Two Riders... | AEWeekly #197

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 MVP of the Week, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking Best Interview and with a few words on Moment as well as editing and organizing it all.

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

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Kyle Fletcher vs Kazuchika Okada

"Brother against Brother."

by Abel.

The most wonderful time of the year is here. It's not Thanksgiving or even Christmas. It's the third annual Continental Classic, making this the best time of the pro wrestling calendar year. For the first match of the tournament, they pitted two of AEW's stars – and stablemates – against each other. This is what makes the Continental Classic so good. Stablemates, stars, and world champions are not immune to one another or to losing. It puts the top of the card against each other. For the physical, smart, and surprising match that kicked off the 2025 C2, Kyle Fletcher vs reigning C2 champion Kazuchika Okada is our match of the week.

Dynamite is always at its best when it starts with a hot match. It gets the crowd going and sets the tone for the rest of the show. That is precisely what Okada versus Fletcher did. Not only that, but it also put the Continental Classic on the right foot and lets fans know this is going to be the best version of this tournament so far. 

The opening handshake spot was great. “Yeah, I respect you, but I'll also try to eke out any advantage I can.” If anyone was worried about these kayfabe friends not fighting, that was laid to rest in the opening spot. The match started with a feeling-out process, where each wrestler tried to see exactly where they could take advantage of their family member, since they know each other very well.

Once they warmed up, however, this match became physical and incredibly fast-paced. Neither man took it easy on the other. Raking eyes, kicks to the head, and even using the referee to their advantage. There were no shenanigans among the family members as they tried to win this match and assert their dominance over the Don Callis family. Okada does get criticized — fairly so sometimes — for maybe not giving ALL of his effort during TV matches—that wasn't the case against Fletcher. 

It could have been easy for Fletcher to start a losing skid after losing his title, but that is what makes AEW so great. They don't do what's expected, especially since Full Gear. I was flat out wrong. I thought Okada would win this match and continue his CC domination. This match was an excellent spot for a Fletcher bounce-back match against Okada, who has become the face of this tournament. A roll-up was a fantastic way for Fletcher to win and for Okada to stay strong. This now marks a second consecutive win over Okada for Fletcher. We may be wrong on where the first cracks in the Don Callis will come from. It could be Fletcher, not Konosuke Takeshita, who finally pushes Okada over the limit.

You know the best part of all of this? We still have a GUARANTEED four more matches for these two guys, with more possible, depending on how far they go. If their first match is any indication of how the rest of the tournament will go, then we are in good hands. 

Eddie Kingston

"The Unbearable Fakeness of Revealing your True Self..."

by Sergei.

Eddie Kingston is real. It's not an unusual assertion to make, but people mean different things when they say it, ranging from "does he even know the sport is fake?" to "Eddie is a mensch." While the man is undoubtedly a "real one," that's not the aspect I'm talking about. Based on everything I've ever heard or read about the guy, the real person seems to be the exact same as the guy we see on screen. And not even the "turned up to 11" exaggerated version that we so often hear about: Eddie is a tough, troubled New Yorker with deep family roots who pursued as an adult a form of combat performance that inspired him as a child. The same sentence applies to the fictional "Eddie" bny just changing the one word "performance" to "competition"... But I'm not here today to talk about how this sets him apart from other performers with more "out there" characters. But rather to talk about how he grapples with the fact that – regardless of how real his character is – he's still a character within a narrative with the same set of narrative tools and imperatives to connect with the audience and advance the story.

After his defeat of Shibata on the Thanksgiving Collision, Kingston looked like a man with something on his mind. He got on the mic and started by addressing HOOK's betrayal at the PPV. He handled that briefly and with logic and self-consistency: he's the last one to judge, HOOK will just have to learn the consequences with Swerve and Hangman. But: "not me, hopefully."

If anything, his issue is with Joe for misguiding HOOK. Which would be a natural segue to the exciting and surprising meat of this speech: his challenging Samoa Joe to a World title match at Winter Is Coming. But Eddie gets caught up in a (seemingly impromptu) digression…. a digression that's the real reason this interview ended up being so effective and thought provoking.

Kingston is a genius on the mic, but he has one tendency that I generally qualify as a "bad habit": he tends to get meta and "point to the wires" a little in his efforts to be authentic. He did a lot of that here: "They wanted me to come out here and shoot, so we'll do that" … "I don't do things to get a character over" … "I'm not a [censored?] actor" …

But with his words about not feel worthy of accepting the fans' love, about how he loves us because he knows we love pro wrestling, and how he does this for the kid in the audience like he was back in the day, it leads so naturally to him declaring: "I am pro wrestling" and making that challenge for the AEW World Championship (it'll be his first challenge in five years!) … it was like a magician pointing to the strings and explaining the trick but pulling it off so smoothly you are amazed anyhow.

You know, like that chocolate guy…

Swerve & Hangman

"Two Riders Were Approaching..."

by Sergei.

...and the wind began to howl.

Does anything more need be said? I mean it always seemed both inevitable and yet impossible, and now the alliance we've all wondered about is here...

Where it will all lead is for the future to concern itself with... (Enemies to...?) For now it's just an amazing moment and visual to appreciate for what it is...