September 22, 2021 – Queens, New York 

Bryan Danielson tld. Kenny Omega
From Dynamite 103: Grand Slam. Okay so the first thing to love about this match is that they wrestled what would have been, had the title been on the line and the time limit been longer, a match that would have logically led to an actual finish a few minutes after the bell rang here. Specifically, what I liked is that the match was cut off at a place that felt realistic, and not like one that was manufactured for the sake of a thirty-minute time limit. Also, kudos to TNT for not going to a commercial during this very long match. It escalated in a way befitting of its place on the card, its non-title status, and the two men involved. This was the most fun I’ve had watching an Omega singles match in some time. His selling felt realistic and not totally goofy as it often can. Serious Omega is A-OK in my book. ****¼

October 1, 2021 – Rochester, New York 

Bryan Danielson def. Nick Jackson
From Rampage 8. Superkick Party is such a better entrance song than Being the Elite and Packing Heat. Just kill those two songs, they’re bad. This was very appropriate given its spot as the opener of the show. Danielson was able to include a very memorable moment, absorbing Jackson’s kick while psyching him out with his psycho demeanor, while generally having a breezy match. I laughed out loud when Danielson baited Jackson into kicking Brandon Cutler in the face. Good stuff. Danielson is so good at selling his leg that I was surprised that he had no issues after kicking the post and escaping a Sharpshooter when bridging for his moves. That was the only drawback. Danielson put on the Cattle Mutilation for the win at 14:06 (shown of 15:35). Christian, Luchasaurus, and Jungle Boy help Danielson beat up the Elite after the match. I’m skipping the eight-man tag match that stemmed from that for now because it feels more relevant for Cole’s lineage later. So you can find it there.***½ 

October 15, 2021 – Miami, Florida 

Bryan Danielson def. Minoru Suzuki
From Rampage 10: The Buy In. They took their time building the intensity here and it paid off in a big way. This match works exceptionally well watching it right after the Jackson match, because Danielson’s pride in absorbing punishment is established. But here, Suzuki quickly shows him that he should be more careful when accepting undefended blows. But he is not more careful, and Suzuki is also not careful. So both guys just throw incrementally more powerful strikes at each other until they’re left screaming in each other’s faces. That part almost got me off the couch. Where the rest of AEW often leaves me cold, Danielson’s run so far is totally emotionally charged and I’m into it. Danielson avoided the cradle piledriver and hit the Busaiku Knee Kick for the win at 19:18. ****¼ 

October 16, 2021 – Miami, Florida 

Bryan Danielson def. Bobby Fish
From Dynamite 106. Erick Stevens recently tweeted that Bobby Fish without Kyle O’Reilly is comparable to an unfrosted poptart in that only weirdos like it. Let’s see if Danielson (and later, Punk) can change my opinion that this is absolutely true. The fact that Fish was in the main event of Dynamite is so weird to me. I mean what is this, an EVOLVE show from 2010? Fish’s entrance music is brutally bad, and I don’t want to believe that people liked this when he came out to it in ROH. I might be selling him short, but I feel Fish could have been any kick pad wrestler and this match would have gone the same way. I’ll cut him a bit of slack because that avalanche Falcon Arrow was wild. And also because the match was pretty good. They went after each other’s legs in mostly parallel ways, and Danielson with medium effort made Fish tap to a knee bar at 9:40 (shown of 12:18). Not the level of the other stuff so far, but certainly more than a random, forgettable match. Probably not main event worthy, though. ***¼ 

October 23, 2021 – Orlando, Florida 

Bryan Danielson def. Dustin Rhodes {Quarterfinal Match}
From Dynamite 107. It’s occurring to me that Danielson is mostly wrestling older guys. To this point, Jackson is the youngest person he’s wrestled and he’s not a young pup by any stretch. This isn’t indicative of much, but I’m going to from here keep a running average age of Danielson’s opponents. Up until now, it’s 44.2. There were a few cool things going on here. First, I have to point out how much better this was than it likely would have been had it ever happened when both guys were in WWE. They’d teamed up a few times together (with Cody) in 2013 against the Shield, but never had a singles match against each other. Which is fine because Rhodes is way more motivated in his 50s working for his brother than he was working for WWE. Second, this is another example of Danielson showing his versatility. He matched limb-targeting with Fish and striking with Suzuki. Here it was a battle of who was craftier at anticipating and countering their opponents offense. And as usual, Danielson came out on top. And finally, it’s very cool that Danielson has now gone 4-0-1 and every win has come with a different move. Here, he leaped up to lock on a guillotine choke and patiently waited as Rhodes sank to his feet and then to the mat before passing out at 14:28. On a different day I might go higher with my rating, but here’s where it stands today. ***½ 

