AEW Discussion 2019

[Zack T 171]

I figured we could use a thread for general purpose AEW talk. How many of you are keeping up with AEW? Watched Double or Nothing? Planning to watch Fyter Fest? Fight For The Fallen? All Out? Their weekly TV Show debuting in September?

 

GOOD NEWS - If you're like me and you don't know who most of these people are, you can go to YouTube and find Cody's youtube channel. It's called Nightmare Family. There you'll find short mini web episodes to build up to each of these events. There's 3 "AEW - The Road To Fyter Fest" episodes so far, each one is about 10 minutes long, so they're fairly bite sized. They show off different people and have stuff to build the story for each match, so you don't go in completely blind. Or you could go in blind, that's fine too, I went in blind on Double Or Nothing and it was awesome.

 

Fyter Fest is this Saturday, June 29th. All Elite Wrestling is available to all fans located in United States via Bleacher Report Live. Visit AEWonBRLive.com. But if you'd prefer to order through Sky or something, I think it's only going to be like 12 Euros (American keyboards don't have the symbol, I'm sorry). Us 'MERICANS get to watch it for free for sure, though. Suck it UK.

 

Big matches announced for this one include Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose) vs Joey Janella, The Elite (Young Bucks + Kenny Omega) vs Lucha Bros (Pentagon & Ray Fenix Jr.) & Laredo Kid, Cody vs Darby Allin, "Hangman" Adam Page vs Jungle Boy vs MJF vs Jimmy Havoc, and Christopher Daniels vs CIMA.

 

Fight For The Fallen is Saturday, July 13th. FUN FACT - WWE has decided to air EVOLVE's next big event on the WWE Network, marking the first time they've used their network to promote another company. When are they airing that show? Oh...uh...Saturday, July 13th, at the exact same time as AEW's Fight For The Fallen. Huh. Really makes you think...

 

Big matches announced for this one include Young Bucks vs Cody & Dustin, and it appears to be teasing CIMA vs Kenny Omega, and Brandi (Cody's wife) vs another lady who's name I don't yet know.

 

All Out is Saturday, August 31st. There is also NXT TakeOver: Cardiff that night, though that was legit booked months and months in advance so I doubt that was intentional, but I also doubt WWE minds.

 

Big matches announced for this one include Jon Moxley vs Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho vs "Hangman" Adam Page to crown the first ever AEW World Heavyweight Champion.

 

There will be a big tag team tournament once TV show starts up to crown the first AEW Tag Champs, and they've also announced there will be a Women's title so they'll get that taken care of soon too.

 

 

I'm super excited about it. I love learning about these new wrestlers, some of whom I've known about for awhile (Young Bucks, Kenny Omega) but never actually seen wrestle til AEW's Double Or Nothing. I'm SUPER excited for Moxley vs Omega, I love Jon Moxley to death and seeing him with fire in his eyes and the freedom to be who he envisions Jon Moxley to be is thrilling.

Edited June 26, 2019 by Zack T

[Kam 243]

Anyone watch Fyter Fest?

 

Have to admit, I didn't think it was as good as DON, some random comments:

 

- That was the first time I've seen or heard of Private Party, quite liked them, had some nice moves, good tag team and OK match

 

- Didn't think much of Allie/Bates

 

- The Nakazawa/Jebailey batch was TERRIBLE! Had no place being on the show.

 

- Cima/Daniels was alright, nothing special.

 

- The 3-way women's match was OK-ish, had some nice moments but a few botches also. Thought that flying knee from Rose looked awesome.

 

- Four-way: Not quite sure why, but I love the idea of Jungle Boy with Luchasaurus :) MJF really stood out again, think everyone knew Page was winning this one.

 

- Rhodes/Allin - Can't say I've ever heard of Darby Allin - I found it pretty slow to begin with but I did get more into it as it went on. The coffin drop move was insane! I hope he's not going to be doing stuff like that regularly, really don't want to see anyone hurting themselves seriously just for a quick pop. For anyone that missed it:

 

 

Throughout the show I was wondering how long it would be before a match reaches that 20 minute time limit - I didn't think it would be as soon as this show :) By the time the match finished, I wanted to see/hear more from Darby, so that was good however I feel like they could have left out the attack from Shawn Spears. I would have preferred it if they just let the match to settle in, rather than just go straight into Cody's next feud. As has already been reported online, that chairshot was brutal - as I said above, they don't need to be killing themselves for us. I'm not too sure about pushing Shawn so soon also, I think it would have been better to build him up on the roster first.

 

- The six-man match was OK - I thought the 3 team match from DON was better.

 

- Moxley/ Janela was brutal - I've never liked it when they use thumbtacks/barbed wire - hate seeing them going through the skin. Was a good brawl but it was obvious Moxley was winning.

