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Welcome everyone!
What a difference a week makes when looking at the last two weeks worth of AEW programming. If you remember, last week had the Dynamite special Grand Slam Mexico which was followed by a Collision with Jon Moxley, Toni Storm, Swerve Strickland, Kota Ibushi, and more. My column reflected that with an all positive Rising Stars only edition.
This week was not last week.
While the Dynamite show progressed a few stories and we now have more matches for All In Texas, the matches on the show were okay at best.
Then Collision was the worst of the Don Callis Family and Adam Cole with friends feud. The rest of Collision did have a few good aspects and kept mid-card stuff going, but after last week this week felt flat.
So let’s get to the list!
Rising Star of the Week
Kris Statlander
This week, the Women’s Division was the MVP of both shows, including the Mercedes Mone beat down of Toni Storm to kick off Dynamite. Starting with two of your biggest stars, men or women, is always a good way to go.
Then Statlander winning the no. 1 entry spot of the women’s Gauntlet Match, with a little bit of help from Marina Shafir and Wheeler Yuta, in a four-way against Thunder Rosa, Athena, and Willow Nightingale.
Followed on Collision by a promo by Mone and, after more than a year, I think we finally got Mone’s mission statement in AEW. As she claimed gaining the AEW Women’s World Title is what she’s wanted all along. Better late than never?
Then Megan Bayne won another squash match and looked impressive in doing so. The (almost) silent giant of the Women’s Division has looked great since her AEW re-debut back in January of this year, on the same night Kenny Omega wrestled for the first time in eight months. Crazy to think she’s only been around for six months.
In the final women’s segment, we got to see a chunk of the AEW Women’s Division. Queen Amanata faced Skye Blue. Amanata won once she landed her “Off With Her Head” kick. After the match, Julia Hart, who was ringside for Blue, got into the ring when Tekla’s music hit and she charged to the ring. Tekla then helped Blue and Hart beat down Amanata. Amanata was saved by Tay Melo and Anna Jay with the segment ending after Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford came out and posed. If you were counting – and if, not I was – that was 16 women wrestlers appearing between both shows. A big change from the early days of AEW and I am here for it.
Now back to Statlander who, in the last few weeks, is the most intriguing of all the women wrestlers not named Mercedes Mone or Toni Storm. Her interactions with The Death Riders have been played perfectly by everyone starting with Wheeler Yuta, her former Best Friend stablemate, laying the groundwork. Now you have the top guy of the Death Riders, Mox, giving Statlander what he thinks are pep talks.
After going back and forth so much the last year, Statlander being swayed for a time before flipping sides helps this story. She has kind of been in a tweeter role since that misstep where she turned on Willow and was with Stokely Hathaway. This association with the Death Riders could really help Statlander become a potential main event heel. You can see her working against a Toni Storm in a big match with The Death Riders behind her or revisiting her feud with Willow after her turn is complete. I really love this direction for Stat.
1st Runner Up: Ricochet and The Gates of Agony
This has to be the weakest of my rising stars to date. Not because I don’t like Ricochet, Kaun, or Liona, but just because non of them did much this week to earn this spot other than tease getting together.
Ricochet’s interaction with A.R. Fox and the way that he got Fox “to agree” to be his partner on Dynamite was pretty funny, but a bit over the top. Then his obvious turn on Fox happened. If you did not see Collision, then you did not see the next development because I think Ricochet may have found his “crew” and it’s not “Cru.”
Fox attempted to confront Ricochet about what he did and was attacked by – a personal favorite of mine – Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona, The Gates of Agony. These two have been underutilized.
Liona is a guy who came into wrestling kind of late at age 30, but was trained by Rikishi. So he is just five years into his career and has some potential upside, especially on a roster with smaller guys. Billed at 6-4 and 300 lbs., he is one of the bigger guys on the entire roster.
Kaun looks like a “create a wrestler,” so he is a step above some guys because of his look. Kaun started his wrestling training at 27, also a little later than a lot of people, and trained at my local promotion Maryland Championship Wrestling. So the same people who trained him also trained Lio Rush and Action Andretti.
Together, Gates of Agony are a team that is one big win away from starting to become a force in the tag team world. One reason is they don’t always lose on television. To be exact, on AEW-only shows this year, they have three wins and four losses. They win on ROH, which means nothing on Dynamite or Collision, and squash matches on Collision to be built up for bigger teams. So again they are one big win against a JetS peed or destroying a team like The Outrunners away from the beginning of them becoming what I think they can be in the tag division.
Ricochet now has his backup and both are big guys. Will they be able to help each other get to the next level in AEW? Or will Ricochet just turn his back on them this week or next? I’m not sure. That said, if they stay together, I’m sure they can kick some ass and discuss their love of tattoos while hanging out. This group makes sense to me; how about you?
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Fading Star of the Week
The Don Callis Family
First, I want to say that I would love the Don Callis Family to actually be the top heel act they pretend to be. I want them to need to be across every show because of the guys in the group. That said, when you look at what happened just on Collision, there is an issue with how they are booked.
