AEW DYNASTY

St. Louis

TRENT BERETTA vs. MATT SYDAL (8:13): This was another good AEW PPV. I don't think it was as good as Revolution, but that had Sting's retirement, a once-in-a-lifetime event. The pre-show started with Trent Beretta's first match since turning heel for no reason. I guess he wanted to go the singles route? Maybe he was tired of Orange Cassidy outshining him all the time? He's not a particularly exciting singles wrestler, though, so I truly doubt his heel run will be anything to care much about. It definitely hurts Chuck Taylor, as he's definitely not a singles contender. They could turn Chuck Taylor heel, too, and have the Best Friends just be an evil team. This match was forgettable. *

KATSUYORI SHIBATA & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. SHANE TAYLOR & LEE MORIARTY (12:44): This was entertaining, though nothing special. Tony Khan must like Shane Taylor because he's been on TV a lot lately. Lee Moriarty sucks but he's already won life, as he married Julia Hart recently. This was pretty similar to a random Rampage match. **

BULLET CLUB GOLD (THE GUNN'S & JAY WHITE) vs. BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED (14:44): This was for the unified 6-man tag team titles. When Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks had these titles they actually meant something. Now? They're kind of superfluous. The Acclaimed is still sort of cheered but they definitely lost any kind of momentum they once had. The Acclaimed would probably thrive in the WWE, as they're more suited for that since they're more a fun, entertaining tag team than great wrestlers. I guess I'm just a little bored with both of these teams. The match was entertaining for the most part. **

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. PAC (21:55): Good opener for the main card. They had Jim Ross announcing this match (he left and came back for the main event). Okada is obviously not as great as he once was. He's just older and thus slower and less dynamic/exciting. Still, it was a good match. Okada did a great job playing the heel and getting the crowd to loathe him and shower him with boos. The crowd was pretty hot in spots tonight. It was a small building, a college arena with no upper deck, so in the quiet moments you could loudly hear the wrestlers talking. When Okada was about to do his arms raised, Rainmaker pose, he instead gave the crowd the finger. Then when PAC was about to do his top rope finisher, Okada grabbed the ref to pull him in the way. Okada is definitely smart when it comes to knowing what to do and when to do it. While his matches are slower now, they're still fairly entertaining. Okada retained the Continental title, which has no meaning in a company with 1,000 titles. Maybe they should do Okada/Ospreay at All In? That has to be the biggest question in terms of AEW booking this year; who will they put against Ospreay at the big show? ***

HOUSE OF BLACK (BRODY KING, BUDDY MATTHEWS & MALAKAI BLACK) vs. ADAM COPELAND, EDDIE KINGSTON & MARK BRISCOE (17:46): This was a good match, albeit pretty much similar to just a random Dynamite match. Mark did a cool spot where put a chair on the edge of the ring outside the ropes and jumped off of it and flipped over the ring post and down onto one of the HOB members. I do really wish they'd give Malakai Black a singles run. Considering he seemed to try to get out of his contract two years ago, I doubt Khan is ever going to push him as a main eventer, though. **1/2

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. JULIA HART (6:01): This was pretty much a squash, as Willow won the TBS title fairly quickly to set up a match against Mercedes Monet at Double or Nothing. That's good that they at least set up a match for DOB, as often these AEW cards have short build. The crowds seem to like Willow, so it's good she's champ...but, c'mon, Mercedes ain't losing her first match in AEW. *1/2

RODERICK STRONG vs. KYLE O'REILLY (17:18): This match was great. These two are so hard hitting and wrestled at a fast pace. It's kind of a shame these two are kind of buried in the forgotten undercard. The crowd did wake up to realize that, fuck, this match is fantastic. Which is a shock because these two aren't exactly stars or anything. Strong retained the International title. ***

