AEW REVOLUTION

Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles

HOLOGRAM & KOMANDER vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN & LEE JOHNSON (9:54): This was an excellent show. The pre-show, which had 4 matches, and the main event weren't very good, though. Hologram is exciting to watch and Komander is entertaining. I feel like the AEW PPV pre-show matches used to be a lot better. **

DANIEL GARCIA & THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (ADAM COLE, KYLE O'REILLY & RODERICK STRONG) vs. SHANE TAYLOR PROMOTIONS (CARLIE BRAVO, LEE MORIARTY, SHANE TAYLOR & SHAWN DEAN) (9:37): I watched this pre-show yesterday and watched the PPV today. I kind of forget what even happened on the pre-show. These matches weren't very memorable. They are setting up another Daniel Garcia vs. Adam Cole match for Garcia's TNT title. Cole was ready to deliver his Panama Sunrise move but Garcia stopped it by putting their opponent in a submission hold instead, thus pissing off Cole. They actually already wrestled last week for the TNT title but Shane Taylor and his group ran in to cause a DQ. Match was fine. **

CHRIS JERICHO vs. GRAVITY: This match never started because Big Bill and The Bad Apple ran in to beat up Gravity. I guess Gravity is Bandido's brother? Because Bandido ran in to make the save but got beat up. Gravity and Bandido's mother and sister came in the ring to tend to them and Jericho was going to hit them with a bat. I guess this is setting up Bandido winning the ROH title from Jericho, presumably at the ROH show on Wrestlemania weekend. That doesn't really make sense, though, since Jericho just beat Bandido in a title match last week. **

BIG BOOM AJ & THE CONGLOMERATION (ORANGE CASSIDY & MARK BRISCOE) vs. JOHNNY TV & MxM COLLECTION (MANSOOR & MASON MADDEN) (12:54): Big Boom AJ, his son, and The Rizzler, some fat kid, are Tiktok and Youtube stars for whatever reason. This is actually the second time they were in an AEW match. I've seen enough. Granted, I'm not a 10 year old boy. Match was fine. No one really did much. *1/2

'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. MJF (19:04): Great match to open the PPV. I was thinking that Page should really win here because it seems like MJF always wins. It gets a little ridiculous (I think the last time MJF lost was against Ospreay at last year's All In). This show was so loaded that I forget most of what even happened in these early matches. Page did win with The Buckshot Lariat. Crowd was hot. Very entertaining. ***1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. MOMO WATANABE (18:18): The crowd was quiet early for a lot of these matches but got into them by the end. This was one of them. The place was quiet until the second half. Momo is from Stardom so I don't think anyone knew who she was. She did some brutal moves, though, like a top rope knee stomp onto Mercedes on the apron. Match was fine but nothing special. **

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. RICOCHET (18:10): The crowd got into this by the second half. Ricochet is awesome as a heel. Swerve really is a big star that the crowds everywhere pop for. They probably should give him the title again at Dynasty next month. They did a ton of near-falls in this, maybe too many. There were all these Hollywood B-stars at ringside making a ruckus during this match. Leslie Jones, who used to be on Saturday Night Live, was screaming throughout the whole match at ringside. Swerve gave Ricochet a backdrop slam on the announce table. Really heated throughout and the crowd was standing at the end of this. Good match. ***

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. BRODY KING (10:56): These days, Okada is only in really good matches once in a blue moon. This was okay but felt more like just a typical TV match. Okada won with The Rainmaker. The crowd was pretty quiet for most of this match. **

THE HURT SYNDICATE (BOBBY LASHLEY & SHELTON BENJAMIN) vs. THE OUTRUNNERS (TRUTH MAGNUM & TURBO FLOYD) (8:40): A few months ago, The Outrunners were so over with the crowds that Bryan Alvarez, the Wrestling Observer podcaster, said they should make them tag champs. Well those days are over, but they did get this title shot. The crowd popped for some of The Outrunners stupid, 80's, Hulkamania-esque gimmicks. But the crowd was more into Lashley and Benjamin, even though they're supposed to be heels. This wasn't a total squash, as they gave The Outrunners some momentum in the middle for a while. They're building The Hurt Business up as this unstoppable team kind of like how Roman Reigns was an unstoppable champion for years. I'm thinking maybe The Young Bucks come back and beat them. I mean...who else is there? FTR seem to be turning heel. *1/2

