AEW Booms and Duds: Jake Roberts went full incel on us

-Dud: Jake “The Snake” Roberts going incel AND perverted old man on us

I had been praising the contributions of Roberts in AEW…until last week. From the phallic imagery of him holding the snake on Brandi Rhodes’ body to him straddling her, it just wasn’t a good look to conduct that segment as such.

It started off well last night. I popped when he teased apologizing only to say he would “as soon as she (Brandi) kisses my ass.” A classic heel line delivered by a classic heel, and everything seemed well.

Then Roberts just had to pull out some classic misogyny that is parroted by incels everywhere: women are only useful for cooking, cleaning, taking care of children, and sex. They don’t belong in a “man’s” world, basically.

To add to the cringe feeling, he said he has a certain woman who comes to see him from time to time, but only after he’s been watching Lance Archer highlights because that gets him “excited.” I mean…bruh.

As a colleague put it, everything that Roberts said was a choice, and a bad choice at that. He could have easily maintained their heel heat without reverting to such low-hanging comments. For someone once known as being intelligent, he comes off as more ignorant and belligerent.

-Boom: whatever is happening between Darby Allin and Taz

In the second attempt by Taz to interview Allin, Taz apologized for the previous attempt yet still blamed Allin for his loss to Cody. I mean, I’m pretty sure Allin does blame himself already for the loss, so hearing it from Taz would only agitate me, too.

I like that we had a little more character development for Allin, and not just as a brooding, dark individual. “No Taz, you don’t get it. I know what a ’tilt’ is. Back in the day, I placed third in the state of Idaho in amateur wrestling.” Great research done by Taz, I guess, who admitted he didn’t know that fact.

He walked off before Taz could do much else, and then tweeted the above. I believe Allin’s assertion that he turned to what can be a solitary yet cathartic endeavor in skateboarding to avoid people who think they know better than him telling him what to do.

I don’t know what this angle holds for the future. Does Taz end up becoming Allin’s mentor? Does Taz, irked by Allin’s refusal to even listen to his advice, find himself someone to manage in a rivalry against Allin? If he’s up for it, is this going to lead to a Taz-Allin match? The latter is about as likely as me becoming AEW World Champion, by the way.

Whatever the case, I’m intrigued to see more of their interactions, particularly because we are seeing more character development from the man “skating to the ring from Seattle, WA.”

We have one more episode before Double or Nothing next Saturday, May 23. In line with the past two shows, AEW has loaded up the go-home show as well. See you all next week to discuss the absolute banger that should be Orange Cassidy vs. Rey Fenix!