The Secret Stat Behind Why AEW Matches Mean More

Breaking down the nature of AEW's five inconclusives further highlights the differences.

PAC was disqualified for smashing Kenny Omega with a steel chair during their acclaimed Iron Man match in February, doing so to score an advantage in the next fall, which he won. This wasn't even the finish: 'The Bastard' attacked with 14 minutes remaining on the clock.

The one-sided countout was in a Dark comedy match between two jobbers, Peter Avalon and Michael Nakazawa. Avalon also partook in the double countout on this week's Dark, facing Brandon Cutler, with whom he shared a combined 0-52 record in AEW. The gimmick is that these guys are literally incapable of winning, so what could be more appropriate for that than a non-finish?

Cody and Darby Allin worked the first time-limit draw at Fyter Fest 2019, which was an effective way to show that the upstart Allin was capable of hanging with the de facto company ace for 20 minutes, setting them up for more matches later down the line. Jon Moxley and PAC scored the second as Dynamite ran out of time during their main event, riling the future World Champion up for his program with Omega.

None of these examples can credibly be called a copout.

This isn't night and day: we're talking about different universes here.

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