 

Overall, it was OK but there could be a lot of improvement. It seems to be a contrast from DON where this event felt far more adult with some of the dialog/action. I know they might not want to be as PG friendly as WWE but I think they will need to definitely tone it down a little as I can't see them getting many sponsorships/advertisers with content like this. NXT has already proven that you can have a great show with exciting matches/feuds without ever needing to go too extreme. Speaking of which, I hope the talent try and tone it down with the risks also - no need to go crazy!

[Zack T 171]

I watched FyterFest.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that FyterFest was sort of a "B Show" set up by Kenny Omega with CEO Gaming. Not that it doesn't count, as it did built for future events. But it's not a normal show.

 

Anyway, I thought commentary was overall better for Fyter Fest than Double Or Nothing. But I think Alex Marvez is kind of boring on commentary. Production snafu's were less than Double Or Nothing as well. I mean stuff like bad camera angles/missing moves and awkward waiting spots between matches. It still happened, but not nearly as much. Improvement. Also, the commentary handled these times way better than Double Or Nothing.

 

You may not have watched the Road To Fyter Fest episodes Kam, but Private Party talked about being trained by The Amazing Red and they made it seem like Private Party is still pretty new. Obviously they're not brand spanking new given how well they did, but I'm thinking they've only been wrestling a few years at the most. I LOVED that one of them (Name I forgot) kept his sunglasses on for a long time, that was fantastic. Really good solid threeway tag match, and I expected Private Party to pick up an upset win, but Best Friends is good too. I am liking them.

 

Allie and Liva Bates was fine. Not great, not terrible. Maybe slightly longer than I would've liked, but not by much.

 

The mockumentary stuff of Omega and the Young Bucks was quite good. I liked that a lot. Felt fresh and funny without being forced.

 

I disagree with you Kam, I rather enjoyed Nakazawa and Alex Jebailey. You had to know going into that match that it wasn't going to be a 5 star classic, nor was it going to be brutal hardcore like Moxley/Janella was later. It was hardcore to allow them more freedom to hide Alex's lack of ability in the ring, and I felt they did a good job. It was mostly a comedy match and I felt that it served the purpose. That match was also more for the live crowd than the rest of us at home. But I thought it had some great spots, like the thong, the game controller choke, the arcade controller shot, the kiddie pool. Hahehehe.

 

Daniels and CIMA didn't do much for me, to be honest. It wasn't bad at all, it was a decent wrestling match. But I guess I just wasn't as captivated by it as others may have been. Still, they both performed well and I want to see more of them.

 

Women's triple threat with Yuka Sakazuki, Riho, and Nyla Rose was surprisingly good. I didn't have high expectations for this, but I think they told a very good story and there was some excellent spots, as well as facial expressions.

 

I suppose I should've seen Hangman Adam Page winning the 4-way but I honestly didn't expect him to. I expected MJF to win it, pinning Jungle Boy or Jimmy Havoc. I do understand Adam Page winning, he should look like he's on a hot streak as he goes up against Jericho at All Out. Enjoyable match for sure, and MJF IS PURE GOLD on the mic. I'm also ALL IN on Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus connection. That's fantastic.

 

Darby Allin had a good little promo on the Road To Fyter Fest episodes on youtube, and I had a good feeling about this match headed into it. I actually thought Darby would get the win, but again looking back, it makes total sense why they drew instead. For one, it sets the precedent that these time limits actually do matter and we will see draws from time to time. But also, it's smart booking to let Cody not lose, but not beat Darby in his debut either. Darby shows off his toughness, and man there was some great stuff in this. I feel like it progressively got more intense at a very smart pace and yea that coffin drop trust fall thing was sick, but so was that whip into the turnbuckle where Darby went all sideways and fell outside. I liked Darby's smart offense and that dude is QUICK and nimble as hell. As for the Shawn Spears bit, that chair was reportedly altered so that the seat portion would be softer and not dangerous. The problem was that the backrest portion wasn't altered, and it somehow wrapped around Cody's head to rip up a piece of skin and that's why he bled. OUCH. That attack is also due to the Fyter Fest Road episodes from YouTube, specifically because of Cody calling Shawn "A good hand".

 

So what I'm saying here is, watch those "Road to ..." things on YouTube, they help paint a full picture for you ;)

 

I absolutely LOVED the street fighter stuff with Young Bucks and Omega, that was flippin fantastic and unexpected. ROUND 1, FIGHT! I loved the Hadouken spot as well. Some people didn't, but the live crowd certainly did and I popped for it too because again, I didn't see that coming and it was just so appropriate given where the event was. Fantastic match anyway, just pure craziness and Kenny getting the win made sense.

