AEW Booms/Duds: Matt Hardy knew the original Judas!

Boom: Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Darby Allin, and Vanguard-1

Dud: the disjointed videos for The Exalted One

With the legendary Roberts, even if you might not understand everything he’s saying or don’t like how he sometimes meanders to his point, just his presence and voice are enough to keep your attention. He elicited a fiery response from Cody who vacillated between “He can’t start with me!” to “Maybe I will be his first opponent” in about five seconds.

Now we know Archer will have his in-ring debut next week. The question is who will be his opponent?

Allin continues with his Gothic-inspired, esoteric, and engaging videos. It still seems creepy when he dons those paper masks of his adversaries. but it is effective. Further, we now know what his foreseeable mission is concerning The Inner Circle: BURN IT DOWN!

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Sabian’s mask was also involved in the burn pile, and Allin beating Sabian in a good match last night now propels Allin forward to expected singles matches with members of The Inner Circle.

Providing an update on Nick Jackson through Vanguard-1 was a creative and effective move. I mean, sure, it’s kind of creepy and voyeuristic, but I’m pretty sure AEW gained Nick’s consent before filming.

https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1242982618775224320

My favorite part? The recovery meter showing Nick is at about 62 percent in his recovery from The Inner Circle just “finding” him with that heavy garage door on his chest.

Then we have two videos last night for “The Exalted One,” Brodie Lee.

The first one, which seemed like a mix of a replay of last week’s debut video and some new scenes, was great in reminding us just who Brodie Lee is and why he’s in AEW: to prove to these “out of touch old men” they’re wrong about him. It also fit the mold of the presentation of Dark Order as dark, brooding characters.

The second one was a parody of Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

All the sudden, Lee’s in a suit and tie eating steak and drinking red win with the lower-ranked named members of the group: John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Besides looking extremely awkward trying to cut his steak, Lee acted less like how The Exalted One has been described thus far and more like an arrogant, privileged man-child.

He kicked Silver out for trying to eat before he finished his food, and then erupted at Reynolds for sneezing. This is a reference to McMahon’s noted hatred for sneezing as he sees it as a sign of weakness.

I just sneezed three consecutive times. Am I triply weak?

I understand taking a shot at WWE and McMahon, but AEW seems to do that with every former WWE wrestler. At this point, that’s a lot of times.

Yes, with a certain segment of fans, they love any and all WWE bashing. For those who only returned to wrestling because of AEW, are they going to understand these references?

Hopefully, Lee’s constant references to McMahon is akin to Moxley being in all those hardcore/death matches after he signed as “getting it out of his system.” He’s much more than a spurned WWE wrestler, and I’m looking forward to the depth of his character.