ROH FINAL BATTLE

 

Arlington, Texas

JEFF COBB vs. MASCARA DORADA (6:59): This was a good show, though not a great one. It was entertaining and had a small but hot crowd. I'm still kind of confused as to what the point of ROH is. If it's supposed to be a seperate brand than AEW, then why were the majority of the wrestlers on this show AEW wrestlers? Jeff Cobb isn't a ROH or an AEW wrestler. As far as I know, neither is Mascara Dorada, who I think used to wrestle in WWE. I forget his name in WWE, though, but remember he was misused. This was a fun opener on the Zero Hour pre-show. They did 4 pre-show matches. The last live wrestling show I went to was a ROH show in December 2019 at the ECW Arena and Jeff Cobb was in the main event. Alas, Marty Scurll was also in the main event, and sadly the "Me Too" movement curtailed his career. **1/2

THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (ANGELO PARKER & MATT MENARD) vs. CHEESEBURGER & ELI ISOM) (6:00): The crowd tonight was definitely an ROH crowd because they chanted for Cheeseburger. You would think that Parker and Menard would've gotten a push since they joined Jericho's group, but they haven't really been used much. Maybe it's because they're not spectacular wrestlers? This was pretty uneventful but mildly entertaining. **

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. TRISH ADORA (6:20): This was forgettable. 1/2*

TOP FLIGHT (DANTE MARTIN & DARIUS MARTIN) vs. THE KINGDOM (MATT TAVEN & MIKE BENNETT) (11:19): Top Flight is great. This was a lot of fun. Dante Martin did slip on the ropes once but it wasn't the end of the world. AEW was kind of pushing Dante Martin as a big deal for awhile but now he's back in the tag team and just a spot guy. **1/2

AR FOX & BLAKE CHRISTIAN vs. LA FACCION INGOBERNABLE (DRALISTICO & RUSH) (10:35): Dragon Lee wasn't on this show. He's better than Rush and Bandido, so I'm baffled why he isn't around. Maybe because he broke Hiromu's neck and is, thus, dangerous? This was another fun match. The end seemed like a botch, though, as Dralistico kicked out of the pin but the ref still counted to 3. AR Fox is a new AEW signee and has looked fantastic. He does all of the high flying stuff and the crowds love him. **1/2

ATHENA vs. MERCEDES MARTINEZ (13:06): Athena won the Women's title here. This was more entertaining than the usual women's match, which was a good thing, obviously. The ROH women's division was always kind of a forgotten, dull division. Tony Khan hasn't exactly set the world on fire with his AEW women's division, so I kind of doubt anything will come out of the ROH women's division. I guess time will tell. **1/2

SWERVE IN OUR GLORY (SWERVE STRICKLAND & KEITH LEE) vs. SHANE TAYLOR & JD GRIFFEY (13:43): Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee broke up as a tag team...so I'm not sure why they were a tag team again in this match. Swerve walked out of the match and left but Keith Lee ended up winning by himself. This was very entertaining. The crowd really popped big for Shane Taylor. That was kind of surprising, the fact that ROH fans still exist. **1/2

THE EMBASSY (BRIAN CAGE, BISHOP KAUN & TOA LIONA) vs. DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS (10:02): The Embassy won the 6-man titles here. Remember when Brian Cage was in big AEW PPV matches against Sting and Darby Allin and Adam Page? What happened to him? Something did, obviously, as Tony Khan has kind of demoted him to ROH for whatever reason. Dalton Castle always entertains, so this was pretty good. Castle of course has wrestling's best entrance. **1/2

WHEELER YUTA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (14:25): They put up a list of the rules for this Pure Title match and it was like an ancient scroll that went on forever. The only thing I remember is that each wrestler only gets 3 rope breaks. Why? Who the fuck knows? Yuta ended up winning the Pure Title. This was kind of boring but it got a bit exciting at the end. Daniel Garcia got a big push for a while and it seemed to set up him turning into a good guy and wrestling Jericho. That never happened, and now his push is seemingly over. Weird. **

THE BRISCOE'S vs. FTR "DOUBLE DOG COLLAR MATCH" (22:20): This match was announced on Dynamite 3 days before the show. I guess it didn't matter, because it was the best match on the show and the only one anyone really cared about. They had 3 matches this year and each one was great, although the first one was the best and the second match was the second best. This was just an epic bloodbath. They also used chairs and set up a table but didn't use it. The Briscoe's won the tag team titles. I guess the idea of FTR winning all of the belts will never happen. You can thank The Acclaimed's sudden popularity surge for that. I'm not the biggest fan of dog collar matches because, honestly, they're kind of boring. This was exactly what you expected, though. Tons of blood, brutality, and dramatic near falls. ***

SAMOA JOE vs. JUICE ROBINSON (13:37): Juice apparently signed an AEW deal. I'm not entirely sure why, as he's just okay in the ring. I also prefer him as a good guy as opposed to whatever the hell he's doing now. Samoa Joe retained the TV title. I think ROH has too many titles. There wasn't much to this match. It was okay. The crowd loved Joe, though. *1/2

CLAUDIO CASTIGNOLI vs. CHRIS JERICHO (17:05): This wasn't as good as their match at AEW's All Out. It was decent, though nothing special. Claudio won the title when Jericho tapped out during the swing. That was a unique end, although you couldn't see Jericho tapping out because he was being swung around, you just knew it was over because the announcer's yelled, "Jericho tapped out!" The match started fast as Claudio threw Jericho all over the outside of the ring. Then there were a lot of uppercuts and slaps and submission holds. This was not the epic, classic, PPV main event we deserve, but at least they have a good champion now that isn't an old man. **1/2

WWE SURVIVOR SERIES

Boston

ALEXA BLISS, ASUKA, BECKY LYNCH, BIANCA BELAIR & MIA YIM vs. DAMAGE CTRL (BAYLEY, DAKOTA KAI, IYO SKY), NIKKI CROSS & RHEA RIPLEY "WARGAMES" (39:35): They changed Survivor Series this year. It used to be on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, now it was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The last few years they had Smackdown vs. RAW matches but this year they had two Wargames matches instead. Even though the 5 on 5 elimination matches were never that great, I kind of missed them. They couldn't really do Smackdown vs. RAW matches because Roman Reigns has both championship belts and The Uso's have both tag team belts. I guess they could have done Gunter (the U.S. title) vs. Seth Rollins (the IC title) and Ronda Rousey (the Smackdown women's champ) vs. Bianca Belair (the RAW women's champ). And while I liked the addition of the Wargames matches...at least in AEW they actually had real, five member teams. The Bloodline is a real five member team, but the others were just random, assorted wrestlers teamed together. Without buckets of blood, these Wargames matches seemed pretty tame. I actually thought that the women's Wargames match was better, mostly because Becky, Iyo Sky, and Nikki Cross jumped off the top of the cage. Nobody jumped off the top of the cage in the men's Wargames match. In this match, the women used Singapore canes, handcuffs (which Alexa Bliss could have easily slipped out of because her wrist is like as thin as paper), tables, ladders, trash cans, and chairs. I thought that the Wargames matches would be a lot better, although even AEW's Blood and Guts matches have been kind of boring. Claudio swinging Jericho on top of the cage earlier this year was a highlight, though. There weren't any memorable highlights in these two Wargames matches. This was entertaining but nothing special. **1/2

AJ STYLES vs. FINN BALOR (18:23): In a perfect world, these two would be wrestling for the title in a PPV main event. This match was boring, but it's not entirely AJ and Finn Balor's fault. They put this on right after a Wargames match. It wasn't for a title. Nobody cared about it so the crowd was dead. The last few minutes were pretty exciting but mostly it was dull. *

RONDA ROUSEY vs. SHOTZI (7:12): Nobody thought that Shotzi would win the title here, so the crowd was pretty quiet for this one. They did pop when Shotzi jumped onto Shayna in the crowd and ended up laying out some WWE plants sitting ringside. Shotzi tapped out. When Shotzi Blackheart was in NXT I predicted that she would end up being a big star on the main roster. I was wrong. 1/2*

AUSTIN THEORY vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. BOBBY LASHLEY (14:50): Austin Theory failed at winning the IC title when he cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on RAW after a Rollins vs. Lashley match. He won the title here...so why didn't they just have him win the title then? That makes no sense. He also kind of inadvertently won when he fell on Rollins and got the pin. This match was decent, though these three seem to wrestle every week against each other on RAW so it wasn't anything fresh or new. Rollins did a Phoenix Splash that missed. That made me think of that Phoenix Splash that Kenny Omega did on the hard wood below the ring mat at Full Gear two year's ago. Fuck, that was brutal. It's not good when multiple times during a WWE show I'm thinking of better things that happened in AEW. If AEW was smart, they'd put their Blood & Guts match on a PPV. I'd rather see that, since the multiple commercials during that match hindered it. **1/2

