St. Louis
DEATH RIDERS (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI, DANIEL GARCIA, PAC & WHEELER YUTA) vs. THE CONGLOMERATION (KYLE O'REILLY, ORANGE CASSIDY & TOMOHIRO ISHII) & RODERICK STRONG (15:53): This show was too long but all three tag team matches were really good. The three women's matches weren't very good. The main event was one of those eyes-glued-to-the-spectacle type of a match. This was definitely one of the weaker AEW PPV's in memory, though. One reason is probably that the St. Louis commission didn't let them brawl into the crowd or have blood (there still was some blood in the main event) on this show. The pre-show was an hour and the main card was four hours and twenty minutes. It took me two days to finally watch this whole show. The St. Louis crowd was super loud and insane during most of this pre-show. They got tired, though, and a lot of the rest of this show was before a fairly quiet crowd (the crowd did pick up for the closing stretch of every match and they were into the final two matches). This opener was pretty much just a typical TV match. It was entertaining and fast paced. **1/2
EDDIE KINGSTON & HOOK vs. THE FRAT HOUSE (COLE KARTER & GRIFF GARRISON) (3:21): Eddie Kingston recently returned from being out for over a year with a broken leg. They haven't done much with him since his return. This was very, very short...which was probably a good thing. *1/2
HARLEY CAMERON & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. TOP GODS (MEGAN BAYNE & PENELOPE FORD) (12:13): The crowds everywhere love Willow Nightingale. When her party music hits everyone gets on their feet. You'd think that would mean she'd be pushed into being the women's champion or something. Nope! This match was probably the best women's match on the show...which isn't saying much as the other three were all boring with a silent crowd. **
FTR (CASH WHEELER & DAX HARWOOD) vs. JET SPEED (KEVIN KNIGHT & MIKE BAILEY) (12:19): This match was fast paced and exciting. They tried a new gimmick where this match didn't end on the pre-show. That meant that when the PPV started, the pyro went off and everything while the match was still going on. That was cool and the crowd was super hot for this one. Good action all around. The finish had Stokely cheating to help FTR win. ***
JAMIE HAYTER vs. THEKLA (15:53): The announcer's noted that both of these women were once in Stardom. So was Megan Bayne, right? And Mina Shirakawa and Toni Storm. I guess that makes sense considering Stardom is the biggest all-women wrestling company (Marigold is the only other one I know of...and that only started because the president of Stardom was fired and started Marigold). This was Thekla's first big, PPV solo match. I can't say she failed, as she at least knows how to wrestle. The problem was that this match was boring. Jamie Hayter is usually in good matches but this one was just too methodical and slow. The crowd was pretty quiet for all three of these women's matches on the main card. That didn't help. *1/2
JURASSIC EXPRESS (JACK PERRY & LUCHASAURUS) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (MATT & NICK JACKSON) (23:09): This was the match of the night. That's not exactly a surprise, as The Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express from 2021 made my Top 10 Best Matches of the Year list. ReDragon vs. Jurassic Express vs. The Young Bucks from 2022 made my Top 10 Best Matches of the Year list as well. These two teams just work well together. This was not as good as either of those matches, though, but it was still super entertaining with a lot of creative, exciting moves and a hot crowd that ate everything up by the end. Luchasaurus is back doing flips and Jack Perry looked fantastic, especially considering he didn't wrestle for over a year until returning last month. After the match, The Don Callis Family ran out to beat up Jurassic Express and Kenny Omega ran out to make the save. This seems to be eventually setting up The Bucks turning into good guys again and re-teaming with Omega. Kenny was supposed to wrestle Andrade on this show. Andrade returned to AEW on Dynamite last month but the WWE suddenly announced that even though they fired him, he had a one year non-compete in his contract because he was fired with merit. Omega wasn't the only big AEW star that didn't wrestle on this show. Ospreay and Swerve are out with injuries. MJF has time off. Edge is filming a TV show or something. Perhaps that's why this PPV felt like a lesser AEW PPV. ***