TONI STORM vs. MARIAH MAY "HOLLYWOOD ENDING MATCH" (12:56): This was the match that all the fans online raved about being the best of the night. It was wild and exciting but I still thought Ospreay/Fletcher was better. They started by brawling by the entrance and going through a table. In the ring, they taped their hands up and stuck them in a bucket filled with a broken champagne bottle, thus having glass shards on their hands. Orange Cassidy actually did this at All In in 2023. The crowd loved that spot. Both of the women were bleeding but Toni Storm was gruesomely covered in blood pouring down her face. The ending had Toni giving Mariah a piledriver through a table by the entrance and winning. This was something. Fantastic match. ***1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (28:30): This match reminded me of a New Japan match where it heats up and becomes epic and awesome in the last five minutes or so. They did bring out a table and Takeshita slammed Omega onto the table while it was on its side. That's because Omega had diverticulitis and had some of his intestines removed last year. They traded big moves, had a bunch of near falls. The crowd was going wild by the end of this. Omega won the International Title. Really good match. ***1/2 

WILL OSPREAY vs. KYLE FLETCHER "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (28:56): Now this was something. This was my favorite match of the night and perhaps the best match of the year thus far. It was edge-of-your-seat stuff. It was totally epic and dramatic and sometimes hard to watch. I mean...Ospreay gave Fletcher a Spanish Fly off the top of the cage. That's insanity. Mark Davis, Fletcher's former Aussie Open partner, ran down to the ring and cut the door open with bolt cutters to deliver a bag. The bag contained a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and a bag of thumbtacks. Ospreay hit Fletcher with the barbed wire bat and then ran the bat across Fletcher's forehead. Ospreay gave Fletcher a Styles Clash onto the thumbtacks. Fletcher had a screwdriver stashed on the top of the cage and eventually both men stabbed each other in the head with it. While all of this carnage was going on, they were both delivering wild, big moves on one another. Fletcher gave Ospreay a Brain Buster on a steel chair. Ospreay jumped off the side of the cage to give Fletcher an Osscutter. Finally, Fletcher was on his knees yelling, "I fucking hate you!" and Ospreay gave him The Hidden Blade to win. This was a masterpiece and the type of match you'll never forget. ****

JON MOXLEY vs. ADAM COPELAND/ JON MOXLEY vs. CHRISTIAN vs. ADAM COPELAND (26:32): Well...good luck following that last match. The crowd was dead. The match was a bore. The crowd woke up when the ref got knocked out and Wheeler Yuta and Jay White came down. Jay White inadvertently hit Copeland with the briefcase (Moxley has been keeping the title in a briefcase for no good reason). Wheeler, who had teased turning against Moxley, didn't. Wheeler and Jay White brawled to the back. Copeland gave Moxley a bunch of spears and went to pin Moxley but Christian pulled him out of the ring. Christian cashed in his title shot contract. The match became a 3 way. Moxley ended up tapping Christian out to win. After all of these awesome, AEW matches on the show, this main event just felt like a WWE match. Christian showing up got a big pop but the crowd hated that he lost so easily. Moxley was walking through the crowd after the match and Swerve jumped off a railing and onto Moxley. I'm guessing they'll do that match at Dynasty on April 6th (in Philly at The Liacouras Center). Considering how dull this main event was and how dull the Death Riders storyline has been, I think Swerve should win the title. *1/2

WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER

Toronto

BIANCA BeLAIR vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. LIV MORGAN vs. NAOMI vs. ROXANNE PEREZ "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (29:15): This was one of the more entertaining WWE PPV's in recent memory. I'm kind of wondering if that had anything to do with the RAW ratings on Netflix being so disappointing. Usually when ratings are a factor, companies try all kinds of bold, eye-catching things. AEW did this last year when they were in talks for a new TV contract. They had Jack Perry and The Young Bucks beat up Tony Khan on TV. They showed the real security footage of the Jack Perry & CM Punk fight. And they also did an hour long TV match between Ospreay and MJF. Maybe I'm wrong and all of these big, bold ideas were always going to happen. Who knows? The show wasn't all great, though. I didn't like the fact that a show with only 4 matches was 3 hours and 15 minutes long. This match was fine but nothing special. It started with a "shocking" moment when Jade Cargill came out and beat up Naomi. Naomi was stretchered out and was eliminated. Besides that, there wasn't much else to this besides a typical, been-there-done-that Chamber match. Bianca whipped Liv with her hair and eventually Liv was bleeding from her back. Bianca won...but the storyline seems to be setting up Bianca vs. Jade, not Bianca vs. whatever champion she faces at 'Mania. Tiffany Stratton and Rhea Ripley are the two women's champions. Bianca vs. either of those two women would probably be a good match but there's no storyline there, is there? **

TIFFANY STRATTON & TRISH STRATUS vs. CANDICE LeRAE & NIA JAX (11:41): This match was kind of dull until Tiffany came in and looked incredible. Trish actually looked good considering she hasn't been a full time wrestler in, like, twenty years. I was watching this and thinking that they probably wanted this match to go longer than usual because the show had only 4 matches. It was only 11 minutes long! It felt like 20. That's not a good sign. Tiffany is a star, though, so she was fun to watch. *1/2

KEVIN OWENS vs. SAMI ZAYN "UNSANCTIONED MATCH" (27:35): This was the best WWE match I've seen in forever. That's not a surprise, really, as these two are two of the better wrestlers in the company. They used a barbed wire wrapped chair in this which was one of the bold, shocking aspects of this show. When was the last time the WWE used barbed wire? I think it was that JBL vs. The Big Show cage match that had barbed wire across the top of the cage. That was probably 20 years ago. And did they ever even use barbed wire before that? Ever? It's definitely a great thing when you use something sparingly. Barbed wire still gets a pop in AEW, but seeing it in WWE when they never use it was a big deal. They brawled in the crowd for a while. Sami put Kevin through two tables stacked with plastic cups and cans in the crowd. There were two tables stacked on top of each other that Sami got tossed onto from the top rope. They did some slams on a steel chair and the barbed wire chair. The barbed wire was even more fake than the AEW barbed wire because it didn't even stick to Kevin's shirt. Kevin beat up two referees. WWE officials ran out trying to get Kevin to stop. Eventually Kevin won. Good match. After the match, Randy Orton returned and gave Kevin an RKO and then gave a few officials that ran in RKO's. ***

JOHN CENA vs. CM PUNK vs. DREW McINTYRE vs. LOGAN PAUL vs. SETH ROLLINS "ELIMINATION CHAMBER" (32:36): This match was packed with stars which made it feel like a big time match (Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Dominick Mysterio, Charlotte Flair, Rhea Ripley and LA Knight were a few of the wrestlers not even on this show). Logan Paul did a frog splash from off the top of a pod. Eventually it came down to CM Punk and Cena. These two had one of the best feuds in the WWE ever in 2011 during The Summer of Punk...so that was nostalgic and fun seeing those two wrestling again after so long. Seth Rollins was eliminated but gave Punk a foot stomp on the steel floor in the chamber. This caused Cena to be able to put Punk in the STU submission hold and win. A lot of this match was entertaining, but it seemed like it went on a bit too long. **1/2

