AEW ALL OUT

 

Chicago

OVER BUDGET CHARITY BATTLE ROYAL ('HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE) (13:18): CM Punk was fired by AEW. That was a bigger story then anything on this show. Punk got into a backstage fight with Jack Perry last week at All In and also supposedly "lunged" at Tony Khan and, in the process, knocked over a TV monitor onto Khan while yelling, "I'm quitting AEW!" or something. So Punk's gone and they had to do two shows in Chicago with the fans knowing this. Collision on Saturday started with Tony Khan saying that he fired Punk. One fan on this show in the front row had a sign that said, "Tony Khan Cured Cancer" or something, meaning Punk was a cancer in the company. Considering Punk got into two backstage fights in a year, he sounds like a bitter old man at this point. Some speculated that he just wanted out of AEW, maybe because they just re-signed Adam Page, the Bucks, and Omega, four guys he had a beef with. Oh, well. As for this show...it definitely was weird doing a PPV a week after their biggest PPV and show of all time. Considering they're doing this again next year, Khan doesn't seem to think it's a problem. I don't know, though. They were asking $50 for this show and it didn't have a championship title match, a tag team title match, or a women's title match. It did have all the secondary titles on the line, and most of the big stars were in matches, but still...the main event was for the International title. Okay. The show turned out really good, but most AEW shows are, so that wasn't a surprise. This first match was a pointless battle royal. Page won and got to donate $50,000 to the charity of his choice. He chose some Chicago school charity. On Being the Elite, Page joked that he won all this money and had to give it to some stupid kids. That made me laugh. Considering Page was once the AEW champ...maybe do something more with him then put him in a forgettable Battle Royal. **

HIKARU SHIDA, SKY BLUE & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ATHENA, DIAMANTE & MERCEDES MARTINEZ (8:28): Sky Blue got the win, which was good, considering a ton of heels got wins tonight plus Skye is from Chicago. Mercedes Martinez did a top rope, sitting suplex on someone that put them right on their head. That looked gruesome. Match was okay. *1/2

BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED vs. JAY LETHAL, JEFF JARRETT & SATNAM SINGH (5:57): Dennis Rodman came out with The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. Eventually he hit Jarrett over the head with a guitar. This show was in the United Center where the Bulls play, so I guess that's why Rodman was there. I wonder if he still talks to Kim Jong Un. Match was fun and short. **

BETTER THAN YOU BAY BAY (ADAM COLE & MJF) vs. THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS & JOHN SILVER) (14:08): This match baffled everyone. I guess The Dark Oder hasn't been wrestling much lately so Khan threw him a bone. Otherwise, I have no idea the purpose of this match. Cole and MJF retained the ROH tag titles. The crowd loved the Double Clothesline and the Kangaroo Kick. It was fun but nothing spectacular. Supposedly the Collision that featured Cole & MJF wrestling FTR for the tag titles got big ratings. Other than that, Dynamite always beats Collision in the ratings. So CM Punk wasn't a giant ratings draw for Collision, probably one reason they were okay with firing him. **1/2

SOMOA JOE vs. SHANE TAYLOR (6:23): MJF was walking to the back after his match and Somoa Joe came out for this match and nudged MJF with his shoulder. This caused MJF to run into the ring and start brawling with Joe until security came out. Then this match happened, which was good not great. Joe retained the ROH TV title. Shane Taylor looked good as usual. It was two big guys doing big power moves. **1/2

LUCHASAURUS vs. DARBY ALLIN (12:14): Considering this was the only match on the show that was announced a full month early, I figured it was because Darby was going to win the TNT title. He didn't. It was mostly a beat down. Darby was bloody. Darby did a top rope flip onto Luchasaurus on a chair. Nick Wayne came out because he's feuding with Christian for some reason. Match was good but nothing special. They probably should re-unite Jurassic Express, because both Jack Perry and Luchasaurus aren't as exciting anymore nor are even used much anymore. **1/2

MIRO vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS (15:34): The crowd really got into this match. Miro wasn't doing anything in AEW for practically a year. He bitched about it on Twitter and then Khan noted that Miro had turned down some idea he had and that's why he was on the sidelines. Well the crowd in Chicago loved Miro and loved this match. It was kind of like a WWE match in that nobody did any wild, crazy moves. It was all just power slams and holds and stuff. Match was pretty good mostly thanks to the crowd. Miro's wife, Lana, came out at the end but Miro saw her and left the ring. I don't know what that was all about. **1/2

KRIS STATLANDER vs. RUBY SOHO (12:20): Toni Storm took the spray paint out of Ruby's hand at the end which caused Ruby to lose. I think The Outcasts group as been pretty entertaining, so I'm not so sure about breaking them up, but whatever. Match was kind of boring. Statlander retained the TBS title. Whatever happened to the last TBS champ, the woman that was undefeated forever? I even forget her name, that's how long she's been gone for. *

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. RICKY STARKS "STRAP MATCH" (16:39): Good match, and a surprise match as Danielson made his return the night before on Collision. These guys beat the shit out of each other and were both bloody messes. At one point, the announcer noted that, "This is hard to watch." Usually in a strap match they will whip the other guy's back or stomach or something. In this one, they were whipping each other in the face and on the head. That was hard to watch. Very brutal but very compelling. ***

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA) vs. EDDIE KINGSTON & KATSUYORI SHIBATA (15:50): I guess with Shibata in this it was a bit more than just a random Dynamite match. Supposedly Shibata doesn't work for NJPW anymore. I guess this is all he does? Wrestle for AEW on occasion? Match was entertaining but pretty standard. Kingston got pinned, which I guess is a surprise since he was the crowd favorite. They keep building another Kingston vs. Claudio match, so that was mostly the focus in this. **1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. KENNY OMEGA (22:21): Considering Omega is usually in awesome singles matches (this year alone he had fantastic matches against Ospreay, Moxley in a cage, and Vikingo), I kind of thought this would be better. One reason is that crowd was a little bit quiet and seemingly not that into this. Maybe they don't see Takeshita as a big star. It's probably good then that they had Takeshita win, since they should start elevating all these non-main event guys they have. Match was good, though, it just never hit that high level we've seen in previous Omega matches. Takeshita had an awesome Dynamite match against Adam Page this year...so maybe I figured Takeshita could translate some of his shorter, awesome matches into an awesome, longer match. I was wrong. There was one particular move that reminded me of those sadistic Naito/Ibushi matches. Takeshita did a suplex type slam on Omega that put him right on his head. Takeshita also gave Omega a Blue Thunder Bomb from the top rope. Omega pretty much lost clean here, which was a bit surprising. Good match but, alas, not great. ***

