The construct to Darby Allin and Jon Moxley’s “I Quit” match has been the focus of AEW programming as of late, and Wednesday’s three-hour “AEW Dynamite” and “AEW Collision” double feature was no exception. While the 2 men had a generally positively-received pre-taped “cinematic” promo exchange, I am unable to say that their in-person altercation on the “Collision” portion of Wednesday’s broadcast held up nearly as well.
After the Death Riders outnumbered Paragon and associates at the top of “Collision’s” Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, Kyle O’Reilly, and Orange Cassidy opener, Darby Allin made an incredibly dramatic entrance to intercept the violence. Now, once I say “incredibly dramatic” for Allin, what do you’re thinking that of? Do you imagine him armed with a steel chair? Perhaps you picture him zooming down the ramp, skateboard in hand. Perhaps, in your imagination, Allin is making a heroic save along with his finger on a flamethrower’s trigger.
I’m glad to report (sarcastically) that Allin’s dramatic entrance saw him standing at the highest of the doorway ramp, limbs crooked and lifeless, like a zombie. Before you comment, I do know that his less-than-lively disposition isn’t unreasonable, considering that he did get beaten to a bloody pulp by Pac earlier during “Dynamite,” and, truthfully, if you happen to had just given me a drained Allin, it might have been salvaged. Allin, nonetheless, in his incredible commitment to the bit, begins shambling down the doorway ramp like an additional off “The Walking Dead.” I’m talking failed sobriety test levels of swaying, along with his body swinging off to the side against a steel barrier at one point. All of the while, the Death Riders confronted him, one by agonizing one.
Allin got up each time. The message here is resilience, right? It is a tale of Allin’s grit, how he’s willing to get beaten down, but still rise to his feet (or hands and knees) so as to climb whatever mountain he has his eyes set on: Everest or otherwise. That is all advantageous and good…but can we not have the remainder of the Death Riders just gazing him as he crawls pathetically to Moxley at two miles an hour? I understand what they were going for here, and on paper, this sounds amazing and more introspective than what I expect from AEW. In practice, though, this segment dragged on in such an ungainly way, I discovered myself hating it before it was even done. By the point Allin finally got to Moxley, he unfurled the AEW flag at Moxley’s feet, only to be on the receiving end of Death Rider. Something, something, Moxley’s war on AEW. Segment over.
Like I said, in theory, this is smart. On paper, that is cool. In practice? Painstaking to observe.
Written by Angeline Phu