AEW & NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR

United Center, Chicago

HIROOKI GOTO & YASHI-HASHI vs. AARON SOLO & QT MARSHALL (8:55): What a fucking show. AEW really delivers the kitchen sink with their PPV's. 4 pre-show matches, 9 main card matches. Big debuts (Cesaro!). Shocking appearances (Shibata!). The pre-show was 1 hour, the main card went 3 hours and 45 minutes. So, yeah, it was a bit too long, but the first handful of matches on the main card had me thinking: is this going to be the greatest PPV of all time? The rowdy, raucous, deafening Chicago crowd certainly helped. And this was all for a show that didn't even have a dream matches. Omega was injured so we unfortunately didn't get to see an Omega/Ibushi match or an Okada/Omega match. Ibushi is out with an injury and feuding backstage with management so he was out. CM Punk and Bryan Danielson are injured. Hiromu Takahashi had a fever so he couldn't get on the plane. Ishii is injured so he was out. Jesus Christ, is there anyone left? There were a few names left off the card like Evil and Yano that, really, weren't missed. You could tell how great a crowd this was as Goto and Yashi-Hashi got roars of approval like they were Hulk Hogan. None of the pre-show matches were all that great but the crowd made them awesome. **1/2

LANCE ARCHER vs. NICK COMOROTO (6:10): Archer is the lone AEW star in the G1 this year. That might not last long, as he did a cannonball entering the ring and landed right on his head. Yikes. This was just too big guys doling it out. It was okay. *1/2

KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU (12:05): I'm not sold on Swerve Strickland yet. He has to have a really great singles match for me to see how great he is. The crowd adore Keith Lee, though. This was fun. **1/2

THE GUNN CLUB & MAX CASTER vs. YUYA UEMURA, ALEX COUGHLIN, THE DKC & KEVIN KNIGHT (5:35): Billy Gunn's sons left the ring to chase after Danhausen so they weren't even in this match. Billy Gunn got some big pops. It's so funny seeing how taller he is than everyone else when in the WWE you never noticed it. The opening rap that Caster does with the Gunn Club saying the wrong city they're in is always hilarious. I think putting The Acclaimed and The Gunn Club together was actually a great move. The crowd loved this. **1/2

MINORU SUZUKI, CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVERA vs. EDDIE KINGSTON, SHOTA UMINO & WHEELER YUTA (19:00): This was a fantastic match. You couldn't get a better crowd. My God did they make these matches ten times better than they were. The one thing they did that I liked was they really pushed some of the new New Japan guys like Shota Umino. He became a fucking star because of this match. Umino is Red Shoe's son and they showed clips of Jericho putting him in The Walls of Jericho in Japan during a match. Later on during this show, Jericho threw a fireball into Umino's face backstage. This was just all action and was super entertaining. ***1/2

FTR vs. JEFF COBB & THE GREAT O'KHAN vs. ROPPONGI VICE (16:25): One member of FTR did the injury gimmick and came back out later taped up to get the crowd to pop. FTR ended up winning the IWGP tag titles here, which means they hold those, the AAA titles, and the ROH titles. I'm guessing they're going to do a 4 title unification match with the Bucks down the line. This had a lot of good action but, man, The Great O'Khan is so terrible it's not even funny. FTR is super over, though, so them winning was great. ***

PAC vs. CLARK CONNORS vs. MIRO vs. MALAKAI BLACK (15:05): Another great match. This string of good to great matches early on was really impeccable. Ishii beat Connors to be in this match but Ishii got injured so they put Connors in anyway. They really pushed him which helped. The ending to this match was genius, really. Malaki Black had Connors in a submission and they were crawling around and PAC got up on the top rope and did a 450 or whatever it's called to break it up. PAC won the new All Atlantic title, which is kind of superfluous since every title can be held by someone from any country. Everyone looked good in this match. ***1/2

DARBY ALLIN, STING & SHINGO TAKAGI vs. EL PHANTASMO & THE YOUNG BUCKS (13:00): This was a lot of fun but more a comedy, entertainment match than any kind of high drama thing. Sting started the match appearing above the entranceway and jumped down onto everyone. ELP and The Bucks did the stupid comedy back scratch spot which got a huge pop. This, like the 3 previous matches, had so many people doing dives and flips and moves non-stop that it was just super engaging. ELP did a top rope walk into a moonsault to the floor which was great. Hiromu was supposed to be in this match but was sick. Sure, it'd have been great if he was in it, but this match didn't suffer at all without him. This was a total blast. ***1/2

THUNDER ROSA vs. TONI STORM (10:40): New Japan doesn't have women's wrestlers so I guess they figured they needed women on this show so they put this title match on. Stardom is owned by the same company as New Japan but Stardom had a PPV on the same day, hence why Thunder Rosa wasn't defending against Karai Sane or someone. This was pretty mediocre to be honest. The AEW women's division has never been that good for one reason or another. *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (16:45): This was the match of the night. Considering Will Ospreay is the best wrestler in the world, of course it was. Cassidy started with comedy bits but by the end they were trading big moves and excellent near-falls. Ospreay is the king of the near-fall, always kicking out at the last possible millisecond. Ospreay retained the U.S. title. After the match, Ospreay and Aussie Open started to beat up Cassidy so Shibata came out and beat up Ospreay. Are they really going to do it? Let Shibata have a real match again? They keep toying with it, giving us a grappling match against Zack Sabre, Jr. and having him do some bumps and wrestle a bit here. He looked great. Ospreay vs. Shibata at the Dome would be epic. ***1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (18:30): Bryan Danielson was supposed to be in this match but was injured so they had a surprise to replace him. It turned out to be Cesaro, using his old ROH name. The crowd of course went ape shit for him. The problem was we got a too long, Zack Sabre, Jr. match. I thought most of the match was boring. Great intro for Claudio, though. **

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. ADAM COLE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (21:00): This was really good but the end was very anticlimactic. Cole got pinned by Jay White after White gave Okada a Blade Runner. Why he didn't pin Okada but went over to pin Cole is probably because Okada is too big a deal to be pinned. Cole looked like he got knocked out or had a concussion or something so maybe the ref called an audible and just ended the match shorter than planned. The one problem with this match was no one thought they'd give the IWGP title to Cole or Page. I could've seen Okada winning it, though, but they went with the boring choice and let Jay retain. Jay White was the weak link in this. While everything he does looks polished...he wrestles too methodically and slow and he's only in great matches once in a blue moon. Page and Cole looked great and Okada looked kind of slow but he is getting older. ***

