The Final Countdown | AEWeekly #132

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, but is more flexible in terms of Collision and Rampage, to account for busy folks not always being 100% caught up, so can include this week OR last week’s episode.

This week’s contributors are Tim [@TimmayMan]  covering match of the week, Sergei [@SergeiAlderman] covering interview, Saul [@SaulKiloh] exploring a key story beat, gareth [@Gareth_eno] with the moment of the week, Sam P. [@BigBadaBruce] with Throwback of the week, and in a special All In featuer: Joe [@GoodVsBadGuys] and Peter [@PeterEdge7] giving us point and counterpoint on their respective takes on MVP of the week.

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

Swerve v Danielson, Title v Career

"A shining star in a career full of them..."

by Tim.

As if there was any doubt this week about who had the best match…  What we witnessed on Sunday from London was the very best of pro-wrestling. The main event featured Swerve Strickland’s AEW World Championship vs. the nearly 25-year career of Bryan Danielson. AEW gave this match their biggest stage as All In has quickly earned the title of the company’s flagship PPV. Both men lived up to the build and hype as they delivered a stunning match that was a career highlight for both of them.

One could sense greatness during the introductions. Danielson entered to "The Final Countdown” and there was a very real sense that this could be it—a quarter-century career, one (thankfully) premature medically-induced retirement, and a 2nd life with some of his best in-ring work…. Had this match ended Danielson’s career, it wouldn’t have been a bad way to go: with over 50,000 fans and his family in attendance, it would have been bittersweet. That’s why I really thought this would be the end for him. You couldn’t ask for a better final statement. Swerve, on the other hand, came out looking like a world beater, his jacket adorned with the faces of those who have fallen before him. Swerve ends up playing the heel for this match and he’s really good as this "final boss" version of himself.

Two moments stand out to me. The first is when a bloodied Danielson absorbs kick after kick from Swerve. Danielson gets to his feet and looks at his family sitting in the front row, he yells out that he loves them, then he locks eyes with Swerve and eats two more kicks before retaliating with a thunderous slap across the face. There are so many perfect beats here: Danielson addressing his family giving him the power to face the man striking him… Swerve reacting to the slap as if it were a wild haymaker…

The second moment occurs later as Danielson hits a Busaiku Knee but this only puts Swerve into the corner temporarily. Swerve dusts himself off and laughs as Danielson recoils away. A worker has to pick their spots when they no-sell, as not everyone can be Sting…. We’ve established that Swerve has a high pain tolerance; this is the man who gleefully repeatedly pierced himself with a staple gun earlier this year. It also helps that this was a possible retirement match. When the first Busaiku Knee didn’t put Swerve down, it was easy to believe that this was the end. That time and age may have caught up to Danielson and he just doesn’t have the strength anymore to end the champion. Danielson’s scoot away from Swerve may as well have been a retreat from one’s own mortality.   

Yet Danielson would persevere. The throng of fans transformed into a living, breathing organism as “Yes!” chants reverberated through Wembley. Hangman made a cameo appearance with what couldn’t even be called a run-in as security escorted him out before he even made it into the ring. Clearly this distracted Swerve for a moment, but it didn’t really play into the outcome of the match—the restraint of that choice to not taint Bryan's victory was much appreciated… (also if you want to see these two get physical, you’ll have to watch another AEW show!) Eventually, Danielson locks on a submission move and did something that no one in AEW had ever accomplished by making Swerve tap out. The crowd goes crazy, Danielson’s family and his Blackpool stable mates join him in the ring. His career may be winding down, but a summer night in London will not be where it ends.

This match was a love letter to pro-wrestling. There will be talk about attendance, buy rates, match stars, etc… but what we saw from Swerve and the American Dragon was unquantifiable. To see Danielson’s family there—the wife he met through wrestling and the kids he provides for via pro-wrestling—is very appropriate for a man who loves this business like few others. Wrestling has had a finite number of moments of such unbridled joy as we saw at All In.

Bryan Danielson

"Context is Everything..."

by Sergei.

