that’s a somewhat decent card although I don’t see either sting or Jericho doing much but cornettes drive through played some of the after-match press thing from a jay white match and if he fights as hard as he talks it might be interesting to see him in aew and you know the real fight is going to be him and okada the aew guys are just extras in this fight
does new japan have women’s wrestling? or do they leave that up to the all-girl groups like SHIMMER etc
New Japan doesn’t have its own women’s division, but SHIMMER is owned by their parent company, Bushiroad, so there’s a bit of cross-promotion. There was a SHIMMER match on Wrestle Kingdom this year.
No Will Osprey? I was really impressed with his AEW showings. He’s quick, utilizes some cool counter maneuvers, and sets himself up to receive and sell the opponent’s signature moves like a crash-test dummy.
I hadn’t considered Castagnoli as Saber’s mystery opponent. I thought it might be Johnny Gargano, but Castagnoli fits DBD’s description better. I’m not a fan of Saber, though. He doesn’t really sell for his opponents. He’ll take the signature move, then wriggle out of it in underwhelming fashion, and go back to his “I’m the Harry Potter of wrestling” schtick. He’s a prime example of veterans’ criticisms that young wrestlers don’t know pace.
I’m also wondering if Kenny Omega will emerge from the shadows. He’s big in both feds and it seems odd to exclude him from this card.
Riddle’s “Randy Orton” Love is over-done and cringe-worthy. He is go to turn heel on Orton when he returns isn’t he?
Depends on the real deal with Randy. A Riddle-Orton feud could reach epic proportions. But if Randy needs to take it easy for a while a tag team will be better for that. But eventually they’d have to turn them on each other. If Randy is able he has to be the heel. The feud should end by Riddle retiring him. But playing up RKBro just increases the level of betrayal ahead. These matches could rival the Sammartino-Zbyszko feud.3
ahh k someone asked me a while back and I just remembered to ask
My mistake. He’ll be defending the IWGP US championship against Orange Cassidy.
AFAIK he’s still out injured.
Stardom not Shimmer. Shimmer is an American company. Bushi Road owns NJPW and Stardom (full company name is World Wonder Ring Stardom).
And I now muat amend myself again, as NJPW has announced that Tomohiro Ishii is out due to injury, and Clark Connors will be taking his place in the AAC match.
Impact Wrestling star Gisele Shaw has come out as transgender.
Really digging Forbidden Door so far. Every match has had a big fight feel. Even late sub Clark Connors looked fantastic. I did like seeing Sting no-sell the Superkick Party.
Always good to see Jeff “Matanza” Cobb in the ring, and I can’t help but feel he and Great O-Khan got ripped off losing their titles without being pinned. I guess that will lead to an IWGP angle, where they’ll get the titles back after FTR enjoys some double-title photo ops.
And ZSJ’s mystery opponent is Claudio Castagnoli!
Wish I had been able to watch tonight, but had other commitments–I was a huge fan of him for his long, underutilized career in WWE, hoping he finds more success.
What’s striking to me is how much the audience knows and cheers for the NJPW stars, even singing along to their entrance music. I can’t help but notice how the Japanese announcer is sandbagging the non-NJPW intros though.
I’m kind of glad they cut Claudio’s Big Swing short. It shows he doesn’t need to do WWE shit to get over any more.
Claudio was doing the swing before WWE. Here he is in his Chikara days delivering a 100-rotation swing to Grizzly Redwood.
wow aew is hurting literally and this was before today’s PPV
And he got to close out the show with it.
Overall, I’d say this was a pretty solid show - not the best AEW’s put on, and not as good as it could’ve been if so many people weren’t on the DL at the moment, but the matches were good and the finishes were satisfying. Orange Cassidy vs. Will Ospreay was probably the best match IMO.
AEW Dark Taz/Excalibur moment of the day
Taz was on for Dark’s 150th episode.
And now for the Moment of the Day, The Jones Extended Family.
Ariya Daivari vs. Caleb Konley
Ex; Konley, Leaping Stomp, crashes on Daivari for a 2-count. Konley, a little too confident there, didn’t have the distribution on the shoulders of Daivari.
Taz: Distribution? Good word. Been workin’ on that thesaurus. I’m proud of ya, brother.
Ex: Thesaurus Jones over here.
…
Ex: Of course, Thesaurus Jones is the tag team partner of Encyclopedia Brown, that’s been well established here.
Taz: Right, well, they’re cousins. You know there’s a relation there.
Ex: I mean, of course I do. But Remix Jones and Thesaurus Jones are not related at all.
Taz: No, but their uncle is Rand McNally. For all older folks that are on YouTube.
Ex: Rand McNally is Thesaurus Jones’ step-uncle.
Crabs, not cramps (possible autocorrect issue?)
Taz called the wrong spot on the post-match replay, jumping to the closing rather than a late match dive before the closing.
Taz wore orange boots once, but donated them to Amber Nova (because Taz wore thigh highs).
Despite my pedantry, great job at capturing the interplay.
One you missed, when 10 was holding jobber up for vertical suplex, Excalibur joked about Mark Henry asking how long 10 was going to hold a different jobber up there on a previous Elevation (after sarcastically praising Mark Henry’s pre-match preparations).