Plans of Nigel | AEWeekly #223

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 Emiliana [sayakakurara.tumblr] covering for us on Moment, Abel [@loza3.bsky.social] praising the MVP of the week, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking about the Best Interview and Match, as well as editing and organizing it all.

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

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Katsuyori Shibata vs Nigel McGuinness

"The Game of Human Chess"

by Sergei.

Our awesome contributor Abel is the usual writer for this beat, and I can't tell you how much it impresses me that he finds something worthwhile to say about a match every week, (along with Joe and Tim who handled the Match beat for us in the past) because it's not that often I see a new match that immediately makes me say “I have things to say about this.” But when I do, I may have a whole book to say about them, as in the MJF / Danielson Iron Man, the Hangman / Swerve Texas Death or the faction war between Death Riders and Shane Taylor Promotions. But while most of those were widely acclaimed matches, the midcard tournament match between the semiretired Collision colour man and “the Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata felt more like a match delivered from heaven specifically for me!

Don't get me wrong, I went into this match with hopes it would be pretty excellent with two technical masters. But I wasn't hyped to the moon or anything. Shibata and McGuinness are both obviously close to the end of their roads and I wasn't watching them live when they were in their prime, so I have no rose-colored nostalgia goggles. Obviously two wrestlers with a combined age of nearly 100 weren't going to dazzle us with feats of athleticism. Instead, we got what I think was one of the smartest matches I've ever seen.

Every match has to tell two stories: the story of how that match fits in with the ongoing, overarching story, and the story of the match itself. Too often, (imo) the self-contained story of the match suffers a little to serve that big story. This match has some of those elements – the background of the C3 tournament itself, the commonality of the two opponents both having overcome injuries everyone had believed ended their careers for good – but nothing beyond what the commentators could explain in a couple sentences; no deep lore. A brand new viewer could appreciate this match coming in cold. The rest of the storytelling was within the match – setups, callbacks, payoffs.

Shibata starts the match by offering Nigel a handshake. He accepts the gesture hesitantly, and (maybe surprisingly) they shake hands without any doublecross. Then they move into some fantastic technical counter-wrestling, moving from hold to counter to hold with skill and ingenuity. But then there’s a moment that moves the match out of the realm of pure science – Nigel kicks the ring rope such that it rebounds back into Katsuyori’s face.

McGuinness immediately shows regret for heating things up, trying to calm Shibata. This time it's Nigel who offers a handshake. Katsuyori gestures as if to accept but only as a ruse for a quick kick to the gut. A more heated and intense Shibata punishes McGuinness with vicious kicks and a knife edge chop from behind that has him cursing in pain. But then Nigel stops his momentum with a snapmare takeover positioned so that Katsuyori’s right ankle is driven into the bottom rope.

The rest of the match is a struggle between Shibata attempting to make his opponent pass out with various sleeper holds, and McGuinness taking advantage  of the vulnerability that he had created in Shibata's ankle to stay alive – stomping his foot or changing the pressure to be on Shibata's ankle to escape his holds. In the most vicious reversal of the match, Nigel blocks an attempted penalty kick with a kick directed right at Shibata's Achilles ankle. Finally Shibata locks in a sleeper that seems to have Nigel about to pass out in the Sleeper, but as Excalibur points out, he doesn't grapevine with his legs fully because Nigel had used that position to attack the ankle and escape before. But because Shibata isn't controlling him with that grapevine, when he collapses to the mat, seemingly finished, Nigel is able to flip the Wrestler into a successful pin.

The story within the match was a simple one – two technical masters, but one of whom is completely outmatched in both athleticism and pure skill, but uses strategy and guile to come out on top in spite of that. “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.” It's a simple story, but a smart one too, and it was perfectly executed.

Hangman Adam Page

"One last lie… to myself"

by Emiliana.

Before I start, I should preface by saying I did not catch Collision this week, and Dynamite didn’t exactly thrill me with its contents. The crowd felt very stale… (I don’t know what it is about Vegas but the only time they have felt on par with what I would expect from the Sin City was when I was there live for Double Or Nothing 2024 – a day after I convinced the people around me in line waiting at the Champs store to purchase the Bucks’ limited edition sneakers that Vegas never sounds loud enough, so let's make sure they didn’t suck this time.) It is a shame, because I know they can do better. And ultimately, it felt like the stories going in didn’t really thrill me at all.

With my negative thoughts out of the way, there was one moment that spiked my temperature and I would consider the saving grace not just for the episode itself, but for the possibility of my tuning into the third All In London (besides catching the AEW Women’s World Championship match).

The Good, The Bad, and The Handsome walked out on Dynamite a week ago to cut what seemed to be a celebratory promo for their Trios Title win at Grand Slam Mexico, with a little bit of whimsy and “we’re taking on all comers” sprinkled in. I was pretty happy to see Hangman and Bandido doing a little color coordinating with their crème colored jackets, and Hangman looked the happiest he has looked in a really long time. And just when this whimsical white boy was about to speak a little Español (which also would have spiked my temperature, to be fair), we heard the dreaded guitar riff:

“Whose House?”

Hangman’s face dropped.

I have so many thoughts. My temperature rose. Thinking about it again, it kind of makes me laugh how Mercedes is talking about taking Willow’s smile, but Swerve is out here doing it to Hangman with nothing but a theme and his presence. I compare these two relationships because of how inextricably tied Mercedes is to Willow, and Swerve is to Hangman. That might bother some people, but not me. It’s fun to have an archnemesis in wrestling, someone you always circle. You might be revolving clockwise and them counterclockwise on a fixed point, but eventually you always make it back to each other. It’s some of that cosmic kismet people talk about, and it’s absolutely delicious.

