Jimmy Redman

The story is between Jericho and Garcia. Bryan has just been standing there trolling them.

White longbois! They are going to bleed some buckets.

This is the match that should have had some sort of No DQ stip so they could break stuff and have Darby jump off roofs. But then I think they did the exact same thing last PPV. Replaying the mist spot in slow mo just made it bleeding obvious that Black spun around and didn't kick for no reason.

What garbage finish to that. Couldn't even pay attention to the match either. And I'm so glad all of that Dan Garcia nonsense resulted in... fuck all besides Jericho pinning Bryan with his shitty elbow. Did we really need more than one match of this?? I hate to say it, but I much prefer 205 Live Bud over the current giant un-Wellnessed version.

Funny how the two big grudge matches on the undercard ended up as a short match/angle where the babyface ate shit. I think it came off a lot better this time with Jungle Boy taking that almighty fuck off bump on that grate. Although they're gonna need to show their work on that Luchasaurus re-turn. Not sure how long they can keep the angle going since Christian really has nowhere else to go in terms of evil shit to say, but I'm kind of glad they'll presumably be featured more in a big blow off on TV.

...

I called Jade/Athena coming up next like 15 mins ago because Ol' Tone never met a cool down spot he didn't like for the women.

I must still be thinking about Drew Mac because it took me way too long to realise who it was. To be honest I'm totally fine with ending that particular ladder match like that, it was barely promoted and was just a collection of nutty ladder spots. These matches seem to be all about the Joker anyway. Ending it with such intrigue was a far better ending than having the Joker come out like normal and just win. Help me out, is the chip thing like MITB where they can theoretically cash in with no warning? Asking for no particular reason tonight.

Rush standing around taking his clothes off while Yuta was about to win was fucking hilarious.

Yeah that Eddie shoulder spot ruled, that was fucking genius. Randy Orton could never. I am fine with certain people in wrestling doing the million chops/strikes/no selling whack off, and Eddie Kingston, Ishii, and whoever is standing in front of Ishii definitely fall into that category. Fun shit. I haven't laid eyes on Ishii in a few years clearly, because he's looking rough, poor bloke. I also WAS going to say that the chaos opening of Ruby and Ortiz running the dorks over with their car and just throwing shit and having a fun sprint was possibly the best way to do that match again, BUT then the dorks broke Ruby's nose and dropped her on her fucking head to die so fuck all that and fuck those assholes. The HOOK stuff was fun gaga. I ain't watching no Kip Sabian match I have washing to hang out.

I still think they missed a trick. There are some moments that you just have to capitalise on. The first real UK PPV in like two generations, in that giant packed stadium, and you just so happen to have a top babyface like Drew to challenge for the title in front of that crowd... nah man. They would have exploded. They could have owned that crowd for life. I mean, they played the Summerslam '92 clip without a hint of introspection that it wouldn't have been nearly the moment it was without Bulldog winning. Sorry Davey Boy, but we need to keep the title on Bret right now, so Bruce Hart will run in and cost you the match and you'll send the crowd home singing show tunes with Paul Gascoigne. Nothing about Starrcade '97 was ruined by Luger winning the title in August and dropping it right back. You can still have Cody do the comeback and win at Mania. The real hook there is Cody's redemption, regardless of how many days Roman had technically held the title by then. He'd still be the top guy in the company for Cody to dethrone. AND if Drew actually beats Roman here, he has a logical reason to recruit a new member of the family to help him regain it! Also imagine the TV if Roman loses the belt and goes apeshit and there's Sami's dumb ass still running around trying to ingratiate himself. ALSO, not that I care because it would have been awful, and fuck that guy, but Kross sitting ringside after cutting promos on Drew all month and then doing absolutely fuck all made him look like a moron. Like again, I'm glad he didn't interfere because they would have sucked 100 times worse, but like, this spooky heel dude flew all the way to Wales to sit in the front row and score a commemorative chair? The singing with Tyson Fury, and in fact the whole show being far too much about Tyson Fury was the icing on the cake there. Just the same nonsense of "None of this shit matters, wins, losses, we're just about Putting Smiles On Faces (tm) of the WWE Universe (tm) with all of our Real Life Celebrities That Totally Love WWE Because WWE Is Cool (tm)". And they'll wonder forever why the next UK crowd doesn't sound like this one. It's even more infuriating because absolutely everything about the presentation of this match right up until the finish made the match and the title and Drew feel SOOOOOOO important and monumental. They almost get it. Just enough to drive me, personally, insane. Popped hard for Broken Dreams. Sheamo and WALTER was as awesome as I imagined. It was like the culmination of over a decade's worth of Sheamus building the Big Meaty Men Slapping Meat division from the ground up. That shit fucking ruled. My one complaint is that skinny Gunther is about 0.01% as intimidating as big fat WALTER was, but hey, that still makes him more intimidating than 99% of wrestlers. (I hate to bang on but like also, if you're not putting Drew over in the main, why not at least have Sheamus win here? Give them something? In any case the standing O was a great moment in itself and well deserved.) I've become a curmudgeon and 00s Stace would hate me, but like, I just want to enjoy wrestling. The bad guy winning for TWO STRAIGHT YEARS, even at a magical moment like this that begged for a happy ending, that doesn't feel good. Let me have fun.