THE BLOODLINE (ROMAN REIGNS, THE USO'S, SOLO SIKOA & SAMI ZAYN) vs. DREW McINTYRE, KEVIN OWENS & THE BRAWLING BRUTES (SHEAMUS, BUTCH & RIDGE HOLLAND) "WARGAMES" (38:32): While the storyline aspect of this match was great, I really thought that this match would have been a lot better. I was expecting someone to jump off the top of the cage and land on someone on a table. Nobody jumped off the top of the cage. They don't have a roof on the cage for this very reason. WWE also must be taking note of AEW, because AEW loves doing storyline drama in their big matches where wrestlers stop and ponder their actions. In this match, Sami Zayn was beating up Kevin Owens and helping The Bloodline to victory and Sami had to stop and give a look that made him seem to be contemplating his life choices. Michael Cole mentioned that Kevin Owens was Sami Zayn's best man at his wedding. The inner turmoil! Zayn eventually gave in to his demons and kicked Owens in the face leading to Roman pinning Owens and The Bloodline winning. Then everyone hugged Sami Zayn. Considering Zayn has always been a heel and has been a member of The Bloodline all year, I'm not sure why this drama was even played up. He kind of turned a long time ago. If the WWE was smart they would have Zayn beat Roman for the title in a PPV main event at a big show like Summerslam next year. The fans love Sami Zayn. The WWE isn't the smartest, though, so I don't see that ever happening. Yes, Sami will eventually turn into a good guy and wrestle Roman...but I doubt they'd give Sami the title. They did break some tables in this match. They used a few chairs. I thought this would be a bit more exciting, though. This show turned out to be pretty underwhelming, actually, especially after last week's Full Gear show which was superior entertainment. Hell, Dynamite on Wednesday with Jericho vs. Ishii and The Elite vs. Death Triangle was better than this show. **

AEW FULL GEAR

 

Newark, New Jersey

ORANGE CASSIDY, ROCKY ROMERO, TRENT BERETTA, CHUCK TAYLOR & DANHAUSEN vs. QT MARSHALL, AARON SOLO, LEE JOHNSON, & NICK COMOROTO & COLE KARTER (11:55): This was another, stuffed to the brim, 5 hour AEW PPV. It was very entertaining, though, and it probably helped that I watched the first five matches on Saturday and then watched the last 8 matches on Sunday. You definitely got your money's worth, anyway. The one negative on the show was the dead crowd. Sure, they were hot as magma for the Young Bucks match and for a few spots here and there, but for the most part they were sitting on their hands. That didn't help. The last three AEW PPV's had the hottest crowds ever in Chicago and Vegas, so maybe I was just used to seeing a raucous, rowdy, insane crowd for these big shows. This was also the first PPV since the infamous self immolation of CM Punk. Ratings haven't plummeted, though the attendance at Dynamite have been pretty sparse lately. Is AEW dead? There was a moment, after All Out last year, when it felt like AEW had surpassed WWE and things were changing. Now, things are more clear: AEW will always just be the more entertaining, hardcore wrestling fans type of promotion. It's not going to be the WWE juggernaut. This PPV showcased how great wrestling can be. But the WWE, for whatever reason, is just more mainstream and friendly and thus, will remain the bigger brand. It's kind of like how indie movies are typically much, much better than dumb Marvel movies yet the Marvel movies make a billion dollars more. You can't fight safe mediocrity for whatever reason. The pre-show opened with this fun ten man. Danhausen didn't come out until the end and got a huge reaction. He was "evil" Danhausen. He delivered big moves, used a jar of teeth and a spike, and got the pin. This was probably the most wrestling he's ever done in AEW and it was like twenty seconds. Entertaining opening match. **1/2

RICKY STARKS vs. BRIAN CAGE (10:00): This was the semi-finals of the world title tournament. This was entertaining. Cage, for whatever reason, disappeared for like a year then re-emerged as a ROH guy. Cage is such a pure, WWE wrestler that I can't believe he's not in that company. He's huge and decent in the ring but will never be in a four star masterpiece. He's kind of like...Bobby Lashley. Starks was, at one point this year, super popular and super over. That's kind of faded a bit. I'm expecting Starks to win this tournament but MJF vs. Ricky Starks isn't exactly a match I care about. **1/2

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. JUN AKIYAMA (10:30): This is Kingston's dream match. I never even heard of Jun Akiyama until I reviewed DDT's tournament two years ago and Akiyama beat Takeshita in the finals. Funny, because Takeshita and Akiyama teamed together on Rampage the night before this. I watched that whole DDT tournament and didn't really like any match Akiyama was in. Granted, he's in his fifties now, so maybe 25 years ago he was awesome. AEW hasn't really done much with Kingston lately, even though he's super over with the fans. This was pretty basic and just okay. **

JUNGLE BOY vs. LUCHASAURUS "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (18:42): This was great. Luchasaurus threw Jungle Boy into the cage like a thousand times. He slammed him onto a chair. The big move was Jungle Boy jumping off the top of the cage and dropping an elbow onto Luchasaurus on a table. Jungle Boy was a bloody mess. Christian stole the key from the ref to open the cage, thus letting Luchasaurus bring a table and chairs into the ring. The dead crowd was hot for this match. This was a stellar way to open the PPV (the first 3 matches were on the free pre-show). ***

DEATH TRIANGLE vs. THE ELITE (18:43): I'm not sure I've ever seen a PPV that started with 2 great matches like these two. Maybe Forbidden Door, which I recall started out so great I was thinking: will this be the best show of all time? It wasn't. This wasn't either, though this match was the most entertaining and exciting match you might ever see in your life. It doesn't get better than this match. Yeah, this didn't have the high drama of a main event, title match. But it had non-stop action, insane moves, a lightning-fast pace, and a crowd that went fucking ape shit (they actually woke up for this one). This match was so good, they announced that this would be the first in a Best of 7 series. Hell, why not? The big, insane move of the match was one of the Bucks and Penta standing on the top rope and the Buck giving Penta a Hurricanrana to the floor onto everyone. Everyone looked superior in this, especially Omega (who's wrestling Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom in January). Fenix ended up cheating and using the hammer on Omega at the end to win. This was bliss. **** 

JADE CARGILL vs. NYLA ROSE (7:59): Good luck following that! I knew that this show might be in trouble considering there would be 3 women's matches. At least one of them turned out to be good. This, obviously, wasn't it. Jade definitely has the look. Even training with Bryan Danielson hasn't helped her in-ring ability. There were two times when she was supposed to be knocked out but she still fixed her outfit. You're on camera, you idiot! Nyla has been in good matches before...but those were years ago against Riho. This just didn't work at all. *

CHRIS JERICHO vs. BRYAN DANIELSON vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. SAMMY GUEVARA (21:42): This started a bit slow but turned into a great match. Sammy eventually turned on Jericho and Bryan and Claudio beat each other up. Jericho retained the ROH title. That was kind of obvious since the whole reason to give Jericho the title was so he can be on an ROH PPV and the next one is in two weeks. Jericho is also facing Ishii on Dynamite this week for the title. ***

SARAYA vs. BRITT BAKER (13:25): I figured this match wouldn't be good and I was correct. First off, Britt Baker is never in good matches. The only two good ones were the two hardcore matches against Thunder Rosa. Saraya hasn't wrestled in 5 years and wasn't exactly great or exciting in WWE. This was just boring. The crowd did have a few dueling chants during this match, but for the most part they were silent. It just seemed like they were moving around too slow, and there was no excitement. Saraya won, which I guess she had to since she's new. *

SAMOA JOE vs. WARDLOW vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS (9:54): This was a little sloppy. It wasn't fantastic or anything but wasn't terrible. Wardlow was giving Hobbs a bunch of power bombs when Joe snuck in to win the TNT title. **1/2

DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. JAY LETHAL & JEFF JARRETT (10:59): This was a typical, Darby Allin & Sting clusterfuck match. Maybe it's time to, like, give Darby some singles matches instead? Darby did a coffin drop off of a ladder on the stage but Sihng, the big Indian dude, caught him. Jarrett hit Darby in the back with a guitar when Darby was doing a Coffin Drop off the top rope. Sting jumped from the stands onto everyone. They brawled through the crowd. It was fun, though nothing special. I kind of don't want to see Jeff Jarrett anymore. And when the hell is this Sihng guy going to wrestle? **1/2

JAMIE HAYTER vs. TONI STORM (15:16): This ended up being the best women's wrestling matches in AEW in a very, very long time. Of course it was, though, because Jamie Hayter was in it. I've been saying this for a long time that she's the best AEW woman wrestler. Eventually, the crowds figured this out and started cheering her even though she's a heel. They popped big when she won and there was some terrific near falls at the end of this. Both Britt Baker and Ruby interfered in this. Jamie and Toni worked so fast in this it felt like that Saraya vs. Britt match was in slow motion. Saraya and Britt should take notes: this is how wrestling is supposed to be! Not that dull, slow, plodding snooze fest. It's strange that Jamie is now the 2nd "interim" champ. Maybe stop using the "interim" moniker if you're already on your 2nd interim champ. ***

THE ACCLAIMED vs. SWERVE IN OUR GLORY (19:38): I'm not sure why Billy Gunn wasn't out for this match. He did show up to stop Swerve from using pliars to break the fingers of one of the Acclaimed. Then he went away. Maybe that's why the crowd wasn't too hot for this match? The crowd for the match at All Out was the greatest a crowd could ever be. What happened, Newark? This wasn't that good, either. It was standard stuff. Keith Lee didn't want to cheat, so he left the ring and Swerve got beat up and pinned. **

MJF vs. JON MOXLEY (23:09): These two wrestled before, for Moxley's title, in the main event on a PPV. It was so great I forgot it happened. Granted, it was at All Out 2020 during the Pandemic, so that meant Jacksonville and very few fans. Still, these two don't have any chemistry. This wasn't very good. It was a basic match. Moxley gave MJF a piledriver through a ringside table. William Regal handed MJF a pair of brass knuckles. MJF knocked out Moxley to win the title. Does that mean The Blackpool Combat Club is over? It kind of just started, didn't it? MJF as champ is good, though, because the crowds adore him. They even booed Moxley during this match, but maybe that's because MJF is from the area. Or maybe not. MJF is great on the mic but hasn't been in a great match yet in AEW...has he? I kind of want a champ that'll be in 4 star, epic, main events. Like Adam Page. Like Omega. But MJF as champ will give AEW a boost for awhile, anyway, because his promo's are awesome and he's a fan favorite. This wasn't the best AEW PPV of the year (that's Revolution), but it's probably the 2nd best. Good show. Definitely had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows...but it was very entertaining. **

