AEW Booms/Duds: Britt Baker doesn’t give a you know what

Boom: a night of fantastic video packages

You know you’ve had a great show when every video package was exquisite. I already discussed how the Cody-Spears videos reminded us of their history and developments in AEW.

The show-opening video from Jake “The Snake” Roberts was predictably great. Roberts had me for a few moments when he started giving props to Marko only to turn heel on me like MJF did Cody by calling Stunt “stupid,” among other things. It’s another brilliant use of a wrestling legend in AEW.

Matt Hardy’s video was a nice change of pace because of its comedic effort (again, I understand if you’re down on Hardy in AEW). It furthered the story between Jericho and Hardy (while getting in a plug for Hardy’s new shirt at the expense of Jericho’s), and it appears we will have an “Elite Deletion” match at the Hardy Compound between the two.

If tonight’s videos are any indication of the quality, this could be one of the better Hardy Compound matches (and give the Boneyard Match competition for best cinematic match).

The pièce de résistance of the packages were the two videos ramping up excitement for the No Holds Barred empty-arena AEW World Championship match next week between Jon Moxley (c) and challenger Jake Hager. When Moxley starts the above video by saying, “Me and Jake Hager are not in the business of putting smiles on peoples faces,” you know it be goin’ down (Dipset!).

Moxley stayed true to his solitary, slightly twisted, and serious character. His most memorable line was, “The feeling of another man’s skull being smashed and broken, I’m not ashamed to say, I kind of like it.” Yeah, that’s pretty twisted.

Moxley was fantastic in not only discussing the importance of the championship and this match, but in putting over how dangerous Hager is. Moxley called it a “humbling moment” when he hit the double-arm DDT he “perfected” only to be in an ankle lock three or four seconds later as Hager rose “like a monster.”

(Just for clarification, that was not the Paradigm Shift. The Paradigm Shift is the lifting, angular double-arm DDT that more resembles Finn Balor’s 1916 or Edge’s Edgecution. Hager basically buried Dirty Deeds 2.0.)

I truly appreciated Hager’s role in the videos. After not speaking for months as Jericho’s heavy, I have been thoroughly surprised at how well Hager’s promos have been considering his past promos as Jack Swagger weren’t all great. The footage of him training and choking out people in Bellator only adds credence to the serious words he speaks about his potential for inflicting violence on another man.

The best development was that we finally have a true mission and character statement from Hager, and it matches him so well at this point:

"“I’m a prize fighter. I fight for my family, you know, people I actually care about. I’m not trying to be their hero. I fight for these heroes. I don’t want to be champion for love of sport; I want to be champion because it pays more.”"

Boom. That little bit in the beginning is all I need to understand this Hager character. What makes good heels great heels is multifaceted, but generally for me, I need two things. The first is a justification for their heelish actions that I can say makes sense for their character; if you’re evil just to be evil, I’m out.

Second, if your  justification is something reasonable like, say, wanting to have more resources for your family, it puts me in a conflicting position because I want to hate you for your dastardly actions while understanding why you’re doing it because in the end, isn’t that what we all want?

This isn’t to say I support Hager’s character considering all the heinous things he’s done before this promo (the low blows, breaking Dustin Rhodes’ arm, powerbombing people off the stage, etc.). However, it all makes sense why he joined The Inner Circle (at the time, the most powerful group headed by the World Champion) and why he is now seeking the title.

Well, this was another great show for AEW, and the third I’ve given only “booms” since the inception of this recurring piece. AEW has been able to shift and transition to the empty-arena setting and taped shows pretty well. This leaves me wanting to see more as we build to (hopefully) Double or Nothing.

What’s next for Baker and Shida? What opportunity did Lee present the well-dressed Creeper? Who will emerge victorious in the World Championship match? We’ll all find out next week together, and until then, please stay safe and healthy dear readers and fellow wrestling fans!