The Omega Maneuver | AEWeekly #218

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 the Match of the Week and MVP, Larissa [@actual-swamp-hag.bsky.social] expanding on the Moment of the Week, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking about the Best Interview, as well as editing and organizing it all.

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

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Maxwell Jacob Friedman vs Kenny Omega

“The Best Bout Machine...”

by Abel.

That AEW World Championship Match made me feel things – happy feelings, hopeful feelings, the kind we all direly need during this time in history. It’s a little silly to think professional wrestling can do that for a human being, but sometimes the little things in life make you the happiest. There was legitimate fear that MJF would get away with it again and lock another Hall of Fame wrestler out of any further AEW World Championship opportunities...

Omega’s entrance was built for the megastar he is, and like every other big stage he has stepped on, The Best Bout Machine delivered. Max did too, wrestling as if this were his last title shot ever. For those reasons, MJF vs. Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship is Pro Wrestling Musing’s Match of the Week. As for expectations and living up to the hype, I don't think there will be a match like this for the rest of the year – especially on free television.

There was a palpable sense of anxiety hanging in the humid night air, as everyone there and at home was on pins and needles, unsure whether this would be the last time we would see Omega this close to the AEW World Title. MJF did it to Adam Page; (not to mention Cody Rhodes!) could the same fate befall Omega? There was only one way to find out, and both men brought everything they had into the ring.

This match took place under the hot Florida sun and humidity, and you could visually tell. From the start, Omega looked as if he had just gotten out of the shower – soaking wet. Both competitors also looked exhausted throughout the match, as they had to fight not only each other but also oppressive weather. Omega's urgency, whether because of the heat or the anxiety of the stipulation, pushed him to try to finish early by hitting a One-Winged Angel off the bat. Obviously, it didn't work.

The heat did not stop MJF or Omega, however, as they used every part of the BayCare Sound amphitheater – no table, mat, or turf was safe. I’ve noticed a pattern, and I gotta tell you: MJF loves taking the fight into the crowd, and it happened again this past Wednesday. How appropriate that Mick Foley made an appearance on this night, as MJF’s Foley-esque announce-table bump was out of this world. Not to be outdone, MJF hit Kenny with a Heatseeker from hell, and Omega's kick-out seemed more muscle spasm than conscious effort. I like that little detail. Speaking of kicking out….

Let's talk about the moment of the match (and of the Week per Larissa's section below): that 1-count kickout. That spot is always a big topic of discussion the day after a match features it. Usually, those conversations bring out the worst in the IWC and our feeds become a cesspool of know-it-all second guessing. In this case, however, there seemed to be universal praise at the spot, and everyone arrived at a consensus: Only Omega should do this spot moving forward. The sheer force and will he had behind that kickout made a pop from the crowd that could power a nuclear bomb. Not only that, but the look of sheer disbelief from MJF will be engraved in my memory forever. That is Exhibit A as to why only Omega is allowed to use that spot. This obviously came after Will Ospreay saved Omega from getting brained by the Dynamite Diamond ring, and Omega saved his soul by not using the title to his advantage.

gif courtesy of chair

Ospreay's look was pure magic, and it almost matched my look when I watched it live. I love pro wrestling.

As we neared the end of the match, the ferocity of each V-Trigger from Omega to MJF looked more brutal than the last. Each one softened MJF up for the third and final One-Winged Angel. That was enough to do the job, and Omega is your AND NEW AEW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION. This time, no hijinks, no Don Callis, no screwdriver. It was won by the better man.

By the way: Kudos to MJF for putting on fantastic matches week in and week out. He has been one of the major reasons AEW is as hot now as it has ever been. According to reports, it was Maxwell’s idea to air this match on television rather than wait for the Redemption PPV. He is a fan and student of the business, so he knew that getting the title on Omega ASAP was the right call. They can never make me hate you, MJF. You're a real one.

Adam Page

“The Jacket...”

by Sergei.

Our beloved Cowboy, Hangman Adam Page returned from a long and (for his fans) painful hiatus on Saturday. The situation surrounding it was quite unusual. For comparison, take the last time the Hangman returned from an extended absence. Two years ago, Adam Page took over three months off for (what we later learned had been) paternity leave. For the sharp-eyed among us, the first harbinger of his return was a bracket: the Men's Owen Hart tournament bracket included a "Wild Card" surprise entrant, and the winner would go on to face the AEW Men's World Champ Swerve Strickland at Wembley. Many of us felt (correctly, as it happened) that there was no way the Wild Card could be anybody but Hangman. The same basic thing happened when he came back from a couple months away to be the Joker surprise entrant in the Casino Ladder match back in late 2021, leading into his triumphant first World title win. This allowed for the best of both worlds: some anticipation was built by the possibility of the surprise entrant being Hangman, but a little surprise was maintained by not coming right out and announcing it in advance…

This return was as different from those as can be. For one, it was on Saturday night, the secondary show. Likely Hangman didn't want to step on Kenny Omega's big night. Not to mention that Collision would be in Page's old stomping grounds of Virginia. But also, there was no attempt to keep it a surprise, his return was simply announced by AEW owner Tony Khan on a social media stream.

