The Best Match of 2024: WILL OSPREAY vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA "AEW REVOLUTION" 3/3

     This match wasn't the main event. This match wasn't for a belt. When this match happened, these two wrestlers were in the same heel group and thus fighting for no reason. None of that mattered. This was an excellent match between the best wrestler of 2024, Ospreay, and Takeshita, who's at least one of the best. This was Ospreay's debut as in AEW after he signed a contract with them. He had wrestled in AEW before, at Forbidden Door, All In, and on a few Dynamite episodes. When Ospreay did some of his lightning fast moves, though, the crowd gasped and cheered and roared in amazement as if they'd never seen him or his insanely crisp, wild moves. That was part of the reason why this match was so great. The other reason was that it was simply two great wrestlers delivering awesome moves back and forth with some great near falls for twenty one minutes. They had a sold out crowd thanks to Sting's retirement on the show, so the packed crowd making noise for every big move made this seem like it was a Wrestlemania main event or something. This was all action, super entertaining, and a total classic. 

Other Notable Matches:

Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Bryan Danielson  NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka  2/11

Will Ospreay vs. Michael Oku  RevPro High Stakes  2/18

Sting & Darby Allin vs. The Young Bucks  AEW Revolution  3/3

Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson  AEW Dynasty  4/21

Will Ospreay vs. MJF  AEW Dynamite  7/17

Konosuke Takeshita vs. El Phantasmo  NJPW G1 Day 12  8/7

Will Ospreay vs. MJF  AEW All In  8/25

Swerve Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson  AEW All In  8/25

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet  AEW Wrestle Dream  10/12

The Best Wrestler of 2024: WILL OSPREAY

     Will Ospreay has won this award in 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2019, so it's no surprise that he won in 2024. He left New Japan to join AEW and didn't wrestle the cavalcade of indie shows he used to do. That didn't really matter, though. He had some all time classics in 2024, and every single time he stepped into the ring you knew you'd be seeing something special. He finished his RevPro days with an awesome, dramatic, 47 minute match against Michael Oku in February. His debut as an AEW contracted wrestler started with the best match of the year and a match I noted at the time might have been the best AEW match in history against Takeshita at Revolution. In May he wrestled Bryan Danielson in a fantastic match that won most of the best of the year match awards and ended up being #1 as the highest rated match of the year on cagematch.com. He didn't win the title at Forbidden Door in June, but he did main event in a great match against Swerve Strickland. In July he had a 59 minute match on Dynamite against MJF that was epic and fantastic. At All In the re-match against MJF was great as well. His match at All Out in September against PAC was excellent. At Wrestle Dream, he was in a match against Ricochet and Takeshita. I noted that "if someone named this the best match of the year then I wouldn't have a problem with that." His match against Kyle Fletcher at Full Gear was another 3.5 star match. And then he had a bunch of great matches in the Continental Classic against Darby Allin, Kyle Fletcher, and Okada. Was he in the best storylines? Probably not. Was his company the hottest? No. But wrestlers like Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, who were a part of the hot WWE year selling out arenas and stadiums and on shows with bigger ratings than AEW TV shows, were never in many if any great, classic matches. Ospreay did it every month. He's also likeable as hell, dramatic as hell, and, shockingly, really good on the mic connecting with fans, showing his passion, and sounding like a, gasp, real person. He will go down in legend as one of the best wrestlers in the history of the business, and 2024 was a stellar year full of a ton of highlights from him. Thank God he's practically still in his prime.

AEW WORLDS END

 

Orlando

TONI STORM vs. LEILA GREY (6:50): The WWE put a house show on in Orlando on the same night as this show. The main event for that show was Kevin Owens vs. Cody Rhodes in a Steel Cage match. That show got more fans than this show, which isn't really a surprise because the WWE is hot and AEW is not. This actually probably hurt the WWE more, though, because the WWE show only had 7,000 fans and only half filled there building while AEW had 6,000 fans and almost sold out their smaller building. WWE has usually been selling out their TV tapings, so you'd think only half filling the building for a show is kind of a disappointment. Anyway, this was a good PPV. The Continental Classic turned out to be a big success. The big problem with this show was that the first match of the main card was the best match. Hell, you can't go wrong with a show featuring two Ospreay matches. This first pre-show match featured the returning Toni Storm, who showed up in AEW a few weeks ago minus her 'Timeless' gimmick. This was a squash and pretty pointless. -No Stars-

