Write Forever: Let's all cry together on AEW Dynamite for September 9
I hope you're ready to cry!
I don't know if this is going to be an all-night tearjerker like the tribute to Brodie Lee only because I don't think every match/segment will be about Rebel specifically the way the Brodie Lee show was. But, whatever they do for/with Rebel will be a tough watch.
This is also the first AEW show since the incredibly untimely passing of Andy "The Butcher" Williams. Just an insane sentence to type. It's been heartening to see the outpouring of messages about The Butcher, each one revealing him as an even bigger sweetheart than the one before it.
Just a fucking gutpunch of a week to be a wrestling fan. So let's watch some greased-up meatheads roll around on the canvas with each other for a bit, yeah?
Conglomeration, Conglomerate Thyself
Last week, we saw Roderick Strong walk off in the midst of a backstage Conglomeration interview. This week, he teamed with Roderick Strong and Orange Cassidy to challenge Swerve Strickland & The New Level for the Trios Titles.
During the match, Roddy showed a much faster and more aggressive style than OC and Kyle including not allowing OC to do his patented one-corner-punch several times over.
Swerve Level retained the belts with Daybreak on Cassidy, their upgraded version of Demolition's Demolition Decapitation. After the match, while Kyle checked on Cassidy, Roddy quietly walked to the back alone.
We've seen this from Roddy before in the lead-up to officially becoming a Conglomerator. Now he's officially in The Conglomeration but is, assumedly, salty about how their recent Trios Title reign went.
Where will we go with Roddy now? Does he force his teammates to step up to his level of intensity, or could we be seeing the final rift between Roddy and the rest of the group? Perhaps Roddy is primed for a breakaway to join Will Ospreay's United Kingdom US?
Looking forward to where we go next with Roddy, who is always so fucking good in the ring and one of the most consistent wrestlers on the roster.
After another excellent defense from Swerve Level, The Demand & The Swirl hit the ring to make things messy before The Good, The Bad, & El Guapo made the save. I love that Swerve and Hangman are still intertwined and look forward to their next chapter, especially with the addition of The New Level.
I don't want to see Swerve Level as a babyface trio for too long, if I'm being honest. Swerve was doing great work as a heel and I love him with Austin & Kofi, but you were never going to get those guys booed on their debut. Maybe four or five weeks down the road, we get a heel turn and build to some fucking nutso matches. Gimme another Best of Seven series for the Trios Titles!
A bit of boring, though inoffensive, wrestling
I really do not think I'll ever get David Finlay. I think he works fine as part of a trio, but his singles and tag matches put me to sleep. I was in the building for Redemption and the double chain match with The Bang Bang Gang and it performed so far below my expectations that it was hard to believe it was a match that even happened.
Clark Connors is very good and when Gabe Kidd isn't expressly doing 🤪I'm A mAd LaD iNnIt🤪 he's very enjoyable. Take, for instance, his heeling on Collision in his match with Andrade. He was getting into it with fans in the crowd in a super fun way, then made a point to get himself back in front of those same fans when it was time for his comeuppance. And he's a really good wrestler, when he's not breaking Eddie Kingston's legs! David Finlay, though, I just can't get into.
While Andrade vs Beast Mortos wasn't boring in the same way, just in the sense that I love Mortos a lot and wish he'd be doing more in AEW. Plus, the "How You Know" stuff is the most WWE-style "let's run this shit into the ground" stuff AEW has done in a long, long time. Both guys still kick a lot of ass, though.
The romance deepens for Kyle Fletcher and new husband Kevin Knight
I'm enjoying the messy dynamic between Fletcher and Knight as a tag team. They're not going full-blown Fletcher/Okada where the two guys clearly hate one another. Sure, it started like that but it seems like they're begrudgingly growing respect for one another.
While uneasy in their first outing on Collision, it seemed like a spark of respect was ignited after their victory. That carried over a bit into the big backstage promo with the Don Callis Family, highlighted even moreso by the appearance of a smug Okada to close things out.
Fletcher and Knight beat The Young Bucks in a tables match with the help of FTR and Big Stoke and, instead of griping afterward about Knight being eliminated from the match first to leave Fletcher on his own, Knight appeared pleasantly surprised when he heard the match called in their favor.
The two then posed together after Darby Allin and Steven Borden made the save for The Bucks from a four-man beating.
I like it! It's nice to do some storytelling that is different from the usual fare we'd get in this situation. If I were to put money on it, I'd say the two continue to grow respect and admiration for one another before eventually realizing that Don Callis is full of poison and breaking away from the Family together.
Maybe even a patch-up with Konosuke Takeshita for Fletcher, though he'll have some work to do after being the world's absolute biggest asshole to Takeshita since returning at Double or Nothing.
Wrapping Up
Steven Borden made his in-ring debut and there are three things I can say about him: he's a fucking hunk, he can jump very high, and he's quite green. I think he'll get there – he's not anything close to a disaster in the ring, but he's certainly rough around the edges. Teaming with Darby for a while will be a good way to keep him from getting overexposed while he gets more comfortable out there.
Excalibur, through a shaky voice, said some beautiful words about The Butcher tonight and maaaan did it fucking break me. Saturday's Collision will be a tribute to Andy Williams, which makes sense with this already having been Rebel Heart Dynamite. Saturday is going to be another hard show to get through.
The women's trios match wasn't anything to write home about until the end, when Reba Rebel rolled to the ring to hand Britt Baker her glove in a setup for tapping out Hyan to Lockjaw. Britt took a seat on Rebel's lap and the two rolled to the entrance, Rebel breaking down in tears before exiting. The following video package was another tearjerker of a segment detailing Rebel's fight with ALS.
Fuck ALS, fuck people being taken far before their time. Why do so many pieces of shit continue to live while so many good people are taken too soon? The Grim Reaper is a fucking idiot fuckface loser.