The Best Wrestler of 2022: WILL OSPREAY

  

   Kenny Omega was injured for most of the year, then suspended for two months, so this award was fairly easy to figure out. Will Ospreay was the best wrestler of 2022 by a long shot. He wrestled seemingly everywhere, from NJPW to AEW to GCW to RevPro. He kicked off the year in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom's Night 2 against Okada and had a hell of a match. In RevPro he had a super dramatic, super engrossing battle against Michael Oku. In the G1 he had spectacular matches against Shingo, Naito, El Phantasmo, and Okada. In AEW he had a phenomenal match against Orange Cassidy at Forbidden Door, then finally appeared on Dynamite where he teamed with Aussie Open to have excellent matches with Death Triangle and The Elite. In GCW he had a great match against the rising star Nick Wayne. It seemed that Ospreay was wrestling somewhere in the world every weekend, and every Monday his match was always the talk of the wrestling world. Since he's matured, he isn't just a crazy, high flyer. He's figured out what works and what doesn't in a match and has excelled at storytelling as much as every crisp, note-perfect maneuver he delivers. Every time you see a Will Ospreay match you know that you will be entertained and you know that you're in for something special, something rare, something you don't see every day. 

The Best Match of 2022: THE ELITE vs. DEATH TRIANGLE "AEW FULL GEAR" 11/19

 

   There wasn't an obvious match of the year candidate in 2022, but that didn't mean it was very, very difficult to whittle this list to only ten matches. I actually had to cut some amazing matches, like Will Ospreay's awesome matches in the G1 with Shingo Takagi and Tetsuya Naito. Gone was also that great Young Bucks/Lucha Brothers match on Rampage in The Bucks' hometown. And that Brock Lesnar 5 way match on Day 1 was pretty awesome, not to mention the two other FTR/Briscoe's matches in Ring of Honor. What I'm trying to say is, 2022 was a spectacular year for great matches. But my favorite match was The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega versus Death Triangle (Pac & The Lucha Bros) from AEW's Full Gear. It was so spectacular they turned it into a Best of 7 series. Yes, it was non-stop action, wild moves, and featured a live crowd in an orgiastic frenzy. But the big reason it was special was because it was the first time Omega and The Bucks were back in AEW since their two month suspension for getting in a fight with CM Punk. It was a glorious return. This was wrestling entertainment at its pinnacle. 

Other Notable Matches:

Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay    NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16    1/5

Bryan Danielson vs. 'Hangman' Adam Page    AEW Dynamite    1/5

The Young Bucks vs. ReDragon vs. Jurassic Express    AEW Revolution    3/6

FTR vs. The Briscoe's    ROH Supercard of Honor    4/1

Orange Cassidy vs. Will Ospreay    AEW & NJPW Forbidden Door    6/26

Will Ospreay vs. Kazuchika Okada    NJPW G-1 Climax 32 Finals    8/18

Gunther vs. Sheamus    WWE Clash at the Castle    9/3

The Acclaimed vs. Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland    AEW All Out    9/4

Jun Kusai vs. El Desperado    JTO Taka Michinoku Debut 30th Anniversary    9/12

ROH FINAL BATTLE

 

Arlington, Texas

JEFF COBB vs. MASCARA DORADA (6:59): This was a good show, though not a great one. It was entertaining and had a small but hot crowd. I'm still kind of confused as to what the point of ROH is. If it's supposed to be a seperate brand than AEW, then why were the majority of the wrestlers on this show AEW wrestlers? Jeff Cobb isn't a ROH or an AEW wrestler. As far as I know, neither is Mascara Dorada, who I think used to wrestle in WWE. I forget his name in WWE, though, but remember he was misused. This was a fun opener on the Zero Hour pre-show. They did 4 pre-show matches. The last live wrestling show I went to was a ROH show in December 2019 at the ECW Arena and Jeff Cobb was in the main event. Alas, Marty Scurll was also in the main event, and sadly the "Me Too" movement curtailed his career. **1/2

THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (ANGELO PARKER & MATT MENARD) vs. CHEESEBURGER & ELI ISOM) (6:00): The crowd tonight was definitely an ROH crowd because they chanted for Cheeseburger. You would think that Parker and Menard would've gotten a push since they joined Jericho's group, but they haven't really been used much. Maybe it's because they're not spectacular wrestlers? This was pretty uneventful but mildly entertaining. **