October 26, 2021 – Orlando, Florida 

Bryan Danielson def. Aaron Solo
From Dark 114. Solo brings Danielson’s average opponent age to 42.2. This is my first time watching one of the Dark soundstage shows. This had strong just-a-match energy. It’s a Danielson match, so even still it was an easy watch, but this was reminiscent of a lot of his TV matches in WWE. Especially in that Solo only felt like he had a chance when QT Marshall and Nick Comoroto were interfering. But in a nice touch, Danielson once again won the match with a move he hadn’t yet won an AEW match with. This time around it was with the LeBell Lock at 9:34. **¾ 

October 29, 2010 – Boston, Massachusetts 

Bryan Danielson def. Eddie Kingston {Semifinal Match}
From Rampage 12. Kingston brings Danielson’s average opponent age to 41.7. Okay, I’m not usually one for hyperbole; that might be a reason why my readership has never been very large. But I think there’s an early case to be made for Danielson’s early AEW run, culminating with this journey through a contender’s tournament, being one of the most interesting stints anyone has had in wrestling in a while. He’s won every single match with a different move. Here, he caught Kingston in a triangle joke and elbowed his head until Kingston passed out at 14:52 (shown of 16:23). He’s also wrestled vastly different matches without going outside of his style. What I mean is, this isn’t Kenny Omega wrestling Jon Moxley in a death match just to say he did it. Danielson is telling a variety of stories while still wrestling in a way that Brian Danielson would wrestle. Here, even more so than in the Suzui match, Danielson was fighting from behind. Kingston came in super focused and dominated, thanks largely to a neck-jarring move on the floor early on. Danielson had to battle Kingston on the turnbuckle for quite a while to regain control with a back superplex. Kingston remained defiant, flipping Danielson off even as he began to fade from the triangle choke. This was great. It made me curious to go back and watch their match from 11 years earlier. Not really worth it. ****

November 5, 2021 – St. Louis, Missouri

Bryan Danielson def. Anthony Bowens
From Rampage 13. The 30-year-old Bowens brings Danielson’s average opponent age down quite a bit to 40.4. This was a result of a stupid Twitter storyline where Bowens said Tony Khan was treating him and Max Caster unfairly, so Khan sent Danielson after him. That’s a very WWE way to get a match together, ain’t it? Danielson is a goon for management now? Caster’s pre-match rap is pretty good, though. Anyway, I have a feeling this last minute addition to the show was a reaction to Dynamite’s ratings taking a dip. I saw people on Twitter (why do I live my life in such a way that this is how I start sentences?) that were upset that this wasn’t more of a squash, but almost all of Bowens’ offense happened during the commercial break. And since I’m watching this the next day, I didn’t see any of that. This seemed suitably squashy to me. What bums me out is we get our first instance of Danielson reusing a finisher, as he puts Bowens out with the LaBell Lock at 7:32 (shown of 9:04). **½

November 10, 2021 – Indianapolis, Indiana

Bryan Danielson def. Rocky Romero
From Dynamite 110. In the ‘00s, these two had a series of matches that showed some great chemistry. I’ve been wondering why this match is happening since it was announced. Danielson has a contender match in a few days and his opponent, Miro, has no match on this show. Doesn’t that make for an unfair advantage? Before the show, Romero invited all of the Best Friends to join his CHAOS stable in New Japan. Jim Ross mentions that on commentary, to which Excalibur replies that this match has a lot of backstory. What? That has nothing to do with this match. This match has zero backstory! Yes, these two have wrestled each other a few times before, but there’s been no explanation as to why this is happening now. At least the match was good. Ross cites Romero’s Best of the American Super Juniors win over Danielson, which is a great call from him. It probably could have come up earlier to illustrate that Romero was only 1-3 against Danielson in singles matches going into this. This was structured in a very interesting way, with a gnarly mat exchange coming towards the end and leading naturally to the finish. Danielson became hyper focused on Romero’s leg, which left him open to a cross armbreaker that almost won Romero the match. Danielson finished Romero in a very clever way, putting on his trusty LaBell Lock, which he hadn’t primed Romero for, but then transitioning to the leg with a Tequila Sunrise and getting a quick submission at 10:53. That finish was inspired. Romero brings Danielson’s average opponent age to 40.2. ***¾

