AEW Booms and Duds: WTF was Jake Roberts doing?!

https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1258202881267601409

Boom: the interplay between Brodie Lee and Moxley

Dud: this is starting to resemble TNA a little too much

Brodie Lee’s first few weeks confused me as he was more Vince McMahon parody than serious leader of (creepy) men. The switch was made with the vignette showing him driving up and talking to a few Creepers, rewarding one for dressing nicely with a special assignment (that I don’t think we’ve seen any callback).

Since then, he has been portrayed both in and out of the ring as methodical and sadistic, but also charismatic enough to garner a group of 10 or so people to follow his every word. We’ve seen Lee utterly destroy opponents in the ring with his dynamic discus lariat and recently, a sit-down powerbomb.

The big question was what would be next for Dark Order and “The Exalted One” Lee?

Now we know: Lee will challenge Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship at Double or Nothing.

After Moxley defeated Frankie Kazarian in a non-title match (and Kaz’s first singles match in AEW), he was attacked by the members of Dark Order (sans Evil Uno and Stu Grayson), including the recently rechristened Preston Vance as “10.” Lee made his entrance from the tunnel wearing a snazzy suit and tie and proceeded to waylay Moxley with his discus lariat.

He grabbed a mic and told Moxley, “You have come into possession of something I want, something I need, something I desire.” He then picked up the AEW World Championship and challenged Moxley, shouting at a downed Moxley to answer.

Moxley responded in unison with my words as I was watching: “All you had to do was ask.” I expected it because that’s what this Moxley character would say, and the little grin he added to his words only reinforced that he doesn’t give a flying fart (shout out to Trace Johnson’s mom) about being jumped or the actions of Lee; rather, it’s like he’s AEW’s Fit Finlay in that his name is Moxley and he loves to fight.

They beat him down more, and Lee left with the championship; possession is nine-tenths of the law, right?

It should be a good match, and with two weeks for promos between Moxley and Lee, I think there is just enough time to garner the fan interest necessary for a World Championship main event match.

There was an added benefit to the angle: by having Dark Order attack SCU, it continues the story between the two groups that was put on hold due to the pandemic. With the testing measures in place last night, it seems more talent were comfortable in returning, including SCU.

When Lee made his entrance in that spiffy suit, he also struck Christopher Daniels in the face with a steel chair. The Creepers took out Scorpio Sky, who also tried to make the save.

I’m guessing this will lead to a tag rematch between Uno and Grayson, probably destined for another pre-show. It should still be a fairly fun match.

Now here’s where I’m starting to get a little worried: we have yet another formerly WWE-affiliated wrestler in a World Championship match. Sounds a little 2006-2011 TNAish, no?

Even though Jericho fits this category, he was also enough removed from WWE through his work in New Japan that it didn’t seem so…questionable when he was made the initial champion. In hindsight, it was the right call considering it took months for Adam “Hangman” Page to connect with the audience.

Further, Jericho’s list of matches as champion include the likes of Sky, Darby Allin, and Jungle Boy, wrestlers with no affiliation to WWE, elevating their profiles. He had a similar effect on members of Inner Circle by teaming with them in matches (I wrote about his impact here). He also defeated Cody at Full Gear before eventually losing the title to Moxley.

Moxley has only had three matches since winning the championship (one on Dark), with one being a title defense against Jake Hager a few weeks ago and his match against Kazarian last night. Hager, like Moxley, has ties to WWE. People may also forget the brief stint Kazarian had in WWE in 2005.

It just seems so odd for a company that wants to market itself as anti-WWE to continually place former WWE wrestlers in such prominent positions.

Yes, I understand the three wrestlers ranked ahead of Lee are somewhat occupied and away from the World Championship picture. Cody (1) and Archer (2) face each other for the inaugural TNT Championship at Double or Nothing, and Omega (3) is locked into a tag team feud with Hardy against Le Sex Gods (and Inner Circle writ large). That makes Lee (4) the highest-ranked wrestler not already engaged in a story.

If Moxley retains, then hopefully we can move onto a new feud with a wrestler with no association to WWE. What about a rekindling of the feud with Darby Allin if Allin garners a few victories on the next couple of episodes? A rematch with Omega would also be wonderful, particularly if it’s a traditional one-on-one match as opposed to their ridiculous lights out match (which AEW was fined 10 thousand dollars).

However, if Lee wins the title, we’re probably getting a rematch between the two, further clogging up the World Championship picture between two former WWE wrestlers.

I just hope Moxley vs. Hager and Moxley vs. Lee doesn’t represent a larger pattern that doomed TNA from ever being serious competition (aside from their terrible name).