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. TRISH ADORA (6:20): This was forgettable. 1/2*

TOP FLIGHT (DANTE MARTIN & DARIUS MARTIN) vs. THE KINGDOM (MATT TAVEN & MIKE BENNETT) (11:19): Top Flight is great. This was a lot of fun. Dante Martin did slip on the ropes once but it wasn't the end of the world. AEW was kind of pushing Dante Martin as a big deal for awhile but now he's back in the tag team and just a spot guy. **1/2

AR FOX & BLAKE CHRISTIAN vs. LA FACCION INGOBERNABLE (DRALISTICO & RUSH) (10:35): Dragon Lee wasn't on this show. He's better than Rush and Bandido, so I'm baffled why he isn't around. Maybe because he broke Hiromu's neck and is, thus, dangerous? This was another fun match. The end seemed like a botch, though, as Dralistico kicked out of the pin but the ref still counted to 3. AR Fox is a new AEW signee and has looked fantastic. He does all of the high flying stuff and the crowds love him. **1/2

ATHENA vs. MERCEDES MARTINEZ (13:06): Athena won the Women's title here. This was more entertaining than the usual women's match, which was a good thing, obviously. The ROH women's division was always kind of a forgotten, dull division. Tony Khan hasn't exactly set the world on fire with his AEW women's division, so I kind of doubt anything will come out of the ROH women's division. I guess time will tell. **1/2

SWERVE IN OUR GLORY (SWERVE STRICKLAND & KEITH LEE) vs. SHANE TAYLOR & JD GRIFFEY (13:43): Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee broke up as a tag team...so I'm not sure why they were a tag team again in this match. Swerve walked out of the match and left but Keith Lee ended up winning by himself. This was very entertaining. The crowd really popped big for Shane Taylor. That was kind of surprising, the fact that ROH fans still exist. **1/2

THE EMBASSY (BRIAN CAGE, BISHOP KAUN & TOA LIONA) vs. DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS (10:02): The Embassy won the 6-man titles here. Remember when Brian Cage was in big AEW PPV matches against Sting and Darby Allin and Adam Page? What happened to him? Something did, obviously, as Tony Khan has kind of demoted him to ROH for whatever reason. Dalton Castle always entertains, so this was pretty good. Castle of course has wrestling's best entrance. **1/2

WHEELER YUTA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (14:25): They put up a list of the rules for this Pure Title match and it was like an ancient scroll that went on forever. The only thing I remember is that each wrestler only gets 3 rope breaks. Why? Who the fuck knows? Yuta ended up winning the Pure Title. This was kind of boring but it got a bit exciting at the end. Daniel Garcia got a big push for a while and it seemed to set up him turning into a good guy and wrestling Jericho. That never happened, and now his push is seemingly over. Weird. **

THE BRISCOE'S vs. FTR "DOUBLE DOG COLLAR MATCH" (22:20): This match was announced on Dynamite 3 days before the show. I guess it didn't matter, because it was the best match on the show and the only one anyone really cared about. They had 3 matches this year and each one was great, although the first one was the best and the second match was the second best. This was just an epic bloodbath. They also used chairs and set up a table but didn't use it. The Briscoe's won the tag team titles. I guess the idea of FTR winning all of the belts will never happen. You can thank The Acclaimed's sudden popularity surge for that. I'm not the biggest fan of dog collar matches because, honestly, they're kind of boring. This was exactly what you expected, though. Tons of blood, brutality, and dramatic near falls. ***

SAMOA JOE vs. JUICE ROBINSON (13:37): Juice apparently signed an AEW deal. I'm not entirely sure why, as he's just okay in the ring. I also prefer him as a good guy as opposed to whatever the hell he's doing now. Samoa Joe retained the TV title. I think ROH has too many titles. There wasn't much to this match. It was okay. The crowd loved Joe, though. *1/2

