Trenton, NJ
JOSH WOODS vs. TRACY WILLIAMS (8:40): This was a fantastic show. That's kind of a surprise, because the men's title match had 2 days build and I barely knew anything about the rest of the card. Maybe if you watch the Ring of Honor show on Honor Club you would've known more about this show...but does anyone watch Ring of Honor on Honor Club? It's $9.99 a month for a weekly TV show. No thanks. At least give us the PPV's as part of the subscription. Also, with AEW adding 2 more hours of TV on TNT, Ring of Honor has kind of, sort of been forgotten. I don't think they even promoted this show on AEW these last few weeks. One big reason this show was so great was the awesome Trenton crowd. They were loud for four straight hours tonight. This opener on the pre-show was a match with Pure rules. Don't ask. Besides the only-3-rope-breaks rule, I have no idea what the other rules are and am not entirely sure what the point of these Pure matches are. Either way, this was a good match. It was very stiff with a bunch of power slams and hard hitting. **1/2
ACTION ANDRETTI & DARIUS MARTIN vs. THE WORKHORSEMEN (ANTHONY HENRY & JD DRAKE) (7:22): This match was great. Andretti and Darius were flying all over the place. Even the fat man, JD Drake, did a top rope moonsault. I kind of feel bad for Top Flight. Darius was hurt for awhile which broke up the team...now Dante Martin is hurt. They put Darius and Andretti together because they're both high flyers so it works. Fun match. ***
LEYLA HIRSCH vs. TRISH ADORA (9:13): Leyla Hirsch is still with the company? I haven't seen her in seemingly years. Trish Adora has a move called the Larriot Tubman. That amused me. This was pretty forgettable. *
AR FOX vs. SHANE TAYLOR (10:21): Good match. AR Fox was jumping and flipping all over the place like he always does. Shane Taylor looked good as usual as the big, powerful, monster type. ***
GRAVITY vs. KOMANDER (10:05): And I thought Theory was the dumbest wrestling name these days. Granted, they gave Theory his first name back. But...Gravity? So stupid. It's a shame because he's a pretty exciting luchador. Supposedly these two used to be a tag team somewhere. This was just a classic luchador match and the crowd loved it. Good stuff. ***
SOMOA JOE vs. DALTON CASTLE (14:12): Dalton Castle has to be one of the most entertaining wrestlers outside of actual wrestling. His intro is great and he's a fucking character. But he's never exactly set the world on fire in the wrestling ring beyond his quirky gimmickry. This was kind of slow and the finish was pretty lame. Stokely Hathaway got The Boys banned from ringside and this caught Dalton off guard and Somoa Joe choked him out to retain the TV title. It was at least entertaining for most of the match. **1/2
AUSSIE OPEN vs. BEST FRIENDS vs. THE KINGDOM vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (17:01): This match was awesome. I thought it was a great idea to give The Lucha Brothers the tag titles because then you're going to get them in a match on every ROH PPV. So of course Aussie Open won the tag titles here. Aussie Open is great so I guess that's not the worst idea. This was just total action and total mayhem. Best Friends did a lot of comedy. Lucha Brothers did a lot of crazy moves. Matt Taven did some cool over-the-top-rope leaps. Aussie Open did a lot of brutal, fast paced maneuvers. This was just fantastic from start to finish. ***1/2
THE MOGUL EMBASSY (BISHOP KAUN, BRIAN CAGE & TOA LIONA) vs. LEON RUFFIN & SIX OR NINE (MASTER WATO & RUYSUKE TAGUCHI) (12:20): I was so surprised when Taguchi walked out for this match followed by Master Wato. What? These two flew from Japan to Trenton just for this match? Supposedly they're a tag team, as they have a name. I guess those two have to do something since they're not in the G1 this year. This wasn't fantastic or anything but it was a fun match. Leon Ruffin is a small, skinny dude but he did a lot of exciting moves. Taguchi got the crowd into it with his antics. It was entertaining. **1/2
KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (14:36): This started slow but by the end it got pretty good. Daniel Garcia's new gimmick is his Magic Mike style dance moves. I kind of feel bad for him for that because he might end up like Fandango instead of being a serious, title contender. Shibata retained the Pure title here by choking out Garcia. It got very hard hitting by the end with some good, back and forth action. It wasn't great, but it was yet another entertaining match on this great show. **1/2
THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS, JOHN SILVER & EVIL UNO) vs. STU GRAYSON & THE RIGHTEOUS (VINCENT & DUTCH) "FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR MATCH" (15:42): This match was insane. It was basically a hardcore match. Stu Grayson joined the Charles Manson-esque cult, The Righteous, so Evil Uno wanted to beat him up for doing that. I was kind of wondering why you would break up one of the best tag teams in wrestling, The Super Smash Brothers. But at least we got this awesome match out of it. So there was a 2x4 with barbed wire. Dutch got thrown onto a barbed wire table. Evil Uno tipped Stu Grayson off a ladder through two tables at ringside. There were thumbtacks and legos strewn about in the ring that everyone got tossed into. Uno and Dutch were bleeding. Vincent did a Swanton Bomb off the top rope onto a table that didn't break so Stu Grayson did a frog splash right after that to break the table. This was a crazy, wild, super entertaining brawl. ***1/2
CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. PAC (18:36): Eddie Kingston was supposed to face Claudio for the title on this show. He decided to do the G1 instead. Then Mark Briscoe was going to face Claudio but he got injured. On Wednesday, two days before this show, AEW Dynamite had their annual Blood & Guts War Games match. Claudio and PAC were on the same team but started pushing each other around and then PAC quit the match and walked off. That set this match up. Considering there was pretty much no build for this, it turned out okay. The big spot had Claudio press slamming PAC over the top rope and through a table. PAC looked awesome as always and Claudio is great, so this was a decent match. It never really got to that high drama level you want, but it was pretty good. **1/2
ATHENA vs. WILLOW (20:31): I'm not sure why they put this match on last. I guess they wanted to throw the women a bone. That, or maybe because the men's title match was thrown together late. Bryan Alvarez also bad mouthed AEW the other night because the only woman on Dynamite was Britt Baker and she was in a 1 minute squash. Bryan noted that if Tony Khan is going to say that he wants to push the women and all that then he should prove it. Maybe Tony was listening and that's why this was the main event. Who knows? I thought maybe Willow was winning the women's title here and that's why it went on last. Nope. Athena retained. It was a good match, not great or anything. The crowd certainly helped, as usually they're silent during women's matches. This was such a fun, entertaining show. It seemed to come out of the blue but I'm glad it did. **1/2
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