It's been building, quietly and often with some space between the story advancing, but tonight Christopher Daniels faces Hangman Adam Page in a Texas Death Match. It's been reported that this is essentially Daniels' retirement match and there probably couldn't be a better way to be sent off than by being murdered by Hangman Page.

Will Kazuchika Okada show up with his Continental Classic finals boots against Ishii? Or are we back to casual Okada now that tournament season is over? I'm not expecting a match of the year but I hope to be surprised.

And then, of course, there's the 12-man clusterfuck in the main event. That's a dozen mother fuckers, and I really don't think I care all that much. This program with Mox vs Cope is going to drag for me and just as I'd be surprised to see Okada/Ishii be a MOTYC candidate, I'd be twice as surprised to be compelled by Mox/Cope at any point.

Kalamazoo born, Southern California bred, Christopher Daniels is Texas Dead

In one of the best send-offs in wrestling, Christopher Daniels was obliterated by Hangman Adam Page. Daniels had some flashes of offense in there but, for the most part, was a target for Hangman's misplaced aggression.

Daniels has influenced me and my love of professional wrestling since the early 2000s. He's constantly been in the orbit of any wrestling I've watched in my adult life whether that was Ring of Honor, TNA/Impact, AEW, or countless indies in between.

Tonight, he went out the right way and at the right time. While Daniels obviously has slowed down a bit in the ring, he never let himself fall so far as to become hard to watch like we've seen with both of The Hardys. So, leaving on as much of a high as he possibly could is the smart move.

He exits the business as a full-time wrestler with his head held high (albeit covered in blood) knowing that he didn't overstay his welcome and tarnish any part of his long legacy.

For Hangman, though, what's next? He's working through his own personal issues and Daniels felt the brunt of that at Collision. There isn't room enough in the World Title scene with Cope (ugh) taking up space. Swerve is preoccupied with Ricochet.

Does this leave a door open for an Orange Cassidy or Jay White to reignite something with Hangman? Or, does ole Hanger move in a completely new direction now that he's torn out and torched a page from his own personal history book?

Some of the absolute wrong people are being highlighted and lowlighted in AEW

Would we please do something interesting and good with Shane Taylor Promotions? Shane Taylor rules. Lee Moriarty rules. Trish Adora rules. The Infantry have improved a ton. I understand that 99% of their presence is on ROH, but why? They've established the big group and Moriarty just had a landmark Pure Title defense against Nigel McGuinness.

It's absurd that we're not seeing Taylor or Moriarty challenge for the TNT Title, The Infantry in the Tag Title mix, and Trish doing literally anything on television every week. Gas her up for a challenge to Mercedes' TBS Title, something! This group is effortlessly fun and Shane and Lee especially wrestle like world destroyers. Their time for a solid place on AEW TV is long, long overdue – especially when they're only being used as fodder for the Undisputed Kingdom. Blech.

Editor's Note: I wrote the previous paragraph before the post-match shenanigans. Shane got into it with Daddy Magic and Daniel Garcia, but then the lasting image of the segment was Daddy and Danny facing off with the Undisputed Kingdom. So, who knows if this means Shane will get involved in the title picture or not but if he does – I willed it into existence!

I love Lance Archer and Brian Cage but it absolutely sucks that Top Flight was fed to them with the jobber entrance and everything. Top Flight deserves so much better and if you wanted to have a big dumb squash match you could have just used local talent. It stinks!

The only thing this accomplished for Top Flight was to have them get beaten twice: once by Murder Machines and once by Lio Rush & Action Andretti post-match. You could have done something better to further their story than this instead of making them look like complete geeks.

Wrapping Up

Toni Storm delivered a promo in-ring with Tony Schiavone talking up her excitement for her match with Mariah May for the World Title at Grand Slam Australia. She proposed the idea of a first-time-ever meeting between her and May next week at Daily's Place, and before she could be pressed for any further questions by Schiavone she found a way to wrap up the segment.

Will the facade of Rookie Toni Storm begin to crack next week? Or is the Daily's Place meeting the first step in cracking the psyche of the World Champion?

We finally got somewhere with The Acclaimed splitting up! If they had just kept this story going week to week I think we could have gotten here like 6 weeks ago. But, here we are – The Acclaimed are officially split up, Max Caster made some extremely valid points, and Anthony Bowens has chosen to align himself with Billy Gunn. I look forward to seeing the next step in this story sometime mid-March.

The main event was fine for what it was. It was a little bit of a party match but, of course, devolved into common Death Riders bullshit with Marina and PAC getting involved. Powerhouse Hobbs, after being attacked backstage by The Learning Tree, made his triumphant return once everyone was scattered to pick up the pin on Bryan Keith.

Is this Hobbs' official entrance into the Jericho Vortex where he'll flounder for the next two months while his heat evaporates? Let's find out!