Awkward Brawl To End AEW Dynamite Was Based On A Classic Southern Wrestling Spot

Things got chaotic at the end of last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite. A massive brawl broke out involving several NJPW and AEW stars. Many fans noticed that there was a bit of an awkward moment in the ring as the melee continued on the outside.

Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi were supposed to stand in the ring and have a stare-down before their upcoming match at Forbidden Door. As the wild fight continued, a full four minutes passed. Mox and Tanahashi were put in a situation where they had to just stand there.

Dave Meltzer talked about the segment on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio. The tag match between Chris Jericho and Lance Archer vs Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi devolved into a massive street fight. With all the focus on the action outside the ring, Moxley and Tanahashi were simply left to watch.

“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.

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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.”

Tony Khan is a pro wrestling history buff. He was trying to recreate an iconic scene and do something different to catch fans off guard. Unfortunately, that left a lot of time for Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jon Moxley to stand together in the ring and not do anything to one another.

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