La Zona Muerta

There are a couple (well, MORE than a couple) sayings in wrestling that are loaded, just PREGNANT with double meaning. Stuff that might appear complimentary on the surface but really is kind of a knock. “______ is a good hand,” is one phrase where it might seem like you’re putting over someone’s in ring proficiency, but you could also take it in a backhanded way… like that guy’s GOOD, but he’s never going to be anything other than a solid in ring technician. IF you were inclined to take it that way, that is.

Another one is “______ is the future of this business.” That seems like a really nice compliment again, on the surface, but then if you use that cynical, everything said in wrestling is really a knock type eye… it’s just another way of saying someone isn’t ready.

Kevin Knight is the future. He ISN’T ready.

But he WILL be.

How soon is now?

The first time I decided I was maybe on the Knight train (not to Mundo Fine, fortunately) was a random NJPW Strong show where Knight had been teaming with the venerable KUSHIDA, and did this cool move where he leapt from the floor to the edge of the ring apron to do a running missile drop kick thing. Until that time, I had been fairly neutral on Knight’s chances… but it was at that point where I said to myself “boy, I’ve never seen anything quite like that; that kid is improving.” Dude worked his ass off during that thankless, lawless time in NJPW and when the Fed came sniffing around, AEW snatched Knight up. It proved to be a canny move… Knight finished up his Japanese obligations and came into AEW pretty hot. Soon after, they hooked him up with Speedball Mike Bailey… admittedly not one of MY favorites, but a very solid worker, and BANG! PRESTO!, AEW had a fun, babyface tag team that fans could rally behind and could eat pins as needed.

But Knight… Knight they see more in than fun tag team specialist. He had a shock win over Darby Allin in the first round of last year’s Continental Classic. He beat KAZUCHIKA OKADA in that same tournament. He also went to a time limit draw with PAC. He’s more than a collection of spectacular moves (although he has those; the UFO frog splash, the best coast to coast dropkick I’ve ever seen and more, besides), he’s really putting together the music between the notes, as well. Each big, high-profile match he has, he improves, he gains in knowledge. Case in point… last night’s Dynamite, where he faced off with Swerve Strickland.

The future.

That’s precisely what this match was about; last week Swerve, perhaps condescendingly, perhaps not, called Knight the future. Knight maybe took some umbrage to that and pointed out he’s the NOW, and well, that led to a great match.

I would be willing to say the Darby match was Knight’s best match to date. The Okada match was nothing to sneeze at, either, and the PAC match was similarly great. We are watching this cat mature in front of our eyes.

And then there was Swerve.

You want to talk about putting someone over? Obviously, Swerve is going to win a match like this… but he did everything in his power to make Knight look good. And Knight RAN with the opportunity. Piledrivers on the outside. 450° splashes. A very credible string of hope spots where an upset seemed possible, even likely. Swerve had to KILL Knight with a Vertebreaker and then the deadly JML Driver / Big Pressure to finally capture the win. If Knight can put together a credible promo style… remember how everything suddenly clicked with Kyle Fletcher? We’re seeing it happen again. Knight is the future… but the future is NOT far away. It’s a PLEASURE to watch this kind of thing and I genuinely think AEW is the only place where you can reasonably expect to see this kind of growth in young talent.

What else was good last night?

A lot of stuff, actually. Samoa Joe and Speedball had a fun, little match. I know some people don’t care for Joe having to be a shortcut taking heel, but I think it’s fun. Dude is older, still a tough guy, but he has to cut corners at his work these days. Who doesn’t? I’m cutting corners as I type this at MY job, just so I can bring you these deathless words. WHERE’S MY MEDAL?

The Death Riders and Don Callis Family had a terrific street fight. As my brain is largely mush, largely all I remember was Lance Archer blowing up (not in the “he got winded” sense, but in the “Claudio Castagnoli rammed his head into an amp and it exploded” sense) and Jon Moxley LOOMING MENACINGLY OVER DON CALLIS. Poor Don! HEY, WHERE’S THAT BIG DEATH RIDERS TURN ON MOX, HUH? STILL WAITING.

Kenny Omega had a great, little sprint with Josh Alexander. JUST THIS WEEK, I saw a geek talk about how he was worried Kenny couldn’t have a match, let alone a series of matches leading to a title shot. In the year of our lord two thousand and twenty *checks notes* six, there are still people that don’t understand selling. YES, KENNY IS OLDER AND BEAT UP. YES< HE’S NOT WHAT HE ONCE WAS. That doesn’t mean he still isn’t one of the ten best wrestlers in the world; even a diminished Kenny Omega is still an incredible performer. Kenny looked good here, looked strong. YES, HE STILL DID THE TUM TUM TROUBLE THING. Like it or not, that’s going to be an element of his matches moving forward. GET USED TO IT, AS I HAVE BEEN SAYING SINCE HIS RETURN. I think they could have gone longer, but that’s a really slight nitpick. “Waaah! The match wasn’t long enough!”

Penelope Ford returned to action with her pal Megan Bayne to face the… sigh… Timeless Love Bombs. A buddy of mine made a terrific point I am stealing wholesale: Ford has been confined to an arm sling for MONTHS, now. Instead of just having her return to action, why not have her trick someone and use the sling to her advantage in a heel style before revealing she’s perfectly healed? Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to me. The only real notable thing here to my way of thinking was Megan Bayne putting a bit too much pepper on TOSSING Mina Shirakawa out of the ring, ostensibly to be caught by her partner, Toni Storm. Bayne, uh… overshot the mark slightly and Mina… let’s just say she’s a pretty tough gal.

The other match I should talk about a bit was again a short affair, but a good one… FTR versus the freshly signed to AEW Jordan Oliver and Alec Price. Oliver has been doing some ROH shots (where he’s been a wacky, rope shaking babyface which is NOT a great use of his talents) and Price has done a couple of shots recently, as well. Of the two, I’m higher on Oliver… he’s been the next big thing on the indies for some time now, but finally started to fill out and go from skinny, flippy guy to someone who was really putting in the work and it’s gratifying to see both of these guys make their way to the big time. Obviously, against heel veterans FTR, these kids are going to be underdog babyfaces in peril and they performed well in that role but the MONEY in these kids would be putting them together with young Nick Wayne and just having them be a trio of douchebag kid creeps. FTR, for their part and given the limited time, made Oliver and Price look VERY good. Let them get some reps in ROH along with Adam Priest and Tom Billington, and then let them loose. Hey, more glimpses of THE FUTURE. It’s like poetry, it rhymes.*

I don’t really feel like getting into the controversies of the day (am I talking about the dreaded PHOTOGRAPH or giving BARON FUCKING CORBIN a dark match? YOU decide), so this is as good a place as any to wrap it up for this week. Very good Dynamite; check it out if you haven’t had a chance to yet.

*column may not actually rhyme