The Elite Ride Again, Again | AEWeekly #200

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 Moment 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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Kyle Fletcher vs Pac

"He's OUR Bastard…"

by Abel.

Matches like Kyle Fletcher vs Pac are precisely what the Continental Classic is all about. In any given match, anyone can win. This is what ultimately makes the Continental Classic the best tournament in the world, even surpassing — hot take — the G1 Climax in New Japan Pro Wrestling. That tournament is so stacked with wrestlers that it can get watered down. That conversation, however, is for a different article. The topic du jour is the exquisite match between “The Bastard” Pac and “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher in AEW's  tournament. Three crucial points were up for grabs, and more importantly, Pac’s tournament chances were hanging on by a thread. Pac wrestled like it and put on a masterclass in front of his countrymen in England. For those reasons, Pac vs Fletcher is the Match of the Week.

AEW has done a good job of portraying these matches as big and important. The entrances for both Pac and Fletcher looked like entrances for a big match. From the jump, we knew Fletcher was in enemy territory, as the Manchester crowd was clearly behind their countryman, Pac. “He’s our bastard!” could be heard echoing from the rafters. You could see the smirk on Fletcher’s face as he pointed at Pac, then the crowd, who were clearly behind Pac.

There was a tense atmosphere at the start of the match as both men tested each other to get a feel for one another. It only lasted a few minutes as both Fletcher and Pac – once they got their sea legs under them – started to throw haymakers. Kyle Fletcher has now become the weekly standard of great matches. With his mate Will Ospreay out, Fletcher is now the workhorse of the company. Whenever he enters that ring, you know as a fan that whatever happens in that match, it's going to be fantastic. The Protostar has excellent chemistry with every opponent he faces, and in the Continental Classic, that is the gold standard. Pac and Fletcher used every inch of that mat. Their in-ring storytelling was phenomenal and perhaps Fletcher’s best of the tournament.

Few wrestlers have the combination of power and agility that Pac has. He has the strength to pick up a house, and also the athleticism to jump over one. The avalanche belly-to-belly suplex is the perfect example of that. To pick up Fletcher – who is 6 '4' and over 205 pounds – and be able to show that sort of athleticism and strength is beyond what you'd think a mortal being could do. Pac also makes his leaps look so effortless. His Orihara moonsault off the top rope was as textbook perfect as it could be. I’ve used this analogy before with Konosuke Takeshita, but it also applies to Pac. If you were to go into a lab to create the perfect physical wrestler, Pac might be what comes out of that lab.

Fetcher is quickly becoming the king of the near-finish. Every time he kicks one of his opponents in the corner, the match looks over. The aggressiveness of the kicks, which is followed up by a brainbuster or a power bomb, has signaled the end for other wrestlers before; however, in the C2, that has not been the case. This is what made the finish to this so surprising. Surely, Fletcher wasn't going to drop a second consecutive match in the tournament. He did. Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight’s upsets were a bit more unbelievable; however, Pac’s upset of Kyle Fletcher was still jaw-dropping. The matches are in this weird place where they are all within the tournament, but they still live independently of each other. That is what makes each match so great and builds the tension.

The Black Arrow is just so beautiful. It almost looks as though Pac is stalking his prey before he ascends into the air – one of the few truly protected finishers in the business. So you know when Pac hits this, it's curtains for his opponent, which was the case on Wednesday night. Pac got the win and earned his three points. Not having someone blow through the round-robin tournament has made this an enjoyable C2 tournament. This match was proof of that.

The Elite

"A hero's welcome for the Elite..."

by Lauren.

The Elite are back. The original trio of Kenny Omega and Matt and Nick Jackson are finally back in the ring together as allies for the first time since the 200th episode of Dynamite, all the way back in February of 2023. Slightly over a year later, the Young Bucks fired Kenny from the group for the crime of nearly dying from diverticulitis.

In the heightened reality of professional wrestling, things that would end any normal relationship can just be a minor setback. Felonies are committed on a regular basis and grievances are settled through ritual combat, after all. Here, someone serving a diverticulitis survivor a birthday cake topped with rotting animal organs doesn't even merit a trip to Human Resources.

Perhaps it's to be expected that wrestlers occasionally become full-on cartoon supervillains in this environment. It's happened to Kenny several times over his career, including his stint as the Belt Collector at AEW. He canonically ordered Adam Cole's murder via a poisoned energy drink, after all, not to mention all his sordid non-”fatal” betrayals of friends and allies. He's familiar with the allure of power corrupting. Throw in a little Don Callis meddling, and he was primed to forgive the Bucks, horrible little gremlins that they are.

The Elite reuniting was inevitable, both in and out of the world of kayfabe. In the real world, the three of them are friends who have a good time hanging out; of course they'd want to spend more time together. But in the reality of AEW, they are something more. The Elite are the foundation on which AEW was built. The company has grown and thrived around them, and sometimes without them, but their return feels like something more.

Kenny and the Bucks have made no secret of their plans to retire in the next few years. It makes sense that they would want to spend their last chapters together, in the place that they helped to make. Their story isn't over, by any means: Don Callis is still a thorn in their sides, and Hangman Adam Page is still out there rebuilding himself after his own supervillain era. But for now, when the Being the Elite theme song hit, everything seemed right in the world, and the future felt full of promise.

Kevin Knight

"Silly Little Jester, Defeated By Knight"

by Emiliana

This week marks the 200th week of AEWeekly. That’s a pretty great run, and I haven’t been here for a lot of it, but I am grateful for the time that I have had here. This isn’t a good bye or anything; this is just what I do when words are hard to say and the brain is stuck.

I am thinking about why I watch AEW in the first place. I started watching because I was losing interest as a fan in the booking of a different show where the wrestlers I adored weren’t getting the opportunities I’d hoped for. One of them was Jon Moxley. I was proud of him for leaving because they’d completely ruined his character in a way that I thought could never be fixed.

And that brings me to today, a day where I am unable to think holistically about AEW and am instead forced to take it a little bit specifically, because sometimes as a wrestling fan I am unable to see or understand the big picture, or maybe I think the big picture does not vibe with me.

But one thing that happened this week was really cool: Kevin Knight pinned Okada, making the Continental Classic - at least on the Gold League side - a five way tie at the top.

Now, I’ve said before that I expect the finals at World’s End to be Okada versus Takeshita. But a five way tie in the semis is still really interesting and should make for a great Christmas show. But more than anything, this Continental Classic - while I still believe it has a predictable finish - has given some new wrestlers the opportunity to showcase their talent and surprise us, as well as surprise wrestlers that are considerably more experienced.

Kevin Knight got the drop on Okada because Okada did not take him seriously. But really, Okada didn’t take himself seriously. And that’s the downside to being a goofball that I’ve been waiting for. I love the silly antics, I love how much of a bully he is, but in the end - a bully can be outsmarted. And Kevin Knight proved that. And he also proved that you have to make the most of every opportunity given, because you never know which one could be your standout showing.

I’m not really sure what’s happening next as I haven’t seen a match card for tonight’s Miracle on 34th show or for Christmas Collision, but I hope a guy like Kevin Knight gets to once again prove why he deserves a bigger, bolder opportunity in the weeks to come, because that’s what AEW is still about to me - giving opportunities to guys that have the potential to keep outshining their spot.