The AEW Debut of Hook

Hook, the chip eating, ringside vulturing, dragon sleeper utilizing son of Taz, the head honcho of the eponymous Team Taz, debuted tonight on AEW Rampage against Fuego del Sol. The build to Hook's debut, and the attention paid to it, was one of the strangest developments in professional wrestling this year—outside of CM Punk's return, there may have been no debut in the sport than that of Hook. I could go into why, but we'll have an in-depth look at the life of Hook as a living meme next week. Instead, I'm going to focus on the debut itself. It's the one time I've gone looking for fan footage from Rampage, so I knew about Hook entering to Action Bronson's "The Chairman's Intent," something Tony Khan called "an investment in the presentation of a very important young wrestler." I watched clips from every angle there were shots from, each one of them showing Hook as a 22-year-old murderman, as well as a shot of him hoisting up Fuego into a crotch-lift suplex. Having declared Hook the Greatest Wrestler of All Time, I was admittedly nervous that it wouldn't work out. That fear was completely unfounded. While you don't pin something like "Greatest Wrestler of All Time" to someone based on a squash match, it doesn't hurt that that squash was absurdly entertaining, a veritable fireworks show of a naturally talented, excellently trained wrestler moving through throws, strikes, and submissions. That some of those were somewhat familiar? Goddamn delicious.

More Wrestling Microreviews

• Bron Breakker's Use of Bolt Cutters at NXT TakeOver: War Games
• Billy Gunn's Tattoo Choker
• Mickie James on Psych