JEFF JARRETT vs. QT MARSHALL (9:25): This was nothing, really, but at least the crowd seemed to be into Jeff Jarrett. QT looks really skinny these days. Is he on Ozempic? *1/2

ACTION ANDRETTI, LIO RUSH & MURDER MACHINES (BRIAN CAGE & LANCE ARCHER) vs. THE OUTRUNNERS & TOP FLIGHT (10:50): When did Action Andretti turn heel? I think I watch all the AEW shows so I'm not sure when that happened. This week's Rampage was the last one, as TNT cancelled it per the new TV deal. That's a good thing, as they'd pretty much given up on that show anyway. There wasn't much to this match, either. Not the best pre-show! *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. KYLE FLETCHER (16:20): This was the best match of the night. The crowd was super hot for these first two Continental Classic matches. Ospreay was a bloody mess and ended up winning after giving Fletcher a Styles Clash. That was a good way to have him win because the crowd always pops when he does it and he never wins with it so it was a surprise. On one hand, having Fletcher beat Ospreay at Full Gear seemed kind of pointless if he was going to lose here. Are you trying to make new stars and push these guys or what? On the other hand, Ospreay is AEW's best wrestler and he keeps losing on these PPV's (he lost on this show, too, plus the last two PPV's). I figured Ospreay would've been AEW champ by now. Still, this was an awesome, action packed, drama filled match with a super hot crowd. Great stuff. ***1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. RICOCHET (13:00): Ricochet is a heel now. I don't know how that happened. It's weird because he's doing all these awesome flips and dives and the crowds can't cheer because he's the bad guy. Last weekend, AEW did 3 straight shows at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom, that cool looking building that ECW made famous back in the day doing shows. They did an ROH PPV and then Collision live and a Dynamite taping for Christmas. The live Collision opened with Ospreay vs. Richochet. The crowd was super hot. The match was awesome. It was the first time in forever it seemed that AEW felt so alive and popular and cool. It probably helped that they were in a building that only fits 1,500 fans and not these big, empty arenas they keep running. This match was entertaining. Okada is still good but not the great Okada of old. Ricochet has looked fantastic this past week (he did a 450 top rope flip onto Darby Allin on a table on Dynamite). After the match, Swerve Strickland came out to humiliate Ricochet for losing. Prince Nana handed out rolls out toilet paper to the crowd to throw at Ricochet (they did this at the Hammerstein Ballroom because usually they throw streamers at wrestlers but because Ricochet is a heel now it's toilet paper). That was a pretty amusing  moment. *** 

MARIAH MAY vs. THUNDER ROSA "TIJUANA STREET FIGHT" (13:10): Mariah's title reign has been pretty lackluster. Maybe after that great Toni Storm feud, nothing else feels as worthwhile. This match had thumbtacks, chairs, and Thunder Rosa used a table to run and jump off of. Mariah stole Thunder Rosa's dad's cane at ringside and then used to it to hobble around like an old man, making fun of him. The super hot crowd in the first two matches disappeared for most of the rest of the night. They did pop for the thumbtacks. Match was just okay. *1/2

MJF vs. ADAM COLE (14:35): These two had such a super popular run in the summer of 2023 that it's almost shocking how cold this feud is now and how little anyone cares about it. Maybe they should have kept MJF a babyface, as he doesn't really seem like a superstar these days. Cole is definitely colder, as a lot of people in the crowd seemed to cheer for MJF more and even boo Cole after the match when he spit on the ring and laid out MJF. MJF won after a low blow when the ref wasn't looking. This just didn't work, as most of the match was MJF beating on Cole. MJF retained his Diamond ring. *1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS (16:30): This match was decent but nothing great. It felt just like a typical TV match more than a title PPV match. Takeshita retained the International Title. He's actually wrestling next weekend at Wrestle Kingdom against Shingo Takagi for both men's titles. That might be the greatest match in the history of the world. **1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. KRIS STATLANDER (24:35): I don't think this was a good as their match on the last PPV, but the last five to ten minutes of this were excellent. This was the longest match on the show and that probably helped to build momentum to a great closing stretch. They kept having Statlander stranded outside, about to get counted out when Mone would leave and beat her up. At one point, Mone trapped Statlander's leg below the ring and she had to take her boot off. There were a ton of dramatic near falls. Really good match by the end. It kind of says something that the TBS women's title match went on later than the actual AEW women's title match. ***