JON MOXLEY vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (18:20): CM Punk was supposed to defend his title in this match but he got injured. Moxley ended up winning the interim AEW championship here. This match was actually better than I expected, although not a classic main event or anything. I always bash Tanahashi these days because he's old and slow and not as great but to his credit he did everything you'd want to see and hung in there for 18 minutes never looking tired or anything. Moxley wanted to bleed because he loves hardcore stuff so he bled like a stuck pig. The problem? He wasn't even hit in the head with anything. One moment he was just at ringside bleeding all over the place for no reason. After the match they did the Blood and Guts angle where Jericho's team ran out and Claudio and Wheeler Yuta and Eddie Kingston ran out and everyone brawled. I didn't really need to see more after a 5 hour show and the main event over but I guess they needed to push Wednesday's show. All in all this turned out to be a very entertaining, often great PPV. Considering it came about on short notice and most of the big names were injured, this was a total winner. ***

NJPW DOMINION

 

Osaka, Japan

AARON HENARE, TJP & FRANCESCO AKIRA vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, MASTER WATO & HIROYOSHI TENZAN (10:31): It's kind of sad that New Japan wasn't working with AEW when AEW first started. Supposedly New Japan's president at the time didn't want to do it. The new president does, and so we have AEW & NJPW's first PPV together happening later this month in Chicago. It's a shame that it's happening now and now 3 years ago because New Japan has lost a lot of it's luster lately and become somewhat of a dull, lame company. The Pandemic can be blamed, because fans in Japan are still sparse and still masked and still can't cheer or boo. But also the top stars; Tanahashi, Okada, and Naito, have gotten old. The PPV coming now isn't the greatest timing either, as Omega is out with injuries, CM Punk, who was supposed to main event against Tanahashi, got injured, and Ibushi is feuding behind the scenes with management and hasn't wrestled since his injury in the G1 final last October. Dominion is NJPW's 2nd biggest show of the year (3rd if you count Wrestle Kingdom being 2 shows). Considering this is supposed to be their 2nd biggest show of the year, the cracks in the foundation were obvious and glaring. They did have an IWGP title change...which was something big at least. The undercard was entirely forgettable except to see the best wrestler in the world, Ospreay, in action. It's sad seeing such a great company flounder. The glory days were never going to last, though, and we all knew it. This opener was a fun, short, all action match. A bunch of the young, new wrestlers in these first two matches were in the Super Jr.'s tournament that just ended with Hiromu winning. TJP I remember from Impact Wrestling years ago. He still looks the same which is shocking considering I use to watch his X-Division matches like ten years ago. Akira is a new guy they picked up and he's at least fairly exciting to watch. Tenzan got pinned of course. **1/2

TAIJI ISHIMORI, EL PHANTASMO & ACE AUSTIN vs. TETSUYA NAITO, BUSHI & HIROMU TAKAHASHI (8:04): Ishimori is the Jr. champ and he's facing Hiromu for the belt later this month at a random Korakuen Hall show. They used to have the Super Jr.'s winner face the Jr. champ at Dominion...but not this year. I'm guessing because they wanted to give the guy's some rest? Either way it made this card fairly weak without that match. This was more of a comedy match than anything. Ace Austin did a bit where he did some flips and then magically a cane appeared out of his wrist. I guess his gimmick is David Copperfield? Naito did have 2 unsuccessful main event title matches this year against Okada, so he is still being pushed, but why is one of their big stars in a superfluous, multi-man tag match early on this big show? This was at least amusing, and ELP always entertains. **1/2

TORU YANO vs. DOC GALLOWS (4:05): Sadly, this show featured Gallows & Anderson in singles matches. Ugh. As if their tag matches aren't enough of a chore to watch, we have to see two singles matches with them? Gallows flew all the way to Japan to lose to Yano. I hope he got a good paycheck for that humiliation. There wasn't much to this. Gallows isn't good with humor. 1/2*

EVIL, YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & SHO vs. ZACK SABRE, JR., EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU (9:25): The House of Torture retained the 6 man titles thanks to cheating. They do this in all of their matches and it got old the second The House of Torture was created. Zack looked good. Desperado was wasted in this. At least the intensity was there. **

GREAT O'KHAN & JEFF COBB vs. BAD LUCK FALE & CHASE OWENS (11:52): O'Khan and Cobb won the tag titles. It really says something about the tag division considering Fale and Chase Owens were the champions. Fale looked like he got really fat, although he never was skin and bones or anything. Maybe I just haven't seen him in awhile. Chase was the star of the match. He works hard but isn't spectacular or anything. Cobb won with the Tour of the Islands. I really can't stand O'Khan. He's just the worst of the worst. *1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO (12:40): CM Punk won the AEW title last month at Double or Nothing. Then he broke something in his foot on Dynamite. He was supposed to defend the title against Tanahashi at Forbidden Door. So AEW did a Battle Royale which Kyle O'Reilly won. O'Reilly lost to Moxley and Moxley would face the winner of this match for the interim AEW title. Man, I really wanted to see a Goto vs. O'Reilly PPV main event. Can you fathom that? So, no, the outcome of this match wasn't up in the air. Moxley vs. Tanahashi is a big match on paper...but Tanahashi doesn't "brawl" and Tanahashi is old and limps around. I doubt that will be a very good match. Goto, shockingly, still looks more alive than Okada, Tanahashi, and Naito. I guess he wasn't in too many 30+ minute IWGP title matches over the years and thus is body is saved. He was in one once, though, in 2011 at Dominion he lost to the champ, Tanahashi. I'm guessing that that match was probably better than this, which was mediocre. **

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. TAICHI (10:00): Shingo and Ospreay are New Japan's best wrestlers...so why are they giving the title to Jay White? Baffling, really, although Shingo and Ospreay did get the title last year. Spreading the wealth? Gedo loves Jay White for some unknown reason. This match had a 10 minute clock and who ever got the most pinfalls won. So if you got a 1 count you got 1 point. Shingo won. I think it was 11-10 or something. Taichi got 3 counts at the end. This was hard hitting but would've been better in a real, longer match. Shingo retained the KOPW title. **1/2

KARL ANDERSON vs. TAMA TONGA (16:27): This was better than I expected. Maybe because they worked fast and hard unlike Okada's matches where he leisurely walks around the ring for most of the match. Anderson won the NEVER title. Is he not with Impact anymore? Does anyone care? This company has way too many titles. **