As a great wrestler once said: "you know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here." The anticipation remaining was based on the lingering question: why was Page here? And on this night? To announce his return was the obvious option, but not the only one. In kayfabe, he had left because he had lost a stipulation to never challenge for the championship that he had been obsessed with since day 0 of AEW. And we didn't know the real life reason, but there was certainly a possibility it could be something that would end up necessitating him hanging up his boots.

There was no delay or building anticipation, the Hangman return being the very first segment of the night, with Schiavone in the middle of the ring welcoming him back. The first thing to note was the music – ever since Hangman's return two years ago, he had switched from his familiar Western soundtrack-influenced theme to something a bit more … sinister. But tonight the original theme was back: more dusty saloons and wide prairies and less… arson. The second thing to note was that Hangman had changed his hair, something he had teased the possibility of in the little video he had made a couple weeks prior as an easter egg for the Five Star Booker game app where he puppeteered one of his beloved plants in his garden, and at the end asked someone offscreen if his face was in the video at all, so that viewers wouldn't know if he had shaved his head!

Page had not shaved his head, his new haircut wasn't even short, exactly, just… shorter – an above-the-collar medium-length coif for a guy whose hair hadn't been that short in more than a decade, at least. One last, immediate change to Hangman's presentation was the return of funny lower thirds. Back in the day, rather than mentioning an accomplishment or win-loss record, Adam Page's chyron would always be some funny, self-deprecating overshare, (like the classic “has been drinking”) but during the dark period between the Texas Deaths with Swerve and with Friedman, silliness had not suited his mood. But tonight, Page's name-chyron let us know that he had recently gotten a vasectomy!

But there was one more callback. A black suit jacket with a Western floral pattern embroidered on the shoulders – the same jacket he had worn at the original press conference that announced the founding of AEW, when he had first announced his intent to be the World Champion. And now he was wearing it for his first interview now that he would never compete for that title again…

Schiavone asks him how he feels and gives the mic over to Page to take it from there, and he … starts talking about his damn garden!  And his “incredible” butterfly weed. But soon he gets around to why he's brought this up – to use as a metaphor:

…I've found something, um, beautifully therapeutic about planting a seed. Y'know t, t, to put a seed into the soil, to take care of it, and watch with time as it becomes something beautiful…

Then Page says that he'd been gone four months for physical therapy for a pinched nerve, but that it was important for him to be here because they were going to be in a place that's home to him tonight and seems to choke up with sentiment a little, giving me a sudden fear that he was about to announce a medical retirement. But quite the opposite.

He then uses the metaphor he had set up, saying:

…because tonight I wanted to plant one more seed. And to be honest, I… I completely have no idea uh what this is gonna blossom into, or if it's gonna grow at all. But I'll do that tonight.

“Planting a seed” is definitely not generally a metaphor that fits with retiring, but it's ALSO not exactly the go-to if he were meaning to tell us that he's immediately back to active competition. He never quite comes out and specifies exactly when he expects to return, but if he is back in the ring tonight hardly anybody would be happier than me to have been wrong!

Finally, Page brings up the elephant: his stipulation to never challenge for the World title again. He recaps how he ended up in this situation and perhaps why, proposing three possible reasons but then saying: “I don't know if that was something entirely different.” (The secret fourth thing? Self destructiveness, in my humble opinion.) He then clarifies two important aspects of the stipulation: that the enforcement is only the honor system, but that he confirms that he will never go back on his word. “I will NEVER challenge for the All Elite Wrestling Men's World Championship again.”

The crowd begins a "No! No! No!" chant, proving as always that fan reaction is the definition of what makes a babyface, but that's not always the same as what's right. Then, Hangman makes the quickest callback ever, to Kenny Omega's promo after defeating Max Friedman AND his stipulation on Wednesday night (what would have undoubtedly been Interview of the Week any other week):

But what was even more important were the words that he said after. To never quit. To ALWAYS run the race. And though I find myself in this strange, strange situation… I look out, and I see miles and MILES of empty track laid out before me!

SUCH a thrilling moment. From there the Hangman lays out a challenge at every other men's singles titleholder that he CAN still challenge for, making it clear that just because he is done with the World title does not mean he is done with AEW gold.

…now I am faced with the question: WHO is Hangman without the World Championship? And the honest truth is that I don't know… But we are damned sure going to find out aren't we?

This was basically the most perfect outro you could ask for and I didn't expect him to continue speaking… What more could there be to say? But there was a little more – the sneakiest Easter egg of them all:

Because tonight? Tonight I can hear his words – after all these years – echo back to me, truer now than ever before: I am “going to have to find something else to do.” And you bet your ass I will.

