The world is gearing up to celebrate one more trip around the sun, which means another edition of AEW Worlds End has come and gone. It was an immense show, full of tournament matches, title matches, and even some Mixed Nuts. I don't have time to go through "what happened," as that has already been taken care of on the results page, and the staff have compiled their list of "loveds" and "hateds," which means it's time to talk about winners and losers.
As always, this will not be a literal account of who won and lost.Sometimes a winner really is a winner, like Continental Classic winner Jon Moxley and his Death Riders, who taught us a little bit about sticking by a friend when they're down, even if you're a band of domestic terrorists who like to hurt people. Sometimes a loser is just a loser, like in the case of The Bang Bang Gang. However, winners can be losers, losers can be winners, and sometimes, completely random people, or the entire fanbase, will catch a stray because I don't really have a lot of oversight when it comes to picking the winners and losers.
Without further ado, here's who came out of Worlds End looking good, and who...well...didn't.
The thing about Jon Moxley is that, just when you think you have a handle on where his storyline is heading, he finds a way to pivot so naturally and smoothly that it defies explanation. I have spent weeks waiting for The Death Riders to get tired of Jon Moxley's losing spiral and oust him from the group, as they did with Bryan Danielson. The Moxley started winning, but he was such a livewire, a raw nerve, that I expected they would still begin reconsidering their leader. Not so.
Despite being a group of violent psychopaths who have spent the last year taking glee in the mutilation of their enemies, The Death Riders are seemingly fine, stronger than ever, even. Moxley beat young upstart Kyle Fletcher and then dispatched the seasoned veteran Kazuchika Okada, proving that while he might've tapped a number of times to Kyle O'Reilly, the newly crowned AEW Continental Champion still has all of his faculties. The seemingly unwavering support of The Death Riders is a genuinely touching twist to the story, as it has played on usual faction tropes to produce something much deeper. Most factions find an excuse to break ranks or break up, but I finished Worlds End with the sense that The Death Riders actually care about each other. Much like the waning days of the violent and volatile Suzuki-gun in NJPW, The Death Riders have become something of a found family, which I guess would make Bryan Danielson the Satoshi Kojima to the Death Riders' twist on Kojima-gun becoming Suzuki-gun.
There is still time for The Death Riders to show up on Wednesday and ring in the New Year with a good old fashiond coup, but for once in the storyline, I don't believe they will.
If you asked me in 2019, as AEW was forming, who I thought would benefit most from The Elite and other North American talent leaving NJPW, I would've said "Juice Robinson." The former IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion seemed a sure bet as one of the stars of the 2020s. Also on that list? Jay White. Now, I find myself looking at the two senior members of the Bang Bang Gang and saying, "Hey man, earn that money."
Juice Robinson has great chemistry with Austin and Colten Gunn, and has a lot to offer Austin as a tag partner, while Colten and Jay recover from their injuries. But still, I can't help but feel like the time to capitalize on Juice Robinson and Jay White has passed.
It's not entirely their fault, as both have been hamstrung by injury, and Jay would likely be a multi-time NXT Champion if not for the hiring freeze and various backstage shuffling that occurred in WWE in 2022. It doesn't change the fact that The Bang Bang Gang is a shell of what it once was. Any and all hopes rest on Austin and Colten. Jay White will return eventually, but it will be hard to take him seriously when his heavies have looked anything but "strong." It also doesn't help that so much of the build for FTR vs. The Bang Bang Gang was, "Hey, remember when Juice had that great match with us?" It's the kind of booking that forces a comparison, and Juice did not look as good as he did during that marathon match.
Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron are on a tear, Toni Storm stole the Mixed Nuts Tag Match, Marina Shafir got to fight her husband, and Jamie Hayter and Kris Statlander had the kind of head-dropping physical contest one would expect from a prime NEVER Openweight Match. The Women of AEW simply looked great on Saturday it wasn't just one match holding up the entire division. While still very much the minority on the card, the women of AEW have seemingly never had more to do than right now. The burgeoning tag title scene, the freedom of intergender competition, there is, for once, a plethora of options for the women's roster.
AEW is still far from perfect when it comes to women's wrestling, and this fragile moment could still be trampled in the year to come, but right now I'm not sure I've felt this positive about the women's roster ever. There have been glimmers and the introduction of the TBS and the Women's Tag Titles helped, but it finally feels like the women's division has the kind of machinery that the men's division has had since the beginning. Only having a women's world title created something of a bottleneck in the division. It was either make or break, feast or famine, and now that there's more than just one or two titles, the roster can finally stretch its legs and see what's really possible.
God help us all, MJF is world champion again. I can already see him making an ICE joke at Bandido's expense.
AEW has been on a creative tear this year. Moxley's title reign started frustrating and ended sublimely. The tragedy of Hangman Page being dethroned by Samoa Joe stung just right. So of course, it's time to torch all that goodwill with the most immature world champion to ever grace a major televised wrestling promotion. A haze of "been there, done that," filled the arena on Saturday as MJF became a two-time AEW World Champion.
Maybe he's grown. Maybe married life has matured him. Maybe some of those new hair transplants will take root in parts of his brain and unlock new potential, or -even better- a whole new personality. I doubt it, but I'm willing to be hopeful.
It's more likely that we're in for months and months of Diddy jokes, racism, and other edgelord promos from the walking caricature that is MJF. There's a new Safdie Brothers movie out, so expect MJF to crib as much Marty Supreme as possible. I'm guessing he even hits a guy with a ping pong paddle. It's also very possible that MJF will uncover more of his childhood trauma and find a way to make that about his opponent. Whatever happens, I have very little hope that it will be enteraining or even original, as MJF is capable of neither.