There are so many elements that go into creating a compelling interview: word choice, dynamics, timbre of voice, facial expressions and body language…. But all of those aspects that a performer can pour into a specific performance… they can only go so far. The element that separates a performance that seems impressive in a vacuum (but fades from the memory) from one that makes a true and lasting impact, is the one element the individual performer has little or no control over: the overarching context… How will what the performer has said go on to fit into the larger tapestry of story that comprises a whole wrestling promotion?

For example, I'd like to compare two brilliantly executed interviews with similar goals from AEW's past: Jake Roberts calling his shot at Cody Rhodes, and Swerve Strickland calling his shot at Adam Page. In March of 2020, Jake "the Snake" returned to wrestling to interrupt Cody Rhodes and inform him that he was there to eat his lunch. In Jake's inimitable wording: "I'm not here in AEW to take the whole pie… just your share!" Then in September of last year, Swerve interrupted Hangman to let him know: "I'm coming for that spot that you act like you don't even want."

If you asked me to choose which was a better performance, in a vacuum, it would be an extremely difficult choice—as both are completely brilliant, career highs—but gun-to-head, I'd pick Roberts. He has possibly the greatest instrument in the art form of wrestling interviews, one I've previously compared to Johnny Cash: a forceful baritone in his youth, withered to a reedy whisper with age… but each timbre respectively an astounding storytelling instrument. And that's to say nothing of his mind: his creative wordplay, his precise selection of the perfect word at the perfect time, and his incisive understanding of the psychology of his own character and that of all the other characters in the story. HOWEVER, if you ask which promo had the most impact in the long run, the choice isn't hard at all: each man made a very similar promise and only one followed through, which trebles the resonance of Swerve's promo over time, while the merits of Jake's can only be appreciated out of context, and the emptiness of his threats would go on to undermine Roberts's credibility as a promo from that point forward.

Bryan Danielson's interviews leading up to, arguably, the biggest main event of his career have left a lot of fans and commenters kind of flummoxed. Peter, in his write-up of Swerve as MVP, details his dissatisfaction with the build to this match..  Many fans, like Tim in "Match otW" above, very much bought into the idea that this was very likely to be Danielson's very last match. In that context, Danielson's ambivalence and ambiguity in the lead-up seem like a bafflingly strange artistic choice: potentially setting up his final chapter for anticlimax… or "going out with a whimper"...

I'll return to my point about context, but I'm sure not everyone would entirely agree that Danielson's promos have been ambivalent and ambiguous… so let's support that point a little bit first. One may note that Danielson got the last word of the go-home Dynamite on Wednesday, leading the Welsh crowd in chants of "Yes! Yes! Yes!" in reply to the question: "...Can Bryan Danielson… the American FUCKING Dragon… beat Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship?" But what stands out for me is what he DIDN'T ask: "...WILL Danielson beat Strickland?" ALSO, when he says "you said you're gonna cripple me?" he DOESN'T follow up by saying anything about what HE will do to Swerve instead… but just that crippling won't be enough, that Strickland will have to "damn near kill" him… (emphasis mine.) Am I crazy to think that in the hyperbolic world of wrestling, leaving himself the out of Swerve only needing to "damn near" kill him in the ring comes across as a bit wishy-washy? And to top it all off, he's wearing the retirement speech shirt!! As artful ambiguity goes, this is a tough one to top…

But then on Sunday he does just that! His voice-over in the promo video that played immediately before his entrance at All In was an absolute master class in dramatic double meaning. Normally I say "ICYMI" but there's no way any AEW fan missed this! Still there are a lot of subtleties here— I recommend a re-watch:

We start off with a visual of Danielson meditating in the wilderness. We zoom to extreme close-up on his eyes as his voice begins to intone "this might be my last shot" and then we begin to see rapid-fire flashes of memorable moments from his wrestling career. The implication seems to be that the images are his life/career flashing before his eyes (as people say happens before death,) while the voice is his stream of consciousness. As images of highlights from his pro-wrestling career flash by, he says to himself:

From day one, I have loved you with all of my heart. (...It's always been about my love for wrestling...) Through every step of the way, you have given me life.

Then the flashes of memory switch to images of memories from his personal life, special moments with his wife and kids…

When I'd fallen and thought I could no longer continue… You found a way to lift me back up… You're my reason to keep pushing… and you are my reason to strive to be the best possible version of myself. I will ALWAYS choose you. Always.