BULLET CLUB GOLD (JAY WHITE, JUICE ROBINSON & THE GUNN'S) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS & FTR (21:41): This was a fun match, although basically just a Dynamite main event. I thought maybe the reason they even did this match was because The Young Bucks would join Bullet Club and turn on FTR. They didn't...even though the Bucks were in Bullet Club long before Jay White, Juice, and The Gunn's were. They do seem to be setting up another FTR/Bucks match...which doesn't really make sense considering their All In match was billed as the "who's the greatest tag team" and "final in the trilogy" match. The Bucks got booed early but actually got cheered a lot when they were doing all of their awesome, fast paced, high flying and super kick stuff. There was a lot of action at the end which made this a lot of fun. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (19:43): Good main event. One of the highlights of AEW this year has been Orange Cassidy's International title reign. The announcers mentioned he defended it 31 times. Well it's over, as Moxley won. Since this is the International title...why don't they give it to someone from another country? PAC had it earlier this year. What about Penta? Fenix? Takeshita? Anyway, Orange was busted open and bleeding all over the place. The crowd got super into this by the end and was totally with Orange's every move. Good way to end a good show. Now onto Arthur Ashe. ***

WWE PAYBACK

Pittsburgh

BECKY LYNCH vs. TRISH STRATUS "CAGE MATCH" (20:02): This show really only had one match that was any good, and this wasn't it. While this match generally got favorable reviews, I think the only reason was because Trish didn't look as sloppy or botch anything like she did in the MITB ladder match two months ago. This match was set up a long time ago and was supposed to be a big, Summerslam match. Why it ended up as the opener on this B show is beyond me. The big problem I had with this match is that the whole point of a steel cage match is so that there is no outside interference, yet Shayna Baszler was in the ring and beating up Becky during the match. Ugh. Remember when Becky Lynch was the biggest star in the WWE? Why don't they, like, give her something better to do than feud with old, has-been legends? **

LA KNIGHT vs. THE MIZ (15:46): John Cena came out before this match to announce that he would be the special guest referee. There wasn't really a point to that, but I guess they just thought having Cena on the show would make it more PPV caliber. The match was dull, though the sold out Pittsburgh crowd loved LA Knight. I'm still baffled at this, as I somehow missed how he turned from a heel on NXT to a Smackdown crowd favorite. What did he do to earn the crowd's approval, anyway? It's not like he's a good wrestler. He's okay on the mic. I give up. *1/2

REY MYSTERIO vs. AUSTIN THEORY (9:49): I suppose Austin Theory's push is over. Mysterio won the U.S. title from him somewhere and retained it here. Where's Bobby Lashley, anyway? He hasn't been around. And Braun Strowman? I haven't really watched much of Smackdown or RAW lately, though I did notice that Roman Reigns wasn't on this show, hence why this was a forgotten show. That, and it happened on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, when most people watching TV were focused on college football (this game went against Penn State vs. West Virginia, which I watched live instead of this) or down the beach having fun. This was overall a basic, standard match. *

THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) vs. SAMI ZAYN & KEVIN OWENS "STEEL CITY STREET FIGHT" (20:44): This was by far the most entertaining match on the show. The brawled around the arena. At one point, Zayn and Owens were tossed into the hockey penalty box and came out dressed as Pittsburgh Penguin hockey players holding hockey sticks. As stupid as that was, the crowd seemed to like it. Owens was also busted open at that point and a bloody mess. They cleaned him up off camera pretty quickly after that, though. The big spot was Owens doing a moonsault off a guardrail in the crown down onto Dominick Mysterio on a table. No, Dominick wasn't in this match. Rhea Ripley wasn't either, but she still speared Owens through the crowd barrier by the announce table (a spot that the WWE does way too much). The Judgment Day ended up winning the tag titles here. So what are Zayn and Owens going to do now? I'd rather see Owens do singles matches, actually, as he's one of the WWE's better wrestlers in big matches. At this point, considering LA Knight is so popular, it wouldn't shock me to see him beat Roman for the title eventually. Can you believe they'd do that, though, when they wouldn't do it with Sami? I actually kind of hate this company lately. ***

RHEA RIPLEY vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ (17:22): This match was boring. Rhea retained her women's title. The other women's champ, Iyo Skye, wasn't on the show. Has she even defended the title yet since winning it at Summerslam? I wonder. Dominick interfered in this match and got slammed by Raquel. At 17 minutes, this was too long. 1/2*

SETH ROLLINS vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (25:57): The major problem with caring about Seth Rollin's new WWE championship is the fact that Roman Reigns has had his title for 3 years and has beaten everybody. So Seth's title feels secondary and weak in comparison. And did anyone really think Nakamura was winning the title here? No. I haven't seen Nakamura wrestle in awhile in a singles match. I guess they're pushing him these days. He used to be in that comedy tag team with Rick Boogs, who disappeared. Is Boogs hurt? Was he fired? I don't know. Bray Wyatt died. Did I mention that? & Terry Funk as well, in the same week. Wyatt apparently got Covid and got really sick from it and was then getting better and possibly going to return when he had a heart attack and died. I wonder if it was from steroid or drug use...or if it was health issues as he was always a big guy. They did do a tribute type show for Funk and Wyatt on Smackdown the week before this show. The one thing I was thinking about during this match was how great New Japan was when Nakamura was there...and how it's sad now that those great wrestlers are slowly fading away in terms of in-ring prowress, ability, and excitement. Tanahashi is a shell of his former self, pathetically hobbling around the ring. Okada is still fairly good, though slower. & Nakamura has never been as great in the WWE. His only good match in the WWE was his first one, the NXT match against Zayn in Dallas. It's sad watching Nakamura in a boring match. Remember his AJ Styles match? His awesome G1 semi-final vs. Okada? I remember seeing him at the ECW Arena for a ROH show. He was signing autographs before the show and I remember how big a star he was back then. I guess it's cool he's still main eventing things. Too bad the match and this show weren't very good. *1/2