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. WILL OSPREAY (19:15): This was the finals of the Continental Classic. Last year they only did the finals on this PPV, which Eddie Kingston won. Kingston lost the title to Okada. So Okada was the Continental champion and wasn't even in last year's tournament. I don't know why they don't just do what every Japan promotion does and has the winner of their tournaments get a title shot. The winner of the CC just gets a stupid championship belt. Hooray! AEW already has, like, seven or eight titles floating around. They're fucking meaningless at this point. This match was really good but not as good as Ospreay/Fletcher. The story was that Ospreay was bandaged and bloody and had to overcome that to win. I was kind of surprised Ospreay didn't win here, but then Kenny Omega made his return to AEW to hand Okada the Continental title. Omega is wrestling next week at Wrestle Dynasty, the 2nd night of New Japan's Tokyo Dome shows. He's facing Gabe Kidd. This was actually Omega's first time in AEW all year. Weird that he's an AEW contracted wrestler and he's making his in-ring return in Tokyo instead. This match had a lot of near falls and a bunch of Rainmakers. The crowd was really into this after being kind of quiet since the first two CC matches. Ospreay is so awesome, it's kind of sad to see him keep losing. Like...what's the deal? You going to push or bury your best wrestler? *** 

JON MOXLEY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY vs. JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (17:00): They probably should have had the Okada/Ospreay match go on last. The whole Death Riders storyline doesn't seem to be connecting much with the fans. Plus, it's not very exciting or entertaining. Plus, nobody thought Moxley was losing the title. They brawled in the crowd early. They put Moxley through the announce table and he must have cut the back of his head because it was gushing blood. All of the Death Rider goons interfered. Jay White actually gave his finisher to Marina Shafir at one point (AEW rarely has a man hitting a woman). The match was just okay. 'Hangman' gave everyone a Buckshot Lariat. After the match, FTR came out (they're wrestling the DR on Dynamite). Then Edge made his return. I guess Edge will face Moxley for the title? Okay. Christian has a title contract shot and was sitting up in a box. I figured he would cash it in and Edge would return to thwart him. That didn't happen. The Continental Classic was a big success, but this main title picture needs some juice. I guess Adam Copeland is...something. The next big show is a PPV in Australia in February. Maybe they'll do that match then. They already left the big stadium and moved the show to a smaller building. They might not have had to do that if Ospreay was the champion. Right? **

WWE SURVIVOR SERIES: WAR GAMES

Vancouver

BAYLEY, BIANCA BeLAIR, IYO SKY, NAOMI & RHEA RIPLEY vs. CANDICE LeRAE, LIV MORGAN, NIA JAX, RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ & TIFFANY STRATTON "WAR GAMES" (38:11): They mentioned on commentary that the last time a WWE PPV was held in Vancouver was in December 1998. I looked up the card for that show and the main event was a Buried Alive match between The Undertaker and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. The second-to-last match was The Rock vs. Mankind. I kind of wish I had watched that show instead. Granted, there were, like, ten other matches on that show that looked horrible on paper. But this far and away from the Attitude WWF era. This is the new TKO/HHH slick, glossy, perfectly packaged, conglomerate WWE. It's also kind of stale and boring. What it doesn't have is that edge that the WWF had back in the late 90's. It also doesn't help that AEW does a War Games every summer now on Dynamite and those have that edge; also, blood, barbed wire, glass, and, two years ago, a bed of nails. There was no blood on this show, although they had tables, chairs, trash cans, and Singapore canes. Everybody online that reviewed this show seemed to not like this match or at least say it was the inferior War Games match on the show. I actually thought it was better than the men's War Games match because the crowd was actually alive and into this. By the time the main event went on the crowd was sitting on their hands. This match didn't really have two teams. It was just random heels vs. random babyfaces. They did two top rope jumps in this, both at the same time. Tiffany Stratton did a Swanton Bomb onto everyone and Iyo Sky put a trashcan over her body and jumped down onto everyone. Nia Jax was probably the star in this as she did the most of anything. Eventually Rhea Ripley put Liv through a table to win. Match wasn't great or anything but it was entertaining. **1/2

