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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, Rampage, and Collision, plus any social-media exclusives up until publication.
This week’s contributors are Tim [@TimmayMan] covering match of the week, Sergei [@SergeiAlderman] covering interview and key story beat, Peter [@PeterEdge7] with the moment of the week, and Joe [@GoodVsBadGuys] giving us the MVP of the week.
A page of links to prior installments may be found here: #AEWeekly
Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet
"When a rematch becomes a legacy rematch…"
by Tim.
Is there a shelf life on rematches? Just last week we had Danielson and Nigel McGuinness face off after more than sixteen years since their last bout. While this match was well-regarded by most fans, I do wonder what the younger generation makes of this. Going into this Ospreay / Ricochet match, would anyone be interested in revisiting a matchup that happened on the independent scene over eight years ago? Like a movie sequel that takes 35 years to happen, (ie Beetlejuice,) sometimes the interest isn’t there, (ie Beverly Hills Cop 4.) Looking back on the story of Ospreay / Ricochet and their claim to fame can be traced back to 2016 when they fought all around the world. Japan (NJPW), Ireland (Over the Top), and Los Angeles (PWG) all played host to the two as they showed off their skills. Crowds were small, but one of the advantages of modern wrestling is that it was all recorded. If younger fans want to check out the history, it’s just a click on YouTube away. What the two men delivered on Dynamite should encourage younger fans to seek out their classic bouts.
Ospreay and Ricochet are special talents—anyone watching in 2016 could see it. These two work matches in a style that very few can duplicate. Yet both their speed and moveset complement each other very well. Careerwise their post-2016 paths deviated. Ricochet donned a mask in Lucha Underground and then spent time in WWE (being underutilized, but that’s another article.) Ospreay spent most of that time in NJPW having an incredible run both solo and as a member of the United Empire.
Which brings us to 2024 and AEW. Eight years is a long time in pro wrestling. Like Indiana Jones said, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” Yet Ospreay and Ricochet aren’t your commuter models—they’re highly-maintained luxury sport models. They’ve been on the road for a while now, but they're still faster and more powerful than most. Look at the top-rope spot where Ospreay reverses a hurricanrana and lands on his feet. It’s a perfect landing: solid, without any wavering. Ricochet hits a smooth sequence of his own as the Hidden Blade is countered into a Backslide Bomb and then a piledriver. Crisp, clean, and delivered with precision. The ending of the match is kind of wonky as the ref counts a double pin since both men's shoulders are down. The match is then restarted only for Takeshita to interfere and lead us to a triple threat at WrestleDream. I get it, you keep both guys looking strong, get some heat on Takeshita, and build to a PPV match. It just sucks for the fans in Pittsburgh for Dynamite that were really into this singles match for its own sake.
When wrestlers have history between them like Ospreay / Ricochet do, rematches like this can be exciting if a couple of elements are there. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and having years away from each other helped to build the anticipation. For Danielson / McGuinness this was even more true as the in-ring return of McGuinness was for years doubtful. When Ospreay and Ricochet’s paths separated in 2016 they not only left each other’s orbits; they went off to separate galaxies. The other element to a successful legacy rematch is if both workers can still deliver. So many bookers have tried to wring juice out of matchups that were way past their best-by date (Heroes of Wrestling from 1999 is a notorious example). Not only did these two deliver in this match, I look forward to future matches and I’m happy that someone like Takeshita is getting involved. Nostalgia is fun but it’s not forever—new elements have to be introduced. This legacy rematch between two of the great flyers of their generation had all of those needed elements to live up to the nostalgia and point towards the future.
Darby Allin
"Among the Wreckage..."
by Sergei.
Darby Allin this week had arrived at a crossroad: against all advice, he had accepted a match he didn't need to that put his # 1 contendership on the line, and he had lost it. He needed to explain what had led him to such a ruinous course of action, why fans might still have faith in him, and what his direction would be in the immediate future. And he did all of that in a shot-on-location monologue running only two-and-a-half minutes.
Going back to segments when he first started his alliance with the Icon, Sting, Darby has always favored dystopian urban hellscapes for his backdrop. Back in those days I remember some mockery: "where are they, anyways, on the set of the Warriors?" But Darby (maybe moreso than Sting) has never seemed anything but at home in this sort of milieu. In the footage shown Wednesday night, he is sitting on a totaled car in a long row of them in some junkyard. It's night-time and the chirping of crickets rounds out the desolate atmosphere. ICYMI:
The big reason he seems so at home in such environs is that he spent his youth as a skatepunk HOODLUM caroming around the rougher parts of the Seattle metro without reliable shelter. We know that this is not some affectation—that he genuinely is at home in urban desolation, and this shows through. Allin starts out by telling us a story from those days—of riding the city bus and getting bullied and spat on by the sort of cowards who believe they have impunity to disrespect everyone around them because they are armed and running in a pack. And STILL choose the undersized weird kid sitting by himself to inflict their amusements on. They picked the wrong victim that night, because Darby Allin is thrilled by fear, and delighted to take action against disrespect, regardless of outcome.
