The Mortal Kombat series made waves in popular culture as early as its 1992 debut for being incredibly violent and flashy, with 2015's Mortal Kombat X cranking that reputation up with stand-out X-Ray attacks that showed bones breaking and organs rupturing. Mortal Kombat 11's Fatal Blows are an evolution of that with the same bloody payoff, and a fan of the series saw a perfect opportunity to mesh them with Wednesday night's All Elite Wrestling (AEW) match.
Few things in this world are flashier than professional wrestling, and the moment highlighted by Reddit user Youngstown_Mafia is just that: Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks is busy dealing with one opponent as another prepares to jump him from behind using the arena's ropes. Jackson is able to retaliate with a mid-air high kick to the jaw, at which point Youngstown_Mafia's clip cuts to a Mortal Kombat X-Ray animation.
Since it was posted to the r/MortalKombat subreddit earlier today, the video has received over 1.5 thousand upvotes. Mortal Kombat and AEW are a good mix because their performative, hyper-violent exchanges line up surprisingly well, but also because AEW wrestlers like Kenny Omega are outspoken fans of games like Undertale.
The seamless quality of the edit that Youngstown_Mafia applied to Jackson's kick makes it easy to imagine what an AEW video game given the 'M' rating of NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat 11 could look like. It's entirely possible given the first game set in that professional wrestling world was teased back in July 2019, and further confirmed by Omega on Twitter last month.
However, it's not likely the game will be quite so gory considering the wider mainstream appeal of a televised property. The league's current home network TNT renewed AEW: Dynamite through 2023 because of its high viewership, and an adaptation with violent X-Ray jaw breaking animations may not sit well with the brand.
That said, AEW will undoubtedly continue to reference video games and other forms of popular media for the foreseeable future, so it's only fair that fans like Youngstown_Mafia be given the freedom to create their own crossovers. If wrestler Brandon Cutler can wear a Dungeons & Dragons outfit into the ring, why not let Jackson apply for a DLC spot in Mortal Kombat 11?