CASINO BATTLE ROYALE (ADAM PAGE) (16:00): This was the first official show for the new wrestling company, AEW. Wrestling hasn't had a big, new company in a really long time, right? And have they ever had a new company start out this big and popular before? The one thing that this reminds me of is the formation of Image Comics way back in the early 90's. That was when all of the best, most popular artists quit Marvel to form their own company. Image Comics started a surge in popularity in comics. The early 90's were the biggest years for comic books ever...and then there was a freefall. But Image Comics is still around today, almost thirty years later. It never did eclipse Marvel or DC, but it definitely did more good than bad. AEW probably won't eclipse the WWE...but after watching this show, it's definitely a great start and a great adrenaline boost to pro-wrestling. This was an awesome show, one of the most entertaining PPV's I've seen in years. What helped was the raucous, deafening crowd. The frothing-at-the-mouth-crowd reminded me of those packed, insane crowds that threw trash in the ring when the N.W.O. entered the ring on Nitro to close a show...or on RAW when 'Stone Cold' drove a beer truck into the arena. Remember how popular wrestling was in the late 90's? This show made it feel like it was back. While the WWE is mildly amusing at times and NXT always has great, boisterous crowds...this AEW crowd and show felt like something I haven't seen in a very long time, something fresh, kinetic, alive, thrilling. It was definitely a memorable show and one for the ages. Now, of course, they're going to have to keep this going when they have to do a weekly 2 hour TV show on TNT in the Fall and everyone will probably get tired of seeing the same guys over and over again. Who knows, though? They set up their future the best possible way; with a wild, awesome first show. This Battle Royale was on the free pre-show. Page was supposed to wrestle PAC but PAC apparently isn't allowed to lose since he's Dragon Gate's champ so that match was scrapped. 'Hangman' Page won the Battle Royale and will go on to face Jericho for the title in Chicago on Labor Day Weekend at All Out. This Battle Royale was fun but certainly nothing spectacular or anything. **1/2
KIP SABIAN vs. SAMMY GUEVERA (10:00): I didn't watch this match. You figured I would've...since the pre-show was free and this was on the pre-show and I didn't buy the show. Such a horrible fan.
SOCAL UNCENSORED vs. CIMA, T-HAWK & EL LINDAMAN (13:40): This opened the show. I should let you know that this show was a $50 PPV...which no one really does anymore except for Impact. Everyone streams now, which is cheaper (usually $10 a month), so paying $50 is kind of ridiculous. What they should have done is made their first show either free or cheap to get new fans to get hooked. Every illegal, free stream I tried to watch eventually got cut off...which means that AEW is trying a lot harder to block their content that most other companies do. I just watched it on a half hour delay for free when the sites would post the show in parts. This match was fucking incredible. In terms of action, it was probably the best. Cima, T-Hawk, and El Lindaman are wrestlers from OWE, a Chinese wrestling company that Cima started after he left Dragon Gate. By the end of this is was just total non-stop, damaging moves in a crazy frenzy and it was insane. ***1/2
DR. BRITT BAKER, D.M.D. vs. NYLA ROSE vs. KYLIE RAE vs. AWESOME KONG (11:10): Kong, where the hell have you been? I remember her matches in TNA back in the day against Gail Kim were some of the best women's wrestling matches I had ever seen. Then she went to WWE for a short time then left and disappeared. Well she's back. And it was cool seeing her destroy all of these women. Other then that, there wasn't much to this. **
BEST FRIENDS vs. ANGELICO & JACK EVANS (12:35): Chuckie T. and Beretta are semi-entertaining but never in classics. I will miss seeing them in New Japan, though. This started off fairly bland but by the end it turned into a pretty entertaining bout. **
HIKARU SHIDA, RIHO ABE & RYO MIZUNAMI vs. AJA KONG, YUKA SAKAZAKI & EMI SAKURA (13:10): So the idea behind this match is that AEW wants to showcase Japanese women wrestlers on their shows the same way that WCW used to showcase the Luchadores. That's a great idea, as Joshi is something different and unique and usually fun. I had no idea who any of these wrestlers were, but AJA Kong is a big, fat woman that is apparently pretty famous in Japan and she definitely was the show stealer. **
CODY vs. DUSTIN RHODES (22:30): So this is when the show became legend. Who the fuck would've guessed that the best match on this show was going to end up being boring Cody Rhodes vs. Golddust? Who knew? I'm not even sure why they were wrestling or if they were supposed to hate each other, but this match was epic and had everything. It was both horrifying in a shield-your-eyes type of a way because Dustin had a gash on his forehead that poured blood all over everything for twenty minutes and then it was heartfelt and emotional and made me actually cry when Cody, post-match, told a bloody, crumpled Dustin that, "I don't need a friend, I don't need a partner, I need my older brother," and they hugged while the roof blew off the place. I can't even begin to fathom why they crowd was so into this match from the beginning. Who gives a shit about these two? Has either one ever even been in a good match before? Cody couldn't even get a good match out of Omega. But the crowd was ferocious and loud during this entire match and it was great. Definitely the highlight of the show. After this match, Brett Hart came out to unveil the new AEW championship belt and then a MJF came out to roast Hart and Adam Page and then Luke Perry's son, Jungle Boy, and a few others came out to beat up MJF. I think the one thing that this show did well was set up a lot of potential future matches...which was a good thing. ***1/2
THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (24:55): Well they did a bunch of suicidal, crazy moves as expected. One in particular maneuver had Penta giving one of the Bucks a Canadian Destroyer on the ring apron after Penta jumped over another wrestler on the apron. A leaping flip DDT on the apron, basically. And there were more crazy moves. The whole match was pretty much crazy moves. And maybe it was just that this came after the Cody/Dustin match but I actually thought this match could've been better. The Bucks retained their AAA tag titles. ***
CHRIS JERICHO vs. KENNY OMEGA (27:00): I guess I'm just a realist. Or an idiot. But I haven't particularly enjoyed either Jericho/Omega match. Jericho is too old and too fat to be doing matches like this. And while it wasn't a bad match, it never really heated up into anything great like a typical Omega classic. By the end it was just a sloppy mess of awkward moves went wrong. Omega must have broke his nose because it was bleeding. Jericho won with his new maneuver, which is an elbow to the face (lame). The post-match was excellent, though. Dean Ambrose, now back to being John Moxley, came out of the crowd to a thundering roar of approval, and delivered his DDT finisher to Jericho and the referee. Then he battled Omega around the ring and up to the entranceway where he DDT'd Omega on top of a set piece of poker chips then threw him down onto a ramp prop thing. What a crazy, wild ending to a killer show. This match was just okay but the post-match was fantastic.
I can't even really describe how hot this crowd was during the whole show. Maybe it's just because I'm used to watching dead crowds at WWE events and the usual, quiet crowds in Japan but this Vegas crowd was animalistic. It's as if they've been waiting patiently since the Attitude Era to finally erupt. Finally, a new, fresh, cool promotion has arrived. And they've welcomed it with open arms. And now things are getting interesting. **1/2
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