CLAUDIO CASTIGNOLI vs. CHRIS JERICHO (17:05): This wasn't as good as their match at AEW's All Out. It was decent, though nothing special. Claudio won the title when Jericho tapped out during the swing. That was a unique end, although you couldn't see Jericho tapping out because he was being swung around, you just knew it was over because the announcer's yelled, "Jericho tapped out!" The match started fast as Claudio threw Jericho all over the outside of the ring. Then there were a lot of uppercuts and slaps and submission holds. This was not the epic, classic, PPV main event we deserve, but at least they have a good champion now that isn't an old man. **1/2

WWE SURVIVOR SERIES

Boston

ALEXA BLISS, ASUKA, BECKY LYNCH, BIANCA BELAIR & MIA YIM vs. DAMAGE CTRL (BAYLEY, DAKOTA KAI, IYO SKY), NIKKI CROSS & RHEA RIPLEY "WARGAMES" (39:35): They changed Survivor Series this year. It used to be on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, now it was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The last few years they had Smackdown vs. RAW matches but this year they had two Wargames matches instead. Even though the 5 on 5 elimination matches were never that great, I kind of missed them. They couldn't really do Smackdown vs. RAW matches because Roman Reigns has both championship belts and The Uso's have both tag team belts. I guess they could have done Gunter (the U.S. title) vs. Seth Rollins (the IC title) and Ronda Rousey (the Smackdown women's champ) vs. Bianca Belair (the RAW women's champ). And while I liked the addition of the Wargames matches...at least in AEW they actually had real, five member teams. The Bloodline is a real five member team, but the others were just random, assorted wrestlers teamed together. Without buckets of blood, these Wargames matches seemed pretty tame. I actually thought that the women's Wargames match was better, mostly because Becky, Iyo Sky, and Nikki Cross jumped off the top of the cage. Nobody jumped off the top of the cage in the men's Wargames match. In this match, the women used Singapore canes, handcuffs (which Alexa Bliss could have easily slipped out of because her wrist is like as thin as paper), tables, ladders, trash cans, and chairs. I thought that the Wargames matches would be a lot better, although even AEW's Blood and Guts matches have been kind of boring. Claudio swinging Jericho on top of the cage earlier this year was a highlight, though. There weren't any memorable highlights in these two Wargames matches. This was entertaining but nothing special. **1/2

AJ STYLES vs. FINN BALOR (18:23): In a perfect world, these two would be wrestling for the title in a PPV main event. This match was boring, but it's not entirely AJ and Finn Balor's fault. They put this on right after a Wargames match. It wasn't for a title. Nobody cared about it so the crowd was dead. The last few minutes were pretty exciting but mostly it was dull. *

RONDA ROUSEY vs. SHOTZI (7:12): Nobody thought that Shotzi would win the title here, so the crowd was pretty quiet for this one. They did pop when Shotzi jumped onto Shayna in the crowd and ended up laying out some WWE plants sitting ringside. Shotzi tapped out. When Shotzi Blackheart was in NXT I predicted that she would end up being a big star on the main roster. I was wrong. 1/2*

AUSTIN THEORY vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. BOBBY LASHLEY (14:50): Austin Theory failed at winning the IC title when he cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on RAW after a Rollins vs. Lashley match. He won the title here...so why didn't they just have him win the title then? That makes no sense. He also kind of inadvertently won when he fell on Rollins and got the pin. This match was decent, though these three seem to wrestle every week against each other on RAW so it wasn't anything fresh or new. Rollins did a Phoenix Splash that missed. That made me think of that Phoenix Splash that Kenny Omega did on the hard wood below the ring mat at Full Gear two year's ago. Fuck, that was brutal. It's not good when multiple times during a WWE show I'm thinking of better things that happened in AEW. If AEW was smart, they'd put their Blood & Guts match on a PPV. I'd rather see that, since the multiple commercials during that match hindered it. **1/2