It feels like they've kind of booked themselves into a corner here, because Drew coming home to the first UK PPV in a generation to challenge for the title in front of a giant hometown stadium crowd... he needs to win. But it also doesn't feel like they want Roman to lose. I would infinitely prefer them to just have Drew win on the day and then come up with some bullshit later ("oh it was only for the WWE Title", or whichever one he hasn't held for 2 years) or just have Roman win it straight back or something. Fine, he's Lex Luger. Instead of what I imagine they'll do, which is just have Kross interfere and Roman retains. Which would be AWFUL, for the crowd, for the moment. And awful for Drew as a babyface. If he can't get it done here, I feel like that damages him as a top face in a way that few wins or losses could do in WWE anymore.

Listen, for a WALTER vs. Sheamo double homicide and Broken Dreams Drew Mac winning in Britain, I might actually Very Legally watch this thing.

Really don't know what to make of Mox vs. Punk. On some level I feel like what could have just been an amazing, shocking, thought-provoking angle was kind of muddied by all of the backstage nonsense we've been hearing about. The story within kayfabe is so strong: Punk comes back from this foot injury, high and mighty as the "real" world champion. He's back to do what everyone expects, unify the titles and continue on with the reign he was supposed to start in May as the top guy in the company. Mox, on the other hand, has taken the interim title and ran with it, using his new lease on life and having a banner run and carrying the scene in Punk's (among others') absence. He's full of bile at the "interim" qualifier and wants to validate what he feels is his legitimate second world title run, and also shove it up the arse of anyone who thinks Punk can just waltz back in and pick up where he left off as if his whole reign didn't happen. Punk included. And Punk, in turn, has come back with a healthy dose of not giving a flying fuck, happy to insult the shit out of anyone standing in his way, like Mox. So these two pissed off bulls butt heads immediately, break out in brawls that they can't contain, and end up making the giant title unification match early because they literally can't wait to beat the shit out of each other. Then the match happens, and the worst possible thing immediately happens to Punk - he puts weight on his injured foot and completely fucks it up. Mox smells blood and drops him like a sack of shit. BOOM. The middle finger during the finish was perfect because it was a giant FUCK YOU to everyone who thought Punk would just unify the titles and move on. Everyone who wants to call him an Interim champion. And Punk, the guy who saunters around like he's head and shoulders above everyone else as a star (which he technically is) gets served a huge piece of humble pie. Did he come back too soon? Was it just a freak accident? Can he still hang? He makes all the money for AEW, but can he actually defend the world title as a wrestler and remain the top guy? All leading to the "real" match at the PPV, in Chicago. Where Punk has to dig deep and use the support of what will be an overwhelming hometown crowd to overcome this Achilles heel (almost literally) and win back the world title he was never supposed to lose. And no matter what happens, Mox got to validate his interim reign and officially be the first two-time world champion, undisputed. One thing that bothers me is that they didn't do a good enough job selling the match in the moment. I love LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOVE the short, unexpected match. But AEW is usually better at explaining something like this supposed "biggest match ever" world title unification happening in the middle of the show, not the main event. As soon as it wasn't the main event, I think the last 10% of people who weren't already expecting shenanigans were tipped off. And so the match didn't feel BIG enough when it was happening. We all kind of knew it was just going to lead to an angle. They could have outright said "the world title match starts now with an hour to go so they have the whole hour of TV time, just in case." And mentioned that if it did, the trios tournament match would be rescheduled to Rampage or something. And when the match DID end so quickly, send out a stand-by match to fill the TV time. Or even just say that they were starting the trios match earlier. The way it was presented in the context of the show, it felt too much like one of those "this is a super mega WWE Champion vs. World Champion match!!! ...that takes place at the top of the hour on Raw for no reason with no finish" deals. Ironically, I feel like the way they have done this has actually made the result of Punk vs. Moxley at All Out far MORE predictable than a straight up unification match would have been. The promos and the brawling really sold me on the match, and Mox has had such a good summer you could imagine them giving him a win to get the validation before going back to Punk (which we've already got). PLUS all of the backstage gossip about Punk offered the threat of Punk losing and going home, or losing due to MJF or Page shenanigans instead. But after this, I can't see any way that Punk loses again in Chicago. So in an odd way I'm actually a lot less intrigued by the PPV match now than I was a week ago. BUT I also wonder, if we hadn't have had so much real life Punk drama to talk about in the last few weeks, would this have hit a lot more as simply a cool wrestling angle?

