THIS Is Really The Best Wrestling Storyline Happening Right Now
It's a meta approach to storytelling, or perhaps even a subjective interpretation, that doesn't require any intimate understanding of behind the scenes discourse to get over. At its core, whether Omega's super-fans are urged to believe that this is all some grotesque psychological projection or otherwise, this is still a classic tale of babyface versus heel. It's a tale of a super-gilded, indomitable villain with the most devastating, protected deathblow in the game versus a man of the disenchanted, terrified people.
If all of this reads as earnest and melodramatic and heavy going, it isn't. Omega is hyper-entertaining in the role. He's a fabulously hubristic piece of sh*t who will tell a piss-funny joke before booting beloved midcard babyfaces right in the balls. As is Page; knowing that this mode of storytelling is lofty, he grounds everything by quipping, drinking beer and kicking ass in snug, explosive matches and the wild angles that have highlighted AEW's awesome return to touring.
This saga is even better than it is in itself.
Consider the unreal, shared universe elegance of it all. The events of Full Gear 2020 and Winter Is Coming, across which the Elite won the gold, arranged the dynamic and the respective divisions with such deftness. FTR had worked every team of note in quality weekly defences. Jon Moxley's run also ended at the perfect time. Hangman Page plunged to his lowest ebb at the perfect, most affecting time. He had to restore himself over a period of several months, and during those months, Omega cast an even more imposing, credible shadow as the Belt Collector. At exactly the same time, AEW crowned a new heel World Champion and mired Hangman in crisis to seed this incredible long-term saga. The amount of thought applied to all of this is staggering. The corrosive influence of Don Callis is the perfect means of presenting Omega as a true - albeit deeply corrupted - babyface. One One-Winged Angel later, and another arc can begin anew. AEW is telling two redemptive arcs at once. Kenny Omega does indeed think in years.
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