THE BLOODLINE (ROMAN REIGNS, THE USO'S, SOLO SIKOA & SAMI ZAYN) vs. DREW McINTYRE, KEVIN OWENS & THE BRAWLING BRUTES (SHEAMUS, BUTCH & RIDGE HOLLAND) "WARGAMES" (38:32): While the storyline aspect of this match was great, I really thought that this match would have been a lot better. I was expecting someone to jump off the top of the cage and land on someone on a table. Nobody jumped off the top of the cage. They don't have a roof on the cage for this very reason. WWE also must be taking note of AEW, because AEW loves doing storyline drama in their big matches where wrestlers stop and ponder their actions. In this match, Sami Zayn was beating up Kevin Owens and helping The Bloodline to victory and Sami had to stop and give a look that made him seem to be contemplating his life choices. Michael Cole mentioned that Kevin Owens was Sami Zayn's best man at his wedding. The inner turmoil! Zayn eventually gave in to his demons and kicked Owens in the face leading to Roman pinning Owens and The Bloodline winning. Then everyone hugged Sami Zayn. Considering Zayn has always been a heel and has been a member of The Bloodline all year, I'm not sure why this drama was even played up. He kind of turned a long time ago. If the WWE was smart they would have Zayn beat Roman for the title in a PPV main event at a big show like Summerslam next year. The fans love Sami Zayn. The WWE isn't the smartest, though, so I don't see that ever happening. Yes, Sami will eventually turn into a good guy and wrestle Roman...but I doubt they'd give Sami the title. They did break some tables in this match. They used a few chairs. I thought this would be a bit more exciting, though. This show turned out to be pretty underwhelming, actually, especially after last week's Full Gear show which was superior entertainment. Hell, Dynamite on Wednesday with Jericho vs. Ishii and The Elite vs. Death Triangle was better than this show. **

AEW FULL GEAR

 

Newark, New Jersey

ORANGE CASSIDY, ROCKY ROMERO, TRENT BERETTA, CHUCK TAYLOR & DANHAUSEN vs. QT MARSHALL, AARON SOLO, LEE JOHNSON, & NICK COMOROTO & COLE KARTER (11:55): This was another, stuffed to the brim, 5 hour AEW PPV. It was very entertaining, though, and it probably helped that I watched the first five matches on Saturday and then watched the last 8 matches on Sunday. You definitely got your money's worth, anyway. The one negative on the show was the dead crowd. Sure, they were hot as magma for the Young Bucks match and for a few spots here and there, but for the most part they were sitting on their hands. That didn't help. The last three AEW PPV's had the hottest crowds ever in Chicago and Vegas, so maybe I was just used to seeing a raucous, rowdy, insane crowd for these big shows. This was also the first PPV since the infamous self immolation of CM Punk. Ratings haven't plummeted, though the attendance at Dynamite have been pretty sparse lately. Is AEW dead? There was a moment, after All Out last year, when it felt like AEW had surpassed WWE and things were changing. Now, things are more clear: AEW will always just be the more entertaining, hardcore wrestling fans type of promotion. It's not going to be the WWE juggernaut. This PPV showcased how great wrestling can be. But the WWE, for whatever reason, is just more mainstream and friendly and thus, will remain the bigger brand. It's kind of like how indie movies are typically much, much better than dumb Marvel movies yet the Marvel movies make a billion dollars more. You can't fight safe mediocrity for whatever reason. The pre-show opened with this fun ten man. Danhausen didn't come out until the end and got a huge reaction. He was "evil" Danhausen. He delivered big moves, used a jar of teeth and a spike, and got the pin. This was probably the most wrestling he's ever done in AEW and it was like twenty seconds. Entertaining opening match. **1/2

RICKY STARKS vs. BRIAN CAGE (10:00): This was the semi-finals of the world title tournament. This was entertaining. Cage, for whatever reason, disappeared for like a year then re-emerged as a ROH guy. Cage is such a pure, WWE wrestler that I can't believe he's not in that company. He's huge and decent in the ring but will never be in a four star masterpiece. He's kind of like...Bobby Lashley. Starks was, at one point this year, super popular and super over. That's kind of faded a bit. I'm expecting Starks to win this tournament but MJF vs. Ricky Starks isn't exactly a match I care about. **1/2

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. JUN AKIYAMA (10:30): This is Kingston's dream match. I never even heard of Jun Akiyama until I reviewed DDT's tournament two years ago and Akiyama beat Takeshita in the finals. Funny, because Takeshita and Akiyama teamed together on Rampage the night before this. I watched that whole DDT tournament and didn't really like any match Akiyama was in. Granted, he's in his fifties now, so maybe 25 years ago he was awesome. AEW hasn't really done much with Kingston lately, even though he's super over with the fans. This was pretty basic and just okay. **

