AEW WRESTLE DREAM

Tacoma, Washington

BRIAN CAGE vs. ATLANTIS, JR. (11:00): This was another good AEW PPV. Nothing new there. The end, though, was a total downer. I get why they did it, but the show certainly ended with the viewer sad, which probably isn't the best thing if you just shelled out $50 to watch it on TV or even more to see it live. The crowd for this show was awesome. It reminded me of those hot Chicago and Vegas crowds in the early days of AEW. Because the show was so long, though, the super hot crowd got tired and wasn't as awesome or loud after the Takeshita/Ospreay/Ricochet match. The pre-show was over an hour long, which is kind of ridiculous. Why are these PPV's getting longer when they're now doing more PPV's a year? Shouldn't they be getting shorter? Either way, Brian Cage won the ROH TV title. Funny that Atlantis, Jr. was the champ. He's not even in AEW or ROH. The match was good. Brian Cage hasn't been on TV much lately for whatever reason, though he's fun to watch. Atlantis, Jr. isn't the greatest luchador, but he's adequate. **1/2

ANNA JAY vs. HARLEY CAMERON (8:20): Anna Jay actually went to Stardom to be in their tournament. Is she a better wrestler now? Who knows? You don't really watch her for her wrestling moves. Harley Cameron is the stereotypical bimbo character that Vince McMahon loved to put in bra and panties and mud pit matches. She probably would've been a star in the Attitude Era WWF. Match was okay. *1/2

THE ACCLAIMED vs. MxM COLLECTION (11:25): I was kind of surprised that they put this match on the pre-show. MxM Collection is a new tag team and one of those comedy teams that the WWE loves (or used to, anyway). They're, like, fashion models that pose in their matches. I guess they're mildly amusing. MxM brought out Rico, some old has been wrestler that I don't remember. The crowd loved when Billy Gunn beat him up. **

KYLE O'REILLY & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. THE OUTRUNNERS vs. THE DARK ORDER vs. THE PREMIER ATHLETES (11:30): I don't know why, but The Outrunners are suddenly super over with the live crowds. Their gimmick is basically they're both like Hulk Hogan in the 80's Hulkamania phase. I guess the crowds like being reminded of their childhoods. Or it's just so over-the-top and stupid they've gotten behind it. Who knows? The Dark Order seems halfway out the door in AEW, as they're barely ever used. It's a shame because they were really popular and fun to watch a few years ago. This match was entertaining. **1/2

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (16:29): This was a good match, which was a surprise to be because usually Jay White is a bore. Because 'Swerve' is from Washington and 'Hangman' is his nemesis, they booed the hell out of Adam Page and cheered everything Jay White did. That certainly made the match better than it probably would've been. The ending was great. 'Hangman' went for his Buckshot Lariot but Jay caught him and reversed it into a Blade Runner for the pin. 'Hangman' just won in the main event of the last PPV, so you'd think they wouldn't have him lose clean right away, but I guess Jay's been out with a broken foot so they didn't want to have him lose in his return. ***

MARIAH MAY vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (10:52): Without Toni Storm, Mariah's championship run so far has been kind of flat. This match didn't even really have much of a build and it turned out to be just okay. **

JACK PERRY vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (9:20): This was probably the weakest match on the main card. It was fine but never really heated up in anything fantastic. The end was kind of weird. Shibata had Jack in a chokehold but was laying on the mat on his back and so the ref counted 3 and he lost. I guess they couldn't have Shibata lose clean. After this match, Daniel Garcia ran out to save Shibata. Then MJF came out. Then Adam Cole came out. Adam Cole is a babyface now, which makes no sense as he was the evil, Devil Masked heel last year. The crowd ate up all these returns, though, and MJF was awesome on the mic. **

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. WILL OSPREAY vs. RICOCHET (20:42): If someone named this the best match of the year then I wouldn't have a problem with that. This match was by far the best match of the night. It was wild and the fans were standing on their feet just to witness the spectacle of crazy moves one after the other. One in particular move was phenomenal. Takeshita and Ospreay were running the ropes and Takeshita put his arm out to clothesline Ospreay. Ospreay flipped over Takeshita's arm then jumped off the second rope to deliver an Osscutter on Takeshita. That was just insanely athletic. And this match was filled with crazy moves like that. The ending had Don Callis run in the ring with a screwdriver to attack Ospreay. Kyle Fletcher ran out and turned heel and hit Ospreay with the screwdriver then gave him a Tiger Driver. Takeshita won the International Title. Finally, Takeshita won something. ***1/2

