Young Bucks (c) vs. SCU - AEW Dynamite 05/12/2021

one of the biggest missteps in company history

In a night of wrestling that felt closer to TNA Impact than AEW Dynamite, it’s morbidly fitting that SCU (née The Addiction) were perhaps the best part of the show, only to be summarily disposed of with an Impact-level “To the back!”

When Frankie Kazarian first issued his ultimatum that he and Daniels would break up the next time they lose, I was thrilled. SCU are a historically great team and synonymous with independent tag team wrestling in America, and here they were, on the big stage, with all that hard work and toil paying off with a send-off fitting of their legacy.

The best wrestling storylines come about when there’s just a little bit of truth to what’s going on. Daniels is old, and SCU are reliable, workmanlike, and eminently unexciting. It’s okay that they’re done, especially if Daniels is going to retire. I don’t have a problem with breaking them up.

But the road to get here has been nothing short of mystifying. Instead of adding some real weight to the stipulation, SCU spent all but three weeks over the last five months on AEW Dark, a show you’d actually have to pay me to watch regularly. Who cares if they beat RYZIN and Baron Black? There’s no drama there, just a bullshit waste of four minutes. As far as I’m concerned, the “build” to SCU’s final match consisted of a two-week feud with the Acclaimed and winning a bad four-way #1 contender’s match.

SCU got about thirty seconds ahead of their title challenge here to get over the fact that, yeah, this historic team is done if they lose. It got me thinking about that reverse psychology pro wrestling thing where “Man, they’re not pushing the SCU breakup angle at all – maybe SCU’s winning!”

The match, to the teams’ credit, was fantastic.

You’ve never seen a better babyface than Daniels, spilling buckets of blood and disappearing (“is he legit hurt?”) for minutes on end only to fire back with one of the hottest closing stretches I’ve seen all year. Daniels bleeding on the Bucks’ shoes was an awesome visual, with Don Callis complaining about the shoes, not the humanity, like the sick bastard he is.

I love Callis’s presence on commentary during Elite matches. He deftly balances putting over his character, being actually entertaining, and showing legitimate broadcast chops to create a package that just makes Bucks and Kenny Omega matches feel like a real big deal.

The Bucks were their obnoxious, pristine selves, wrestling flawlessly and playing pro wrestler along the way. Matt Jackson called his shot with the HBK/Flair “I’m sorry, I love you” crocodile tears, but the choice to have Daniels kick out of the superkick was a lovely little flip on the original. Additionally, I thought Daniels’ botched Best Moonsault Ever actually added to the match; I’d have been surprised if he managed to hit it on the first try.

And then, it just… ended. Booking the breakup of a team like SCU to happen in the middle of a Dynamite show, in a match featuring interference from the Good Brothers, and summarily ending with a BTE Trigger where Kazarian couldn’t even make it in time to save his partner was definitely a choice.

Pro wrestling is fake. SCU doesn’t *actually* have to stay broken up forever, and the Young Bucks aren’t *really* the champions of anything.

And that fact is exactly why this SCU breakup was such a disaster. Fans aren’t stupid. They know that it wasn’t the Young Bucks or the Good Brothers or Kazarian’s ultimatum that resulted in SCU disbanding. No, SCU is disbanding because Daniels is likely retiring.

So, knowing that to be the case, why not actually, you know, use SCU’s legacy to create something real? Since the breakup was never going to get “heat” for whomever eventually beat SCU, why not use the actual draw of the angle – that every SCU match could be their last – to create some real buzz?

In any case, that’s not what Tony Khan and co. did. Nope, SCU got about 20 seconds to be sad about it – Jim Ross sounded audibly bored by the proceedings – before we got a pointless “To the back!” call. The essential action we just couldn’t miss, to the point that it cut off SCU’s disbandment? Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston destroying a dressing room, a gimmick we see every three weeks.

So now, SCU is gone. They’re done. Daniels is probably retiring and Kazarian can go back to wrestling technically perfect but ultimately stale matches. And what does AEW have to show for it? Absolutely nothing.

How TNA of them.

(****)