JUNGLE BOY vs. LUCHASAURUS "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (18:42): This was great. Luchasaurus threw Jungle Boy into the cage like a thousand times. He slammed him onto a chair. The big move was Jungle Boy jumping off the top of the cage and dropping an elbow onto Luchasaurus on a table. Jungle Boy was a bloody mess. Christian stole the key from the ref to open the cage, thus letting Luchasaurus bring a table and chairs into the ring. The dead crowd was hot for this match. This was a stellar way to open the PPV (the first 3 matches were on the free pre-show). ***

DEATH TRIANGLE vs. THE ELITE (18:43): I'm not sure I've ever seen a PPV that started with 2 great matches like these two. Maybe Forbidden Door, which I recall started out so great I was thinking: will this be the best show of all time? It wasn't. This wasn't either, though this match was the most entertaining and exciting match you might ever see in your life. It doesn't get better than this match. Yeah, this didn't have the high drama of a main event, title match. But it had non-stop action, insane moves, a lightning-fast pace, and a crowd that went fucking ape shit (they actually woke up for this one). This match was so good, they announced that this would be the first in a Best of 7 series. Hell, why not? The big, insane move of the match was one of the Bucks and Penta standing on the top rope and the Buck giving Penta a Hurricanrana to the floor onto everyone. Everyone looked superior in this, especially Omega (who's wrestling Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom in January). Fenix ended up cheating and using the hammer on Omega at the end to win. This was bliss. **** 

JADE CARGILL vs. NYLA ROSE (7:59): Good luck following that! I knew that this show might be in trouble considering there would be 3 women's matches. At least one of them turned out to be good. This, obviously, wasn't it. Jade definitely has the look. Even training with Bryan Danielson hasn't helped her in-ring ability. There were two times when she was supposed to be knocked out but she still fixed her outfit. You're on camera, you idiot! Nyla has been in good matches before...but those were years ago against Riho. This just didn't work at all. *

CHRIS JERICHO vs. BRYAN DANIELSON vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. SAMMY GUEVARA (21:42): This started a bit slow but turned into a great match. Sammy eventually turned on Jericho and Bryan and Claudio beat each other up. Jericho retained the ROH title. That was kind of obvious since the whole reason to give Jericho the title was so he can be on an ROH PPV and the next one is in two weeks. Jericho is also facing Ishii on Dynamite this week for the title. ***

SARAYA vs. BRITT BAKER (13:25): I figured this match wouldn't be good and I was correct. First off, Britt Baker is never in good matches. The only two good ones were the two hardcore matches against Thunder Rosa. Saraya hasn't wrestled in 5 years and wasn't exactly great or exciting in WWE. This was just boring. The crowd did have a few dueling chants during this match, but for the most part they were silent. It just seemed like they were moving around too slow, and there was no excitement. Saraya won, which I guess she had to since she's new. *

SAMOA JOE vs. WARDLOW vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS (9:54): This was a little sloppy. It wasn't fantastic or anything but wasn't terrible. Wardlow was giving Hobbs a bunch of power bombs when Joe snuck in to win the TNT title. **1/2

DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. JAY LETHAL & JEFF JARRETT (10:59): This was a typical, Darby Allin & Sting clusterfuck match. Maybe it's time to, like, give Darby some singles matches instead? Darby did a coffin drop off of a ladder on the stage but Sihng, the big Indian dude, caught him. Jarrett hit Darby in the back with a guitar when Darby was doing a Coffin Drop off the top rope. Sting jumped from the stands onto everyone. They brawled through the crowd. It was fun, though nothing special. I kind of don't want to see Jeff Jarrett anymore. And when the hell is this Sihng guy going to wrestle? **1/2

JAMIE HAYTER vs. TONI STORM (15:16): This ended up being the best women's wrestling matches in AEW in a very, very long time. Of course it was, though, because Jamie Hayter was in it. I've been saying this for a long time that she's the best AEW woman wrestler. Eventually, the crowds figured this out and started cheering her even though she's a heel. They popped big when she won and there was some terrific near falls at the end of this. Both Britt Baker and Ruby interfered in this. Jamie and Toni worked so fast in this it felt like that Saraya vs. Britt match was in slow motion. Saraya and Britt should take notes: this is how wrestling is supposed to be! Not that dull, slow, plodding snooze fest. It's strange that Jamie is now the 2nd "interim" champ. Maybe stop using the "interim" moniker if you're already on your 2nd interim champ. ***