AEW ALL IN

London

ADAM COLE & MJF vs. AUSSIE OPEN (6:58): When they announced this show, everyone mentioned about how it would have to be the greatest card ever and the biggest show ever and everything because Wembley Stadium fits 90,000 people for wrestling or boxing. That apparently didn't matter, as they sold most of the tickets before the card was ever announced (they didn't sell out but did get over 81,000 to break the all time paid attendance wrestling record...the non-paid record is from two shows in North Korea). The eventual card for this show turned out to be a typical AEW PPV card, which disappointed some people. But what kind of a dream show did they envision? Early on, people mentioned possibly having Sting's retirement. It was also mentioned that they should do Omega vs. Ospreay (which they ended up doing at Forbidden Door) or Omega vs. Okada. The only "dream" match I could think of was have Omega vs. CM Punk for the title in the main event, since those two haven't wrestled yet in AEW. None of that happened. The one match that was supposedly scheduled was Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega. Danielson was injured so that match was out. Jamie Hayter was also supposed to defend her title in the 4 way but she was injured. And PAC and Fenix were supposed to be in the Stadium Stampede match but PAC was injured and Fenix couldn't get a Visa to go. The other change was Christian took AR Fox's place for unknown reasons (something about AR Fox not being able to get into England and finding out late). Forbidden Door actually had a bigger card than this show, considering they had Ospreay vs. Omega and the dream match of Danielson vs. Okada. And while this wasn't a spectacular card or anything, it was a good card and the show turned out to be very entertaining and a lot of fun. The best thing about the show was that there wasn't a bad match on the show. There wasn't a match of the year candidate either, though, although the main event was pretty great. The pre-show was 2 hours long and the main show was 4 hours long. Before this match they did a few other things on the pre-show. They had a contract signing between Hobbs and Miro. They did a short skit with Jeff Jarrett and his crew and Grado, some UK wrestler. Grado hit Jeff Jarrett over the head with a guitar. This match was for the ROH tag titles, which Aussie Open held. It was a good match but super short. The best part was that it was early so this was the loudest the crowd was all night. When MJF did his Kangaroo Kick, the place went nuts. This stemmed from the fact that MJF and Cole were facing an Australian team so they went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and were going to watch Crocodile Dundee and then they were watching kangaroos fight on Youtube. As stupid as the Kangaroo Kick is, it worked. When Cole and MJF lost to FTR and didn't win the AEW tag titles, everyone bitched that it was the wrong decision and they should have a rematch on this show. It turns out that it was the right decision. Cole and MJF won the ROH tag titles. Fun opener. **1/2

HOOK vs. JACK PERRY (8:23): Supposedly, before the show, Jack Perry and CM Punk got into a fight backstage. They apparently got into an argument on a Collision show about using fake glass or real glass for a spot. I think this just cements the fact that CM Punk is, in fact, the trouble maker and the problem considering this is the second backstage brawl he's been involved in. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure turning Jack Perry heel was a good idea. I think they just didn't know what to do with him after breaking up Jurassic Express. This match was good, though. Perry came out in a limo and they ended up brawling on top of it and smashing the windshield on a slam. Hook won the FTR title. **1/2

CM PUNK vs. SAMOA JOE (13:58): Good match. Crowd was really rooting for Joe, though Punk wasn't booed out of the building or anything. It was a fairly simple match. Joe swung Punk into the side of the announce table and the bottom cracked open and Punk was bleeding. That was a cool spot. Punk retained the "real" AEW title...which means they'll have to do a unification match down the line somewhere. They definitely have plenty of big shows in the future to do it at. Next week is All Out in Chicago. That show only has 3 matches; Hobbs vs. Miro, Luchasaurus vs. Darby Allin, and Omega vs. Takeshita. And Omega vs. Takeshita wasn't even announced until the All In post-show press conference. And they have the U.S. Open show in a few weeks. MJF vs. Punk was like a 6 month feud in 2021-2022 but it worked, so doing it again for the title unification will be great. **1/2

JAY WHITE, JUICE ROBINSON & KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. KENNY OMEGA, KOTA IBUSHI & 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (20:28): The one disappointment on this show was not having a Kenny Omega singles match. They're doing one next week at All Out, so I guess it's not the end of the world. The problem with this match was besides having Ibushi in it, it was kind of similar to just a random Dynamite main event. The match was good but not great or anything. It did feature the only heel win on the show (or, at least, the only time the crowd was sad at who won). Takeshita rolled up Omega and pinned him quickly and the crowd went silent. Everyone did all of their big moves, though, and it was fun and exciting for the most part. Ibushi looked better here than he did in the Blood & Guts match, although he's definitely not at his former peak (he did slip on the Golden Lovers double moonsault spot but reasserted himself to do the move). **1/2

FTR vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (21:45): This was a good match but definitely the weakest of the 3 these teams have had. Dax was either jet lagged, tired, hungover, injured, or stressed out from his recent police troubles (it came out this week that he was arrested in July for waving a gun at someone), because he looked fucking winded and was moving slower than usual. Besides that, everything else worked and they did a ton of near falls with both teams kicking out of the other's finishers. Since The Young Bucks just signed a new contract in AEW, I kind of thought they might win. The crowd was definitely rooting for FTR. I figure, since FTR is on Collision and MJF is on Dynamite, they probably didn't want to have all the belts on just one show so they let FTR retain the titles. Good match, but I thought it was probably going to be the best match on the show it wasn't at all. **1/2

BEST FRIENDS (CHUCK TAYLOR & TRENT BERETTA), ORANGE CASSIDY, EDDIE KINGSTON & PENTA EL ZERO vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (JON MOXLEY, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA), SANTANA & ORTIZ "STADIUM STAMPEDE MATCH" (21:21): There was a lot of sloppiness in this match, but it was very entertaining and also very bloody. This had the same problem as the other Stadium Stampede and Anarchy in the Arena matches; the cameras couldn't capture everything that was going on. At one point they did a split screen for a while. There's probably too much to even mention that happened in this match. Moxley pulled out the wooden skewers and Penta jammed them into Moxley's head. That got a huge pop. They do that all the time in Big Japan and Freedoms but I doubt many people watch them so it was a new, cool thing to see. Trent's mom, Sue, drove her mini-van out and handed them cookies on a cookie sheet and they hit each other over the head with the cookie sheets. Penta took a slam on two chairs side by side and got "injured" then returned in a new, red outfit. That didn't really work as the crowd was probably just confused. Penta tried to climb up a ladder and it broke while he was climbing it. I guess they used another ladder because he still did a slam off the ladder through two tables. Kingston and Claudio were brawling up in the Royal Box where the King or Queen usually sit for events. Ortiz slipped off the ropes but got back up to suplex someone off the top rope through a table at ringside. There was also a barbed wire board used. But the highlight of the match was when Orange Cassidy used duct tape to tape his hand up and then dipped the hand in a bucket of glass so that the glass stuck to his taped hand. Then he super punched Claudio with the glass hand to get the win. That was such a unique, cool spot. It was sure messy but it was wild and crazy and engrossing to watch. ***

SARAYA vs. HIKARU SHIDA vs. BRITT BAKER vs. TONI STORM (8:43): This was one of the better women's matches AEW has had of late. It's probably because it was short plus with four wrestlers in there at the same time it never got boring. They told the story that the Outcasts, Toni and Saraya, were falling apart as a team and turning on each other. Toni Storm accidentally punched Saraya's mom at ringside and Saraya got pissed. Then, in a super creative spot, Toni Storm got hit and fell on Saraya and the ref started to count to 3. Saraya kicked out and thought her friend was trying to pin her. Ruby Soho eventually came out as well to try to stop her team from falling apart. Britt Baker tried to get her Mandible Claw finisher on Shida at the end but Saraya ended up pinning Toni Storm after spraying her in the face with spray paint. It was cool to see Saraya celebrating in the ring with her family after winning the title since they're a wrestling family from England. **1/2

DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE & SWERVE STRICKLAND "COFFIN MATCH" (15:49): I kind of thought there might be some crazy, high dive off a balcony or something on this show since it was AEW's biggest show ever. Darby Allin would probably do that, right? Well, there was no crazy highlight dive tonight. Darby did do a coffin drop off the top rope onto the coffin on the floor. Sting jumped off the apron onto a table that didn't break and then did it again with a leg drop. Sting was in his TNA Joker mode, a thing we all probably wish we could forget. The match was entertaining, though nothing spectacular or anything. It probably would have been better with AR Fox in it or Nick Wayne, who did show up only to get chokeslammed by Luchasaurus onto a skateboard. Swerve put Sting in the coffin and then spit on Sting's bat and threw that in the coffin as well but when he shut the lit, Sting put the bat on the edge to keep it open. That was a cool spot. The crowd was into most of what Sting did, although after the Stadium Stampede match the crowd was a little tired and more quiet. They did still pop for most of the big spots throughout the night. I don't really blame them. I don't think any show should be more than 2 and a half hours long. **1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. CHRIS JERICHO (14:55): This was probably the one match on the show that was kind of a big deal considering this was a big show that should have big deal matches. Ospreay had to win since he's from England, and he did. Jericho definitely tried harder than usual because of how big this show was, although he's still too old to keep up with Ospreay. Jericho missed a few spots here and there and was a bit slow on some things, but most of this was really good. Jericho did an awesome German suplex on Ospreay on the apron. Ospreay did a top rope twist flip to the floor. It was definitely high level stuff even though Jericho is practically an old man at this point. It was probably the best match these two can have these days. **1/2

THE ACCLAIMED & BILLY GUNN vs. THE HOUSE OF BLACK (BRODY KING, BUDDY MATTHEWS & MALAKAI BLACK (9:38): They just did this match at Double or Nothing. At this point, I really just want to see Malakai Black in some single matches. The match was good, not great. It was kept short so never got boring or stale. The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn won the trios titles and the crowd was happy and popped for that. They got Julia Hart involved when she pulled the ref out of the ring to stop a pinfall. They gave her the scissor leg drop from the top rope. Her outfit was amazing by the way. She had on white fishnets, white boots with high soles, and a white leather one piece corset thing. The House of Black all came out with white Japanese kimono outfits and masks. Very cool. Match was pretty standard but it was entertaining. **1/2

MJF vs. ADAM COLE (27:29): This was the longest match on the show and the best match on the show. Throughout they teased that they were both going to turn on each other and started doing little things like MJF poking Cole in the eyes and MJF wanting to use his ring to knockout Cole but not doing it. AEW is great at doing long term story telling and using things from past matches. These two wrestled in June in a 30 minute draw. Cole wanted five more minutes and MJF told him no. They ended up doing a double clothesline and got a double pin on each other and it was a draw. Cole said he wanted five more minutes. MJF said no, we'll just keep going to till there's a fuckin' winner. The crowd loved that. MJF ended up winning with a rollup after Cole decided not to use the belt to hit MJF when the ref was down. Roderick Strong came out twice to interfere, kicking MJF in the balls at one point and then trying to get Cole to use the belt. The story of Cole and MJF being friends and being torn at turning on each other and cheat was fantastic. I was kind of wary about this storyline because usually in a big show you want the babyface to beat the heel to win the title. They didn't do that and decided to have Cole and MJF become friends. It was different and I think it worked out as this was very compelling and dramatic. Really good main event to end a good show. And they announced that they're actually doing this again at Wembley next year on August 25th. That's kind of insane, considering they only get like 3,000 people for their TV shows in the U.S. these days and maybe 8,000 for most PPV shows. They got 80,000 for this but everyone thought it was a one time thing. I guess we'll see what happens next year...but this show was definitely a resounding success. ***1/2

WWE SUMMERSLAM

 Detroit

LOGAN PAUL vs. RICOCHET (18:00): Dave Meltzer noted recently on his show that the WWE is the hottest it’s been since 2001. That’s pretty crazy, considering they don’t really have a huge star like Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, or The Rock. Roman Reigns is considered the big star these days, and The Bloodline storyline is supposedly the main catalyst for the WWE’s recent surge in popularity. Meltzer also noted that Dominick Mysterio and his various storylines have helped the WWE’s popularity. But is the WWE any good? Or, at least, better now than it has been in all those less popular years? Not really. I did think the Sami Zayn vs. Roman Reigns storyline was the best thing the WWE has done since The Summer of Punk way back in 2011. Sadly, the WWE didn’t have Zayn fulfill his quest, thus negating that storyline. Sami Zayn wasn’t even on this show, which tells you how much the WWE botched the ending to that story. This show filled up Detroit’s football field with around 50,000 fans. I suppose that means that nobody cared that Sami Zayn didn’t win the title…or Cody at Wrestlemania. Considering the huge crowd and this being the 2^nd biggest show of the year for WWE, I thought it was a little disappointing. There weren’t any great matches, although there were some good ones and it was entertaining throughout for the most part. The one reason I like AEW more than the WWE is because AEW has great matches. The last great match the WWE had was probably Gunther vs. Sheamus way back in September of last year. As for this opener, it was fun with a lot of high flying moves. This was put on first so Logan Paul could get a flight to Dallas to be there for his brother’s PPV boxing match against Nate Diaz. That fight went the ten round distance and Jake Paul won a decision. While Jake Paul did knock down Diaz once, Jake Paul didn’t exactly look like a great fighter or anything considering Diaz looked and acted like he not only didn’t want to be there, but he didn’t care. I was kind of hoping for at least one, big, crazy move in this match, considering they did that in both the Royal Rumble and in their Money in the Bank match. They tried a Spanish Fly from the apron and both were supposed to land on their feet but Ricochet kind of fell over. So this was a little sloppy, although Logan Paul is actually super athletic and a fun wrestler to watch. This wasn’t even spectacular or anything but one of the better matches on the show, plus the crowd was still awake and alert and thus into it. **1/2

CODY RHODES vs. BROCK LESNAR (17:29): The big Detroit crowd was not the greatest. Like most WWE audiences, they don’t care about the actual wrestling, but they’ll stand up when someone goes on the top rope and they’ll cheer for title changes or interference. They did cheer when Brock kept beating the shit out of Cody and tossing him out of the ring but Cody kept making the ten count at the last second. Considering Cody is supposed to be this big star and top wrestler and in line to win the title, why did they have Brock beat him up mercilessly for 99% of this match? They were kind of showing to the audience that Brock is better. Eventually Cody delivered his finisher three times and pinned Brock. Lamely, Brock raised Cody’s hand after the match even though Brock had been kicking his ass non-stop in heelish ways for the last three months. Brock even broke his arm at one point, even though a broken arm takes months to heel yet Cody is miraculously cured. I kind of wish they had done more of a 50/50 match to make Cody look better, but it was fairly dramatic and entertaining. Will Cody finally be the one to beat Roman for the title? Presumably in Philly next year at Wrestlemania? If so, why didn’t they just fucking do it this year? **1/2

