La Zona Muerta

Another year older; not necessarily another year wiser. What have I learned over the past 365 days? I dunno. I specifically recall yelling “wow, I didn’t know that!” about something or other the other night but the fact must have been so trivial, so banal, that it immediately fell out of my brain. Whew! The fact that I scored four touchdowns for Polk High still remains safely protected in the wrinkles of my grey matter.

Speaking of learning, yesterday, I learned AEW was BAD for DARING to have BOTH a women’s Blood and Guts match as well as a freshly announced men’s match (a match that has been in the works for some time).

I say this with all of the love and tolerance in my (admittedly shriveled, dark and cynical) heart: if the idea of women’s wrestling is more important to you than the AEW brand in general, there are companies that cater to this very dichotomous dilemma! Discover the multi colored, fancy and often times hard hitting world of joshi, and quit PRETENDING that AEW is somehow BAD for leveraging a signature match for both genders. IF YOU WANT PREDOMINANTLY WOMEN’S WRESTLING, THAT POSSIBILITY IS AVAILABLE TO YOU. In a similar vein, I saw an acquaintance remark upon a possibly ill judged tweet from the former Tegan Nox (where she said something to the effect of “Cry harder, marks; we have a match in AEW”) that he thought it was a bad idea to come out of the gate with a message like that, and he was DROWNED in a deluge of messages like “it’s a work” and “Nixon (first name basis?) doesn’t have to prove anything” and etc. in a world where MANY people have come in to AEW from WWE and FAILED TO PROVE THEMSELVES. Meanwhile, this cat is a HUGE proponent for women’s wrestling and people were tearing him up for DARING to badmouth KING KOTA or whatever. To these folks, it’s more important to PROTECT the female talent from mild criticism (and, honestly, it’s criticism that I have a hard time disagreeing with) than it is to be wary of WWE talent coming in and lousing up AEW. That type of performative outrage gets my goat something fierce. Please note I am NOT talking about enjoying women’s wrestling or wanting MORE for it when it comes to its depiction in North America. I am merely talking about the type of fan who has to stick up for WOMEN’S WRESTLING UBER ALLES, unrealistically being upset when it is not featured in perfect parity (or more than!) with that of the men.

You’re well within your rights to want AEW to shine more of a spotlight on the women or give the women more time, more main events, etc. Just don’t presume you’re speaking for everyone else. Or even most ANYONE else. Tickets have not exactly flown off of the shelves for the women’s B&G match (of course, AEW is weird, bad at promotion and while they announced the women’s match, they haven’t FINALIZED it, which is goofy) so codifying at least one of those matches last night makes sense. This is NOT a reason to be upset with AEW. AEW does LOTS of stuff wrong… but PLEASE give them a break for whatever your perceived gender bias is, here. The women’s scene is much better than it was even a year ago! I’d rather them continue to grow it organically than take a bath financially because that side of the programming simply isn’t strong enough to carry the company alone and then the women get relegated due to a perceived LACK. There’s gonna be a women’s Blood and Guts! That’s cool! The women of AEW have a tendency to REALLY deliver when there is a crazy plunder match and B&G is indeed that. Doesn’t mean the men are BAD SOMEHOW for having one of their own, especially as they have been building to it for awhile, and that’s not a fraudulent action from the company.

Anyway.

Dynamite felt good, felt strong for the most part. I dunno about these accelerated pay per view cycles… it feels like we just had one and the next is merely three weeks away. I realize you can’t always get what you want in that regard but back loading the latter half of the year with what feels like PPVs every three weeks feels a little much. Coupling with the seeming repetition of this cycle and… yeah, I can see fatigue settling in. However, I feel like there was some elbow grease, some effort applied to ease the repetition. Yeah, it’s Samoa Joe and Hangman Adam Page again, but they’re getting there in a novel way. Yeah, it’s Darby Allin vs. Jon Moxley still, but now we have the added benefit of it leading towards Blood and Guts (and, one assumes, one more, FINAL blow off match; we will see. Is this finally where the Death Riders TURN on Moxley like everyone has been fantasy booking but the TV hasn’t remotely hinted at? We will also see). Yeah, we’ve seen Mercedes Moné and Kris Statlander mix it up before… but the dynamic should hopefully be a little different this time and, despite my antipathy for the Moné character, the possibility of her holding all of these minor belts but being unable to score the BIG ONE could prove interesting. The Kazuchika Okada / Konosuke Takeshita slow burn is BEAUTIFUL and has me SALIVATING for their eventual match, wherever it ends up taking place. FTR… let’s face it… THIS version of FTR probably should hold the tag titles. Brody King and Bandido are popular enough that they don’t need them and FTR desperately using every heel trick in the heel handbook to hold on to their titles would probably be a GOOD thing for a renewed AEW tag division, especially if the Young Bucks head back towards the light, so to speak.