CHRIS JERICHO vs. HOOK (16:34): The crowds lately have been voraciously booing Jericho. Maybe it's because he got rid of his opening song that the fans used to sing along to? Or maybe it's because they like Hook? Either way, the last time a big star started getting booed everywhere in AEW, he left and went to WWE and won the title in the main event of Wrestlemania (that would be Cody Rhodes, in case you somehow forgot he was booed out of the company for no apparent reason). Not that Jericho is going to do that at his old age. This was a Fuck The World match, which they never say (it's just referred to as the FTW championship). That means it was a no-rules match. So Jericho kicked Hook in the balls. Jericho put his feet on the ropes during a pin. They used tables, Singapore Canes, and a trash can. The best spot was Hook giving Jericho a t-bone suplex off the apron through a ringside table. That looked rough, as Jericho hit his head on the table before going through it. The story of the match, really, was Jericho getting booed. At one point the crowd chanted, "Jericho Go Home." Yikes. Jericho won the title, which made the fans even angrier. It was a typical hardcore match. It at least held my interest. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. THUNDER ROSA (15:08): Storm's 1920's gimmick has hindered her matches thus far, but this match was actually pretty decent. That's probably because Thunder Rosa is a pretty good wrestler and the fans seemed to actually care about her (unlike Deonna Purazzo, who did show up in this match to beat up Mariah May, who had on a black and white, checkered picnic short skirt schoolgirl outfit on). I'm thinking that they should probably have either Mariah May or Jamie Hayter beat Toni Storm for the title at All In. I don't know when Hayter is coming back, but both her and May are from England. The crowds seem to enjoy Toni's "Timeless" gimmick. Might as well keep it rolling. **1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (32:40): Some people said that this was the best match in the United States...ever. Funny, because I thought the Ospreay/Takeshita match was better, and that just happened last month. Takeshita is younger, faster, and does bigger moves than Danielson...so I thought that match was more exciting. This was an excellent match, though. It definitely had more mat wrestling and submission holds than the Takeshita match, which was just non-stop big, crazy moves one after another. I also didn't really like the ending to this match. After giving Danielson a Tiger Driver, Danielson held his shoulder and yelled to the ref and the ref yelled for the trainer to come into the ring. Meanwhile, Ospreay hit a Hidden Blade and pinned Danielson. Then all the doctors came in to help Danielson while Ospreay worriedly looked on. This was all storyline of course, as if it was a real injury they would have cut to the announcers or something. I'm guessing it was to give Danielson a reason for losing, hence him being injured. Either to set up a re-match or just to not have him be pinned cleanly. It was just kind of a strange ending. The rest of the match was great, though. It's crazy how over Ospreay is in such a short time. He's a fucking superstar. He would do all these fast-paced moves in Japan and they would politely clap. Here, he does a move and the fans go ape shit like they've just seen aliens land on the White House lawn. It was very brutal, very exciting, very dramatic. Just a fantastic match. ***1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. FTR "LADDER MATCH" (21:34): A lot of this match was hard to watch. Nick Jackson took a bump off the apron onto a table but ended up slamming the back of his head hard into the guardrail. That had "concussion" written all over it. Dax did a pile driver on a ladder bridge and the ladder slipped at the last second and they all went crashing down. Thank God Nick didn't break his neck on that one. Cash Wheeler did a running dive through the ropes and Matt moved and Cash went head first crashing into a table that shattered. That looked rough. Dax was also a bloody mess the whole time. Oh...and there were ladders! But first, Nick did a 450 off the top rope through Cash on a table. But...there were ladders. They did all of the usual ladder spots. Nick did a flip suplex off the top of the ladder to Cash to the floor. Dax suplexed Nick off the top of a ladder and then Cash did a frog splash off the top of another ladder onto Nick. This match was a typical, crazy, wild ladder match. The ending had a masked man run into the ring and pull FTR off of the ladders to help The Bucks win the match. Security grabbed the masked man and pulled his mask off and it was Jack Perry. This all played into security footage of the CM Punk/Jack Perry fight backstage at All In that they showed on Dynamite two weeks ago. CM Punk got fired for that but we never saw the footage because, obviously, why would we? Nobody on Earth thought it was a good idea to show that footage on live TV now. The reason was...why bring up CM Punk again? He's in another company, it's time to move on. Well CM Punk went on a radio show and bad mouthed AEW a few weeks ago. Maybe Tony Khan was mad or something. Or maybe he always just had this idea to show it to give Jack Perry a jump start. In the long run, it worked. Jack Perry is a bigger deal now because of showing the security footage. Whether or not the momentum will continue and Perry will be this big star...who knows? His heel run last year never really worked. Maybe aligning himself with Okada and The Bucks will be a good thing. Hell, wrestling with Okada and The Bucks isn't going to hurt. Really good match. ***1/2