November 13, 2021 – Minneapolis, Minnesota

Bryan Danielson def. Miro {Number One Contender Match}
From Full Gear. Miro brings Danielson’s average opponent age below 40 for the first time to 39.7. We’ve finally gotten below Danielson’s actual age! Miro is filling in for Jon Moxley here, as Moxley went into recovery for alcohol addiction a week and a half earlier. I was surprised to find that these two had only ever wrestled one singles match against each other before. Excalibur makes a silly comment about Danielson having never beaten Miro in his career yet to date. Well, you’ve got a sample size of one there, bud. Anyway, this match was great. Miro did the invincible monster thing so well. Too well in fact, as it became his undoing. Danielson’s game plan was more fun to watch within the context of all his other matches. He got close to winning a few times using tactics that had been successful against Fish and Kingston, but Miro was stronger than them. In the end, it was Miro getting cocky thinking he had Danielson beaten, disarmed, and demoralized, that won the match for Danielson. Miro left himself open for Danielson’s blows, taking three for every one he returned. With Danielson on his knees, Miro carried him to the top rope. But Danielson fired back from above, hit an avalanche swinging DDT, and then locked the unconscious Miro in a guillotine choke to win the decision at 20:01. I could see myself liking this one even more over time. ****¼

September 15, 2021 – Newark, New Jersey 

Adam Cole def. Frankie Kazarian
From Dynamite 102. This was a good debut for Cole. In the first few minutes, I felt that Kazarian might have been the wrong choice of opponent as he was sort of a lukewarm babyface. But he’s also a prime example of the good hand trope, so he delivered as he should have. That is to say, he provided enough resistance for Cole that the match stayed entertaining for eight minutes while never looking dominant over the newcomer. After a failed Panama Sunrise attempt during which Punk hilariously called Cole a Florida Man, Cole hit the move and then finished off Kazarian with the Last Shot at 8:05. ***¼ 

I liked having a running curiosity theme for the Danielson matches, so I’m going to do one for these matches too. I’m going to note Dave Meltzer’s unhinged rating, so you can see what a normal person thinks of these matches against what a Young Bucks sycophant thinks. That’s relevant because the Bucks feature in most of Cole’s AEW matches. But they were absent here, so DM only went with 3.5 stars. 

September 24, 2021 – Queens, New York 

Adam Cole, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson def. Christian Cage, Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus
From Rampage 7: Grand Slam. This was fine for what it was, especially given that it was in the middle of the card. A couple things stood out as cheesy or lame, chiefly the kiss on the cheek spot that made Jungle Boy look like a chump for just kneeling there forever, shaking his head but not trying to escape the Camel Clutch. Also, Cole and Luchasaurus teeing off on each other looked stupid as hell. Other than that, it was a quick-paced bit of business, which is fine but not really my cup of tea. They’ll never be as good at this as the Dragon Gate guys. Cole hit Luchasaurus with the Panama Sunrise, but the kind where Luchasaurus had to blatantly walk into place and stand awkwardly to set it up. Then, the young Bucks hit the BTE Trigger and Cole hit the Last Shot (which I guess is called the Boom now) for the win at 10:53 (shown of 14:38). Jungle Boy looked really good when the spotlight was on him, however. DM gave this one 4.25 stars. ***

September 29, 2021 – Rochester, New York 

Adam Cole def. Jungle Boy
From Dynamite 104. This picked up in a big way toward the end. That’s not to say that most of the match was boring, but they actually had me believing that Jungle Boy might pull it out with the Snare Trap. The commentators, when focused, are so good at getting over the strongest parts of a wrestler’s arsenal. When not focused, CM Punk is making boring insurance jokes and Jim Ross is sucking up to his boss. The finish was dope, seeing Jungle Boy try to pull Cole away from the ropes to reapply the Snare Trap, Cole kick him away, then hit a low blow and finish things off with the Boom at 13:39. ***½ 

DM slapped a whopping 4.5 stars on this match. 

