6 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dark (Oct 29)
2. Coffin Dropped
Hardcore wrestling is becoming a big part of AEW's identity. The company seem to deliver at least one big plunder brawl across Dark and Dynamite every week and while they'll want to avoid overuse before such stipulations become a clutch, it's a smart move for right now. WWE's PG rating makes the kind of violence promised by such bouts an impossibility and thus, clashes like this one pitting Jimmy Havoc, Darby Allin, and Jack Evans against each other provide further separation between America's top two promotions.
The existing Havoc/Allin issues were played up immediately, with the duo getting right in each other's faces. Evans was no third wheel, though. This snotty little flippydoo is the perfect pro-wrestling pest and helped set a ridiculously fast pace early on. Havoc came back into it as the fight spilt outside and after a relatively pedestrian show up to this point, Allin's propulsiveness was most welcome. The man's a joy to watch.
A match that brought table bumps, stage brawling, and a 450 splash onto unfolded chairs concluded with Allin's Coffin Drop on Evans... with a chair. Darby and AEW have done a good job building that finisher up as a killshot. Here, the chair assist provided the perfect big spot to close on after some well-worked escalation.