And as of right now, MJF is still not in the arena. (Sorry for the clickbait preview. He’s not at the arena and nobody knows where he is. He’s not in communication with the company.)
Well, he showed up, so I guess this was a pretty impressive worked shoot.
Yeah. Did the job, too.
The six-man tag of Death Triangle vs House of Black blew me the eff away. HoB came out made up like undead vikings, and T came out in Half black Half white Luchadashery. It was spectacular occultism, like a Death Metal concert bringing out the Valkyries to impale the elks. Each participant performed amazing maneuverability, sometimes breaking one signature move in half and finishing it with another. HoB got a cheat win, but with a creative twist, officially debuting Julia Hart to the Dark Side. This is one feud that needs to continue for years.
AEW works long feuds well because mostly they aren’t rammed down the fans throats’ week after week after week. It also works to keep the teams out of the title picture (for the most part). It’s booking by-the-numbers, but it works, and it is working a lot better than WWE’s current booking.
And now Punk is world champion.
Here’s hoping TK keeps the strap on him for at least 435 days.
MJF and Wardlow. Two wrestlers with great performance skills but lacking in virtually all technical skills. They were an embarrassment trying to demonstrate some basic wrestling techniques. Good thing they were the curtain jerkers, Even the weird duo in the pre-show showed more skills than that.
The rest of the night was up and down. It was obvious how much better the veterans were a wrestling than the newcomers, except for that absurd calamity match with Jericho and Moxley.
Great tag team match with the Hardys and the Jacksons. Must have been a pretty painful match for the Hardys but both of them are used to that by now.
Jade Cargill and Anna Jay put in the effort but things were going wrong. Both of them appeared injured but kept on going despite fucking up some moves, good effort, a little bit short on execution. Considering Cargill is in her first year of wrestling I’m very impressed.
Samoa Joe and Adam Baker (nee Cole) put on a decent match. Hats off to Joe for really working it and a decent sell job by Cole to make it look like everybody didn’t know he was going to win anyway.
Dr. Britt Baker DMD and Ruby Whateverhernameisthistime could have done much better. Britt’s put a little more effort into her wrestling moves, lately but she’s still lazy in the ring and I still can’t figure why Ruby has a job as a wrestler.
Thunderosa and Serena Deeb put on a great show, both are excellent athletes, they need to tell a better story in the ring.
The remaining tag team and singles AEW championship matches were rather plebian. Good effort in the tag team match but both of them came on way too late. They weren’t highlighting the show the way main events should, too much action had gone on before. For Punk and Page it was pretty tired stuff really, and a series of steady fuckups by both of them trying to do the slingshot lariat. That’s Page’s signature move which he cannot do very well himself. He can barely right himself after doing the flip over the top rope so he looks like he’s falling into his opponent instead of hitting them with any force. Yeah, Punk won, big deal, it was a yawner.
AEW Dark Taz/Excalibur moment of the day
Short episode, mainly filler matches before Double or Nothing.
- Carly Bravo could hand out $1000 bills and everybody would still hate him, followed by speculation over whether $1000 bills exist (they were discontinued in 1969, but are technically still in circulation).
- What would Serpentico and the Wingmen be called: hunks, thunks, thugs, punks?
- Taz met Coolio, wasn’t too impressed with him, thinks he’s younger (He’s right–Coolio was born in 1963, Taz in 1967).
- “Meat Man broke up all the meat.” “That sounded weird.”
Jamie Hayter vs. Danika Della Rouge
Hayter makes her entrance to techno music.
Taz: Gotta get that club, that techno, is techno still a thing?
Caprice Coleman: Uh, it is today.
Taz: All right. It kinda reminds me back in the day, I used to wrestle in the UK, I go to the clubs you know, dance and drink a whole bunch. It was balls. I danced and stuff.
Caprice: My feet are moving now. It’s like I can’t help it!
Taz: That’s what I’m saying! It’s the techno. It does stuff to ya. sings along
Ex: Taz, when we were in Vegas last weekend, you somehow missed every single billboard advertising a DJ set at a casino.
…and Punk has now vacated the title due to an injury he suffered on Wednesday.
Why can’t we have nice things?
I’m surprised he didn’t die. What is he, like 70 or 80 years old?
The interim AEW World Champion will be decided in a match between the winner of a battle royal to open next week’s Dynamite, and Jon Moxley.
By the way, Punk did not vacate the title. He’ll challenge the interim champion when he comes back, to determine the undisputed champion.
Tony Khan decided Punk did not ‘vacate’ the title, which I read as this is likely a short recovery surgery. Still, the terminology makes no difference.
What I’m rwading now is that Moxley will fight the winner of the battle royal to establish a #1 contender, and then that winner will fight Hiroshi Tanahashi ar Forbidden Door for the interim championship.
They probably could’ve been clearer about this on the air, and Jericho saying that Punk “relinquished” the title sure didn’t help.
Well, poop. I DVR’ed Rampage, avoided the spoilers in my news feed, then read this thread before watching. The Dope is quicker than a hiccup, as JR would say.
Why are we having a pay-per-view with no Roman Reigns, Usos, Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, or Riddle? I have practically no desire to see it.
i think something going on with mjf and khans trying to spin it like a work … that would of worked about 1995 or earlier but things move too quick these days …
As an Asuka-stan, I’m willing to sit with the PPV muted until her match, and turn it off after. Cody/Seth is intriguing, but if it’s the last match, I won’t make it. The rest…is anyone clamoring to see Lashley vs Omos in a Cell? And WWE can’t even be bothered to put the secondary titles on the PPV. Why even have them?
U.S. Title is on the show. Theory ("Don’t call me Austin, even though I still wear an AT as my logo) is defending against Mustafa Ali, who’s been made to look like a complete jobber with all the losses he’s been suffering.
I sit corrected!
Asuka triple-threat is first up. Looks like an early night for me. I consider that a good thing.
ETA: Maybe I won’t unmute, though. 60 seconds in and I already want to smack Graves in the mouth (and yes, I know he’s mostly channeling Vince).
The Lashley match is actually a two-on-one match, regular handicap, not a Cell: Lashley vs. Omos and MVP. Can we finally move on to new feuds after this fucking show?