Highlights of this episode? Some strong wrestling, for sure. Four way tag (I am dumb and thought it was a straight rematch of the match from Saturday) was good. Kyle O’Reilly and Mox had another really good match, the commentary going out of it’s way to say that KOR has a better ground game than Jon, and the layout of the match proving it, KOR sinking in a triangle that nearly finished Moxley. Unfortunately, this match ended in a wacky way… again… this time culminating in my least favorite finish, the dreaded DOUBLE COUNT OUT as KOR had Mox in trouble on the outside. You mean KOR isn’t smart enough to realize a submission on the floor doesn’t count? Last week’s disqualification was cool (I really should have put it over more; Moxley so desperate to not lose that he deliberately took a swing at the ref as his world starts to fall apart)… this one was less effective, in my opinion. YMMV. It did lead to Referee Aubrey Edwards getting absolutely CREAMED by Marina Shafir when KOR rolled in to complain, and after a beatdown and stand off between the Riders and the Conglomeration, Orange Cassidy dispassionately announced… um… uh… Blood and Guts. I can see why in kayfabe one might be less than psyched; Mike Santana legitimately lost a year of his career in same, but it makes sense as the Riders have been ever more prone to cheating of late and vanishing when the heat is on. THIS was what led to a crash out by some, assuming the women’s Blood and Guts had been CANCELLED in favor of this one or that somehow it would be LESSER THAN if the women’s one wasn’t the main event. Sigh. IT IS NOT A COMPETITION.

THE DON CALLIS FAMILY SUMMIT went off… well, I was gonna say “without a hitch” but that would be a fib and we all know that DON CALLIS DESPISES LIARS. After unveiling the latest Callis “masterpiece” (the entire family, sans Wardlow, oiled in togas and makeshift cloth undergarments, centered by Don himself, abs glistening with the word “FAMILIA” arced across his stomach. It’d bring a tear to a glass eye), Rocky Romero took the reins and pointed out that some of the Family couldn’t be at the summit due to injury or travel issues. VERY noticeable by his absence was the big, beefy Konosuke Takeshita. After Don retook the mic and pointed out that the Family existed to do his bidding (and Kyle Fletcher read some VERY interesting contractual notations the Family had to agree to upon their acceptance of familial bonds), Takeshita HEROICALLY OVERCAME HIS TRAVEL ISSUES and made the scene. With a soundtrack of Fletcher BEGGING Takeshita not to do anything rash, Takeshita SUCKED IT UP to shake Okada’s hand… AND GOT A MIDDLE FINGER FOR HIS TROUBLE. This is the best program in AEW and it’s not even close. Okada and Takeshita again will be forced to team on Saturday, so we’ll see how much longer the BIG TURN OF ’25 is put off, but it can’t be far now.

The main event saw HOOK, Ricochet, Bobby Lashley and Samoa Joe compete in a four way (ooh er, missus) for the number one contendership. These matches aren’t always great, usually full of rest spots and ways to write guys out but Ricochet in particular WORKED HIS ASS OFF, here, flying in at the last minute to break up pins, jumping off of things, all sorts. HOOK looked fine, here… in fact, I’d go so far as to say this is the best he has looked since the last time he shared the ring with Joe… and Bobby Lashley was… fine. There were a couple of hinky spots… Joe held HOOK in the Muscle Buster position (HOOK folded on his shoulder) FOREVER, waiting for Lashley to deliver a spear, and then at the end of the match, Lashley SPRINTED up the ring apron but was TRAPPED BY THE ROPES as Joe choked out HOOK. Stuff like that… I guess that’s why I have a bit of antipathy for three and four way matches but it’s not THAT big of a deal in the scheme of things.

The biggest highlight of the night was post match. The Phantom of AEW, aka Tony Skeeavone, appeared to have Joe sign a contract (already a red flag… since when do they do that?) followed by LOCAL TALENT dressed in various Halloween costumes. Tony and the Halloweenies had been milling around all night, and of course, one of the costume clad men was a fellow in a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man suit, much as Hangman Adam Page has worn in the past. Tony congratulated Joe on the win, but Joe, never lacking, asked his cronies, Powerhouse Hobbs and Katsuyori Shibata to take care of his light work, and they cleared out all the goobers in costume (including possibly a long suffering Kevin Ku, who probably doesn’t get paid enough to suffer this abuse), assuming one of them was Hangman. Tony stayed in ring (unusual) and insisted on a toast (also unusual). The next bit, if you go back, and you know what to look for, you can see the seams but if you were just watching without a magnifying glass, this was a real shock. As Tony’s toast became more and more congratulatory to the Hangman… a realization suddenly dawned. The Phantom of AEW was NOT Tony Schiavone. ADAM PAGE pulled off his (masterful!) make up and CAUGHT SAMOA JOE LACKING from the one vector of attack he never expected. Page cleaned house and utterly DESTROYED the OPPS. God, I LOVE smart babyfaces. They completely got me here; it was great. Yes, there was a part where live Tony’s voice clicked over to recorded Tony’s voice. Yes, there were audience members who saw the switch. Yes, the way the camera framed it sort of gazumped the surprise if you were looking REAL HARD. But on TV, this was nearly as flawless as the time Eric Bischoff played the preacher at the wedding of (sigh) Billy and Chuck. All timer moment, a fun one, and a GREAT way to end the show.

This was a good night. I get that the attention is a little bit split towards the Blood and Guts show and then the PPV a week later … AEW is not, I repeat NOT optimal when it comes to that sort of promotional timing… they need to shore that stuff up desperately, but anyone telling you that this was bad somehow now that there’s a Men’s Blood and Guts match needs to get the fuck off of their high horse and reevaluate if their enjoyment is agenda driven or entertainment driven.