WILL OSPREAY vs. SANADA (12:48): Juice was the U.S. champ but supposedly had his appendix taken out and couldn't make the show. I don't think New Japan believed his excuse because they put out a statement saying he refused to come to the show and was stripped of the title. The last time Sanada and Ospreay wrestled, Ospreay landed feet first on Sanada's head in the New Japan Cup and broke his orbital bone. Maybe that's why they only went 12 minutes? Ospreay was also seriously ill recently, apparently close to dying from a kidney infection. Was it that bad, though, considering he's already back flying to Japan and wrestling? He also wrestled on AEW Rampage last week. He looked as great and incredible as he's ever looked in this match. Sanada didn't really attempt to make this a great match, so it was just okay. I really hope they put Ospreay in a singles match at Forbidden Door. I don't want to see him barely used in some dumb multi-man tag match. **1/2 

JAY WHITE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (36:04): Jay White won the IWGP title. I guess that's not too big of a surprise...although on AEW Dynamite, Adam Page called out Okada and said he wanted the title. Nobody wants to see Page vs. Jay White. And considering the IWGP title is usually rarely defended from this show until Wrestle Kingdom...does that mean Jay White will be champ that long? I don't want to see that. I especially don't want to see Jay White in the main event of either night of WK. Granted, his last WK main event was awesome, that 45 minute epic against Ibushi. But Jay White is very rarely in great matches. There so few and far between that I remember them all. That great match in California against Juice Robinson. That short Okada match at WK. That ROH match against Ospreay in NYC from years and years ago. Those are great Jay White matches. This was not one of them. Okada does still have a little left in the tank. His matches aren't awful. He doesn't hobble around the ring like Tanahashi. Okada's match against Ospreay at WK this year was great. But usually, Okada matches are fucking boring. A lot of this match was Okada just walking around like he was on a Sunday stroll. Jay White isn't much better, either. So you had two slow guys doing some cool stuff here and there sparingly. The final flurry was good and the title change was at least something memorable. But...if you're going to give the title to someone besides Okada...don't give it to Jay White, give it to Ospreay. This isn't rocket science. **1/2

WWE HELL IN A CELL

Rosemont, Illinois

BIANCA BELAIR vs. ASUKA vs. BECKY LYNCH (18:56): Besides Cody's injury, this PPV was pretty forgettable. They probably should have just made this the main event and put it in the Hell in a Cell and cancelled the Cody vs. Seth match. This was a decent match. Belair retained the title. Charlotte Flair was off getting married to Andrade so she wasn't on the show. Sasha Banks and Naomi were suspended for no-showing RAW a few weeks ago so they were off the show (they disagreed with creative about them both losing to the women's champions on this PPV). There wasn't much to this match but the hot crowd was into it and it was perhaps the best match on the show. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. OMOS & MVP (8:25): It tells you a lot about the WWE that they push lumbering bores like Omos instead of, say, Ricochet or Ciampa. Lashley is a good guy now which kind of baffles me because he was a great heel not to long ago. This was forgettable trash. 1/2*

KEVIN OWENS vs. EZEKIEL (9:20): This was actually a pretty good match, although I do miss Elias' songs on RAW where he ripped the hometown. That was usually the highlight of RAW. I suppose they figured that schtick was getting old. Ezekiel is just a good guy version of Elias. Owens is always fantastic so this was entertaining. **1/2

EDGE, DAMIAN PRIEST & RHEA RIPLEY vs. AJ STYLES, FINN BALOR & LIV MORGAN (16:03): This was strange. On RAW, Finn Balor joined Edge's evil alliance...and then the 3 of them turned on Edge. Considering PPV's are supposed to be a bigger deal than RAW...why didn't they do the Finn Balor heel turn on this show? Edge literally just turned heel and now they've turned him into a babyface all of a sudden? WWE creative is totally baffling. Finn Balor is not a heel. I guess they just have no idea what to do with great wrestlers like Finn Balor. Remember when he was the Universal champion for a day? Someone got it right then. So they were correct for 24 hours. Sad. I honestly totally forget this match. That's how great it was! Liv Morgan is at least somewhat pushed and the crowds are kind of into her. And Edge is better as a good guy. Damian and Finn are better as good guys, though, too. AJ did look good in this match if I recall. And Finn is awesome as always. I just can't stand these weird mixed tag matches where the men and women aren't allowed to touch each other. **

MADCAP MOSS vs. HAPPY CORBIN "NO HOLDS BARRED" (12:05): This was a weapons match. I kind of forget what happened in this match as well. Can you tell how excellent this show was? I also watched the NXT PPV the night before this. That was probably even more forgettable. It's so sad what happened to NXT. *

THEORY vs. MUSTAFA ALI (10:25): The WWE wanted to be able to trademark all of their wrestler's names so they changed a bunch of them. Austin Theory's real first name was Austin so now he's just Theory. Seriously, that is the worst wrestling name in the history of wrestling. Theory? Do they know what Theory even means? Obviously not. They've been pushing him to the moon for no good reason and are just shooting themselves in the foot by pushing a guy with a stupid name. Ali attempted to quit the company but they wouldn't let him out of his contract so now they're kind of pushing him. I'm not sure why they wanted to keep him as it's not like he'd be a huge star in AEW or something. This was a basic, RAW type of match. Theory retained the IC title. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. SETH ROLLINS "HELL IN A CELL" (24:21): Cody tore his pectoral muscle lifting weights and so he had this huge, horrible, black and blue bruise across his chest. It was grotesque, so much so that the arena was dead silent for the early part of this match. Why he still wrestled here makes zero sense. Why they let him wrestle makes even less sense. A lot of people were saying how brave and how heroic he was to wrestle and all of this bullshit. Nope, it was fucking stupidity. I guess he felt sorry because if he didn't wrestle the main event would be off. That's not his fault! It's the WWE's fault for unifying the titles and only having one champion, then letting that champion, Roman Reigns, sign a new contract that lets him only wrestle limited dates. Reigns isn't on the next PPV, Money in the Bank, either. If they didn't unify the titles they'd at least have another championship match on this show. Or, God forbid, don't give the title to a guy that isn't going to be two straight PPV's. As for this match...it was a basic Hell in a Cell match. They used a Singapore Cane, broke some tables, tied each other to a bull rope for no apparent reason (I guess Dusty Rhodes was in some bull rope matches?). I just had a really hard time watching this match considering Cody was injured and shouldn't be taking bumps. He had surgery this week and is out for 6 months. Considering he was the #1 top babyface...what the fuck are they going to do at all these stadium shows coming up? ** 

AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Las Vegas

HOOK & DANHAUSEN vs. TONY NEESE & MARK STERLING (5:20): The string of great, legendary AEW PPV's is over. This wasn't a bad show or anything, it just didn't reach the heights of the last PPV, Revolution, or last year's All Out. It wasn't even as good as last November's Full Gear, which I called, "great." Oh, well. There were a number of problems. The Young Bucks usually steal the show. They were put in a match with the old and broken Hardy Boys, which denied us a masterpiece. The main event was so-so. The TBS championship match was terrible. The two Owen Cup finals were dull. The show was fairly entertaining, though, albeit too long (4 and 1/2 hours plus a pre-show). The crowd stayed hot for the worthy stuff, which was good. I think the only other AEW show so far that had a bigger crowd was the U.S. Open tennis stadium show last year. The crowd loved this match, which was a short pre-show match. I'm kind of baffled why they love Danhausen and Hook. Danhausen was in Ring of Honor and nobody gave a fuck about him. Hook is a punk kid that only does squash matches. With the hot crowd at least this was fun. **1/2

WARDLOW vs. MJF (7:30): This was pretty much a squash. MJF got a little bit of offense early like poking Wardlow in the eyes. Then came the multiple suplexes. I'm really not sure where they can go with Wardlow now that his epic storyline is over. I don't really think anyone wants to see him in long matches and you can't do short squash matches forever. I guess we'll see. MJF lost clean and pretty much got destroyed so it's funny that they seem to be giving him the old CM Punk vs. WWE storyline which should, eventually, lead to him winning the title and "beating" AEW and Tony Khan in the process. Considering he just had a month's long feud with Punk, will they really do another one again so soon? **

THE HARDY'S vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (19:15): The Hardy's still do all the classics...but they're both so old and beaten up now that they can't really be in a great match anymore. So this was okay but nothing special. The big spot was Jeff Hardy doing a Swanton Bomb off of the top rope and onto one of the Bucks laid on top of the ring steps on their side. That was cool. **1/2

JADE CARGILL vs. ANNA JAY (7:25): This was terrible and by far the worst AEW PPV match I can remember ever seeing. I really doubt I'll ever see Jade Cargill in a good match. Everything she does just looks awkward and rigid. Anna Jay looked like she never wrestled before. This was a sloppy mess. They knew this, too, as they did a bunch of interference and then after the match they debuted NXT's Ember Moon who is now Athena. -No Stars-

THE HOUSE OF BLACK vs. DEATH TRIANGLE (15:35): Considering how awesome all 6 of these guys are, I figured this would be the match of the night and it probably was. The Lucha Brothers are awesome and insane. Penta ran across the edge of the ring, jumped over Fenix and gave Buddy Murphy a Canadian Destroyer. He's done that before and it's still crazy. Buddy Murphy looked great, too, which is kind of a shame because he's never in singles matches. Brody King kind of botched his top rope dive by barely getting over it and landing half on the apron. The lights went out at the end and when they came back on, Julia Hart was in the ring and sprayed black mist into Pac's face, causing their team to lose. Julia Hart turning evil has been a long term storyline teased forever, but usually when the lights go out you expect a bigger surprise like, say, Johnny Gargano or Cesaro or someone. Great action throughout, though. ***

ADAM COLE vs. SAMOA JOE (12:30): This was kind of a forgettable TV match. I'm still kind of confused about this Owen Hart tournament. Only some people were in it for no reason. The winners get...nothing? Owen Hart's widow, Martha Hart, did give a heartfelt speech afterwards, though, which was the highlight. Considering Cole lost to Page twice for the title I suppose they had to throw him a bone, but I would have given Joe the win because he just showed up and hasn't lost yet and was built up as this big, unstoppable monster. **

BRITT BAKER vs. RUBY SOHO (13:20): I also would have given Soho the win here. Britt had the title for a year and beat Soho last year. Throw Soho a bone and make some new stars. This was another kind of forgettable TV type of a match. Britt will never be in a great match without hardcore gimmicks. That's been established. **

SCORPIO SKY, ETHAN PAGE & PAIGE VAN ZANT vs. FRANKIE KAZARIAN, SAMMY GUEVARA & TAY CONTI (12:30): One of the reasons that Cody quit AEW was because he made that stupid decision to lose a match to MJF and thus accept the stipulation that he can never vie for the championship. Dumb idea. So they do it again! Sammy Guevera's team lost so he can never wrestle for the TNT title again. This was also the wrestling debut of Paige Van Zant. I think she did MMA but I never knew her until she showed up in AEW. She looked okay but obviously green. The highlight was Sammy inadvertantly delivering a wicked superkick to his girlfriend, Tay Conti. That reminded me of the infamous thumbtack superkick that one of the Young Bucks gave Johnny Gargano's wife, Candice LeRae, in PWG many moons ago. This was entertaining but nothing spectacular. **1/2 

KYLE O'REILLY vs. DARBY ALLIN (9:50): This was announced on Friday's Rampage show. I'm not sure what the point of this was, as Darby, one of the company's biggest stars, lost. Kyle signed a 5 year contract so I guess they figured they should, like, push him. There was a lot of grappling in this. Darby did a Coffin Drop onto Kyle as he was hanging out of the ring. This was kind of just a regular TV match. **1/2

THUNDER ROSA vs. SERENA DEEB (16:55): The AEW women's division has never been that great. Thunder Rosa is a better in-ring wrestler than Britt Baker, but Serena Deeb is kind of dull since she does submissions and the fans don't care about her. I really think they should give the title to Jayme Hayter, as her and Riho are the two best women's wrestlers and Riho already had the title once. There wasn't really much to this match. *1/2

THE JERICHO APPRECIAN SOCIETY vs. THE BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB "ANARCHY IN THE ARENA" (22:45): This was a classic, ECW-style clusteruck match. It was basically "Stadium Stampede" except without the football field. They brawled all over the building. I think everyone was a bloody mess. Santana and Ortiz jumped off a big ladder and onto two of the JAS wrestlers on tables. Moxley set up a barbed wire board on a table and ended up getting tossed onto it but it didn't break so he slid off. Kingston and two of the JAS members beat each other up on the concourse and into a t-shirt stand. Kingston poured gasoline on Jericho and was going to set him on fire but Bryan stopped him and they started fighting each other. Bryan eventually got choked out with the top rope that was taken down and he tapped out. The one thing I have to say is that the camera work and camera cuts were fantastic to show all of the action considering there were like four things happening at once in different parts of the building. This was fantastic stuff. And you can probably tell how over the "other" members of the JAS are considering I don't even know their names. ***