That's fair, I honestly couldn't remember if the boxer was him or his brother or both. Like, in this instance I'll probably end up eating my words since he's signing full-time and will be around for a while and by the look of it is a natural. It was more just the principle. It may have been a point better made when he was at Wrestlemania, but I didn't watch Mania so this is all new to me. It also speaks to a wider point about them having to bring celebrities in and train them to wrestle because they can't make their own stars, but that's on me since I'm basically in TEW mode with WWE booking and I can't turn it off.

Because this whole conversation is my fault, can I just say that my objection to Logan Paul isn't about "paying his dues" or whatever nonsense. My issue is more in relation to kayfabe and presentation. Just the idea that if anyone can walk in off the street (athletic looking or not) and be able to immediately perform the moves that all these full-time career wrestlers supposedly (or actually) have spent their entire lives perfecting... why should I be impressed with any wrestler ever again? What's so hard about it if anyone can do it? What am I paying these people for? I know as well as you that wrestling is more than just movez and etc., but that's not my point. It's Shane McMahon all over again. This guy who is not a trained wrestler out-wrestling an Olympic level wrestler just because he happens to be Vince's kid makes no logical sense. A random with no wrestling experience being able to do the amount of shit Logan Paul did in his first match makes no sense. That's my point. And I even said in the first place, it DOES fit in with WWE the way it is presented at the moment because they are post-kayfabe and post-everything and are just a corporatized travelling circus putting smiles on faces. Whatever. But it's also just not what I want out of wrestling.

That was actually a really fun show. The chaos of Brock vs Roman delivered and made it worth doing it once more I guess. I went all the way to New Orleans for Wrestlemania and literally slept through the main event because of this stupid match up. The first half seemed more of the same, and while the entrance and first jump was cool I thought most of the tractor stuff during the match was a little too slow and cute, but demolishing the ring was amazing and made the whole thing into a unique spectacle. MITB sucks as a concept so much. That dork hanging around threatening to cash in is stupid. Liv seemed like such a dork compared to Ronda. Finish obviously leads somewhere, but not sure what you can do to make Liv beating her look credible, unless you just put the belt back on Ronda. Surely building up to Bianca vs. Ronda for WM is the move? Don't really understand what the point of Jarrett was, apart from Jeff making money. And why they did all that just to have the Usos win the blow off cleanly too. Montez is putting on singles push muscles so I guess they're not long for the world? It's funny, WWE putting on a good PPV never convinces me to try giving them another go. They can bring out all the bells and whistles for a major stadium show, but they can't book for shit. It DOES however, make me want to go and fantasy book WWE. It reminds me that they have all these tools at their disposal: an insane roster, celebrities, the production budget, HUGE stadium shows to build to... and they do nothing with it. It frustrates me.