 

Moxley and Janella was brutal. Not quite as bloody as I expected, thank god. But still very brutal. Not the type of thing we're gonna see too often, especially on their regular weekly TV show I'm sure. But I think it has a place every once in awhile. I think my main complaint with this was that I felt Joey ended up being outclassed too badly by the end of it. He had some good spots, and yea we all expected Moxley to win, but I thought it'd be a situation where Joey still looks like a million bucks. And maybe I'm judging it too harshly, but I felt that while Joey certainly looks like a crazy tough dude, Moxley really dominated him toward the end so much that I didn't think he was even in Moxley's league. Regardless though, real good hardcore match. Also I really appreciated Kenny coming out and beating Moxley down afterward. Made perfect sense and made Kenny look like a badass. Honestly not a fan of Moxley (or any wrestler) doing that whole "hahah I love the pain" smile after a beatdown, at least not so quickly cause he should be unconscious after what Kenny did to him, but that's my main issue with it. Otherwise I loved it.

 

 

So overall, not as good as Double Or Nothing, but you really shouldn't have been expecting it to be, given the nature of the show. If I were to rate them, I'd say Double Or Nothing was about 8.5/10 type of show, while FyterFest is more of a 6.5/10. Overall, it's a good show. Like Double Or Nothing, the best parts of it come in the final 3 or 4 matches. But FyterFest's lower card was a little bit weaker than Double Or Nothing. Still worth watching, in my opinion.

 

2 weeks til Fight For The Fallen, and that should be pretty good. I think it'll be as good or a little better than Fyter Fest, as it's a charity show.

 

Stay tuned for All Out though, that's gonna be bonkers, I think.

[Zack T 171]

AEW has officially announced their weekly TV Program, Wednesday Night Dynamite, will air 8PM Eastern to 10PM Eastern (THAT'S AMERICAN TIME ZONES YOU WANKERS) on TNT, starting October 2nd.

 

Fox is looking at potentially airing NXT on Wednesdays on FS1 as well, though it's uncertain whether or not this will happen and if it did, if NXT would be 1 or 2 hours.

 

WWE is also mentioning that a "re-launch" of the WWE Network will happen sometime in 2019. This is likely going to be them introducing higher costing subscriptions that offer more perks, but no word on what those might be either or exactly when, beyond "2019". My guess is that they'll launch it close to when AEW's weekly show starts to air...and that also coincides with Smackdown beginning to air on Fox.

[Kam 243]

So...that was ALL OUT.

 

Random thoughts:

 

The womens Casino Battle Royale was awful! It felt like many of the wrestlers just got lost in the match, I can't remember how most of them were eliminated. Well...I can't even remember who took part, some of them were on screen for what felt like seconds. The men's one previously was better but to be honest, that wasn't great either.

 

Private Party impressed again, I really like them. I quite like Angélico and Jack Evans too - AEW definitely have a strong tag division!

 

Really enjoyed the six-man match - Luchasaurus was amazing, I was surprised Jurassic Express lost but they still looked good in defeat.

 

Great to see Pac here, since his heel turn in 205 he seems to be unstoppable, good match again, loved that he won too :)

 

I wasn't too keen on the hardcore match. I don't like staple guns or the idea of feeding someone thumb tacks...then taping their mouth shut! I thought the papercut spots were cringey - it didn't look like there was any contact for some of them...and the paper looked like it was laminated. 0_O O_0

 

I fully expected Riho to win her match after Rose won the Battle Royale - match was OK.

 

Was there any reason given for the Star Trek attire for Rhodes and co? MJF could have at least worn black jeans! Pharaoh looked terrified coming out...and then the pyro went off! They could have let him go back, I don't think anyone would have minded. I was expecting MJF to turn on Cody...not yet, but it will happen, we all know it. I don't know how much I like the idea of heels/faces mixing like this. You've got Brandi heeling it up with the women but still comes out with babyface Cody. Same goes for MJF too. I thought this match was good, some nice spots and great to see Arn Anderson. It was a bit weird seeing Tully just walk off before the match ended...I guess he was meant to go after Arn...rather than walking out the other entrance way. I thought Shawn looked OK...I still can't see him main eventing but thought he looked OK.

 

LOVED the ladder match, I had high expectations for this one and they delivered. I've really enjoyed both teams since I began watching AEW, they always deliver. Great spots/timing from both teams. Oh...and now we have another good tag-team in LAX join the division! :love:

 

Main event was fine - I thought it went on a little too long though. Did Jericho blade...it looked like he did. I thought Page was OK but I can't quite see him in the main event picture yet.

 

Overall, a good show. I'm excited for the weekly shows to start!

[Zack T 171]

I must be in the minority because that's a few people and reviews who've said they didn't like the casino battle royale, but I did. I liked it a lot. I thought they did a great job highlighting people. My only complaints against it was the mis-timing where the countdown occurred, but then Nyla Rose was given a few more seconds to eliminate the last person before the next group came down. Also Bhea Priestley's weird no-sell of the press slam she was given was kind of odd. But basically production stuff was my only complaint here - that mistimed countdown, and the missing eliminations due to camera angles (or the awkwardly timed elimination of Awesome Kong). Happy with Nyla Rose winning although I had bet on Britt Baker and that stings.

