I had opined mere minutes before Collision started last Saturday that Jay White’s new group needed to no longer be silly, no longer be comedy midcard goofballs feuding over dog adoption (!) and that they needed to go back to being serious threats. They couldn’t be the silly billy Bang Bang Gang any longer (or the no thought applied in ring or in the back DOGS, for that ). Despite my antipathy towards black t-shirt teams that I have raged about in the past… these guys needed to reclaim the name of BULLET CLUB.
For for for for life.
The time is ripe; New Japan isn’t using it any longer. AEW has flirted with BC a couple of times… the… ugh… Bang Bang Gang of course were originally Bullet Club Gold*, and the Elite teased it way back when they (re)joined with the… ugh… Good Brothers. It’s been long enough that there is probably genuine nostalgia, for better or worse, for Bullet Club. The two groups that joined together last Dynamite were offshoots of Bullet Club, led by the two most recent leaders (one good, one awful) of Bullet Club. You’re basically just missing Gedo as cheerleader and even he wasn’t a Bullet Club OG… it’s Bullet CLub in all but name only. May as well cash in and use the name, too.
What we got wasn’t Bullet Club; White told us that they were still the Collision cowboys, still the dirty dogs, that they were the only crew of operators left. White actually teased calling the group Bullet Club… but what we got instead was… The Last Outfit.
And people lost their minds like a bad wrestling faction name was the end of the world. Now, don’t get me wrong… yes, it WAS a not… GREAT name. But still. You can insert YOUR favorite joke about laundry, funeral clothes, etc.; it all writes itself. Obviously, that’s not what Jay White meant by using the term “outfit,” but here we are. You’d think I would have learned my lesson about using that goddamned Monkey’s Paw…
However. Less than twelve hours after Collision wrapped, it was all different.
I don’t know if TK emergency pivoted (he has before) or if there was some external factor involving copyrights or what but obviously, before the the crew had left the building that night, White recorded another promo, saying the reactions of the public didn’t matter (!) but that now they were the LAST OUTFIT who could CUT Jon Moxley out of AEW… they are simply… The Cut.
Gotta tell you… as far as both names go, it’s six of one and a half dozen of the other. Neither name is great. Maybe the Cut is slightly better, but if it IS, it’s only slightly. The only two positives I see about it are
- Denying the crowd the ability to cheer for them. Too many people would have WELCOMED the return of Bullet Club, as shown when White trolled them about it
- Specifically calling the group “The Cut” shows that the group is here for one reason, and it’s the only reason I care about… the elevation of Jay White
Here’s the thing about wrestling stables. In this day and age of fans wanting wrestlers’ relationships to mirror the same thing on TV that they exhibit in real life… friends being friends (and to a lot of my pals on Bluesky, more than friends, even if that goes against established characterization, orientation, marital status or televised canon. Look, I scream “just kiss” sometimes at the TV too, but some people get a little too into the toxic male relationships, if you catch my drift. Wrestling is gay, we know this, but it’s not always quite as gay as some seem to want and indeed demand it to be), stables don’t exactly mean what they used to. Once, stables were primarily a way to protect a bad guy wrestler by making babyfaces have to go through a bunch of cannon fodder until they worked their way up to fighting the main bad guy. The Four Horsemen disrupted that perhaps a bit but ultimately they were still there to “protect” Ric Flair. Sting has to fight Arn Anderson a LOT before he gets to put his hands on Flair, you know? That’s not the only way to do a stable, but that’s basically the roots of the idea. The Last Outfit Cut needs to exist to propel White into his rightful place in the AEW hierarchy. He can’t just be this month’s Jon Moxley challenger who gets chewed up and spit out. The Cut and especially White need to be an ongoing concern, running roughshod over the promotion as necessary. The heel stuff in AEW can’t solely come from Don Callis and his coterie of beefy men; there needs to be a slightly more existential threat hovering in the background, and a bunch of like minded jerks who are there solely to “cut out” Moxley and his Death Riders fits that bill very well. I just hope we can FINALLY fully get into the Jay White business, here; he’s had a cursed, what, two and a half or three years since leaving New Japan, and the stars have not fully aligned for him. Here’s hoping the syzygy has taken full effect and that the knives are sharp.