Logan Paul vs. Miz was a fun spectacle, but it did give me this weird feeling as well. First of all, why is Logan Paul a babyface? It feels like famous people stopping by has now become this arms race of Which Celeb Can Do The Most Cool Wrestling Movez. I guess it's a little different with Logan if he's signed up and going to wrestle regularly, but this seems like the end point of that idea. He basically worked a regular match like any fully trained wrestler would. Which on one hand is hey, impressive, and he's athletic and talented, and he seems to get the little stuff already too. But on the other hand, like, if a Youtube kid can walk in and out-wrestle half the people on the roster... what's so impressive about being a wrestler? How hard is a frogsplash to the fucking floor through a fucking table if a random can apparently just turn up and do it in their first match? It's Shane McMahon the Wrestler on steroids. And I fucking hate Shane McMahon the wrestler for this exact reason. I guess it fits this post-everything world that WWE currently exists in, but it's not doing it for me. I'm just imagining a scenario in which Floyd Mayweather works Wrestlemania and starts doing lucha reversals and Michinoku Drivers instead of... being himself. Isn't Logan Paul a boxer? Or into MMA? (Or is that his brother? I honestly don't know the answer to that, but he must be in shape for a reason?) Why isn't he dancing around the ring shadow boxing acting like the douche that he is? But he has to be a face, right, because he's going to get cheered for showing off all the cool movez he learned at wrestling camp! I blame Snooki.

Guess what dudes, for some reason they are showing Summerslam live on TV here for ZERO DIMES, and I'm just sitting here with a baby so why the fuck not. Becky vs. Bianca ruled, I liked it a lot. I take it down a star because they opened with a collar and elbow and didn't do a big nearfall to play off the 30 sec deal from last year. But I liked the aggression and the escalation. Bianca is something else. Countering a rana into a powerbomb is one thing, but doing the deadlift counter after the guy has already flipped down and crossed their ankles, damn. Loved the final few minutes, it escalated really well and finished on the perfect note. BAYLEY! DAKOTA! IO SHIRAI! Holy shit, Papa Hunter is going to get another fruit basket! That instantly makes the women's scene a thousand times more interesting. I can't believe they convinced Io to stay. They all must really love Hunter. Bringing Becky back to face seems like the right move too.

Pretty much this. I came here to say that this is the most I have been upset by an AEW finish so far. This was the moment, they screwed it up, and now even if they do try another blow off for Eddie to win I am going to care 90% less. Really hated it.

Since I heard the news and I'm sitting at home I turned on Smackdown out of curiosity, now bear in mind I haven't actually seen an episode of WWE TV since... fuck I don't even know. The last Raw I watched might have been after WM 35 when I was in the crowd in Brooklyn. Years, anyway. This shit is fucking unwatchable. I've had this shit on for the better part of an hour and I haven't seen a single second of wrestling. An hour. Nothing but replays, ads, more ads, garbage over-produced conversations, more replays, more ads. Pat McAfee cutting an honest to God wrestling promo in the middle of all that just made everything else seem doubly pathetic. And fuck, the production itself isn't even good over-production. It looks like GARBAGE! Even beyond the Dunn camera cuts, I mean the graphics, the colours, the lighting, the logos, the angles, everything... it actually looks super low rent. Which is one thing you could never accuse WWE of until recently. Seriously, I know I used to be one of *You People*, but how can You People watch this every week?

