Bringing the golden days of wrestling and reality-based storylines of the Monday Night Wars – to current generations
AEW is in a way serving as the company to bridge the Attitude Era of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s into the present day. Tony Khan and the rest of the company are bridging these two generations through creating transparent, three-dimensional, forward-thinking characters that the audience can relate to on a profoundly simple and human level. The characters in this company are focused on revealing wrestlers’ humanity characteristics first and foremost because fans tend to find that most believable in this day and age of no real privacy.
A perfect example of this occurred on May 12 when Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle sprayed a hose on The Pinnacle – bringing back memories for many fans of the late 90s when Stone Cold Steve Austin did the same thing to The Rock and Vince McMahon in pursuit of a title match (only his was the beer). Chris Jericho serves as the perfect bridge for this because he was a part of both eras.
Miro wins the TNT championship in a total surprise
Darby Allin’s run with the TNT championship lasted for a solid seven months and he defended the title on numerous occasions which will increase his stock exponentially in AEW at just 28 years old. Miro sort of came out of left field and surprised everyone when he won the title this past week, but now that he is champion a kind of feels right. After debuting in AEW nine months ago in September 2020, the 35-year-old has finally captured a title – he struggled to gain momentum in his first six months in the company but found his way.
The lowest point for Miro since arriving in the company was right around February when Charles Taylor was serving as Miro’s butler (Orange Cassidy got involved in the story as well), but it all came full circle on May 12 when he became TNT champion (that title now has an established reputation as the workhorse belt, so Miro will have a heavy responsibility placed on his shoulders (the legacy of Cody Rhodes “twice”, the late Brodie Lee, and now Allin).
Kenny Omega will be defending his AEW world championship against both PAC and Orange Cassidy at Double or Nothing on May 30 – the company is having its cake and eating it too
To my knowledge the AEW world championship match at Double or Nothing will be the first world title match in AEW history involving three men. I could be wrong, but I don’t think there has ever been a 3-way world title match even on television, but certainly not on Pay-Per-View. There was Chris Jericho –Hangman Page, Jericho – Cody, Jericho – Moxley, Moxley – Mr. Brodie Lee, Moxley – MJF, Moxley – Eddie Kingston, and Omega – Moxley. Now it will be Omega – PAC – Orange Cassidy.
This was a Revolution 2020 rematch from February 29, 2020 between Orange Cassidy and PAC that took place on May 12, 2021. Standard 50/50 booking (as is common in WWE) would ordinarily indicate that because PAC got the victory over Orange 15 months ago, Orange should get the nod this time around. But to the contrary, AEW fortunately does not necessarily abide by this mentality, which can be rather strict and inflexible at times, thus preventing many favorable matchups.
AEW is abiding by the elected “moments” ability in which everyone feels out the situation and decides what is most favorable given all circumstances as opposed to a model that is somewhat antiquated. For example, through Kenny Omega defending his title against both Orange Cassidy and PAC at Double or Nothing on May 30, AEW takes full advantage of the popularity of Orange currently as well as capitalizes on the benefits of the long-term storyline between Omega and PAC (this is extremely typical of Kenny, and the last time these two faced each other in a one-on-one encounter was in early 2020 in a 30-minute Ironman match which Omega won).
The Young Bucks split SCU – and essentially retire Christopher Daniels in the process – with no nostalgia involved whatsoever
SCU – Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian – are officially finished as a tag team – which theoretically makes sense because Daniels is getting old into his 50s. Daniels is about ready to bring his in-ring career to a close while Kazarian probably has a minimum of five good years left in him as a singles wrestler. The Bucks were the perfect team to bring SCU’s career as a team to a close (even though it was Scorpio Sky – not Daniels – who won the first ever AEW world tag team titles with Kazarian) because they don’t rely on nostalgia at all (much like Chris Jericho).
It makes sense that Nick Jackson looks energetically older than he is. This is only because he began his professional wrestling career at age 14 (because his brother Matt was four years older) so he got to experience the ups and downs of the business before most get the opportunity. The Bucks were wrestling incessantly from the time they were young kids and had a ring assembled in their backyard by their father. Nick is only 31 years old (almost 32) but has experienced many of the joys of life for a long time already – he got married at just 21, has made numerous trips to Japan, and already has three children.
Then there was the moment in the match when Matt told Christopher Daniels, “I’m sorry, I love you” right before a superkick – making fun of the heartwarming moment from WrestleMania 24 in 2008 when Shawn Michaels was about to deliver sweet chin music to Ric Flair in his retirement match. The Bucks make fun of virtually everyone – it’s a good way to bring the wrestling business forward and train people to become not so hung up on nostalgia as is common for fans.
May 12 was also the first time – at least to my recollection – that Matt and Nick publicly acknowledged their Christian upbringing. This makes sense, however, because they already have a book out so people can learn about it if they buy the book. They are willing to use any and all aspects of their life to further their characters in wrestling, which they have been brave enough to do. It takes audacity to be utterly transparent about all aspects of your life, but there are always unexpected positive surprises along the journey of life – you just need to be brave enough to make that choice and stick to it, which requires integrity.