La Zona Muerta

Most of my favorite wrestlers are dead.

Now THERE’S a way to kick things off… but it’s true. Obviously I can’t talk about my REAL favorite; he ended up a monster, brain turned to soup by concussions and drugs and grief (and let’s face facts; he was probably not a great guy prior to what went down at the end of his life). My other favorite was “clean” when he died, but a lifetime of doing what you had to do to be a star in such a cosmetically driven business caught up to him at last. One of my other favorites held on to the business too long and wrestled such a brutal, punishing style that he lost his life in ring.

Wrestling is a harsh mistress.

Losing you still hurts, twenty years later.

Behind the incredible moves, the larger than life personas, these are real people, often times flawed, just like us all and it’s probably not wise to get too attached to them.

And yet.

An exchange:

“Kenny Omega.”

“Speedball Mike Bailey.”

“You’re an inspiration to me.”

“Thanks.”

I don’t know when it happened. I’ve admired his work for years and thought his odd, dry and sometimes wacky promos were fun, but as I watched Kenny Omega last night, the thought bubbled up, unbidden, unfiltered, from that REAL place inside you where the real thoughts live.

Kenny Omega is my favorite wrestler.

I got to watch him have an enjoyable, quick match with a talented guy who was all too prepared to go under (that inverted tope Blake Chrisstian does is sick; it looks like, for a second that he messed up but then you realize he hit it perfectly, your brain sort of auto corrects and you’re like “wow”)… a match that freaked out some in the wrestling blogosphere / podosphere / bad criticism sphere for reasons I can’t really grasp (not enough video packages, one supposes) and then cut this dry, humble promo. “I don’t need friends; I have a cat,” he opined, and I’m sitting there thinking “THIS IS THE MOST RELATABLE MAN ALIVE.”

I guess after all the negative stuff I said at the start about having favorites, I don’t want to place the bad juju of ENUMERATION on big Ken’s shoulders, but I’m reasonably sure I never have to worry about his moral fiber. Dying in ring? I mean, yeah, maybe… but I trust Kenny is smart enough to know when to walk away. He likes Neo Turf Masters and has a cat instead of friends. He may or may not have a relationship with one of the great himbos of our age. This is my kinda dude.

Anyway, this was a really good Dynamite, featuring a lot of great wrestling, an incredible in ring promo and just generally left me feeling good. Sure, I get down about AEW… but this is a company that houses the likes of Omega, Hangman Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, Jay White, Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher. This is a company that has cats like Prince Nana and Don Callis running around. Are there things I don’t like, directions I roll my eyes at, talent I don’t care for? Yes, of course… but you could roll a six sided die representing some of the names I mentioned above and just field them at any time and rely on them to have great matches… THAT’S FUCKING INCREDIBLE.

The thing I’d like to talk about most isn’t really the great action we saw (Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe is probably a must watch… Brody King and Kyle Fletcher just beating the CRAP out of each other was a delight and somehow, against all odds, Fletcher landed the DANGEROUS~! brainbuster to the turnbuckle on the HUGE King)… but rather the incredible Jon Moxley / Swerve in ring promo off. Moxley is a good promo when he has something to say (I think he has a tendency to ramble and trip up a bit, otherwise). Likewise, Swerve is good when he’s motivated but also has a bit of a tendency to trip up or get ahead of himself. While Moxley did ramble a bit and say some nonsense things (“Swerve, I don’t know if you’re prepared to go all the way,” this said to a man who was willing to break into someone’s house and breathe all over his opponent’s baby), what was great about this promo was Mox SETTING UP Swerve to deliver his half of the promo, talking about people chancing into the wrestling business and not paying dues and then Swerve JUST CRUSHED IT, absolutely NAILED IT, telling Moxley that he had ALLOWED Moxley to run around unchecked for too long but no longer.

The ONLY problem here is that, if Swerve doesn’t beat Moxley at the pay per view, it’s REALLY gonna cut his nuts off. Swerve outsmarted Moxley here, prepared for Mox’ numbers advantage and said as much. If he is a dumb dumb and loses at Dynasty because forty people run in, his character is gonna look STUPID and will immediately lose it’s teeth. We’ll see… I’m a little perturbed by that. Oh, by the way… Swerve and Hanger had a confrontation backstage AND IT RULED. It will NEVER be over between them, and that’s GREAT. Rivalries and HATE and THE NEED TO BE THE BEST should be what wrestling is all about.

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a gripe so here it is… not a new song but a refrain of it did pop up last night…

QUIT SAYING “BITCH” ALL THE DANG TIME. USE SOME CREATIVITY. COME UP WITH A NEW INSULT. And cool it with the general misogyny and weirdness. Everyone LOVES MVP and talks about what a great promo he is but he felt the need to interrupt Big Bill Morrissey (someone who it PAINS ME to stick up for) and go on and on, saying “bitch” over and over and then capped off by telling Bill to take his “little girlfriend” (meaning Bryan Keith) and leave. THIS is the “great” promo everyone likes? I pointed this out on Bluesky, by the by, and while there was a lot of agreement, some rando jumped in and told me to “cry more” re: thinking the b-word was heard FAR TOO OFTEN on AEW TV. I replied that he should enjoy the block, and did same. Talk about BITCHING. Seriously, it’s such a reflexive, basic thing to say. Who needs it? BE CREATIVE.

Anyway, Dynasty looks to be building VERY well. They have two Collisions and one more Dynamite to lay out the rest of the pieces. We have talked here before about how go home shows are a weakness for AEW but the shortness of this PPV cycle seems to have paid dividends in cutting the fat from some of the programs, getting right to the heart of the matter(s). They have a LOT to live up to from the last show, of course, but I have enough confidence in AEW right now to believe that shouldn’t pose an issue.