 

I LOVE Jack Evans and Angelico and I had hoped they'd win here, but it makes sense for Private Party to be on a roll as they look towards facing the Young Bucks soon. Nice tag match, excellent finish.

 

Team Dinosaur vs SCU was nice and solid as well, very entertaining. I was also surprised Team Dinosaur lost, but the commentary made the excellent point a few times about SCU's combined experience being basically 3 times what Team Dinosaur has, and that made a big difference for them. But still, they looked good in defeat and everyone's a winner here.

 

Pac vs Omega was on surprisingly early, but that's alright. Real good psychology in this match, and they told a very believable story in Omega still being too focused on Moxley to properly deal with Pac and it ultimately cost him the match. I bet on Omega to win too, so damn it. But I'm happy, Pac has always been a favorite of mine since I first saw him as Adrian Neville and I'm glad to see him get such a big win.

 

Triple threat match was great, I thought it had a great mix of hardcore and wrestling. The tape stuff with Jimmy Havoc was excellent when complete, but they had some trouble executing it and that hurt the presentation. I also wish they'd have shown us Havoc breaking free of the taped chair, but all we saw was Darby dive on to Havoc and he was suddenly out of the chair. Regardless, sick bumps and brutality, I dug it. I had bet on Darby Allin to win this one, Jimmy Havoc winning was a bit out of left field for me.

 

Riho and Hikaru Shida was solid as well, I also bet on Riho (Especially with Nyla Rose winning). I'm not sure who'll be the first women's champion, but I lean towards Nyla Rose.

 

Cody and Shawn Spears was excellent. No reason was given for the Star Trek cosplay, I assume it was done simply because it'd be different and cool. Not sure why DDP was there instead of Dustin, but ok. I did feel bad for Pharoah, poor dog was very freaked out. But at least he didn't have to stay at ringside for the match, and the cameras did a good job of not putting him on screen too much during the entrance. Clearly MJF will turn on Cody someday, but I expect a slow burn on that. The duality of Brandi and MJF's heel/face stuff is interesting too, but I'd prefer they figure that out and make them 1 or the other.

 

Young Bucks vs Lucha Bros was excellent. There were rumors before the show that Ray Fenix was hurt, something about his leg and him barely working other shows leading up to this. I think there may have been something to that, as there were 2 or 3 spots Fenix did during the match where he seemed to pause for just a half of a second before leaping into whatever he was doing. He nailed it every time, he even slipped on rope walks and still managed to salvage it, so he handled himself. But yea, this was quite bonkers. I picked Lucha Bros to win and I'm glad they did. I love the Bucks but I figure they want to focus on the AEW tag titles for right now. I assume the Lucha Bros are probably gonna take the AAA tag titles back there, lose them, and hopefully come back to AEW full time.

 

Adam Page and Chris Jericho was good. I wasn't expecting it to be match of the year quality, but I knew it'd be solid work and it was. Great story telling, some blood, and Jericho ultimately used his experience to beat the much younger and undisputedly better physical specimen of Adam Page. That Judas Effect he nailed was the first one that looked really really good, looked like he knocked Adam Page right out with that. Those rolling forearms were sick too. I do suspect Jericho bladed for that first one, given how he rolled outside and was completely off camera for a good 15 seconds or so. But that's ok with me, honestly. I don't want anyone going into crimson mask territory like Dustin did at Double or Nothing, but a little blood here and there adds a nice touch.

 

Overall, really solid show. Commentary was miles better having Goldenboy instead of Alex Marvez on there. Production was overall pretty good, the only bumps in that sticking out to me were from the battle royale. I can nitpick a few camera shots here and there (Like Isaiah Kassidy diving to the outside and posing wasn't caught very well during Private Party vs Evans/Angelico). But mostly, good show. Also it was really great that the Chicago crowd boo'd the heels (mostly) and cheered the faces (mostly). And believe it or not, not a single CM Punk chant all night! How about that. I guess all you need to do to avoid CM Punk chants is put on a show that's predominantly good. Who'd of guessed...

[DandyMandy 25]

The commentators make a big difference and this PPV was better without Alex Marvez! They need a good backstage interviewer though. Jericho would be great at it should he ever stop wrestling.

I wasn't too keen on the hardcore match. I don't like staple guns or the idea of feeding someone thumb tacks...then taping their mouth shut!

Yeah, that's me too. Sometimes ROH goes too extreme and I thought this match took it even further. I thought the laminated paper was just its glossy finish. It's funny that we both noticed it. No one else saw it in my house, so I appreciate knowing that I'm not the only one.