WWE CROWN JEWEL

 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BROCK LESNAR vs. BOBBY LASHLEY (6:00): I haven't reviewed the last couple of Crown Jewel events in Saudi Arabia because the first few were so terrible. They've gotten better for whatever reason and now they're pretty much just regular, typical WWE PPV's with a few quirks (very few women in the audience...the women wrestlers not being allowed to show their bare arms or legs...basically the only difference is women are punished and seen as "lesser" humans). Shockingly the main event was Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns. Maybe even the WWE was sick of that match. This was a typical, short, all action Lesnar affair. It was all big moves and it was fun to watch. **1/2

DAMAGE CTRL (DAKOTA KAI & IYO SKY) vs. ALEXA BLISS & ASUKA (12:50): This match was the main event on the RAW before this PPV. Damage Control won the tag titles on RAW and retained here thanks to interference by Nikki Cross. Cross isn't doing her stupid Superhero gimmick anymore. That's one good thing that changed since Vince McMahon was fired. The thought of HHH taking over the WWE had been something fans have salivated over for years because we all thought the WWE would suddenly be great again. It's only been a few months but sadly that hasn't happened. There have been a few good changes. Austin Theory and Matt Riddle got their first names back. Nikki Cross isn't doing a dumb Superhero gimmick. Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt are back. I kind of really wished the changes had been much, much better than that. As for this match? Forgettable. *

DREW McINTYRE vs. KARRION KROSS "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (13:00): McIntyre finally won a match. Nobody jumped off the cage, although McIntyre pulled Kross off the top and slammed him from the top rope. Scarlett sprayed something into McIntyre and the ref's eyes at one point. This wasn't very good. *

THE JUDGMENT DAY (FINN BALOR, DAMIAN PRIEST & DOMINIK MYSTERIO) vs. THE O.C. (AJ STYLES, LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON) (14:00): Karl Anderson was booked to defend his title in New Japan on the same day as this show. He decided to just no-show the Japan show for whatever reason. I wonder why New Japan let him sign a contract with the WWE if he was a champion there? Or maybe he wasn't under contract in New Japan. NJPW did put him on the map. You'd think he'd like...respect that. Anderson & Gallows also gave their word they would join AEW and debut on the very first Dynamite and then went and signed with Impact...so Anderson isn't exactly the most loyal dude. This was a by-the-numbers match. When I was watching this I realized how much more dynamic and exciting the wrestling is in AEW compared to the WWE. The wrestling in the WWE for the most part is stale, pedestrian, and very manicured and pristine. There are exceptions, but few (Sheamus vs. Gunther from Cardiff being one example). That makes most of these matches entertaining but nothing to write home about. **

BRAUN STROWMAN vs. OMOS (7:20): Was this as bad as you would expect? That's a good question. It was better than Goldberg vs. The Undertaker at that Crown Jewel a few years ago. That might've been the worst wrestling match in history, though. I mean...you got what you expected. 1/2*

THE USO'S vs. THE BRAWLING BRUTES (BUTCH & RIDGE HOLLAND) (10:45): I'm not sure why they haven't changed Butch's name back to Pete Dunne. They should probably change Gunter's name back to Walter, too. Pete Dunne is awesome so it's nice he's actually wrestling now and basically wrestling as Pete Dunne unlike that weird newspaper boy character Vince turned him into. The Uso's retained their tag titles. They're facing The New Day on Smackdown and if they win they will have the longest tag team title reign in WWE history. The New Day supposedly has the record. This was an entertaining match. **1/2

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY "LAST WOMAN STANDING MATCH" (20:20): This was another entertaining match. The ending was dumb, though. Bayley was trapped under a ladder and couldn't get up at 10. They used a Singapore cane, a steel chair, a table, and a golf cart. It was fun. After this match, Bray Wyatt came out and did a promo. Considering the crowds love his entrances but couldn't give a shit about him wrestling...maybe he should only do promo's. **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. LOGAN PAUL (24:50): I'm glad that Logan Paul was in the main event instead of some old, has been legend that's usually main eventing these Saudi shows. Seeing a bald Shawn Michaels doing a moonsault onto his face was so sad. And don't even get me started on that Goldberg/'Taker match. Logan Paul, though, is actually great in the ring. He even did a top rope frog splash onto Roman on the announce table. Logan also injured his knee and will be out of action for a while. They did the classic, multiple interference spot in this match which the WWE loves to do. The Uso's came out. Jake Paul came out. Solo Sikoa came out. Two of Logan Paul's friends that were sitting at ringside came into the ring to get super kicked by The Uso's. Reigns eventually won with a spear. They did a ton of near falls for Logan in this match. It's probably good that this match happened in Saudi Arabia because anywhere else Logan would have been booed out of the building, but he was cheered here. Good main event. ***

WWE EXTREME RULES

Philly

THE BRAWLING BRUTES (SHEAMUS, RIDGE HOLLAND & BUTCH) vs. IMPERIUM (GUNTHER, LUDWIG KAISER & GIOVANNI VINCI) "GOOD OLD FASHIONED DONNYBROOK MATCH" (17:50): The WWE is pretty hot these days. They packed the Wells Fargo Center on a Saturday night for this show. Triple H hasn't reinvented the wheel yet since taking over from Vince, but he has rehired some people like Bray Wyatt, Karrion Kross, Johnny Gargano, and Braun Strowman. They also hired Gallows and Anderson who showed up with AJ Styles on RAW. This sudden surge in popularity for WWE has caused a few of AEW's wrestlers to want to quit and go to the WWE. Andrade got into a fight with Sammy Guevera because he's attempting to get fired. Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black both wanted out of their contracts and have been given leave of absences. I can't really say that AEW is falling apart, since they just had a sold out PPV in Chicago and a packed Arthur Ashe stadium show. Besides those shows, though, the crowds have been pretty small lately. Is it because WWE is more kid friendly, and thus more families go to their shows? Or is it just that WWE has been around for so long and anything with longevity is ingrained in one's head? Who knows? AEW is consistently more entertaining and has been since its inception. The big problem with this WWE PPV was the fact that it didn't have a men's championship title match. Stupidly, the WWE gave Roman Reigns the unified title and then signed him to a limited date contract. On Smackdown the night before this show, Logan Paul and Roman Reigns had a face off before their title match...which is next month in Saudi Arabia. Nice. The WWE cares more about Saudi Arabia than Philadelphia. At least there was one good match on this show...this opener, which was a wild, entertaining brawl. The crowd was rapturous for this match. This was basically a weapons match, although they had a bar table at ringside and some barrels at ringside because I guess barrels represent Ireland. The show went downhill fast after this match. I would've loved to have watched this show live but not only was it going against college football games like Texas A&M vs. Alabama and Notre Dame vs. BYU but it also went against the Phillies playoff game. This is the first time the Phillies have been in the playoffs since 2011. So, yes, I wasn't going to miss that. *** 

RONDA ROUSEY vs. LIV MORGAN "EXTREME RULES MATCH" (12:05): Rousey was once a huge star in the WWE. What happened? Maybe it's because she's kind of a heel now? Or maybe her UFC fame has curtailed. Considering her and Charlotte and Becky Lynch were the 3 big women's division stars a year or two ago...what happened to Charlotte and Becky Lynch? Are they injured? Either way, they were sorely missed on this show. This match was God awful. Liv Morgan didn't know how to pull a table into the ring or sandwich a chair into the corner. Do wrestlers not practice things? They also used a baseball bat and dealt some of the fakest looking blows you'll ever see. Everything was sloppy. Somehow Ronda won with a submission and won the title. Ugh. The raucous crowd was pretty silent for this mess. -No Stars-

KARRION KROSS vs. DREW McINTYRE "STRAP MATCH" (10:20): CM Punk and MJF had a strap match earlier this year and it was a bloodbath but also fairly boring. It was more memorable than this, though. This was just a bore. Karrion won after his female manager sprayed pepper spray into Drew's eyes. I get that Kross is new (Vince fired him but HHH rehired him) so they want him to get a win, but Drew just lost last month to Roman. Strap matches are always bores, so I'm not sure why they even bothered doing this. 1/2*

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY "LADDER MATCH" (16:40): They didn't do any crazy, suicidal ladder spots. That made the match kind of just okay. This was shockingly the first women's title ladder match in WWE. Maybe don't do another one. Belair retained the title. I love ladder matches, but there wasn't much to this one. Maybe I'm just spoiled by all those awesome ladder matches AEW has done in the last few years. **

FINN BALOR vs. EDGE "I QUIT MATCH" (29:55): This was super boring for twenty minutes. Then they did the classic, WWE interference gimmick at the end that made it entertaining. Damian Priest, Rhea Ripley, Dominic Mysterio, Mysterio, and Beth Phoenix all showed up at the end to interfere. Before that, Finn and Edge brawled around the arena for like fifteen minutes. Edge finally quit when Rhea Ripley was going to hit Edge's wife, Beth Phoenix, in the head with a chair. She did it anyway afterwards. The interference stuff was great at the end and the crowd was on fire for it. **1/2