You see why I call this dramatically ambiguous: EVERY word of that could refer to pro wrestling itself? Or to his family? OR to his fans? The images in the first part hinted at one interpretation, while the images in the second part hinted at the second. As we zoom back OUT from inside Danielson's mind's eye, we hear one more garbled phrase in his voice. I had to listen back several times to be sure what he says there: "it's not about the wrestling…"

Well. That settles the ambiguity—while you are meant to question exactly who his inner voice is addressing during the segment, by the end he fully clarifies: he means his family. But even with that ambiguity resolved, plenty of ambivalence remains. When he says "I will always choose you," does always choosing his family mean that he won't "leave his soul in the ring"? … that he'll stop short, to ensure there's something left of him to bring home to his family after? (In the crazy world of wrestling, that may not sound like the valorous thing to do… but in real-world terms it would undoubtedly be the sane thing!) …OR when he says that his wife and babies are his reason to "strive to be the best version" of himself, does he mean the opposite? That, in the extremis, he'll truly stretch his own limits, beyond sanity, because he wants his kids in the front row watching him wrestle live for the first time to really see that "best version" of their Daddy, up close and in person?

When a wrestler cuts a promo—an interview talking about an upcoming match—it's safe to say that the performer's intent is always for their words to enhance viewers' enjoyment of that match in some way. I'd make a wild-ass guess that at least 99% of the time, the performer hopes to do so by somehow increasing the fans' anticipation and/or intrigue about the match. Danielson (on the other hand) has never exactly said so in so many words, but over the last few weeks since he's been the #1 contender for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship, he's given the vibe that he's just not quite sure if going "all in" against Strickland is the responsible thing for him to do… as a parent. And it's tough to deny that it logically makes sense for him to have such doubts. But it's also VERY far from the sort of take designed to "build anticipation and/or intrigue" for such an important match, so for many fans (exemplified by our contributor Peter,) the build to this match was a massive let-down. MY take has been: this has all been far too consistent to be an accident or a mistake. And Danielson is obviously a man who knows his business, so he must HAVE a worthwhile reason to be giving us that vibe, even if we can't see what that reason could possibly BE yet: so let the man cook.

Almost 20 minutes in, at the dramatic turning point of the match in question, we finally see that context I've been talking about: context that makes Danielson's seemingly strange artistic choices on the mic leading up to this… not only does it make those choices finally make sense… it makes them (caveat: YMMV) retroactively GREAT. In the "best match" section above, Tim also highlighted this as one of the stand-out moments of the contest: a bloodied Bryan is on his knees after taking two House Call kicks to the head. Swerve is behind him, lining him up for a third… but in front of him is his family in the front row. He reaches out a hand in the direction of his wife and kids while saying "I'm sorry," when Swerve hits him with, seemingly, his kill shot.

The meaning of that "I'm sorry" seems perfectly clear: apologizing to his family for failing. But remember that ambiguity and ambivalence that's imbued everything Danielson's said for weeks... When he makes his impossible kick out after three straight House Call kicks, it makes you wonder: was he apologizing because he thought he had failed? Or because he had finally decided—he is NOT ready to come home yet? When he is on his knees taking his own "Yes kick" sequence from the Champion, he powers through them to his feet with his eyes locked on his family, repeating "I love you." Above, Tim interprets this as Bryan absorbing his family's love to power his comeback. And that's a valid take. But for me it was just as much Bryan reassuring them that he loves them and will always love them and he WILL come home soon. Just not tonight.

If it had been in the context of some other match, with maybe a different result, it might have been fair to call Danielson's "promos" leading up to this match possibly the most bafflingly counterproductive interviews ever leading up to such an important main event bout. But with the context of the match we actually got, I think we can now see that all of the ambivalence was purposefully and precisely designed to lay the groundwork for one of the most heart-tugging in-match story beats ever.

Mariah May

"A Star Is Born..."

by Saul.

A doting fan wormed her way into becoming the champion’s mistreated understudy. She eventually became a beloved co-star, but her true desire for the solo spotlight was revealed after a chance at the gold triggered a bloody betrayal. Her plan worked a treat. Less than a year into her AEW tenure, Mariah May has become World Champion, effectively making her the STAR of the Women’s division.