THE ROCK & CODY RHODES SEGMENT: Cody and The Rock came out while Cena was still in the ring. The Rock wanted Cody to give him a hug because The Rock wanted Cody's soul. No, I have no idea what that even means. Cody said that he doesn't have a soul because he's already given it to the WWE and the fans. Then the big, bold choices came into play. Cody said, "Go fuck yourself," to The Rock. I mean...it's Peacock, you can curse, show nudity, and blood, who cares? But the WWE usually doesn't curse (Michael Cole also said "shit" during this segment...so is this the new normal?), so that was a surprise. Then Cena kicked Cody in the balls and beat him up while The Rock watched. So Cena finally turned heel after all these years. The reason he never turned heel was because his merchandise was always the #1 seller and he was popular with little kids. Since this is his retirement run, I guess the WWE figured he'd never be able to turn heel ever again, why not try it this year? The other reason is probably because they wanted one of the Wrestlemania main events to be Cody vs. Cena, and they might've been afraid that Cody might get booed. Or maybe it was those bad Netflix ratings and they wanted to do something daring to get people talking. I like that they tried something fresh. I don't like that Cena's retirement year is going to be him being evil. Usually you want a retirement tour to be a thank you to the fans and go out with cheering crowds and adoration, right? You don't want to retire being booed and beating up good guys and seeing kids crying in the audience, do you? This might end up biting them in the ass. I guess we'll find out. This company hasn't exactly made the best decisions in the last few years (Sami Zayn not beating Roman for the title being the obvious black mark). But at least this made the WWE interesting for the first time in a long time. 

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis

WOMEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (CHARLOTTE FLAIR) (70:20): This show was typical WWE these days; entertaining but nothing special and, of course, no match-of-the-year contenders. The WWE is hot these days and printing money, so I guess they don't care if they're not producing 4 star matches. What was the last 4 star WWE match? I don't think I've ever given 4 stars to a WWE match. The one problem I had with this show was that both Rumbles were too long. The men's Rumble on this show was the longest one in history. It was actually longer than that awful Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia that featured 50 men and was one hour and 17 minutes long. The first Rumble ever back in the 80's only had 20 men and was 33 minutes long. Most of them have been a little bit longer than an hour. Maybe they should go back to the 20 person gimmick. These Rumbles are too long. They drag, they're boring, wrestlers are just standing around most of the time. In this new, Vince-less era, the Rumbles don't feature a lot of past stars past their prime. This one had Trish Stratus, but she's actually recently wrestled on big shows in the last couple of years. Remember when they had a lot of really old stars show up? What, was Vince the only one that knew their phone numbers or something? There were a few returns in this match. Charlotte Flair was injured and gone all of 2024. Alexa Bliss was gone because she had a baby. Nikki Bella returned at #30. She's been gone for years. I wonder how she was making $ for the last ten years. Remember she was dating John Cena? Was that just a publicity stunt? So Nia Jax came in and eliminated a bunch of wrestlers. Charlotte Flair won by eliminating Roxanne Perez, who is a NXT wrestler. Giulia, who used to be in Stardom, is the NXT champ now and was in her first Rumble. I feel bad for her because she'll never be able to showcase her true talents in WWE. Same for CMLL's Stephanie Vaquer. I do like the Rumble gimmick, so this was at least mildly entertaining. **

#DIY (JOHNNY GARGANO & TOMMASO CIAMPA) vs. THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS (ALEX SHELLEY & CHRIS SABIN) "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH": If this match happened anywhere other than WWE and happened ten years ago it might've been a masterpiece. But these guys are old, the WWE isn't exciting, and the crowd didn't much care for this match. They had around 65,000 fans at this show, which is impressive. When the crowd pops big for Penta doing a Canadian Destroyer, I always wonder what they'd do if they saw a Will Ospreay match. Would their heads explode? & when they stand up and chant for "tables" and gasp at Kevin Owens going through a table, what the heck would they do seeing 'Hangman' vs. Swerve in a hardcore match? Would they faint? It's almost like these WWE fans don't watch other wrestling. At least, that's what it seems like by the crowd reactions. This was for the tag team titles...which is a total dud of a division in the WWE. The Uso's broke up. The Judgment Day is kind of more singles wrestlers that sometimes wrestle as a tag team. There's those Viking guys that were great in ROH but are super bland now. This was fine but pretty forgettable. **