Now he was done, after throwing a mystery hand grenade to the faithful: “Who the hell is this ‘he’???” I had no idea, and a million thanks to fellow Hangman superfan Emiliana for pointing me in the right direction. The man who originally told Page he would need to find “something else to do” wasn't anyone from wrestling, it was his father referring to the family farm. It's a callback to another interview… this time a sit-down with Jim Ross before his attempt to become the first AEW champ way back at the first All Out – where he also wore that same embroidered black jacket:

In that interview he spoke of how he learned about hard work on his family farm, but that he also learned he needed to be flexible, because his father made it clear to him that continuing with tobacco farming was not going to be an option for him. 

Talk about your nuanced, layered storytelling! It's this sort of thing that makes so many of us love AEW and love the Hangman so much! As I mentioned above, I doubt that he's back back, but if I'm wrong we'll know in a couple hours. And – hopefully – if not now, soon!

Kenny Omega

“Kenny Kicks Out!”

by Larissa.

Beach Break was some show, huh? Willow kicking Athena in the face in perfect time with her entrance music, Kyle’s hot pink Hannya mask*, the Sisters of Sin terrorizing innocent security guards… I was really spoiled for choice this week. But I have to hand it to Kenny Omega (and MJF) for pulling off one of the most electrifying moments I’ve seen in a long time. In their title match, defending champ MJF grabs the belt, but is thwarted by Bryce “If the Ref is Bryce, the Match Will Be Nice” Remsburg. He tosses the belt to the side, where it waits, like Chekhov’s gun. As Remsburg turns his back, MJF pulls the Dynamite Diamond Ring out of his trunks (what did he hand to Bryce at the beginning of the match, then?) and winds up, only to be thwarted yet again, this time by Will Ospreay. Kenny picks up the belt for a neat callback to his last championship match against Jon Moxley, but without Don Callis’ corrupting influence, he’s unwilling to pull the (V-)trigger. MJF capitalizes on Kenny’s ambivalence with a low blow, then bonks him in the head with the belt and scrambles for a cover… match over, one might think.

But Kenny kicks out at 1.

The pacing of this exchange was absolutely perfect. When MJF threw himself over Kenny, I had already accepted that he would retain. Everything moved so quickly that we didn’t have time to process what was happening, so the kickout came as a genuine shock. It shocked MJF too:

gif courtesy of chair

We’ve seen so many variations of the “heel wins dirty” trope but this was something I’d never seen before. It was a miracle of timing and a testament to the insane skill of these two wrestlers.

* I had to look up what Takeshita’s mask was called, and according to Wikipedia the masks represent “jealousy, resentment and anger.” So true!

Kenny Omega

“Nobody does it quite like Kenny ‘By God’ Omega...”

by Abel.

There is no other option for Pro Wrestling Musing’s MVP other than the NEW AEW World Champion, Kenny Omega. His title win was something special, and it made me feel like I was watching a piece of wrestling history. It took me back to when Omega won the AEW title for the first time, during the pandemic era, at Winter is Coming. If you even glanced at social media for 15 seconds, Omega's win was treated like a National Holiday. Everyone celebrated as if the Berlin Wall had come down. TV ratings were the highest in years, and nearly 3,000 tickets for All In were sold almost overnight – if that sort of thing interests you. Only a handful of wrestlers can do that, especially in an internet wrestling fanbase that seems permanently splintered and can’t agree on anything.

For one glorious night, (and the next day) there was a sense of community you actually wanted to be part of. That alone should make Omega the MVP. Wrestling fans – normal ones, not just us sickos – realize the importance and impact Omega has had on the industry, and his winning the AEW World title is an indisputably wonderful thing.

Omega’s opening promo to start the show highlighted his career, and really brought home that this might be the last time he would compete for the AEW World Championship. He had a somber tone to his words, heightening the anxiety for everyone watching. Kenny is so good when the spotlight is on him. He knows the gravity of the situation and how to play into it. It made all of us believe there was a possibility he was not going to win that match – even if the odds strongly favored him.

I reviewed the match in our “Match of the Week” segment, so there really isn't a need to relitigate; however, as good as Omega is on the mic, he's that much better in the ring – which is saying something. The way he is able to tell a story in the ring is second to none in the history of professional wrestling. Anytime he has a match on television or pay-per-view, (even one less momentous than this one) he already has a high chance of being the MVP of that week.

Now that Kenny has the AEW World Championship, this can be somewhat of a swan song for him and his legacy entering All In. He still has one more big title fight at the Redemption Pay-Per-View before heading to All In, where the mentor will face the mentee. There is no better opponent than Omega to pass the torch to Ospreay. On the other hand, there is no reason to believe that Omega might not retain the title at Wembley and kick off a second title run for the ages. Thankfully, I'm not the one who makes those decisions and will just enjoy having Omega as my champion as much as I possibly can. However long we have him gracing our televisions as our champion, we need to celebrate the greatness of Kenny “By God” Omega.

​The God of Professional Wrestling showed us again this last week that even if he is closer to the end of his career than to the beginning, he still has it. And not only "has" it, but in fact he is still one of the very best wrestlers in the entire world. Even if this turns out to be a short title reign, I know for a fact that Omega will make it worthwhile. Given how he crushed his moment in the spotlight this past week, it's clear that Omega knows what to do and how to prove that he is one of, if not THE BEST, professional wrestler in the world.