Last week, it was Ricky Starks, fresh off a short program with AEW world champ MJF, getting buried in favor of Chris Jericho wanting to getting a rub from Starks to use for a feud with an undersized kid named Action Andretti.
This week, Tony Khan buried Wardlow after a short program with TNT champ Samoa Joe in favor of having Joe work with an undersized kid named Darby Allin.
The fans want more Starks and Wardlow. Why not give them what they want?
The Wardlow-Joe program that seemed to be part of the effort to make up for bad booking of Wardlow earlier in the year had been built up with the two first forming a makeshift tag team earlier in the fall, ahead of the predictable heel turn by Joe that led to a three-way TNT title match with those two and Powerhouse Hobbs at “Full Gear” in November.
Joe pinned Hobbs to win the title, the natural lead-in to having Wardlow challenge Joe for a rematch, since Wardlow hadn’t lost the title directly, under the odd three-man title match rules.
Ahead of the rematch, Joe choked out Allin on the Dec. 7 “Dynamite,” in a match that didn’t seem to be foretelling anything.
Especially considering that Allin hasn’t had a notable singles win in quite a while.
His last noteworthy singles match was a TNT title match loss to Sammy Guevara way back on Feb. 16.
Since, Allin has notched wins over Marq Quen, The Butcher, Swerve Strickland, Brandon Cutler, Bobby Fish, Anthony Henry and Cole Karter, while splitting matches with Andrade, Matt Hardy, Brody King and Jay Lethal, and dropping a clean fall to Kyle O’Reilly at “Double or Nothing” back in May.
That’s a middling 11-6 record with nothing notable in the way of big wins.
Wardlow, meanwhile, has a 23-4 record this year, including a signature win over MJF at “Double or Nothing,” and a narrow loss to CM Punk in January.
His cheap loss to Joe on this week’s “Dynamite,” made easier by the storyline pre-match attack from Joe, wielding a lead pipe, on his knee, would make sense on its own, as a build toward Wardlow having to begin a chase to get his revenge.
Except that Allin came in after the match, and after Joe cut Wardlow’s ponytail, and hit the champ with his skateboard, signaling that he will be the TNT champ’s next challenger.
Allin’s only beef is that Joe utterly kicked his ass three weeks ago, so why he gets to jump to the front of the line doesn’t meet even pro wrestling logic.
Ah, yes, but there’s pro wrestling logic, and then there’s Tony Khan logic.
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Chris Graham
