Qu'est-ce Que C'est? | AEWeekly #216

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 and the week's MVP, Lauren [@sithwitch.bsky.social] exploring a key Story Beat, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking about the Best Interview and the Moment of the Week, as well as editing and organizing it all.

 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.

Will Ospreay

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows…"

by Abel.

Professional wrestling is at a pivotal moment. For the first time in nearly 30 years, two financially strong companies are driving the industry forward. Creative competition pushes both to experiment and outdo one another—whether HHH or Tony Khan would admit it or not.

​AEW is currently in a position to experiment with storylines, and I believe this is the start of one of the most compelling in AEW history. Ospreay, with a broken body and soul, will be reshaped in the image of Jon Moxley with the Death Riders' help. While this echoes other dynamics seen before, the relationship between the Death Riders and Ospreay offers a new angle.

​I know I am going to fantasy-book myself into disappointment – as wrestling fans often do – but I am genuinely excited to see Ospreay's development after this angle. There may be a Dark Knight Rises element, where Ospreay, broken in body and mind like Batman, rises to become his ultimate self.

The next great story will be led by one of the unlikeliest characters: Will Ospreay. While I thoroughly enjoy Ospreay’s wrestling, he is not known to be one of the more talented storytellers. This angle, which started this week, could completely change that narrative. While there were so many deserving wrestlers this week, it is this new challenge that makes Ospreay my AEW MVP.

Reflecting on this week’s developments: After Ospreay’s encounter with former stablemate Mark Davis on Dynamite, the Death Riders stepped in to shield him from further attack by Davis and the Don Callis Family. On Collision, the aftermath continued with a cinematically shot interrogation scene, where Moxley questioned whether Will remembers his ultimate goal—claiming Ospreay now seems driven only by breaking Moxley’s neck.

In the wake of this confrontation, Moxley offered to help Ospreay evolve into a cerebral assassin (pun intended) instead of just an aerial one. While the word "cinema" is overused in wrestling, the interrogation scene’s presentation—with effective cinematography and acting—made its impact clear. Moxley carried much of the scene, but Ospreay made his brief dialogue count.

This evolution deserves recognition. Ospreay, known as the Aerial Assassin and one of the most celebrated wrestlers in the world, could easily continue his established style for years. However, his willingness to change—clearly motivated within the story (and perhaps in real life?) to prolong his career—shows commitment. This gives us an intriguing storyline to sustain both Ospreay and the previously rudderless Death Riders for the rest of 2026.​

At a time when innovative storytelling is essential, stories like this raise the bar across AEW. Ospreay’s efforts show his determination to go beyond being labeled a “spot monkey” and become a more well-rounded pro wrestler. That’s why he stands out as my MVP this week.

Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay

"Tests are a gift..."

by Lauren.

What do pro wrestling and a science fiction book series that began in the mid-1980s have in common? Quite a lot, this week. The series in question is Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, a series loosely inspired by aspects of Star Trek that is in turns a political drama, a war story, a Regency comedy of manners, and a heart-wrenching study of what it's like to be a person who doesn't fit in with society at large.

The story mainly follows the Vorkosigan family: a war criminal father, a brilliant scientist mother, a disabled genius son, and the societies that shaped them and were in turn changed by them.

©2012, 2026 Clyde Caldwell All Rights Reserved

Again, not the most likely story to compare to pro wrestling, but the confrontation between Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay had some moments that both I and our editor Sergei noticed. (Thank you Sergei, for finding the appropriate passages!)

As discussed previously, Will Ospreay returned triumphantly after a neck injury that he blamed on Mox, only to repeatedly get his ass kicked due to both his high-risk style and his opponents' knowledge of his injury. Mox repeatedly stated that this was nothing personal from his point of view, and he dispassionately defeated Ospreay again at Dynasty – but held back his gang from any post-match beating. Then on the most recent Dynamite, not only did Will’s former friend Mark Davis beat him to the point of Doc Sampson declaring Ospreay medically unfit to continue thus awarding the match to Davis by stoppage, he then dragged Will back into the ring to break his neck again. Cue the Death Riders appearing, causing Davis to back off. Claudio carried Ospreay out of the ring and away from the crowd.

On Collision, got our answers to what happened next, and here the comparisons start. Ospreay was seated in front of a waiting Mox, had his neck adjusted by Marina (side note: please avoid neck adjustments by chiropractors, they can lead to artery dissection, strokes, and possibly death,) and then Mox began to speak. “What is it you're trying to accomplish here?” He pointed out that he didn't think that Ospreay even knew any more, that he kept flinging himself against a wall without any hope of crashing through it. This recalls a segment where Miles Vorkosigan, the disabled protagonist of most of the series, compares his own actions to climbing a wall over and over, with no change in his circumstances. “I'm tired of playing wall,” he thinks to himself. And indeed, Ospreay has been battering himself against that wall over and over, only injuring himself further. 

