Sunday, March 9, 2025

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

Saturday, March 1, 2025

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.