The Last Minute | AEWeekly #148

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, Rampage, and Collision, plus any social-media exclusives up until publication.

This week’s contributors are Tim [@TimmayMan] covering Match of the Week, Sergei [@SergeiAlderman] talking Best Interview, Gareth [@Gareth_eno] exploring a key Story Beat, Emiliana [@emilianartb.bsky.social] with the Moment of the Week, and Peter [@PeterEdge7] giving us the MVP of the Week.

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

Mark Briscoe vs. Kyle Fletcher

"Proto-Star vs. Poultry Farmer…"

by Tim.

The Continental Classic is probably my favorite annual AEW tradition at this point. In only its second year, it has eclipsed Blood and Guts and the Owen Hart Tournament as something I look forward to each year. I find it’s a great way to wrap up the year, get lots of talent involved, and provide the great in-ring action that I appreciate in pro wrestling. This year has already provided some great moments and this week was no exception.

Coming into this match, Mark Briscoe was looking for redemption from last year where he earned zero points. Since then he claimed the ROH World Title so an improvement seemed achievable for the chicken farmer from Delaware. As for Kyle Fletcher, his inaugural run in the C2 has already been filled with controversy as he’s cheated to win in both of his previous matches. Fletcher is the protostar (prototype of a star?) for a reason, and his rise feels unlimited at this point. 

One of the many things that Fletcher excels at is his selling, which is on full display during this match. Late in the action as the two men fight up on the turnbuckle, Briscoe hits Fletcher with a big slap and Fletcher takes a moment to puff out his cheeks and make a very silly face before taking the Nestea plunge down to the mat. He’s not afraid of looking ridiculous if it makes the babyface look good, and this is a plus. You could also interpret the flop as stalling, because when Briscoe then goes for a top rope elbow, Fletcher has time to get his knees up. The action goes back and forth for a while until Fletcher tries for a pin with his feet on the ropes, which the ref catches, and Fletcher’s feigned innocence had me laughing big old belly laughs. Briscoe manages to hit a Cutthroat driver (which he beat Daniel Garcia with) but he lacks the energy to make a pin, while Fletcher only has enough in the tank to roll out of the ring to safety. 

The last minute of this match is just perfection. As soon as it’s announced over the PA system that only 1 minute remains, you can feel the energy in the arena shift. The crowd has been conditioned that ties are possible (we just saw one in Okada/Garcia) so they’re aware that’s a possibility… but the match isn’t over yet. So for every nearfall and teased ref bump in the last 60 seconds, the crowd bites, and the workers bring up the tempo to match the crowd’s energy. This is grade-A booking as it’s been established that ties can happen in this tournament and now you have a scenario where it looks like it might happen. Instead of the usual win or loss scenario, now the fans have to entertain a third option. Also established is the trend of Fletcher being a cheating prick and he attempts a low blow that Briscoe blocks. Fans are screaming at this point as Briscoe hits the Jay Driller for the win with only 16 seconds remaining on the clock.

Everything about this match worked for me. The in-ring action was exciting, the crowd was hot, the storyline that set up moments was solid, the booking made sense, the commentary team was breathless. I don’t know if either Fletcher or Briscoe will make it to the semifinals of the C2, but they delivered a standout match in the middle of the tournament—the kind of match that should be looked on fondly.

Darby Allin & Will Ospreay

"Business as usual..."

by Sergei.

This write-up is delayed, Sergei is down with a cold.

ICYMI:

Toni Storm

"What ever happened to Toni Storm?..."

by Gareth.

After the “retirement” of ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm, many predicted her imminent return to AEW sooner rather than later. After all, surely a full retirement with a big show in her home nation of Australia coming up was simply not on the cards. So, her return at the Winter is Coming episode of Dynamite was not a huge surprise.

However, the question of “how will Toni sell what happened with Mariah May?” is one which prompted various different theories. The answer? She won’t. Toni Storm has returned as an older version of herself and is completely no-selling the entire ‘Timeless’ character.

Not just that, she’s no-selling her entire AEW career thus far. Announcing on Collision that she is now “All Elite” and later interrupting a Thunder Rosa promo to introduce herself to the former AEW Women’s World champion with whom Storm has quite the storied history.

This is a fascinating approach rarely seen before in wrestling, but I do think there’s more to this than appears on the surface. My theory is that this is still very much an act. A role which ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm has taken on for the next chapter of her story to lure Mariah into a false sense of security and flip the tables on the AEW Women’s World Champion.

That is merely a personal theory, but what is clear is that the return of one of AEW’s best characters is headed in a fairly unique direction.

Mark Briscoe

"You are the sum of all those who touched your heart..."

by Emiliana.