The metaphor of the three bullies on # 150 bus for Moxley's little army is pretty obvious, and this little fable explains everything about Darby Allin right now: "It felt so good to actually do something about it," to not capitulate to threat, without regard to the risk or the odds. On that night when he was 19 years old, the risk was getting stabbed and he managed to avoid it. At Grand Slam, the risk was the possibility of losing the opportunity to face Bryan Danielson for the World Heavyweight Championship in his last run in their common hometown. But, even though he would "rather get stabbed" than capitulate, if "you live by the sword, you die by the sword" and Darby Allin hadn't been able to duck the consequences of the risk that time.
But there's a logic to Allin's all-offense strategy. After all, what's the outcome if he ignores the bullies? How many times is he supposed to ignore being spit on? What might they escalate to once they get bored with that? And who's to say he won't run into them the next time he's on the bus? Similarly, Nigel McGuiness may say that Darby was a fool to be goaded into putting his shot on the line when he wasn't required to. But what was his alternative? Let's say he had refused Moxley's challenge and, best case, he had gone on to fight and defeat Bryan Danielson to become AEW World Champion. Who would very likely be his first top contender, if not Jon Moxley? If he couldn't beat Moxley now, what would be the point? "What else can I do except fight?"
Having lost his shot at the World Title left him with no plans for his hometown show, something he also needed to address. In spite of his big losses to Moxley and to Jack Perry in his signature match before that, Darby knows that he still has value. Just in 2024, he has big wins— taking the Tag team championship with Sting, and successfully fending off the challenge of the current champs, and beating Jeff Hardy and (most impressively) Hangman Adam Page. So getting a win over Darby Allin would still be a feather in any competitor's cap, which Allin leverages into creating a feud from nothing: challenging anyone who might want to "make a name off" of him to "step up." Is it the most compelling premise for a feud? No, but the anger and fire cracking Allin's facade of calm as he slams a rock he's been fidgeting with the whole time into the hood of the car he'd been sitting on rhythmically with the words "I! DON'T! GOT! Nothing left to Lose!" sells it.
Accomplishing all of that in such a short runtime—telling a story, explaining actions many saw as "plot holes," and setting up his future direction, while also adding to the mythology of the Darby Allin character—is what makes this segment my Interview of the Week.
Wheeler Yuta
"Yuta's Choice is Made… Or IS it?..."
by Sergei.
This will be the third week in a row of Wheeler Yuta getting the nod for Story Beat, chosen and written by three different writers. In the past four installments—since Hangman Adam Page's full sweep the week of All Out—Yuta has gotten five nods in all categories, far more than anyone else… and in that timeframe, the only competitor to be awarded best among all categories more than once who ISN'T involved with Yuta's story is Ospreay with two nods for Match pyrotechnics. Many commenters are calling WrestleDream the big AEW show that's been lightest on storytelling all year, but I have a different perspective. In my view, the storytelling building to WrestleDream is simply focused on one story, and that isn't entirely a bad thing. I'll acknowledge that a wrestling promotion is a tapestry of many threads and they all need to be strong, and that the focus shifting away from everything else may be disconcerting to many fans. However, when building a story as important going into the future as this one clearly seems to be, putting all focus here and back-burnering all else makes a lot of sense to me.
While I am not surprised that the best Story Beat this week comes from the story that is being focused on, I am surprised that it once again involves Wheeler Yuta, simply because he seemed to have resolved any question of which side he was on when he came to Danielson's defense at the close of Dynamite, and—while there is certainly nothing wrong with that—under normal circumstances, Yuta making his declaration would greatly reduce the intrigue of his aspect of the story, and it would be time to move on to something else.
Generally, with a story where a villain group is dealing with a member who seems to be wavering in commitment, one of the tacks of persuasion is the implied threat: if you don't stay loyal, you will be an enemy, and you know very well how we deal with our enemies. That's exactly what seems to be happening Saturday night when Mox's crew surround Yuta in an intimidating manner during his backstage interview. And when Yuta references their continued status as the World Trios champs by asking "do we have a problem?... Partner?" hotheaded PAC angrily replies, "I am NOT your partner!" But then, peacemaker Claudio intervenes. ICYMI:
Castagnoli begins by clearing the room so that they can talk it out one-on-one, and then giving Yuta a chance to vent. Once Yuta explains his perspective and asks Claudio to explain himself, Claudio zigs rather than zags. There are three possible sorts of explanations for the motives behind the actions of Moxley's Army:
Exactly what it says on the tin: Moxley has already explained that he believes that the roster needs EXTREMELY tough love, and that Danielson doesn't have the stomach for that. If people, including Yuta, can't take Moxley's words about his motivations at face value, Castagnoli isn't restating it all now.