October 6, 2021 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Adam Cole, Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson def. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage, Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus
From Dynamite 105. This is the match I skipped above, and indeed it does feel more appropriate to review here. This was the kind of vibe I was hoping to get from the six man tag at Grand Slam. It had that wild, Dragon Gate momentum you want from a spotty eight-man tag. Christian aside, the babyfaces all played important roles in the face of the Elite’s attacks. And Christian getting taken out in the middle of the match was fine because he’s just not that interesting in this environment. Things got a little sloppy near the end, but to everyone’s credit they worked right through it and moved on without letting it get in their heads. Jungle Boy was eventually left alone in the ring and ate a quadruple V-Trigger, giving Cole the win at 17:58. ****

DM almost went the full 5 here, giving this match 4.75 stars. I guess there’s no such thing as the full 5 for him anymore, but a ranking system having a top rank still means something to most of us. 

October 16 2021 – Miami, Florida

Adam Cole, Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson def. Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno & John Silver
From Dynamite 106. It’s interesting to see the Superkliq act as surrogates for AEW Champion Kenny Omega in that their opponents reflect his prospective title challenger. We’ve now shifted from Cage and Danielson to Adam Page’s friends in the Dark Order. DM gave this sucker 4.25 stars, which is kind of insane given that it was a rather short comedy match. It was fun, though it’s interesting that we’re so deep into reevaluating what amounts to consent that I feel a little icky watching Reynolds & Silver kiss Cole because those weren’t the guys he was expecting a kiss from. The finish came out of nowhere, as Reynolds got caught with the Panama Sunrise, the BTE Trigger, and the Boom before getting pinned at 10:50. ***¼ 

October 27, 2021 – Boston, Massachusetts 

Colt Cabana, Evil Uno, Stu Grayson & John Silver def. Adam Cole, Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson
From Dynamite 108. It’s the Halloween episode, so everyone is in costume. The Elite are Ghostbusters and have Michael Nakazawa dressed as a baby (bay bay) and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (presumably Brandon Cutler) with them at ringside. The Dark Order are dressed mostly as cowboys (complete with someone dressed as a horse) in honor of Adam Page, though Cabana is dressed as Cutler, Silver is Bambi, and Grayson is just in his typical Kratos getup. Maybe he should have dressed as something else, as Tommaso Ciampa outclassed him in the same costume the night before on NXT. This was all comedy, and it worked well enough. It turned out that the horse was a gagged Cutler, who got obliterated by the Elite who assumed it was a member of the Dark Order. The Marshmallow Man unmasked to reveal Page, who beat up Matt Jackson and fed him to Silver’s Spin Doctor. That gave the Dark Order the win at 10:10 (shown of 13:02). Surprisingly, DM did not think this deserved a rating from him. I agree, but I’m still surprised. ***

November 5, 2021 – St. Louis, Missouri

Adam Cole def. John Silver
From Rampage 13. Is it possible to understand what this Budge crap is without watching Being the Elite? Because I won’t watch it! Excalibur explains what happened on BTE and it’s… disappointing. The match, however, was not disappointing. Silver has the goods in the ring, working perfectly for a guy who looks and acts the way he does, and his character is over. It’s a shame he doesn’t currently have anything to do on the PPV. This match was designed to get him over while still giving Cole the win, or at least I assume it was because that’s exactly what it did. Silver Blocking Cole’s low blow, hitting one of his own, and then hitting the Spider Bomb had me believing he might win. And while that would have been great for Silver and I could convince myself it was the right move, the internet would have exploded. Cole caught him with a pair of superkicks and the Boom for the win at 7:34 (shown of) 11:03. DM gave this seven-minutes of TV 4 stars. ***