CODY RHODES vs. KEVIN OWENS "LADDER MATCH" (25:22): This was at least a good match with some brutal spots on ladders. They seem to be turning Cody heel for some ungodly reason. Why would they do that? They do realize that Cody left AEW because the fans started booing him, right? The fans did boo Cody at least in one spot in this match. Maybe it was just that these big WWE shows sometimes get the hardcore fans and the hardcore fans like Kevin Owens. Both men got slammed onto ladder bridges. That was exciting. Cody kept the title and is supposed to wrestle Cena at 'Mania. ***

MEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (JEY USSO) (80:11): 80 minutes? Jesus Christ. I have, like, things to do. This show was 4 hours and 18 minutes. What is this, a New Japan show? This Rumble was good because it had a lot of big stars in it. Cena, who is retiring after this year, hasn't been in one in a while. Roman Reigns hasn't been in one in years because he was a forever champion. And they had CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Logan Paul. Jacob Fatu, who has become the most exciting wrestler in the company since he debuted (they haven't neutered him yet), was definitely the star. He didn't win of course. Jey Uso eliminated Cena to win. Uso is a crowd favorite. He comes out on RAW amidst the crowd and everyone moves their hands up and down and it's a spectacle. I get why he won. But...he was just in the main event last week on Saturday's Main Event where he lost a title match to Gunther. So why let him win here? He's just going to beat Gunther at 'Mania? Makes no sense to already have had that match and he lost. I suppose Cena will win at the Elimination Chamber to get his 'Mania match. This large crowd popped more for the wrestler's entrances and when they just stood in the ring than for really anything they did wrestling wise. At one point, it was CM Punk, Roman, Seth and Cena standing in the ring and the crowd was going crazy. I get it...the wrestling wasn't better than them standing there. This was Penta's first Rumble and at least he did some moves. Logan did a spot where he jumped to the announce table but he was still alive. He then jumped to the stairs to get back in the match. L.A. Knight was eliminated pretty fast late which I guess means they've given up on pushing him as a main event star. Logan was #30. I figured the only ones left for #30 were The Rock or Solo Sikoa. Both weren't in the match. A lot of this was entertaining but a lot of it was boring. The WWE is fine; it's entertaining, it sells out football stadiums...but it doesn't feature great wrestling matches. This is why we're watching it. At least...me. Will the WWE ever change and get there? I miss the glory days of NXT. I assumed that would translate to the main show with HHH in charge. Sadly, I was mistaken. **1/2

NJPW/CMLL/AEW WRESTLE DYNASTY

Tokyo Dome

Attendance: 16,300

MOMO WATANABE vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ATHENA vs. PERSEPHONE (11:13): Some of this show was entertaining. Most of the matches just seemed totally random and thrown together, though. This match was fine. Willow looked good. Athena is really short, that's probably why she's been in ROH forever and never on AEW TV. Persephone is from CMLL and she looked good. Momo is from Stardom. They didn't really get a lot of time to do much. **

THE SONS OF TEXAS (SAMMY GUEVARA & DUSTIN RHODES) vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (SHO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU) (9:27): I was wondering what the hell happened to Sammy Guevara. He's apparently in Ring of Honor purgatory these days. He did some great top rope flips and dives in this match. The crowd seemed to like Dustin Rhodes for whatever reason. Match was okay. **

TAIJI ISHIMORI vs. EL DESPERADO vs. HECHICERO vs. KOSEI FUJITA vs. MASCARA DORADO vs. MASTER WATO vs. SOBERANO, JR. vs. TITAN (16:23): Did New Japan really have to pay for airfare and hotel rooms for all these wrestlers? If so, how did they make money on this show? Doesn't it cost thousands of dollars to fly from the U.S. or Mexico to Japan? A hotel room in Tokyo has to be, like, $300 a night, right? This match was all action so it was at least entertaining. I really miss watching CMLL because their Friday night shows used to be free on Youtube and now they charge money for them. Oh, well. Ishimori won and all the CMLL wrestlers were mad and tried to "get" him and he ran away. **1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (5:00): This was an exhibition. I guess New Japan doesn't want to ever let Shibata actually wrestle on one of their shows since he almost died once in their ring. All these two did was slap each other on the chest back and forth until the time limit draw. Yeah...I don't know about the idea to even do this. It was odd. *1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA (14:06): Pretty good match. I guess the elephant in the room here is that Mina has big tits and she's constantly fixing her outfit so they don't pop out. She was doing this in her match against Mariah May on Dynamite a month ago, too. Maybe she needs a new wardrobe or something. So this was for the REVPro women's title and the NJPW Strong Women's title. Mone came in as the NJPW champ and won the REVPro title. This was entertaining. Mone has had a string of good matches lately. **1/2

