Jon Moxley vs Ten AEW Dynamite 10-27-2021
I'm going to preface this by saying I know Covid-19 isn't over.
I doomscroll as much as the next guy, and I'm well aware it will probably ebb and flow for a very long time. That being said, I don't have the same feeling of helplessness. Right around the time Tom Hanks got diagnosed, which is insane that's my marker, my work sent us home with a laptop until it blew over. That was March of 2020, I didn't return to the office until July of 2021. With the exception of my girlfriend, I barely interacted with anyone in-person. I saw my parents outside a few times in the fall. Occasionally I would talk to someone I ran into on the street. Literally the street because everyone was so bored they just walked around outside aimlessly.. When I did eventually see people, I had no idea how to interact anymore. My social anxiety was bad before, but Covid seemed to break the part of my brain that taught me how to be cool. It took me a couple tries to realize that wait, I didn't use to sing made up song lyrics in front of my friends before. " WHITE CLAWBITADABA THE BANG TO BANG DIGGY DIGGY" I should let people know I'm fine now, but the transition back to reality was a bit difficult.
As strange as it is to say, but this AEW show was the marker of me feeling a bit normal again. Some friends and I purchased tickets for this edition of AEW Dynamite, scheduled for April 2020 ( we just missed the cutoff for the world being shut down by three weeks). Then the show got pushed to June, then October, Then April, and then finally October of 2021.. As it got closer and closer I began to wonder if I would be able to handle it. I mean, I hadn't even felt comfortable eating inside a restaurant until June of that year....but to be inside a building full of that many fans? I didn't know how I would react. Would I even enjoy myself?
It's fucking wrestling, of course I was gonna have fun
Not only was this my first event around people in years, but it was my first AEW show. I love AEW man. It's been a so long time since I consistently watched a wrestling show every week that I actually enjoyed every week. I was so excited to attend, and one of the reasons was Jon Moxley. Jon Moxley is so cool, and I adore Wild Thing as an entrance. I couldn't wait to scream it at the top of my lungs like Charlie Sheen's coming out to face David Keith. There's always a risk when you reference David Keith that you actually mean Keith David but I think I got this right. His opponent , Jon Moxley's not David Keith or Keith David's, this evening is Preston Vance aka Ten of The Dark Order. He's someone I'm really interested to see what AEW does with, as obviously he has a lot of potential. AEW hasn't really put him in the spotlight many times, so I assumed this would be a big match for him.
Just to put the timeline in perspective, this was part of the AEW title eliminator tournament and the last match Jon Moxley had before he had to take some personal time off. From the moment I saw Ten wearing white gear and his old mask, I knew he was in trouble. One of the things I love about Mox is that he's always moving and everything he does looks like someone trying to hurt someone else. Within seconds Moxley hits a big German suplex and then a series of stomps. Moxley able to get Ten out of the ring and proceeds to whip him into the stairs and rip his mask. I will always be a sucker for a ripping someone's mask, what a jerk thing to do. That isn't enough as Moxley began to bite Ten and whip him into the ring post. Ten is busted open, which I didn't realize viewing it live at the time. The blood fires Ten up who gets in some offense including a nice pumpkick before he is clotheslined by Mox. Some punches and one paradigm shift later, and Jon Moxley is victorious
It's not a bad match, but maybe I'm sentimental about it. As far as squashes go it's pretty standard, but to me it's part of a night that I will always have fond memories about. A night I re-entered the world
Then two weeks later another variant hit and I spent the winter away hibernating again
TLDR Review
Covid-19 sucks. Jon Moxley rules. Preston Vance bleeds his own blood.
If you're interested in more condensed version of my thoughts, You can check out my Twitter where I talk about wrestling or stress out during Boston Celtics games. Hell, I'll even take suggestions for matches you want to see reviewed. You can also check out my Youtube where I make weird videos where I put on wigs in front of a camera to mask my true identity.