November 13, 2021 – Minneapolis, Minnesota

Christian Cage, Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus def. Adam Cole, Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson {Falls Count Anywhere Match}
From Full Gear. Cole has been in AEW for less than two months and he’s already doing rematches?! No but for real though I didn’t need a singles match against Cage for Cole. I appreciate Jungle Boy wearing jeans for the occasion. Cage too, though tucking your denim into your wrestling boots is certainly a choice. They never expressly said there would be no disqualifications, and to my mind this stipulation doesn’t fold in a lack of DQs, but in practice they waved rules in general. That worked to the match’s advantage because the Young Bucks are terrible at adhering to tag rules, which I find distracting in matches where tag rules are meant to be enforced. In another nice touch, anytime any wrestler got cute and posed for the crowd, they immediately regretted it because it led to someone attacking their unprepared asses. Most of this match was very enjoyable, some of it was less than good, and one thing really pissed me off. I’ll start with the negative. The only bit here that I absolutely hated was Cage diving off of the top of an entranceway onto Nick and Brandon Cutler. The heels were standing around like goofs waiting for it, and then after it happened everyone stood up immediately after the near-fall so they could brawl back to the ring. What’s the point of a spot like that if you’re not going to sell it at all? And falls count anywhere! There was no reason for the fight to go back to the ring at all. As for the not so good, the match moved so quickly that there was never a moment when it felt like the babyfaces or heels were in control. Thankfully, the rapid succession of spots were creative and executed really well. Nothing (except the entrance way dive) looked so contrived that it was distracting. But there’s a cap for spotty matches like this one, and this match hit that cap. The final minutes saw a fight on the ramp that went back and forth between quality and cringe. A few rapid changes in momentum were fun, as was the SuperKliq hitting a BTE Trigger while wearing thumbtack-studded kneepads. That should have been the finish, but it wasn’t. The match dragged on with a series of dives off of the ramp onto dopes standing around blatantly waiting for them. Finally, Christian set up Matt for the Conchairto, only for Jungle Boy to do it instead for the win at 22:22. There was a bit of symmetry in the finish, as Cage had insisted Jungle Boy hit the move earlier in the match, but he hesitated. That’s not enough for me to like it though, as the match was already drawn out without the faux drama at the end. This review is also too drawn out, so the tldr of it all is it was a mixed bag that was often pretty to look at, but too long and full of the bad habits of those involved. This got 5 stars in the Observer, which means DM thinks it’s as good as Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat and the first WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov. That is unhinged behavior. ***½

September 5, 2021 – Hoffman Estates, Illinois 

CM Punk def. Darby Allin
From All Out. How to tell that a match hasn’t built up the level of energy you were hoping for: after the three count, Jim Ross just calmly says, “Got him,” before realizing what his job is and laying in the delayed superlatives. I liked that both guys played possum over the course of the match, but the way Punk did it made the way Allin did it look pretty weak. I appreciate what they were going for with Allin taking the full 9 count on the floor after being hit with the Go2Sleep, and having him bait Punk into going for another one so he could hit elbows to the face. I appreciate it, but Allin doesn’t clue the crowd in at all to what he’s doing, so it just feels like he’s no-selling at the end rather than playing possum. So in the end, we get something with less heat than it should have had given it was Punk’s return match, but with good action throughout. Punk caught Allin with the Go2Sleep for the win at 16:40. ***½ 

September 24, 2021 – Queens, New York 

CM Punk def. Powerhouse Hobbs
From Rampage 7: Grand Slam. For a guy who blasted WWE upon his debut in a way that Cole and Danielson both stayed away from, Punk sure did participate in a match here that lifted heavily from tired WWE tropes. Most blatantly was the finish, that saw Hook try to interfere only to collide with Hobbs by mistake, which led directly to Punk hitting the Go2Sleep for the win at 12:05 (shown of 13:35). But overall, the match was just Hulk Hogan’s big man match formula, where he got beaten up and bear hugged, made a false comeback, got beat up again, and then did something a little dastardly to get the win. That took the wind out of my sails. **¾ 

October 8, 2021 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

CM Punk def. Daniel Garcia
From Rampage 9. Before the match, Garcia and 2.0 cut dueling promos with Punk, and Garcia gets the best of it. Didn’t see that coming. The crowd still digs Punk a lot, but more importantly they loudy boo Garcia. Taz blaming Jericho on commentary for the spotfests of today was kind of funny. Jericho taking credit for innovating the Lionsault when he stole it from Ultimo Dragon is kind of annoying. Excalibur telling Jericho to work on his material when he calls a diving Punk “SkyM Punk” is pretty cute. That’s enough commentary talk. This was solid, certainly better than the Hobbs match. While I was a bit disappointed that Garcia didn’t get more offense, Punk is the draw and Garcia is the really young new guy. I get it. I very much like that Punk didn’t try any things he’s not capable of here, like the ugly elbowdrop and the scary corner hurricanrana in the Hobbs match. After taking out 2.0, Punk put on the Anaconda Vice for the win at 12:45 (shown of 14:05). ***¼ 