MATT RIDDLE vs. SETH ROLLINS "FIGHT PIT MATCH" (16:35): This wasn't very good. They did this type of match once in NXT. I don't remember that too much so maybe they shouldn't do this again. A fight pit match is a cage match with no door and no ropes but, oddly, a scaffold walkway above and around the ring. I guess it's supposed to be like a UFC cage match. Riddle used to be in UFC, so I guess that's why they did it. UFC's Daniel Cormier was the ref, though considering he didn't do anything besides referee, I'm not sure why he was there. Riddle did one jump off the scaffold onto Rollins on down on the mat. That was cool. The rest of this was dull. After this match, Bray Wyatt made his re-debut. They did a bunch of weird videos and had some people in masks around the arena and then Wyatt came out through a smoke-filled door holding his lantern. The crowd popped big for this. I wonder...do they remember how dumb Bray Wyatt was when he was fired? Remember those silly Fiend matches with red lighting? And Randy Orton set The Fiend on fire and killed him? Do these people remember how stupid all of that was? This all reminds me of how the comic book industry realized that people love debuts...so comic book companies now re-launch books as a #1 every few years just because people will buy new debut issues. Are we that dumb? AEW debuts are the same. Whenever a new face debuts, people pop like crazy...then a month later it's nothing special. I expect the same thing to happen to Bray Wyatt. Sure, people are excited for him showing up again now...but is anyone going to give a shit when he's randomly wrestling Ricochet on Smackdown on two months? Nope. *1/2

AEW ALL OUT

Hoffman Estates, Illinois

SAMMY GUEVARA & TAY MELO vs. ORTIZ & RUBY SOHO (6:00): 15 matches. Jesus Christ. This was a good show although not one of the best AEW PPV's. It was good but too long. The crowd was super hot. There were two excellent matches. Going in, the card felt a little strange and thrown together. Usually, Tony Khan seems to book long term and set things up. Wardlow teaming with FTR to face Jay Lethal and The Motor City Machine Guns? Does that sound like a long term, set up match? Same goes for Darby Alin and Sting teaming up with...Miro? The long term plan seemed to have been MJF vs. CM Punk in the main event. That changed when Punk got injured in June. Thunder Rosa was also supposed to defend her title against Toni Storm but Thunder Rosa was injured. The one thing this show didn't have was one "I gotta see this!" type of a match. But AEW PPV's always deliver, and this was a fun, entertaining, exhaustive show. Hopefully the backstage politics and turmoil don't destroy this company, because this was a thousand times more entertaining than yesterday's WWE Clash at the Castle PPV. The pre-show opened up with this fun, crazy mixed tag match. Weirdly they did this same match two days ago on Rampage. Sammy and Tay were making out backstage when Ortiz and Ruby, in a golfcart, drove after them and into the arena. They hit Sammy with the golf cart, then Ruby hit Tay over the head with a trash can. Fun start. Short match, but it was entertaining. Sammy and Tay are terrific heels and great together. **1/2

HOOK vs. ANGELO PARKER (3:55): There wasn't much to this match. I'm not really sure where they can go with Hook, though. If he's in longer, non-squash matches then will anyone care about him? But they have to go there someday. 1/2*

PAC vs. KIP SABIAN (12:25): This match was awful. I'm kind of surprised, because PAC is awesome. Kip is returning from a seemingly years long injury. His great storyline is he sat ringside for months with a box over his head for no apparent reason. After he lost, he grabbed the box and was yelling at it. I'm sure Vince McMahon would've loved that angle, as he always had a fondness for bad comedy. 1/2*

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (13:25): This was great stuff. I kind of thought that the Walter/Sheamus match from yesterday was hard hitting...but I actually think this was even more gruesome. They chopped each other's chests for most of this match. There wasn't much more than that. Sammy Guevera and Eddie Kingston were supposed to have a match on this show but Sammy called Eddie "fat" in a promo and he got mad and they had a fight backstage. I doubt that match would have been better than this, but who knows? ***

THE JOKER vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. WHEELER YUTA vs. ANDRADE IDOLO vs. PENA EL ZERO MIEDO vs. REY FENIX vs. RUSH vs. DANTE MARTIN "CASINO LADDER MATCH" (14:15): This match opened the PPV. This was terrific except the finish was kind of anti-climactic. Thankfully, the ending to this match played into the end of the PPV. They did some really crazy spots in this. Wheeler Yuta got flip power bombed by Andrade off of the top of the ladder onto a ladder bridge. Penta did a Canadian Destroyer to Rush on a ringside ladder bridge. Rey Fenix did a top rope splash through a table. The ending had Stokely Hathaway, who's a manager/agent, and his evil group come out and destroy everybody and take the poker chip above the ring to win the match. Stokely then handed it to the last entrant, the Joker, the suprise, mystery, masked man, who won without doing anything. Later on it turned out to be MJF. ***

KENNY OMEGA & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE & THE DARK ORDER (JOHN SILVER & ALEX REYNOLDS) (19:50): Considering The Young Bucks vs. Adam Page & Kenny Omega was the Best Match of 2019...and all four of them were in this match...of course this was phenomenal. Kenny Omega looked like the greatest wrestler of all time in this match. Maybe I just forgot how good he was or maybe just having a long layoff and being healthy has made him better than he had been for awhile. John Silver was excellent as always, as were The Bucks. This was the first time Omega and Page have wrestled since Page beat him for the title last November, so those two in the ring got the crowd on fire. This was just pure action and great near-falls mixed in with some excellent story telling. Good stuff. ***1/2

JADE CARGILL vs. ATHENA (4:20): Cargill came out painted green and dressed like She-Hulk. She burst through a brick wall for her entrance. The costume was cool. The match was okay. It was definitely hard hitting. Athena hasn't really been much of a fixture on TV since her debut, and Cargill never has matches longer than 5 minutes...so you kind of got what you expected here. *1/2

WARDLOW & FTR vs. JAY LETHAL & THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS (16:30): I would have rather seen FTR vs. The Motor City Machine Guns for one of FTR's titles (they have the ROH, the IWGP, and AAA titles). I guess they needed something for Wardlow to do on this show. This wasn't very good for whatever reason. Samoa Joe came out after the match to beat up Jay Lethal and his crew, so that got the crowd pumped up. After that, Dax Harwood's daughter came out to pin Sonjay Dutt. This played out because of a promo Dax did on Dynamite awhile back. That was the highlight of the match, actually. The crowd adores FTR everywhere...so it would've been nice if they had given them a better match than this.  **

POWERHOUSE HOBBS vs. RICKY STARKS (5:05): Starks is actually becoming a crowd favorite and a star...so they had him lose. I guess they wanted to continue this program. Hobbs is a bore, though, so this match wasn't that great. At least it was kept short so it didn't really get boring. **

SWERVE IN OUR GLORY (KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND) vs. THE ACCLAIMED (22:30): This was the match of the night and match of the weekend. Fuck, this was great. Thank the crowd, who were as boisterous and as loud as that Cardiff crowd was for McIntyre and Sheamus. The crowd was so behind The Acclaimed that it was a true shame that they lost. It's amazing how The Acclaimed have become so popular. They used to be just a random tag team nobody really cared too much about. Max Castor's raps were interesting, though, and that kind of started the team's appeal. Then they teamed with The Gun Club and the whole "scissor" thing got popular. Now it's like the biggest thing in AEW. Usually, crowds sing for Keith Lee, but this time they changed the words to, "Ohhhhh, scissor me, daddy." It was hilarious. This was like the hottest crowd ever. I loved it. The Acclaimed even aren't the greatest in-ring team or anything. They're still a bit green, a bit young, but with this crowd and the story telling, this was something special. Anthony Bowens sold his knee, so throughout the match he had to dig deep and fight on. Keith Lee and Swerve started playing up being heels, so that got the crowd even more in The Acclaimed's favor. If The Acclaimed had won...this might've been match of the year. ***1/2

TONI STORM vs. DR. BRITT BAKER, D.M.D. vs. JAMIE HAYTER vs. HIKARU SHIDA (14:20):

This was just okay. Again, the story telling was great. Jamie Hayter and Britt are of course in the same heel group, so they played up them turning on each other. Jamie was about to win when Britt pulled the ref out of the ring. Britt attempted to pin Jamie at one point. The rest of this was kind of mildly entertaining. Toni Storm won the interim title since Thunder Rosa is apparently not going to be out for too long. **

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. JUNGLE BOY (0:20): This was short. Luchasauras choke slammed Jungle Boy onto a steel grate by the entrance and then through a table before the match even started. Then the match started and Jungle Boy kicked out of a spear but then got pinned by after Christian's finisher. I would've rather seen a real match but, hell, this show was long enough. I'm not sure this storyline is really helping Jungle Boy, though. It's certainly helping Christian, as he's an awesome heel. The funniest thing is that when Christian turned heel, he started coming out doing promo's wearing a turtleneck. The funniest thing recently was when Christian told Jungle Boy that he loved him on Dynamite. Then Jungle Boy beat him up and they started brawling and Christian yelled at him, "I hate your guts." Jim Ross, on commentary, noted that, "He just said he loved him. Now he hates his guts." I'm still laughing at that one. I'm not too sure about Luchasauras as a heel, though. I mean...did anyone care about Kane? Because that's what he'd be. *1/2

CHRIS JERICHO vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (23:40): This was the longest match of the night. It was also boring. I really never want to see Jericho in a singles match ever again. He's great on the mic but he's too old to be wrestling long matches like this one. They really didn't do much noteworthy as it was a pretty basic wrestling match. *

DARBY ALLIN, STING & MIRO vs. THE HOUSE OF BLACK (MALAKAI BLACK, BRODY KING & BUDDY MATTHEWS) (12:10): This was entertaining but nothing great. Usually, Sting is jumping off balconies and stuff in his PPV matches and they're crazy melees. Not this one. This was more a typical TV match. The big note was that Malakai Black blew a kiss to the crowd after the match. Supposedly he asked for his release, either because of mental health issues or maybe he wants to go do WWE now that HHH is in charge. They probably should have put him in main event title matches last year when he was super over. Oh, well. **

