Nearly there, welcome to the weekend btw.  Hope you’re having a good one.

5. A goddamn Fight

Hangman Adam Page vs Jon Moxley, Dynamite, 01/11/23 

Meltzer: 4.25*

Their second match and Hangman’s return after a gnarly concussion suffered during the first.  Premise being that Moxley had damaged the Cowboy’s brain to the point he couldn’t remember his new son’s name.

Built up by some excellent promo work.  Mox vowing that this time Page wouldn’t get back up.  Hangman that he wanted to make sure Moxley remembered every single thing he was going to do to him.

So on a loaded show with a large, lively crowd both were massively over.  Adding to the atmosphere as we got started with a fight.  Just an absolute fight.  A vicious Moxley aiming for the head, Page storming back.  If you like stiff boots and lariats…

Mox at least playing heel, Page a huge babyface to the 8,000+ (what a difference a year makes).  The former kept countering the Buckshot and going after Hangman’s head – stuffing him on it via Death Rider, hammer & anvils into a choke, a piledriver.  A woozy Page struggling to kip-up after his usual comeback.

And that pop for the Buckshot when finally it came, my god.  It knocked Mox out.  Playing brilliantly into the feud.  Which I enjoyed at the time but didn’t remember being quite this good on the mic.

4. The Art of the Promo

Jon Moxley re: Orange Cassidy, Collision, 09/02/23 

Meltzer: N/A

If there’s another guy as good at building up their opponent with their words, I can’t think of one.  The former champ’s mouth did a lot for Adam Page during the above feud earlier this year.  But not on the level of this.  This was pure magic:

He talked about being a rock around raging seas.  Or in other words being Orange Cassidy.  The puzzle thirty-one other men have failed to solve.  The Cassidy who forged his own path, was never supposed to make it.  If he’s a cosplay wrestler who’s he trying to be?  Are any of them the ‘winningest’ champ in wrestling?

Cassidy won round one and he can have that.  Cause it’s all he’ll get.  When you’ve wrestled as long as Mox you wrestle a lot of big matches and there’s always ‘tomorrow’.  But the chance he has at All Out is ‘once in a lifetime’ because Cassidy’s on the run of a lifetime.

He usually senses he’s won as a match starts.  He can smell BS.  But Cassidy looks like the real thing.  Though he won’t target arms or legs.  He’s after Cassidy’s soul, his will, his conditioning.  A lot of guys say they wanna be wrestlers but most don’t make it cause it’s so hard.

Sunday it’ll get really, really hard, will Cassidy look for a way out?  ‘I really hope not.  Lotta people believe in you Orange Cassidy, don’t disappoint us.’

God damn I’ve got chills all over again reading that last line back.

It was riveting, creative, told a story, made a point and Moxley levied his no-nonsense, tell-the-truth character against informing us that Cassidy was the real deal.

I was hoping this was up on AEW’s YouTube to link here.  But no.  They do have the clip of Dennis Rodman coming out to verbally spar with Jeff Jarrett on the same night though if you fancy watching that back?

Anyway, it’s the final countdown (that’s not a hint!) tomorrow as the Twelve Days of Wrestmas concludes.