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA vs. LA KNIGHT (9:43): The announcers noted that Nakamura has been out for 7 months. They didn't mention why. Well they're giving him a push, as they had him beat LA Knight and win the U.S. title. A year ago, LA Knight was in the main event in Saudi Arabia losing to Roman Reigns. I guess the WWE doesn't care that he, like, could've been a big star if they actually pushed him. The crowds still seem to like him. Oh, well. This match was short and really boring. Nakamura won clean with the Shin kasha knee.  1/2*

BRON BREAKER vs. SHEAMUS vs. LUDWIG KAISER (14:24): This was the best match on the show. It was action packed with some good near falls and the crowd got super into it. Ludwig pulling the ref out of the ring when Sheamus was about to pin Bron Breaker was a fantastic spot. Bron Breaker retained the IC title. ***

GUNTHER vs. DAMIAN PRIEST (19:18): Yawn. What happened to those great Walter matches? It's been a while. Gunther retained the title after Finn gave Damian a stomp outside the ring when the ref wasn't looking. What is Gunther's title called? Cody has the real title, the WWE championship. I don't know what the hell this is called. Cody, one of, if not the, biggest stars in the WWE wasn't even on this show. That's weird considering he actually has a feud going with Kevin Owens. Maybe they're doing that match at NBC's Saturday Night Main Event which is in a few weeks. This match wasn't good at all. *

CM PUNK, ROMAN REIGNS, JEY USO, JIMMY USO & SAMI ZAYN vs. BRONSON REED, JACOB FATU, SOLO SIKOA, TAMA TONGA & TONGA LOA "WAR GAMES" (41:55): At least this War Games had two teams. The Original Bloodline plus CM Punk vs. The Bloodline. Bronson Reed kind of isn't in The Bloodline, though, or maybe he's a new member. I was sick of The Bloodline before and now they have two of them. Great! The big storyline was that CM Punk and Roman were kind of hesitantly put together. Could they work together? Bronson Reed put Roman on a table and went up on the cage and did a splash but CM Punk pulled Roman off the table at the last second to save him. That was a cool spot because it literally was at the last second and made a cool visual. After Roman's team won the match, Roman and CM Punk shook hands. So much for that feud! There's two matches the WWE hasn't done yet that could be gigantic: CM Punk vs. Roman and CM Punk vs. Cody. Why they started planting seeds for a CM Punk/Roman match just to make them instant friends right away makes no sense. The match suffered because the crowd was silent for most of it. They did wake up towards the end to chant, "This is awesome." It wasn't. Jacob Fatu slipped off the ropes at one point and then obviously kept hobbling and holding his leg. Usually that means it's a storyline thing but no story ever came out of it so maybe he really was hurt. One of the Usos jumped off the top of the cage to go through a table. It was a decent match, though nothing to go out of your way to see. These WWE PPV's have been really weak lately, haven't they? These big crowds at all the WWE shows aren't helping because all the crowds care about is entrances and table spots. They seem to not care about watching the actual wrestling. They will care if the wrestling is good, like the 3-way, but the WWE rarely has great matches anymore. What happened? They've lost their way. **1/2

AEW FULL GEAR

Newark, New Jersey

ANNA JAY vs. DEONNA PURRAZZO (7:22): This was a good show, although there was no match of the year contender. The show was a little strange because there were no gimmick matches and it seemed like the heels won the majority of the matches to make the show feel like evil was taking over. The pre-show kicked off with this totally pointless and forgettable match. Anna Jay faced Mariah May for the championship in two main events on Collision in recent weeks. She lost those matches but won here, in a match before 7 PM on the pre-show when barely anyone was in their seats. Kind of strange to see her being pushed as a main event star and then immediately put into the first pre-show match. Deonna Purrazzo has been a total bust, so beating her isn't helping Anna Jay gain much. Match was bad. 1/2*

