Passing a Torch | AEWeekly #188

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, Emiliana [@emilianartb.bsky.social] giving us the MVP of the Week, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking Best Interview and with a few words on Moment as well as editing and organizing it all.

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

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Timeless Toni Storm

"A Valedictory..."

by Sergei.

Because of the way schools choose who gets to speak them, you'd be forgiven for arriving at the conclusion that a "valedictory" is a "speech by the smartest person" or the most accomplished or something. But actually, a valedictory is a farewell. In pro wrestling it is (rightly) considered bad form to foreshadow a surprising outcome, such as losing one's title. It's not for nothing that we mock "boo boo face" – when a performer has a "tell" when they come out before a match that they are scheduled to lose and aren't happy about it. But the Timeless One has had such an absolutely triumphant and dominant run as champion that on Wednesday night she could give a speech that we can see in retrospect had been a spoiler-ific tearful farewell in advance of her shocking loss on Saturday, but in the moment it seemed merely like she was trying to throw a little doubt and drama on a defense that seemed far from threatening.

Normally, at this point, I would say "icymi" and embed a video of the speech in question, but instead I shall complain – evidently, AEW has changed how they handle their YouTube channel, with shorter cuts of segments? Because the highlight video they posted of this segment starts immediately after the part I felt was memorable and praiseworthy. If the intent was to drive folks to watch the whole show, I think it's terribly misguided: how will they know they missed something great, if you cut the great parts out?

So, if you DID miss this, it's definitely worth going back and looking for, it was near the end of the second hour Wednesday. Check it out on Max! Or some other place, I'm not a cop!

To set the scene, our World Champion does her usual black & white entrance and stands in the middle of the ring lit with one dramatic spotlight and an over-the-top "serious" expression: she has some words for us. She begins by hyping the crowd with a few of her Ali-esque rhyming brags, climaxing with:

…this Tramp is still the Champ! But for how much longer… I do not know.

Seven months ago, I won my baby back. And since then I've lived every day as though it's my last. I have slain, beasts, belt collectors, and forever champions. And I have loved every single, disgusting, sweaty, bloody, sexually-questionable second of it. Because AEW is where the best wrestle!

And if you're not willing to put your life on the line every time you step in that ring, then, darling, you ain't shit.

And now, I risk it all for three women who are worthy of this mantle. So, if this is indeed the end of my reign, then it's been the honor of my life.

At that point she seems legitimately choked up, and that's the enigma of this entire character: she can come across so completely sincere and sentimental (much like when she was talking about how much it meant to her to wrestle in front of her hometown leading into Grand Slam seven months ago) but then you remember that her character is a hammy actress (or an insane wrestler who thinks she's an actress? shrug emoji) and you wonder how much any emotion is sincere and how much is performative. Which should be a question anytime a wrestler speaks emotionally, but I love the way the Timeless character foregrounds the dichotomy of authenticity and artifice.

And that, my friends, is both farewell and foreshadowing to the point of almost a spoiler, and I don't know about anybody else, but I didn't notice in the least. Why did it slip under the radar? Storm says it herself in her list of the slain. She had already overcome such seeming insurmountable challengers over the course of her reign – from one of the biggest stars in all of wrestling, to one of the most dominant and long-reigning champions ever, to a seemingly-unstoppable giant – that nobody would expect her title loss to come from some random-seeming four-way.

Commentators love that old cliché that the champion is at a disadvantage in a match with multiple challengers. In a four-way like we had this past Saturday, they might go so far as to claim that the champion's odds fell from 50% to 25%. And the stat-head in me can't help but doubt this – the numbers just don't hold up. I'm not going to look up the exact data now, but I'm sure that the odds of a challenger winning are significantly less in multi-competitor matches than in one-on-one (or two-on-two) defenses (and in all cases significantly less than 50%.) In the rare cases of a title change in that type of match, it's usually a way to move a title without the former champ needing to eat a pin. I'm very pleased that wasn't the case Saturday. Not because I don't love Toni, Shiva knows! But my perspective is that wrestling is best when the wrestlers unreservedly take when it's their turn to take, and unreservedly give when it's their turn to give. And Statlander pinning Storm in the middle of the ring with no assists or shenanigans (and the Seatbelt is not exactly a flash pin, see the Moment section below for more on that) is the best way for her to seize the torch to light her own new path.

"Timeless Toni Storm" is a character who has been so intimately linked with the World championship that the last time she lost it, she was written out and sent out on excursion to other promotions until the time had come for her to return for her revenge and re-ascent. But at this point, the best pure character in pro wrestling has outgrown the need for belts, so it's time to see if holding the World title can help someone else reach a new level. And this speech ended up a fitting valedictory.