BATTLE ROYAL (LA KNIGHT) (12:46): LA Knight is super over and I don’t understand why. I don’t watch Smackdown a lot, so I didn’t see his “rise” occur. I remember he was a heel in NXT, so I have no idea why fans are cheering him now and yelling his “yeah” catch phrase. I did watch him talk on this week’s Smackdown and he kind of talks in the Stone Cold, tough guy, anti-authority type of way. I guess fans enjoy that bit. Well LA Knight won this Battle Royal, although I’m not sure what the winner gets. LA Knight isn’t beating Roman Reigns, that’s for sure, although that would be hilarious if he did. The big story early was Omos was just destroying everyone and eventually they all teamed up to toss him out. Bronson Reed, Sheamus, AJ Styles, and Knight were the last ones left. Knight eliminated Sheamus to win. The final few minutes were good. **

SHAYNA BASZLER vs. RONDA ROUSEY (7:26): Ronda is apparently leaving the WWE so this might be the last time you see her. I don’t know if she’s gone for good or coming back later. It is strange how her popularity has plummeted. The WWE hasn’t given her much to do lately, anyway, besides put her in a forgettable tag team with Baszler. This was an MMA rules match, which means the crowd was a silent tomb. It was very boring, but also nobody cares about this feud. -No Stars-

GUNTHER vs. DREW McINTYRE (13:43): Everyone thought this would be a good match, probably because Gunther vs. Sheamus last year was great and Gunther vs. Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre was good. This was too short and Gunther seemed to win too easily. I guess Drew’s “push” is over. They really should have given him the title at that gigantic Cardiff show last year. I still feel bad for all those Cardiff fans having to go home sad. Gunther is awesome, but his unbeatable run is getting pretty monotonous. Plus there’s very few wrestlers in the WWE that can have a great match with him, considering he’s a great wrestler and everyone else is an entertainer. Gunther should go to New Japan. Fuck, that’d be awesome. *1/2

SETH ROLLINS vs. FINN BALOR (18:27): This was a good match, although not having Finn win the title is such a bad decision. The WWE is really bad at ending storylines on a high note. Finn beat Seth at Summerslam years ago to become the first ever Universal champion. Finn injured his shoulder in that match and had to relinquish the title. He never got the title back…ever. Now these two are having a title match at Summerslam. The perfect ending would be to have Finn win the title he never got a chance to enjoy having. But no, the WWE writers are fucking morons, just ask Sami Zayn. Besides the bad ending, the match was actually pretty good. The crowd wasn’t into it until Damian Priest came out with his MITB briefcase and then eventually Dominick and Rhea Ripley showed up. They all interfered, although it backfired and Seth gave Finn a curb stomp on the briefcase to retain the title. Good match. I feel bad for Finn Balor. The WWE gave him that new, stupid name and now they’re fucking him over yet again. ***

BIANCA BELAIR vs. ASUKA vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR (20:45)/ IYO SKY vs. BIANCA BELAIR (0:10): The crowd was either tired or just didn’t care about actual wrestling, because they were pretty quiet while all three were delivering wrestling holds and moves to one another back and forth in the center of the ring. They did a storyline in this where Bianca injured her knee going off the top rope and then being helped to the back. Of course she returned and climbed up the top rope to do a 450. Huh? I thought she was hurt? How is she even standing on the top rope? Bianca then won the title from Asuka, but Iyo Sky ran down and cashed in her MITB briefcase and won the title. Most people thought Charlotte was winning the title because the WWE wants her to get the record for title defenses. Iyo Sky is great and the crowds love her, but I doubt she’ll have a long run as champ. For whatever reason this match did not work. All three just didn’t really mesh well together. *1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. JEY USO (36:04): The big problem I had with this main event was the fact that Jey Uso was obviously not winning the title. At your 2^nd biggest show of the year, you kind of want to at least deliver a glimmer of hope that a title change will occur. And while this Bloodline storyline is the reason the WWE has surged in popularity, at this point if just feels like they’re beating a dead horse. If you remember, when Roman won the title in 2020, Jey was his enemy. They even had a Hell in a Cell match for the title in October 2020. Then Jey eventually joined Roman. So Jey was a babyface, then a heel, now he’s a babyface again. His brother, Jimmy Uso, interfered in this match and turned on Jey, costing him this match. So Jey was a heel and with Roman, then a babyface and against Roman, now a heel and with Roman. Jesus Christ. Aren’t people sick of all of this shit? They should have just had Zayn win the title by beating Roman. That was the perfect ending to The Bloodline storyline. Now it’s just going to go on forever and ever until Roman Reigns retires. They’re also teasing a Solo Sikoa babyface turn, because in this match Roman inadvertently speared him. Nobody wants to see a Solo vs. Roman match. They aren’t giving the title to Solo Sikoa, so why do that match? And it would be one thing if these matches were any good, but they’re not. Lately, these Bloodline matches have been way too long. The Uso’s are usually very entertaining as a tag team, but individually they’re not. I’m just so over this storyline. I’d have rather seen Zayn or Cody as champ successfully defending their title on this show. That would have been fantastic. Could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. Sigh. **

 

ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

 

Trenton, NJ

JOSH WOODS vs. TRACY WILLIAMS (8:40): This was a fantastic show. That's kind of a surprise, because the men's title match had 2 days build and I barely knew anything about the rest of the card. Maybe if you watch the Ring of Honor show on Honor Club you would've known more about this show...but does anyone watch Ring of Honor on Honor Club? It's $9.99 a month for a weekly TV show. No thanks. At least give us the PPV's as part of the subscription. Also, with AEW adding 2 more hours of TV on TNT, Ring of Honor has kind of, sort of been forgotten. I don't think they even promoted this show on AEW these last few weeks. One big reason this show was so great was the awesome Trenton crowd. They were loud for four straight hours tonight. This opener on the pre-show was a match with Pure rules. Don't ask. Besides the only-3-rope-breaks rule, I have no idea what the other rules are and am not entirely sure what the point of these Pure matches are. Either way, this was a good match. It was very stiff with a bunch of power slams and hard hitting. **1/2

ACTION ANDRETTI & DARIUS MARTIN vs. THE WORKHORSEMEN (ANTHONY HENRY & JD DRAKE) (7:22): This match was great. Andretti and Darius were flying all over the place. Even the fat man, JD Drake, did a top rope moonsault. I kind of feel bad for Top Flight. Darius was hurt for awhile which broke up the team...now Dante Martin is hurt. They put Darius and Andretti together because they're both high flyers so it works. Fun match. ***

LEYLA HIRSCH vs. TRISH ADORA (9:13): Leyla Hirsch is still with the company? I haven't seen her in seemingly years. Trish Adora has a move called the Larriot Tubman. That amused me. This was pretty forgettable. *