BUDDY MATTHEWS vs. DANTE MARTIN vs. KOMANDER vs. THE BEAST MORTOS (10:35): This was a good match, something you'd typically see on Rampage. We got glimpses of what would have happened if AEW actually pushed Buddy Matthews as a singles star when they signed him. Oh, well. That ship seems to have sailed. He could have been battling in PPV main events for the championship. They decided not to do that for whatever reason. There was a lot of action in this match, including Komander's awesome rope-walk into a flip to ringside on everyone. ***

BIG BOOM AJ vs. QT MARSHALL (11:44): AJ and his son are stars on Tik Tok and Youtube. That's why this match happened, and also why this got some of the biggest crowd reactions all night. They do a gimmick called "The Costco Guys" that's super over with 12 year old boys. When AJ's son speared QT, the place went ape shit. It was entertaining. **1/2

PRIVATE PARTY vs. KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE (MALAKAI BLACK & BRODY KING) vs. THE ACCLAIMED vs. THE OUTRUNNERS (13:29): This opened the show...and then there were 8 straight singles matches. Private Party just won the tag titles on Dynamite from The Bucks, so I figured they'd retain. Match was entertaining. The Kings of the Black Throne seemed to destroy everyone for most of the match and get most of the fan's cheers. The Outrunners are still wildly popular with fans, too, for whatever weird reason (80's nostalgia, I guess?). The Acclaimed is doing a storyline where Max Castor is slowly turning heel. I really doubt anyone wants to see Max Castor as a singles, heel wrestler, but whatever. **1/2

MJF vs. RODERICK STRONG (13:35): They seemed to be setting up an Adam Cole vs. MJF match on this show, so who the fuck knows why it ended up being Roderick Strong vs. MJF. Cole came out after the match to chase MJF away, so maybe they just wanted to continue that feud. MJF has been off TV for the last month because he was filming Happy Gilmore 2. He definitely would be great playing a smarmy, evil, snot-nosed rich guy douche. I bet he's great in it. This match was decent. Strong always wrestles like he thinks it's real and delivers brutal, painful, hard-hitting moves non-stop. MJF was funny on the mic before the match. This just felt like a TV match, though. **

MERCEDES MONE vs. KRIS STATLANDER (19:23): This match was fantastic, and we finally saw the great Mercedes we've been wanting to see since she signed with AEW. I think these two just gel together. They both delivered devastating moves back and forth throughout with a ton of kick outs. Mone retained her TBS title. ***1/2

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (19:52): The second half of the match was really good. The crowd in Newark was actually pretty good all night, getting into pretty much all of the matches. White won the same way he won last time he wrestled Page. Page went for the Buckshot Lariat but White reversed it into his Blade Runner finisher. The weird thing was...these two just wrestled at the last PPV and the ending was the same. Deja vu. Considering the fans still seem to really like 'Hangman,' maybe they should make him a baby face again. There's way too many heels in this company. ***

KYLE FLETCHER vs. WILL OSPREAY (24:13): This was the longest match on the show. It was also perhaps the best. Afterwards, I was wondering if Ospreay is going to go on a 3 month vacation or something because he got destroyed and pinned clean. They've been pushing Fletcher, so it makes sense to give him a big win. Where will this go, though? He's a heel so he's not going to wrestle Moxley for the title. The only good guy with a title is Daniel Garcia. If you beat Ospreay clean, though, you should be in the main event picture, not wrestling Garcia for the secondary title. The big move in this match that made the crowd gasp in shock was when Fletcher gave Ospreay a piledriver onto the ring steps. To do this, though, Fletcher had to jump from the apron onto the steps while holding Ospreay. It was fucking sick. And the whole match was big, brutal moves. My only qualm was that Fletcher pretty much had most of the offense and it really wasn't a great, back-and-forth, NJPW-style classic by the end, it was just a one-sided destruction. ***1/2

MARIAH MAY & MINA SHIRAKAWA: This was a champagne celebration. Mariah attempted to hit Mina over the head with a champagne bottle for no reason but Mina caught it. Then they both went through two tables by the entrance. Eh, they'll probably have a good match. I like Mariah but her title reign has been kind of dull. 