With the sheer quantity of the (rightful) praise of Danielson’s coronation and the All In main event, I’d like to ensure this excellent culmination doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. There are so many issues that can often get in the way of long-term stories in professional wrestling, making it extra important to take a beat and fully appreciate it when pulled off well.

There seems to have been some sort of plan for this match since Mariah’s debut. She was directly introduced into the world of ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm and clearly marked indicators that May had eyes beyond being an understudy. However, there was absolutely zero guarantee it would work out as well as it did. It takes vision from the booking, and belief to not waver or lose focus. Furthermore, the talent involved has to consistently deliver when given the opportunity, something that Toni and Mariah did with aplomb. All this resulted in a crowd pleasing match, a newly-established star holding the top championship and the conclusion of the best long-term story in the history of AEW’s women's division. Not too shabby.

However, it’s not really the conclusion, is it? Wrestling is like soap operas and comic books in the fact that the ‘story’ never really ends… This shit be long-running. There’ll be another episode, another issue, another Dynamite, another PPV. This is why narrative FALLOUT is vital. How does Toni handle losing her championship gold? What will Mariah May go on to next, now that her plan has been executed to perfection? This finish gave a satisfying end in the immediate-term but promises interesting opportunities for the future as well.

The rise of Mariah May has been some of the most successful booking in recent AEW history. From debut to world champion in less than 10 months with almost universal acclaim is damn impressive. 

Instead of looking to cinematic history, I’ll end with a stage quote that may be important to Mariah going forward. As the bard would say, “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”. The lead actor gets the roses, but also a different level of responsibility. Can ‘The Glamour’ handle it? By the looks of her run so far, she’ll be just fine.

(Complete aside but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the return of Jamie Hayter. I’ll keep my analysis to the point for once: LET'S FUCKING GO!)

Nigel McGuiness

"Guinness Supernova..."

by Gareth.

In a week that was jam-packed full of “moments” this is perhaps the toughest section to pick one thing to talk about.

From Big Bill being cheered on Collision to Danielson’s “Yes!” chant on Dynamite, Pac getting his Wembley moment, the return of Jamie Hayter, debuts of GYV and Ricochet, Hook hugging Taz, Ospreay winning at Wembley, Swerve Strickland no-selling Bryan Danielson’s Busaiku Knee and of course ‘The American Dragon’ screaming “I love you” to his children whilst being kicked by Swerve…

There are countless moments that would be more than worthy of being spoken about in detail during any normal week. However, in a week where the UK saw its most anticipated return since the soldiers of World War 2, the homecoming of Nigel McGuinness was a truly magical moment.

With everything McGuinness went through in having to retire, the idea of returning at Wembley Stadium, half the world away from AEW’s stomping ground, in the city of his birth 13 years later, that is the kind of fairytale that it seems only pro-wrestling is able to make reality. As someone who was there at Wembley, the pop for Big Nige was probably the loudest of the night.

Nobody in that stadium was considering the possibility of McGuinness being the third entrant in the Casino Gauntlet match. So, when he did come out people literally lost their minds. I personally had a somewhat out-of-body experience where I stopped screaming—k felt like I was elevating as I looked out across the crowd of people screaming for joy with every ounce of their being.

It certainly helped the moment that when he got into the ring, he went face-to-face with Kazuchika Okada, of all people. A living legend. Then it got even better when he was actually still pretty good. A little ring-rust, as can only be natural, but he was far from the worst performer on this card on the night.

However, there was one final nugget that made this debut especially intriguing. Because the idea of McGuinness returning to the ring on the same night where Bryan Danielson’s career was on the line as he fought for the world title is a coincidence that cannot be overlooked.

One could perhaps read into this that, in kayfabe, Nigel believed that Bryan would beat Swerve and so he absolutely had to return to the ring and win the gauntlet match so that he could face Bryan and defeat him for the world title.

In kayfabe that absolutely has to be part of it, which makes this long-teased match between the two even more interesting. In returning and trying to win the gauntlet, McGuinness somewhat exposed that he believed Bryan Danielson would defeat Swerve Strickland.

