Long Live the Queen | AEWeekly #234

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 Lauren [@sithwitch.bsky.social] exploring an Intriguing Story Beat and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking about the Best Interview, Moment, and MVP, as well as editing and organizing it all. We also added Quick Takes on the above categories plus on Best Match, Best Move & Best Call.

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

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Lauren: Wednesday night's main event between Queen Aminata & Persephone was a stiff, emotionally satisfying match that showed why both women are such a big deal.

Sergei: I agree with Lauren that the Dynamite main event was fantastic! But I've gotta give my shout to Darby Allin v Josh Alexander. It was a divisive match, but one some people criticized was exactly what I loved! Where you might see “Darby kicked out of death and then got a flash pin out of nowhere” but what I saw was Alexander killing his own knees as much as anything (and it's established Darby is immune to death) and then applied a submission hold that looked like it was made to set Allin up for a well-established trapping finisher. Any other week (without Castagnoli’s magic bin) that Last Supper would've been my move of the week too!

Sergei: Yeah, that’s gonna go to Claudio Castagnoli. (See Moment below for details...)

"Goodness Gracious..."

by Sergei.

On Collision this past Saturday, Gabe Kidd grabbed the camera in his backstage promo and spit his rage at us over being betrayed by his Dogs, Finlay and Connors. 

You know what that means? That means we're going to come at you. And we're gonna bite… and we're gonna rip every inch of flesh off your body, I'm gonna GUT YOU both and I'm gonna hang you with your own intestines. I'm gonna END you! THIS! IS! NOT! over until I say so! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

As Kidd walked away with a scream, Jon Moxley would remove his cap and deadpan into the camera: “Goodness gracious!”

Right before the bit I quoted, Kidd points out to Connors and Finlay that “you know how mad I can be…” and I think it's really valuable to the show and to the chemistry of a faction for someone to be “the mad one.” Being an unhinged lunatic gives the rest of the Death Riders the contrast to come across as cool and quietly intense.

And with a match like Anarchy in the Arena approaching, being the unhinged one is great for selling us on that match and what kind of insanity we're likely to see from Gabe in pursuit of his revenge. And – fundamentally – what else is a promo for but to sell us a match?

Lauren: The Death Riders promo on Collision was an emotional rollercoaster between Gabe's betrayal and rage, “We're already one man down, now we're two,” and the reveal of Marina's “Professionals Who Give a Shit” shirt.

Lauren: Taz's fond remembrance of Jack Perry being a part of the FTW belt history and reminding those of us who forgot about that storyline in the years that have passed made me feel warm and fuzzy.

"To lose this match, we gotta die?!..."

by Lauren.

Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland's personal drama is a whirlpool that Hangman has been trying to keep from becoming a maelstrom that drags his friends into its destruction. This week, Swerve forced the issue.

The New Level, who were not consulted about Swerve's plan for a trio's Texas Death Match, made it clear that this was not their plan. Hangman and Brody King confronted Austin Creed and Kofi, bringing up their suspicions that Swerve certainly and the New Level possibly had something to do with Bandido's absence that day. Cut, of course, to Swerve delivering a comic book villain's monologue in front of Bandido's bloodied body. Brody tried to attack the New Level in a rage, and Hangman begged Brody to keep his head and leave the visibly disturbed New Level alone, and most importantly, not to give Swerve what he wants no matter what.

Without question, Bandido is the emotional heart of The Good, The Bad, and El Guapo. Brody turned face merely by tagging with him and becoming his friend after the House of Black became the Hounds of Hell, and Hangman has been making an effort to control himself in the face of Bandido's relentless optimism and fighting spirit. In the absence of a child for Swerve to threaten, this time he decided to take Brody's closest kayfabe relationship and up the ante in order to make him break and insist on the match if Hangman will not.

On the other side of things, the New Level are finally seeing what everyone else has. Their cool friend is actually super okay with kidnapping and torture and is taking everything way more seriously than any reasonable person would. On social media, they both expressed surprise at Swerve's unilateral decision to put them in a death match, and in the ring they both looked horrified while watching Swerve's video presentation. (This could all be an elaborate ruse, but for the moment I'm choosing to take them at face value.)

Both sides have two people who have never been in a Texas Death Match, and to my knowledge Bandido, Kofi, and Austin have never really been hardcore wrestlers despite the occasional blood. Hangman is choosing to protect his companions, while Swerve is dragging them full-force into it. Both are doing so unilaterally, with Hangman speaking for his group and giving a firm no before either of them could give an opinion.

Personally, I think that we're going to find out that Bandido can be just as much of a violent freak as Brody and Hangman. At CMLL, he wrestled on the Friday after Dynamite while wearing a mask of a Mogwai from Gremlins, later revealing a Gremlin mask after an opponent splashed him with water. I was not the only person to perhaps read too much into it, namely that Swerve thought he'd found something cute and harmless that in reality can be monstrous under the right circumstances.

Sergei: Agreed with Lauren, Swerve making a sacrifice of Bandido is the Story of the Week, indisputably.

"Serendipitous magic..."

by Sergei.

One year ago, I called a Moment on Fright Night Dynamite the Moment not just of the week but probably of the year… And I'm going to do the same thing this year. But the two Moments couldn't be more different!

Last year Hangman Adam Page impersonated Schiavone dressed as the Phantom of the Opera to trick Samoa Joe, and a perfect meticulously planned reveal fooled and amazed us all. It was a moment that was magical in the sense that stage magic is… Last week, Claudio Castagnoli yeeted a trashcan at Austin Gunn’s eminently punchable face, and while Gunn beautifully sold the shot as insta-death, the trashcan bounced right back into Claudio's hand like a low-rent Mjolnir. Castagnoli caught the boomeranging bin with effortless aplomb and continued wreaking havoc just as if that was totally expected and normal – also a magical moment, but more in the sense of how we call something “magical” when it's shockingly fortuitous. 

Or maybe Claudio meant to do that, what do I know? But what I do know is that the gif is everywhere, taunting Austin to the breaking point and making me literally laugh out loud every damn time I see it.

Lauren: Yeah, it's the trash can spot. It felt like something out of a Jackie Chan movie. [Claudio & Austin]

“Crown her Queen”

Sergei

I really want to give this to Swerve Strickland this week. (But you'll note that's not the picture above and his name's not in bold!) And that's because I wrote a section of a Roundtable on walkout themes earlier this week, and one of the most powerful things a performer can accomplish for the show is when just his music hitting hits you with a plunging dread: oh, God WHAT did he do NOW???

That's an incredibly valuable tool for storytelling, and that was the exact feeling when Swerve's theme hit and manager Nana came out to do his (normally silly, last week ominous) dance and gesture towards the big screen to intro video of Swerve kidnapping and torturing Hangman's friend to get his attention.

BUT! The show goes on and we moved into the next segment with the thought “well, I hope Bandido’s okay…” …and when it became clear that the TBS Championship match was going to be the main event, I thought “ohhhh, TK’s doing that old trick: the women's match is technically the main event, in the sense of being the last match, but the final segment will be about Hangman and Swerve and Bandido…”

Which would be bad, because equity is important…. But otoh, I really wanted to find out more about Bandido and Swerve! But as the main event – Lauren's Match of the Week – was just crushing it, I started to realize that… well, good luck Bandido. Hope you're okay, kid!

Because the crowning of Queen Aminata is too big a deal to be overshadowed by your nonsense. AEW’s first African champion, and first Muslim champion, a woman who worked her way up from enhancement talent to build a connection with the AEW audience to warrant a Dynamite main-event coronation with her division’s babyfaces filling the ring. Long live the Queen.