DANIEL GARCIA vs. JACK PERRY (18:16): Garcia just re-signed with AEW, so it wasn't a big surprise that he won the TNT title here. Match was okay but nothing spectacular. Perry put Garcia through the ring bell table and then emptied a garbage can on him. Garcia ended up getting Perry to tap out. **

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. RICOCHET (19:12): This match was good but kind of ended up turning out how the Ospreay/Fletcher one did. It was one-sided and a beat-down and Takeshita won to retain his International title. I would have rather seen more of a back-and-forth match at the end than a destruction. I kind of doubt they'll do it, but they really need to make Takeshita or Ospreay the AEW champ so we can finally have consistent, awesome, 4-star PPV main events. Has Moxley ever been in a 4 star match? **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (13:22): This was another beat-down, destruction, and clean pin by a heel. This PPV was like The Empire Strikes Back or something. They did some cool spots in this, though. Swerve ran and jumped off the ring steps and gave Lashley a foot stomp through the announce table. Lashley gave Swerve a spear through the guardrail that broke. Lashley won with The Hurt Lock submission. I guess since Lashley is new and a supposed "monster" you didn't want to beat him. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (19:21): The big problem with this as the main event was that you knew Moxley wasn't losing. They just started this new Death Riders rule AEW storyline back in September and Moxley just won the title at the last PPV...so nobody thought it would all be over so soon with Orange winning. Cassidy was bleeding, so we finally got some blood on the show. Usually these PPV's have a ladder or cage or hardcore match but this one didn't. There was interference by Marina and PAC and Claudio. Ishii, Rocky Romero, and Kyle O'Reilly ran out to make the save. Orange Cassidy did a thousand Orange Punches in this match to no avail. At one point, Cassidy hit Moxley with the briefcase (the evil heel group holds the title in a briefcase for no real reason) when the ref wasn't looking and the crowd was shocked when it only it only resulted in a 2 count. After Moxley won, the AEW writing staff decided to go balls-to-the-wall. Wheeler Yuta poured a bottle of chemicals on Orange Cassidy's face and in his mouth. 'Hangman' came out with a chair and hit Wheeler then stared down Mox. Christian Cage came out and hit Moxley with his title contract (which is in a steel case). Jay White ran out to chase Christian out and thwart him from cashing in his title contract. Moxley and his crew were escaping outside when Darby Allin crashed his car into Moxley's car. Mox and his crew decided to steal a car and left. The show ended with a bloody Darby standing on Mox's destroyed SUV. Um...okay. This was all...too much. It also didn't make much sense. So is Darby wrestling Moxley or is Jay White next? Maybe a four way with Christian as well? I guess it was all entertaining in one sense. The whole Death Riders storyline, which is basically similar to Roman Reigns and The Bloodline taking over and also the N.W.O. taking over WCW, is actually kind of dull. The point is to build up a savior to finally dethrone Moxley and stand triumphant. Hopefully they don't drag this out for 3 years like they did with Cody finally beating Roman for the title. **1/2

NJPW POWER STRUGGLE

Osaka

BULLET CLUB (CLARK CONNORS, DRILLA MOLONEY, GABE KIDD, ROBBIE X & TAIJI ISHIMORI) vs. INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KEVIN KNIGHT & KUSHIDA), THE VELOCITIES (JUDE LONDON & PARIS DE SILVA) & KATSUYA) & KATSUYA MURASHIMA (6:14): This match was awesome. I was not expecting that out of the opener (there was a kick off match but I didn't watch that). There were no tags in this match which made no sense. It was just everybody in the ring doing crazy moves for 6 minutes. Fun, wild stuff. ***

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI, TETSUYA NAITO & YOTA TSUJI) vs. SKATEBOARD BROS (DRAGON DIA & RYUSUE TAGUCHI), TOMOAKI HONMA & TORU YANO (7:02): Honma and Taguchi are still wrestling? Interesting. Almost like they signed a 20 year contract or something. Naito, who lost the IWGP title in the main event of the last big show, is now relegated to a prelim, multi-man match. This wasn't good. *1/2

HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & REN NARITA) vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & OLEG BOLTIN (7:26): Tanahashi is going on a year long retirement tour next year. It starts at the Dome against Evil, hence why this match existed. Tanahashi can barely walk around so it's honestly kind of sad to see him still attempted to wrestle. Hopefully when he beats Evil, HOT will disband. One can hope. This wasn't good. And Boltin still comes out wearing the stupid fur hat. 1/2*