Whoa, speak of the devil and he shall appear; Dynamite kicks off with the Death Riders (Mox and Daniel ‘pin eater’ Garcia) versus the Cut (White and David Finlay). They ARE acknowledging their NJPW history, but not so much Bullet Club. Hmmm. Taz HAD to tell us that he likes the name “the Cut,” which made me chuckle. They have said “the Cut”** about a dozen times now, at least. They want NO ambiguity here in regards to the new name.
When Jay White isn’t on the screen, people should be asking where is Jay White
Match was fine, better than fine, but it seemed very rote to me. Maybe that’s a reflection of being spoiled by AEW TV matches. Crowd ate it up, to be clear. Ace Austin and the normally hated Wheeler YUTA interfered, as did Clark Connors, setting up the Jay White win. Jay can’t just… win? You got the protracted beat down and the one man Claudio Castagnoli comeback post match. Moxley declared ANARCHY IN THE ARENA for Full Gear which means they are extending this out for awhile; the Cut should probably win that one, too. Yes, yes, the DRs are now permanently beloved babyfaces, I get it.
Fuck, does that mean we are slightly over two weeks out from the next PPV? Good LORD.
The good gal women declared for Blood and Guts. Again. Was it a replay from Collision? Maybe, I dunno anymore.
Jack Perry versus the Protostar, Kyle Fletcher. Man, Kyle needs to be reheated. This is the cat that’s gonna BEAT Will Ospreay for the heavyweight title, sooner rather than later, you know? If the bad guys win Bee and Gee, maybe he is the one that should be the deciding factor.
I don’t super get the “Jack Perry tests his mettle against dudes better than him” thing. Obviously at some point, he’s gonna have to pull out an upset win, but it better not be tonight. Aw, a hug AND a kiss from Don and who WOULDN’T like a motivational kiss from THE INVISIBLE HAND! Well, in light of what I said above, that’s okay; I don’t think we know Kyle is with Skye Blue on TV. DON GIVES HIS MEN WHAT THEY NEED. Certainly not toxic; that’s pure.
I think Perry is better than some people give him credit for and not as good as others seem to think he is. He’s never particularly grabbed me in the roughly, geez, almost ten years since he got started. He’s very athletic, but I think he’s very guilty of the things people accuse dudes like Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks of; just doing spots with no real connective tissue. Kyle just flat out KICKED PERRY IN THE FACE and hit him with the sheer drop brainbuster, which would have been a PERFECT finish, but we had to keep going because…? Jack tried a MUSCLE BUSTER but yeah, no. DANGEROUS~! Brainbuster onto the second rope (!!!) for the win. The spirit of Ring of Honor (aka going past the peak) lives on. Kyle got into a MAN THRONE to cut a promo, bless his heart, and pointed out he beat stupid Edge and is the uncrowned world champion. Oh boy, he’s challenging Will Ospreay for Full Gear…? I wanted this, but it’s too soon.