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. SAMOA JOE (17:59): This wasn't a classic or anything, but it was great to see Swerve win the title and see the genuine emotion on his face as he celebrated with the fans to close the show. It's funny, because Swerve was this evil heel six months ago. Thanks to Prince Nana's dance and that awesome 'Hangman' Texas Death Match, Swerve got over and is now a good guy champion. Early on, Samoa Joe pretty much beat the shit out of Swerve. Samoa Joe exposed the concrete at ringside and slammed Swerve on it. Eventually they both kicked out of each other's finishers. Finally Swerve picked up Joe off the top rope and slammed him then did a top rope foot stomp to win the title. I think Joe's reign as champ is probably AEW's shortest championship reign, right? He won it on December 30th. It was pretty obvious Swerve was winning the title here, though, since why else would he be in two straight PPV title matches and lose both? It also brings up the fact that AEW has not yet had a surprise or shock main title change. That might be a good thing, though. And where do we go from here? You have to figure Ospreay is going to win the title in the main event of All In. Is Swerve vs. Ospreay good enough for that spot? I always thought that Ospreay vs. Danielson would be the biggest match they could do at All In. They decided to do it tonight instead. They could do a re-match, although Danielson would have to win the title. They could have a New Japan guy win the title at Forbidden Door. Though putting a New Japan guy in the main event of All In wouldn't make sense. They could do Okada vs. Ospreay. They did already do that as the main event of Wrestle Kingdom a few years ago. I don't know...Swerve vs. Ospreay doesn't seem like a big match you'd care to pay to see, though. I guess we'll see. And who will Swerve feud with now? What heels are there? They could do 'Hangman' again. They could bring back MJF. Both of them are babyfaces though. Chris Jericho? The crowds hate him. It'll be interesting, whoever they pick. **1/2

WWE WRESTLEMANIA XL

 Lincoln Financial Field, Philly

NIGHT 1:

RHEA RIPLEY vs. BECKY LYNCH (17:09): The last time Wrestlemania was in Philly, in 1999, I remember being mad that I didn't go to it. This time, I honestly didn't care that I wasn't there. While the WWE is the hottest it's been since 2001 in terms of ratings and selling out shows, I don't think it's as entertaining or as "cool" as it was in 1999. It also probably didn't help that it was cold tonight, around 50 degrees and windy at the start of the show. You could tell that the WWE behind-the-scenes people were mad at how cold it was because they kept putting up a graphic showing the temperature. I mean...at least it wasn't raining. While Night 1 wasn't excellent or anything, it was fairly entertaining. It got a lot of negative reviews online from fans though, and a lot of people complained about how cheap the set and lighting was and blamed Endeavor, who recently bought WWE, for trying to cut costs. I thought it looked fine, although the fans were all in complete darkness which looked kind of oft-putting. The show started at 7 and ended a little after 11. The one complaint I always had was that Wrestlemania was too long. It's 2 nights and still too long now. I can't win. The other sort of negative thing about this week was that usually all of the other wrestling companies do shows in the Wrestlemania city. For whatever reason, it seemed like the shows were a lot bigger in recent years. I guess you can blame AEW for having most of the best wrestlers in the world and they didn't have a show this week. ROH did have a show at the Liacouras Center on Friday night, but even that card wasn't as star packed as usual. One reason was probably that Bryan Danielson was in Mexico wrestling Blue Panther in CMLL on Friday night and Jon Moxley was in Japan wrestling on the NJPW Genesis show Saturday. Those two were on the last ROH PPV but not this one. I did watch some of the DDT show and the Wrestlecon show but there wasn't anything spectacular on either one. Nic Nemeth, Mike Bailey, and Joey Janela seemed to be wrestling on every show this week for whatever reason. I'm actually more excited to see AEW's Dynasty on April 21st than anything else. Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay? Fuck...who cares about The Rock, right? Wrestlemania opened with the women's title match. It was a good match but kind of didn't feel like a big deal since it went on first. I figured Becky Lynch would win the title but wasn't too surprised when she lost since it was early on the show. It was a good, back-and-forth match, though nothing excellent or anything. It seemed to me like the only thing the WWE built up for Wrestlemania was The Rock vs. Cody...which kind of made every match seem less great. Considering Rhea Ripley won the title at last year's 'Mania...maybe she should've lost. **1/2