Enigma: There is a driving force that will never be fully explained. Ie: they're just fascists. But this isn't the kind of show where they can just come out and say that aloud… Besides which, none of them are likely to be heel forever, so it wouldn't be good in the long term for any of them to be explicitly linked to that word
Secret: maybe there is some secret driver behind all of this, but if so, it's not getting revealed on a random episode of Collision.
Instead of answering Yuta's cry of "Why, Claudio, Why?" Castagnoli instead focuses on their past bond and on his history of reliability, to suggest that Wheeler ought to follow blindly out of earned trust: "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." But he wraps up with the most intriguing aspect: "What did Bryan ever do for you?"
And this brings up the DEEP LORE reasons that there is genuine doubt that, even after declaring his allegiances, Yuta may still be in play as a source of intrigue and possibly of back-stabbing: Danielson has always been kinda crap to Yuta. He seemed to prefer Daniel Garcia as a mentee, stoking envy in Wheeler's vulnerable psyche. And he repeatedly referred to him as "this little shit" (affectionate.) Wheeler may yet need to go it alone and stand up for his values in order to advance to the next level. But there are plenty of reasons to still anticipate that he may yet betray Bryan and fall into line with Mox. We'll likely see more hints which way he will ultimately fall on tonight's show when he teams with the World Champion to face the two men he holds Trios gold with. But keeping that uncertainty alive without unreasonably stretching his decision is some excellent storytelling.
Tony Khan
"Once you're profitable, the term 'money mark' goes out of the window..."
by Peter.
This week, Peter published a special FULL article Moment of the Week on AEW's new TV deal. Check it out!
Private Party
"Utility Players bring Value..."
by Joe.
Private Party are the MVPs not because they had the best match—they didn’t, not because they had the best promo—they didn’t, but because of how relatively well they have done with how poorly they’ve been set up, and this thing I would call a level just below excitement that they might be able to reignite something in the tag-team division and the AEW fanbase.
So I mentioned that Private Party didn’t have the best match this week, but they did have the most matches, and had a variety of them. They had a tag-team match against the Iron Savages, which was basically a double dropkick + Gin & Juice squash match on Dynamite. On Rampage, Private Party had a Trios match, teaming with Shibata - who they have no history or connection with, against The Elite (The Young Bucks and Jack Perry), and they picked up the win, pinning the Young Bucks after reversing their finisher, just like their upset victory over the Bucks on the 2nd ever episode of Dynamite. That match wasn’t the best match of the week, but for a quick build, with a thrown together trio partner, and for being on Rampage— it was good enough. Then on Collision, Private Party prevailed over Top Flight, and The House of Black, to win the official #1 contendership to the AEW World Tag Team Titles.
Private Party didn’t have the best promo, but they weren’t set up for a great promo. They were feuding with Moxley’s Hateful Boys variant of the BCC, which led to a match at Grand Slam, but not Grand Slam Dynamite, rather the less prestigious Grand Slam Collision. They didn’t get a competitive exciting match, but rather a 7 minute match that was not only a glorified squash by the BCC, but the focus wasn’t even on Private Party, and instead the BCC infighting. Private Party did establish themselves as a pro-AEW team, but the switch from BCC to the Bucks was not logical or smooth or clear. Private Party is used to being misused though. Private Party has spent most of this year buried away on Rampage, with Isiah Kassidy in particular shining in the role of enhancing other talents. That has been the story of most of Zay’s use in AEW in recent years. Need someone to take some bumps and create some movement in Hardys matches? Call Zay. Need an AEW original who can fit into the wacky zany silly world of the Broken Hardyverse? Call Zay. Need someone to make Keith Lee look like a world beater? Call Zay (still Keith Lee’s best singles match.) Need someone to generate some babyface fire and sympathy against a merciless prick who gets cheered too often in RUSH? Call Zay, (even though he wasn’t even a clear-cut babyface at the time, and he still crushed that assignment!). Private Party has had a rough ride due to Quen’s lack of luck with staying healthy, and Zay’s lack of quality opportunities. They have not been prepared to succeed in the past. So they didn’t have a great promo, but Zay did shout “Suck my ass!” at the Young Bucks, and I wouldn’t rule out his ability to get a “Suck his ass Young Bucks, Suck his ass!” chant going in Seattle.
So they haven’t had much luck, but some say luck is where preparation meets opportunity, and while AEW has not prepared a Private Party to succeed, they have been preparing themselves and turning lemons into lemonade (shots!) at every turn. So hopefully Quen and Zay’s preparation has them ready to pop off at this opportunity at WrestleDream. The Dream outcome for me is a revitalized tag team scene, built around a newly featured fun tandem of talented AEW Originals in the form of Private Party. If done right, this weekend could have some of that magic of All Out 2022 for The Acclaimed. Let’s launch something fun and fresh this week. Tony Khan, if you’re looking for a new direction for the tag division, Call Zay… and Quen!