KENNY OMEGA: Shockingly, Omega came out here to say he'll be wrestling one of the younger New Japan guys on January 5th at the AEW/NJPW Dome show, Dynasty. Funny, because he's in AEW and didn't show up there first. I kind of thought he'd never wrestle again because he almost died from diverticulitis and had part of his intestines removed. He did 99% of his speech in Japanese. I guess it makes sense that he knows the language since he lived there for 15 years or something. Still weird seeing him fluently speaking Japanese. It just looks like such a hard language to learn. I wonder who he will face. They kind of set up David Finlay wanting to wrestle him. Could be Shota, Uemura, or Tsuji. I'd like to see Tsuji. That'd be wild.

SHOTA UMINO vs. SANADA (16:41): Shota was cheered in this match, which is strange because he was booed later on when he challenged Zack Sabre, Jr. I guess they like Shota but they don't want him being in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom. This match was boring. I was watching it thinking that, man, this match is way too long...and it was only 16 minutes! Felt like 30. Towards the end it got somewhat decent with some near falls and action. *1/2

UNITED EMPIRE (GREAT-O-KHAN & HENARE) vs. TMDK (MIKEY NICHOLLS & SHANE HASTE (11:11): Great-O-Khan and Henare won the tag team titles here. Match was okay. It was very hard hitting. There were a lot of hard slaps. Nicholls had his forehead busted up from a head butt. Or it might have been Haste. They're so great I can't tell them apart! **

ICHIBAN SWEET BOYS (KOSEI FUJITA & ROBBIE EAGLES) vs. CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) (15:20): This was the match of the night. The first half was okay but the second half was back-and-forth, wild moves at a frenetic pace. This was the finals of the Jr. tag team tournament. I wonder if TJP is still doing that stupid demon alter-ego gimmick. He was wearing red contact lenses in this match. Is Ichiban Sweet Boys like a gay reference? Sounds like one. Eagles does always wear scarfs. After the match, Kushida and Kevin Knight came out. I think they're the tag champs. Then the War Dogs came out to beat everyone up. So it'll probably be a 4 way at the Dome. ***1/2

DOUKI vs. MASTER WATO (22:07): Douki is actually the Jr. champ. Really? I guess it got boring with Hiromu, Ishimori, and Desperado constantly holding it. It's funny, but when I was a kid we all used the word dookie. That's like a totally lost word these days. The only reason it's probably sort of still remembered is because Green Day's first album was titled that. I wonder where that word even came from. Honestly, these two aren't exactly setting the world on fire in their matches, so this wasn't that great. Douki choked out Wato. Desperado came out to challenge Douki. **

DAVID FINLAY vs. TAICHI (23:22): The first half was kind of okay, but the second half was dramatic as hell. The announcers had a field day shouting after big moves on this show. These two just gel I guess. The big storyline was that Sanada joined the War Dogs group and pulled the ref out of the ring to help Finlay win. Taichi was in Just 5 Guys with Sanada. I'm guessing this company realized that Sanada isn't a big enough star to have his own group so they got rid of it. Match was wildly entertaining in the last five minutes or so. ***

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (29:28): I think that this probably should have been the Dome main event. Granted, their 1st match in the G1 was better than this. I realize that Zack's gimmick is submissions, but a lot of this match dragged with all of the holds. It just never heated up into anything fantastic. Zack won the G1 and, surprisingly, decided to cash in his IWGP title shot last month where he beat Naito for the title. We all wondered why that happened in October instead of at Wrestle Kingdom. The answer? Shota Umino came out to a chorus of boos to challenge Zack. So the reason Zack didn't wrestle Naito at WK is because they wanted Shota vs. Zack to be the main event of their biggest show in 2025? Wh-wh-what? I guess the boos happened because Shota didn't really earn the shot and doesn't even have a belt or anything. It's basically the company is forcing his push, and the fans don't like that. Or maybe New Japan wants to turn Shota heel, who knows? The big reason is obvious why Shota is getting such a stratospheric match: the company needs new, big stars right now. Okada, Jay White, and Ospreay all left for AEW. Tanahashi is retiring. Naito is halfway to a wheelchair. I think Shota vs. Zack is intriguing. It's something new. I kind of think Shota has to win, though, otherwise what's the point in doing it? Unless they want to do what they did with Shota and Ospreay. Those two had a 40 minute match where Shota put in his all and came up just short. The weird thing is, Ricochet showed up and did a top rope elbow drop onto Zack after this match and challenged him for Dynasty. That show is the day after the Dome. It's almost like Ricochet was saying that Shota aint beating Zack for the title. I'm so happy for Richochet. The WWE didn't do shit with him and now he's going to main event a show at the Tokyo Dome. This show was entertaining but wasn't spectacular or anything. They did do a good job of setting up Wrestle Kingdom and Dynasty, though. **

