Toxic Yuri? (Yaoi?) | AEWeekly #217

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 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.

Darby Allin vs Brody King

"Who Needs Enemies..."

by Abel.

Darby Allin’s motto in life is, “I'm here for a good time, not a long time.” From his real-life death-defying stunts to his in-ring wrestling style, Allin lives life like that George Strait song. All Allin has to do now is ride a bull named Fu Manchu for 2.7 seconds. But you know what is even more dangerous than Fu Manchu? Brody King. Last week, Tommaso Ciampa stated that he had found his wrestling soulmate in Darby Allin. This week, I think we saw who Darby Allin might consider his wrestling soulmate. These two have more chemistry--and ink-- than most wrestlers will ever hope to have, and it's magic every time they face off in the ring.

King and Allin delivered an all-time AEW TV World Championship match on Dynamite last week. Thanks to its intensity and jaw-dropping action, it’s our Match of the Week for Pro Wrestling Musings.

One thing I love about AEW is that every World Championship match is treated by the two competitors as the most important thing in the world. That even goes for talent who are friends on- and off-camera. I love that two friends can fight for the title without holding anything back. AEW excels at matching two babyfaces, where only the title or stipulation decides the winner.

This match worked because King and Darby were previous Kayfabe rivals. You know they can beat each other up, and if memory serves, the first time King choked someone over the top rope was Allin in the Royal Rampage. They always deliver a banger match — and that’s exactly what happened here.

If someone can show me anyone who can chop harder than King, I would like to see it because right now, it's his crown to wear. The combination of Allin’s selling and King’s force made the chops look like the most painful thing in the world. King’s chops early on and throughout the match set the tone for what the rest of the battle for the World Championship would be.

Darby is at his best when he is being thrown around the ring. The way King threw him like a trash bag over the ropes and into the camera was fantastic—he gets tossed as if completely weightless. I bet anything that both wrestlers love this dynamic; it's likely what makes their matches together so compelling. When Darby launched himself in a tope and bounced off King, it was as if a rag doll hit a brick wall, perfectly selling the brutality of the move. Here we see Allin take the “suicide” part of the tope suicida move to the extreme, risking it all with each dive.

Not to be outdone, however, Brody (as big as he is) loves to throw himself around as well. For example, King going through the barrier at full force was a thing of beauty. King also allows himself to be battered as much as he batters Allin. Another example is King, with Allin on his back, throwing them both over like a skateboarder crashing with his backpack on.

I am really digging Allin's title defenses right now. Most wrestling fans associate the length of a title reign with determining the success of a particular wrestler's time as champion. Allin’s time as champion will prove to be shorter than some of the more memorable ones; however, it will go down as one of the best match-for-match reigns of all time – in my very humble opinion.

Ultimately, Darby's craftiness got him the win over King. Allin is tough and daring, but his willingness to use whatever it takes — like the exposed cement outside — against his larger foe is what makes him a credible heavyweight champion, regardless of his own weight class. I love that he spams Coffin Drops as his finish. It shows self-awareness that his finisher isn't always so final, and that it might take something extra against the level of competition he'll be facing as World Champion. It took three to take out King, one on the exposed concrete outside.

Brody King has had an excellent 2026. He has made himself a major player in AEW, and it will eventually pay off in gold. While he was used as a major stepping stone for Darby during this match, he will, in the near future, be the one clearing those championship hurdles (all-father willing).

​Next up for Allin? The sensational Kevin “The Jet” Knight, who was watching King and Allin like Marvel’s the Watcher. This match should be spectacular and no doubt at least in contention for match of the week for next week’s edition.

Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida

"I was this close to making history, and you cost me EVERYTHING..."

by Lauren.

Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida are not having the best time as tag partners. They had a few wins together, but they've both been in some kind of mood. Kris, since she lost the Women's World Championship to Thekla, has been adrift. She declined to teach her former tag partner and friend Harley Cameron, and while she and Willow may have reconciled, she is keeping herself away, so as not to distract Willow from the TBS title. And since Shida came back, she has been full of bravado and scorn for the other women … aside from Kris.

