WrestleDreams & Nightmares | AEWeekly #192

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] editing and organizing it all.

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

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Brodido vs Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita

"Bandido. Never stop fighting. Let's go!"

by Abel.

In a pay-per-view that was filled with memorable and fantastic matches up and down the card, only one can be the match of the week. Between the "I Quit" match and "Hangman" Adam Page retaining his title, Wrestledream is perhaps the best all-around AEW PPV of the year. However, the match that stood out as the best in the ring was the one featuring four of the world's top wrestlers. The match was physical, exhilarating, and a showcase for athleticism. For that reason, Brodido vs Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchida Okada for the AEW World Tag Team Championship is the match of the week. 

Entering this match, it was a real toss-up as to who would emerge as the winning team. Besides the "I Quit" match, the most uncertain match of the night was this one. Would AEW move forward with their most successful patched-up tag team ever, or would they start the "will-they-wont-they" storyline between Okada and Takeshita while defending the tag titles? Brodido seemed to be the underdog, as Takeshita walked into the match as the newly crowned IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Okada has been champion for just about a year and has YET to be pinned. That was going to change. 

Not only that, but they really played up Bandido's shoulder injury, and Okada and Takeshita had already defeated Bandido on Dynamite. They really worked that shoulder all match long, and the announcers made sure we knew it was a factor. 

There was speculation online that King might turn on Bandido to end their tag-team run. I'm so happy that they didnt split up Brodido for the sake of the Takeshita/Okada feud. Those narratives couldn't have been further from matching up to what actually happened. Brodido was a pillar of teamwork, while the two Japanese superstars were on different books, let alone the same page. For their part, despite their lack of kayfabe trust in each other, Okada and Takeshita work really well in the ring together. In a different universe, the two IWGP Champions would have made for a killer tag-team combination. 

The contest between these four wrestling gods was the best-paced match of the night. Nothing was rushed, and we were given time to build the match to its conclusion. I know AEW PPVs get criticism for being too long. However, my counterargument is that giving each match time means that matches like this one get the opportunity to develop and tell the story the right way. Nobody is better at telling a story in the ring than AEW, so every second used is never a second wasted. Once they found the perfect pace, the bout had no downtime. That pace allowed Bandido and Takeshita to build up the fantastic chemistry and timing they have. Every match they have against each other is better than the last, and I could watch those two fight every week for the rest of my life. 

King has become such an excellent base for Bandido. Although small, Bandido is chiseled out of granite and thus cannot be easily thrown around. Brody makes it look easy. But what's really fun is when he throws his opponents around the ring. Okada and Takeshita are not small, both over 6' 6", but Brody makes them look like those dummies they use in corny B-movie fight scenes, being tossed around the ring. Just the aggregate of chops from King in this match would have caved any normal man's chest. Luckily for us, his opponents are not normal men. 

Takeshita deadlifting King to German Suplex him might be the most impressive physical feat of strength he's ever done. That is saying something, as Takeshita has shown some Herculean efforts in the ring. King also flexed some muscle by suplexing three men at once – including his own partner – into oblivion. Not to be outdone themselves, Okada was able to pick up King on a neck breaker, and Bandido ended the match by 21-Plexing Okada WITH ONE ARM, to end the match—just some mythical stuff. 

The climax of the match, and what is going to give us some juicy match-ups for the next six months, was Okada's missed – or was it? – Rainmaker, that connected with his partner, Takeshita, instead of Bandido. The spot was so well executed that both outcomes seem credible – Okada could have done it on purpose, or could have legitimately missed. That opened up the window for Bandido to finish Okada and help Brodido successfully retain their AEW World Tag Team Championships. 

Now, we get Okada vs Bandido for the AEW Unifed Championship on Dynamite. That should be the frontrunner for the match of the week for our next edition. 

Jon Moxley and Darby Allin

"I quit! I quit!"

by Lauren.

WrestleDream has come and gone, and both Jon Moxley and Darby Allin are still alive.

Since their “I Quit” match was announced, speculation ran wild: how could either of these two maniacs be expected to quit? What bloodbath would await us all? Would some underhanded shenanigans be used to end the march before they killed each other?

What actually happened was that the match was more akin to a psychological horror movie than the expected blood-soaked giallo movie. This was probably, in large part, due to Missouri's athletic commission, which forbids intentional bloodletting. Hence the focus on spots that looked absolutely brutal, including skewers under Darby's fingernails and a mock-drowning in an aquarium that was the subject of online controversy.

So why didn't Darby return the favor by psychologically torturing Mox in return? Why did Mox tap out to something so relatively mild?

