Seeing how well AEW have utilized and built up Darby Allin has been one of the great joys of watching Dynamite. Starting his AEW career off with a hot 20 minute draw against Cody and following it up with some great interactions with Chris Jericho and the Inner Circle, AEW have managed to make Darby Allin something that is increasingly rare on mainstream American wrestling television: a believable draw on the midcard. While it’s unlikely that Allin takes the AEW Title away at year’s end, he’s enough of a threat to that title while also being a very big deal in the middle tier of AEW’s talent pool.
Sammy Guevara has a similar story. Unlike Allin, I never really followed much of Guevara’s indie work before he arrived in AEW. His early work didn’t strike me as anything too special, just another generic indie flippy boy who doesn’t even get the proper smoothness on his offense to make that style worth doing. But when given the space to emphasize his character work, his promos, and his personality interacting with other members of the Inner Circle, and Guevar’s now a talent I look forward to seeing every Wednesday. He’s just the perfect annoying little douche that’s perfect to get ragdolled by the babyfaces.
The build to this match involved Guevara crushing Allin’s throat with his own skateboard. A now near-voiceless Allin comes back for revenge on this dastardly heel. A wronged and injured babyface against a smarmy heel. Great, simple, old-school angle there.
This match perfectly pays off that promise of being a hot, midcard grudge match for 2020. That means that Allin goes at it fast, diving through the ropes with a big tope suicida before the bell even rings. The two fight it out on the floor trading big bumps and close calls. Allin nails a nasty tope suicida from Allin to Guevara draped over the barricade. Gnarly impact there as Allin seems to connect with his head, unable to cushion the impact. This all builds nicely to Guevara nailing a 630 senton off the top rope onto Allin through a table on the floor. Excellent spot, perfect to transition into the official start of the match where Guevara continues on his heat segment.
A lot of great little touches from there as the two sprint towards a quick five minute fireworks show. But it’s those little touches that make this so good. Guevara standing on Allin to choke him on the bottom rope is standard. But kicking in that rope into Allin’s injured throat? That’s the good stuff.
Add in the wonderful piece of old school booking of Guevara pulling the turnbuckle padding off only to be launched into it himself. This leads straight into Guevara getting nailed with the Coffin Drop for a swift defeat at 5 minutes of official match time not including the skirmish on the outside.
This match ruled. Fast, spectacular, yet substantial. Might go down as sprint of the year from two of the best young talents on AEW’s roster.
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