Las Vegas
HOOK & DANHAUSEN vs. TONY NEESE & MARK STERLING (5:20): The string of great, legendary AEW PPV's is over. This wasn't a bad show or anything, it just didn't reach the heights of the last PPV, Revolution, or last year's All Out. It wasn't even as good as last November's Full Gear, which I called, "great." Oh, well. There were a number of problems. The Young Bucks usually steal the show. They were put in a match with the old and broken Hardy Boys, which denied us a masterpiece. The main event was so-so. The TBS championship match was terrible. The two Owen Cup finals were dull. The show was fairly entertaining, though, albeit too long (4 and 1/2 hours plus a pre-show). The crowd stayed hot for the worthy stuff, which was good. I think the only other AEW show so far that had a bigger crowd was the U.S. Open tennis stadium show last year. The crowd loved this match, which was a short pre-show match. I'm kind of baffled why they love Danhausen and Hook. Danhausen was in Ring of Honor and nobody gave a fuck about him. Hook is a punk kid that only does squash matches. With the hot crowd at least this was fun. **1/2
WARDLOW vs. MJF (7:30): This was pretty much a squash. MJF got a little bit of offense early like poking Wardlow in the eyes. Then came the multiple suplexes. I'm really not sure where they can go with Wardlow now that his epic storyline is over. I don't really think anyone wants to see him in long matches and you can't do short squash matches forever. I guess we'll see. MJF lost clean and pretty much got destroyed so it's funny that they seem to be giving him the old CM Punk vs. WWE storyline which should, eventually, lead to him winning the title and "beating" AEW and Tony Khan in the process. Considering he just had a month's long feud with Punk, will they really do another one again so soon? **
THE HARDY'S vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (19:15): The Hardy's still do all the classics...but they're both so old and beaten up now that they can't really be in a great match anymore. So this was okay but nothing special. The big spot was Jeff Hardy doing a Swanton Bomb off of the top rope and onto one of the Bucks laid on top of the ring steps on their side. That was cool. **1/2
JADE CARGILL vs. ANNA JAY (7:25): This was terrible and by far the worst AEW PPV match I can remember ever seeing. I really doubt I'll ever see Jade Cargill in a good match. Everything she does just looks awkward and rigid. Anna Jay looked like she never wrestled before. This was a sloppy mess. They knew this, too, as they did a bunch of interference and then after the match they debuted NXT's Ember Moon who is now Athena. -No Stars-
THE HOUSE OF BLACK vs. DEATH TRIANGLE (15:35): Considering how awesome all 6 of these guys are, I figured this would be the match of the night and it probably was. The Lucha Brothers are awesome and insane. Penta ran across the edge of the ring, jumped over Fenix and gave Buddy Murphy a Canadian Destroyer. He's done that before and it's still crazy. Buddy Murphy looked great, too, which is kind of a shame because he's never in singles matches. Brody King kind of botched his top rope dive by barely getting over it and landing half on the apron. The lights went out at the end and when they came back on, Julia Hart was in the ring and sprayed black mist into Pac's face, causing their team to lose. Julia Hart turning evil has been a long term storyline teased forever, but usually when the lights go out you expect a bigger surprise like, say, Johnny Gargano or Cesaro or someone. Great action throughout, though. ***
ADAM COLE vs. SAMOA JOE (12:30): This was kind of a forgettable TV match. I'm still kind of confused about this Owen Hart tournament. Only some people were in it for no reason. The winners get...nothing? Owen Hart's widow, Martha Hart, did give a heartfelt speech afterwards, though, which was the highlight. Considering Cole lost to Page twice for the title I suppose they had to throw him a bone, but I would have given Joe the win because he just showed up and hasn't lost yet and was built up as this big, unstoppable monster. **
BRITT BAKER vs. RUBY SOHO (13:20): I also would have given Soho the win here. Britt had the title for a year and beat Soho last year. Throw Soho a bone and make some new stars. This was another kind of forgettable TV type of a match. Britt will never be in a great match without hardcore gimmicks. That's been established. **