Shida has teased going to the Dark Side before. (Side note: Happy Revenge of the Sixth, everybody!) Her last Women's Championship reign in 2023, her third in total, was ended after her rivalry with the newly Timeless Toni Storm. In the weeks leading up to their match, Shida was blatantly annoyed with Toni's dramatics and teased what the fans called “Yakuza boss Shida” before disappearing for two years due to visa issues.

Even before her return, a heel turn was teased. Among the various items in Toni Storm's dressing room that could have been used as the murder weapon was  Shida's signature shinai, or kendo stick. Since losing her comeback match to Willow Nightingale, thus beginning the latter's run as the “Comeback Killer,” Shida has been smacktalking everyone, mostly in Japanese so that she wouldn't be understood.

Except that Mina Shirakawa and Harley Cameron, both of whom had their breasts insulted by Shida, both speak Japanese. Mina, Toni's kayfabe widow, has made it clear to everyone, including Stat, that she doesn't trust Shida.

On Dynamite, Shida and Stat challenged Divine Dominion to the tag championship, but lost, partially due to Divine Dominion's strength, but mostly due to several lapses in teamwork on their own part. Early in the match, Statlander kept Shida from using her shinai to cheat, and less than a minute later Shida suplexed Stat into Megan Bayne. Ultimately, they lost when Shida tagged herself in and was pinned not long after. Afterwards, Kris blamed Shida, pining her to the wall with her forearm, growling “That's enough out of you.” Shida vowed to make it up to her, but Stat was already gone.

On Collision, they, along with Harley and Mina, met up again, under the flag of nonviolence. There, Shida told a stone-faced Stat that she had arranged another tag match, this time against the team of Harley and Mina. Fed up with their bickering and insulted after being questioned by Mina about the attack on Toni, Stat stormed away, followed by Shida. (Perhaps coincidentally and perhaps not, Shida interrupted Mina's accusation with a big show of exasperation.)

Shida's machinations to regain power and Stat's increasing irritation at being the only adult in the room have been playing out beautifully, in broad strokes and rolled eyes for everyone to see. Harley's heartbreaking vulnerability and Mina's grief-stricken paranoia have also been adding stakes. When, if ever, will Kris stand up for her friends? When, if ever, will Shida go from merely scheming to acting? And who will they both hurt along the way?

gif crafted with care by emiliana

Jon Moxley

"Hoo hoo!..."

by Sergei.

It's worth pointing out that "Moment of the Week" isn't necessarily supposed to mean FUNNIEST Moment of the Week. But it just works out that a lot of the time, the split-second moments from our wrestling show that stand out as noteworthy and memorable do so because they are really funny. The most recent week of AEW had a plethora of such Moments – to use that word aptly, for once (TAZ!)

We saw MJF prove that he couldn't win a debate with your average toddler:

And we saw Adam Copeland look at a random popcorn bucket and say, "After all… why not?":

We even had Statlander setting off all the toxic yuri alarms by pushing her partner into a wall… but I knew Lauren would have that one covered!

But my choice (and the choice of DEMOCRACY) is Jon Moxley giving his teammate PAC the ol' Pillsbury doughboy move (as seen at the top of this section) and then hopping excitedly.

The reason this moment edged out the others for me was that it works on so many levels. At first it simply seems like an amusing non-sequitur. And for many viewers, that was the only level… I definitely saw many reactions along the lines of: "well, that was funny, but… it seemed pretty out of character, and random."

But to me that moment revealed a lot about what's going on in Moxley's mind right now, and about the tensions and agendas within Death Riders. The set-up: Will Ospreay has been invited to work out with the Death Riders, and he has shown up to their secret training hidey-hole. Both sides are hesitant and suspicious of the other – this is basically a mutual try-out… for both sides. PAC, in particular, seems ambivalent, at best. It's clear that he doesn't trust or like the fellow Brit who defeated him in pitched battle only a month ago.

But Jon Moxley is clearly in a very different mood from everyone around him. Where they are thinking "I'm not sure how this is going to work," he seems to be thinking "I'm not sure how this is going to work, BUT… it could be amazing!" Consider: as leader of the Death Riders and undoubtedly the guy whose idea it was to bring Ospreay in, the fact that he responded to Moxley's crazy pitch (last week's Story Beat otW) in spite of their history and showed up at all, ambivalent or not, is a massive coup for him. And if everything works the way he intends, with Will Ospreay – believed by many to be the greatest wrestler in the world today – becoming a loyal weapon for his faction, it will have been the most massive scouting ever!