October 15, 2021 – Miami, Florida 

CM Punk def. Matt Sydal
From Rampage 10. This match happened twice in WWE, but both times it was under five minutes so who cares. It also happened twice in IWA Mid-South, so I checked those out and you can read my reviews of them if you want to. Sixteen years later, Sydal doesn’t get an entrance. That kind of telegraphed how this would go, if it wasn’t already quite obvious. Sydal had lost all four of his previous matches to Punk, and it wouldn’t exactly make sense for him to win this one. Of course, the problem with a forgone conclusion match is even Sydal’s exciting offense is met with silence. Punk kicks out of the Lightning Spiral and avoids a move off of the top before hitting the Go2Sleep for the win at 14:47. Fun match, held back by Sydal basically being a jobber. Not convinced that he’s a jobber in AEW? He was 1-14 on Dynamite going into this match, and he’d never been on Rampage before. ***

October 27, 2021 – Boston, Massachusetts 

CM Punk def. Bobby Fish
From Dynamite 108. I’m curious to see if there’s any follow up to this match as Fish kicked out at the end, potentially before the ref’s hand hit a third time. Punk has been moving on after defeating each opponent, which is fine and probably good even, but here there’s some controversy so they might want to come back to this. I was a bit more into this than I was into Fish’s match with Danielson, mostly because Punk had a hard time figuring out an answer to Fish’s offense. Fish had done a good job of immobilizing Punk’s leg, to the point that when Punk hit the Go2Sleep for the win at 12:58, that potential kick out came because it took Punk so long to cover. I was about to use the term “the old man” in place of Punk to change things up a bit, but Fish is actually three years older than Punk. There are a lot of old guys on this roster. ***¼

November 13, 2021 – Minneapolis, Minnesota

CM Punk def. Eddie Kingston
From Full Gear. I didn’t get as much as I wanted out of this, mostly because it was very short by PPV standards. What I did get out of this that I wanted was Punk finally acting like Punk. He was smirking, flipping the bird, and generally being an ass. Kingston did everything I wanted him to do too, including hitting his finisher on Punk before the opening bell. Punk selling his exhaustion after hitting the first Go2Sleep was great too. I just wanted more of it. What an odd decision to have this one end so quickly and so decisively in Punk’s favor, especially given that this was at least the second most anticipated match on the card for most people, if not the most. Punk hit a second Go2Sleep for the win at 11:09. The deal seems to be that Kingston had earned Punk’s respect, but not vice versa as Kingston refused to shake Punk’s hand before leaving. There’s money on the table with this rivalry, but I’m curious to see how they rehab Kingston after he lost this way. Also, Punk dedicating his performance to Guerrero (who died 16 years ago on this day) was fine, though I could have done without him doing the Three Amigos poorly. Chris Jericho finished his match on the same card with the Frog Splash, and given that Jericho was actually Guerrero’s peer, Punk’s tribute seems diminished. It’s tacky to compare, but that’s where I’m at right now. ***½

September 8, 2021 – Cincinnati, Ohio 

Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler & Shawn Spears def. Evil Uno, Stu Grayson & John Silver
From Dynamite 101. This was more about Dark Order falling apart because Adam Page didn’t step into a leadership position after Brodie Lee died than it was about anything going on in the Pinnacle. And they told that story in a fun, efficient way. Pinnacle dominated them, at one point getting the Super Smash Bros out of the way so they could taunt Silver from his own corner. I really liked that. Moments later, FTR did the Big Rig set up to throw Silver to Spears, who hit his Death Valley Driver for the win at 4:49. More story than substance, but I liked it a lot. ***

September 15, 2021 – Newark, New Jersey 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Dante Martin & Matt Sydal
From Dynamite 102. No entrances for either team. And wow, everyone played their parts so well here. FTR brought some old school heeling to the proceedings with the classic aided abdominal stretch bit. Sydal, veteran flyer that he is, was able to get around most of FTR’s shenanigans and escape from bad spots on the occasion that he did get caught in one. And for his part, Martin was on point showing off his flashy style but without being as adept at thwarting FTR’s dirty tricks. And in the end, Martin was caught mid-flip and landed in the Big Rig, getting the win for FTR at 9:02. This was a sneaky great little match. ***½

September 21, 2021 – Orlando, Florida 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Anthony Grene & Stallion Rogers
From Dark 109. Harwood is the oldest person in this match and looks every day of it. I looked it up, and he and I are the same age. That hurts me a lot. I wonder if he’d look younger if he shaved off the mustache. I’m going to comfort myself with that assumption. I was ready to write this match off as an extended squash, but Greene spearheaded a pretty wild comeback in the waning moments of this match. Rogers got in on that action, but Wheeler caught him with a backbreaker and an X-Plex for the win at 10:27. This was a few minutes longer than it needed to be, but I get why it went as long as it did given that the job team was coming off of a sting in NXT. **¾