SCORPIO SKY, ETHAN PAGE & PAIGE VAN ZANT vs. FRANKIE KAZARIAN, SAMMY GUEVARA & TAY CONTI (12:30): One of the reasons that Cody quit AEW was because he made that stupid decision to lose a match to MJF and thus accept the stipulation that he can never vie for the championship. Dumb idea. So they do it again! Sammy Guevera's team lost so he can never wrestle for the TNT title again. This was also the wrestling debut of Paige Van Zant. I think she did MMA but I never knew her until she showed up in AEW. She looked okay but obviously green. The highlight was Sammy inadvertantly delivering a wicked superkick to his girlfriend, Tay Conti. That reminded me of the infamous thumbtack superkick that one of the Young Bucks gave Johnny Gargano's wife, Candice LeRae, in PWG many moons ago. This was entertaining but nothing spectacular. **1/2
KYLE O'REILLY vs. DARBY ALLIN (9:50): This was announced on Friday's Rampage show. I'm not sure what the point of this was, as Darby, one of the company's biggest stars, lost. Kyle signed a 5 year contract so I guess they figured they should, like, push him. There was a lot of grappling in this. Darby did a Coffin Drop onto Kyle as he was hanging out of the ring. This was kind of just a regular TV match. **1/2
THUNDER ROSA vs. SERENA DEEB (16:55): The AEW women's division has never been that great. Thunder Rosa is a better in-ring wrestler than Britt Baker, but Serena Deeb is kind of dull since she does submissions and the fans don't care about her. I really think they should give the title to Jayme Hayter, as her and Riho are the two best women's wrestlers and Riho already had the title once. There wasn't really much to this match. *1/2
THE JERICHO APPRECIAN SOCIETY vs. THE BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB "ANARCHY IN THE ARENA" (22:45): This was a classic, ECW-style clusteruck match. It was basically "Stadium Stampede" except without the football field. They brawled all over the building. I think everyone was a bloody mess. Santana and Ortiz jumped off a big ladder and onto two of the JAS wrestlers on tables. Moxley set up a barbed wire board on a table and ended up getting tossed onto it but it didn't break so he slid off. Kingston and two of the JAS members beat each other up on the concourse and into a t-shirt stand. Kingston poured gasoline on Jericho and was going to set him on fire but Bryan stopped him and they started fighting each other. Bryan eventually got choked out with the top rope that was taken down and he tapped out. The one thing I have to say is that the camera work and camera cuts were fantastic to show all of the action considering there were like four things happening at once in different parts of the building. This was fantastic stuff. And you can probably tell how over the "other" members of the JAS are considering I don't even know their names. ***
JURASSIC EXPRESS vs. KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS & RICKY STARKS (17:15): This was fun with a lot of action and some great, inventive high flying. I still think they probably should have given Jurassic Express a better opponent, though, like...FTR or The Young Bucks. This wasn't as good as Revolution's 3-way tag title match but it was still highly entertaining. I think Keith Lee was probably the most over in this...which is surprising because he's old and not as fast or good as he once was. ***
CM PUNK vs. ADAM PAGE (25:40): Unfortunately, AEW's running into the Jericho problem again. They gave him the title early because he's a big star but he's old and his PPV main events were boring. CM Punk is a big star but he's old and his main events will be boring. Oh, well. They're doing a PPV in June with New Japan and CM Punk is wrestling Hiroshi Tanahashi. I get it; Adam Page vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi is not a big marquee match. CM Punk vs. Tanahashi is. Plus...they were going to give Punk the title sooner than later anyway since he's old and not getting any younger. Twice in this match, Punk tried to do the Buckshot Lariot and both times he fell over. It was either because he's old or he was tired or he was injured. Considering he wrestling on Dynamite three days after this, it wasn't an injury. So this was a bit sloppy. Adam Page had consistently been in awesome matches during his reign so it's a little sad seeing him lose the title. I really think they should consider giving the title to some of these new, young guys like Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, or Sammy Guevera. Those 3 in main events would set the building on fire. CM Punk might be popular and getting a big paycheck, but I don't see him doing any 4 star matches in the future. CM Punk vs. Omega is a huge PPV main event. Hopefully they do that and then get the title off him and never put it back. The ending had a ref bump and Page grabbing his belt and contemplating turing heel and using the belt on Punk. He decided not to, went for the Buckshot Lariot but Punk grabbed him and put him to sleep. We already had a heavily plotted ending to Page/Omega last year. I don't want another one. I don't think that really worked here and this match wasn't all that great. **