CM PUNK vs. JON MOXLEY (19:55): This was okay. Punk was a bloody mess. The crowd was super hot and raucous. The crowd helped because the actual match wasn't anything special. Punk is an old man now so his matches look more like 90's WCW matches than the exciting, high flying AEW stuff which we're accustomed to. In that regard, I'd much rather have a champ like Omega or Page that can have awesome, fast-paced, exciting title main events. But Punk is the big star, so he's the champ. They had this same match two weeks ago on Dynamite and Moxley won in 3 minutes. I'm not exactly sure why they did that. Punk seemed to reinjure his foot in that match...but they didn't play that up here for whatever reason. Good but not great main event to an entertaining show but not an all time AEW classic like last year's All Out. After the match, MJF came out to reveal that he was the masked man that won the Casino Battle Royal. He gets a title shot...so presumably that will happen at Grand Slam in a few weeks. Punk and MJF had a month's long feud that spanned last year and this year so I'm not entirely sure why they're doing it again. MJF has been off TV since June so I guess they were just waiting for Punk the return from injury. The problem is if you do that, you kind of have to have MJF win the title. And Punk just won the title...so would you really change it already? I guess that adds to the intrigue. **1/2

WWE CLASH AT THE CASTLE

 

Cardiff, Wales

MADCAP MOSS & THE STREET PROFITS vs. AUSTIN THEORY & ALPHA ACADEMY (6:29): This is supposedly the first WWE PPV in the UK in thirty plus years. They've been doing PPV's in Saudi Arabia for the last few years, though, so it's not like they've been against doing overseas PPV's. Money talks, though. Apparently they had the show in Cardiff, Wales instead of, say, London, because Cardiff paid them to have the show there. They filled the 60,000 seat stadium, too, which just proves how hot the WWE is lately. Even RAW ratings have been up. It's all kind of strange considering the product hasn't gotten much better. Vince is gone, and slowly we're seeing some changes. Matt Riddle and Austin Theory got their first names back. Johnny Gargano was signed and is on the main roster. HHH also re-hired Scarlett and Karrion Kross, who Vince had fired. After this show, though, you'd think ratings would plummet. The sour taste in your mouth after the end of this show has to linger for awhile, right? This show was kind of a "fuck you" to the UK fans because both of their boys, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre lost. The end of this show reminded me a lot of when Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble in Philly and the fans all booed even though Roman was a babyface at the time. Hopefully HHH learns from this mistake, as this show might just be a fatal one for some fans. This match was on the kickoff show. This was short, exciting, fun. The crowd was great for most of the show tonight, which was a plus. Visually, though, it wasn't too spectacular because the stadium has a roof on it. Summerslam, in the outside football stadium, looked more impressive. **1/2

DAMAGE CONTROL (BAYLEY, DAKOTA KAI & IYO SKY) vs. BIANCA BELAIR, ALEXA BLISS & ASUKA (18:44): For a big show, there were mysteriously a lot of wrestlers not on it. Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, Sami Zayn, The Uso's, Kevin Owens, Ricochet, Baron Corbin, The Miz, Bobby Lashley. Ricochet is wrestling Sunday on the NXT PPV, so there's that. I bet if this show was in Saudi Arabia, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar would've been there. This match was boring, as a lot of this show was. They probably should have had Bianca have a singles match for her title, as she's a crowd favorite and fairly exciting. This was just pedestrian and dull. *

GUNTHER vs. SHEMAUS (19:33): This was probably the best WWE match of the year. Everyone has been noting that Walter looks lame now because he's just a skinny, random looking dude instead of the big monster. But even skinny he can still pull off a hell of a match. These two beat the hell out of each other. This went beyond a typical Ishii or Suzuki match, though, into the realm of brutal Go Shiozaki or Nakajima NOAH matches where the chops become unbearable to watch and it's as if you're viewing a snuff film. While this was fantastically brutal, it did go on a bit too long. The other problem was the crowd was the greatest crowd of all time behind Sheamus...and then Sheamus lost. Dude, call a fucking audible and have the crowd favorite win, you idiots! When Sheamus lost I figured that, well, McIntyre, the other UK dude, was probably winning and they wanted to save the victory celebration for that. Nope! Both UK crowd favorites lost. Really? I feel so bad for those fans to be denied two cathartic, loud, boisterous, rapturous victories. Sad. Great match, though. ***1/2

LIV MORGAN vs. SHAYNA BASZLER (11:02): This was awful. I didn't even think Shayna was still in WWE. -No Stars-

EDGE & REY MYSTERIO vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (FINN BALOR & DAMIAN PRIEST) (12:35): This match wasn't bad or anything, but it was just a typical, forgettable RAW type of match. The big Dominic turning heel storyline happened after the match when he kicked Edge in the balls then hit his father. Does anyone really want to see Dominic go solo as a heel? No. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. MATT RIDDLE (17:22): This was a pretty good match. Considering this was a huge, stadium show, would it have killed them to put a ladder or cage match or something on the show? They didn't even break the announce table. I'm not sure why so many heels won on this show. Do they hate their fans? **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. DREW McINTYRE (30:47): I remember Roman Reigns wrestled Cesaro in a 30 minute main event title match last year and it was excellent. This, sadly, was not excellent. Drew is of course not as good a wrestler as Cesaro, so there's that. They also over-booked this thing, which was bad. They also had the hero, the babyface, the UK, homegrown guy that everyone was cheering lose, which was disappointing. That made everyone go home sad, which you kind of don't want to do, right? They did a ref bump. Austin Theory came out to cash in his MITB contract but Tyson Fury, sitting at ringside, punched him to stop it. A new Uso brother showed up to pull the ref out of the ring when Drew was about to win. This led to Roman retaining the title. After this, Tyson Fury came into the ring and sang the "Bye, Bye, Ms. American Pie" song which was probably supposed to be a fun, joyful thing but the angry crowd mostly just booed this and it was awkward. Putting a show in the UK, then setting up a UK guy for a title shot, then having him lose, is not the smartest decision in the world. I bet they lost a lot of fans today. I'm guessing they thought, well, hey, we're an American company, we're not going to have a title change in the UK, fuck those idiots. All of these rising ratings, optimism at Vince gone, WWE being "hot" was seemingly gone in an instant. What a horrible way to end this show. Jesus. The WWE just never learns. This might just go down in history as one of the dumbest decisions the wrestling business has ever done. Can you imagine the victory celebration this awesome crowd would have delivered? It would've been legendary. **

WWE SUMMERSLAM

Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BECKY LYNCH (15:10): This show happened on Saturday, July 30th, and I watched it then went on a two week vacation. I suppose if I'm forgetting anything that happened, you can blame it on not being memorable or entertaining enough for me to remember it. The big story before this show happened, though, was Vince McMahon leaving the company. He apparently had an affair with a woman that worked in WWE and then paid her off to not talk about it. When that woman's friend found out about it she emailed the press and The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about it. The WWE board looked into this and found that Vince had paid other women that worked in WWE in the past to keep their affairs quiet. While Vince is the boss of WWE and technically couldn't be fired, it seems that some people pressured him to leave so that the stock price wouldn't fall and the company wouldn't look bad. He hung on for awhile, though, but eventually left. Supposedly HHH will be the new head of creative, which is fantastic considering he did the same job in NXT and that show was excellent when he was in charge. Hopefully the WWE gets better, because right now, AEW is on fire in terms of match quality, entertainment, and watchability. The WWE is still king in the production side of things, though. This show was at the outdoor, Tennessee Titans football stadium, which made it look pretty cool and "big." Only the main event was anything noteworthy, though. This opening match was fairly entertaining. Bianca Belair retained the women's title.  After the match, a new group consisting of Dakota Sky, Bailey, and Io Shirai showed up. Totally random pairing there, but I guess we'll see how that works out. **1/2

LOGAN PAUL vs. THE MIZ (14:15): Logan Paul did a lot of high flying, which was impressive. He's better as a heel, though, so I'm kind of baffled as why they're trying to make him a good guy. This was entertaining. Logan did the old Shane McMahon top rope elbow through the announce table spot which was awesome. AJ Styles ran out to help Logan Paul and beat up The Miz for some reason as well. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. THEORY (4:42): Vince was pushing Theory to the moon...so it'll be interesting if he gets the cool down treatment. He lost quickly here in a forgettable match. *

THE MYSTERIOS vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) (11:08): Edge did a Brood entrance with the flames around a staircase midway through this match. That set up The Mysterio's winning. Without Edge, The Judgment Day group is kind of pointless now. So far this show seems to be more about surprise entrances than actual wrestling. Which is fine, considering the WWE rarely has great, in-ring matches. **

PAT McAFEE vs. HAPPY CORBIN (10:39): McAfee did some high flying stuff, which is impressive because he's a tall dude and also the announcer, not a wrestler. Hopefully with Vince gone they'll finally cast Baron Corbin aside to the rubbish bin. **

THE USO'S vs. THE STREET PROFITS (13:23): These two teams had a good match at the last PPV. Considering The Uso's won that match in a close contest, it was a little strange that The Uso's won more easily in this rematch. This wasn't very good at all, especially considering how good their last match was. *

LIV MORGAN vs. RONDA ROUSEY (4:34): They gave Liv Morgan the title...but apparently they don't think she's worthy of it. Rousey had Liv in an armbar submission and Rousey was on her back so the ref counted to 3 and Rousey lost. The problem? Liv tapped out right before the pinfall. This was kind of ridiculous. If you put the title on someone, at least make her look somewhat credible. *