AUSTIN THEORY & GRAYSON WALLER vs. AWESOME TRUTH (R. TRUTH & THE MIZ) vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) vs. #DIY (JOHNNY GARGANO & TOMMASO CIAMPA) vs. THE NEW DAY (KOFI KINGSTON & XAVIER WOODS) vs. CATCH REPUBLIC (PETE DUNNE & TYLER BATE) "LADDER MATCH" (17:21): This was definitely the most entertaining match on Night 1. The weird thing was that there were two sets of tag team titles to win, the RAW titles and the Smackdown titles, which meant there were two winners. They did a lot of big spots here. Gargano gave Tyler Bate a DDT off the apron through a table. Grayson Waller got power-bombed out of the ring onto a ladder bridge. And JD McDonagh, who wasn't even in the match, got tossed off a ladder through two ringside tables. R. Truth got the biggest pops in this match and perhaps the night. He tried to tag into this match and also tried to pin someone which got big pops. Fun match but it peaked about halfway through. ***

ANDRADE & REY MYSTERIO vs. DOMINIK MYSTERIO & SANTOS ESCOBAR (11:02): The highlight came when two men in Eagles luchador masks came out of the crowd to toss Dominik into the steel post. They took off their masks to reveal themselves to be Eagles players Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. Other than that, the match was just okay. There was a cool move where Joaquin Wilde, who wasn't even the match, got catapulted from the ropes to the floor. I think he's an NXT guy or something. **

JEY USO vs. JIMMY USO (11:07): The crowd, which everyone online said was bad tonight, didn't seem to care about this match. It was okay, but nothing really eventful or exciting happened. It was just there. Maybe they should, like, make them a tag team again? *

BIANCA BeLAIR, JADE CARGILL & NAOMI vs. DAMAGE CTRL (ASUKA, DAKOTA KAI & KAIRI SANE) (8:03): This match seemed to only be to set up Jade Cargill as a big star. The crowd seemed to like her so I guess it worked. There wasn't really much to this besides that, though, although Bianca looked good in this. As we learned in AEW, Jade is only good for a few fleeting moments and not good in a full, long match. How the WWE will work with this knowledge is still to be determined. *1/2

SAMI ZAYN vs. GUNTHER (15:29): They should have had Sami Zayn win the title from Roman in the main event of last year's Wrestlemania. You do remember he was the most over wrestler in the company last year, right? Or do we forget? The WWE I guess is trying to reclaim that, as they had him end Gunther's 2 year IC title reign here. That's a good move and all but it would've been nice if they, like, had actually built up this feud. They didn't. The match was good. It was a typical beat down then comeback story. They had Zayn's wife at ringside cheering him on and Zayn went over and kissed her after he won. If you're going to have Gunther be this unbeatable monster and have the title for 2 years...maybe build up the challenger that unthrones him? Hello? WWE? Who writes this shit? **1/2

THE ROCK & ROMAN REIGNS vs. CODY RHODES & SETH ROLLINS (44:34): No, that's not a typo. This match was 44 minutes long. It also didn't start until 30 minutes after the Zayn/Gunther match. Sweet Jesus. While late in this match there was some drama and excitement, most of this match was boring. I figured they could do the old, WWE, smoke-and-mirrors thing with ref bumps, interference, tables broken, etc. They did some of that, but not enough to make this super exciting or awesome. The crowd was probably cold and tired at this point...but they were not frothing with excitement witnessing the first Rock match in 8 years. Maybe they should've done the Rock vs. Roman title match instead? Duh. Of course they should have. That would've been a great main event. This? It was mostly a slog. There was no interference by Jey Uso or Solo Sikoa. Cody did give The Rock a Rock Bottom through the announce table. They brawled through the crowd. The Rock pulled the ref out of the ring at one point. The Rock said "fuck" on camera. This was just way too long. It probably didn't help that the bad guys won and thus the crowd had to sort of go home sad (The Rock was cheered and Cody got some boos though mostly cheers). Hopefully Night 2 will be more exciting, because while this show was entertaining it was also kind of forgettable. **