Since his turn to cult leader of the Death Riders, Mox had only bled purposefully less than a handful of times. His soldiers bleed for him. But the legend of Jon Moxley continued despite this, with people continuing to joke that Mox would bleed if he was looked at too hard. The reality is that he is out of practice, so to speak. He has been coasting on his own reputation. Just look at all of the speculation and hand-wringing before the match even started: we all remember Jon Moxley of the BCC, and this is most definitely not him.

This match served as a turning point and an act break for the story of the Death Riders. If losing the Men's World Championship was not enough to shake the faith of his followers, then what would? We saw how Mox immediately moved the goalposts once he was no longer champion, minimizing belts as “the unit of measurement of a small mind.” As in all abusive relationships, something must serve as a wake-up call. What better than such a public display of hypocrisy?

There are more justifications that can be thought up for the ending, including Darby using Sting's finisher so effectively because he is Sting's heir and Sting fulfilling the Campbellian archetype of a spiritual guardian gifting a magic weapon. Out of kayfabe, pointing out that hardcore legends Jerry Lynn and Dean Malenko helped produce the match adds credence to everything being deliberate.

Whatever the reasoning, Mox quit. And now it's up to the rank-and-file Death Riders to decide whether to view it as a fluke or a bigger crack in their foundation.

The Broke Bucks

"From EVPs to MVPs"

by Emiliana.

Everyone knows how I feel about sad and pathetic men. They are the epitome of pro wrestling characters. If a guy can make you feel bad for him, make you wanna wrap him up in blankets and make him soup, he’s achieved a tier only suited for the most excellent of wrestling characters.

Now, to make you feel that after months and months of deserving what’s come to them is on a higher plane of existence that so few can truly accomplish. And best of all, they did it after putting on the banger of a lifetime and putting over two great talents in the process.

Yes, of course I am talking about the Young Bucks.

Let’s get this out of the way first: WrestleDream was a phenomenal card from top to bottom. For personal reasons I chose not to watch the Mox/Darby match (read: I am a sleep-deprived Hangman propagandist), and I can honestly say that every match from the pre-show till the end was amazing and held my attention (I also missed Ricochet’s match because I was eating dinner, please tell my bald son his mother loves him). The match I was most looking forward to was (Abel's Match of the Week) Brodido versus Okada/Takeshita, and that match delivered in spades. Also – GOD there were so many beautiful women putting on BANGERS that night.

But MVP of the week has to go to the guys I feel knocked it out of the park this week, in more ways than one. The Broke Bucks versus Jurassic Express has been the most consistently entertaining feud leading up to the PPV, and they topped it off with the most fun match I’ve ever seen, with such important stakes. I remember a while back commenting that I needed to see the Bucks’ bank account number drop to $0, like with Jimmy Olsen in My Adventures With Superman, and they brought it close with the hilarious @dril-tweet-esque entrance graphics on the show.

But as if the entertaining build, the sweet entrance graphics, and the classic party match of all time weren’t enough, they helped put Jack and Luchasaurus back on the map. Granted, it’s not like Lucha and Jack couldn’t do that on their own, but there are no two tag wrestlers more selfless and ready to take the loss than Nick and Matt Jackson, for shoot. How do I know that? I just know. I feel that in my soul. Matt Jackson you will be seeing the gates of Heaven.

And yet it wasn’t enough. Because on the Monday after, we got another BTE episode. We got to see another formative member of the vintage Elite show in Christopher Daniels as well as the fallout of the loss post-WrestleDream. But at the end of the episode, we got Matt and Nick sitting in a room, looking absolutely pathetic, when Matt says defeatedly, “maybe we deserved all this.”

At this point, I need to point out that Hangman Page’s water bottle – which debuted many weeks ago during the garage parking lot interview with Renee when MJF showed up and started beating up Hangman – was settled neatly right at the edge of the frame. A few weeks ago, Hangman’s iconic brown jacket was hanging behind Matt and Nick in their locker room, right in the center between them.

One is nothing, two’s coincidence — will three become a pattern?

It’s interesting that it would show up during a moment of intense disappointment for the Bucks, in which Matt voices a vulnerable thought. (I’ve always thought he was their conscience.) Maybe they deserve this. The Bucks aren’t usually ones for introspection – at their hearts they tend to be delulu and rationalize their bad behaviors often, especially when they’re heel, but maybe that’s the point. Maybe this sudden realization, and more importantly, acceptance, is what will open the path to their redemption.

I don’t think that time needs to come soon, I’m perfectly happy to keep watching them get everything that they deserve (nothing), but damn if the thought doesn’t intrigue me.

Anyway, these guys, they can do it all. Just, wow. Here are your flowers, Messrs. Bucks.

That’ll be $32.17.