THE HURT SYNDICATE (BOBBY LASHLEY, MVP & SHELTON BENJAMIN) vs. THE DEAMAND (RICOCHET, BISHOP KAUN & TOA LIONA) (13:28): These two teams have wrestled each other a bunch on TV recently. They had a hardcore match in Jacksonville a few weeks ago. This wasn't a hardcore match but they did slam Shelton onto Bobby through a table since it was Tornado rules (which means...few rules). The match was fairly entertaining. I do kind of feel that AEW is turning Ricochet into the joke he became in WWE. Ricochet is great as a heel but he's also a fantastic wrestler that'd be great in main event title matches. He proved that in January at the Tokyo Dome against Zack Sabre, Jr. **1/2
KYLE FLETCHER vs. MARK BRISCOE (24:45): This match was good but not as good as their April PPV match in Philly. They might've gone too long with this one. The big problem here was that neither man should have lost. Fletcher just lost to Page on the last PPV so he shouldn't be losing again. Briscoe just beat MJF at the last PPV in his biggest win yet in AEW. Briscoe losing kind of negates that momentum. I get it: everyone has to lose, there's two TV shows every week and a PPV pretty much every month so there's way too many matches to have people constantly winning. I would've given Briscoe the win and give him a title shot against Page. I think he deserves that and the crowds would love it. Fletcher retained his TNT title. **1/2
KRIS STATLANDER vs. TONI STORM (16:33): I say this after every Toni Storm match: the crowds love her entrance and her gimmick but don't give a shit about her wrestling. This match was pretty dull. Statlander retained the women's title and then Mercedes made her entrance and told Statlander to get out of the ring. *1/2
MERCEDES MONE vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA (16:10): This match was just as dull as the last one. The crowd was not into this at all. They did get into most of these matches late when they felt like the end was near. Mone won, which means she won Mina's ROH TV title. *
BRODIDO (BANDIDO & BRODY KING) vs. THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (KAZUCHIKA OKADA & KONOSUKE TAKESHITA) (27:26): The crowd was still pretty tired and quiet but after the long Okada/Takeshita beatdown, the crowd finally woke up when Brody and Banidido got their comeback. The second half of this match was wildly entertaining and a lot of fun. They teased the Okada/Takeshita feud throughout. Bandido had his one arm injured so he had to deliver his finishing move, which is a German suplex off the ropes, one-handed. That was awesome. Brodido retained the tag titles. Hopefully we'll get the Okada vs. Takeshita match sooner than later. ***
'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. SAMOA JOE (19:02): The crowd actually got into this match. It was a good match, though considering this wasn't the main event, I think everyone figured Samoa Joe wasn't winning. You could tell the crowd was dead because 'Hangman' kept waving his hands to fire them up throughout. After the match, The Opps, Hobbs and Shibata, turned heel with Joe to beat up Page. **1/2
DARBY ALLIN vs. JON MOXLEY "I QUIT MATCH" (25:54): The St. Louis commission said no crowd brawls and no blood. What the fuck are they gonna do? Um...drown Darby in a fish tank. Put wooden skewers under Darby's fingernails. Have Claudio toss Darby from the ring onto the announce table. They certainly pulled off having a wild, crazy, disturbing match with the restrictions. Moxley also gave Darby a Death Rider through two tables at ringside. The only blood came when both men were bleeding from the mouth early. Claudio and Wheeler brought a fish tank in the ring and filled it up with water so Moxley could drown Darby in it. One of the Death Riders tazed Darby with a tazer. The big spot of the night came when the lights went out and came on with Sting standing in the ring. He beat up everyone with a bat, smashed the fish tank, then put Marina over his shoulder and carried her away. Darby hit Moxley with Sting's bat, choked Moxley with an AEW flag, gave him a Coffin Drop from the top rope, then put him in the Scorpion Death Lock amidst water from the broken fish tank. Moxley quit immediately which was a bit anti-climactic. This wasn't as good as some of the bloodier Texas death matches they've had, but this was still one of those eyes-glued-to-the-screen, engrossing car crash matches. It was a wild spectacle and a good way to end the show. ***