September 22, 2021 – Queens, New York 

Sting & Darby Allin def. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood
From Dynamite: Grand Slam. This was a pretty big match up without much build up at all. Jim Ross notes that FTR was 21-2 in tag team matches going into this, and they picked up their third loss here. Again, in hindsight, I ask why this happened. Allin doesn’t need the win in tag team matches and Sting doesn’t need wins at all. And FTR entered into a tag title feud shortly after this. I don’t understand these decisions and I have a hard time believing the people who think Tony Khan has everything built out a year in advance when FTR loses twice in a month before challenging for the tag belts. And look, the match was fun. Sting moves around amazingly well for a 62-year-old guy, helped in huge part by being able to hang out on the apron for stretches of time. But what did we gain from him tapping out Harwood to the Scorpion Deathlock (at 9:29)? Are the face paint boys ever going for the tag titles? It hasn’t happened in the three months since this match. Like I said, at face value this match is a little bop that saw FTR’s bad intentions backfire. But with hindsight (and I would have thought foresight) it just seems like a bad idea. ***

October 4, 2021 – Rochester, New York 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Elijah Dean & Zach Nystrom
From Dark: Elevation 31. FTR didn’t even get their jackets off. Dean tried to rush them right after the opening bell before Wheeler could get to the apron, so they hit him with the Big Rig. Wheeler knocked Nystrom off the apron and Harwood casually pinned Dean 12 seconds in. Not sure why the bell rang before Wheeler had gotten to the apron and before Harwood had been allowed to take off his ring jacket, but this is what happens when that happens, I guess. Cute squash. N/A

October 5, 2021 – Orlando, Florida 

Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, Shawn Spears & Wardlow def. Aaron Frye, Austin Green, Baron Black & Dean Alexander
From Dark 111. Excalubur makes a timeline gaffe on commentary right out of the gate, talking about a new theme song for the Pinnacle that doesn’t play here because Dark was taped way ahead of time and the commentary is taped closer to when the show streams. Tazz tries to bail him out but they sound ridiculous. This match was neat in that the job team had analogues to everyone on the Pinnacle team. Specifically, big man Green squaring up with Wardlow was fun. Frye got to show off a little bit and get the best of the Pinnacle, but the tradeoff was that he got hit with all of their signature moves and pinned after eating Spears’ Death Valley Driver at 7:05. Alexander was in that match for like 15 seconds. Low man on the totem pole I guess. **¼

October 11, 2021 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Lee Moriarty & LSG
From Dark: Elevation 32. FTR have Wardlow in their corner instead of Tully Blanchard this week. The commentators can now talk about FTR’s new Midnight Express-inspired theme music while it actually plays. Kingston makes me laugh on commentary, excitedly thinking that Schiavone is saying “full arm Dragon Twist,” before being told it’s “full arm drag and twist.” Schiavone should slow down or just start calling it a Dragon Twist. Moriarty actually gets a rub as FTR shows more hesitation to engage with him than they do their typical Dark/Elevation opponents. From there, this turned into a match that could have easily been on one of the flagship shows. Moriarty was straight up dazzling in the way he frustrated Harwood and got a series of near falls. His counter to the Big Rig into an X-Factor was amazing. LSG got a little excited going for dives and wound up getting shoved into the post. Harwood got his composure back and caught Moriarty with a brainbuster for the win at 7:29. Great match by Elevation’s standards. ***¼

October 16, 2021 – Miami, Florida 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix {AAA World Tag Team Championship Match}
From Dynamite 106. This was an extension of Andrade El Idolo’s feud with PAC. PAC is aligned with the Lucha Brothers, and went on to fight El Idolo two days later on Rampage. In the meantime, El Idolo hired FTR, disguised as the luchador tag team Los Super Ranas, to fight in this match. I’m pretty impressed with the way they used one feud to recharge FTR and make them relevant to the upper card again. Punk outs them as FTR on commentary immediately, and then they get unmasked just a couple minutes in. This was an interesting bit of business. It wasn’t great, but it was interesting. There were no tag ropes because FTR couldn’t admit they were in the match. As such, we had both members of the team in the ring at the same time much more than usual. Fenix was the star here, no surprise, but more because of his crazy spin kicks than his dives. The match was overbooked like crazy, with Blanchard running out to distract the referee while Harwood hit Fenix with the title belt for the win at 8:12. FTR are now responsible for two of the Lucha Brothers’ nine tag team losses in AEW. **¾

