AEW WRESTLEDREAM

Seattle

ATHENA, BILLIE STARKZ, KEITH LEE & SATOSHI KOJIMA vs. DIAMANTE, MERCEDES MARTINEZ, LEE MORIARTY & SHANE TAYLOR (5:42): This was the best show of the year. A bunch of great matches and a hell of a way to end the show. It was supposed to an Antonio Inoki tribute show, since he died this time last year. Tony Khan came out with Anoki's grandsons and Rocky Romero to pay tribute. What this show has to do with Inoki is beyond me, though (Inoki was a wrestler in the 70's and started New Japan). And then we got this pre-show, which was pretty forgettable. Kojima flew from Japan to be in a five minute match? Maybe he's desperate to be on TV somewhere, anywhere, since New Japan rarely uses him. Kojima, of course, was the highlight of this match, although the crowd loved the few things Keith Lee did. Who even came up with this match? Four women and four men in some weird, random, tag match? I don't know...but the crowd loved Kojima, as did I. **

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. JOSH BARNETT (8:23): Barnett does a Bloodsport show on Wrestlemania weekends every year. Other than that...I think he used to be an MMA guy? So this was kind of a boring grappling match. 1/2*

LUCHASAURUS vs. NICK WAYNE (4:55): Wayne is from Washington state...so I kind of figured that, hell, maybe they'd give him a win or something. Nope. It turns out, though, that they saved his big coming out party for the main event, so this match ended up being superfluous. They did give Wayne a few spots, but this was mostly a beat down. *1/2

BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED vs. TMDK (BAD DUDE TITO, MIKEY NICHOLS & SHANE HASTE) (9:22): The Acclaimed must've cooled off since they've been banished to the pre-show. The crowd still pops big for them...so who knows? TMDK is a New Japan group. It stands for "the mighty don't kneel." Okay. None of those TMDK guys looked any good, but this was a short match mostly just to showcase The Acclaimed. *1/2

MJF vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (DUTCH & VINCENT) (9:35): Adam Cole was supposed to be in this match since it was for the ROH tag titles that he and MJF hold. At Grand Slam, Cole ran out during MJF's match to give support and jumped off the stage to get to the side of the ring and broke his ankle. He'll probably out until next year so they decided to make this a handicap match. Considering MJF retained the titles here in a pure comedy match...is MJF just going to keep doing handicap matches for the titles or will they just never do ROH tag title matches until next year? That's a great question. They probably should've just had The Righteous win. I do feel kind of bad for The Righteous. On one hand, they've never been on an AEW PPV before so they're probably happy about that. On the other hand, they had to be completely humiliated and lose. MJF said that he was going to grab Vincent's dreadlocks and shove his head up Dutch's ass...so of course there was the spot where MJF threw Vincent head first into Dutch's ass in the corner. Is that kind of humiliation worth it? They're pro-wrestlers livin' the dream! Vince McMahon would've cackled at that spot. **1/2

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (10:58): I was kind of bored with this match. Eddie hasn't been in a great match in forever, although his G1 match against Ishii was pretty good (granted, it's difficult to have a bad match against Ishii in Korakuen Hall). Shibata is awesome but I don't think these two gelled together very well. Shibata is lightning fast and works better with someone lighter and faster like him. It was decent...I just thought it might be better. ** 

KRIS STATLANDER vs. JULIA HART (8:56): This was the one shocker of the night. It was actually good! The last time AEW had a good women's match was probably in the Spring when Jamie Hayter was around. The crowd really wanted Hart to win so they were kind of into this. Hart did a moonsault off the top rope. It was fast paced. It worked. Statlander retained the TBS title. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE GUNNS vs. HOOK & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (12:13): This was very entertaining. Fenix left the match early, presumably because he has a TNT title match this week on Dynamite and is banged up so needed rest. Everyone looked good here, even The Gunns, who aren't good wrestlers, but at least know how to piss off the crowd. It had a ton of action and near falls. Good match. The Bucks won so get a tag team title shot. I guess we'll be seeing FTR vs. The Bucks 4 even though their All In match was supposed to be the end of the feud. ***

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (20:12): Good match. I've been waiting forever for Swerve to finally have a good singles match. It probably helped that he's from Seattle and so the crowd cheered him and booed Page. Swerve ended up cheating to win, but he is a heel. They did a lot of brutal looking moves, including a bunch of top rope stomps from Swerve and a sick looking Swerve kick to Page's forearm that sounded like it broke it. Good drama, hot crowd. This was really good. ***