WWE CROWN JEWEL

 

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

THE BLOODLINE (JACOB FATU, SOLO SIKOA & TAMA TONGA) vs. ROMAN REIGNS & THE USO'S (16:35): With all the money that Saudi Arabia is spending just to get these shows, you'd think they'd eventually ask for a Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble or something. At least when these shows started they were getting out-of-retirement legends like Shawn Michaels, Goldberg, and The Undertaker to make the shows somewhat special. The hottest program these days in the WWE is still the Bloodline saga, so it was kind of surprising that this match went on first and was only 16 minutes long. Roman Reigns actually got pinned. Sami Zayn came out to save the day before contemplating going heel and joining Solo's team. Are they really going back to the will-Sami-Zayn-turn well again? Match was okay. **

BIANCA BeLAIR & JADE CARGILL vs. CHELSEA GREEN & PIPER NIVEN vs. DAMAGE CTRL (IYO SKY & KAIRI SANE) vs. META GIRLS (JAKARA JACKSON & LASH LEGEND) (12:00): Jade is a really tall woman, so of course the WWE now has a team, Meta Girls, featuring women even bigger than Jade, thus negating the whole point of Jade. There were some sloppy moments in this but the crowd got into some of the high flying by Iyo. Bianca and Jade retained the women's tag team titles. I kind of thought Bianca was a big solo star so I'm baffled why they put her in a tag team. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. BRONSON REED (12:20): This was a good match. Seth is the best wrestler in the WWE and Bronson used to be in New Japan so he can wrestle (he beat Okada! Why did he leave?). The match started with them brawling on the entranceway before the bell rang. It was pretty much a non-stop brawl, which made it entertaining. Seth gave Bronson a stomp on the ring stairs at one point. The crowd seemed into it. The whole night I was wondering who the two white guys in their 60's were sitting in the best seats in the front row. Are they, like, oil executives or something? Maybe they work for TKO. That's how great this show was...I was more interested in random people in the crowd. ***

LIV MORGAN vs. NIA JAX (8:15): They used to do champions vs. champions at Survivor Series for a few years. They'd have the RAW champ vs. the Smackdown champ and the RAW tag team champs vs. the Smackdown tag team champs. I guess that's why they did this here. Liv and Nia are both champs but this was for the Crown Jewel championship. The problem with doing that, though, is that who the fuck cares who wins or loses when their titles aren't at stake? Dominick and Raquel Rodriguez interfered to help Liv win. This wasn't good. 1/2*

RANDY ORTON vs. KEVIN OWENS: The crowd popped big for Randy Orton. Maybe because he's been around long enough for people in Saudi Arabia to remember him? This match never officially started because Kevin Owens started beating Orton with a chair. They both started giving their signature moves to the referees and officials that ran out to stop them. Eventually, Owens jumped off a guardrail in the crowd and gave an elbow drop onto Orton on a table. This was entertaining. I'm not sure why they turned Kevin heel, though. I guess...why not? He hasn't been doing much lately. **1/2

LA KNIGHT vs. ANDRADE vs. CARMELO HAYES (9:10): They were all doing moves off the top rope, so that was exciting. And the crowd seemed to be into LA Knight. They're not that into him, though, considering this time last year he main evented Crown Jewel against Roman Reigns. I said back then that he should've won. He didn't...and now he's just a mid-carder. You reap what you sow. **1/2

CODY RHODES vs. GUNTHER (23:00): I thought this match was boring, actually. It wasn't slow but it was basic and never heated up into anything great. These two are both champions and neither belt was on the line so who cares who wins? I think this was Gunther's first time in the main event on a PPV. The whole match I was thinking: I miss fat Walter. *1/2