Next, Mox moves on to point out that “your body, flesh, blood, muscle, bone… it will break. But this–” and here, he pointed at his head, “trained – honed properly – will not break.” In the novella "The Borders of Infinity", Miles infiltrates a prison camp and proceeds to organize a rescue and rebellion among the dispirited and divided POWs. He approaches the leader of the women's faction of the camp in an attempt to recruit them (the largest unified group left) to his cause.

"This is power." She flexed her arm under his nose, muscles coiling and loosing. "This is the only power that exists in here. You haven't got it, and you're looking for some to cover your ass. But you've come to the wrong store."

"No," Miles denied and tapped his forehead. "This is power. And I own the store. This controls that." – he slapped his bunched fist. “Men may move mountains, but ideas move men. Minds can be reached through bodies – what else is the point of all this” – he waved at the camp – ”but to reach your minds through your bodies. But that power flows both ways, and the outflow is the stronger tide.”

Obviously Miles and Mox make very similar comparisons of the power of the body versus the mind… But deeper than that: in both cases, the person being addressed is exhausted, dispirited, physically beaten down, but stubborn. Ospreay is not a prisoner of war, but he is a prisoner of his own mind. He has never known another way to be, and that way is no longer serving him. This is where Mox made the offer for the Death Riders to train him, to turn him into a “weapon like professional wrestling has never seen.”

But first, there's the matter of Ospreay's thirst for revenge on Moxley. There's another relevant quote from the scene above where Miles says, “Revenge is a dead thing, reaching out from the past to grasp you.” But then we saw play out on screen an extreme tactic for overcoming distrust used by another character from the series. In the very first book in the series, Shards of Honor, the aforementioned war criminal father, Aral Vorkosigan – here not yet a father – tells how he confronted his second-in-command who had (possibly reluctantly) gone along with a mutiny against him.

"...He's back on the job."

"How did you do it?"

“Untied him and gave him my plasma arc. I told him I couldn't work with a man who made my shoulderblades itch, and this was the last chance I was going to give him for an instant promotion. Then I sat down with my back to him. Sat there for about ten minutes. We didn't say a word. Then he gave the arc back, and we walked back to camp.”

In an amazingly similar scene, Mox dismissed the other Death Riders and handed his enemy a weapon, offering Ospreay a free shot at evening the scales with a neck for a neck. “You can settle up, or you can become everything you were meant to be,” he told Will, before lying down on the floor, hands clasped behind his back, unresisting.

There's more to compare, if you want to dig for it: how Ospreay's crisis of identity is similar to Miles’ after being kicked out of the military, how failing bodies play their part in forcing someone to find workarounds. How Mox and Aral are both misunderstood monsters, and even how the Death Riders and the mercenary company Miles steals (the Dendarii!) have similarities. But the main one, the important one, is how change is necessary. Bodies will break. Societies will change. And if you put your mind to it, you can be better than anyone ever expected, including yourself.

Tommaso Ciampa

"No heroes, no villains..."

by Sergei.

Tommaso Ciampa is an enigma. He acts like a prototypical heel and then speaks like the most white meat babyface. He sings the classic tune of the underdog who was always told he could never make it in this business. And then words of the family man:

Let me tell you what I am. I am a husband, a father, a son, a brother. I have an insane work ethic.

But then he gets to the bit that clears up everything: "Tonight isn't about villains and heroes." And that's what makes Ciampa not some inconsistent, incoherent tweener. Ciampa is a man who rejects the whole framework of heels and babyfaces.

©2026 Marvel

As I talk about (and explain the lore behind) below in Moment, Ciampa has the capacity for powerful and authentic compassion and sentiment. But he also has the capacity to coldly and rationally make the premeditated choice to ignore that and take the action he decides is necessary, regardless of what he might prefer.

It's easy to fall into the lazy archetypes of melodrama to squeeze out a reaction from the crowd. I hope that Ciampa keeps bucking audience expectations and eschewing cheap heat to portray something just a little more real.

Tommaso Ciampa kisses MJF

"Cruel to be Kind..."

by Sergei.

I could very easily make this a short one. MJF was jawing at Ciampa, 'cause he wasn't happy some new guy was getting a shot at the World title that Max still felt rightly belonged to him. And Ciampa, rather than reflecting that anger back at the former Champ, he leans in close and gives him a little kiss on the cheek. That's awesome and hilarious, no context required. Nuff said.

But… why exactly does a guy known as a "psycho killer" go around smooching everybody? If it were anybody else, I would just chalk it up to a game of "gay chicken": testing and prodding his rivals' sense of masculinity for any lack of resolve or self-control. But for Tommaso, it goes a little deeper than that.

There's lore here… lore that many AEW fans may be unaware of because it reaches deep back to the before-AEW times. Way back in 2015, WWE brought in a few indie guys to fill out spots in a tag-team tourney for their developmental show. They teamed Ciampa with a long-time rival of his on the indies, Johnny Gargano.

Naturally, the non-signed guys didn't win it all, but they made an impression. After their elimination, the next time we saw them together they were facing each other rather than teaming, in the opening round of yet another tournament, this time the Cruiserweight Classic. Before the match, they talk about having become best friends since teaming up… but still being competitors. Ciampa says "I don't want to injure Johnny. But I don't want to lose."