RICKY STARKS vs. WHEELER YUTA (9:53): Starks oozes charisma...and is pretty great in-ring. They should really push him and make him champion...although I've said that about most of the AEW young guys over the years, especially Jungle Boy, who I think they should've made champion years ago. This was wrestled at a frenetic pace, probably because they knew the crowd was spent after the last match. They beat the shit out of each other early on and it was kind of sloppy. Since the crowd didn't really care too much about this, it didn't entirely work. **

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (23:12): This match was fantastic. The crowd tonight was kind of a classic WWE crowd in that they weren't that into the actual wrestling but liked the high spots and wrestler's entrances. Because of that, half of the crowd was really into this match but the crowd wasn't that loud for most of it. They popped big for the WWE-style spots like Bryan's running knee and "Yes!" kicks but weren't that invested in a lot of the grappling and holds. With that said, the match was awesome and it didn't matter that the crowd wasn't on fire. It was two masters of technical wrestling working a back and forth technician's dream. It was also totally engrossing. ***1/2

THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (WILL OSPREAY, KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & SAMMY GUEVERA) vs. CHRIS JERICHO & THE GOLDEN LOVERS (KENNY OMEGA & KOTA IBUSHI) (22:10): The crowd loved most of this match. It was highly entertaining. This was probably the one match that the crowd was the loudest for. It certainly helped that the crowd loved Jericho and Omega and popped big when Ibushi finally got tagged in like halfway through the damn thing. Ibushi also looked the best he's looked all year, which helped. It was all over the place, all over the map, everyone doing everything, chaos, excitement, big moves. Very fun match even though the heels won. Guevera looked a little sloppy on two big moves, a Shooting Star Press to the floor and a top rope cutter...but other than that, it was great. ***1/2

FTR vs. AUSSIE OPEN (20:26): The crowd was a little tired after the last match, so early on this was kind of stale with everyone quiet. It picked up by the end and turned into a pretty entertaining match. FTR retained the tag titles. The second half was all action and big moves and it was fun. **1/2

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. DARBY ALLIN "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (25:17): This match started kind of slow and bare bones. But man, it turned out fucking insane. After this match and show ended you had to just exhale and take a breath. Wow. What an ending. This was something. Darby pulled Christian's turtleneck over his head and got a quick pin. Eventually, Christian positioned the steel stairs right by the apron and tossed Darby twice onto the stairs from the apron. At first it looked like Christian was supposed to suplex Darby from the apron onto the stairs but decided that, dude, that's too sadistic. Eventually he kind of did it anyway by just picking him up and tossing him onto them. That was gruesome to watch, as Darby hit the stairs and not, like, the flat top of the stairs. Darby got counted out for the 2nd fall. The medics came out and put Darby on a stretcher. While this was happening, Christian was walking around cutting the ring mat and exposing the wooden boards. Christian then went up on the top rope and did a Frog Splash onto Darby on the stretcher. That made me laugh out loud and how ridiculous it was. And it got crazier! Sonjay Dutt must have wrote this match, as his matches with Jeff Jarrett and that group are always ridiculous and over the top and Dutt is apparently one of AEW's writers. Christian gets Darby into the ring and they do a bunch of slams on the exposed wooden floor in the ring. Christian goes for a spear but hits the ref and he gets knocked out. Christian gives Darby a low blow. Nick Wayne runs out (Nick Wayne's mom was at ringside...and earlier threw a cup of water in Christian's face) to save Darby. Luchasaurus comes out. Nick Wayne grabs the TNT title and turns heel and hits Darby with it. The place is shocked! Nick Wayne, who is from Seattle, has joined the evil Christian! That spot was great. But it's not over! Sting comes out to save Darby. Christian, Wayne, and Luchasaurus beat up Sting and are going to give him a Conchairto. At this point...I figured someone would come out to save the day, presumably a new hire. Edge is a free agent. Would Edge show up? Edge showed up. The lights went out. A video of someone getting in a car and driving to the arena was up on the screen then Edge's WWE music hit and he came out to save the day. Edge teased joining Christian but then hit them all with a chair and speared Wayne and Luchasaurus. Edge then shook Sting and Darby's hands. Whew. What a fucking ending! Hell of a show. ***1/2