THE ACCLAIMED vs. SWERVE IN OUR GLORY (19:38): I'm not sure why Billy Gunn wasn't out for this match. He did show up to stop Swerve from using pliars to break the fingers of one of the Acclaimed. Then he went away. Maybe that's why the crowd wasn't too hot for this match? The crowd for the match at All Out was the greatest a crowd could ever be. What happened, Newark? This wasn't that good, either. It was standard stuff. Keith Lee didn't want to cheat, so he left the ring and Swerve got beat up and pinned. **

MJF vs. JON MOXLEY (23:09): These two wrestled before, for Moxley's title, in the main event on a PPV. It was so great I forgot it happened. Granted, it was at All Out 2020 during the Pandemic, so that meant Jacksonville and very few fans. Still, these two don't have any chemistry. This wasn't very good. It was a basic match. Moxley gave MJF a piledriver through a ringside table. William Regal handed MJF a pair of brass knuckles. MJF knocked out Moxley to win the title. Does that mean The Blackpool Combat Club is over? It kind of just started, didn't it? MJF as champ is good, though, because the crowds adore him. They even booed Moxley during this match, but maybe that's because MJF is from the area. Or maybe not. MJF is great on the mic but hasn't been in a great match yet in AEW...has he? I kind of want a champ that'll be in 4 star, epic, main events. Like Adam Page. Like Omega. But MJF as champ will give AEW a boost for awhile, anyway, because his promo's are awesome and he's a fan favorite. This wasn't the best AEW PPV of the year (that's Revolution), but it's probably the 2nd best. Good show. Definitely had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows...but it was very entertaining. **

WWE CROWN JEWEL

 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BROCK LESNAR vs. BOBBY LASHLEY (6:00): I haven't reviewed the last couple of Crown Jewel events in Saudi Arabia because the first few were so terrible. They've gotten better for whatever reason and now they're pretty much just regular, typical WWE PPV's with a few quirks (very few women in the audience...the women wrestlers not being allowed to show their bare arms or legs...basically the only difference is women are punished and seen as "lesser" humans). Shockingly the main event was Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns. Maybe even the WWE was sick of that match. This was a typical, short, all action Lesnar affair. It was all big moves and it was fun to watch. **1/2

DAMAGE CTRL (DAKOTA KAI & IYO SKY) vs. ALEXA BLISS & ASUKA (12:50): This match was the main event on the RAW before this PPV. Damage Control won the tag titles on RAW and retained here thanks to interference by Nikki Cross. Cross isn't doing her stupid Superhero gimmick anymore. That's one good thing that changed since Vince McMahon was fired. The thought of HHH taking over the WWE had been something fans have salivated over for years because we all thought the WWE would suddenly be great again. It's only been a few months but sadly that hasn't happened. There have been a few good changes. Austin Theory and Matt Riddle got their first names back. Nikki Cross isn't doing a dumb Superhero gimmick. Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt are back. I kind of really wished the changes had been much, much better than that. As for this match? Forgettable. *

DREW McINTYRE vs. KARRION KROSS "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (13:00): McIntyre finally won a match. Nobody jumped off the cage, although McIntyre pulled Kross off the top and slammed him from the top rope. Scarlett sprayed something into McIntyre and the ref's eyes at one point. This wasn't very good. *

THE JUDGMENT DAY (FINN BALOR, DAMIAN PRIEST & DOMINIK MYSTERIO) vs. THE O.C. (AJ STYLES, LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON) (14:00): Karl Anderson was booked to defend his title in New Japan on the same day as this show. He decided to just no-show the Japan show for whatever reason. I wonder why New Japan let him sign a contract with the WWE if he was a champion there? Or maybe he wasn't under contract in New Japan. NJPW did put him on the map. You'd think he'd like...respect that. Anderson & Gallows also gave their word they would join AEW and debut on the very first Dynamite and then went and signed with Impact...so Anderson isn't exactly the most loyal dude. This was a by-the-numbers match. When I was watching this I realized how much more dynamic and exciting the wrestling is in AEW compared to the WWE. The wrestling in the WWE for the most part is stale, pedestrian, and very manicured and pristine. There are exceptions, but few (Sheamus vs. Gunther from Cardiff being one example). That makes most of these matches entertaining but nothing to write home about. **