October 25, 2021 – Orlando, Florida 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Mike Reed & Toa Liona
From Dark: Elevation 34. Liona is a beast. There isn’t a ton of info on him out there, but he posted a funny video on Twitter of working UberEats on a Friday night, dropping off Shake Shack at someone’s doorstep, and seeing from across that person’s apartment complex that someone else was watching Rampage. It was a lot of fun watching FTR deal with him. The thing that sets FTR above the Young Bucks and the Lucha Brothers is that they have nothing resembling a template. Their matches are just about always tailored to their opponents. How does anyone make the argument that they’re not the best tag team going today? And of course, the second that Liona tags out, Reed eats the Big Rig and the match is over at 4:54. **½

November 1, 2021 – Boston, Massachusetts 

Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler def. Jaylen Brandyn & Traevon Jordan
From Dark: Elevation 35. The jobbers here are known as Waves and Curls. This was another example of FTR being very creative, though it certainly came at the expense of their opponents. Brandyn cleaned house early on. Jordan tagged in and didn’t know what to do with FTR laid out. So he went for a cover on Harwood, but the possum playing FTR came back with the Big Rig for the win at 2:07. Very squishy, but also cute. It’s great to see FTR make the most of their time on the YouTube shows. N/A

November 3, 2021 – Independence, Missouri 

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood def. Aerostar & Samuray del Sol {AAA World Tag Team Championship Match}
From Dynamite 109. This match became a little notorious for a moment because it led to a bunch of wrestlers and the relatives of wrestlers exposing that they’re not mature enough to publicly deal with grief. In a rather surprising move, the luchadores controlled the entire match. FTR didn’t make a comeback at all, but were able to sneak out a win when Wheeler cut back on a roll up and grabbed the ropes for leverage to get the win at 6:00 (shown of 8:30). This was hardly worth all the Twitter drama that SdS’s appearance caused. **¾

November 10, 2021 – Indianapolis, Indiana 

PAC def. Dax Harwood
From Dynamite 110. Nothing sets up FTR well for losing to the tag champs on PPV than losing to their buddy in a singles match on Dynamite a few days earlier. I don’t understand this booking. Did PAC need to be reheated for his nothing PPV tag team match? Why book a singles match for FTR at all? The match was pretty good, which isn’t a surprise since PAC is awesome. PAC countered an uppercut to a backslide and then put on the Brutalizer for the win at 11:05 (shown of 13:59). After the match, Wheeler, Malakai Black & El Idolo all come down to beat up PAC until the Lucha Brothers and Cody Rhodes make the save. Only tangentially related: It’s been 13 years since the last PAC vs. Danielson match so I’d say we’re due another. ***¼ 

November 13, 2021 – Minneapolis, Minnesota 

Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix def. Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler {AEW World Tag Team Championship Match}
From Full Gear. In a nice touch and a subtle shot at their opponents, FTR are wearing Mexican and USA flag knee pads. I got pretty annoyed almost immediately at how often Fenix would come in to attack his illegal opponent when he himself was not the legal man. Just make this a tornado match if you’re not going to bother with tags. There was some good stuff here sandwiched in between some not so good stuff. Everything from the Eddie Guerrero tribute (on the anniversary of his death) until the final stretch was quality stuff. FTR acted like jerks and the crowd loudly booed them. So I had a good time with that part. But the beginning was much more of a loose Lucha Brothers vibe than it was a focused FTR vibe, and I didn’t dig that. And the finish was dumb. Wheeler put on his Los Super Ranas mask to obscure the fact that he wasn’t the legal Harwood. That might have felt more meaningful if a) they’d cared at all about the illegal man being in the ring up to that point, b) they’d established the Ranas mask as something that FTR had used to cheat before, or c) Wheeler didn’t have a massive, distinguishing tattoo on his back. As it is, the mask causing the illegal Wheeler to get pinned and lose doesn’t have any poetic justice to it. The Lucha Bros hit him with an assisted Jay Driller for the win at 18:37. ***¼