The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros, AEW All Out 2021 (9/5/2021)

This was a steel cage match for the Bucks’ AEW World Tag Team Titles.

I didn’t like this much at all in the building, but given the overwhelmingly positive reaction it got online from almost everyone save the little circle of people I talk to, all the awards it’s probably going to get, and all the lists it’s probably going to top, I figured I would give it another shot. Live vs. tape can change things, I guess, and really, I would always prefer to be in the majority for something as universally beloved as this match seems to be.

Sadly, that didn’t happen.

It’s not as bad as I remembered, but it still isn’t really any good, and is somehow also a little more boring than I recalled. I could write about it, but I’m bored of vitriol with stuff like this, so I’ll talk about something else that came to mind instead.

Watching this again, I’m reminded of the genre of Tik Tok videos where someone with a dog or multiple dogs will buy a dog mask and scare their pets with it.

The video begins when the human puts the mask on and either peers around the corner or walks on all fours when entering a room, and the poor dogs just freak out. Completely lose their shit at the unholy sight that God has put before them. Confronted with something that looks sort of like something they recognize and know, but is very clearly not the thing it’s supposed to be. There are human hands on something with their heads. A look and sound that resembles their own, but not, a cruel imitation of something so wonderful and sacred. What profanities will Dr. Moreau come up with next? This is a false presentation, and one that feels deeply evil and spiritually incorrect. A cruel and profane imitation of life.

In response to such a sight, the dogs in question run around and bark very loudly and in such a panicked tone, occasionally doubling back to try and attack this monster that has invaded their space, trying to do something, anything, when confronted with this otherworldly terror, driven mad by something this wildly depraved.

Anyways, that’s how watching this felt.

The Young Bucks vs. Eddie Kingston/Penta El 0M, AEW Dynamite ~ ROAD RAGER (7/7/2021)

This was a Street Fight for the Bucks’ AEW World Tag Team Titles.

I can imagine someone whose only exposure to The Young Bucks being AEW and maybe some New Japan stuff near the end might have really really loved this. There are a thousand things in a row as always, but now with weapons and blood and less schtick attached to it than in recent months. Outside of the title match against Moxley and Kingston a month and change prior (a classic “I have nothing to say about this” style great match), it’s their best match in a real long time.

The thing is though — and I recognize that this is gatekeep-y or whatever, and fine, I guess it is — there are so many better versions of this that exist.

Not just brawls, I mean specifically, these sorts of no rules Young Bucks stunt shows.

For years on the independents, it was the best thing they did, and would usually result in at least one of the best matches of the year when they did this in their prime. The 2011 Guerrilla Warfare match against Steen and Super Dragon is the highlight and really one of my absolute all-time favorites, but there’s so many more versions of this. Super Smash Bros, the famous Threemendous III ladder match, lots of Mount Rushmore stuff, the famous bloodbath against Candice LeRae and Candice LeRae only.

If you’re the sort of person who hasn’t seen much Bucks before this show came on the air, I really implore you to seek out those matches, because this sort of a thing really can be so great.

This is not those matches.

I’m not going to tell you that those weren’t also crazy stunt shows, but on the whole, they were assembled so much better. With more craft and with more care, with a greater understanding both of how these matches work best on both a mechanical and an emotional level than this has to offer.

It lacks the urgency, while at the same time, not quite feeling like it has the time to develop that those matches did. It lacks the brutality of those matches, while still using a lot of the same tools. As a result of things not getting to breathe as much, you lose the impact of a lot of what’s happening, all passing by in a blur. Maybe most importantly, while these were not exactly soulful matches, it does lack that certain spirit. It’s fair to argue that matches like these don’t translate to a big arena and that’s definitely true, but I think an equally big part of that is on the Bucks forgetting the root of why everything worked as well as it did in their 2010-2015 artistic prime. The Bucks might wear goofy outfits and have goofy little interference spots now, but at the root of it, one still gets the sense that they’ve forgotten that nobody is ever supposed to like them. The Bucks’ work fell off in late 2015 and on (save 2018, maybe a miracle year) once they forgot this about themselves, and started to think that they were actually cool. The value in those Reseda classics was as much in the crazy things they were doing as it was in seeing these guys pay for their many crimes and get obliterated. There’s some element of this here, but more than that, it feels like a great match on purpose. A wild stunt show on purpose, rather than one that feels like it naturally comes out of the issue in the ring. There’s a sense of performance to it that matches like these, led by this team in the past, didn’t use to have to them.

As always, the result of a match like that performed by people like the Bucks in 2021 is that instead of leaving with that thought of how cool the Young Bucks are, one actually winds up thinking about how cool the Young Bucks think they are instead.

To be fair though, this was their second best match of the year. I mostly liked it. What they do here is good. It’s a good match. I’m not turning down gross table bumps and thumbtack spots, but that’s about all this has to offer in the end. Eddie Kingston and Penta have some things to offer here, one much moreso than the other, but they unfortunately come off more like bit players in The Young Bucks Show than their own characters and/or wrestlers. An imitation of the best version of something like this, but lacking all the touches both big and little that turn matches like this into real gems. The result is a match that I wanted to write something about, since it’s bugged me a little since it happened and got this widespread praise, more so than a match I wanted to write about because of its positive qualities.

A fun enough match, but not quite a great one, and ultimately just one more waste of Eddie Kingston to come out of AEW in 2021.

SCU vs. Lucha Bros. vs. Private Party, AEW Full Gear (11/9/2019)

This was for SCU’s AEW Tag Team Championship.

This probably should have just been the finals of the tournament, complete with the big Daniels return at the end. Do a draw or something between breakout stars Private Party and the Lucha Brothers. There’s clearly some sort of pressure (or was, judging by this past week’s build up tag main event) to have every TV episode have a big draw, so they blew the tournament final there, and this felt horribly unimportant as a result.

As for the match, they did a whole lot of moves. Private Party and Scorpio Sky were the clear standouts. Lucha Bros. are still a pretty terrible tag team, working much more for people who make highlight videos or GIF posts than for purposes of an actual match. SCU wound up retaining the titles.

**1/4