It's Official: AEW Is Actually BACK
Ospreay is an explosion of exhilaration.
Even when taking a routine suplex, the snap of his bumping is an indescribable high. His first two matches against Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher were outstanding exhibitions of a pulsating hybrid style that, frankly, a lot of wrestlers need to retire in his wake. If you were wondering when he’d strike a vein of true emotion, you only had to wait for his fourth appearance as an AEW full-timer. In a superb, menacing promo cut at Big Business, he teased hitting Bryan Danielson, who has endured a scary history of head injuries, with the most transgressive move in wrestling: the Tiger Driver ‘91. The Dynasty match is no mere Dream Match. Done right - and it’s Will Ospreay Vs. Bryan Danielson - it will be a terrifying, unbearable scene of overwhelming drama.
A booker is only as good as his angles; anybody could put a great card together with that absurdly stacked roster. WrestleDream was precisely that, and the show, while exceptional, hardly reversed AEW’s fortunes in October of last year. The angles are back in AEW, too.
At Big Business, Jay White committed an unconscionable act. He Pillmanised the ankle of Darby Allin ahead of his attempt to climb Mount Everest, in effect preventing him from surviving. The return match won’t be as hot now that Allin won’t be climbing, but it’s so rare that a heel in the modern era is able to do something so beyond the pale that it scans as an actual moral transgression. It was another inspired idea on Khan’s part - this redemption of a character, White, who really needed it. It feels like Khan is laser-focused on getting it right. He took the criticism personally and has recognised that real emotion was sorely lacking last year.
The interviews were never an issue and will continue to take care of themselves, with so many superb promos on that roster - Eddie, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Jon Moxley, Swerve Strickland, countless more - and if anything, Khan should allocate more time to them.
On Swerve, he has a battle to contend with - he was closing in on the top spot before Ospreay became the uncrowned top guy - but iron sharpens iron. The stacked roster has its drawbacks, in that it’s difficult to invest in so many wrestlers, many of whom disappear for weeks, but Swerve knows he needs to perform.
Bryan Danielson is arguably the greatest wrestler ever on his greatest run and he is picking the surreal, dreamlike opponents that will best motivate him to be the genius that he is. If that is somehow not just an amazing thing that is happening right now - he’s just wrestled Katsuyori Shibata! - his recent storyline with Eddie Kingston was stellar.
The sadist bully treated the gilded Triple Crown holders of yore, Yuji Nagata and Jun Akiyama, with contempt. That drew the very best from their disciple Eddie Kingston, who defeated the Dragon in a magnificent war at Revolution. A subplot that yielded impossible matches and drove the challenger to realise a career-long ambition: it was great, wrestling-forward story progression distinct to the more showy fare of wednesdays.
The stripped-back, intra-match booking approach of Collision underscores that Khan does in fact have the range as a booker to achieve what others could not: book two weekly TV shows, each with a unique appeal.
AEW was at its best when it was incidentally funny, when something off-kilter enhanced the body of an angle or promo out of nowhere - think a giant pitcher of beer inexplicably materialising in the hands of Hangman Page, or Virgil, God rest his soul, espousing the merits of Olive Garden.
CONT'D...