I won’t talk about the rest of the segment, even though I would love to swoon at seeing my baby son Ricochet in the orbit of both Swerve (again) and Hangman (FINALLY). But I do have to talk about what it means for Hangman’s smile to disappear so easily. Ever since he came back, it feels like he has tried his best to prove that he’s done the work, that he’s done his gardening therapy, that he has pushed himself past the failure of losing his ability to challenge for the AEW Men’s World Championship. He’s doing the macarena, he’s hanging out with joyful crowd favorites, he’s winning gold, he’s speaking a little Español.

But the moment someone actually comes out, who he knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is going to force him to reckon with his failure…the façade shatters. You don’t have to take my word for it, go watch the segment. He may have bit back at Swerve’s shit talking with some biting words of his own, but the truth is, he is lying again. To himself.

"I don't have time to bleed…”

by Abel.

Can a loser be a winner? “Jungle” Jack Perry definitely challenged that premise this past week on AEW television. Even though he lost his match against Jon Moxley in the first round of the Continental Cup, one could make the argument that he came out looking better after the match than before. The next evolution of Jack Perry has started, and the groundwork has been laid out for all of us to see where he's going next. Even after getting his ass beat, Jack Perry is our MVP of the week for showing that this is the start of a new chapter of his career, and that he is more than capable of making the change.

Going into Dynamite this week, not many of us believed that Perry would win against Moxley. Unless something crazy happened, we knew the leader of the Death Riders would advance to the quarterfinals. However, this is where AEW and its creative shine brightest. When things are at their most predictable, the company makes them a little more interesting. So it wasn't just that Perry lost. He actually got beat up pretty good, but the fact that he stood toe-to-toe with two of AEW’s most brutal and calculated wrestlers in the men’s locker room mattered. This point will become important here shortly.

Post-match, Moxley shook Perry's hand in a show of respect. Moxley is the standard at AEW for the men’s division. He is the gatekeeper to the top of the card. Don't believe me, ask Will Ospreay. Even if you don't beat him, you have to prove your mettle against the Ace of the company. That handshake was worth more than any Continental title at this moment can ever get him. He bled with Mox. That's a free pass to stardom. 

We saw the match's repercussions on Collision Saturday. Perry, sitting there with blood still pouring down from his forehead, poured out his heart (see what I did there?) to the camera, letting us know he has never felt more alive and is as confident as he's ever been. Moxley taught Perry what it's going to take to get to the next level, and that level is taking on other killers like Joe, Hangman Page, Omega, and of course…Swerve.

I think all of THIS is a necessary step in Perry's continued growth as a more “mature” wrestler. He took the first step in moving away from his “Jungle Boy” persona, but there is still another level to reach. One where he can become a “killer” like his contemporaries at the top of the card. He has been considered a pillar of AEW, and he needs to be the next one to step up and win the AEW World Championship. He said it himself.

Jack Perry is out of the tournament and is somewhat directionless about what his next move is. Except he's not. He just said what his next move is: the AEW World Championship – a hell of a week for Perry!

Nigel McGuinness

"What won't stop me…"

by Sergei.

There's something fundamentally fatalistic about a tournament. As Jon Moxley said towards his tournament main event opponent (and our MVP) Jack Perry on Wednesday: “Are you ready like I'm ready tonight? Maybe it doesn't matter. Because fortune, she has a habit of doing just as she pleases.” Or maybe stoic or existential would be better words than fatalist? Because Moxley isn't saying that there is no point in effort because things still might not go your way – he's saying that because things still might not go your way… effort is everything!

Case in point, semi-retired grappler Nigel McGuinness put in an amazing effort on Saturday in my Match of the Week, where he overcame an opponent who he freely admitted outclassed him in an effort that absolutely blew me away as a viewer – as I discuss in great detail above… But then near the end of the program his broadcast partner Tony Schiavone would announce that he had hurt himself in the process, leaving doubt as to whether he would be able to continue to the quarterfinal round, in spite of all his efforts!

Then on Monday night, the Blind Draw Selection Special for the next round aired and we heard from the man in question, in a video message from his couch, saying: “So, they've asked me for an update and, welp: here it is…” gesturing at his injury-boot clad left foot:

https://youtu.be/3qNc5LzNby0?is=N44U0GEF4rk3vsqd

And you might think that would be the end of it, but instead Nigel delivered this message in calm but implacable defiance of any such creature as fate:

A different man… a smarter man, a more prudent man… might say: “now's the time to bow out. No way you're going to be at 100%.” Clearly, I'm not that man. Y'know, there's something about being a pro wrestler that we all share – that little bit of crazy. In some cases, a lot of bit of crazy… Now people might be waiting for that “rah rah” speech – how nothing's going to get in the way of my getting to Wembley stadium. But in reality, there's plenty of things to stop me from getting to Wembley stadium: the ankle, my opponent… even the good Lord himself. But I can tell you what won't stop me: fear.

Like Jon Moxley, like all of us, Nigel McGuinness can't guarantee an outcome. Based on the gutting disappointments throughout his career, Nigel knows this better than most. But what he controls, he controls absolutely. Fear, futility, the likelihood of failure, those things can't stop him. “Someone else will have to stop me.” I can't express to you how inspiring that is to me personally.