Don’t you DARE be sour. Clap your hands and ask how WWE-y will THIS week’s New Level promo be? Maybe we will find that Swerve Strickland has fire bombed BANDIDO TOWN or perhaps he has kidnapped GRAVITY, el hermano de Bandido. Why is this happening IN RING? This can be a backstage promo so easily. The New Level are AFEARED of TEXAS DEATH. I almost typed a naughty word. LOL, they want to go home after a match and don’t want to die! So, their characters are BUFFOONS, then? “It makes sense because while they were in WWE, they watched no other wrestling.” OH GOD NO. I hate this with EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING. They did the New Day Level hip gyration thing! Because REMEMBER IT? Joy. Brody King comes out breathing fire and wants to know where Bandido is. Uh oh. Hangman Adam Page storms out to say they can’t, CAN’T do Texas Death, it shaved years off of his life. WHERE’S Hangman BANDIDO? Uh oh again, here’s Prince Nana and a VIDEO. Bandido is bloody, beaten and maskless with Swerve hovering over him, demanding the death match. HE WON’T ASK AGAIN. Is he gonna take his ear, Reservoir Dogs style? STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU, A MASK AND FOOT FETISHIST. Brody wants to KILL the New Level. LET HIM GO, HANGER. TRUST YOUR FEELINGS, BRODY. Hangman talks Brody down, somehow, pointing out that the New Level didn’t know (hmmmm) and they storm off to find the corpse of Bandido, leaving a very confused (and very dumb) New Level. Swerve, Hangman and to a lesser extent, Brody were fine, here. Everything else made me want to turn off the TV. Gross fantasy booking for a minute, and please skip it if you want… could the New Level turn this shit around by actually not being buffoons but having been in on this with Swerve all along? Or would people not ALLOW them to be diabolical heels? I posed this question to the mighty Mrs. Convoy, who said “That could work, I guess, but I don’t think they are capable of it.” Harsh, but fair.
Don Callis Family cut a promo and king of men Kazuchika Okada mocks Edge, as should all good hearted people.
FTR / Motor City Machine Guns part the third. I was surprised MCMG didn’t win on Saturday mostly because they teased a sweep last week. STOKELY IS SOUL BROTHER NUMBER ONE?! I didn’t see the PPV match, but I get the sense they haven’t really had that one completely KILLER match yet. Nothing bad, but nothing blow away, either. Stokely a PIPSQUEAK? He’s Mr. Dynamite, the hardest working man in show business! I’ve come to another feet planted firmly, arms crossed type conclusion; I think we need to outlaw the mounted punches in the corner. They look terrible regardless of the practitioner. Match was fine and Machine Guns took the win. I’m still waiting for them to have a real great one. MCMG demand THE CODE OF HONOR afterwards but Stokely came prepared with MONSEL POWDER. Stokely may be the greatest man to have ever drawn breath.
I dig Persephone, but Queen Aminata needs to win this one. I feel like Persephone’s promos have really regressed, much to my chagrin.
Also to my chagrin, Tomasso Ciampa and his feud with Andrade il Idolo. Again, Ciampa can’t seem to decide between being a killer or being a clown. Perhaps he is a Killer Klown from Outer Space. At least then he’d be marginally more interesting. OH SHIT, IT’S ILJA DRAGUNOV! They apparently are going to feud over who is the… checks notes best SIGNING in AEW? Good LORD. Just fight. “Not tonight… jackass,” Ciampa said rather limply. What a crushing blow to Ilja’s self esteem or whatever.
Renee Paquette wants to know where the Conglomeration stand in regards to the Cut. Huh? Again, just fight! Roderick Strong agrees with me, so he’ll probably defect.
Marina Shafir versus LOCAL TALENT. Long night ahead for this tiny young woman, who I believe was named Rachel Armstrong. Her name is gonna be MUD in a minute. Kick to the head, whip into the turn buckle, clothesline in the corner, mounted punches (still bad, sorry Marina), judo flip, judo flip, judo flip, different type of judo flip, devastating kick to the ribs, double underhook shoulder breaker thing, Mother’s Milk, the end. Marina calls out Mercedes Moné and Moné slaps Marina to no avail. In fact, Marina asks for MORE, and Mercedes obliges, but then the Cut attack Mox on comms and the rest of the Riders, too. PLUCKY BABYFACE YUTA IS BACK! Again, Claudio makes the one man comeback on the Cut. I don’t get it. Claudio, you have to get beat up too, or this thing doesn’t work. Jay White BEGS OFF from Claudio, which… yeah. Claudio is not Sting, and the Cut sure ain’t the NWO. Finally the Cut get over on Claudio but it literally took ALL of them to do it. There are SEVEN OF THEM. I get making Claudio look strong but he has had their number ON HIS OWN like twice, three times counting last week, now. Claudio is never gonna be world champion, how come he is immune to THE NUMBERS GAME, SCHIAVONE? Of course, Juice Robinson is out here being an idiot, and man, all I can say without a trace of hyperbole is that guy makes watching AEW less pleasurable. Hmmm, maybe they are gonna write Claudio out for a bit here with a (very safe and protected in real life; perhaps too protected as Jay shielded Claudio with his shoulder) BLADERUNNER ON THE CONCRETE. If Claudio comes back next week like nothing happened, that’s fucking promotional malpractice. He did do a stretcher job, so maybe the one man army stuff was to make that more palatable politically? Who knows anymore.