Statlander's Seatbelt

"...Just Three Seconds..."

by Sergei.

Announcers love to say that it just takes three seconds to decide a match or for a title to change hands, on account of the ref's three to count a pinfall. It's not (usually) true of course, because that's not accounting for the time to set up a finisher, and to execute it, and to dramatically crawl into a cover. The exception to this is the oft-derided "flash pin."

"Derided" because one wrestler simply pinning the other with no finisher at all, and the other just… failing to kick out is perfectly anticlimactic. That's not always a bad thing: at best, a flash pin can be used to "save some juice" for a rematch, where one can prove they learned from having underestimated the other the first time, OR the other can prove something by winning more decisively this time. At worst, a flash pin can be used to supposedly keep the loser "strong" with no rematch in the cards. Over the years this has become recognized as a hated and lazy trope of Women's wrestling especially.

But exceptions also have exceptions, and there's one case of a sort of "flash" pin that isn't anticlimactic at all, and I love them: a style of finisher I usually just call a "trapping pin." This looks like a flash pin in the sense that there is no setup before the cover, but the difference is that it's a signature move specific to that competitor where it's been established that once the pin is applied, that the opponent can't get a shoulder up by three, regardless of struggle. Examples of this include Allin's Last Supper, Yuta's Seat Belt and OC's Mouse Trap. 

It should be noted that two of the three of those performers I just mentioned are erstwhile allies of the NEW AEW World Champion Kris Statlander, which lent a frisson of "wait, who are we hinting at a possible reunion with via her winning with this move?" But regardless of any implication that the Death Riders may get involved with a new World Title soon, just the Moment of Kris Statlander shockingly winning that World title was amazing in its own right: shocking from it happening in a seeming throwaway match, from it happening with no set-up, from it happening clean as a whistle in the middle of the ring, and finally over a champ who had overcome such huge odds up to this point.

It says a lot that it's my moment of the week over Darby literally lighting Moxley ON FIRE. And what better way to kick off her first World-Title reign for beloved original Kris Statlander.

Bryan Danielson

"Yes!"

by Emiliana.

I know what you’re thinking: “Emi, have you gone insane since Hangman won the men’s world title? You’ve handed it to MJF, to Mox, and now Bryan Danielson? Do I need to call 911? Emi, blink twice if you need help!”

Look, I’m fine. I told you before that Hangman on top raises all ships and I stand by that. With Hangman at the top of the mountain I can move onto the next priority agendas. Currently, my agenda is making sure Bryan Danielson does good work without having to build his own matches. And by God, did we find the perfect place for him.

I think it’s really nice how enthusiastic Bryan is about watching wrestling from the booth. He’s been very earnest in pushing the stories being told by the wrestlers in the ring, and apparently that may have rubbed certain others the wrong way. I am not one of them. I am having an absolute ball with Danielson at the booth. His passion for the sport is infectious. It reminds me of the time that Mox was on commentary and he started getting up and yelling during someone else’s match. Watching a wrestler watch their colleagues wrestle and enjoy it gives me, the viewer, a specific kind of joy. It’s like, yeah, no wonder you’ve been at this for so long. No wonder you’re still here. No wonder you can’t leave even though you told us you wanted to spend more time with your seven year old daughter.

When he got up after a specific sequence in the main event between Fletcher and Page, he brought me back into the match. I had spent the majority of the match completely inattentive and disturbed for multiple reasons - most notably the fact that one of my friends at the show had a glaring light shining in her eyes and was unable to see what was going on in the ring, and the other was the growing tension Taz had with Danielson in the booth. Whether that was kayfabe or shoot, I don’t know, but it completely took me out of the match. The match’s only saving grace was Danielson being so pumped that I could not help but refocus myself and try to see what Bryan was seeing. And it worked. The last stretch after that was a nail biter that was all the more emphasized by his passion for it.

I am really enjoying his work. There will likely be growing pains and dynamic issues going forward (as Taz made crystal clear), but hopefully they are able to settle and work out their differences and we can all enjoy a little bit more whimsy and excitement injected into the commentary booth.

I know I shouldn’t expect him to stay behind a desk for long - in fact, it almost feels like fate that he now has to watch his long desired mentee get recruited by the man who killed his career in 2024, but it does create interesting dynamics. AEW has proven before that they can work a storyline with commentary involved, so maybe that’ll be fun.