That would be Kylie Rae, and upon looking her up it doesn’t look like she’s ever worked for WWE.
You may, however, have recognized Leva Bates, AKA “Blue Pants”, as “The Librarian” in the backstage promo earlier.
Anyone got any idea who the two guys that crashed the end of that last match are?
'Cause even a friend of mine who writes for Wrestling Observer doesn’t have a clue.
I’m digging this so far. It’s not polished, but it’s more real. I like that it’s not sanitized for family viewing. Little things are different here and there, like an announcer that wears a mask and goes by an alias. He’s otherwise a regular announcer. No story behind it. Just kind of an eccentricity that doesn’t need to be explained.
Excalibur is one of the founders and owners of PWG, and he’s retired from wrestling, but he still wears his mask for wrestling appearances.
Holy shit, the Rhodes brothers put on an epic!!!
It was the best of Dusty booking. Dustin was squirting blood like a supersoaker. It was like watching a trainwreck, seeing all the wrecked cars get back in line, and wreck again. I was real concerned for Dustin, working as long as he did with the constant blood loss. But fuck yeah, that was Dusty bleeding like a stuck pig when the Andersons turned on him in a cage match.
I do not regret buying this at all. This has already beat to oblivion any WWE PPV I’ve ever seen.
Bret Hart presenting the AEW belt was a nice touch.
I think the 10-count rule is more like a 100-count.
They did say it was “at the referee’s discretion”, like Lucha Underground did.
Damn. I forgot how awesome Fenix and Pentagon Jr. are. The Young Bucks came dressed in Elvis jumpsuits. That was a well-paced match. They kept the action constant and steady.
The very first TNA show featured a team called “The Flying Elvis Impersonators”. I’d like to think the Bucks’ outfits were an homage to them.
Overall, this was an amazing show. Great matches with great athleticism and storytelling, clean finishes, and satisfying finishes even when the winner wasn’t who I was rooting for.
If AEW can keep this up in future shows, then they’ll be the biggest competition WWE has had in 20 years.
FU off the top of the stage!
What a way to end a show.
Kind of an anticlimactic way to end the show, I was about to write, then Jon Moxley invaded.
I didn’t expect Jericho to win, but he somehow turned an underwhelming finish into establishing himself as top heel. It’s like what Baron Corbin’s been trying to do, and a master showing effortlessly how it’s done. Jericho might have put on a belly, but he was definitely edgier and unhinged without WWE controlling his reins. Kenny Omega could have been the John Cena of this fed, but AEW’s not trying to win over the kindergarten crowd.
WWE should worry.
Agreed. I don’t think they could’ve put on a better debut show. I was never once pissed off by a finish, or disappointed, or thinking “fuck this company”, or wondering what the hell the bookers saw in the people who were going over that I couldn’t.
If nothing else, then maybe this’ll light a fire under WWE’s butt and get them to stop with the slapdash booking, absence of continuity, endless talky segments and no-contests instead of actual wrestling, and the ongoing and baffling push of Baron Corbin as a top heel/person who appears if you step into an Applebee’s and demand to speak to the manager.
Hope these people leave WWE for AEW:: Luke Harper, all of sAni+Y, Ricochet, Aleister Black, The Revival, War Machine, Samoa Joe, the Riott Squad, Ali, KO, Sami Zayne, Andrade & Vega
Be nice if these people came as well, but AEW doesn’t need them: AJ Styles, Seth Rollins, Finn, the Hardyz, Nakamura, Asuka, Kairi Sane
NXT can stay because in a perfect world, they would divorce from WWE and be AEW’s real competition.
A full hour into RAW, and we had only one thing that could even loosely be considered a match: Shane has Drew McIntyre beat up some poor schlub from Roman’s family for a full three minutes, and then drags him into the ring to have him tap to a triangle hold. They beat up on him some more, and only THEN does Roman come in to make the save.
The Kofi segments were mildly entertaining; that’s the match I’ll be tuning in to Super ShowDown for. (Also, Goldberg vs. The Undertaker, just for the sake of morbid curiosity). But I’m done with RAW for the night. Anything interesting happens, I’ll check it out on YouTube.
Sami Zayne raised some eyebrows in his segment, the Electric Chair. He said he’d answer questions from the audience, but they were reciting lines the writers gave them. Sami said “Come on, ask me personal questions. Ask me about my love life. I happen to be a great kisser. Ask me about AEW!” <GASP>
This was during 3rd hour, which WWE is supposedly devoting to edgier content, but knowing how Vince gets when the competition is acknowledged, I’m pretty sure that was off script. If Sami gets buried, we’ll know — wait, he already is buried.
This is a terrible decision and would just turn AEW into WWE 2.
WWE’s problem is they have SO much talent but only use the same 6 guys. AEW has the benefit of a much smaller roster, so when the guys are on TV it’s a bigger deal.
I’m completely neutral on AEW, I don’t want it to succeed nor do I want it to fail (the asshole part in me wants it to fail to shut up the people on the internet, but that’s just cuz I’m an asshole) but I think we shouldn’t base the future off ONE show. Good for them that it was a good show, let’s see where we’re at in another 2 years.