AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: Forbidden Door line-up this year takes shape, Danny Garcia losing crowds, Josh Alexander lost in the mix and how to fix it

Welcome everyone!

This week is PPV week! Let’s go! The stars of AEW will be heading across the pond for a dual taping of Dynamite and Collision in Scotland and Forbidden Door in England. The PPV is shaping up to be a really good show on paper and we all know the show will deliver in the ring.

Before we get there though, let’s look back at this week.

One thing before the list gets started. Shout out to Ace Austin who made his debut – in a very AEW-like losing effort – on Collision against Ricochet this week. Ace is a guy who is in his prime, at 28 years old, and could be special here in AEW going forward. Unfortunately, they can not do to Ace what they have done to Josh Alexander (more on that later).

Let’s get to the list!

Rising Star of the Week

Forbidden Door

Yeah, I know it’s weird to have a PPV as the top Rising Star of the week. That said, it is also not a typical week when AEW confirms five matches for one show. That’s what they did this week, though. Let’s take a look at how those matches came to be.

AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman. The way we got to this one was clever. I do love that Hangman is not your typical “dumb” babyface. Watching him flip everything around and trick MJF was fun this week. I love that we can also get the played out money in the bank rip off out of the way quickly. Also, we all know this match will be amazing.

TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher vs. Hiromu Takahashi. This one was set up last week with Fletcher and Don Callis telling New Japan to send their best “pound-for-pound” wrestler on the roster.  They definitely sent one of their most popular and unique wrestlers. Talahashi is also a five-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, one-time Tag Champion, and one-time Six-Man Tag Champion within New Japan. Takahashi has also held the CMLL Title that MJF is parading around. So, while the build to this one was quick, I feel like it will be an amazing match.

Adam Copeland & Christian Cage vs. Nick Wayne & Kip Sabian. This one was not where I thought this story was going, but it doesn’t make sense. First, congrats to Kip who will get to wrestle in his home country in a pretty big match. Kip has been with AEW for years now and this is easily the biggest match he’s had. The Copeland and Christian reuniting here and can they trust each other will be the story of this match.

Lights Out Steel Cage Match featuring Will Ospreay & Darby Allin & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs Jon Moxley & Gabe Kidd & Claudio Castagnoli & The Young Bucks. Wow. That is going to be a lot of guys in a cage match. It feels like it will be a bit of a cluster. That said, you can not deny the star power in this match. It will also be a way to put this at the end of the show for a chaotic end because the AEW World Title match is predictable this time around. I am bummed the build for this was so quick, but this match should be crazy and fun.

IWGP World Champion Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Nigel McGuiness. On Collision this week, McGuiness won a four-way match between himself, Lee Moriarty, Daniel Garcia, and Hecicero. This one is just for the pop both of these guys will get coming home to England for a match. If you love technical wrestling, this will be your favorite match at Forbidden Door.

And just like that Forbidden Door became a damn good PPV on paper. There are obviously other matches on the show including an AEW Women’s World Title match, TBS Title match, AEW Unified Title match, and AEW Tag Title match. Nine matches total, so far, and seven title matches.

Unlike prior years, it didn’t feel like we were living in a parallel universe building up this card. AEW has had issues in the past holding the audience while building up a show like this. Not this time. AEW decided, correctly, to build the show mostly around their wrestlers. Making this show much more appealing stateside.

Then when the show starts we all know everyone will deliver in the ring for four to five hours. I, for one, think the show will be great.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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Fading Star of the Week

Daniel Garcia

Remember when Daniel Garcia was a favorite of the crowd? A young “up and comer” looking destined for big things in AEW? While I have not been a huge supporter of Garcia, he definitely had a connection with the crowd. Then AEW’s confusing use of Garcia destroyed that.

Did you see Collision? If not, you should go and watch Garcia’s entrance. Listen to how quiet the crowd was as he came in. Garcia has lost that connection he had. I’m not sure when it happened completely, but I think it was as cemented with that horrible TNT Title run.

Garcia held the TNT Title from November of last year until April, so roughly five months. Do you remember any feuds he had during that reign, outside of Adam Cole? No? Well, that would be because he didn’t have any.

During Garcia’s TNT Title reign, he defended the title against Mark Briscoe, Katsuyori Shibata, Kyle O’Reilly, and Lee Moriarty (twice). That’s it. Also, during that reign Garcia was on the losing end of  multiple trios matches. Garcia also lost singles matches during his reign to Briscoe and current TNT Champ Kyle Fletcher.

So, if I do the numbers, Garcia’s record during his TNT Title reign was 7 wins, 7 losses, and 1 time limit draw with Kazuchika Okada.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. You CANNOT make stars doing this 50/50 booking. Garcia is still young enough, at just 26, that this can be apart of his overall story, but not without some rebuilding.

1st Runner Up: Josh Alexander

What happened here? Josh Alexander was a highly-decorated and often main event wrestler while working for Impact/TNA. During his time there he was the longest reigning World Champion ever, X Division Champion, and Tag Team Champion with NXT’s Ethan Page. Ethan has gotten over huge in NXT and then there is Alexander.

Alexander signed with AEW and he has gotten off to a terrible start. Alexander lost his first match to “Hangman” Adam Page, so that’s understandable. That said, why did he have to debut in that way? He joined the Don Callis family but could have done so in a differently. To lose against Hangman isn’t the worst thing and I figured he would win quickly after that.

Well Alexander has been with AEW since April and do you know how many singles wins he has? ONE! He defeated, the always defeated, A.R. Fox on an episode of Collision and that’s it. Yes he has won some tag and multi-man matches, but no big singles wins.

Alexander is a victim of the bad side of Tony Khans booking. Overall, Alexander has 7 wins and 10 losses in AEW this year.  Unfortunately, like on Dynamite, you can almost always tell who is going to be the one to get pinned in Khan’s crazy multi-man matches. This week was no different, knowing that match was being used to build to Kyle Fletcher vs. Hiroyuki Takahasi and looking at who else was in the match that Alexander was taking that pin. The Young Bucks were not going to be pinned on back-to-back Dynamites and it would have been the third time the Bucks got pinned in a month. Fletcher should not be losing a match of any kind until he loses that TNT Title, maybe, next year. So it, sadly, left Alexander.

As I like to do, I will try to end on a positive note. Alexander needs to get back to his roots and find a tag team partner. Alexander and Ethan Page  were called Monster Madia in ROH and The North in Impact as both are from Canadaio. They were an amazing tag team. Look up their old matches with The Bucks. If you love tag team wrestling like I do, then I think you will love them. So Alexander needs to find his new Ethan Page. I don’t think it’s someone within the Don Callis Family, but I am sure there is someone on the roster who could gel with Alexander.

I think Ace Austin could be that. They are different in the ring and could compliment each other. They have wrestled against each other, as recently as two weeks ago in Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP), getting heaps of praise from Don Callis, including Callis saying Ace reminds him of “a young Rob Van Dam.” High praise from an ECW alum.

So what do you think? Ace and Alexander together? It would give Alexander some direction and let Ace develop and connect with the AEW fans that don’t know him.