Mean Streets | AEWeekly #181

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.

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

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Dustin Rhodes vs Kyle Fletcher

A (Proto)Star was born

by Abel.

There is nothing like an AEW plunder match. Every time AEW has one on television, or PPV, it is the talk of the IWC. Kyle Fletcher vs Dustin Rhodes for the TNT Championship was another example of how AEW can tell an intriguing and great in-match story in a bloody mess. While the Moxley vs. "Hangman" rematch took place a day earlier on Dynamite, Fletcher vs Rhodes had an added element of intrigue that the AEW World Heavyweight did not have. We were not certain, FOR SURE, if Fletcher was going to win or not – Tony Khan could have pulled a fast one. Whereas we all knew Hangman was going to. That pushes the Chicago Street Fight over the top as the AEW match of the week. 

The entrances for both men were fantastic. Kyle "Protostar" Fletcher has the look and feel of a future world champion. His "aura," as the kids call it, is off the charts… and this was the second big step – after his classic program with frenemy Will Osprey – to his ascension to singles-champion level. As one road is starting, another one is possibly coming to an end. Dustin Rhodes – who, after the match, revealed he has to take some time off due to a whole-ass knee replacement! – might have had his last match. And if that is the case, what a hell of a way to go out for The Natural. 

The match was a bell-to-bell slugfest that had all of the classic tropes every good street fight should have. Dustin still moves incredibly well, especially for a 56-year-old, and was able to keep up with the much younger and more athletic Fletcher. The back and forth made Fletcher earn it – it wasn't easy for the Australian.  The highlight of the match was the way they worked in the injury angle. The screwdriver to Rhodes' knee was the perfect way, in Kayfabe, to implement his real-life injury into the story. Fletcher REALLY dug into Rhodes' knee, making it almost uncomfortable, which is perfect wrestling. Before that however, was Rhodes kicking Fletcher in his protostars with tacks in his trunk. When something new is done in wrestling, an artform where everything has been done before, it's really something to admire and praise. 

The "Protostar" is just that, a young star that is still gaining momentum, but eventually will become a full-fledged star. He had risen in the biggest of moments and matches, and this match against Rhodes will go in his highlight reel of "Best of Matches" when we look back at his career. From there, the ending was obvious, as we knew Fletcher was going to be the new TNT champion. Fletcher plays a great, cowardly heel. The reassuring thing about the future of Fletcher is that while he is using Don Callis as a semi-mouthpiece, we know he doesn't need it in the future. Fletcher looks the part of a champion, and the sky is the limit for the star. 

Before we move on as a collective and start fantasy booking how far Fletcher can take his new title, we need a second and offer some thanks to The Natural for reheating a cold title and giving it the shot in the arm it needed. It would have been easy to have Kyle Fletcher win at All In and start his title reign there. Instead, Tony Khan and Co. took the scenic route and gave us a lasting memory of Dustin Rhodes winning his first singles title in nearly 30 years at the company's biggest show ever, in his home state. This run recognized Dustin's loyalty and hard work for AEW – he deserved this title run, even if short. But more importantly, it worked even better this way, both for Fletcher and for the title itself.

A memorable Chicago Street Fight was a great way to end this Chicago residency at the stunning Aragon Ballroom. The juxtaposition between the beauty of the venue and the blood on the mat is something only AEW can do. 

Christian Cage

"Papa, can you hear me…?"

by Sachin.

I was flabbergasted to learn that many people didn't like this promo. Some even called it bad. Obviously art is subjective and you really don’t have to provide any kind of supporting arguments to substantiate your opinion. But here are some of the more common reasons I saw as to why people thought it sucked: 

1. It was far more lengthy than required.

2. It didn’t really say much.

3. Christian kept tripping over his words.

Here's why I saw those things differently – firstly, I also thought that the promo could’ve been shorter, but ultimately – given the gravity of the angle – I didn’t mind it as much. I am happy to not contend this point too much.

Regarding the second point, I don’t mind the slow pacing of the program. I thought the promo displayed Christian’s character's internal struggle over the loss of his “family” and that was enough. It would’ve been nice if they had moved the COPE storyline further but I’m certainly not going to complain if COPE doesn’t show up on my screen.

Lastly, Yeah he did trip over his words quite a few times. Perhaps he was trying to subtly communicate the lack of sureness and confidence his character has now or perhaps he is mortal like any of us and father time is catching up to him. As a non-native English speaker, I don’t really mind it but I can very easily see why others would. Ultimately it didn’t deter my enjoyment of the show and for all its fault I liked this a lot.

“My name is Christian Cage and I'm an Asshole.”

Nothing in life is worse than coming to the realisation that you were the one who was in the wrong in a particular situation. It's a terrible feeling, most don’t know how to process it, many let the guilt consume them. But not Daddy Cage. He stood in the middle of the ring and with a full chest, in front of a thousand or so people and admitted what he was.

“Now I'm the type of Asshole that's numb to the world and everything in it. I don't care who's left in my wake. I don't care who's hurt. I was obsessed with becoming the AW world champion and at Revolution this past spring, I walked into Los Angeles ready to fulfill my destiny. I signed the contract, I stepped through those ropes. I hit a picture perfect spear. And as I got up and I looked down at the canvas, I caught a glimpse of my past. And for one split second, I became an asshole with feelings. And it cost me everything.”

