Wrestling Wednesday: The Popcorn Fart Heard Round the World

When my friend, Chad (this one), called the end of AEW Revolution a “popcorn fart,” I told him you couldn’t even pop corn over that fire. You didn’t need to buy the pay-per-view to hear about the anticlimactic end to the “Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match,” which makes me wonder if the underwhelming ending was planned.

Don’t get me wrong, the AEW Revolution main event was riveting. Three of the four sides of the ring had ropes wrapped in low-grade barbed wire. Touching any of those ring ropes wrapped in barbed wire triggered explosions, throwing dust and smoke into the eyes of Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega. Land mines covered by barbed wire surrounded the ring on the same three sides, exploding upon impact. And everything that could explode was scheduled to explode 30 minutes into the match.

I’ve never been more uncomfortable and intrigued. The only comparison I can make is how I feel watching UFC fighters continuing to punch an obviously unconscious opponent. But instead of feeling that way for a few seconds, I felt that way for nearly half an hour. I was standing for most of the match.

Mike Ryan Ruiz, producer of The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz, wondered on Monday whether the “duck fart” ending to Revolution’s main event was all part of the plan. “Would we even be talking about it” otherwise, he posited. I say no, and I think if the popcorn fart ending was all part of the plan, it was a damn good plan.

AEW Revolution was the talk of Twitter and social media because of the assumed failure that was “The Popcorn Fart Heard Round the World.” And that’s not a bad thing. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, and professional wrestling does bad publicity with the best of them. Had the set exploded and Eddie Kingston was injured by flying debris while covering his longtime friend, Jon Moxley, as if a grenade was about to go off nearby, there would have been less talk of the match.

“The only thing they remember, is the finish.”

Vincent Kennedy McMahon@BustedOpenRadio #AEWRevolution

— Bully Ray (@bullyray5150) March 8, 2021

Vince McMahon is wrong. People remember more than just the finish. For me, the best moment of AEW Revolution 2021 was the leap Darby Allin made in a pre-recorded street fight against Team Taz. I won’t forget it, but I won’t forget the ending of AEW Revolution 2021 either. The popcorn fart ending doesn’t mean the pay-per-view wasn’t worth $50, however. I’d say the money match between Hangman Adam Page and Matt Hardy was worth almost half the cost. The street fight and exploding barbed wire death match made up more than half the cost. I’m not at all disappointed in my purchase. I got my money’s worth of entertainment.

In The Dark Knight, Joker says, “Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying.” Well, the plan perpetuated by AEW for Revolution’s main event was indeed horrifying. It was sold with horrifying images of Japanese versions of exploding barbed wire death matches indicating why these matches hadn’t been attempted in over 20 years, and never attempted in the United States. I was actually curious about the cost to insure the match. I tried to put an ice rink at the county fairgrounds one time and couldn’t even afford the insurance premiums for one month.

“The Popcorn Fart Heard Round the World” proves that the big finish doesn’t have to be big to be big. AEW Revolution 2021 probably would have gotten less attention had the big finish been big. It’s perhaps another example of how AEW is more creative than WWE.