The jokes online that Mariah May brought McGuinness back to life with a kiss to the head during her match against Toni Storm was also another funny wrinkle to this truly magical moment.

Nigel McGuiness

"Stages of Nigel..."

by Sam P.

Samuel's section celebrating the return of McGuinness to wrestling by a look back at his matches back in the day will be added soon..

POINT:

Swerve Strickland

"A Man who deserves some Flowers…"

by Joe.

After that main event, a match whose Cagematch rating is so high it’s probably going to end up as a Top 20 match of all time, Bryan Danielson deserves the recognition he is getting from fans all over the world but I want to give some flowers to his opponent on this night, Swerve Strickland.

When I off-handledly commented on how bad the build up to All In’s main event was, I had a lot of disagreement to my opinion but it’s a hill that I’m willing to die on (more on this in my "All In Weekend" review later this week). Until Swerve hit the House Call on Danielson and mocked the Yes chant, Strickland was the one doing the leg work in the build-up on television and on Twitter, but this has not been unusual for Swerve in his reign as World Champ. 

While some of the top stars of AEW have not done promotional activity (some for understandable reasons, some not as understandable) Swerve has done the legwork in appearing on television breakfast shows all over the USA and in the ring, he put the work in too. The phrase “the belt makes the man” has been used in wrestling parlance for decades but in this case, Swerve made Swerve. As the man with the least accolades to win “Pretty Platinum” Swerve the Eighth made himself a worthy champion heading into AEW’s biggest annual show and he was a worthy adversary for the man who was going to leave Heathrow with the World Title and while many will applaud Bryan Danielson after one of Wembley’s greatest ever contests, in my opinion and judging by our #AEWeekly group chat it’s my opinion only (seriously, they’re all acting like I was the one who stole MJF’s ring!) the MVP of this contest and the night was Swerve Strickland.

Even after the whole of Wembley sang The Final Countdown with gusto, when Swerve made his entrance he looked like he had taken ownership of Wembley Stadium from the Football Association. Once the bell rang, Swerve Strickland played the role of the man determined to play the spoiler, the heartbreaker, the bad guy to perfection. In an industry where the stadium show has become its own genre, in a match which might have been the greatest of its type… In an arena where macro is the style that works best for the stadium match, Swerve never looked close to being over-the-top in his heel mannerisms to take anything away from the story being told. Swerve was nuanced enough in his heel work to make Danielson’s performance so acclaimed in the hours and days after 25/8/24. If this was the greatest night of Danielson’s career and the 5 star ratings and 9.74 on Cagematch on this night is part of Danielson’s legacy?... then his opponent was the Bobby Moore to his Geoff Hurst on this night. If 25/8/24 was the night that Wembley was Danielson’s house?... then his dance partner was the man who laid the foundations for that house.

COUNTERPOINT:

Bryan Danielson

"The American Rainmaker..."

by Joe.

Peter is using a great reference point, CageMatch, as evidence of the quality of this main event, and by extension Swerve’s MVP worthiness. Swerve is incredibly deserving of those flowers, and I’ll toss on a whole other bouquet. I would agree that he carried the build to All In. You know who else agrees with that? Bryan Danielson himself, who shared as much in the scrum. However, we are talking about All In Week itself, and the weight of that is heavily anchored in All In itself. On that night, at that show, the emotional weight came from our connection to Bryan Danielson, our care and concern for his family, and our desire to see him continue on for just a little bit longer. After I touch on those points, I’ll circle back to Peter’s reference guide of CageMatch to make one last counterpoint.

A big part of the emotion this match created was built on the connection between the fans and Bryan Danielson. For around 25 years, Bryan has been wearing his heart on his sleeve, showing his heart through the wrestler toolbox of blood, sweat, and tears in that ring. Then, for probably closer to 20 years, and really especially the past 10 years, Bryan has been wearing his heart on his sleeve on the microphone, becoming one of the true promo greats. This emotional vulnerability allowed us to form an attachment to Bryan where he became not just a performer we enjoy, but a person we care about. Swerve played a very valuable role as the evil villain who threatened to sever that connection to our hero, but we need to really care deeply about our hero for that to work well. While Swerve has done a great job with this build, particularly over the final 2 weeks leading towards All In Week, most of that work has been put in by Bryan for over 2 decades. 