BRAUN STROWMAN vs. OMOS (7:20): Was this as bad as you would expect? That's a good question. It was better than Goldberg vs. The Undertaker at that Crown Jewel a few years ago. That might've been the worst wrestling match in history, though. I mean...you got what you expected. 1/2*

THE USO'S vs. THE BRAWLING BRUTES (BUTCH & RIDGE HOLLAND) (10:45): I'm not sure why they haven't changed Butch's name back to Pete Dunne. They should probably change Gunter's name back to Walter, too. Pete Dunne is awesome so it's nice he's actually wrestling now and basically wrestling as Pete Dunne unlike that weird newspaper boy character Vince turned him into. The Uso's retained their tag titles. They're facing The New Day on Smackdown and if they win they will have the longest tag team title reign in WWE history. The New Day supposedly has the record. This was an entertaining match. **1/2

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY "LAST WOMAN STANDING MATCH" (20:20): This was another entertaining match. The ending was dumb, though. Bayley was trapped under a ladder and couldn't get up at 10. They used a Singapore cane, a steel chair, a table, and a golf cart. It was fun. After this match, Bray Wyatt came out and did a promo. Considering the crowds love his entrances but couldn't give a shit about him wrestling...maybe he should only do promo's. **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. LOGAN PAUL (24:50): I'm glad that Logan Paul was in the main event instead of some old, has been legend that's usually main eventing these Saudi shows. Seeing a bald Shawn Michaels doing a moonsault onto his face was so sad. And don't even get me started on that Goldberg/'Taker match. Logan Paul, though, is actually great in the ring. He even did a top rope frog splash onto Roman on the announce table. Logan also injured his knee and will be out of action for a while. They did the classic, multiple interference spot in this match which the WWE loves to do. The Uso's came out. Jake Paul came out. Solo Sikoa came out. Two of Logan Paul's friends that were sitting at ringside came into the ring to get super kicked by The Uso's. Reigns eventually won with a spear. They did a ton of near falls for Logan in this match. It's probably good that this match happened in Saudi Arabia because anywhere else Logan would have been booed out of the building, but he was cheered here. Good main event. ***

WWE EXTREME RULES

Philly

THE BRAWLING BRUTES (SHEAMUS, RIDGE HOLLAND & BUTCH) vs. IMPERIUM (GUNTHER, LUDWIG KAISER & GIOVANNI VINCI) "GOOD OLD FASHIONED DONNYBROOK MATCH" (17:50): The WWE is pretty hot these days. They packed the Wells Fargo Center on a Saturday night for this show. Triple H hasn't reinvented the wheel yet since taking over from Vince, but he has rehired some people like Bray Wyatt, Karrion Kross, Johnny Gargano, and Braun Strowman. They also hired Gallows and Anderson who showed up with AJ Styles on RAW. This sudden surge in popularity for WWE has caused a few of AEW's wrestlers to want to quit and go to the WWE. Andrade got into a fight with Sammy Guevera because he's attempting to get fired. Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black both wanted out of their contracts and have been given leave of absences. I can't really say that AEW is falling apart, since they just had a sold out PPV in Chicago and a packed Arthur Ashe stadium show. Besides those shows, though, the crowds have been pretty small lately. Is it because WWE is more kid friendly, and thus more families go to their shows? Or is it just that WWE has been around for so long and anything with longevity is ingrained in one's head? Who knows? AEW is consistently more entertaining and has been since its inception. The big problem with this WWE PPV was the fact that it didn't have a men's championship title match. Stupidly, the WWE gave Roman Reigns the unified title and then signed him to a limited date contract. On Smackdown the night before this show, Logan Paul and Roman Reigns had a face off before their title match...which is next month in Saudi Arabia. Nice. The WWE cares more about Saudi Arabia than Philadelphia. At least there was one good match on this show...this opener, which was a wild, entertaining brawl. The crowd was rapturous for this match. This was basically a weapons match, although they had a bar table at ringside and some barrels at ringside because I guess barrels represent Ireland. The show went downhill fast after this match. I would've loved to have watched this show live but not only was it going against college football games like Texas A&M vs. Alabama and Notre Dame vs. BYU but it also went against the Phillies playoff game. This is the first time the Phillies have been in the playoffs since 2011. So, yes, I wasn't going to miss that. *** 