DAVID FINLAY vs. BRODY KING (12:53): This was a totally random match. It was okay. The crowd liked Brody's big, running flip dive into Finlay against the ropes. And the crowd liked that Finlay could pick up Brody to slam him. I mean...I'd have rather seen AEW's Okada or Ospreay on this show than guys like Finlay and Jack Perry. **

SHOTA UMINO vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI (14:31): Years ago, Shota was Moxley's tag partner and friend in some of the AEW/NJPW matches. I guess that storyline is out the window, as Claudio is in Moxley's heel group now and just beat the shit out of Umino throughout this match. Claudio even ambushed Umino on the ramp during his entrance. Match was fine but nothing special. I guess Umino kind of had to win here since he lost in the main event yesterday. **

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (13:30): This match was excellent. It was short but built into something dramatic and awesome that got the crowd fired up. Takeshita delivers the greatest elbow shot in wrestling. It sounds like a sledgehammer hitting a redwood. Just all big moves, all devastating, all power, near falls, drama, a hot crowd. This was great. ***1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (TETSUYA NAITO & HIROMU TAKAHASHI) vs. UNITED EMPIRE (GREAT-O-KHAN & JEFF COBB) (13:46): This was very entertaining and a lot of fun. New Japan just had a tag team tournament...so I have no idea how the fuck The Young Bucks ended up winning the IWGP titles in this match when they weren't even in that tournament. What was the point of that tournament again? The Young Bucks actually haven't even wrestled since November when they lost the tag titles to Private Party on Dynamite. They looked great in this match. Cobb looked good but Naito looked dazed and confused and Great-O-Khan and Hiromu didn't really do much. ***

YOTA TSUJI vs. JACK PERRY (13:12): This was just a bore. I used to really like Jungle Boy years ago. Jurassic Express was awesome. I remember that Omega vs. Jungle Boy title match on Dynamite being really good. Now Perry is a heel and not really that exciting in the ring. Maybe these two just don't mesh well together. 1/2*

KENNY OMEGA vs. GABE KIDD (31:55): Holy shit. This match was insane. Omega didn't wrestle in 2024. He was in the hospital with diverticulitis. This was his first match back and everyone wondered if he'd be a shell of his former self. Nope! This was a classic Kenny Omega balls-to-the-wall epic. At one point, Omega power bombed Kidd over the guardrail and through two tables (one broke). The trainers all ran out when the AEW referee yelled, "Help! Help!" While all the trainers and the ref and the War Dogs were tending to Gabe Kidd at ringside, Kenny jumped off the top rope and did a Swanton Bomb over the guardrail down onto everyone. Gabe Kidd was busted open now. Eventually Kidd slammed Kenny onto a table then hit him over the head with the broken table. Omega was now a total bloody mess as well. They threw chairs into the ring and Kidd gave Omega a top rope suplex onto the chairs. They both hit each other on the head with a chair...something we don't see any more and with good reason. The crowd was going ape shit at this point. Kenny gave Kidd a bunch of knees to the face. Kidd put Omega in a submission and jammed his fist into Kenny's abdomen because, well, Kenny had diverticulitis and was holding his stomach in pain throughout the match. Kenny tried to lift Kidd up for a One Winged Angel but collapsed and held his gut. At one point, Kidd kicked out at 1 to shock and awe from the crowd. Omega gave Kidd a knee to the face and then won with the One Winged Angel. Fuck. It'll be hard to beat this for match of the year in 2025. This was wild, crazy, insane, dramatic, awe-inspiring. Tanahashi was sitting at ringside doing commentary and after this match he was crying. It should also be noted that English commentary guy Chris Charleton was suspended for two months for bad mouthing Tony Khan and AEW during this broadcast. Bad mouth AEW all you want, but AEW wrestlers were the stars on these two shows. Omega is a legend. And Takeshita was in the 2nd best match. This match was so epic, so awesome. And Tanahashi crying tears of joy at what he witnessed was the perfect ending to this. ****

