Blood, guts, staples and a Nintendo Power Glove: this was a Texas Death match, after all.
The AEW World Trios Championship was on the line as Adam Page, Bandido and Brody King defended their titles against Swerve Strickland, Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed. Kofi and Creed had seemed uneasy when the match was announced, apparently not eager to be part of a particularly bloody fight. They got into it anyway, helping Strickland’s team win the titles for the second time in the group’s history.
The match had plenty of memorable moments, along with a few that were hard to watch. Creed, a longtime video game fan, brought out a Nintendo Power Glove from a duffel bag held by Stokely Hathaway. King tried to stop him from putting it on, but Creed punched him in the face and the device went off. It didn’t exactly need a Nintendo Entertainment System to make an impact.
Earlier, Creed had also used a barbed-wire-covered trombone against his opponents. The Power Glove spot was probably the match’s most inventive moment, though.
Kofi had his own brutal highlight. Page was lying across a pile of chairs with two panes of glass placed over him. Kofi climbed onto the barricade and hit a Boom Drop, shattering the glass across Page’s torso. Seeing Kofi embrace the hardcore side of the match was a surprise, and it helped Strickland’s team seize control.
Page and Strickland have a history of taking things too far, and this match was no exception. Strickland asked Page to sit down, then the two began firing staples into each other. Their teammates got involved and were stapled, too.
The rivalry turned even more gruesome later. In a callback to their 2023 Texas Death match, Strickland tasted Page’s blood after the two had been fighting. The moment was bound to divide viewers, but Strickland leaned into the history between them.
Page briefly seemed to have the advantage afterward. He raised a chair to strike Strickland, who was smiling at him. Then Strickland spat blood at Page, disrupting the attack.
Page looked close to finishing the match when he set up a series of Buckshot Lariats. He landed two, but Strickland stopped the third with a House Call that knocked Page out.
Strickland, Kofi and Creed left with the Trios Championship. Strickland made sure to say he considered himself the baddest man on the planet.