ROMAN REIGNS vs. BROCK LESNAR "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH" (22:55): These two have seemingly wrestled each other forever at every big show...but the fans seem to not care about this. This was by far their best match...at least in recent memory. The reason was they did a unique spot during this match that will run as a highlight for years to come. Brock came out driving a tractor with a lift on it. He used this tractor multiple times during the match. The big spot had him lifting the ring with the tractor and Roman tumbled out of the ring. This was a crazy spot. I'm actually shocked Nashville let them do this, considering ringside fans could have been crushed to death if this went awry. Brock left the tractor holding up one corner of the ring so anyone sitting on that side of the ring paid all that money for good seats and couldn't see the finish. After that spot, The Uso's came down and beat up Brock and he suplexed them and Roman speared Lesnar a few times. Eventually they threw a bunch of chairs and the announce table on Lesnar and he got counted out. Good, crazy, main event. ***

ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

Lowell, Massachusetts

COLT CABANA vs. ANTHONY HENRY (10:00): This was a really good show. Tony Khan has certainly turned around Ring of Honor, as before he bought it, the last few years featured fairly dull shows with sparse crowds. This show wasn't sold out or anything, but they had a big crowd that was loud and hot for most of the night. What Khan is going to do with Ring of Honor is anyone's guess, though. They don't have a TV show and this was only the 2nd show since he bought it. Khan supposedly did give contracts to a few of the stars like The Briscoe Brothers and Jonathan Gresham (who already quit). Khan apparently bought the company simply because he's rich and a fan. I guess we'll see if putting a few PPV's on a year is going to work. This opener was fun, as the crowd was super into everything Colt Cabana did. The free, hour pre-show had four matches...so you definitely got your money's worth if you didn't want to pay $49 for the 3 hour PPV (I didn't). **1/2

THE TRUST BUSTERS vs. SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD (5:30): Cheeseburger is still around, part of the Shinobi Shadow Squad. Does Cheeseburger have a real, 9-5 job? He has to, right? I don't even really remember this match and I literally watched it last night. *1/2

THE EMBASSY vs. ALEX ZAYNE, BLAKE CHRISTIAN & TONY DEPPEN (11:35): Brian Cage is in AEW. He mysteriously disappeared since last Fall but now he's in Ring of Honor in Tully Blanchard's stable, though Blanchard apparently quit because he wasn't on this show. Cage looked great. I remember him having a great match against Adam Page on an AEW PPV so I'm not entirely sure why he kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth in AEW. He was also in the cinematic match against Darby Allin and Sting years ago. This match got pretty exciting late, as Zayne and Deppen and Christian were all doing a bunch of fast, high flying, exciting moves against the three big monsters. Fun match. **1/2

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ALLYSIN KAY (7:50): This was pretty forgettable, although the crowd roared in approval for everything Willow did for some reason. Is she from Lowell, Mass or something? *1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. JONATHAN GRESHAM (11:30): Gresham quit the company after this match. He mentioned that he felt disrespected because he didn't have much if any communication this week from Tony Khan. He also mentioned he was mad that this match, a ROH title match, went on first on the PPV and didn't get a lot of time. Let's face facts, though...he quit because he was mad he lost the title, a title he just won last December. Gresham is a short dude so WWE will never hire him, and if they did they wouldn't do anything with him. Quitting AEW will make him work indies for the rest of his life. That's what he has been doing lately, as he has his own company, Terminus, that runs shows here and there in Atlanta (they had a show last Thursday where he faced Takeshita in the main event). Gresham also wrestles a lot in Germany for WXW for some reason. So he won't not be working. But quitting ROH even though he just signed a contract seems like a mistake. Maybe he'll realize this and come back. Either way, I would have rather seen this as a longer, main event match. It was for the title, which Cesaro won. I understand that they wanted FTR/Briscoes on last, though. This was a good match but weird that it went on first and didn't go too long. I also think it was kind of obvious that Claudio was winning because as we saw with Adam Page vs. CM Punk...Tony Khan always goes with the more popular guy. Considering the WWE never gave Cesaro the title, and he never won the ROH title previously, it was kind of awesome seeing him in his 40's finally be a world champ. **1/2 

DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (9:40): I love Dalton Castle's entrance. I also think his gimmick is one of wrestling's best. The crowd loved him in this match, too. At one point he was tossing his boys left and right over the ropes onto his opponents. The Righteous is kind of a Charlie Manson gimmick. Vincent is a part of it. When Matt Taven and Vincent broke up I kind of thought I'd never see Vincent again. Taven is in Impact now, doing whatever the hell they do over there (I never watch that promotion). This was another fun match. Dalton and The Boys won the 6 man titles. **1/2

WHEELER YUTA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (15:55): This was the opposite of the typical AEW/crowd favorite type of matches. It was more ground and pound than spectacular high flying. While it was good it was also a little boring. Yuta retained the Pure title, a title with so many stipulations that it takes five minutes to explain it. No wonder ROH got rid of it for years. **1/2

RUSH vs. DRAGON LEE (15:50): This was fantastic. Dragon Lee was in it so of course it was. When ROH folded, the two best wrestlers in the company that became free agents were Bandido and Dragon Lee. Why Khan didn't fucking snap them up for AEW right away is baffling to me. But at least they're in ROH, though Bandido was missing tonight (he did look like he injured his neck last month at the AAA show when he landed on his head). It seemed to me that these two decided to just recreate the infamous Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi match from CMLL years ago...because they did a lot of the same, spectacular spots. A few of the moves went off the rails but this was just as brutal and crazy as that one was. Dragon Lee of course broke Hiromu's neck at that New Japan California show years ago...so Hiromu isn't wrestling as crazy anymore. Dragon Lee still is, which is kind of shocking. Has he learned nothing? Lately he's been balancing his opponent on the guardrail and sailing through the ropes to torpedo them into the crowd. He tried this with Rush by sitting him on the announce table. His dive wasn't long enough, though, and he ended up smashing his head through the table. How he finished this match is beyond me. Also, these two are brothers in real life. And they beat the shit out of each other. What a glorious, insane match this was. ***

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. SERENA DEEB (17:20): Martinez did a sit up suplex on Deeb from the top rope that reminded me of that infamous, top rope Dragon suplex that Omega did to Okada. While this match wasn't particular good or anything, that move at least woke me up and take notice. Martinez retained the Women's title here. This was too slow and plodding in spots, but certainly brutal and hard hitting. **

SAMOA JOE vs. JAY LETHAL (12:20): The crowd was a frothing frenzy of wildness for the early part and the later part of this match. Great crowd tonight. I guess this was more an AEW crowd...since a ROH crowd doesn't really exist, anymore, plus half the wrestlers on this show were AEW wrestlers. For five minutes or so these two beat the shit out of each other outside the ring before the bell rang. Later on we got a ref bump and interference from Jay's cronies. Joe retained the TV title or whatever it's called. The early part and final few minutes of this were fantastic. The middle was kind of dull. **1/2

FTR vs. THE BRISCOE BROTHERS "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (43:25): This was a really intense, hard hitting, entertaining epic. Since it went so long, though, I think their first match back in April was better. This was so long it had the kitchen sink feel. They did everything and more. Cash Wheeler did a side suplex on one of the Briscoe's from the second rope down onto a table late in the match. They barely hit the table, though, and the Briscoe's head landed hard through the table. That was sickening. Also, Dax got so many chops on his chest that his chest started to bleed. Besides the table break, this felt like one of those exhausting, epic New Japan matches, which is a good thing. The Briscoe's won the first fall and FTR won the 2nd and 3rd fall. Really great match that truly had that epic, awesome, putting-everything-out-there feel that a main event title match should have. The final pin was pretty creative as well, as Dax gave one of the Briscoe's a second rope piledriver and both men fell over in exhaustion, but Dax laid his foot on the Briscoe's chest to score the win. Good end to a really good show. ***1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

 

Las Vegas

LIV MORGAN vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. ASUKA vs. BECKY LYNCH vs. LACEY EVANS vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. SHOTZI "MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH" (16:35): AEW just had an excellent PPV, Forbidden Door, and a wild "Blood & Guts" match on Dynamite. Your move, WWE. This show was probably supposed to be a much bigger deal when they first announced it. They were going to have the show at the football stadium in Vegas and even started selling tickets. Apparently the ticket sales weren't good so they moved the show to the MGM Grand Arena. And while Money in the Bank is my favorite WWE PPV of the year, the reason is because usually you not only get title matches but you also get two ladder matches. This year, though, there was no men's title match and the two women's titles matches were extremely weak for a PPV. The show entertained me but nothing was spectacular except for the last five minutes or so of the Uso's match. Thankfully the WWE didn't have pre-show matches so this wasn't a 5 hour show or anything ludicrous. The show went a little over 3 hours mostly because, thanks to Peacock, there's commercials between matches which stretches the show out. Watching this women's ladder match made me realize how fucking awesome and skilled The Young Bucks really are. They won the tag titles a few weeks ago on Dynamite in a ladder match against Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus. Everything the Bucks do with a ladder works and looks seamless. In this match it was the exact opposite. Raquel Rodriguez had a spot where she was supposed to pick up a ladder where two of the women were laying on. I guess they didn't practice it because she could only lift half of the ladder up and it made her look weak and pathetic. Shotzi tried to run up a ladder perched in the corner to give Raquel a DDT but Shotzi slipped the first time on the ladder then slipped again on the ropes trying to correct herself. Alexa Bliss fell on a wobbly ladder when it crashed onto the ropes when it wasn't supposed to. The whole match wasn't sloppy, but it just made you realize how great some wrestlers truly are in ladder matches, like The Hardy's, Edge & Christian, etc. I do remember one of the Young Bucks tripping on the ropes and crashing head first onto a ringside table in that crazy All Out ladder match against Penta and Fenix, so they're not perfect. But watching this match just made me scared to death one of these women were going to break their neck. The big ladder in the center of the ring was broken and couldn't stand still and it took them forever to finally move it and use another one. The big moment was Becky Lynch climbing a ladder at ringside to jump butt first onto Asuka who was laying on a ladder bridge. Unfortunately, that looked more painful than thrilling, unlike Matt Riddle's two awesome top of the ladder spots later in the evening. So this more entertaining than a typical WWE women's match...but not by much. Liv Morgan won and got a good pop, which is shocking, because they seem to have buried her six feet under with their booking the past year. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. THEORY (11:05): What a stupid fucking name. "Theory." Jesus Christ, who writes this shit? Vince and co. want their next big star to be named Theory? They have to realize how stupid that is, right? Is it too late to change it? While he's a better in ring wrestler than The Miz, Theory is basically The Miz because he's being pushed when no one in the audience wants him to and are baffled as to why it's happening. The Miz is good on the mic, so at least there's that. Theory is young and good looking. Not like there's a bunch of fat, old people running around the locker room, though. But that's the reason he's being pushed as a superstar. The only reason he lost the U.S. title here is because they're moving him to the main title picture. Which makes little sense because he got beat clean here. Match was decent and they seemed to work well together. **