NIGHT 2:

DREW McINTYRE vs. SETH ROLLINS/ DAMIAN PRIEST vs. DREW McINTYRE (10:47): Night 2 was pretty much as good as Night 1. It got better reviews, probably because there were a bunch of title changes and a couple of ex-wrestlers like Cena and The Undertaker showed up. While the first and last match were fairly entertaining, the whole rest of the show was kind of just there. But this show is WWE to a T. It's entertaining, though you'll never see any great matches or anything super spectacular. It's entertaining and that's about it. The entrances in this first match were really good. Drew came out with a bunch of musicians playing the bagpipes. Seth came out with a Mummers string band and he was dressed up as a Mummer. That was great stuff. This first match was really only good after the finish, though. CM Punk was on commentary, and after Drew won the title from Seth, CM Punk started beating up Drew. Then Damian Priest came out to cash his Money in the Bank contract (which he won seemingly years ago last July) and beat Drew for the title. All of this post-match stuff got the crowd into a frenzy. It also helped that the WWE must've listened to the fan's complaints about the lighting in Night 1 and actually lit up the crowd tonight so it didn't look like they were wrestling in a dark Taliban cave. **1/2

THE PRIDE (ANGELO DAWKINS, BOBBY LASHLEY & MONTEZ FORD) vs. THE FINAL TESTAMENT (AKAM, KARRION KROSS & REZAR) "STREET FIGHT" (8:36): Bubba Ray Dudley was the referee, so the biggest crowd pops came when he did some of the old Dudley Boys' gimmicks. He put on his taped glasses. He yelled, "Get the tables!" He yelled the, "Wazzup!" gimmick. Yeah...he was supposed to be the ref. They broke tables and used Singapore Canes and chairs. This wasn't anything great, probably because there weren't any big stars in this besides, I guess, Lashley. **

LA KNIGHT vs. AJ STYLES (12:28): I know they put LA Knight in the main event against Reigns in Saudi Arabia. But...it seems like they haven't capitalized on how over LA Knight is/was with the fans. It seems like considering how hot he was last summer they probably should've made him champion a long time ago. Oh, well. This match was fairly entertaining, though also fairly forgettable. **

LOGAN PAUL vs. RANDY ORTON vs. KEVIN OWENS (17:38): It'd be nice if they came up with something new. Like last year, Logan came out with a Youtube star dressed up in a Prime bottle. And like last year, the Youtube star got beat up, this time with an RKO on the announce table that didn't break. The match was entertaining. Logan looked good as usual though he didn't do any crazy spots in this. Logan retained whatever title he has. The U.S. title? I think it's that one. **1/2