Edited September 4, 2019 by DandyMandy

[ShadowEdge 48]

The only wrestlers I really know are Jericho, Kenny Omega, Britt, The Young Bucks, Page, MJF, Moxley (who looks oddly bloated), and the Rhodes crew. That makes it harder for me to feel invested, but I know that just takes time. The women seem tougher than the WWE gals for the most part, but other than Britt and Brandi, it's hard to differentiate between them. I REALLY want to like AEW and I want the promotion to succeed, but it's just a tad goofy.

 

I hope Renee Young doesn't follow Moxley. She would be okay for interviewing the wrestlers backstage, but I'm not a fan when she's on the commentary team. I hate to say that though, since she was the first female to join WWE's commentary team and sometimes she does well.

[Zack T 171]

That's how I started with AEW too, at Double or Nothing. But 4 shows later, I'm feeling fairly familiar with most everyone. Weekly TV will help speed that along too.

[Gareth The Great 20]

Alex Marvez reminds me of Art Donovan when he did the commentary for King of the Ring. I was a young lad then and I still remember how terrible it went! How Donovan didn't know anything about the wrestlers or the sport at all. I mean at all! He kept asking ridiculous questions to Randy Savage, who was doing his best to help Donovan and smooth things over. But yeah, it was pretty clear that Marvez didn't watch wrestling and unlike Donovan, he didn't seem interested in learning more about it. I'm glad he's been replaced. Both were cast in their roles to lend some legitimacy to wrestling entertainment I guess, but if you're not into it the fans will know. I can handle Renee Young and usually enjoy her remarks. Sometimes she stumbles but she comes across as a genuine longtime fan of pro wrestling which helps a lot.

[Snarky-Guru 7]

I REALLY want to like AEW and I want the promotion to succeed, but it's just a tad goofy.

I like the goofiness of AEW if goofy is the word we're using. I find it charming. The promotion seems more unscripted which I enjoy. It comes across as though the wrestlers get to develop their character as they choose. At least for now.

[Kam 243]

I quite enjoyed that!

 

I was impressed with the presentation/graphics - I was expecting them to have a few screw-ups but they did far better than I thought.

 

The crowd were great all night.

 

I enjoyed the commentary too, SO good to hear Tony Schiavone back calling the action.

 

I thought the opening promo for Sammy/Cody was really well done, nice match too.

 

MJF continued to impress.

 

PAC/Page did well.

 

I thought Britt really struggled on commentary, it would have probably been better having her watching from the back. The ladies did OK, a few sloppy moments but some real nice spots too. I was expecting Rose to win so I was surprised when she lost. Crowd really got into it by the end.

 

Main event was good, I didn't even recognise Jake Hager until the commentators said who he was. Not that fussed about him.

 

I was expecting more faces to appear but I guess it's nice (and sensible!) to introduce new faces over the next few weeks and months rather than overload the first few shows.

 

Overall, there seemed to be a nice flow, very promising for me.

[Zack T 171]

I watched AEW live, I was absolutely not going to miss this historic first. I downloaded NXT and watched the first hour of that last night, will watch the 2nd hour on my lunch break today.

 

Cody/Sammy - Hella good. Real nice to see that the live crowd was very hyped and loud, that's so important for the atmosphere of the show. Cody was on point, so was Sammy. They had some crazy spots, and I really liked the story telling. If you watched the "On the road to TNT" mini-episodes that AEW posts on YouTube, you may have seen a segment they did to focus on Sammy and he told us a bit about him. He came off very real and like he was just fighting for his dream, pretty much like a good guy. But we all know he's a prick, and he showed it on TV. I LOVED the spot where he pulled Brandi in front of Cody's suicide dive, I saw it coming but I didn't expect him to do it cause of the WWE's taboo on men hitting women, even accidentally. I don't mean to imply that I want men on women violence in wrestling, but I have 0 problems with spots like this because, come on, that's just such a lowlife move and it was glorious. I also appreciated that while Cody won, he didn't attempt the Cross Rhodes. He rolled up Sammy after that shooting star press counter, and that was that. So while Sammy lost, it was only just barely and he never let Cody hit his finish. Also, the reluctant handshake by Sammy afterwards was very cool because of what happened later. But in the context of the moment right here and now, it was a begrudging sign of respect but not turning over a new leaf because Jericho attacks Cody and Sammy just puts up his hands like "Ah, well, I guess I'll just see myself out, you can handle that". Also, good attack by Jericho.

 

MJF and Brandon Cutler was not bad at all. Not as good as Cody and Sammy but it certainly was worth the time it had. MJF is golden on the mic and I love how good he is - We all appreciate and respect his talent, you could hear the audience cheer as his music hit and he came out. But as soon as he started talking, he got everyone to boo him and that's rad. Anyway, I think we all expected MJF to win this one, Brandon Cutler strikes me as a plucky underdog midcard guy for the time being. Also, kind of interesting how MJF proclaims to be Cody's best friend but he didn't help him out when Jericho attacked him a couple minutes before this, and also at the end of the night. Hmmmm :eek: Also, should be noted that's 2 matches in a row with a little bit of referee trickery. Not too bad, but we need to get that under control.

