La Zona Muerta

If you read this, you probably don’t need the reminder or roadmap but wrestling, when you strip it down (ooh er, missus) to its bare essence… wrestling is more than a little homoerotic. Largely, it’s two dudes (sometimes two gals, sometimes a non binary pal) rolling around in their underwear. Have a problem with that? TAKE IT UP WITH THE GREEKS AND LEAVE THE REST OF US ALONE.

Look. Hangman Adam Page and Kyle Fletcher both are playing into it a little bit. A LOT, perhaps. They are most definitely throwing some meat to a particular set of fans. Women, gays, just anyone that will get a kick about a tiny bit of gay subtext. I’m not even sure it’s really SUBTEXT at this point; Hangman looked at the screen last week and proclaimed that he would AUSSIE OPEN Kyle Fletcher’s ASS. Fletcher’s character is all but openly lusted after by his manager, Don Callis, who MOANS his desire to announce Fletcher’s name. “Let ME DO IT,” Callis begged last night before THUNDERING his name. Fletcher, of late, has added at least 200% more fabulousness to his outfit, dripping oil, clad in pink with little dangly beads hanging off of his glasses.

Get the picture?

Also, if the strong, STRONG gay subtext is ALL you took away from that match… you don’t watch wrestling for the same reasons I do. Besides the obvious (and yes, Hangman rode Fletcher like a naughty pony for a moment and gave him a cheeky little slap to the bum), Fletcher and Hangman beat the absolute PISS out of each other. Hangman’s character is PERFECT right now; a guy who’s NOT a good man but is walking a path he thinks is righteous, doing worse things to even worse people. He’s COMPELLING to watch, both in and out of ring. There’s a reason folks whinge on about him being the main character of AEW; his journey is AEW’s journey.

Hangman rules.

Kyle Fletcher… I don’t know if it’s listening to Callis (that’s surely some of it; Callis, in addition to being the best manager character in the industry has top notch instincts and being under his learning tree actually means something) or AEW believing in him when NJPW didn’t or what… but he has DIGIVOLVED into something I could have never foreseen… and best of all? HE’S STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. Bless his pink heart. An incredible main event setting up Hangman and Will Ospreay which will be even better. CHEF RECOMMENDS. HIGHLY.

The other bits of discourse I’ve seen floating around seem to stem from two things… how much tolerance you have for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla style multiman spotfests and how much you like / understand the fact that AEW is trading upon the legendary series of matches between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada.

Let’s address the first one; spot fests are fun and a great way to get a crowd going. The opening match last night was FUN. Is that my PREFERRED type of wrestling… endless spots, silly bits and not much selling? Ehhhh, not really… but I DO have a fondness for hot opening matches with lotsa stuff going on. Last night’s opening eight man All Star tag delivered THAT in SPADES. Since the Young Bucks have returned, they seem to have a real “fuck it, let’s just have fun” attitude and as I opined last week, when they are here, having fun, AEW simply feels like AEW. Did they do some silly stuff with Ricochet? Yeah, Ricochet is a pretty silly heel. Did everyone do a wacky “oh know, I missed an elbow drop” spot? Sure, and silliness is definitely a YMMV type thing but wrestling is OFTEN silly. The dopey “look everyone, I messed up” type thing probably reaches back to wrestling’s carnival days. Is an atomic drop SERIOUS OFFENSE? I don’t recall seeing that the last time I watched UFC.

There was silliness, sure, but there was REALLY solid action, as well. They also are helping build Kevin Knight, an unknown to probably 75% of AEW’s audience (maybe more) into a star. Then, amidst the silliness and action, AEW is again telling us they are going to run back Okada / Omega. A prominent wrestling punditry fixture I used to be more strongly affiliated with seems to think AEW isn’t doing enough to tell us why this is important… meanwhile I have Excalibur all but screaming in my ear that Okada and Omega had the best, most legendary series of matches EVER and now they’re on opposite sides of the ring so what can happen?

Sigh.

Look, can / should AEW produce an awesome video package of the highlights of their prior matches? Yes. THEY ALSO HAVE TWO AND A HALF MONTHS TO DO SO. The CROWDS seem to get it when Kenny and Okada face off. They have been building to it LITERALLY SINCE THE NIGHT KENNY RETURNED. If you don’t get that, if you don’t ACKNOWLEDGE THAT, I have no choice but to assume you’re arguing in bad faith… and I don’t have time for that.

Now, if your argument is that Okada / Omega was a rivalry built elsewhere and it’s a bit backhanded of AEW to reap the benefits of that by running it back again… that’s a different argument and something I’ve certainly thought to myself. I think there are matches in AEW I’d rather see Okada have than another one with Kenny and matches Kenny NEEDS to get to before he hangs it up. THAT BEING SAID, if I was a promoter and I had access to two men who produced some of the LITERAL greatest matches of all time, I’d probably want to run that back again, too. When they have their classic at All In, there will inevitably be mumblings of “washed,” “not as good,” “lost a step” and whatever but it’s two guys who are at the absolute APEX of their craft. Even if it’s “merely” a four star match (whatever THAT means) it will still be great.

The bottom line is this. Despite the protests of some, despite maybe a merely okay episode of TV here and there, despite some gaffes in promotion, despite schedule changes and retrenching, despite some really cold pay per view main events… AEW is very much more focused and is steadily winning people back. It was ROUGH for awhile. There are still things that make me roll my eyes or cringe… but AEW is on a slow and steady pace, working to regain what had been lost. I’m not gonna say “restore the feeling,” I HATE that, but it’s pleasant to come here every week and talk about shit I like as opposed to things that I don’t.