AR FOX vs. SHANE TAYLOR (10:21): Good match. AR Fox was jumping and flipping all over the place like he always does. Shane Taylor looked good as usual as the big, powerful, monster type. ***

GRAVITY vs. KOMANDER (10:05): And I thought Theory was the dumbest wrestling name these days. Granted, they gave Theory his first name back. But...Gravity? So stupid. It's a shame because he's a pretty exciting luchador. Supposedly these two used to be a tag team somewhere. This was just a classic luchador match and the crowd loved it. Good stuff. ***

SOMOA JOE vs. DALTON CASTLE (14:12): Dalton Castle has to be one of the most entertaining wrestlers outside of actual wrestling. His intro is great and he's a fucking character. But he's never exactly set the world on fire in the wrestling ring beyond his quirky gimmickry. This was kind of slow and the finish was pretty lame. Stokely Hathaway got The Boys banned from ringside and this caught Dalton off guard and Somoa Joe choked him out to retain the TV title. It was at least entertaining for most of the match. **1/2

AUSSIE OPEN vs. BEST FRIENDS vs. THE KINGDOM vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (17:01): This match was awesome. I thought it was a great idea to give The Lucha Brothers the tag titles because then you're going to get them in a match on every ROH PPV. So of course Aussie Open won the tag titles here. Aussie Open is great so I guess that's not the worst idea. This was just total action and total mayhem. Best Friends did a lot of comedy. Lucha Brothers did a lot of crazy moves. Matt Taven did some cool over-the-top-rope leaps. Aussie Open did a lot of brutal, fast paced maneuvers. This was just fantastic from start to finish. ***1/2

THE MOGUL EMBASSY (BISHOP KAUN, BRIAN CAGE & TOA LIONA) vs. LEON RUFFIN & SIX OR NINE (MASTER WATO & RUYSUKE TAGUCHI) (12:20): I was so surprised when Taguchi walked out for this match followed by Master Wato. What? These two flew from Japan to Trenton just for this match? Supposedly they're a tag team, as they have a name. I guess those two have to do something since they're not in the G1 this year. This wasn't fantastic or anything but it was a fun match. Leon Ruffin is a small, skinny dude but he did a lot of exciting moves. Taguchi got the crowd into it with his antics. It was entertaining. **1/2

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (14:36): This started slow but by the end it got pretty good. Daniel Garcia's new gimmick is his Magic Mike style dance moves. I kind of feel bad for him for that because he might end up like Fandango instead of being a serious, title contender. Shibata retained the Pure title here by choking out Garcia. It got very hard hitting by the end with some good, back and forth action. It wasn't great, but it was yet another entertaining match on this great show. **1/2

THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS, JOHN SILVER & EVIL UNO) vs. STU GRAYSON & THE RIGHTEOUS (VINCENT & DUTCH) "FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR MATCH" (15:42): This match was insane. It was basically a hardcore match. Stu Grayson joined the Charles Manson-esque cult, The Righteous, so Evil Uno wanted to beat him up for doing that. I was kind of wondering why you would break up one of the best tag teams in wrestling, The Super Smash Brothers. But at least we got this awesome match out of it. So there was a 2x4 with barbed wire. Dutch got thrown onto a barbed wire table. Evil Uno tipped Stu Grayson off a ladder through two tables at ringside. There were thumbtacks and legos strewn about in the ring that everyone got tossed into. Uno and Dutch were bleeding. Vincent did a Swanton Bomb off the top rope onto a table that didn't break so Stu Grayson did a frog splash right after that to break the table. This was a crazy, wild, super entertaining brawl. ***1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. PAC (18:36): Eddie Kingston was supposed to face Claudio for the title on this show. He decided to do the G1 instead. Then Mark Briscoe was going to face Claudio but he got injured. On Wednesday, two days before this show, AEW Dynamite had their annual Blood & Guts War Games match. Claudio and PAC were on the same team but started pushing each other around and then PAC quit the match and walked off. That set this match up. Considering there was pretty much no build for this, it turned out okay. The big spot had Claudio press slamming PAC over the top rope and through a table. PAC looked awesome as always and Claudio is great, so this was a decent match. It never really got to that high drama level you want, but it was pretty good. **1/2

ATHENA vs. WILLOW (20:31): I'm not sure why they put this match on last. I guess they wanted to throw the women a bone. That, or maybe because the men's title match was thrown together late. Bryan Alvarez also bad mouthed AEW the other night because the only woman on Dynamite was Britt Baker and she was in a 1 minute squash. Bryan noted that if Tony Khan is going to say that he wants to push the women and all that then he should prove it. Maybe Tony was listening and that's why this was the main event. Who knows? I thought maybe Willow was winning the women's title here and that's why it went on last. Nope. Athena retained. It was a good match, not great or anything. The crowd certainly helped, as usually they're silent during women's matches. This was such a fun, entertaining show. It seemed to come out of the blue but I'm glad it did. **1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

 

02 Arena, London

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. BUTCH vs. LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL vs. RICOCHET vs. SANTOS ESCOBAR vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA "MITB LADDER MATCH" (20:27): This is my favorite WWE PPV every year. We used to get two men's ladder matches and two men's championship matches. Those days are long gone, sadly. Roman Reigns wasn't even on last year's MITB show and this year didn't even defend his title. This show turned out okay. The super hot London crowd definitely helped the show, although they were only super hot for the ladder matches. They didn't seem too into the actual wrestling in the non-ladder matches. This match was by far the best match on the show. Richochet did the move of the match by leaping through a ladder to the floor. That move was so spectacular they didn't even bother to show a replay. The one surprise was how much the crowd cheered for LA Knight. I don't watch Smackdown too often, but I do know that they turned him into a good guy for some reason. I thought he was great as a heel. Either way, he's pretty boring and not exactly great in the ring, so I'm baffled why anyone would cheer him for anything. The big spot of the match was botched, which was a shame. Logan Paul and Richochet were supposed to fall off a ladder and land on the ropes where Richochet was going to give Logan Paul a Spanish Fly from the top rope down onto two tables at ringside. Why they even attempted to do this is beyond me. Can anyone pull that off ever? Logan Paul slipped on the ropes twice but Richochet just did the move anyway and they both looked like they landed on their heads on the table. Damian Priest won, which I (and probably everyone on Earth) predicted. ***

LIV MORGAN & RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. RONDA ROUSEY & SHAYNA BASZLER (9:02): This was for the women's tag team titles, titles I vaguely remembered existed. I wondered why Rousey wasn't the big star in any big programs lately, but I found out she was filming a reality show called Stars on Mars where a group of celebrities go to Australia and vote each other off the show. I'm not entirely sure why it's called Mars. Does the Australian Outback look like Mars? Maybe I should watch it. Are there, like, extras dressed up like aliens? And a UFO in the background on the set? Sounds like a new low for TV. It's probably more entertaining than this match, though. Shayna turned on Rousey during the match, causing them to lose the tag titles. Huh? Why not have them lose the tag titles and then Shayna is frustrated with the loss and turns on Rousey. You know, actually have a reason for the turn. Plus it makes Liv and Raquel look like non-champions because they didn't really win, they just lucked out. I thought the WWE would get a lot better with HHH in charge but it hasn't and I'm baffled at people that think it has. 1/2*