I did watch the PPV, I've just been down with COVID since then, and to be honest the show didn't whip me up into my usual frenzy. The Anarchy match was insane and so far and away the best thing on the show. Felt super special. Chaos from the get go and mayhem at every turn. Wild Thing just continuing to play in the background over and over until Jericho wrecked the sound system was awesome. Eddie and Garcia going to the back and eventually getting trapped in a lift to kill each other unseen... only for Eddie to reappear covered in blood with a fucking petrol can ready to set a motherfucker on fire... that was pretty much the greatest visual in the history of our great sport. And I liked how Eddie dousing Bryan in petrol was the catalyst for Bryan to lash out at him and eventually lose the match and start something between him and Eddie because, well, yeah. The threat of immolation is a pretty valid beef. Whole thing ruled from start to finish. I like the idea of the Owen Cups, and everything Owen-related, up to and including Martha Hart giving that speech and (unironically) controlling her narrative in wrestling, I guess. Plus I am super pumped for next year's PPV crowd to dress up like they're going to the races. Make it happen. The Owen Cups in terms of wrestling, I just don't really understand what they were trying to be. What do the winners get? Who gets to enter? Is it for midcarders, stars, somewhere in between? And I guess more to my point, what ultimately was the point if they went through all that just to give Britt fucking Baker another title? They just refuse to sit her down and it is hurting everyone else in the division. And at least Charlotte is Charlotte, I really don't get anything out of Britt except for her ability to find the hard cam. I mean they do this big "redemption" angle for Ruby and bring in RANCID for her to just lose another match clean to the fucking dentist? You beat Toni Storm just to put the fucking dentist over again? I'm pretty sure I said this exact thing after the last PPV and nothing has changed. They need to do something with the fucking women. Britt all over everything. Barely heard a peep out of Thunder Rosa since she won the belt. Jade learning on the job with the midcard title makes sense, but it also makes for foregone conclusions for title matches. It just feels like nothing is moving forward with any of them, even as they add theoretically valuable pieces like Toni, Mercedes, now Athena. I am also the person on earth who cares the least about Cole so that doesn't help either. The more AEW becomes like late-stage NXT the less interested I am. Also the heels wearing pink in their respective matches really telegraphed the winners and took me out of it. The show was still 17 hours too long. Lucky for me I had to watch it in shifts. Could not care less about Kyle fucking O'Reilly. I love Jade but again, her matches are foregone conclusions and TBS Title defenses are probably best left for TV. Didn't even bother watching the Hardyz match. The Sammy Guevara match seemed pointless besides debuting Paige Van Zant in a safe environment, but again, seemed like something better suited for TV. The tag title cluster exceeded expectations, especially that late in the show, but why the fuck do they keep doing these multi-man tag title matches only for the champs to retain when they seem to be the least interesting team at any moment? And I say that as someone who loves Jungle Boy and likes the literally dinosaur more than most. Again, it seems like absolutely nothing has changed about the tag titles since the last PPV, three months ago. Rosa vs. Serena I really liked, especially the first half when they leaned heavily into the technical stuff. It felt almost lucha title match-esqe. Wish I could have had more of it, and in a better spot. Not really sure what to make of the main event. I liked it, it had intensity, but it also felt like it missed a higher gear. I kind of agree with the above discussion, that Punk stealing the Buckshot would have worked better if he'd tried it and fucked it up, and never did it again. It would sell the idea of him being a dick and stealing the move, but also being Old Man Punk and not being able to physically execute it. But I just generally hate finisher stealing spots. The finish itself I didn't like at all, because I fucking hate it when babyfaces are made to look like fools. Standing there staring at a foreign object with CONFLICTION~! for way too long just to turn around into a finisher and get pinned made him look stupid, not complex. But in the bigger picture, I think the time was right to end the Hangman reign and also to give Punk the belt, and I'm intrigued by what an Old Man Punk title reign looks like. Also what Hangman does next. The MJF squash was perfect, whether or not you factor in the weird weekend stuff. They need to go nuts with Wardlow. Super not wild about the idea of continuing this worked shoot nonsense with Max once it inevitably becomes mostly a work. I feel like we're hurtling inevitably towards Tony Khan becoming a TV character, and honestly I think some small piece of AEW's soul will die when that happens. As much as we enjoy his coke-fuelled nonsense and markiness on Twitter, a significant thing AEW has going for it is the lack of on-screen authority figures, and a lack of the real life boss as a TV character. If this devolves into MJF vs. Tony I'm gonna fucking hate it.

