-I know that AEW is known as the “in-ring” promotion, but they have talent on that roster that can cut a damn promo. Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher did business out in the ring this week and neither one of them hit a cool move on the other. Ospreay and Fletcher wove their long history together into the current state of affairs in AEW around the world championship. They owned the results of their previous matches together and used that as a base for everything to build on. Ospreay was likable and confident like a champion should be. Fletcher was unlikable, cold, and worked hard to read the audience’s reaction to him and then acted on it while he spoke. This promo was a masterclass in not only setting the table storyline-wise, but setting it for the in-ring action too. I’d bet good money that you’ll see spots in the match where Fletcher questions his own violence because of the love that Will Ospreay claimed he still had for him. The hook for that narrative started inside of this promo. Wonderful work, intensity, and energy from both guys and it pushed the match into true main event status.
Such a tease
-We didn’t see enough action between Brodido and New Level to truly determine whether it was a good match or not. Regardless, it was effective. Effective because it helped build up their Texas Death Match at Full Gear. Adam Page and Swerve Strickland will also be involved, but this match served the purpose of teasing the violence all the guys want to inflict on one another, while not giving it away ahead of Saturday.
-The Adam Page promo about this match was important later in the show. Page actually made the case for why he decided to change his mind about Texas Death and related that back to the fact that his partners badly wanted the stipulation. That’s a storyline hoop AEW wouldn’t have jumped through two years ago.
-The Page promo wasn’t the only hoop AEW booking jumped through this week that it wouldn’t have bothered with two years ago. How about the backstage promo segment with The Brawling Birds and Wrathlander? The segment was 30 seconds long, but it perfectly laid out the story of why the two teams are fighting and why it’s important that they each win. When wrestling fans ask for storylines in pro wrestling, they all don’t have to be long, epic promos like Ospreay and Fletcher was. They need to give a reason for the matches to happen. Brawling Birds and Wrathlander have one now.
-Orange Cassidy lost to David Finlay and was also speared out of shoes by Clark Connors. A rough night at the office. Pretty much a nothing match, but it helped serve the purpose of adding another chapter into the Anarchy in the Arena storyline. I like Finlay in this current role. He’s a notable part of The Cut, but not the main attraction of it.
-Squash matches work! Tony Khan doesn’t do them too often and it was a three and half hour show that forced it out, but it worked. Persephone got a dominant win over Gypsy Mac and that’s that. Persephone looked strong and that was the goal.
Tag team greatness
-When tag team wrestling is great, it’s so so great. FTR vs. Motor City Machine Guns in the final match of their best in five series was terrific. Tremendous action, but even better selling and build for the hot tags. The near falls all came with drama and the clock was played up perfectly. When the time limit of 20 minutes was revealed, my meta spidey sense starting tingling. They go the distance and then do the real deciding match at Full Gear. Instead, the match leveraged the audience thinking that way to it’s advantage and the finish was a surprise when it happened. Motor City Machine Guns won and they now have a date with the tag team champions on the horizon.
-Ouch. Mike Bailey and Tommaso Ciampa are going to be sore today. Especially Bailey. Ciampa beat the holy hell outta of him and even busted his face open with blood. Ciampa can have this type of match with anyone. He’s just that good. On Saturday at Full Gear, he’ll have it with Ilja Dragunov. When they stood across the ring from on another on the show this week, their chemistry shined. Just wait until they start wrestling. Dragunov and Ciampa are made for one another.
-Let’s just call the spade a spade. We need to see more tag matches with Jay White and Mercedes Mone on a team. Mone shouldn’t join The Cut or anything like that, but the dynamic those two had together was off the charts. They sucked up all the attention in that building. Their aura was captivating. More, more, more.
RIP Jay White’s soul
-I’m not a fan of inter-gender wrestling, but Jon Moxley, Marina Shafir, Mone, and White pulled it off. They crossed paths physically enough for the match to be considered inter-gender, but didn’t take the man on woman violence across a line. The Moxley and Mone stuff was compelling because of their star power and the fact that they’ve never truly touched in the ring before. At one point in the match, Shafir slapped the absolute soul out of Jay White’s body. Just a wonderfully violent spot that showcased exactly who Shafir is. Shafir won the match for her team, which severely puts into doubt that she’ll walk away with AEW’s top prize at Full Gear.
-The rest of the Collision show was mostly filler matches with connections to the Full Gear card. The Young Bucks and Jack Perry defeated the jobber members of the Don Callis Family pretty easily. In classic Perry fashion, he turned interest off on his own promo when he shrieked out a strange yell at the beginning of it.
-A totally different story for The Young Bucks. This week on AEW Collision, they cut a top five promo of their career. Both Nick and Matt Jackson were likable, serious, and crystal clear on the story they were telling. They talked up Davis and Doyle and that built the mountain for them to climb at Full Gear when they square off against them in a rematch. Awesome work.
C’mon, Nick
-The rest of the show included the following: Wardlow squashing Nick Comoroto, a short Nick Wayne promo that we’ve heard before — but one in which he missed on by NOT calling the audience the “chat” — an ROH Tag Team Championship match, and then Queen Aminata defending her TBS Championship successfully against Hyan and Skye Blue. Not much drama in that one, but Aminata needed to get her first successful title defense out of the way. Blue had a good night — bumped around and sold effectively for everything and it helped make the match.
What letter grade do you give the Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher show-opening promo this week? Let us know in the comments!
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Great as always