GUNTHER vs. MATT RIDDLE (7:44): Case in point: this match. Matt Riddle is perhaps WWE's best wrestler. You wouldn't fucking know it from watching most of his matches, though. Why? Because they gave him 7 minutes to get squashed by Gunther. What was the point of this? I was expecting a hard hitting, exciting, 20 minute, dramatic match. We didn't get that. Why did they do that with Shaemus & Gunther but not with Riddle & Gunther? I can't figure out why they haven't pushed Riddle to the main event picture. He was recently in rehab, but that's not the reason. Previously they had him in a comedy tag team with Randy Orton. Riddle should really go to AEW or New Japan. He's being wasted here. Drew McIntyre came out after the match to beat up Gunther to set up a match. Gunther is still great and all, just not as great as when he wasn't stick-thin. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. DOMINIK MYSTERIO (8:38): Who ever is in charge of writing for this company needs to be fired. Brock Lesnar broke Cody Rhodes' arm last month yet somehow he's wrestling a few weeks later. Makes sense. Dominik on the mic is hilarious but nobody wants to actually see him wrestle a singles match. And the big problem with Rhea Ripley is they keep having her get in the men's faces as if the WWE would actually do a man vs. woman match. They do it in Japan so I still can't figure out why they don't do it here. 1/2*

JOHN CENA SEGMENT: Cena came out to tell the crowd that Wrestlemania should be in London. Okay. Are they jealous of AEW selling 60,000 tickets to All In at Wembley? This show supposedly had 18,000. Grayson Waller came out and Cena beat him up. Cena's a great talker and all but I don't know what the point of this was. Wrestlemania is in Philly next year by the way, not London. Will Roman Reigns finally lose his title then? 

IYO SKY vs. BAYLEY vs. BECKY LYNCH vs. TRISH STRATUS vs. ZELINA VEGA vs. ZOEY STARK "MITB LADDER MATCH" (18:04): This match wasn't fantastic or anything, but at least it was entertaining. They really shouldn't have put Trish Stratus in this match. She is too old to be doing this, but also she hasn't been an active wrestler in years. It was sad watching the other women trying to sell Trish's moves like they weren't terrible. The big spot was Zelina doing a Sunset Flip to Zoey off the top of the ladder onto a ladder bridge. They mentioned that The Amazing Red made this move famous and that he's Zelina's cousin. What? Really? I saw him wrestle in CZW at the ECW Arena like twenty years ago. He was awesome. Zelina is not awesome. I can't even picture her standing next to her husband, Malaki Black, because he's like four feet taller than her. Iyo Sky probably saved this match, as every jump she does looks flawless. She won, which is good, but I really doubt they'd give her the title. The finish was kind of clever, so maybe the writers shouldn't be fired. Iyo Sky handcuffed Becky Lynch to Bayley (Bayley turned on Iyo Sky earlier) on the ladder then climbed up to grab the briefcase. **1/2 

SETH ROLLINS vs. FINN BALOR (12:31): I can picture an epic, 30 minute, high intensity match with some great near falls by the end with these two. Sadly, those type of matches don't occur in the WWE. What we got was a 12 minute bore. It's hard to even care about this new championship title when we've been battered over the head by Roman Reigns' long title reign proclaiming him the top dog. That means that this title is basically the 2nd tier belt. And nobody thought Finn was winning, especially since Seth just won it a month ago. This wasn't terrible or anything but it could've should've been much, much better. *1/2

THE USO'S vs. ROMAN REIGNS & SOLO SIKOA (32:05): This was yawn inducingly terrible. The final five minutes or so were pretty entertaining, but that was after 25 minutes of nothingness. After Sami Zayn didn't beat Roman for the title (which would've been the perfect ending to The Bloodline storyline), then Cody didn't beat Roman for the title, I'm completely checked out of this Bloodline storyline. It's going to keep going forever, though, because it's the reason the ratings are up in the last year. We still have to get Solo turning on Roman and eventually Paul Heyman turning on Roman. I'm fucking done! The Uso's have always been a heel tag team, right? And now we're supposed to cheer for them? That's hard to do. This match wasn't even for a title or anything. By the end we got the ref bump and the announce table break. Roman got pinned and lost which I thought was kind of a surprise. Do we really need a 32 minute tag team match? I mean, c'mon. *

AEW/NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR

 

Toronto

THE MOGUL EMBASSY (BISHOP KAUN, BRIAN CAGE, SWERVE STRICKLAND & TOA LIONA) vs. BEST FRIENDS (CHUCK TAYLOR & TRENT BERETTA), ROCKY ROMERO & EL DESPERADO (12:23): At 5 hours long, this show was too long. It didn't bother me because it took me 3 days to watch it. It was a great show. The only glaring problem was the crowd was spent after the Omega/Ospreay match and thus the last two matches weren't as good as they probably would've been with a hot crowd. The pre-show, free on Youtube, had four matches, none particularly great, though this was a fun opener. The building was maybe half full for this match, which probably didn't help, as I recall last year's Forbidden Door pre-show matches in Chicago featured a gigantic amount of crowd noise. Remember they were popping for Goto and Yoshi-Hashi like they were Hulk Hogan and The Rock? So the Toronto crowd is not as loud as Chicago, and doesn't show up on time. **1/2 

ATHENA vs. BILLIE STARKZ (7:49): The announcers noted that Athena hasn't lost a match since last September's Grand Slam event. I was wondering why I haven't seen her in a while, and it's because she's the ROH women's champ and thus probably only on the ROH shows that nobody watches (they're only on the Honor Club service which costs $9.99 a month and doesn't even give you the ROH PPV's). This was forgettable. *

EL PHANTASMO vs. STU GRAYSON (7:14): Stu Grayson is now affiliated with that Manson cult ROH group led by Vincent. Huh? Maybe he just didn't want to wrestle a full schedule or something. Why the Super Smash Brothers are not still a tag team is baffling to me, as they were one of the best tag teams in wrestling. It also makes little sense to me why NJPW made El Phantasmo a babyface. He was a perfect heel! Decent match, though, for the short time they got. **1/2

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI & SHINGO TAKAGI) vs. UNITED EMPIRE (TJP, KYLE FLETCHER & JEFF COBB) (7:30): Would it kill them to put Shingo Takagi, one of the best wrestlers in the world, a singles match on Forbidden Door? They didn't last year, either, although at least he got put in a prominent multi-man match with Sting. They also threw Hiromu into this pre-show match. They should have put Hiromu in a singles match with one of AEW's high flyers. Oh, well. This had some good action while it lasted. **1/2