With all the nonsense that COPE has been involved in since the start of the year, with Mox, with Jay White, with FTR and with Hurt Syndicate (for some reason), It’s easy to lose track of the story that AEW has been telling with Christian and Cope. Therefore I really liked how Christian connected those dots and reminded the audience of the last time he was in the ring with Cope and gave some emotional meaning to the nothing-burger main event of Revolution 2025. 

“Nick and Kip, I didn't realize that your nuts had dropped and you had the courage to actually stand up to me. Now, you want to know why I didn't stick to the plan? Well, it's simple. I didn't think the three of you were competent enough to pull it off.” 

I liked how Christian towed the line between a heel and babyface throughout this promo. It was certainly not an easy task but nonetheless given what Christian had been doing for years at this point and the destination they are going towards now, it very much was a needed approach. The reason behind Christian's failure as a father was his love for his “family” he blames himself for what his family did. Partially because he allowed himself to actually care for them and partially because he underestimated their courage. 

“And you're right about one thing, Shaina. I did have a hard time getting up that night. But trust me when I say I've found myself stuck deep in holes before in the past. Now, none of those holes were as deep or as gaping as the last time I was with you. But I always manage to claw my way out.”

Well it wouldn’t be a Christian cage promo without this kinda stuff. These things aren’t exactly high arts but for simpletons like me a crass joke here and there does bring out a chuckle and during such a long and a live promos it’s wise to sprinkle them at the right spots as it keeps the audience engaged.

“Nick, I'm going to stand out here and I'm going to admit it right now. You have more talent than I do. You were The Prodigy and I did care about you. I protected you from everything and you have the audacity to call yourself the new face of AEW now and forever. Well, trust me when I say this. You have every tool to be that, but you're going to have to go through Christian Cage to get there. Nick Wayne, in your young life, you already have one dead father. And now you have another father that's just dead to you”

It's really nice to see how far Nick Wayne has come under the tutelage of the Patriarch. He has literally grown up from a boy to a man in front of our eyes and, kayfabe or not, Christian provided a good bit of influence in his formative years as a wrestler.

Also big pop for the Dead Father bit. I know some people grew tired of it but I’ll always find it funny.

I thought this was an actively great promo. There were a good bit of one-liners spread throughout the promo and spoken at the right moments by a master orator to combat any kinda lull and boredom that any audience is prone to experiencing during such long promos. More importantly it told the audience the mental state of this version of Christian Cage and what his relationship is going to be now with Nick, Shaina, Kip and Cope.

It kinda sucks that all this eventually leads to a Cope programme but as they say it’s not just about the destination but the journey too.

Dustin Rhodes & Kyle Fletcher

"Evil In Pink"

by Emiliana.

From the first match of Collision this past week, I felt for certain that Bandido would be my MVP. The reason being – that he has endeared me to the smol & tol tag team of himself and Brody King. However, after making it to the end of the show, I think it is undeniable and frankly wrong to choose anyone but Dustin Rhodes and Kyle Fletcher.

Don’t get me wrong: for me, my match of the week for last week would still be the sixth bout between men’s world champ Hangman and former world champ Moxley, but now that my favorite is the world champion it feels almost like I can take a deep breath and look around me to see what else is good. I missed the last few weeks of Collision on account of just plain exhaustion, but I finally caught it this week (albeit late) and I can once again assure myself that yes, Collision is good, actually. It seems to be something I forget, or that I convince myself is bad just because I forgot to watch it for a bit.

HOWEVER, wow this match was crazy. But for me, it wasn’t the match that makes me consider Fletcher and Rhodes MVPs of the week — it’s just the fact that they did it at all. Not sure how long we’ve known this, but the fact that Dustin has been working on completely destroyed knees is enough for me. Now, I don’t believe in rewarding people who work hurt! BUT – I feel like the circumstances that surrounded this match are necessary to bring up. After all, it was almost a given that Kyle Fletcher was supposed to win the TNT title off of Adam Cole at All In Texas, but that couldn’t happen. Instead, we got a babyface Dustin win on the back of a depressing promo and a match that no one could barely pay attention to because of said depressing promo (not Cole’s or anyone else’s fault, of course, but that was just the nature of the thing at hand).

With that change, though, it was necessary for us to get back to the correct timeline, which was Kyle Fletcher with the TNT championship. I think that the plunder match was a good choice. It really helped to mask the issues that Dustin was having with his injuries by playing them into the match and not needing to do so many moves and using weaponry instead. It also helped the few moves they did do look altogether gnarly, like that avalanche Code Red. 

Kyle, of course, used everything to his advantage to draw maximum levels of heat. The spot with the tacks into the trunks was probably as close to comeuppance as Dustin was going to get, but it would be all for naught once Fletcher stuck a screwdriver (brought to him by Callis, of course) into his knee. The beatdown at the end after the bell rang only served to make Fletcher look like even more of an asshole. I am pretty sure I swore aloud at the end when he hit Dustin’s knee with the chair against the ringpost (yes, upon rewinding the moment in my head it’s clear he didn’t even hit the chair on his knee, but that’s not what it felt like, which is the entire point).

Some of the melodrama with the screwdriver wasn’t aided by the angles they used on air, but it for sure made a big impact on the audience at the Aragon ballroom, which was buying into the entire thing. I’m not sure whether that ended up being the last match on the last night, but I hope that it was. It was a very fun, albeit evil, end to the Chicago residency. And honestly, that’s just what Chicago deserves.