JURASSIC EXPRESS vs. KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS & RICKY STARKS (17:15): This was fun with a lot of action and some great, inventive high flying. I still think they probably should have given Jurassic Express a better opponent, though, like...FTR or The Young Bucks. This wasn't as good as Revolution's 3-way tag title match but it was still highly entertaining. I think Keith Lee was probably the most over in this...which is surprising because he's old and not as fast or good as he once was. ***

CM PUNK vs. ADAM PAGE (25:40): Unfortunately, AEW's running into the Jericho problem again. They gave him the title early because he's a big star but he's old and his PPV main events were boring. CM Punk is a big star but he's old and his main events will be boring. Oh, well. They're doing a PPV in June with New Japan and CM Punk is wrestling Hiroshi Tanahashi. I get it; Adam Page vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi is not a big marquee match. CM Punk vs. Tanahashi is. Plus...they were going to give Punk the title sooner than later anyway since he's old and not getting any younger. Twice in this match, Punk tried to do the Buckshot Lariot and both times he fell over. It was either because he's old or he was tired or he was injured. Considering he wrestling on Dynamite three days after this, it wasn't an injury. So this was a bit sloppy. Adam Page had consistently been in awesome matches during his reign so it's a little sad seeing him lose the title. I really think they should consider giving the title to some of these new, young guys like Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, or Sammy Guevera. Those 3 in main events would set the building on fire. CM Punk might be popular and getting a big paycheck, but I don't see him doing any 4 star matches in the future. CM Punk vs. Omega is a huge PPV main event. Hopefully they do that and then get the title off him and never put it back. The ending had a ref bump and Page grabbing his belt and contemplating turing heel and using the belt on Punk. He decided not to, went for the Buckshot Lariot but Punk grabbed him and put him to sleep. We already had a heavily plotted ending to Page/Omega last year. I don't want another one. I don't think that really worked here and this match wasn't all that great. **

WWE WRESTLEMANIA BACKLASH

Providence, Rhode Island

CODY RHODES vs. SETH ROLLINS (20:45): This was a good match. Considering the WWE audiences have showered Cody with cheers so far, he's probably over the moon with his decision to leave AEW. The WWE is also pushing him so far, giving him two straight wins against Rollins. The other thing I noticed is that Cody's awful neck tattoo doesn't seem as awful and distracting in the WWE as it was in AEW. Maybe because the WWE is a clown house full of supernatural storylines and dumb gimmicks and he fits in as a "character" more than a wrestler? Who knows? I'm still wondering if eventually his good matches in the WWE will peter out once he starts wrestling the by-the-numbers WWE style like everyone else. Time will tell. ***

OMOS vs. BOBBY LASHLEY (8:50): They're still pushing Omos, which is mind boggling to me. The WWE is doing 2 stadium shows in July and 1 in England in September. What's a better main event? Omos vs. Reigns for the title or Lashley vs. Reigns for the title? Exactly. I'm guessing the England main event will be Reigns vs. McIntyre since McIntyre is from Europe. What will the other ones be? Cody vs. Reigns? I suppose they could do Orton vs. Reigns. And who will finally beat Reigns for the title? The WWE has also done a dumb move by unifying the titles. Now at these 3 big stadium shows they can't have 2 men's titles matches. This company is just so fucking stupid sometimes. Pushing Omos, the tall bore, is just one of many idiotic decisions. This match was pretty forgettable though Lashley at least looked halfway decent. *

EDGE vs. AJ STYLES (16:25): Early this match was pretty good, but the longer it went the more obvious it was that these two just don't mesh well for whatever reason. Maybe five or ten years ago if these two had wrestled it would've been off the charts. Oh, well. A masked figure knocked AJ off the top rope leading to him losing. It was revealed to be Rhea Ripley. So she joins the evil group alongside Edge and Damian Priest. So far this evil group hasn't been working. One reason is probably everyone liked Edge and Damian Priest better as good guys. I guess we'll see if it gets any better. *1/2

RONDA ROUSEY vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR "I QUIT MATCH" (16:35): Ronda came out guns blazing. By the end it turned into a typical weapons type of a match. They used Singapore canes and steel chairs. Eventually Flair said, "I quit," when she was in an armbar through a steel chair. I do love "I Quit" matches simply because I'm always curious how the loser will quit. It has to be something dramatic. Usually it's not. This was better than average but not spectacular or anything, although Rousey looked better than usual. Rousey won the title. **1/2

MADCAP MOSS vs. HAPPY CORBIN (8:40): They broke up this group just to have this match. Which makes you wonder...why break them up? Match was forgettable. Moss is decent but has a horrible gimmick (a bad comedian). I'm guessing the WWE will forget about Moss now and he'll end up in the doghouse chasing the 24/7 title. 1/2*

THE BLOODLINE (ROMAN REIGNS & THE USO'S) vs. DREW McINTYRE & RK-BRO (RANDY ORTON & MATT RIDDLE) (22:20): The second half of this match was excellent. Fast paced, non-stop action, announce table break, hot crowd, near-falls. The first half was kind of slow. The problem was that originally it was supposed to be a tag team match between RK-Bro and The Uso's to unify the tag titles. That would've been a huge match and probably a great one. For no reason they changed it to this, a title-less 6 man that, let's face it, is basically a Smackdown main event. Hopefully they'll do the unified title match at one of the stadium shows. Reigns pinned Riddle, which probably tells you the chances of Riddle ever being a main event, solo star in the company. ***

WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38

Dallas

Night 1: Saturday, April 2nd

THE USO'S vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA & RICK BOOGS (6:55): This was a huge week of wrestling. I didn't watch everything, as no mortal man could, but I caught a lot of stuff. I watched some of AAA's show, the Wrestlecon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show, and GCW's Joey Janela's Spring Break Part 1 on Thursday. I watched some of Smackdown, some of the NJPW show, some of Rampage, and some of the Ring of Honor PPV on Friday. Then came two nights of 'Mania. Jesus Christ. GCW had 3 other shows I never got around to watching, nor did I watch the Bloodsport show. I watched the NXT PPV from Saturday afternoon a few days later. Out of everything, out of all of this, the best show of the weekend was The Briscoe's vs. FTR from the ROH show. That match was fantastic. The best thing about either night of 'Mania was Cody's entrance and match. That was cool & he and Seth had the best match of either night. Does Cody know what he's getting himself into, though? The WWE product is stale as week old bread. Wrestlemania is always kind of polishing a turd, as the saying goes. Or lipstick on a pig. What's more apt? Wrestlemania was great because of the atmosphere, the big stage, the big entrances. It wasn't great, as usual, because of the matches or storylines or feuds. I harked for years about Wrestlemania being too fucking long. They listened and cut the show into 2 and yet it's still too fucking long. Each night was four hours long plus a two hour pre-show. And it's not like these shows are stacked with great matches. Ricochet, one of the WWE's best wrestlers, wasn't there (neither was Finn Balor). This match was for the Uso's Smackdown tag team titles. Boogs injured his knee when both Uso's jumped on his back and he was maybe attempting to slam both of them at the same time. So the match was cut short. It's so sad seeing Nakamura these days when it was only a few years ago he was perhaps the world's greatest wrestler in Japan. The WWE is a shredder of great wrestlers. Just ask Kushida, Walter, Ricochet, Pete Dunne, Ciampa, etc. Sigh. *1/2

DREW McINTYRE vs. HAPPY CORBIN (8:35): McIntyre was beating Brock Lesnar in the main event of Wrestlemania two years ago. Last year he was in the opener on night 1 against Lashley in a championship match. Now he's wrestling Baron Corbin in the middle of the show for nothing. Man, what the hell happened? The big thing was after the match, McIntyre swung his sword at Madcap Moss and missed but sliced the ring ropes and they all fell around the ring. So lame. I will say that in the video package previewing this match, I laughed when they mentioned that Corbin was such a loser and in such bad shape that a homeless man gave him money. Of course in storyline he won all his money back in Vegas so he's Happy Corbin now. And speaking of video packages...this show was on Comcast's Peacock. Unlike Netflix or regular PPV...Peacock has commercials. This meant that between every match there was at least 10 to 15 minutes of video packages and commercials. So while the show was 4 hours long, the matches might have only made up 2 hours if that. That made the show drag. 1/2*

THE MIZ & LOGAN PAUL vs. REY & DOMINIK MYSTERIO (11:15): Logan Paul looked good. He got a ton of heat for doing Eddie Guerrero's Three Amigo's move. He also did a decent frog splash. It was kind of surprising that the heels won this match, although afterwards The Miz turned on Logan Paul. The problem with that is that no one on Earth is ever going to cheer Logan Paul...so why would they make him a babyface? Logan Paul got famous for doing Jackass type videos on youtube. He's a millionaire now and even boxed Floyd Mayweather on PPV last year in an exhibition. The first time I heard about him was because he filmed a youtube video in Japan where he visited the famous Suicide Forest and filmed a real dead person. This was amidst a video of him doing pranks in Tokyo and stuff. So yes, dude's a millionaire for that. And you wonder why he's loathed. **

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BECKY LYNCH (19:10): This was a good match and one of the better matches on either night. Watching this match just made me question why AEW can't figure out their women's division. The WWE is a fucking trainwreck, yet they have stellar women's matches like this once in a blue moon. Belair won the title here from Lynch and Belair was voraciously cheered throughout. It reminded me of last year's 'Mania when Belair won the title and was voraciously cheered. Fuck...are they out of ideas? Maybe make Lynch a babyface again since, you know, she was the most popular wrestler in the company before maternity leave. ***

CODY RHODES vs. SETH ROLLINS (21:40): This was the best Wrestlemania match on either show. Cody coming out was great since it's shocking and new and something most people probably didn't expect to ever see. And the match was really good. Cody pulled out all of the stops. This does often happen before a wrestler ends up stuck in the mud doing WWE "style" matches. Cody will eventually get there and be doing lame, boring, yawn-inducing WWE "style" matches in a year. But Cody still has the indie/AEW high-throttle intensity and action-orientated style coursing through his blood so this was a much better match that what you usually see in WWE. We all wondered if Vince would bury or push Cody. So far he's pushing him. I feel really bad for Cody, though, because in a few months creative is going to be a nightmarish farce for him. ***

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. RONDA ROUSEY (18:30): This match was not very good and very sloppy and also the heel Flair won and retained the title which was kind of lame. Supposedly the WWE is doing a bunch of big stadium shows this year so perhaps Rousey will win the title on one of those. *1/2

'STONE COLD' STEVE AUSTIN vs. KEVIN OWENS "NO HOLDS BARRED MATCH" (13:55): So this is the big problem with WWE and it seems like it's never going to go away. It has to, though, eventually, right? The Rock and Austin and Vince and Goldberg and The Undertaker can't keep showing up and wrestling forever, can they? When New Japan has their biggest show of the year it's known for how great the wrestling matches are. But when WWE has the biggest show of the year it's known for what past-glories they can pull out of the dusty closet. Why the fuck is this the main event? Yeah, it's nostalgic to see Austin drinking beer and giving stunners, but the guy can barely wrestle or walk so it's like watching a great be less great. Why would I want to see that? At least not in the main event. I want to see a title match with young guys that can put together a great 30 minute title match...not this zombie show. It's not 1998, folks. It's fucking over. **

Night 2: Sunday, April 3rd:

RK BRO vs. THE STREET PROFITS vs. ALPHA ACADEMY (11:30): It's probably saying something about the whole show when you consider the best match was the Jackass match. I really thought that this match, the AJ/Edge match, and the main event would have been a lot better. The crowd was really into RK Bro and popped huge for the RKO's but this was short and there wasn't much to it. I know that RK Bro is over and everything but it still pisses me off that Matt Riddle isn't a singles wrestler in the main event/title hunt. Does Cody realize what they've done to Matt Riddle, the excellent UFC fighter turned indie wrestler? He's a fucking joke now when a few years ago he was in 4 star matches in places like PWG. I love the "aura" of Wrestlemania and it's cool to see the bigger to life schtick it encompasses...but, man, the WWE does so much wrong in terms of actual wrestling it's pathetically sad. *1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. OMOS (6:35): Vince loves tall wrestlers. I don't get it, either. Remember Giant Gonzalez? Dude was stiffer than a lump of coal yet he was pushed to the main event. Omos might actually be worse than Giant Gonzalez. Omos had a Goldberg-esque undefeated streak going that was broken by...Bobby Lashley. Huh? The whole point of building up an undefeated streak is so you could make a rookie beat him and get momentum and an instant push. WCW failed to do that with Goldberg (Nash beat him). Did Lashley need a push? No. He held the WWE title for a chunk of 2021, was in multiple main events, is already one of WWE's bigger stars. I guess it's because they're still building up that Lashley/Lesnar match that culminated from Lesnar winning Lashley's title in the Elimination Chamber even though Lashley left the match because of an injury. And, yes, this match was terrible. -No Stars-

