Hero Sandwich | AEWeekly #172

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

We hope Lauren [@sithwitch.bsky.social] is feeling better and enjoys the show tonight and returns with great tales of Story Beat based in her live Dynamite experience next week!

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

We'd love for this and any and all of our content to be the beginning of a conversation with our readers. To interact with any and all of our contributors please accept our invitation to join the Pro Wrestling Musings Community Discord. Then follow this link to the #AEWeekly Discord Thread.

Brody King vs. Josh Alexander

"...only our enemies leave roses... violent lives ending violently...."

by Abel.

In their third match in five weeks (one tag and two singles), Josh Alexander and Brody King opened up the AEW International Championship 4-way tournament by putting up an absolute banger of a match that main evented the May 28th edition of Dynamite. This mini-rivalry has served both wrestlers very well, as Alexander and King are on two different stages in their careers with AEW. King, an already seasoned vet with the promotion, is awaiting the return of his stablemate Buddy Matthews, and Josh Alexander is trying to find his footing as one of the newest signings in the company. 

The start of the match started even before the bell rang when King made his way down the ring to make the save after the Don Callis Family tried to beat down Adam Cole. Cole was on the verge of successfully defending his TNT title against Kyle Fletcher when the Don Callis Family prevented that and saved the embarrassment for Fletcher. AEW does these melded and seamless transitions well from one match to the next. It's not done often, but when it's used effectively, it makes everything seem much more important. 

As far as the match goes, this was a classic bout between two Bruisers who have history and want to beat the snot out of each other. King's look matches his fighting style, scary and brutal. His opponent, Alexander, is just as strong--in a smaller frame-- and can slow matches down and beat anyone to a pulp. That is how Alexander makes it utterly believable that he can take it to the 6'5", 284-pound giant. Aesthetically, it's the kind of wrestling style that perfectly fits all of the high flyers we get every week. 

The ending of the match was a back-and-forth affair that saw both men beat each other to a pulp. King busted open Alexander and hit him with one of the most gnarly finishers in wrestling: The Gonso Bomb. Matches like these have neither man lose any momentum or favor with the fans. Even after losing, because of the physicality of these matches--and how Tony Khan tends to book his big match losers-- Alexander should still be a believable bruiser in the Don Callis family. It's only a matter of time, as talented as Alexander is, when the "Walking Weapon" will get either a tag or singles push in the company. 

Brody is turning into a crowd favorite, and he can earn some singles gold sooner rather than later. I'm not saying he should beat Omega for the International title this week, but something will happen quickly; perhaps he'll get his moment at All In. If King and Alexander can have a lifelong rivalry against each other, and we continue to have these matches, I'm sure all AEW fans would not disapprove. 

Mark Briscoe 

"Let the sun come out tomorrow"

by Sachin.

Few wrestlers in the world can just show up on screen and light up my mood like Mark Briscoe can. He's not extraordinary, he’s not a one in a million athlete, not a supermodel either. There's nothing fancy about Mark Briscoe. In fact the clear lack of these things is what makes him stand out over anyone else on the show really. Shows up, does what he can, sometimes loses, sometimes wins but always tries and tries like a madman. There's no phoning it in. Ever. This guy works and works and works. In a show that sometimes takes itself too seriously and sometimes not serious enough. Mark Briscoe is that perfect balance for me. A comfort wrestler.

I wasn't following wrestling closely at the time when Jay Briscoe passed away. I was sad that such a death occurred in such an unfortunate way. But I never had any emotional connection to these wrestlers. So I just moved past it and kept doom scrolling in search of my next dose of brain happy juice.

At some point however I decided to check out some of the briscoe brothers matches and some of the promos available on YouTube and My God, This is easily one of the best tag teams that I had ever seen. Jay Briscoe in particular was an unbelievable talker and such was his command of his speech and his expressions that Mark very much was a supporting role. 

However now things are obviously different and I think for the most part Mark Briscoe as a singles wrestler has been a success. Sure I'd love to see him win some championship gold and be involved in prominent storylines but he's always on tv, on PPV’s and always has great matches. Over the last year Mark has established himself as somewhat of an unserious talker, which is fine by me, but sometimes you have to stop the fun for a bit and get serious, get mean and MAN UP.

Last week after our match my son asked me: ‘Daddy did you quit?’

I said, Son hell no I didn't quit. I would never quit. It was a referee stoppage. That happens. I said, son we don't take the easy way out around here. Which is what you [Moxley] have been doing. You can't do nothing on your own. You got your minions. I see right through you. You don't do it the hard way. You take the easy way out. But lemme tell you something. That's not how WE do it. That's not how demboys do it. 

Twenty three years tag team wrestler, thirteen plus tag team champions. I could've quit when my brother moved on and got on up. BUT NAHHH, trying to show my kids there ain't no quitting in me. That there ain't no quitting in us. That's not how we do. So Moxley you can take the easy way out but I'm gonna do it like a man. So get ready to MAN UP.

Despite the fact that I can see the result of this match from a mile, I'm still hyped up. Man fighting man for the simplest reason possible. Honour. 

And nobody knows honour better than Mark Briscoe. Anytime his music hits the voice you hear is of the late great Jay Briscoe. Mark’s finishing move is The Jay Driller. For twenty-three years Mark fought alongside his brother, fought him too and now Mark fights for his brother, to make sure that people always remember his brother's name. 

The world sucks and it keeps getting worse. Every day I feel more and more like it's never gonna be better but I can't help but not feel that there are some top notch people in this world and they'll make it alright. Thank God for the Mark Briscoes of the world. Shining brighter than the sun with no teeth. It's hard not to be an optimist when the sun is clear and the day is bright.