EDDIE KINGSTON VS JERICHO RULED SO MUCH HOLY SHIT! Yes I'm back for my quarterly freak out as scheduled. Holy shit that ruled. God Bless Eddie Kingston, God Bless the run that man is having on national TV in 2022, against all possible odds. There is nobody more believable in wrestling. I haven't been watching TV so I have absolutely no idea what this feud is about, no idea if Jericho is supposed to be a heel now, no idea what the Inner Circle stuff is. But I watch Eddie Kingston stomp out to the ring staring death at someone and I KNOW that he hates this man with a thousand sun fire and has to destroy him in his soul. It takes an instant to get this man. And the fucking open!! Dropped him on his fucking HEAD! When I tell you I YELPED in my kitchen. Christ some of the bumps these guys both took on their heads were sickening. And listen. I have not cared a single fuck about Jericho in years, but full credit to him he was FANTASTIC in this. He worked Eddie's style of match and brought it and laid it all in and made it all pop. That's easily the best Jericho performance - and Jericho match - in years and years, surely. Possibly in a decade. What even was his last great WWE match? Just look at that moment with Aubrey Edwards. Jericho was so good during this match that people were actually cheering him and booing Eddie by the end of it! Booing Eddie!! So he confects this little temper tantrum with the ref and puts his hands on her - not enough to be gross but just enough to offend the crowd and remind them that while he may be fighting his ass off, in this match he is still the bad guy. That REALLY took the whole thing to another level because it reset the crowd to rally completely behind Eddie just in time for his comeback. I fucking bought that backfist nearfall too. I bought a lot of those nearfalls. That backfist one in particular was great because we, along with Eddie, had that split second of "hey he's going to win!" followed by the inevitable, "Oh, right, Eddie Kingston never gets to win a big match..." and at the exact moment you think that watching it, you can see the same thought all over Eddie's face. It was like a double nearfall, because after the kickout I was totally convinced Eddie would lose again. Which in turn made his eventual win so much more impactful. I was SCREAMING. And again, Eddie selling it like he was struck dumb by the idea that he had actually won this time, for real... brilliant. Give this man everything on earth. Also, Eddie Kingston getting SUPLEXED TO THE FLOOR and selling it like his heart exploded in his chest was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Fuck that ruled. I could care less about the Elite, but I watched the tag match while I typed all that, and it was a fun spotfest. I would die for Jungle Boy, and I see people down on Luchasaurus, but I'd much rather watch him than all four heels in this. They have a good thing going, Jungle Boy works the whole match, and a literal dinosaur comes in to do stupid big man highspots. It works. Having said that, without context I still found it odd that they retained and one of the heel teams didn't steal the titles from the other. The champs felt like an afterthought. Ladder match was another stupid ridiculous fun spotfest. Orange is the fucking best, I'll never tire of him doing his thing. The thing he did on the ladder bridge was amazing. And all the big meaty men slapping meat stuff in this ruled too. So many fucking absurd bumps and spots. There were a couple times where time seemed to stop while someone set up furniture for the next highspot (Christian standing around in the ring alone for about 10 mins after the stage spot was the worst example, he could have won about 50 times over in that time). The final powerbomb Starks took on the