Next, we have the care and concern for Bryan’s family. This one got so complicated on the night of. Bryan has shared in interviews, both kayfabe and shoot, how much he values his family. He shared in his autobiography how much he wished he had more time with his father, and what he would trade to get that back. In the promo that aired right before his entrance, (as Sergei discussed in greater detail above,) Bryan seemed to combine a love letter to pro wrestling with a love letter to his family. Because of that connection, and that vulnerability from Bryan, we actually know how much he values his family, and we actually value them, too. We want him to be happy, and we want them to be happy. Seeing Brie be so supportive in the Renee Paquette interview, seeing him talk about how much he loves them, then seeing how adorable and lovable they are as a supportive family unit in that front row, that brought me to peace with his retirement. However, after Swerve continued the nastiness and disrespect of Bryan that started with the build up, into the nastiness during the match towards Brie and Birdie and Buddy, causing Birdie to cry, I now needed Bryan to hold off on that retirement, because the Dragon needed to make Swerve pay. I needed Bryan to defend his family more than I needed him to go home to his family. And that’s what I would get. Bryan’s transparency and vulnerability resulted in my investment in the defense of his family. This felt like a chance to rewrite the Mick Foley / Rock dynamics of Royal Rumble 1999 in the protagonist’s favor.

Lastly, let’s get to the fact that beyond a desire to see justice delivered, so many fans continue to have a desire to watch Bryan Danielson perform. John Cena of the WWE Universe is having his retirement tour, and I feel very at peace with that. I doubt I will be strongly rooting for him to continue wrestling past next year— feeling like there are so many special matchups and classics left in the tank. Sting of NWA, WCW, TNA, and AEW had his retirement run this past year, and although Sting is on my personal Mount Rushmore for wrestling fandom, I didn’t feel any strong desire for him to keep going past Revolution. His career felt complete, and the moment felt right. For Bryan, just watching the entrants of the Casino Gauntlet match offered so many exciting choices, Nigel McGuinness chief among them, but I’d enjoy Bryan vs ZSJ one more time, Bryan vs Orange Cassidy in a fun comedy turns into competition play, Bryan vs Ricochet in a what counters can Bryan create contest, etc. I’d like to see Bryan humbling the hubris out of young Jack Perry. I’d like to see Bryan vs Darby in a passing of the torch of Seattle babyfaces. Why do I want to see all of these matchups? Because Bryan is STILL SO DARN GOOD. That is something he showed us all Sunday night, with possibly his best match ever. In this match, Bryan had me standing, clapping, shouting, and nearly crying. When Bryan was talking to his family and telling them he loved them, now I didn’t want him to win, I NEEDED him to win. The choices Bryan made in the run up are what made the match so valuable to me. Obviously, Swerve’s choices set those choices up, but it depended on Bryan’s ability to respond and our decision to care when he did. Bryan provides a level of wrestling quality layered onto that long-formed connection that is incredibly rare on a historical level. I'm personally hoping he can hang on full time until Wrestle Dream in Seattle, and that when he does retire, it isn’t the permanent one yet. I need those pop-ins at big shows for some more years to come.

Lastly, we’ll go from my wish for pop-ins, to some pop ups…. Peter referenced CageMatch—now, if you peruse CageMatch, and look at top matches in ROH history, you will find Bryan’s name popping up. If you look at top matches in WWE history, you’re going to find Daniel Bryan’s name popping up. If you look at AEW’s short history, Bryan’s name is popping up all over the place once again. The data shows that across promotions, and across opponents, if you are creating a best-of compilation, Bryan is a common ingredient that consistently leads to 4 & 5-star quality matches. Swerve is also excellent, and if he can maintain this version of himself, we will start to see that from him as well

 But if we ask who was likely MOST valuable in terms of making this match hit the high that it did, if we were to ask some hypothetical software system to use some advanced algorithm to figure that out, the safe betting money would be to go "All In" on Bryan’s name popping up again. That is no shade on Swerve. Swerve is incredibly valuable—it's just that Bryan is arguably the most valuable of all time, which is why he should win that tie-breaker on the night of.