Kevin Knight had an evening to forget this week, starting the show with a loss against World Champion MJF, and later failing to earn his redemption by taking the pin, ensuring he, Mike Bailey, and “Hangman” Adam Page lost their Trios titles to the Don Callis Family’s Kyle Fletcher, Kazuchika Okada, and Mark Davis.
The foremost event was set after Page and Knight had already wrestled, with Knight losing his World title match and Page winning a squash match before calling out the World Champion. MJF and Page had a little bit interaction, however the segment was closed with the DCF attacking the Trios Champions and Callis calling for the title match, provided that all three are already pursuing singles gold, two titles held by Okada and Fletcher specifically.
It was textbook ‘Babyface(s) takes on way an excessive amount of attempting to play the hero’ with Knight clearly beaten after his match, and ultimately falling victim to the numbers game of the DCF. And while it solves a problem of AEW’s own making, getting the Trios titles off of those chasing other titles, it also cemented the DCF as a unit and perpetuated the continuing storyline between Okada and Takeshita.
Obviously, the match itself was fun, however the result alone guaranteed a bit more room to inform the stories of every character. Page is now a pure challenger going into Revolution, unaffected by the responsibilities that one must have as Trios Champion.
Knight may have to cope with back-to-back losses in a single night, potentially laying the groundwork for JetSpeed to run their very own split storyline with each chasing titles. In spite of everything, Swerve Strickland was effusive in his praise for Knight just weeks ago, and will easily find himself leading a heel group including Knight. That also frees up Bailey to not only pursue singles gold but potentially feud with Knight. And crucially, it adds a way of jeopardy to the babyfaces ahead of all that.
The title loss generally is a catalyst for every character to grow out of the “Jet Set Rodeo” tagline. Is it a problem that the titles are actually on people who find themselves singles champions already? Slightly. But provided that “Jet Set Rodeo” were only Trios Champions to pave the best way for Powerhouse Hobbs to depart, it fixes a pre-existing issue that stood to over-expose the person who may possibly be World Champion by the tip of the month, in addition to holding up the 2 immensely talented staff in Bailey and Knight.
And who doesn’t love a title change on free TV? When it really works within the ring and going forward the best way it does, this author can find nothing else but a ‘Loved’ for it.
Written by Max Everett