7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Revolution 2021

1. Death In Jacksonville

So, the exploding barbed wire deathmatch.

Yes, the post-match stunk. We've already discussed that.

And yes, the finish kinda stunk as well, with the Good Brothers' interference unnecessary and the One Winged Angel onto the chair abrupt.

But prior to all that, Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega were on their way to doing Atsushi Onita, Terry Funk, and the masters of the stipulation proud. For the most part, this conjured the kind of pit-of-the-stomach dread only a well-crafted deathmatch can.

These bouts are more about the fear of what might happen than the horror of what actually happens. The drama is in the anticipation. A well-plotted deathmatch will build and build and build, teasing escalations in grim, bloody violence in order to terrify you. It's supposed to make you jittery and nervous. It's not just backyard torture porn, where barbed wire spots are spammed like superkicks and nearfalls. Here, the torture is earned. It's built to.

That's what happened when Omega and Moxley met in the first major American pay-per-view deathmatch in years.

Omega and Moxley struggled early on, trying to outmuscle and outsmart each other as they fought towards the wire, with Moxley exploding first. Triple Hell didn't come into play until halfway though, but boy, did it come into play, with Mox Paradigm Shifting Omega through one of the rigged boards. Later, Kenny smashed his rival with an exploding bat. A genius One Winged Angel escape came before, when Moxley threw a foot at the barbed wire, triggering an explosion that temporarily blinded Omega, forcing him off. Ghoulish, ghastly stuff, but they built to it. They earned it.

And it would have been a beautiful way for Moxley to ride out if not for the post-match.

Compare and contrast with their Lights Out match, which felt artless by comparison. Here, Moxley and Omega struggled for blood.