Last night on AEW Dynamite, it ended in a big brawl with many talent from both the AEW & NJPW side of things. During the brawl, which took place around the outside of the ring, Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi had a long stare-down in the ring.
Many fans questioned why the stare-down was so awkward and thought maybe it was a timing issue. Well, on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that it was indeed not a timing issue, rather a call-back to a old souther wrestling spot.
The idea was to go out… It was to do the Eddie Gilbert Battle of New Orleans brawl. That was what the concept was, which is a long brawl. It’s not like your normal like, you know, 90 seconds, two minutes. I know a lot of people thought it was a timing issue, but when I was told exactly what they were looking to do, that is kind of what it was. They did the brawl, that was Eddie Gilbert’s idea, that, ‘Oh, you know, we always do brawls, but it goes a certain length of time. We’re going to just brawl and brawl and brawl and brawl for a long period of time, and people will remember it,’ and they did. It became a very memorable spot, so that’s what this was based on… It was so weird, though, because it’s like this big brawl and even the two key guys, and they’re the two guys that are just… All their buddies are fighting and they’re just standing there not fighting. Just looking at each other. You know, nobody got in the ring. The brawl was all around the ring. Suzuki was just like using chairs and Gotch piledrivers and just, like, looking to kill people and these two guys are just standing in the ring.
– Dave Meltzer via WOL
No surprise that Tony Khan tried to book a classic call-back, knowing he is a wrestling historian. Sadly for him, it seems like it confused a lot of fans and didn’t click like he wanted. Regardless, Jon Moxley & Hiroshi Tanahashi will fight this Sunday at Forbidden Door.
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