This match has lived on in the minds of AEW fans thanks to one simple word, meat. If you’ve ever heard the AEW fans chanting “MEAT” at the top of their lungs whenever someone like Hobbs, or anyone who is deemed a true heavyweight, is dishing out large amounts of punishment, this is where it started. Miro and Hobbs had a difficult task of following the AEW TNT Championship match between Darby Allin and Luchasaurus, and with only a couple of weeks worth of build, it was something of an uphill struggle to get the crowd invested.
The match is really a tale of two halves. The first half is what Jim Ross on commentary liked to call a “Super Heavyweight Slugfest” and he was right. Both guys are throwing big bombs at each other right from the start, clubbing blows, massive throws, and making the match feel like the ring might not be able to contain the two men. Miro is the clear fan favorite, but he’s on the backfoot for a lot of the first portion of the bout to allow Hobbs to get the majority of the shine, and you can even hear him leading the match as some of his conversations with Miro are picked up on the ringside cameras. It’s explosive, but the eventual bangs don’t blow anyone in the crowd away and it kind of seems like they are trying to get into it, but only see it as a good television match…then it happens.
As Miro is making a comeback after being worn down by Hobbs, they get into a strike exchange that would usually result in the crowd going “BOO” and “YEAH” for the face and heel, However, the crowd doesn’t do that, the crowd starts chanting “MEAT” for every blow landed, and it’s here that the entire structure of the match completely changes. It’s not been confirmed if what the match ended up being was completely called in the ring because of the crowd, but if that is what happened, then it’s the best decision they could have possibly made as Miro starts playing into the chants and all of a sudden, seemingly in the blink of an eye, the crowd can’t get enough of this match.
A good crowd can take a good match and make it great, and that’s what happened here. Miro and Hobbs fully lean in to the “meat forever,” “that was meaty,” “holy meat,” and any meat related chants the crowd could think of and it breathed a different energy into the match. The strikes felt harder, the bombs felt bigger, and the conclusion where Hobbs taps out in the Game Over after already escaping from it once earlier feels earned and right. It’s a match that has been overshadowed by what happens later on in the night, but this match earned the standing ovation it got at the end, and both men should be immensely proud of what they achieved.
Read the full article here