JOHNNY KNOXVILLE vs. SAMI ZAYN "ANYTHING GOES MATCH" (14:25): This was the match of night #2 by far. It was super entertaining, humorous, wild, and the crowd roared with approval throughout. They used a bunch of silly gimmicks like a giant mouse trap, a table with mouse traps on it, a tazer, a fire extinguisher, etc. Chris Pontius came into the ring to dance and took his clothes off revealing a thong. Wee Man came out from under the ring. Perhaps the biggest pop of the night came when Wee Man gave Sami Zayn a suplex ('Stone Cold''s music hitting probably got a bigger pop...but it was close). This was just dumb fun and it was fantastic. ***

NAOMI & SASHA BANKS vs. CARMELLA & QUEEN ZELINA vs. LIV MORGAN & RHEA RIPLEY vs. NATALYA & SHAYNA BASZLER (10:50): This was so forgettable I forgot it. Sasha Banks was in the main event of Wrestlemania night #1 last year. My how the mighty have fallen. She's still the WWE's best women's wrestler. Why did they shoehorn her into a tag team, anyway? At least they gave her the tag titles here, defeating the previous champs, Carmella and Queen Zelina. 1/2*

EDGE vs. AJ STYLES (24:05): Considering Edge had some fantastic matches last Fall against Seth Rollins...I really thought that they would go all out and have an excellent match. Nope! This was a total fucking bore. Maybe these two just don't mesh. I mean...obviously they don't. This didn't work at all. Maybe...maybe the last five minutes or so were decent and worked when they started to actually do stuff. The first ten minutes or so were as slow as molasses. This actually baffled me, as usually these two are great wrestlers and are old enough to know what works and what doesn't. This didn't work! *1/2

SHEAMUS & RIDGE HOLLAND vs. THE NEW DAY (1:40): This match was scheduled for night #1 but was cut because they had to show 2 hours of commercials and video packages. Why they still had this match only to give them 2 minutes to wrestle is beyong me. -No Stars-

PAT McAFEE vs. AUSTIN THEORY (9:40)/ VINCE McMAHON vs. PAT McAFEE (3:45): McAfee had a really good match against Adam Cole years ago in NXT. This match was not as good, although Austin Theory is no Adam Cole of course. McAfee wowed the crowd with a few of his stellar moves. A moonsault. A moonsault landing on his feet. A jump to the top rope to give Theory a superplex. So McAfee won the match and then Vince, who is Austin Theory's mentor these days, got into the ring to wrestle McAfee for no good reason. Vince is 76 years old. The only bump he took was a botched stunner from 'Stone Cold' later on. In his match against McAfee he did some clotheslines then kicked a football into McAfee's ribs and pinned him. Maybe Vince thought that since he hasn't wrestled in 12 years the crowd would be all into this. They weren't. The crowd did not want to see a 76 year old man 100% dominate someone. I wonder if that surprised Vince, that the crowd absolutely didn't want to see him win a match. I'm not even sure why they did it. Vince's ego, I guess. They could have just had him and Theory beat up McAfee until Austin showed up. I'm not sure why Vince had to beat McAfee in a match. Austin Theory's music hit...which I'm not sure why...but Vince looked up startled...which gave away that someone else was coming out. Vince is, after all, 76 years old, and so doesn't understand or comprehend things as well as younger people do. Sure enough Austin's music hit and Vince was shocked. The stunner delivered to Theory was great. The stunner delivered to Vince was another classic botch. That made me laugh. I'd much rather have seen just a stunner and a beer bash last night than a full, boring match against Owens. **

ROMAN REIGNS vs. BROCK LESNAR (12:15): This was disappointing, and not just because they built up Lesnar to win only to have Reigns win and the crowd go home sad and the show end on a sour, deflating, negative note. I figured that Lesnar could lose, considering he's been on TV so much lately and he's not a full time regular so after 'Mania he'd probably leave for awhile, anyway. And why would you give the title to a guy that's going to leave? But the match wasn't very exciting. I'm surprised because usually Brock Lesnar matches are full action and big moves and exciting. Nope. Maybe because it went too long and Lesnar had to sell too much. This just wasn't very good. And, shockingly, this was the 3rd time these two wrestled at 'Mania. I don't even remember their 2nd match. Their first was the one where Seth Rollins cashed in the briefcase. No one has had a 4th 'Mania match together. Dear, God, don't let it happen. No. **

AEW REVOLUTION

 Orlando

LEYLA HIRSCH vs. KRIS STATLANDER (9:50): First off, this show was phenomenal. This was perhaps AEW's best PPV ever. While there weren't any shocking debuts or moments or anything, nor did any of the 4 titles change hands, the show was just stacked from wall to wall with great matches. The only negatives were that none of the women's matches were any good and the show, at 4 hours and 45 minutes long, was an hour too long. This first match was the first of three matches on the "Buy In" pre-show that was free on Youtube, among other sites. Leyla Hirsch won after hitting Statlander with a turnbuckle wrench when the ref wasn't looking. Not much too this. 1/2*

HOOK vs. QT MARSHALL (5:00): Hook is a sensation with the live AEW crowds. I'm not really sure why. Because his hair is goofy looking? He looks like a young punk. Crowds are into that aesthetic? At 5 minutes, this was lightyears longer than any of Hook's previous matches. It was forgettable. 1/2*

MALAKAI BLACK, BRODY KING & BUDDY MATTHEWS vs. PAC, PENTA & ERICK REDBEARD (17:20): This was fantastic. Of course it was. This was Buddy Matthews' first match in AEW. He used to be on 205Live a few years ago as Buddy Murphy. He was the Cruiserweight champ back then and was incredible. It really shocked me that the WWE didn't do anything with him. Buddy looked a little sloppy tonight and not as good as any of the others in this match. This was also Erick Redbeard's first match in AEW since the Brodie Lee tribute show. Not sure if he's back for good if this was a one-off. The crowd was super into him for no apparent reason. His only claim to fame is he was in the Wyatt Family in the WWE a few years ago. This match was pretty much all action and big moves and it was great. ***