BAYLEY vs. IYO SKY (14:22): I don't know...but Bayley seems to have gotten old really fast. Watching her slowly lumber around the ring made it look like Mick Foley was wrestling or something. I was totally wrong about one thing: when Iyo Sky won the title I said her reign would be short because she's not a big star. Well...she's not really a big star but she did keep the title since the summer. Match was okay. The crowd popped big for Bayley winning the title. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. ROMAN REIGNS (33:25): There's a couple of things. One: we all had to wait until Roman finally lost the title to finally have the answer to if it made sense to have Cody lose at last year's Wrestlemania. Was it worth the wait? No. Cody should've won last year. It wasn't a better moment this year or more emotional or more dramatic or anything. Remember last year's Backlash? The main event was Cody vs. Brock Lesnar. That would have made so much more sense if Cody was the champ and it was a title match main event. And what great Roman Reigns title matches did we get last year after 'Mania? Jey Uso at Summerslam? Ugh. LA Knight in Saudi Arabia? Lame. The other thing was would it have been better to have done their ultimate goal: The Rock vs. Roman for the title. Considering The Rock is a heel but the crowds still want to cheer him...plus you could do Cody vs. Roman literally anytime ever and never have the chance for Rock vs. Roman...I think it was a mistake to not do it. The one good thing they got out of it was to set up a future Cody vs. Rock match...but they still could have done that, anyway. We already had Cody vs. Roman last year. Why not have The Rock vs. Roman this year? Eh. It's too late now of course. This match was pretty dull until they finally started having people interfere. Solo interfered. Jimmy Uso interfered. John Cena came out. The Rock came out. The Rock gave Cena a Rock Bottom. The Shield's music hit...which makes no sense since Jon Moxley is in AEW now...but Seth Rollins came out dressed in his Shield outfit only to get destroyed by Roman so quickly the camera man almost missed it. The Undertaker came out to chokeslam The Rock for no apparent reason. No 'Stone Cold' tonight, though. Roman put Cody through the announce table. Cody speared Roman through the barricade that broke (I'm so sick of that spot). Finally Cody won and Roman's never-ending title reign is finally over. Thank God. Match wasn't anything special but all the ex-wrestlers showing up was fun. The crowd went home happy at least. **1/2

ROH SUPERCARD OF HONOR

 Liacouras Center, Philly

THE PREMIER ATHLETES (ARI DAIVARI, JOSH WOODS & TONY NEESE) vs. ADAM PRIEST, RHETT TITUS & TONY DEPPEN (8:17): This was a good show. I can't believe Tony Khan is paying all the wrestlers on this show. Are they on contracts or mostly one-night deals? AEW has a giant roster already, plus add all these ROH wrestlers. It's like...a lot. And I still can't figure out who actually pays $9.99 a month just to watch weekly ROH TV shows plus 4 PPV's a year. I mean...there's enough wrestling already on free TV. Who are these people? Supposedly, the CW channel offered Khan to put ROH on their channel but he refused because he didn't want to go outside of Warner/Discovery. He is a billionaire...I guess he doesn't need the money. I don't know. The first four matches on this show were free on Youtube. The Liacouras Center looked about half full. I don't think the upper level was open but the lower level looked mostly full. I kind of doubt AEW will ever do a PPV in Philly, though, because I think they would've done it by now. This opener was forgettable. *1/2

BLACK TAURUS vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN (8:41): Black Taurus, from AAA, has perhaps the coolest looking outfit/gimmick in wrestling. He's dressed up like a minotaur. Very cool. Match was okay. Blake Christian did some cool moves. **

COLE CARTER & GRIFF GARRISON vs. SPANISH ANNOUNCE PROJECT (ANGELICO & SERPENTICO) (8:32): Griff used to be in The Varsity Blondes tag team. Remember them? Julia Hart was a cheerleader. It's funny that she ended up being the only one pushed. I think Brian Pillman, Jr. is in Impact now. I suppose the SAP moniker is a take on the Spanish Announce Team group from CZW back in the day. Match was fairly entertaining. **

MARIAH MAY vs. MOMO KOHGO (6:14): Mariah May is a fucking star...AEW should really push her to the top. Maybe it's a slow burn, as eventually she'll break up with champ Toni Storm and they'll wrestle each other. Maybe at All In...since Mariah is English. Momo is from Stardom. Stardom had a PPV from the ECW Arena on Thursday so a bunch of Stardom wrestlers were in town this week. Match was good. Mariah is gorgeous plus a decent wrestler since she was wrestling in Stardom for the last few years. Momo looked good as well. **1/2

KYLE FLETCHER vs. LEE JOHNSON (19:51): This match was great. Very hard hitting. A lot of near-falls near the end. Fletcher has been killing it lately. His match with Ospreay on Dynamite was great as well. Lee Johnson isn't Ospreay, obviously, but he held his own for the most part. This was the best match on the show. ***1/2

