no place in wrestling storytelling.) If a wrestler comes off as a little wooden, well… haven't we all listened to someone in real life who comes off that way when speaking in public? As long as we care about the characters and the stories, good line delivery matters far less than in a movie or play (or one of those "magic camera" sketches I almost never have to watch when I'm watching AEW.)

And yet, here's Darby Allin, pacing on a rooftop, ranting to the interviewer-camera about not being medically cleared to continue in the Continental Classic, using every trick you might find in a Moviewise video-essay on making line readings sound natural: body language, talking with his hands, interrupting himself like one thought bubbled up before he finished saying the first – "WHICH IS FINE"... And I have no idea if he's just a better actor than I've given him credit for? Or if that interview sounded like natural, off-the-cuff speech simply because it captured Darby's train of thought in that moment. I love not knowing, especially when Allin is saying something as real and gutting – especially coming from him of all people – as "for the first time in my career, I was scared."

It was a brief pre-tape interview and not considered noteworthy enough for me to find a video to embed. But it's exactly the kind of authenticity (or verisimilitude) that I love to see in my wrestling show.

Mercedes Moné

"The only thing that's weighing on me is my twelve titles..."

by Lauren.

Mercedes Moné's crashout era has begun. As predicted by Kris Statlander, she lacked the focus to take the AEW Women's World Championship for her own, and at Ring of Honor Final Battle, she lost the ROH Women's World Television Title to its former owner, Red Velvet, in a fight that proved once again how single-minded will can defeat someone spread so thin.

The next day, at AEW Collision, she arrived literally crusted in gold: gold body glitter, gold trimmings and patina on her gear, and of course, her remaining dozen championship belts. She successfully defended the AEW TBS Championship against Leila Gray, but still showed the strain–mental and emotional, if not physical. Mercedes has always been a little mean in the ring, a message of superiority, but between holding the final choke of Leila for much longer than necessary and antagonizing Leila's wrestledad/manager Christopher Daniels, it was clear that she has some anger issues that she is taking out on others.

There's a quote from the mid-90s sci-fi show Babylon 5 that seems apt here: “Only an idiot would fight a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve!” Mercedes, by spreading herself so thin, has robbed herself of that focus she needs for the big belts. And, most importantly, she has opened herself up to attacks on literally a dozen fronts. Kris Statlander was the first woman to stymie her, and Red Velvet was the first to take gold away from her, but they will not be the last.

To use another comparison from the sci-fi/fantasy genre, Mercedes is Smaug from The Hobbit. She has literally encrusted herself in gold, as seen on Collision. The first of her treasures have been stolen, leaving a bare spot on her underbelly to be exploited by anyone sharp and determined enough. The dragon hunters are coming for Mercedes, and while some will be denied, it's only a matter of time before her corpse is picked over, her gold scattered to the winds.