10 Ups & 1 Down From AEW WrestleDream
2. Swerve Strickland Ascends
Just how good is Wrestler X?
This is a question that is very pressing in 2023. There is a veritable horde of excellent 8/10 wrestlers in AEW - far too many, in fact - so many that it's hard to determine who is capable of ascending.
Who among the Wardlows and Malakai Blacks and Daniel Garcias is truly great enough to become undeniable? To be one of the very first names on the upcoming PPV format sheet?
Swerve Strickland Vs. Hangman Page was meta-premised on that exact query, and Swerve passed the referendum. The match was a triumphant slow-burner loaded with overwhelming main event-level drama.
Page played situational heel, and, as with most things, is excellent at it. At Double Or Nothing 2022, he tried to saw CM Punk's skin off with his forearm, and he took that nasty form into this match with his attempts to dismantle Swerve's hand. Swerve was even more nasty in response, and this was his diamond-sharp wrestling mind on full display. After proving himself capable of drawing fans into a slower, more deliberate PPV match, he knew precisely when to pick his big spots.
In a great moment, as Page was tended to by the medical staff, Swerve decimated him with a stomp from the top turnbuckle to the apron. Swerve, and this is ambitious, presents himself as a remorseless psychopath. Delivering the kill-shot when his opponent was for all intents and purposes already dead, that was magnificent character work.
The match was brutal - a Dead Eye on the ring steps was particularly gruesome - but both men did an unreal job of crafting the tone and letting the sense of unease linger throughout.
Must-watch brilliant and can't-watch unsettling at the same time, this was a minor classic - but it somehow wasn't the match of the night...