 

I totally loved the Kevin Smith/Jason Mewes appearance, it was unexpected and I love those guys. I thought that was a good way to give us all a breather, add some celebrity to the mix, and while it got a bit messy when Jack Evans and Angelico came out, it was still alright. I was just glad it didn't lead to an impromptu tag team match :p Also, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes modeled the new AEW Tag Team Championships and you can see pictures of those online. They're good looking belts! I'd say them + the NXT tag titles are my favorite tag title designs.

 

Pac vs Adam Page was good. I can't help but feel like these 2 didn't have as much chemistry as they wanted though, something just felt off the whole match to me. It wasn't off by much, it's not like they were messing up hardly, but I mean more like PAC in particular seemed at a loss at times for what to do next and kept resorting to his spinning kick to the gut. Anyway, loved the finish. I love when PAC comes down with the Black/Red/Green Arrow and then locks in the Brutalizer. I mean come on, how emphatic is that? I thought Adam Page passed out but they kept saying he tapped out, so I dunno, maybe I just didn't quite catch it that way. I'm happy with it either way though. PAC is now 2-0 and has won via submission over both Kenny Omega and Adam Page, both of whom were the only other 2 guys involved in the AEW World title picture from the start besides Chris Jericho, so you gotta think PAC is being lined up to go after the AEW World title if this keeps up. I love the wins/losses matter mentality. Adds a good layer of believability and realism to it. Unfortunately, this match did have a 3rd referee mistake spot in it, so that's 3 matches in a row now. Come on guys, tighten it up just a little more!

 

Riho and Nyla Rose was my personal favorite match of the night. It had some sloppy moments but those moments mostly happened in such a way that it just made it look more real than anything else, and I love that. It was such a physical grueling battle and Nyla Rose looked like an absolute monster. Catching Riho out of mid air multiple times, beating her down mercilessly, and Riho looked like a fighter who refused to die and did some impressive stuff (The northern lights off the top rope for example, I dunno how she even lifted Nyla Rose but woooow). I had personally picked Nyla Rose to win this one, but I'm happy either way, Nyla will be champion someday. Britt Baker was on commentary, not the you'd know because she barely said anything. But oh well, sometimes guest commentary goes that way. Interesting post match shenanigans here with Michael Nakazawa getting attacked by Nyla, Nyla attacking Riho again, and Kenny saving Riho. I thought for a second we'd see Nyla and Kenny go at it and I kind of do want to see that :eek:

 

SCU's pre-taped video promo was quite good, and I also enjoyed the Lucha Bros/SCU confrontation on the stage. Great work.

 

It was also nice to see the backstage feed of Kenny/Bucks talking, followed by Jericho/LAX talking. Jim Ross said "we're gonna just eavesdrop on Jericho here" and while he didn't say much of anything important (he was telling them this is a super important night for him and for them), it was just a little different from how WWE normally presents those types of segments, and that made it feel good for me.

 

Kenny/Bucks vs Jericho/LAX was quite good. My one complaint is when Jon Moxley interfered. AS AWESOME AS THAT WAS, it doesn't really make much sense that he slid in the ring and attacked Kenny Omega RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE and the ref is just like "Ah, well, you guys go work that out then" and didn't call for a DQ. I understand that AEW has made a point of saying the referee's have discretion about the calls they make, but this was very clearly a time for a disqualification. It did lead to Moxley Death Rider DDT'ing Omega through a glass table, that was absolutely brutal and made me literally yell out in horror as I saw it happen. I hope they didn't suffer bad cuts, jesus christ. Anyway, the match became 2 on 3 and the Bucks rallied great, but in the end Jericho showed why he's AEW champ and caught Nick I think as he springboarded for the Meltzer Driver with a Codebreaker, then hit Matt with a Judas Effect soon after and that was it.

 

What followed after was a great ending to a great show - Cody ran down to get some retribution on Jericho and help out his buddies, but Sammy comes out and kicks him in the junk :O then Dustin Rhodes comes out (which is fantastic, I'm glad he's gonna be somewhat wrestling active), followed by the debut of Jack Hager :eek: I had seen the rumors that he might be there, but you never know for sure. But he looked great, and he delivered an absolutely brutal gutwrench powerbomb on Dustin Rhodes onto this little table stand thing, and the damn thing didn't break which just made it that much more impactful honestly. I've always thought Jack could be better than he was in WWE, but WWE screwed up his World title push royally and he never recovered. Let's see what he can do!