If it wasn’t for someone very dear to me recognizing that I loved storytelling in all of its forms, I wouldn’t be watching wrestling today. On a fated day in August of 2014, my closest friend, (who would become my husband and then my ex-husband,) turned on a couple of old Attitude Era matches for me to watch, among them a hardcore Mick Foley match, Taker vs Triple H refereed by Shawn Michaels, HBK vs Ric Flair, Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle, Stone Cold vs The Rock, and a few Taker streak matches — to name a few. One by one, I ate them up. I was thrilled by the narrative drama of it all, the way I felt when Eddie Guerrero, who I had barely known the name of thirty minutes before, won the heavyweight championship. I was enthralled by the emotion of seeing a Latino man from my home state showered in confetti, the words that he spoke with a similar accent to my friends and family — and then the bittersweet shock of my best friend showing me the episode after his death.

It is that kind of emotion — the highest of highs and lowest of lows — that I felt when Mark Briscoe beat Kyle Fletcher this past week on Collision with his brother’s move, the Jay Driller. Throughout the course of the past few weeks, it’s been observed by fellow wrestling fans that every time Briscoe went for the move, it would result in his opponents gaining the upper hand and ultimately, Briscoe would lose the match. His one win (before the Fletcher match) was against Daniel Garcia with a different finisher. Fate seemed to be telling Mark Briscoe that perhaps his late brother’s memory was a hindrance to his ability to perform in the ring.

However, as we saw this past week, that was not the case. Jay Briscoe’s spirit lives — alive and well in the ring, in his brother’s heart, and in the hearts of the fans. In a stunning upset, Mark Briscoe ultimately beat Kyle Fletcher with a Jay Driller to earn himself three points on the Continental Classic scoreboard, bringing him one step closer to World’s End. Tears welled in my eyes as he took in the adoration and cheers of the crowd, Briscoe reaching for the sky. When Orange Cassidy and Willow Nightingale of the Conglomeration came out for the celebratory embrace and motioned Briscoe back into the ring, the waterworks started on cue.

Short lived as the moment may have been, it is a bittersweet reminder that though our loved ones may be gone and the memory of them hurt deeply, they are not a burden to us. They hold our hands as we struggle through life and partake in the joy when we succeed. Mark Briscoe has shined bright enough for two since his brother’s passing, and his future can only get brighter.

Toni Storm

"Toni Storm is All Elite (again?)..."

by Peter.

To say the Timeless Toni gimmick was polarising in 2023 is an understatement. It won Best gimmick in the Wrestling Observer Awards but it also ranked 3rd in Worst Gimmick. But as 2024 rolled on and worked out the kinks and stutters of the role of a lifetime, the love from the fans was obvious.

Only Will Ospreay and Bryan Danielson got bigger face reactions than Toni at All In this August (Emi is shouting that Hangman got a bigger pop, isn't she?) but as it came about that All In was the final close-up for Timeless Toni and she rode into the sunset of the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, the months that followed did give credence to the cliche of "absence makes the heart grow fonder", and with the inevitable comeback, the fact that she got the ovation she got and that it was the final shot of Dynamite shows that "Timeless Toni" was a period of time that more advantageous to Storm than dare I say the "rocker" get-up had ever been in the years before that. Speaking of which…

The fact she came out of the tunnel dressed as the Toni Storm pre-breakdown after losing the AEW Worlds Women's Championship raised eyebrows. The detractors of the Timeless gimmick hailed this as a sign that "Age of Timeless" is over but that's not giving Toni her due.

Over the rest of the "AEW week" we saw signs of what is actually going on. Toni Storm, still dressed as "Rocker Toni", started to play into aspects of her first few months in AEW. She also played into the cliches of the company AEW: talking about being All Elite, a phrase associated with wrestlers working from the ground up, trying to make it to the top of the AEW mountain. On Collision, she introduced herself to Thunder Rosa in a manner that is requested per the "unwritten rules" of pro wrestling. She also fangirled over Tony Schiavone and Mark Briscoe, (which is the appropriate response.)

Is Toni Storm stuck in a time loop?

Is Storm actually OK?

These are questions that are being asked by watchers of AEW but it's also the questions set up by Toni Storm expressly to capture their imaginations. Toni is challenging the viewer right now. In a world where people being alleged of being "too comfortable" is at the crux of what is the company's biggest storyline, you definitely can't say that of Toni Storm. Her ability to take risks in her presentation has brought her back to the forefront of the AEW conversation and while what show she wrestles on might be a talking point, the fact we can't stop talking Toni shows how she is the Most Valuable Player of this past week.