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. RICOCHET (20:57): Okay. Good luck following that. This match was good but the crowd was obviously quiet and also nobody on Earth thought Ricochet was winning the IWGP title. He's not even in the main event picture in AEW. Ricochet did wrestle his heart out, doing every possible flip, dive, and maneuver he's ever learned. Ricochet wrestled perhaps the greatest he could ever wrestle. It was a good match but the high drama was absent. Zack submitting Ricochet. Good match, but they should have put Omega/Kidd in the main event. ***

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 19

Tokyo Dome

Attendance: 24,107

RAMBO (HIROOKI GOTO) (34:35): New Japan is back doing two straight nights of Tokyo Dome shows. That's a bit surprising considering the company isn't "hot" plus a lot of their big stars left to go to AEW. The second show was a NJPW/AEW/CMLL show. The second night was better only because it had an awesome Kenny Omega match. This show had a few good matches and it was mostly entertaining, though those days of Wrestle Kingdom being this show of the year, epic event are long gone. The show started, as usual, with this terrible Royal Rumble match with mostly has-been legends hobbling down to the ring and doing very little when they got inside the ring. The winner of this match would get an IWGP title match. Honma, Great-O-Khan, Josh Barnett, Sanada, Yuji Nagata, Taichi, Satoshi Kajima, and a few others were in this. Sanada was in the main event of last year's WK. How the mighty have fallen! Match was terrible. Kenta came out and did a funny fast walk to the ring. I guess he realizes this match is a joke. Yano was in there. Maybe if this match didn't go so long it'd be, like, fine. 1/2*

ICHIBAN SWEET BOYS (KOSEI FUJITA & ROBBIE EAGLES) vs. INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KUSHIDA & KEVIN KNIGHT) vs. BULLET CLUB WAR DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DRILLA MALONEY) vs. CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) "LADDER MATCH" (13:05): Match was entertaining though not as great as I thought it might be. They botched a lot of moves, sometimes bafflingly hilarious. Drilla Maloney tried to powerbomb someone onto a table at ringside and missed the table. Kevin Knight jumped off the top of the ladder in the ring and barely touched the person he was supposed to land on. Eagles took a rough slam onto a ladder bridge that cracked. You can tell they never do ladder matches in Japan because when someone would start climbing up the ladder everyone  "oohed" and "ahhed" like they'd never seen it before. Fujita and Eagles won the Jr. tag titles. **1/2

MAYU IWATANI vs. AZM (8:46): This match was fantastic. These two are in Stardom but this was for the IWGP women's title. I'm not sure why that title exists as there are no women in New Japan. Supposedly these two have had a heated rivalry in Stardom and Iwatani always beats AZM except during their tournament last year. They didn't get much time but it was all action. ***

EL PHANTASMO vs. REN NARITA vs. JEFF COBB vs. RYOHEI OIWA (10:04): ELP won the TV title. Match was fun but short. It was fast paced and all action. ELP looked great. Cobb broke Narita's stick in two and the crowd popped for that because Narita always cheats by using that in, like, every single match. **1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. EVIL "LUMBERJACK MATCH" (15:07): This is the start of Tanahashi's Retirement Tour. His last match will be at next year's WK show. It's funny, but the WWE is doing the same thing with John Cena this year. This was fine, nothing special. It had a lot of interference as usual. At one point, Dick Togo was jumping off the top rope to chop Tanahashi in the groin. Hopefully AEW's Death Riders doesn't ever fall to the absurd level of HOT's antics. Because Moxley and his gang is pretty much the same gimmick. *1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (12:42): This match was good but probably went too short to turn into anything spectacular. Takeshita vs. Ishii was actually better on Night 2. Takeshita retained his AEW International title and won the NEVER title. It was good while it lasted but seemed to end before it heated up. ***