ladder was DISGUSTINGLY FERAL. Yikes. Jade Cargill took me on a WILD RIDE. The big PPV entrance. Starting a match with sexual assault. (I assume/hope beyond hope that it was an allusion to the character she was dressed as that I didn't understand.) Busting out a frogsplash. But I actually liked what they did here a lot, they kept up such a fast pace that they never let the crowd fall into a lull after coming down from two crazy spotfests. Jade should never lose. M I S E R I A C A N T A R E !!!!! MISERIA FUCKING CANTARE. TAKE ME NOW LORD I AM READY. Since this is Punk's Punk tribute feud I've been daring to hope that this was a real possibility. You don't understand dudes. I was a 13 year old girl when Sing the Sorrow came out. Miseria Cantare is my motherfucking JAM. When I first heard about CM Punk I thought coming out to this song sounded like the coolest shit in the world. I never actually watched ROH so I never saw his entrance. I saw AFI at a festival once but they didn't play the fucking song and I was so bummed. So a wrestling entrance is the closest I'm probably ever going to get to seeing it live. And thank the fucking heavens that AEW is the land of wish fulfillment because MISERIA CANTARE. INCINERATE! I should probably watch the match too. Yeah that was fucking GNARLY. Punk has surely overtaken whoever it previously was as the Best Bleeder in Wrestling. This was just a picture perfect blow off, exactly what it needed to be. Glorious revenge babyface Punk is a good Punk. They've been slowly building to that Wardlow moment for ages, and I like how it came just after Wardlow won the ladder match and he knew for sure he didn't need to put up with Max's shit ever again. It's also the perfect way to redirect MJF after losing to Punk. Anthony Khan old mate, we need to talk about the women. One thing that unfortunately hasn't changed in AEW is the women always being stuck in a bad spot on PPV. They use PPV matches to build to more TV more often than not it seems. They really need to do better. The Lights Out match was about 12 months ago now, if I remember right, and it feels like exactly NOTHING has happened or progressed to get us to this match, which should in theory be a huge PPV grudge match for the title. It just isn't treated like it. And what's worse, what happens is the exact same, tired, disappointing "Baker retains after a bunch of interference" finish. Rosa looked stupid as fuck here falling to the same old shit. It will look good when Thunder Rosa (presumably) wins the belt on TV in Texas, but at this point it will feel more like "Thank God Baker finally dropped the title" and not like the cathartic coronation of Thunder Rosa after a meaningful chase. And it doesn't excuse the entire women's division basically flatlining for 50 out of 52 weeks of the year. Do better. Bryan/Mox was good but frankly William Regal coming out like a pissed off dad to bonk their heads together was far more cool and badass than anything in the actual match, save perhaps for Mox SHOOT DRAWING BLOOD scratching up Bryan's back. Filthy. I worked a night shift and was holding out on no sleep, but as soon as Adam Cole came out I was out like a fucking light. I caught up and I thought they did well to keep the crowd involved after such an exhausting show, even if it was in the "your turn my turn" ironic chanting style. But the match itself was the usual Adam Cole your turn, my turn blur anyway. What does anyone see in that guy? I would die for that cowboy though. Hangman desperately needs a major angle. Ever since he won the belt he's felt like the 6th most interesting thing happening at best. I had absolutely no interest in this match going in. But it was fun enough and the finish was good, and it didn't super feel like it outstayed its welcome.