Ciampa dominant, but regretful of the punishment he has to put on his friend who just won't give up, becomes the theme of this match. The turning point being when Tommaso pulls down the knee pad as the set up for his running knee, has second thoughts and pulls it back up, and in that moment loses the momentum. Soon after, Gargano gets the win by getting the better of a sequence of roll-up reversals. Ciampa is obviously frustrated at himself for hesitating, and for getting caught – the exact emotional state that has led to any number of heel turns. But rather than taking his frustration out on his friend, he takes a breath, and he shows self-control, perspective, and tenderness by pulling Johnny's head into his chest in a rueful embrace. (Honestly, until researching this piece, I had misremembered that as Tommaso kissing Johnny on top of his head. He doesn't, but it's that sort of moment.)

Over the following year, the team now dubbed #DIY would climb to the top of the tag-team mountain … and tumble back down it – climbing the ranks, winning the championship, losing it again, and then failing a couple attempts to regain it. After that second disappointment, there is a callback where Tomasso pulls Johnny's head to him, seemingly in a consoling gesture… but instead, he takes that grip and uses it to run Gargano face-first into the staging.

Ciampa is called the "Psycho Killer" and that's because he can resort to brutal violence while seeming unnaturally calm – and that can be unnerving. But the irony is, while Tommaso isn't a madman who can't reign in his frustration and anger, he also isn't a psycho with no capacity for tenderness or compassion. He's just a man who is VERY aware of just how much that compassion can cost him.

Darby Allin (C) vs Tommaso Ciampa

"Something to Prove..."

by Abel.

It's very rare when one professional wrestler, especially so late in their career, self-proclaims that they have found their wrestling soul mate. Ciampa has fought so many talented wrestlers throughout his career, and when most wrestling fans think of Ciampa, they think of Johnny Gargano, like some wrestling “first word that comes to mind” game. However, that is exactly what Tommaso Ciampa did after his match against Darby Allin on last week’s edition of AEW Dynamite. The Psycho Kiiller himself found his perfect dancing partner, and it's, of course, a shock to no one that Allin is the one who aligns perfectly with him. I bet if you ask Darby, he'd say the same thing.

​Both men are looking to prove something in this match. Ciampa, the grizzled vet, is looking to prove to the world that he still has what it takes to be a world champion. Darby, on the other hand, is looking to prove that beating MJF is not a one-off. He can carry the World Title and AEW.

​Because of its brutality, perfect harmony/synchronization, and in-ring story, the AEW World Championship match between Darby Allin and Tommaso Ciampa is #AEWeekly’s match of the week.

​This match started not in the ring, but on the mic. After beating MJF for the AEW World Title, Darby Allin gave an emotional speech about his path to the top. MJF interrupted, wanting his title shot. Then the challenger appeared, kissed MJF on the cheek, and left the ring. It was a great way to poke the bear and might set up a rivalry later.

​When the bell rang, the match started as if this had been a month-long blood feud between the two. (Note: it had not. The two men had expressed nothing but mutual respect. They both happen to express respect with extreme violence.) It started out at 100 MPH, and it didn't stop for 20 minutes straight, and every punch was as hard in minute 1 as it was in minute 20. This is one of the hardest-hitting matches AEW has ever hosted on television, and one of the hardest-hitting I have ever seen, period. Ciampa is an absolute demon. They had this dude cosplaying as DX at the other place, and now that he is Elite, Ciampa has proven not only that he still has it, but that he is built for these moments and deserves these shots at the World Championship.

​They didn't just beat each other up for the sake of it. Each move had a purpose and a motive. The exposed turnbuckle and the Psycho Driller from the top rope to the outside mat all played a part in the ending. The aftermath was the best part. Ciampa sold his bump, making it feel like he got the worst of it. (Since, as we all know, Darby is made of rubber.)

​The exposed turnbuckle hit Allin's head, giving Ciampa minutes of uninterrupted offense. There was a moment when we thought he would win. Ciampa’s disbelief after failing to pin Darby despite two knees to his chin was great acting. Ciampa’s knees looked brutal, almost as if Allin asked him to hit hard. For the knees not to work in kayfabe would be frustrating.

​As mentioned before, the Psycho Driller to the outside was Ciampa’s ultimate downfall. Allin’s resilience and unique offense directly turned the tide, as Ciampa's own Psycho Driller battered him enough for the Scorpion Death Lock to seal the deal for Allin, allowing him to successfully defend the title for the first time. Both men, exhausted, lying on the mat, fighting for breath, as Ciampa’s blood was smeared all over the ring, was an unreal visual. When both fighters could finally muster enough energy to get up, Ciampa shook Allin’s hand. In that moment, Allin not only won the match but also earned Ciampa’s respect and belief, illustrating how Allin’s fighting spirit transforms even his fiercest rivals. This seems to set the tone for Darby's title reign – making all doubters into disciples.

​It looks like Allin is going to defend the title week in and week out. So, it might be a short title reign, but a memorable one. Next up? Brody King. Let's see if that match is the one I'm talking about next week.