So Moxley is excited Ospreay is there, pleased to hear that he's demonstrating loyalty and grit in regards to his United Empire mates, traits he hopes to gradually re-aim towards himself, then he turns to get a reaction from his teammate and finds PAC giving his Golden Goose laser-beam eyes. (PAC is definitely the guy who'd say "but if we cut him open, could we get all the golden eggs at once?")

So, in my view, Moxley poking PAC in the tummy wasn't just a weird funny moment, it was his way of saying "lighten tf up! What's wrong with you? We DON'T want to scare away the prospect!"... BUT… Honestly, even if it were just a strange, random moment, it would still be Moment of the Week, just because that's goddamn delightful and hilarious!

Kevin “The Jet” Knight

"Shine Bright Like a Diamond..."

by Abel.

Kevin Knight is clearly the MVP of the Week for Pro Wrestling Musings. I know Darby Allin had another major AEW title defense, but Knight was the one constantly circling the outcome of the Dynamite main event. Knight's major presence on both Dynamite and Collision continues to support my theory about Tony Khan’s recent creative work. TK is focusing an entire week’s shows on one wrestler he thinks might be the future of the company. From his two matches on Dynamite and Collision to his ever-watchful eye during the Darby Allin vs Brody King AEW Title match, Knight was everywhere this week, which is why he was an easy pick for the week’s MVP.

Knight’s first match of the week, against that pain in the ass, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, not only kicked off the entire AEW week on television, but it also proved he could compete with some of the highest profile performers – not just physically, but knowing how to tell an intense story with one of the best in-ring storytellers in the world today. Knight also proved that he could do whatever needed to be done to defend his championship. When MANY AEW fans believed he would inevitably lose the TNT Title to a challenge so much higher on the food chain, Knight proved that we should not doubt him or his ability to hold onto his championship.

This mini-rivalry he has had with MJF has been great for both parties, but especially for Knight. MJF is a taste-maker in AEW, and his ability to use his spotlight to build other wrestlers, while still in his prime, makes him a great asset to the company. Knight has taken that spotlight and shimmered in it. He has skyrocketed to the top of the card and has now used that momentum and cashed it in for an AEW World Championship match.

On Collision, the Jet’s second match of the week was the defense of his TNT title against Hook. While not as good as his match against MJF, Knights' match against Hook proved he can raise the level of  a match when the competition isn't necessarily world-class yet. Kevin proved he can take the lead and set the pace of a match, not just be the crazy athlete who can jump out of the arena and pull off spectacular spots.

There wasn't anyone who appeared more often on AEW television, so to say Tony Khan has complete and utter faith in Knight is an understatement. Knight is so far making Khan look like a genius for taking the risk in hiring him when he was still so green. However, I would argue that it wasn't that much of a risk. The potential for Knight was evident and almost tangible. Just a reminder: those on the other side wanted Knight to TRY OUT FOR THEM! BEFORE THEY SENT HIM OUT TO SOME WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE. I think Knight knows he made the right decision for his career.

The microphone wasn't a thing Knight was quick to use. When he was first signed to AEW, he did most of his talking in the ring. However, it's hard not to notice his charisma and how he's improved in his promos. No stumbling, putting himself over, and that million-dollar smile give him all he needs to be a world champion someday. Just like Brody King, it's a matter of when, not if, he becomes an AEW World Champion. He is too talented, too beloved, and has improved so much – especially on the mic – for this not to happen.

The praise is high for Kevin Knight. When one of the greatest wrestlers of all time compliments you the way Sting did, you know that there is high hope for The Jet coming up, from up high in AEW. 

Kevin Knight will now have his chance to really shine in his AEW World Championship challenge on Dynamite tonight. While the odds may not favor The Jet, this match aims to test his status as a primetime player, and he has already shown he’s one of the best. He should excel once again, and he is becoming an unforgettable player in AEW.