On Tuesday’s episode of “AEW Dynamite: Title Tuesday,” The Hurt Syndicate sought to settle their differences against Ricochet, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun (known collectively as The Demand) in a Street Fight, and it was everything you could hope for it to be. There was a liberal use of weapons (steel chairs, tables, trash cans, the whole nine), a good amount of fun spots, and a victory for the babyface-leaning Hurt Syndicate to, hopefully, close the books on what has been a very volatile chapter in both factions’ histories. While match participants such as Ricochet are known for their aesthetically pleasing and artisanal wrestling styles, this match was not some superior show of in-ring prowess, and that is intentional. It wasn’t a bad match, don’t misunderstand, but there was nothing pretty Tuesday night. You won’t find any poetic monologues about aerial arcs or in-ring chemistry here. Tuesday’s contest was clunky. Tuesday’s match was unpolished, raw, and bitter. Tuesday’s Street Fight was gritty, and it worked.
For MVP to be wrestling at this age is impressive. I commend his commitment to the business and to the success of this 3-on-3 storyline. However, you can kind of tell he’s 51 years old. Where most guys walk and run around the ring, MVP tends to waddle. While his aged waddles might be awkward to watch in other matches, say, All Out’s relatively tame trios match, that same clunkiness worked surprisingly wonderfully in Tuesday’s Street Fight. Like I said, there was nothing polished in Tuesday’s Street Fight. There was no room for intellectual or overcomplicated in-ring dramatics. This was a Street Fight. This was unadulterated, unpolished violence. MVP’s brutish style of wrestling matched the stipulation’s freak.
Aside from MVP’s performance, this was a fun, simple Street Fight. Everyone got their offense in, a multitude of tables were broken, and the home crowd in Jacksonville got their money’s worth in pure violence as all six men threw caution to the wind. The match did go on for a bit too long, and it was anticlimactic to have Shelton Benjamin get the pin off of a Suplex (as incredibly as Ricochet sold it). However, the match was, by and large, just a fun bout, and that’s all it really needed to be. If this is where The Hurt Syndicate and The Demand’s vitriolic rivalry ends (and it should be, Tuesday’s Street Fight felt like the natural conclusion to things), I wouldn’t be mad.
I understand that this entire piece feels like a backhanded compliment, but I genuinely believe this match was as fun and fitting as it was because it was unpolished. If this had been a technical masterpiece, I don’t think it would have been nearly as entertaining or narratively fitting as it was. In a company full of the best technical wrestlers in the world, there is a place for in-ring ugliness. There is merit to not having the most precise, polished match on the card. The Hurt Syndicate and The Demand proved that Tuesday.
Written by Angeline Phu
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