'SWERVE' SEGMENT: 'Swerve' Strickland is from Washington, so he kind of had to be on the show. He came out and then MVP and Shelton Benjamin came out. 'Swerve' said he's sticking with Prince Nana as his manager. Supposedly this is going to set up the debut of Bobby Lashley, who will be with MVP. I mean...they could've just done Lashley's debut here but I guess they didn't want to have 'Swerve' get beat up in his home state. 

HOLOGRAM vs. THE BEAST MORTOS "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH" (16:45): These two seem to always be wrestling on Collision, so it felt kind of out of place on a PPV. They're both entertaining to watch, so I guess they figured they'd put them on a big stage. Tony Khan must love The Beast Mortos, because he's been wrestling on pretty much every TV show all summer while guys like Malakai Black, Ricky Starks, Miro, and countless others seem to rarely show up if ever. This was a typical match you'd see in CMLL. It was fun, but the hot crowd was gone after that Ospreay match. **1/2

DARBY ALLIN vs. BRODY KING (12:27): Supposedly, Darby was supposed to beat Bryan Danielson for the title in the main event of this show. They decided to change that for whatever reason so we got this random match. The match was brutal. Darby tossed Brody King off the top rope onto the steel stairs then did a Coffin Drop from the top rope onto him on the stairs. Brody basically killed Darby for the entire match but Darby ended up winning. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. PRIVATE PARTY (15:49): They had a video package before this match mentioning that Private Party beat The Bucks on Dynamite 5 years ago but haven't done anything since then. It seemed like they were pushing the idea that Private Party are losers now and need a big win to change that. Well, Private Party lost. So what was the point of this? Just to give Private Party a PPV match? That's enough apparently. The match was good but not a typical, great Bucks match. FTR wasn't on the show. Top Flight was sitting at ringside for this match. Maybe Top Flight will be the Bucks' next opponent? I mean...what other tag teams are there? The Outrunners? **1/2

MARK BRISCOE vs. CHRIS JERICHO (15:18): This match was good but I really don't want to see Jericho in a singles match anymore. He's too old to be having great matches anymore. The story here was Jericho is an evil heel and was rubbing it in about Mark's brother being dead. Yep, great storyline! Chris gave Mark the J-Driller, which was Jay Briscoe's finisher. Mark kicked out and eventually delivered his own J-Driller. Mark is fun to watch, so that aspect was entertaining. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (26:52): Darby was supposed to beat Danielson here and thus it would be a changing of the guard since Danielson is retiring from being a full time wrestler (he needs neck surgery but probably will eventually wrestle again). They decided to change that and create a monster heel in Moxley. I guess the idea is to have Moxley and his crew of Pac, Mina Shafir, Claudio, and Wheeler, be akin to WWE's Bloodline. A heel group that rules the company until a babyface hero rises up and finally wins back the title. Darby will apparently be that hero. So what they did was have Moxley not only beat Danielson (in his home state, too) but basically kill him off. The match was good mostly because the crowd was really into every comeback that Bryan got. Mina Shafir interfered a few times. She pulled back the ringside mat and both men eventually got slammed on the concrete, Moxley giving Bryan a Death Rider on the cement at one point. Moxley choked out Danielson to win the title. Wheeler Yuta ran in but turned heel and used a plastic bag to choke out Bryan. Claudio put a chair around Bryan's neck and did a foot stomp on the chair. A few guys ran out to try to stop the carnage. Private Party and Jeff Jarrett came out to try to stop the heels to no avail. Darby ran out but ended up getting beaten up and taped to the ropes to watch Bryan get murdered. Bryan was eventually taken out on a stretcher. What a retirement! Excalibur was crying while announcing this, which wasn't fake. It was a compelling way to end the show. And they wanted to make Moxley a monster heel and they succeeded. He's already had the title I think 3 times, though. He is perhaps the company's biggest star, though, so giving him the title isn't like a bad move. Downbeat ending but it was effective. ***