 

I dunno for sure if Jericho/LAX/Sammy/Jack are an official stable or if they just came together because of wanting to make an impact tonight, but it could be a Jericho stable vs The Elite being set up. I'm interested to see how this plays out.

 

Overall, great show. From what I've read, AEW beat NXT in the ratings, debuting at a 1.4 rating (NXT's first 1 hour debut a couple weeks ago debuted at 1.1, the week after that was 0.9, and I believe this week was around 0.8)

Edited October 4, 2019 by Zack T

[Poppy 31]

At this point I think they need to leave the commentary team as it is now and let them get used to it. There's some good chemistry there and the stumbles will smooth out with time.

[Kam 243]

I thought that was a good 2nd episode, it felt like they took it up a gear with the matches.

 

Great start with the tag match, both teams looked good.

 

Darby was the right choice for Jericho.

 

Ladies match was OK but they seem to struggle in a few places.

 

It feels strange seeing Moxley change his attire after seeing him wrestling in jeans for so long.

 

Dustin continues to impress! :love:

 

Good brawl to end the show.

[Zack T 171]

Overall, solid show. It feels like they're getting way better about commercial break timing (Honestly each time they went to commercial break during a match, it felt smooth). The camera work is getting even better, and the commentary team is gelling well.

 

Young Bucks vs Private Party was quite good. I felt it was an odd choice to spend 2 or 3 minutes just having the commentators talk, THEN go into a video package to hype the match before finally getting to the entrances. Felt like we burned 7 or 8 minutes at the very start of the show just sitting around waiting, and I imagine that was worse for those in attendance. But once we got to the entrances, everyone was all in. I've been saying ever since the brackets were announced that Private Party's gonna pull off the upset win and they did, and I loved it. They looked legit, and Young Bucks aren't hurt at all by this loss. They'll be tag champs sooner or later and I'm sure they'll have something to do in the meantime (Like deal with the Inner Circle/LAX). I don't think Private Party are gonna win the tournament, but this win went a long way to establish them as a team to take seriously.

 

Darby and Havoc was a good little match, it served to prove to us that these guys can actually wrestle without getting all extreme. Havoc still managed to go extreme with his biting (what a jerk), and Darby endured plenty of punishment as he does. I love that flip over stunner he does. Figured Darby would win this match as Darby vs Jericho makes more sense than Havoc vs Jericho does, and it was good. First time I've seen the Coffin Drop successfully executed, it looked good.

 

I rather liked Jericho's promo, it served to introduce us to all those guys and you gotta remember that this is still a fledgling promotion. Those of us who've watched all the AEW shows up til this point know who Sammy is, but I'd only heard of LAX beforehand. We all remember Jack Swagger but that's not who Jake Hager is anymore. I really liked how Jericho handled the "We The People" chants and shut that crap down. I think Jake was struggling to contain his smile. (JAKE HAGER CORPSING? BETTER SEND FOR THE MAN)

 

Enjoyed the Women's tag match, I love Emi Sakura for her gimmick. But the wrestling was good too, and I especially like the intensity between Bea and Britt. Riho is full of fire as always. Matches like these help mask AEW's women's division problems...in that they still don't have much of one. But at least now their roster is at least as deep as Raw or Smackdown's was around 2016's draft. May or may not remember, but each show basically only had 6 or 7 women on it. Smackdown for example had a 6 way SD Women's title match around September 2016 and it was literally every woman on their roster. So we're getting there. At least the few women they do have are much higher quality wrestlers.

 

Moxley and Spears was good. I was hoping Omega would interfere and cost Moxley the win but I suppose it makes sense that Kenny wouldn't help Spears win after what Spears did to Cody. Leads me to be somewhat worried for Shawn Spears cause he's 0-2 now in singles competition in AEW despite this revamp/heel turn he's gone through and getting Tully Blanchard to accompany him. Loved PAC on commentary. Him not saying much and just stewing was perfect for him, and when he did say things, it made sense and you could just feel his bitterness and anger as he spoke. Quite excellent.

 

Main event was solid, I figured Jericho/Sammy would win. I just don't see Jericho taking a loss to anyone for awhile, but I'd imagine his first loss might possibly be in a tag match (especially if he doesn't get pinned). But on this night, him and Sammy get the win. The match itself was real solid, I loved the back and forth of it. I really appreciated commentary talking a lot about the experience of Rhodes and of Jericho and it translated well in the ring too. The interference was mostly well done by Jake, although that last clothesline he illegally nailed as he ran through the ring led to the referee sort of seeing it...he looked over his shoulder and I think he could see Jake exiting the ring but he definitely couldn't see the actual hit so who knows. Minor note, fans and commentary didn't seem to catch it so it doesn't matter. The post-match shenanigans were great, though it felt like we kept reaching a conclusion only for it to add more and more. First was when Cody finally came out and attacked, then left laying. Could've ended it there, but then MJF ran down and did his stuff (which was a great tease by the way, I love how they keep teasing him to betray Cody and he keeps on NOT doing that), could've ended it after Jericho hit the Codebreaker on MJF, but then the Young Bucks came out and took the ring. COULD HAVE ENDED IT THERE, but then Darby Allin came skating down the ramp and olley-kicked into Jericho (which was absolutely awesome), and we finally end after Jericho gets in the last word. I REALLY liked Darby Allin getting the last physicality in, because Jericho completely ignored him/Havoc in his promo earlier in the night like he wasn't even thinking about those guys, and honestly I wasn't thinking about Darby either as we went through this whole main event and post-match stuff. But Darby getting the last shot in reminds us, HEY, someone else is gunning for Jericho, don't forget about Darby! - That's good booking right there.

