How AEW Got A Five Star Match With NO Fans

Virtually every plunder brawl asks pressing questions of the audience - what is a compressed sawdust table doing under a ring that is more painful to bump on? - that we simply ignore to increase our enjoyment of them. The genius of the Parking Lot Brawl is that almost every weapon used was germane to an environment AEW recognised as a means of working within the new world.

These four men, in totally deranged spots elegantly constructed to not once pause to set them up, crashed into sh*t one would expect to crash into a parking lot fight - hoods, bonnets, windshields - creating an immersive and bloodthirsty atmosphere. Electric, violent, intoxicating, dramatic: this was, in its minimal use of spectacular wrestling and punishing brutality, as restrained as it was gratuitous.

Of course, that audience was not present. Here, the intimacy enhanced the match because that audience, wincing and gasping - not popping - sold the blood feud blow-off as if it weren't a performance.

Santana pitched the idea to Tony Khan, who is receptive to the ideas of his workers because pro wrestlers are inherently creative people. Santana was astute enough to recognise that Sue, Trent's mom, had instantly established herself as a beloved cult figure by driving "Greggy" to his big title match. Like any great heel, his immediate thought was: "I can get a sh*tload of heat here". And so he pitched wrecking Sue's van, which would lead to the fight and the iconic wholesomeness of that happy ending.

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