Darby Allin and Josh Alexander. You know, I wouldn’t hate Alexander winning, here. Then Darby could concentrate on the tag team with Hijo del Sting, and Alexander could eventually drop the TNT title to whatever babyface you want. Holy Lord, Alexander gave Darby a German suplex on the apron, one that Taz himself put over. Darby is gonna be on the Friday Arena Mexico show and then run in the New York City marathon on Sunday? Gotch bless, sir. I’m starting to get a bit tired of the overall Darby match formula; he takes grotesque damage, gets the shine for a minute via RESILIENCE, takes even MORE damage and then miraculously calls upon the power of Sting or whatever to hit five Coffin Drops to win. I like Darby, but I think he needs to change it up a touch. If Darby comes back here… Alexander gave him a leaping Tombstone Piledriver (!!! Don’t worry; Josh’s knees took the worst of it) to the FLOOR through CHAIRS. Why is Darby able to come back from that, especially on a show where someone may have been written out by something similar? Whatever the finish is, it won’t be as WILD as that, it won’t be as cool or as convincing. It gets a little dumb, a little beyond the standard suspension of disbelief that Darby can somehow absorb this level of punishment, even if absorbing punishment is basically his entire character. DCF come out to menace Darby but Steven Borden is in the crowd in a mask, of course. Should have been a Sting mask. Darby somehow out wrestles Alexander on the mat for the win. At least he didn’t spam the Coffin Drop to win, so little victories, I suppose. Steven cuts a pretty decent promo, pointing out the he knows the Bee and Gee risks. SEXY STEVE IS BACK.
Aminata and Persephone with Britt Baker dressed as an old-fashioned strength coach. Halloween! Persephone now runs her mouth a LOT during the matches. NOT an improvement. Oh yay, Brittference! Aminata kicked, so that was something, at least. I’m pretty over interference in matches; it’s not good heel heat any longer. Interference would mean MORE if they used it LESS, you dig? Aminata got the win, which was long overdue, but the match itself was a bit of a shrug.
I don’t know about this show, meaning this specific episode. Wasn’t bad by any means, but it did have some bad segments and some perplexing stuff, too. An awful lot of the show was devoted to setup and I don’t think any particular match really got me standing and pacing. Sometimes you sort of have to accept that an episode of wrestling TV is going to be more of an ongoing chapter than a complete unit of entertainment in and of itself, so I think this was one of those, and that will keep me from being TOO negative, here. I really need the Continental Classic to start soon, methinks. Lots of potential and should be minimal bullshit… and make no mistake, it’s the bullshit that’s got me down of late.
*Now, this all being said, we don’t know how the partnership truly works. Did New Japan Pro Wrestling simply let them use the Bullet Club name for a couple of months as a courtesy? Was there a revenue split? Did AEW do it without permission and then ask for forgiveness? Answers on a postcard
**I want to make a “Knifin’ Around” reference SO badly (cutcutcutcutcutcut) but my pal MJ already got there almost IMMEDIATELY when they changed the name on Sunday so a tip of the cap to her
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