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The Buy-In: An Exalted Time Bomb
SCU (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) vs. The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson)
In narrative writing, there is a concept (familiarized by the film), the idea of two individuals seated at a diner chatting casually. Under the table however is a ticking time bomb, we as the audience are aware of it but they are not; creating a room of tension for the coming result. While Dark Order is in the know of the Exalted One (or at least we assume) and SCU wary of their partner Christopher Daniels, the audience waits with bated breath for the reveal.
This time around though with Scorpio Sky and Kaz calling for Daniels to keep his distance, it felt like the heated tag team bout might spell their doom. There was enough groundwork set for Daniels to not only be revealed as a member of the cult group but its mysterious leader.
Expectation played to this in a somewhat muted match. Despite the excitement of the SCU unit, particularly the hot tag to a rising Sky, the match was tempered a bit. Both by SCU's fall down the ladder, as well as the fact that the former Super Smash Bros (Stu Grayson and Evil Uno) still fail to wrestle in their measured Dark Order style. However, it was the post-match that proved to be a thrill with the debut of Colt Cabana as well as Daniel's arrival in ominous robes, before battling down the Dark Order.
Smartly despite the big picture story, AEW didn't waste a reveal on the buy-in though they did an important if somewhat tepid match. Similarly, the red herring of Daniels turn is perfect if he were to eventually reveal himself as the Exalted One. For now, we can scratch him off the suspect list. Though interestingly he did interact with old partner Kaz, he and Sky didn't exactly hug it out as expected. There's great meat on this story, waiting to unfold on Dynamite rather than on PPV for the long haul.
Result: Dark Order picks up the much-needed win before being sent packing by SCU and Colt Cabana!
Rating:
