Anytime Brody King and Darby Allin find themselves in the same AEW ring – or a Zumiez in the Pacific Northwest – you know it has the potential to get violent.

I mean, we’re talking about a man who defeated Allin not with a Gonzo Bomb but a choke off the side of the ring during the Royal Rampage following Blood and Guts and then threw him through a table at an outside-of-the-ring signing where fans lined up to get some merch and maybe a picture with the half-dead dynamo.

And yet, for much of the match, the first on Fyter Fest Night 3, it was Allin who tricked his way into a seriously advantageous spot in the match, with one particularly smart babyface maneuver featuring a belt that left King tied up on the floor unable to defend himself.

Darby Allin Cannonball! #AEWDynamite #FyterFest Night 3 is LIVE on @TBSNetwork! pic.twitter.com/cVyZr8F30Z

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 21, 2022

Goodness, that’s one heck of a culmination to an innovative spot, even if it probably should have been a disqualification when an outside object was used as a weapon. However, Allin’s strung-together series of offensive combos wasn’t quite enough to put him over the top, as King eventually regained the momentum, beat his long-time rival with a Gonzo Bomb, and then added insult to injury with another choke.

So that was that, right? A very good match ended the way it should have, and the two men will go their separate ways as rivals? Well, maybe that was the initial plan, at least until Sting hit the ramp and came down to the ring to fight for his friend’s honor. What happened next, my friends, may define the next few months of AEW’s mid-card.

Lost in the storyline surrounding Brody King and Darby Allin’s post-match non-handshake heard around the world was the staredown that happened shortly thereafter between Sting and Malakai Black, as if the two men were fighting with their eyes over the very soul of the former proprietor of Violence Unlimited. Would King stay in the House with Buddy Matthews and Julia Hart and continue on with his Kingly ways atop the Black Throne? Or would he embrace being the good guy fans the world over – especially of NJPW – know him to be?

Well, when Sting made his way down to the ring at the end of King’s match with Allin, he didn’t look like he was too interested in a handshake or in adding a new face to the Dudes With Attitudes. No, “The Icon” wanted to let his fists, his submissions, and, if need be, his bat, do the talking, and despite having the clear size disadvantage, Sting did just that, preparing King for a Scorpion Death Drop before the lights went black and Malakai Black materialized in the ring ready for some good old fashioned violence. King got “The Icon” in a sleeper hold, and just before he could fade away, Black sprayed his mist into the eyes of his face-painted foe, sending him to sleep in a nightmarish way.

Will this mist effect Sting like Julia Hart, corrupting him to the dark side? Or will it instead work like the mist used on Cody Rhodes, aka he left the promotion before the storyline could play out?

Either way, the action wasn’t over there. No, Black’s attack on Sting, too, was interrupted, this time by Miro, the man who has been looking to take to take his talents to the House for quite some time to ‘run out the pagans from AEW’. While Miro didn’t run to the ring and attempt a big-time bout against the man he formerly shared a catering room with in WWE, his presence outside of the ring was menacing enough to get his All-Atlantic Championship contenders match foe to vacate the ring alongside King and live to fight another day.

Miro, Sting, and Darby Allin versus the House of Black? Yeah, that sounds like a Pay-Per-View pairing if I’ve ever seen one; maybe even one worthy of a bout for the AEW Trios Titles, which have been long rumored but remain comically just outside of reach.

With Death Triangle turning their attention to other ordeals, with PAC defending the All-Atlantic Championship in England and the dynamic duo of Rey Fenix and Penta Oscuro, collectively known as the Lucha Brothers, the House of Black have to settle on a new team to occupy their time. While for a time it looked like that team would be the Blackpool Combat Club, giving them the Best Friends instead with the trio of Sting, Miro, and Darby Allin waging war against the House of Black might actually be an upgrade.

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