BIANCA BELAIR vs. CARMELLA (7:10): Carmella is still around? I suppose Vince thinks she's pretty or something, because the fans don't like her, she's annoying, and she can't wrestle. This should not be a PPV title match. This is like a throwaway Smackdown match at best. Bianca won. Match sucked. Carmella beat up Belair after the match. 1/2*

THE USO'S vs. THE STREET PROFITS (23:00): This was the best match on the show, although it went too long. The last five minutes or so were great with some exciting near falls and the crowd in a frenzy. One of The Street Profits reminds me of the some of the AEW guys because he does a lot of high spots, including jumping over the ring corner onto The Uso's during this match and delivering a great, high Frog Splash that got a near fall. Fun match but there were like ten minutes in the middle where it was a boring beat down by The Uso's. ***

RONDA ROUSEY vs. NATALYA (12:30)/ LIV MORGAN vs. RONDA ROUSEY (0:35): This was another title match that had no business being on a PPV. Natalya? Really? Is she still even in WWE? And she's a heel now? What? Match sucked. It was boring. Ronda isn't typically in great matches, though, is she? At least since being back she seems to be kind of bland. Maybe that's why they decided to take the title off her when Liv cashed in her contract. Natalya had weakened Rousey's knees by doing the Sharpshooter and Rousey was selling her leg. Rousey put Liv in the Ankle Lock for a few seconds but Liv got out and did whatever her finishing move is and pinned her to win the title. A cash in is exciting and gets the crowd on their feet, but I think cashing it in so early kind of defeats the year long, suspenseful drama. Liv is cute and seems like she likes wrestling and it's her dream job and all that so her winning was cool, especially considering they've buried her endlessly. I think I'd rather have seen her win the title by actually winning for the first time in a long, hard fought match than just here in fluke like fashion. **

THEORY vs. DREW McINTYRE vs. MADCAP MOSS vs. OMOS vs. RIDDLE vs. SAMI ZAYN vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. SHEAMUS "MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH" (25:25): They announced that Theory was joining this match for no reason...which made it kind of obvious he was going to win. Riddle couldn't win because he lost a title match to Roman Reigns on Smackdown a few weeks ago with the stipulation that if he lost he could never face Reigns for the title again. After that match, Brock Lesnar came out, setting up a Brock vs. Roman match at Summerslam. Yes, they announced the Summerslam main event before this show. Kind of made this show pointless. I realize that Roman Reigns signed a new contract that gives him limited dates...but they really should have put the Riddle vs. Reigns title match on this show. Riddle is one of the most over wrestlers in WWE (Reigns and Orton are the other two). Why is his title match on a random Smackdown episode? And why are they pushing Theory more than Riddle? I'm not sure who the genius is coming up with wrestler's names...but they need to be fired. Matt Riddle is a good name. Riddle is not. Austin Theory is a good name. Theory is not. Madcap Moss is not a good name. They all sound like morons. As for this match...it was a pretty forgettable ladder match to be honest. Riddle did two awesome spots, though, which were the highlights. He actually stepped on the very top of the ladder to do a flip dive down onto all the wrestlers. And he did an RKO from the top of the ladder. Why Matt Riddle is not the champion of this company is beyond me. At one point they all threw ladders onto Omos at ringside to get him trapped. Then he appeared in the ring later without ever showing him escaping his predicament. Everyone also picked up Omos and put him through the announce table. That got a big pop. Sami Zayn took a sick bump on the back of his head being slammed on a ladder wedged on the ropes. It was entertaining, though with Theory winning at the end, you kind of went home depressed. Way to go, WWE! ***

AEW & NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR

United Center, Chicago

HIROOKI GOTO & YASHI-HASHI vs. AARON SOLO & QT MARSHALL (8:55): What a fucking show. AEW really delivers the kitchen sink with their PPV's. 4 pre-show matches, 9 main card matches. Big debuts (Cesaro!). Shocking appearances (Shibata!). The pre-show was 1 hour, the main card went 3 hours and 45 minutes. So, yeah, it was a bit too long, but the first handful of matches on the main card had me thinking: is this going to be the greatest PPV of all time? The rowdy, raucous, deafening Chicago crowd certainly helped. And this was all for a show that didn't even have a dream matches. Omega was injured so we unfortunately didn't get to see an Omega/Ibushi match or an Okada/Omega match. Ibushi is out with an injury and feuding backstage with management so he was out. CM Punk and Bryan Danielson are injured. Hiromu Takahashi had a fever so he couldn't get on the plane. Ishii is injured so he was out. Jesus Christ, is there anyone left? There were a few names left off the card like Evil and Yano that, really, weren't missed. You could tell how great a crowd this was as Goto and Yashi-Hashi got roars of approval like they were Hulk Hogan. None of the pre-show matches were all that great but the crowd made them awesome. **1/2

LANCE ARCHER vs. NICK COMOROTO (6:10): Archer is the lone AEW star in the G1 this year. That might not last long, as he did a cannonball entering the ring and landed right on his head. Yikes. This was just too big guys doling it out. It was okay. *1/2

KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU (12:05): I'm not sold on Swerve Strickland yet. He has to have a really great singles match for me to see how great he is. The crowd adore Keith Lee, though. This was fun. **1/2

THE GUNN CLUB & MAX CASTER vs. YUYA UEMURA, ALEX COUGHLIN, THE DKC & KEVIN KNIGHT (5:35): Billy Gunn's sons left the ring to chase after Danhausen so they weren't even in this match. Billy Gunn got some big pops. It's so funny seeing how taller he is than everyone else when in the WWE you never noticed it. The opening rap that Caster does with the Gunn Club saying the wrong city they're in is always hilarious. I think putting The Acclaimed and The Gunn Club together was actually a great move. The crowd loved this. **1/2

MINORU SUZUKI, CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVERA vs. EDDIE KINGSTON, SHOTA UMINO & WHEELER YUTA (19:00): This was a fantastic match. You couldn't get a better crowd. My God did they make these matches ten times better than they were. The one thing they did that I liked was they really pushed some of the new New Japan guys like Shota Umino. He became a fucking star because of this match. Umino is Red Shoe's son and they showed clips of Jericho putting him in The Walls of Jericho in Japan during a match. Later on during this show, Jericho threw a fireball into Umino's face backstage. This was just all action and was super entertaining. ***1/2

FTR vs. JEFF COBB & THE GREAT O'KHAN vs. ROPPONGI VICE (16:25): One member of FTR did the injury gimmick and came back out later taped up to get the crowd to pop. FTR ended up winning the IWGP tag titles here, which means they hold those, the AAA titles, and the ROH titles. I'm guessing they're going to do a 4 title unification match with the Bucks down the line. This had a lot of good action but, man, The Great O'Khan is so terrible it's not even funny. FTR is super over, though, so them winning was great. ***

PAC vs. CLARK CONNORS vs. MIRO vs. MALAKAI BLACK (15:05): Another great match. This string of good to great matches early on was really impeccable. Ishii beat Connors to be in this match but Ishii got injured so they put Connors in anyway. They really pushed him which helped. The ending to this match was genius, really. Malaki Black had Connors in a submission and they were crawling around and PAC got up on the top rope and did a 450 or whatever it's called to break it up. PAC won the new All Atlantic title, which is kind of superfluous since every title can be held by someone from any country. Everyone looked good in this match. ***1/2

DARBY ALLIN, STING & SHINGO TAKAGI vs. EL PHANTASMO & THE YOUNG BUCKS (13:00): This was a lot of fun but more a comedy, entertainment match than any kind of high drama thing. Sting started the match appearing above the entranceway and jumped down onto everyone. ELP and The Bucks did the stupid comedy back scratch spot which got a huge pop. This, like the 3 previous matches, had so many people doing dives and flips and moves non-stop that it was just super engaging. ELP did a top rope walk into a moonsault to the floor which was great. Hiromu was supposed to be in this match but was sick. Sure, it'd have been great if he was in it, but this match didn't suffer at all without him. This was a total blast. ***1/2

THUNDER ROSA vs. TONI STORM (10:40): New Japan doesn't have women's wrestlers so I guess they figured they needed women on this show so they put this title match on. Stardom is owned by the same company as New Japan but Stardom had a PPV on the same day, hence why Thunder Rosa wasn't defending against Karai Sane or someone. This was pretty mediocre to be honest. The AEW women's division has never been that good for one reason or another. *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (16:45): This was the match of the night. Considering Will Ospreay is the best wrestler in the world, of course it was. Cassidy started with comedy bits but by the end they were trading big moves and excellent near-falls. Ospreay is the king of the near-fall, always kicking out at the last possible millisecond. Ospreay retained the U.S. title. After the match, Ospreay and Aussie Open started to beat up Cassidy so Shibata came out and beat up Ospreay. Are they really going to do it? Let Shibata have a real match again? They keep toying with it, giving us a grappling match against Zack Sabre, Jr. and having him do some bumps and wrestle a bit here. He looked great. Ospreay vs. Shibata at the Dome would be epic. ***1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (18:30): Bryan Danielson was supposed to be in this match but was injured so they had a surprise to replace him. It turned out to be Cesaro, using his old ROH name. The crowd of course went ape shit for him. The problem was we got a too long, Zack Sabre, Jr. match. I thought most of the match was boring. Great intro for Claudio, though. **