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. CHRIS JERICHO (13:40): I think the AEW live crowds might like Eddie Kingston more than anyone else on the roster. Which is kind of weird. This match was great, though, and that's mostly thanks to this match going on early and thus the crowd still as hot as magma. The match started with Kingston dropping Jericho on his head. Kingston finally got Jericho to tap out to an arm stretch submission. Jericho had said he would shake Kingston's hand if Kingston won but of course Jericho didn't. Is that a mistake to turn Jericho heel? It seems like they're turning a lot of their crowd favorite, big stars heel (Moxley, Danielson). Is that a bad idea? ***

JURASSIC EXPRESS vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. reDRAGON (18:55): You will never see a more exciting and action packed match in your entire life. I'm serious. This was wrestling ecstasy. Considering The Young Bucks and reDragon wrestled each other in great matches a bunch of times in Japan over the years plus The Young Bucks and Jurassic Express have exceptional matches against each other every single time...this match being the best match so far of 2022 isn't really that shocking. I can't even begin to explain anything about this match except it was back and forth, non stop action, reversals, saves, dives, flips, kicks, and a crowd that gasped and cheered numerous times in a seesaw of emotional, orgiastic bliss. The story, of course, was that eventually reDragon and The Bucks would turn on each other which should create matches in the future between then. It's kind of crazy considering the card for this show was excellent...and the show still exceeded expectations. This match will go down in history as being a pinnacle of what tag team wrestling can be. ****

WARDLOW vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. RICKY STARKS vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS vs. ORANGE CASSIDY vs. KEITH LEE "LADDER MATCH" (17:20): This was another highly entertaining match. They did everything and more. Orange Cassidy put his head in a ladder and swung it around, knocking everyone over. Ricky Starks got power bombed by Wardlow from the top of a ladder onto a ladder bridge. Wardlow pushed Powerhouse Hobbs and Keith Lee off the stage and down onto tables. Wardlow eventually won. The weird thing is that the winner gets a title shot at the TNT title. Who the fuck even wants that? Everyone looked good in this match. Keith Lee needs to lose 100 lbs. but the crowd still loves him. This was a hell of a lot of fun. ***

JADE CARGILL vs. TAY CONTI (6:50): This was not good. Jade Cargill definitely looks and carries herself like a bigtime superstar. Unfortunately, even with Bryan Danielson training her, she can't wrestle. Conti's wrestling ability is also a bit suspect. It's weird that the entire AEW women's division is a boring, baffling mess in the ring. Riho was probably the last great in-ring women's wrestler and she's been missing since that Battle of the Belts show in early January. 1/2*

CM PUNK vs. MJF "DOG COLLAR MATCH" (26:45): This was pretty boring for the most part. The last five minutes were good, though, when MJF introduced thumbtacks into the match and Wardlow turned on MJF by giving CM Punk the Diamond ring. CM Punk's face was the definition of a crimson mask. MJF also bled. A lot of this was dull, though, considering you can't really showcase a lot of fast paced action or big moves while tethered to a chain. I watched the precedent for this match on Peacock the other day; 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper vs. Greg 'The Heart' Valentine in a Dog Collar match from Starrcade 1983. That match is supposedly famous? It was a fucking bore! The end of this match was good but for long stretches it put me to sleep. **

BRITT BAKER vs. THUNDER ROSA (17:25): This wasn't very good. Baker eventually retained thanks to interference from her posse. No titles changed hands tonight, which is kind of weird considering AEW only does 4 PPV's a year and you probably should do some title changes on these big shows, right? The problem with this match was that when you watch, say, the tag team match or the Cole/Page main event...the wrestlers work fluidly and flawlessly in a cohesive current of action. These two were herky-jerky, sputter stop, sloppy. There was no fluidity in anything they did. The same goes for Tay Conti and Jade Cargill. Baker and Rosa of course had one of AEW's best matches of 2020...but that was a bloody "Lights Out" match with tables and thumbtacks. In just a basic wrestling match they unfortunately couldn't produce much of anything. A tired crowd after the big CM Punk emotional rollercoaster of a match didn't give this match any favors, either. *

JON MOXLEY vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (21:05): The post-match was better than the match. That's probably saying something. After the match, both men started beating each other up again. William Regal came out to a roar from the crowd (he was the night's big surprise...the other new signing was Shane Strickland, a wrestler I've never heard of). Regal slapped both Moxley and Danielson then made them shake hands. I'm guessing Regal will be the manager of a Moxley/Danielson tag team? That'd be interesting, although I think I'd rather see them as solo wrestlers. Both wrestlers were bleeding in this match. It was kind of a Ishii or Shingo Takagi G1 style of a match...in that it was just two men beating the hell out of each other. Hence, it was more a fight than a wrestling match. It was good but not great or anything. **1/2

DARBY ALIN, STING & SAMMY GUEVARA vs. ANDRADE EL IDOLO, MATT HARDY & ISIAH KASSIDY (13:20): Fuck...this match was insane. I'm not sure which spot was more insane; the 61 year old Sting jumping off a balcony onto Andrade who was laid on top of four stacked tables...or Sammy Guevara doing a Spanish Fly on Isiah Kassidy atop the ring entrance stage roof down onto two tables that didn't break. One table flipped over and the other one just fell flat down. Jesus Christ. They were both incredible spots. This match was kind of one of those old ECW clusterfuck matches with guys all over the building doing crazy shit. I will say that lately, Andrade has looked fucking incredible in all of his matches. Tonight he looked like he didn't know wrestling was fake. His brutality was insane in some of his kicks and moves. Andrade was in a 3 way on Rampage two days before this show against Sammy and Darby and it was a great match and Andrade looked awesome. I really hope the next PPV has Andrade vs. Adam Page for the title in the main event. This match was a hell of a lot of fun and super entertaining. ***

'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. ADAM COLE (25:45): I've been harping on AEW for two years for not having stellar main event title matches on their PPV's...but finally they've listened to my cries as the last two PPV's had really good main event title matches. No more boring Jericho or boring Moxley matches! Page has really set the high bar these last few months. His two matches against Danielson were incredible (one was a 60 minute draw, the other a bloodbath) and his "Texas Deathmatch" vs. Lance Archer was great. And this match was great. Adam Cole had been having some exceptional NXT matches in the last few years so I knew he would finally showcase his talents in AEW and he did. This was action packed and back and forth and dramatic and exciting and everything you want out of a main event. reDragon showed up late to set up a table at ringside and Dark Order ran out to chase them away. Page did a Deadeye to Cole through the table. They both did all of their big moves. Page gave Cole a Buckshot Lariot but Cole put his hand on the ropes to save him at one point. Even this late, even with a tired crowd, they were alive for this match. Fantastic last match to an all around show for the ages. ***1/2