Let’s talk about Collision. So we are to believe that Josh Alexander has a TNT Title match against the Callis Family’s current big foe Adam Cole, but Don Callis would choose to not with him? Instead, we get Trent Beretta? Adding to that, Beretta never gets involved in the match to help Alexander win. It makes no sense. Wouldn’t all of the Callis family want to finally get one of their guys a title?
Then later on Collision, we had Kyle O’Reilly, predictably, going 50/50 with Kyle Fletcher before O’Reilly lost a few minutes after Lance Archer got involved. Where was that interference for Alexander? Also, at this point in their careers, Fletcher should NOT be going 50/50 in a 14 minute match with O’Reilly. All that does is bring Fletcher down to mid-card-at-best status. Fletcher has seven wins and three losses in 2025 singles matches. Fletcher has wins against Mark Briscoe (two), Anthony Bowens, Brody King, A.R. Fox, Jay Lethal, and now O’Reilly. His losses were against Will Ospreay, “Hangman” Adam Page, and Adam Cole. Fletcher has, or maybe had, the stuff to be a main event guy for years, but has he been damaged this year? I hope not.
Going backwards to Dynamite, the most interesting thing to happen there is the tease of the newest member Kazuchika Okada and Konsuka Takeshita not liking each other. Then we had a Trent Beretta vs. Kota Ibushi match where Ibushi basically squashed Berreta. Later on Dynamite Takeshita then lost in a four-way for the no. 1 spot in the Casino Gauntlet Match at All In Texas. So the Don Callis Family, the biggest heel faction in size at least, had one win and three losses this week. Wow, just wow.
1st Runner Up: Paragon/Undisputed Era
Another faction that has just not gotten off the ground right is Paragon, which is really just Undisputed Era from NXT. Right there is your problem. We need to fall in love with these guys within the AEW world. Watching Collision most weeks, I just could not get past how AEW or Tony Khan must have really loved the “Black and Gold Era” of NXT.
Why? Because of how they really try to present this (shell of an) Adam Cole character. Adam Cole is all over Collision most weeks and most weeks he gets almost no reaction. He is presented like Colision is The Adam Cole Show just like NXT used to be. The issue is this is not the same Cole. Not even close.
Watching Cole against Alexander, which five years ago would have been a damn good match, it’s clear C0le has lost a step or two. And he’s only 35. At this point in his career, Cole looks like a guy cosplaying as Adam Cole, one of the best in the world in 2019.
I don’t even want to get into O’Reilly and Roderick Strong. O’Reilly should be what A.R. Fox basically is – a television jobber. Roderick Strong, well, he can still go in the ring. So if you wanted to keep him around Cole, then the two of them should be in the Tag Division. A team of Cole & Strong would give that division some more star power. Hell, people might actually get behind them together where they don’t really get behind them each as singles acts.
2nd Runner Up: Athena
Okay, this is not really about Athena. No this is about Tony Khan’s treatment of one of the best female wrestler under contract with AEW and maybe one of the best around the world.
Explain to me why she has been in ROH purgatory for so long? Yes, her resume is amazing within ROH with her winning the ROH Women’s World Title at ROH Final Battle back in December of 2022. That’s amazing, but only a fraction of the Dynamite and Collision audience watches that.
Athena debuted with AEW in May of 2022 at Double or Nothing. She would win all of her matches on Rampage, Dark, and Dark Elevation. Yes, that’s how long she has been under AEW contract. As good as she was on the “B shows,” she didn’t do well on the main shows. On Dynamite and PPV, she had just one win and four losses on AEW shows. Losing the two title matches she had during that time and the only win was a six-woman match where she teamed with Toni Storm and Willow Nightengale against Jamie Hayter, and Penelope Ford, and Serena Deeb.
After Athena’s ROH Title win, she only appeared on AEW Dark Elevation and ROH until she was only the pre show of 2023’s Forbidden Door in June that year. Athena reappeared on Rampage episode 101 losing to Willow Nightengale in July. She was on the pre-show of 2023’s All Out in September and again on the pre-show the following month at WrestleDream.
Athena wasn’t on AEW television after that until this past January’s WrestleDynasty, but I don’t think that even counts. First she was, again, on the preshow. Second, the show was promoted by four different companies, according to the poster. This was an AEW, NJPW, CMLL, and ROH show.
After that, Athena began to be featured more regularly on AEW television, but that has not been good for Athena. The ROH Women’s World Champ for the last two-and-a-half years has just three wins and two losses while wrestling on AEW television. On top of that, she lost her first match on ROH television last week in a tag match on the ROH taping a at Arena Mexico. Why?!
Look, I get that losses are going to happen in wrestling, they need to happen, but getting behind someone like Tony Khan has done with Athena just to waste losses seems like a disconnect.
Wade Keller always talks about needing to be good in the ring but also knowing your character. Then present that character in a “Major League” way. Mercedes Mone has that, Toni Storm has that, and anyone who’s watcher her the last two-plus years knows, “The Fallen Goddess” Athena has that.
Athena should be right in the mix at the top of the Women’s Division because she looks like a star, wrestles like a star, and can cut a promo, you guessed it, like a star. The only person holding her back is Tony Khan.
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