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. ADAM COLE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (21:00): This was really good but the end was very anticlimactic. Cole got pinned by Jay White after White gave Okada a Blade Runner. Why he didn't pin Okada but went over to pin Cole is probably because Okada is too big a deal to be pinned. Cole looked like he got knocked out or had a concussion or something so maybe the ref called an audible and just ended the match shorter than planned. The one problem with this match was no one thought they'd give the IWGP title to Cole or Page. I could've seen Okada winning it, though, but they went with the boring choice and let Jay retain. Jay White was the weak link in this. While everything he does looks polished...he wrestles too methodically and slow and he's only in great matches once in a blue moon. Page and Cole looked great and Okada looked kind of slow but he is getting older. ***

JON MOXLEY vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (18:20): CM Punk was supposed to defend his title in this match but he got injured. Moxley ended up winning the interim AEW championship here. This match was actually better than I expected, although not a classic main event or anything. I always bash Tanahashi these days because he's old and slow and not as great but to his credit he did everything you'd want to see and hung in there for 18 minutes never looking tired or anything. Moxley wanted to bleed because he loves hardcore stuff so he bled like a stuck pig. The problem? He wasn't even hit in the head with anything. One moment he was just at ringside bleeding all over the place for no reason. After the match they did the Blood and Guts angle where Jericho's team ran out and Claudio and Wheeler Yuta and Eddie Kingston ran out and everyone brawled. I didn't really need to see more after a 5 hour show and the main event over but I guess they needed to push Wednesday's show. All in all this turned out to be a very entertaining, often great PPV. Considering it came about on short notice and most of the big names were injured, this was a total winner. ***

NJPW DOMINION

 

Osaka, Japan

AARON HENARE, TJP & FRANCESCO AKIRA vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, MASTER WATO & HIROYOSHI TENZAN (10:31): It's kind of sad that New Japan wasn't working with AEW when AEW first started. Supposedly New Japan's president at the time didn't want to do it. The new president does, and so we have AEW & NJPW's first PPV together happening later this month in Chicago. It's a shame that it's happening now and now 3 years ago because New Japan has lost a lot of it's luster lately and become somewhat of a dull, lame company. The Pandemic can be blamed, because fans in Japan are still sparse and still masked and still can't cheer or boo. But also the top stars; Tanahashi, Okada, and Naito, have gotten old. The PPV coming now isn't the greatest timing either, as Omega is out with injuries, CM Punk, who was supposed to main event against Tanahashi, got injured, and Ibushi is feuding behind the scenes with management and hasn't wrestled since his injury in the G1 final last October. Dominion is NJPW's 2nd biggest show of the year (3rd if you count Wrestle Kingdom being 2 shows). Considering this is supposed to be their 2nd biggest show of the year, the cracks in the foundation were obvious and glaring. They did have an IWGP title change...which was something big at least. The undercard was entirely forgettable except to see the best wrestler in the world, Ospreay, in action. It's sad seeing such a great company flounder. The glory days were never going to last, though, and we all knew it. This opener was a fun, short, all action match. A bunch of the young, new wrestlers in these first two matches were in the Super Jr.'s tournament that just ended with Hiromu winning. TJP I remember from Impact Wrestling years ago. He still looks the same which is shocking considering I use to watch his X-Division matches like ten years ago. Akira is a new guy they picked up and he's at least fairly exciting to watch. Tenzan got pinned of course. **1/2

TAIJI ISHIMORI, EL PHANTASMO & ACE AUSTIN vs. TETSUYA NAITO, BUSHI & HIROMU TAKAHASHI (8:04): Ishimori is the Jr. champ and he's facing Hiromu for the belt later this month at a random Korakuen Hall show. They used to have the Super Jr.'s winner face the Jr. champ at Dominion...but not this year. I'm guessing because they wanted to give the guy's some rest? Either way it made this card fairly weak without that match. This was more of a comedy match than anything. Ace Austin did a bit where he did some flips and then magically a cane appeared out of his wrist. I guess his gimmick is David Copperfield? Naito did have 2 unsuccessful main event title matches this year against Okada, so he is still being pushed, but why is one of their big stars in a superfluous, multi-man tag match early on this big show? This was at least amusing, and ELP always entertains. **1/2

TORU YANO vs. DOC GALLOWS (4:05): Sadly, this show featured Gallows & Anderson in singles matches. Ugh. As if their tag matches aren't enough of a chore to watch, we have to see two singles matches with them? Gallows flew all the way to Japan to lose to Yano. I hope he got a good paycheck for that humiliation. There wasn't much to this. Gallows isn't good with humor. 1/2*

EVIL, YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & SHO vs. ZACK SABRE, JR., EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU (9:25): The House of Torture retained the 6 man titles thanks to cheating. They do this in all of their matches and it got old the second The House of Torture was created. Zack looked good. Desperado was wasted in this. At least the intensity was there. **

GREAT O'KHAN & JEFF COBB vs. BAD LUCK FALE & CHASE OWENS (11:52): O'Khan and Cobb won the tag titles. It really says something about the tag division considering Fale and Chase Owens were the champions. Fale looked like he got really fat, although he never was skin and bones or anything. Maybe I just haven't seen him in awhile. Chase was the star of the match. He works hard but isn't spectacular or anything. Cobb won with the Tour of the Islands. I really can't stand O'Khan. He's just the worst of the worst. *1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO (12:40): CM Punk won the AEW title last month at Double or Nothing. Then he broke something in his foot on Dynamite. He was supposed to defend the title against Tanahashi at Forbidden Door. So AEW did a Battle Royale which Kyle O'Reilly won. O'Reilly lost to Moxley and Moxley would face the winner of this match for the interim AEW title. Man, I really wanted to see a Goto vs. O'Reilly PPV main event. Can you fathom that? So, no, the outcome of this match wasn't up in the air. Moxley vs. Tanahashi is a big match on paper...but Tanahashi doesn't "brawl" and Tanahashi is old and limps around. I doubt that will be a very good match. Goto, shockingly, still looks more alive than Okada, Tanahashi, and Naito. I guess he wasn't in too many 30+ minute IWGP title matches over the years and thus is body is saved. He was in one once, though, in 2011 at Dominion he lost to the champ, Tanahashi. I'm guessing that that match was probably better than this, which was mediocre. **

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. TAICHI (10:00): Shingo and Ospreay are New Japan's best wrestlers...so why are they giving the title to Jay White? Baffling, really, although Shingo and Ospreay did get the title last year. Spreading the wealth? Gedo loves Jay White for some unknown reason. This match had a 10 minute clock and who ever got the most pinfalls won. So if you got a 1 count you got 1 point. Shingo won. I think it was 11-10 or something. Taichi got 3 counts at the end. This was hard hitting but would've been better in a real, longer match. Shingo retained the KOPW title. **1/2

KARL ANDERSON vs. TAMA TONGA (16:27): This was better than I expected. Maybe because they worked fast and hard unlike Okada's matches where he leisurely walks around the ring for most of the match. Anderson won the NEVER title. Is he not with Impact anymore? Does anyone care? This company has way too many titles. **

WILL OSPREAY vs. SANADA (12:48): Juice was the U.S. champ but supposedly had his appendix taken out and couldn't make the show. I don't think New Japan believed his excuse because they put out a statement saying he refused to come to the show and was stripped of the title. The last time Sanada and Ospreay wrestled, Ospreay landed feet first on Sanada's head in the New Japan Cup and broke his orbital bone. Maybe that's why they only went 12 minutes? Ospreay was also seriously ill recently, apparently close to dying from a kidney infection. Was it that bad, though, considering he's already back flying to Japan and wrestling? He also wrestled on AEW Rampage last week. He looked as great and incredible as he's ever looked in this match. Sanada didn't really attempt to make this a great match, so it was just okay. I really hope they put Ospreay in a singles match at Forbidden Door. I don't want to see him barely used in some dumb multi-man tag match. **1/2 

JAY WHITE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (36:04): Jay White won the IWGP title. I guess that's not too big of a surprise...although on AEW Dynamite, Adam Page called out Okada and said he wanted the title. Nobody wants to see Page vs. Jay White. And considering the IWGP title is usually rarely defended from this show until Wrestle Kingdom...does that mean Jay White will be champ that long? I don't want to see that. I especially don't want to see Jay White in the main event of either night of WK. Granted, his last WK main event was awesome, that 45 minute epic against Ibushi. But Jay White is very rarely in great matches. There so few and far between that I remember them all. That great match in California against Juice Robinson. That short Okada match at WK. That ROH match against Ospreay in NYC from years and years ago. Those are great Jay White matches. This was not one of them. Okada does still have a little left in the tank. His matches aren't awful. He doesn't hobble around the ring like Tanahashi. Okada's match against Ospreay at WK this year was great. But usually, Okada matches are fucking boring. A lot of this match was Okada just walking around like he was on a Sunday stroll. Jay White isn't much better, either. So you had two slow guys doing some cool stuff here and there sparingly. The final flurry was good and the title change was at least something memorable. But...if you're going to give the title to someone besides Okada...don't give it to Jay White, give it to Ospreay. This isn't rocket science. **1/2