RONDA ROUSEY vs. LIV MORGAN "EXTREME RULES MATCH" (12:05): Rousey was once a huge star in the WWE. What happened? Maybe it's because she's kind of a heel now? Or maybe her UFC fame has curtailed. Considering her and Charlotte and Becky Lynch were the 3 big women's division stars a year or two ago...what happened to Charlotte and Becky Lynch? Are they injured? Either way, they were sorely missed on this show. This match was God awful. Liv Morgan didn't know how to pull a table into the ring or sandwich a chair into the corner. Do wrestlers not practice things? They also used a baseball bat and dealt some of the fakest looking blows you'll ever see. Everything was sloppy. Somehow Ronda won with a submission and won the title. Ugh. The raucous crowd was pretty silent for this mess. -No Stars-

KARRION KROSS vs. DREW McINTYRE "STRAP MATCH" (10:20): CM Punk and MJF had a strap match earlier this year and it was a bloodbath but also fairly boring. It was more memorable than this, though. This was just a bore. Karrion won after his female manager sprayed pepper spray into Drew's eyes. I get that Kross is new (Vince fired him but HHH rehired him) so they want him to get a win, but Drew just lost last month to Roman. Strap matches are always bores, so I'm not sure why they even bothered doing this. 1/2*

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY "LADDER MATCH" (16:40): They didn't do any crazy, suicidal ladder spots. That made the match kind of just okay. This was shockingly the first women's title ladder match in WWE. Maybe don't do another one. Belair retained the title. I love ladder matches, but there wasn't much to this one. Maybe I'm just spoiled by all those awesome ladder matches AEW has done in the last few years. **

FINN BALOR vs. EDGE "I QUIT MATCH" (29:55): This was super boring for twenty minutes. Then they did the classic, WWE interference gimmick at the end that made it entertaining. Damian Priest, Rhea Ripley, Dominic Mysterio, Mysterio, and Beth Phoenix all showed up at the end to interfere. Before that, Finn and Edge brawled around the arena for like fifteen minutes. Edge finally quit when Rhea Ripley was going to hit Edge's wife, Beth Phoenix, in the head with a chair. She did it anyway afterwards. The interference stuff was great at the end and the crowd was on fire for it. **1/2

MATT RIDDLE vs. SETH ROLLINS "FIGHT PIT MATCH" (16:35): This wasn't very good. They did this type of match once in NXT. I don't remember that too much so maybe they shouldn't do this again. A fight pit match is a cage match with no door and no ropes but, oddly, a scaffold walkway above and around the ring. I guess it's supposed to be like a UFC cage match. Riddle used to be in UFC, so I guess that's why they did it. UFC's Daniel Cormier was the ref, though considering he didn't do anything besides referee, I'm not sure why he was there. Riddle did one jump off the scaffold onto Rollins on down on the mat. That was cool. The rest of this was dull. After this match, Bray Wyatt made his re-debut. They did a bunch of weird videos and had some people in masks around the arena and then Wyatt came out through a smoke-filled door holding his lantern. The crowd popped big for this. I wonder...do they remember how dumb Bray Wyatt was when he was fired? Remember those silly Fiend matches with red lighting? And Randy Orton set The Fiend on fire and killed him? Do these people remember how stupid all of that was? This all reminds me of how the comic book industry realized that people love debuts...so comic book companies now re-launch books as a #1 every few years just because people will buy new debut issues. Are we that dumb? AEW debuts are the same. Whenever a new face debuts, people pop like crazy...then a month later it's nothing special. I expect the same thing to happen to Bray Wyatt. Sure, people are excited for him showing up again now...but is anyone going to give a shit when he's randomly wrestling Ricochet on Smackdown on two months? Nope. *1/2