The build to Darby Allin and Jon Moxley’s “I Quit” match has been the focal point of AEW programming as of late, and Wednesday’s three-hour “AEW Dynamite” and “AEW Collision” double feature was no exception. While the two men had a generally positively-received pre-taped “cinematic” promo exchange, I can’t say that their in-person altercation on the “Collision” portion of Wednesday’s broadcast held up nearly as well.

After the Death Riders outnumbered Paragon and associates at the end of “Collision’s” Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, Kyle O’Reilly, and Orange Cassidy opener, Darby Allin made an incredibly dramatic entrance to intercept the violence. Now, when I say “incredibly dramatic” for Allin, what do you think of? Do you imagine him armed with a steel chair? Perhaps you picture him zooming down the ramp, skateboard in hand. Maybe, in your mind’s eye, Allin is making a heroic save with his finger on a flamethrower’s trigger.

I’m glad to report (sarcastically) that Allin’s dramatic entrance saw him standing at the top of the entrance ramp, limbs crooked and lifeless, like a zombie. Before you comment, I know that his less-than-lively disposition is not unreasonable, considering that he did get beaten to a bloody pulp by Pac earlier during “Dynamite,” and, honestly, if you had just given me a tired Allin, it could have been salvaged. Allin, however, in his incredible commitment to the bit, begins shambling down the entrance ramp like an extra off “The Walking Dead.” I’m talking failed sobriety test levels of swaying, with his body swinging off to the side against a steel barrier at one point. All the while, the Death Riders confronted him, one by agonizing one.

Allin got up every time. The message here is resilience, right? It’s a tale of Allin’s grit, how he is willing to get beaten down, but still rise to his feet (or hands and knees) in order to climb whatever mountain he has his eyes set on: Everest or otherwise. That’s all fine and good…but can we not have the rest of the Death Riders just staring at him as he crawls pathetically to Moxley at two miles an hour? I understand what they were going for here, and on paper, this sounds amazing and more introspective than what I expect from AEW. In practice, though, this segment dragged on in such an awkward way, I found myself hating it before it was even done. By the time Allin finally got to Moxley, he unfurled the AEW flag at Moxley’s feet, only to be at the receiving end of Death Rider. Something, something, Moxley’s war on AEW. Segment over.

Like I said, in theory, this makes sense. On paper, this is cool. In practice? Painstaking to watch.

Written by Angeline Phu