Will Ospreay

"An Apology, I Guess..."

by Emiliana.

I’m about to say something crazy that goes against anything I’ve ever said up to this point but I am very exhausted so just roll with it: I think Will Ospreay is Aragorn.

I wrote a thread the other day that was spawned by a hostile interaction with someone online, but basically what this thread boiled down to is that despite what we may believe is possible in stories told through the medium of wrestling, the medium of wrestling is fundamentally limited in certain ways that doesn’t allow for abstract storytelling. In short: at the end of the day, championships and wins mean everything. Whatever abstract story is being told will always be told through the context of winning matches, defeating other people in the ring, and winning championship gold.

I plotted through the whole Death Riders arc, where in the fall we established that prime AEW guys could not win solo, but they also failed to work together in the winter. In the early spring, we learned that an old veteran could not defeat the Death Riders alone. In the late spring, we learned even the most dangerous man, the franchise player, a prime AEW guy despite his shorter tenure, Swerve Strickland, was unable to win alone. The OPPs established the precedent of defeating the Death Riders and chipping away at their power through losing championships and working together. Swerve, through his two best feuds in Hangman and Ricochet, learned the consequences of his actions for disregarding other human beings. Prince Nana taught him the power of holding others to his own level and respect, which led Swerve to team with the likes of Willow, Kenny, and the OPPs to defeat the Death Riders successfully, in a match. Hangman, of course, has gone to the depths of hell and back, was unable to protect his home (twice), believed there to be no redemption, also — like Swerve — learned the consequences of his actions and to put his past behind him.

Will Ospreay, however. Will Ospreay, I wasn’t sure about. And then it hit me. A lot of this story all of a sudden became so clear in my sleep deprived head after I almost named this section “In A World Of Human Egos, Be A Dog” which somehow reminded me of hobbits (probably because human ego and also a very evil ring led to the demise of the human kingdoms etc etc) and then that reminded me of Aragorn. Because Hangman is the hobbits. Hangman is the humanity and dignity and goodness that everyone strives to protect, the thing that propels everyone forward, even himself. Hangman is the one who has to do the unthinkable and venture down his path alone. Hangman is the one who has to shoulder the burden. But who will gain the most from his sacrifice? Who has already gained?

Let’s talk about Will Ospreay. In the month leading up to Double Or Nothing, I didn’t want to hear a damn word about Ospreay being the one. Because I needed it to be Hangman. I couldn’t allow any other option. But now that he’s been pinned for the three count, now that the reports have dropped, now that I know he (allegedly, reportedly) pushed for Hangman to win, now that I’ve seen the Dynamite and the Collision that proceeded the PPV, I think I can say that Will Ospreay is Aragorn. Because he’s not the one who has to shoulder the burden, but he does have to rally everyone to keep fighting this fight, and he knows the hobbits are the ones who have to do it.

And in the end, he will become king. Because I have no doubt that a year from now it could be Will Ospreay holding the men’s world championship above his head.

Anyway, what’s this have to do with the moment of the week? Well, take your pick, because the two juiciest segments on either show (to me) had Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland in them. The intrigue that they have produced in me is nothing short of astronomical. There is something about Ospreay telling his best friend, his big brother Swerve, that he’s wrong about Hangman. That they were all wrong about Hangman. And to hear Will Ospreay utter the words “You’re not the best in the world, I’m not the best in the world, he is!” Like. Wow! Maybe I haven’t been watching wrestling long enough (I’m only a nine year old in wrestling fandom years), but that meant something to me, man. I just don’t hear that coming out of a wrestler’s mouth every day, that some other jock in the locker room is the “best in the world” and it isn’t the person speaking? Whaaaaaaaaat. Most of them are too egotistical to be saying that kinda shit aloud.

I also think it’s done a really good job of paralleling certain themes of the last feud Hangman had before he lost the title, which Ospreay so nicely referenced in the build to the Owen final, where he basically aligned himself from a “business” standpoint as wanting to be the guy, and Hangman needing to win so badly because the title is so “personal” to him.

Pictured above: the Best In The World... also, CM Punk............................gif lovingly crafted by Emiliana

Now, here, you see Ospreay putting his ego aside, pleading with Swerve to do the same, and trying to make Hangman see reason so that they can all work together to take down Mox and his reich. You see him bestowing the moniker of “Best In The World” on someone other than himself; hey, kinda like how Aragorn honored the hobbits and told them they bow to no one, or whatever.

Anyway, all this to say, I am really enjoying Ospreay being the sandwich bit between Hangman and Swerve buns. He a little confused, but he got the spirit. You may also ask, “Emi, why don’t you just give the moment of the week to Hangman and Swerve as well?” Well, because Ospreay is the most intriguing one in this bit right now. And I knew he would be, if he allowed the loss to Hangman to mean something to him. Granted, this isn’t the way I thought he was gonna go at all. The way he has gone feels like something pulled straight out of my beloved know-nothing girls from Tunnel Talk’s cloud stories for Will Ospreay. And yet, shouldn’t all good character driven wrestling stories be pulled from their dark and twisted minds? The answer is at least 98% of the time, I reckon….yeah, that sounds about right.

Peter hasn’t been around lately but just pretend he made me write this at gunpoint. Is this good enough, Pete?! Is my apology louder than the disrespect???

[Ed note: isn't Sachin actually the biggest Ospreay-idolator on the team? I think so]

P.S. I still think Will needs to stop messing with his hair. Miss Windsor, please throw away his flat iron. Thank you.