EL DESPERADO vs. DOUKI (5:23): Douki jumped off the top rope down onto El Desperado and dislocated his elbow. The ref called for the bell and Desperado won the Jr. title because of a forfeit. Match was decent but obviously never got going. I feel so bad for Douki because this was the biggest match of his life. 

YOTA TSUJI vs. DAVID FINLAY (19:39): These two had two good matches in the G1 tournament last year. Tsuji beat him in the semi-final of the G1. They definitely have good chemistry together, and Finlay has definitely gotten better in the ring. Tsuji won the Global Heavyweight title. What the fuck does that even mean? ***

TETSUYA NAITO vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI (17:08): Zack Sabre, Jr. won the G1. That means that the main event of this show should have been Zack winning the title from Naito. They decided to do that match in October, probably because Naito is old and can barely wrestle coherently anymore. That reason doesn't exactly make sense, though, considering Naito was in the semi-main event anyway. Zack winning the title in the main event of this show would have been a better ending than him beating Shota Umino. The match wouldn't have been as good...but they were putting on a bad match (this) anyway. This was slow and dull and not good. I guess they wanted to do this match at least once before Naito is in a wheelchair. 1/2*

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SHOTA UMINO (43:44): Shota is referee Red Shoes' son. Maybe that's one reason why he's been pushed as the next big star. I watched the whole G1, and when Shota would come out he came out through the crowd and would give everyone a fist bump and then give a kid a bracelet. NJPW is really pushing him hard. So it wasn't that surprising that he started getting booed late last year when the crowds found out he would be put into the Wrestle Kingdom main event for no reason. He didn't even make the semi-finals of the G1. The last big match he had was in 2023 in that 40 minute main event against Ospreay that he lost. They didn't boo him in this match until he kept kicking Zack after the ref (his dad) tried to stop him. That was the only time they booed him. Everyone complained that this didn't feel like a WK main event. I think the idea was to have a long, epic match that would get him over with the crowd for doing a good job. Match was good but wasn't excellent or anything. Sometimes these long matches don't feel long because they're good...but this one felt long. Shota is a good wrestler and they had some good, fast sequences of back and forth moves that were great. The drama wasn't there, though, and it never turned into an unforgettable classic. ***

The Best Show of 2024: AEW REVOLUTION 3/3

 

    The best match of the year was on this show (Ospreay vs. Takeshita), as was Sting's retirement match, which I gave 4 stars to. I called this "maybe the best AEW PPV ever." It feels like AEW PPV's will always win this award as long as the company is around. They're always so stacked, so long, and so entertaining. The moment of the year in a match was probably Darby Allin falling off a ladder in the ring through a pane of glass on chairs at ringside. I still remember the audience gasping in horror when a shot of his bloody back was shown on the big screen. That Ospreay/Takeshita match was a masterpiece. Everything involving Sting's retirement was fantastic. His sons coming out dressed up like Wolfpac Sting and Blonde Colorful Sting. Sting's old partners and opponents at ringside like Ric Flair, Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, and Lex Luger. Sting being tossed through a pane of glass by The Young Bucks in the ring. It was very, very memorable. And while there were some bad matches on the show (I gave zero stars to Deonna Purrazzo vs. Toni Storm), there were a lot of good ones besides the two 4 star affairs. I gave 3 stars to Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia, Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson, Wardlow vs. Chris Jericho vs. Brian Cage vs. Dante Martin vs. Hook vs. Magnus vs. Powerhouse Hobbs, and Samoa Joe vs. 'Hangman' Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland. I mean...a show with 2 four star matches and 4 three star matches. That's rare. This show happened way back in March and I still think about moments from it. Hell of a show. 

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.