 

Good stuff. AEW continuing to do well and improve.

[Kam 243]

Just caught my first episode of AEW Dark, they're available for free on Youtube each week:

 

I thought it was really good, some nice matches, good recaps and loved the little segment with Cody interviewing Aubrey Edwards - that was a nice touch.

[Zack T 171]

The SCU/Best Friends match and the pre-match attack went for quite awhile. But at the same time, it didn't make anything else on the show feel rushed. I was disappointed the Best Friends lost cause they're my favorite tag team in AEW and I thought they'd make it to round 2 or even the finals, but I kind of saw the writing on the wall once Lucha Bros attacked SCU and Scorpio Sky stepped in for Christopher Daniels. It could've gone the other way though, where Lucha Bros interference cost SCU their spot and SCU retaliates later to cost them their match against Jurassic Express but that's not what we got. Seems like the finals will come down to Lucha Bros vs SCU. That's cool with me. Hard to tell who's gonna win that one.

 

I appreciated how PAC ended up taking a very rare pin for him these days (I believe that's only his 2nd pinfall loss in 2 years), but he got screwed over pretty hard with the Death Rider DDT from Moxley, then the V Trigger from Kenny, the flipping lariat from Adam Page, and then the Deadshot. I don't think that loss will hurt PAC whatsoever.

 

Speaking of Lucha Bros and Jurassic Express, it's a shame Luchasaurus got injured before the show and couldn't participate, but holy hell Marko Stunt impressed the crap out of me. I've not seen him actually wrestle beyond the few spots he's done in AEW, so I was under the impression that he was a small guy who loved wrestling and knew how to do a few cool spots and could take sick bumps and had some charisma. But apparently he can really really goooooooo, they were an amazing team together. I also loved that Marko rode Jungle Boy to the ring, hahahaha. Jurassic Express is MONEY.

 

LAX got an easy win and that's fine, though they could've sped it up a little bit. Took their sweet time with their entrance and kind of jerked around during the match too. But nothing else felt like it was hurt by this, so it's ultimately fine.

 

Riho and Britt Baker was excellent, I liked the ending a lot. Britt beat herself, basically. Well done.

 

I really liked Darby and Jericho. Jericho made damn sure that Darby looked like a star and Darby lived up on his end of the bargain too. I mean Jericho resorted to taping Darby's hands behind Darby's back and STILL seemed like he couldn't handle Darby, so Jake Hager has to get involved and interfere against a man with his hands literally taped up behind his back. Darby looked legit, and while it sucks he submitted, it was also a very sensible submission. I don't see Darby submitting under normal circumstances, but he was just completely trapped and unable to fight anymore. I think he verbally gave up, but it's possible the ref stopped the match because Darby wouldn't be able to defend himself anymore. I loved it, Darby's stock rises even in defeat, and Jericho looks like more of an asshole in victory. Very well done.

[Kam 243]

Really enjoyed the show this week, it felt like they really stacked the show.

 

Tag opener was good. Are Best Friends meant to be faces? I thought they were but then we saw Chuck Taylor biting Scorpio's foot.

 

Gutted we didn't get to see Luchasaurus, I thought it may end up as a squash match but was surprised to see Marco and Jack get so much offense in. There was some nice humour in it too. Lucha Brothers are on another level, I hope they win the tournament.

 

Women's match was good, it's the best I've seen of Riho in AEW but Britt still hasn't impressed me as much as others on the roster.

 

The tag match with PAC/Moxley vs Page/Omega was excellent.

 

Darby impressed in the main event, some really cool moments considering he has his hands tied behind his back.

 

I liked the post-match celebration too, I think that's the first time I've seen Hager smile in AEW :)

[Poppy 31]

I know most fans probably aren't concerned about the women's matches and that's why AEW hasn't made it a priority to sign more of them. But, I really wish they had more females with personality AND wrestling talent. Right now it seems to be an either-or situation. That's my only complaint though. I have no idea what's going with Britt. Maybe it's the injuries that are throwing her off.