EMPRESS NEXUS VENUS (MAIKA & MINA SHIRAKAWA) & MEI SEIRA vs. QUEEN'S QUEST (AZM & SAYA KAMITANI) & TAM NAKANO (14:27): This was a Stardom match. Stardom got so big that the president got fired and/or quit and started his own company. I have watched some of Stardom in the last few years since it became fairly popular but I don't know who any of these women are. Kamitani I think was the one that looked the best. It was fast-paced and the crowd seemed into it (the crowd was definitely a hardcore wrestling crowd and was mostly into everything on the show all night). **1/2

THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (MATT TAVEN & MIKE BENNETT) vs. THE INFANTRY (CARLIE BRAVO & SHAWN DEAN) (13:54): The Infantry just isn't working. They're a new tag team AEW is kind of/sort of pushing. They were in the recent AEW tag team tournament and beat The House of Black then lost to FTR. This match was mediocre. While The Kingdom is a part of the big Adam Cole heel storyline...they haven't really done much with them. Granted, they're the ROH tag champs...but, c'mon...this wasn't exactly a big match on the card. *1/2

BILLIE STARKZ vs. QUEEN AMINATA (17:42): I watched the Billie Starkz/Mao hardcore match on the DDT in Philly show on Thursday. It's funny, but very few promotions do men vs. women matches. I know GCW does them. Is it that big a deal to see men hit women during a fake sport? Eh. Starkz is only, like, 19 or something ludicrous yet she's seemingly become kind of a star on the indie scene. She was in the main event of the last ROH PPV. The story in this match was that Starkz did a moonsault from the top rope but Aminata put her knees up and Starkz hit her neck on the knees. The ref stopped the match and the doctors came in and put Starkz in a neck brace. Then Starkz revealed it was a ruse and attacked Aminata and pinned her to become the 1st women's TV champ. The crowd loved the fake injury and evil turn. Match was okay but the ending was intriguing. **

BULLET CLUB GOLD (THE GUNN'S & JAY WHITE) vs. MINORU SUZUKI & MONSTERSAUCE (ALEX ZAYNE & LANCE ARCHER) (15:18): Suzuki was a surprise and the crowd loved that. I don't think Suzuki is in New Japan anymore. He looks the same as he always has so I guess there's no reason to retire. Alex Zayne did some cool top rope stuff. After the match, The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn ran out to beat up Bullet Club. Match was okay. **

DALTON CASTLE vs. JOHNNY TV "FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR" (22:06): Man, some people hated this match with a passion. It was silly and long...I guess that's why. It was a hardcore match...so they did thumbtacks and Singapore canes and a leaf blower. The Boys were recently fired in real life so Dalton had a bunch of mostly fat dudes play The Boys. I have no idea where he got these dudes...but at one point they all attempted to jump through the ropes at Johnny TV outside and they all pretty much fucked it up and fell on their faces. Is Johnny TV really married to Valkyrie? She was his manager and they kissed during the match and it was noted that they have a reality show on Youtube. Okay...who the fuck watches that? Maybe it's funny, who knows? Johnny TV looks the same as he did 15 years ago when he was having great matches against Jeff Hardy in WWE. Did he find the fountain of youth or something? Dalton is always amusing so this match at least held my interest. Also...the actor Paul Walter Hauser came out at the end to help Dalton drop thumbtacks into the ring. Hauser won a Golden Globe for the TV show "Blackbird." But...I think he wrestles more than he acts. He was in a hardcore match against Sammi Callihan at the Wrestlecon show on Thursday. **

ATHENA vs. HIKARU SHIDA (22:31): The final five minutes or so of this were really good with a lot of dramatic near-falls. Athena is like the ROH answer to Roman Reigns, as she's held the title forever. The crowd seemed to believe Shida was going to win with some of the 2-counts by the end so it was fairly exciting. **1/2

MARK BRISCOE vs. EDDIE KINGSTON (24:13): Briscoe won the ROH title. That was nice. His parents and kids and other family members were there and came in the ring to help celebrate. Some of the other wrestlers came out and held him up on their shoulders. This was a very similar ending to when Cody won the title on Sunday. Did the WWE watch this? Heh. Briscoe was a bloody mess for most of the match. Good match, though it wasn't a match of the year contender or anything. The show was entertaining but if you didn't see it you weren't really missing anything momentous or anything. **1/2