I watched this show in three separate shifts and I still found it exhausting. I get that they're always trying to top themselves and PPVs are more scarce, but it's too much, and I'm only on my second PPV. I missed the opener live and started with the tag title match, and it was great and even my family watching were into it, thought the Lucha Bros were so cool, popped for the high spots, bought all the nearfalls, for a while... and then by the millionth nearfall they were just numb. So was I. By the time they got to the actual finish, it was like, oh, okay, that's what did it. It's just too much. And even THAT would be okay in a vacuum as the one insane never ending match (kind of like how Bucks/Lucha Bros was at All Out), but then the next match felt the same way, going on and on and on. Then the next one. Then the next one. And we didn't even see the fucking 25 min opener! They have to do something about these PPVs, I love AEW and I don't even know if I want to watch the next PPV live all in one go next time, even if I'm able to. I know they used to go all out on Takeovers, but they were like 5 match cards and still stayed under 3 hours. Even trying to add variety by making street fights, falls count anywhere, etc. doesn't work when you have the same pace, the same length, the same fatigue from a million spots in every match. Punk vs. Eddie was the best and most satisfying match on the show, not only because of the story and the match itself, but also because it was the only match on the card that didn't feel like it should have been 5+ mins shorter. Having said that, it was still a really good show. Every match was at least good I guess, but like I said, they were just all long, and it was hard not to feel that was the main takeaway. I've just caught up on Darby/MJF and it ruled pretty hard. I know they're probably building MJF up for a title shot next year, but honestly I only want to see MJF wrestling that well like once a year max, just to prove he can. He's too much of a shithead to be doing Eddie Dean sequences and getting stand off applause. But it was fun shit, and once he took over his offense was fucking insane. That powerbomb onto the knee killed me. And I liked the bullshit at the finish despite it making the babyface look like a fucking moron, which I hate. But MJF can brag about winning with a headlock takeover forever so it worked. The Cody tag had no business being on the card, and was another thing that made the show needlessly long. I could not give less of a fuck about Cody and everyone in his orbit. God Bless Tay Conti, she's great and works so hard, but absolutely nobody on earth thought she was winning here. I really hope they move to Britt and Rosa, and possibly give Rosa the belt too, because Britt has no other credible challengers and it's hurting the division. Another thing that bugged me was the Eddie spots. Not that they did something for Eddie, I get why and it was nice, but just that they did the exact same tribute spots in like three different matches. Like, if you're going to do it, pick one guy and let them do the tribute. By the time Jericho did his (and he's the guy with the closest actual connection to Eddie) it felt cheap because I'd already seen it twice. Felt like a left hand, right hand situation. Eddie Punk fucking ruled from start to finish. The build was amazing, the way they came out laser focused and just fucking got into it was the best. Punk doing fucking John Cena spots and leaning into the fact that he's basically the Being John Cena champion of AEW, glorious. We are inching closer and closer to full on asshole Punk. And Eddie is great and deserves the world. They have to give him a big win on a big show soon man. Anywho for all my whinging I watched the show to see them strap up Page, and they did so it was worth every penny. Fucking loved the horse entrance. The note on the graphic DES-TROYED ME completely. I'm not even 3 months in and Hangman has only just come back and I barely have the slightest clue who he is or what the story is between him and the Elite but I am ALL FUCKING IN on this sweet little cowboy bloke. If they fucked this up I probably would have tapped out of wrestling again and gone back to living a fulfilling life in the real world. Heaven forbid. The match was good but one of those matches I couldn't possibly pay any attention to because I was too concerned about the result. Also please let Omega go away for a long time and heal and do whatever because frankly I just can't get around Omega. I did not enjoy the Bucks thing at the finish AT ALL. First of all, it completely distracted me from the finish and took away from it being a big, momentous climax. I was too busy watching them and trying to figure out the angle to realise that it WAS the finish. Also, just the way that they shot it, with the weird long close ups on both Bucks ACTING~ just wasn't good, I didn't even get what they were going for until I started reading things afterwards. I understand that it was a callback to the wider Hangman story and wasn't for me, but it felt unnecessary. They could have completed the story by just staying the fuck away and not interfering. But anyway that's a minor complaint because the main thing was that he won clean as a fucking sheet and he won clean as a fucking sheet. I hate that all the things I had to say were complaints because it was a good show with a great title win.

ALSO Britt Baker and Abadon fucking ruled too! I was not expecting to get into that but that was cool. Perfect use of Abadon. Also full credit to Abadon, there were two other girls dressed as zombies in this match, which you might think would kind of soften her effect, but it was the opposite because it literally felt like watching the difference between someone dressing up for Halloween and an actual zombie. (You know what I mean.) She is fair dinkum committed to the bit. But it was a fun piece of garbage match theatre. I know the point of the table is to break, but honestly it looked so much more painful that it DIDN'T break, those two big spots looked fucking gnarly. And the thumbtack spots worked, especially as a callback to Britt/Rosa. I'm a deathmatch novice so don't shoot but I don't think I've ever seen anyone shove a handful of tacks into someone's mouth, that was the coolest spot in the world. Enjoyed all of this. I also enjoy Britt Baker as a Hardcore Legend in a 2004 Randy Orton, adding credibility kind of way.