MJF vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (15:46): I don't think anyone thought Tanahashi was going to win the AEW title here. That was also the problem with the Sanada match. Maybe they shouldn't even defend the big titles on Forbidden Door. Tanahashi actually wrestled the night before this against Swerve Strickland on Collision. That match was better. Considering Tanahashi is a hobbling, shell of his former self, why is even still wrestling? Maybe put him on a tag team or something to hide his glaring flaws. It's really sad to watch him wrestle these days. They even put him in the G1 again. Jesus. The guy can barely walk around. Even MJF made fun of how he walks. Match was just okay. **

CM PUNK vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA (13:40): This was CM Punk's first singles match since he won the title from Moxley at last year's All Out. He wrestled twice in multi-man matches on Collision. The most intriguing aspect of this match was the fact that he got booed and Kojima got cheered. I guess this stems from the fact that everyone outside of Chicago backs The Elite in the infamous locker room brawl. Punk looked good here but Kojima looked incredible. Kojima looked so much better than Tanahashi, which is surprising since Kojima is older and has wrestled longer. This was the first round of the Owen Hart Tournament, which Punk will presumably win. The winner gets...nothing! So what the fuck is the point? **1/2

ORANGE CASSIDY vs. DANIEL GARCIA vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (11:15): This was the 2nd best match on the show. This match was super entertaining and so much fun to watch. I loved this. Shibata and Zack Sabre were slapping each other and kept pushing Garcia out of the way but he kept trying to do his stupid, gyrating dance. It had comedy and was hard hitting and the crowd loved it. Fantastic match. Orange Cassidy retained his International Title. ***1/2

SANADA vs. 'JUNGLE BOY' JACK PERRY (10:49): I thought this match would be better because Jungle Boy is one of AEW's best wrestlers. Sanada on the other hand is mostly a bore. He also looked like he didn't want to be there and was going through the motions (granted, he looks like that in every match). The huge problem with this match was the fact that Jungle Boy was not going to win the IWGP title and everyone knew that. After the match, Jungle Boy turned heel by knocking down Hook, who had previously been his best friend and sometimes tag partner. They have been teasing a heel turn for Jungle Boy but I'm not so sure it's the right decision. I guess after the whole Christian feud, they didn't know what else to do with him. I guess we'll see if it turns into anything worthwhile. I could care less about a Hook vs. Jack Perry match, though. **

THE ELITE (THE YOUNG BUCKS & 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE), EDDIE KINGSTON & TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (JON MOXLEY, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA), KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & SHOTA UMINO (21:29): This match was entertaining but the problem was that The Young Bucks didn't get tagged in until late, so we didn't get too much of a great, crazy Young Bucks match. Takeshita and Ishii were both in the match the longest, so this was more a hard striking match than a high flying one, although Page and the Bucks all did top rope spots and the Bucks did a zillion super kicks. Good match but I thought this could've been better. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (10:27): This wasn't very good. Willow is the NJPW women's champ, so maybe they should've had her defend that title and win instead of lose here. Toni retained the AEW title. There wasn't much to this. Willow did a top rope moonsault that was impressive. *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. KENNY OMEGA (39:50): What can I say about this match? It's hard to even put into words how impressive these two wrestlers are. I didn't think they could top their match from January, and they didn't, but this was still one of the best matches you'll ever see and perhaps just as good as their Tokyo Dome match. I'd probably actually have to watch their January match again to see which one was better. The only negative I'll say was when Don Callis came back after being kicked out to hand Ospreay a screwdriver when the ref was distracted. The match was so great and we didn't want to see outside interference ruin it. Thankfully that wasn't how the match ended. The story of the first match was that Omega busted open Ospreay on a DDT from the top rope down onto the exposed turnbuckle. In this match, both men got busted open. Omega got busted open when Ospreay bashed his head onto the announce table multiple times. Ospreay got busted open when Omega slammed his head onto the ring steps multiple times then did a DDT on Ospreay atop the ring steps that were turned sideways. This match was so engrossing. By the end it was just pure brutality. I can't even fathom all of the punishment these two went through and still kept going. Ospreay was bleeding like a stuck pig all over the ring at one point. Ospreay gave Omega a Tiger Driver that put Omega right on his head. I can't believe he didn't break his neck on that. After the screwdriver spot, Omega put his foot on the ropes to avoid a 3 count. Ospreay did a One Winged Angel and Omega kicked out at 1. Eventually Ospreay won with the Hidden Blade and then the Stormbreaker. This was dramatic as anything you'll ever see, two wrestlers going all out for 40 minutes. I can see why they didn't put this on last, but in hindsight they obviously should have. Nothing could go on after this. This was pure spectacle and one of the best matches you will ever see in your entire life. Ospreay won the U.S. title. I was kind of hoping that Omega would win here and Ospreay would finally get his win at the big show at Wembley in August. After watching the horror show these two put each other through, though, I'm not sure I want to see them do this again. What more could they possible accomplish? This was just incredible and a high water mark few can ever hope to achieve. ****

DARBY ALLIN, STING & TETSUYA NAITO vs. MINORU SUZUKI & THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVARA) (15:09): So nothing could follow the Omega/Ospreay match. With a hot crowd, this match might've been excellent. The crowd was half into it. Even the showdown with Jericho and Sting (who, apparently, have never wrestled before) got barely a response. The big spot was Sammy doing a 630 splash from the top rope onto Sting on a table. That was fucking insane. Too bad the crowd was spent. Naito wrestled in a t-shirt, which usually means you don't consider this a big match. Match was entertaining but the dead crowd hurt it. **

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (27:47): This match also probably would have been a lot better with a hot crowd. After 4 and a half hours of wrestling (there was also Tom Lawler dark match before the pre-show...he was supposed to wrestle Adam Cole on the show but Cole was sick) plus following one of the greatest matches of all time, I can't really blame the crowd for being pretty quiet for this dream match. The one good thing about this year's Forbidden Door was that we actually got some dream matches. Last year, CM Punk, Danielson, and Omega were all injured and not on Forbidden Door. This year we got Okada/Danielson and Omega/Ospreay. So there's that. While this match was pretty good, it was also way too slow. Okada is not the great Okada of five years ago. He's too methodical now. I can't even remember the last great match he's been in. It also didn't help that Danielson fractured his arm at the 17 minute mark. In the press conference after the match, he mentioned possibly being out 6 to 8 weeks, which might hurt his chances of wrestling at the big Wembley show. If he didn't injure his arm would this match have been better? Who knows? The ending was also flat. Danielson kicked out after a Rainmaker. But then Danielson submitted Okada and Okada tapped out. That was kind of anti-climactic. I'd have rather seen him win with a flying knee or something more dramatic and exciting. Match was pretty good but the quiet, tired crowd and the injury kind of ruined it. Good show over all, though. AEW really pulls out all the stops on their PPV's. And you can definitely say you got your money's worth. Now bring on Wembley! **1/2