SmartMark15

Give Bryan the damn NXT belt, cowards. I know it won't happen, but man, that's one way to give the Wednesday Night War a shot in the arm.

Same idea that went into pushing the barricades back further from the ring after Omega and PAC both smashed their knees on the barricades doing dives.

So after the first two weeks with the blowaway closers, it seems AEW have settled into a default groove where we have a general sense for the rhythm of their shows. That being said, I'm a fan. Is it a perfect show? Of course not. But I've enjoyed what we've been getting. I really liked this week's episode with the big promos especially with Mox. SCU winning was a nice way to end the night.

A step down from their 2016 classic but this was still mostly good. Sabre went for Strong's left limbs in both the arm and the leg while Strong used his power moves to try and knock Sabre's wind out. Not quite as tight and tense as the 2015 match as this match went much longer. I also didn't like the little digression about the boots. That was some of that PWG silliness that just gave it a tonal dissonance that detracted from it. Outside of that, all the offense looked great of course. Just issues with pacing and structure here. The victory itself was a great moment especially when Sabre just spilled out into the crowd after the bell rang. ****

Yeah, the finger work is awesome in this. Gotta mention how great Hero's performance is here. That first stomp, he had such indignant horror on his face that just gets even better as Ego and Excalibur explain the cut on his finger. Every time ZSJ got a hold of that arm, you could see the fear in Hero's eyes. Great match with a great sense of escalation all throughout given a rich dimension by the arm work and cut on the hand. ****3/4

Roddy and Bryan beat the shit out of The Young Bucks and it's awesome. The whole first ten minutes of this is just Roddy and Bryan being just brutal to the kids and basically destroying them. It's amazing to watch. Bryan is head and shoulders above everyone in this match, he really projects this aura of intensity and danger that makes him stand out. Of course the weakness here is that The Bucks are sadly miscast. Long before they were cool names on the indies as heroes of PWG, they were incredibly hated by the crowd (possibly cause of their TNA affiliations as well). As such, casting them as the sympathetic babyfaces just didn't work. Add on to that they'd yet to fully figure out many of their signature spots (seeing Nick do a facebuster without immediately transitioning into a Moonsault outside is just weird now) and they don't have the same energy to them that made their future matches so notable. Not to mention that the finish did seem to come out of nowhere and felt unfitting for The Bucks to overcome the dominating force of the Dolphins that quickly. Otherwise, this is a fun beat down with another godly Bryan performance. ****1/4

Roddy is in the middle of his career great PWG World Title reign and as such is one of the most hated heels in wrestling. ZSJ is the hot new prospect trying to take the title away. Although there's a certain contingent of Roddy fans in attendance that night, this crowd is for the most part anti-Roddy. It's a very simple match at its core, ZSJ is the technically superior worker trying to find openings to go after Roddy's arm, tap him out, or catch a quick pin. As for Roddy, he's trying to grab just the right hold of Sabre to throw him around and bomb his life away. This match plays out incredibly tensely with a real sense of struggle playing out in the transitions as well. Whenever Roddy is able to string some bombs together, Sabre really has to fight his way back into the advantage, focusing on trying to catch Roddy off guard. There are some great moments of Roddy selling as well such as when he came off the top for the Superplex and the elbow bothered him. Not too much limb selling from Roddy here but I think it's justified in that Sabre never really got an extended stretch of being able to work it over. Awesome sense of struggle and rising crowd heat as the PWG faithful wanted to see a title change. Excellent finish too, incredibly credible and fittingly brutal. ****3/4

I agree that this was unfocused. Definitely one of Bryan's most maximalist efforts (take note I've yet to see many of his 40+ minute matches) as he and Hero really draw on their own influences and wear it on their sleeves here. Their love for European style wrestling with the opening mat work, the King's Road influences with the big suplexes, the dramatic indieriffic moments of Bryan getting busted off a dive to the outside. But the thing, is Bryan's just such a good wrestler that his performance in each disjointed section is just excellent. They feel like stitched together segments from different matches, but they're all very good segments on their own. That being said, there's so much more good than bad in this match. It's very much Bryan and Chris's take on a big epic formula and it delivers more than it doesn't. Bryan's selling in particular and his babyface body language does a lot to drive the narrative forward and give it weight. ****1/2

In other good news, Luchasaurus' injury seems to be not as bad as initially thought. Instead of a tear in the hamstring, he seems to have just strained it which means he'll be back much sooner than later.

They've done a really good job of making the top babyfaces feel like huge stars.

Another really good show. More focus on the wrestling this week with the nonstop wrestling in the first hour but I think the show peaked with the Cody vs. Inner Circle brawl. Otherwise, I thought everything was all right to good. Even the stuff that was dying got won over by the end which is a really good look for AEW, honestly. Not my favorite episode to be sure but TV's always going to be up and down.

Here's my take on this particular match in video form (as well as three other matches from the start of 1991).

Philippine indie wrestling company Manila Wrestling Federation debuted their online clip show, Aksyonovela today on YouTube. You can give it a watch here.

These two guys just beat the shit out of each other in this match. Ilja gets the jump on Starr on the ramp and they just go into a strikefest bombfest for a good 12 minutes. What elevates this for me is that brief bit of character work at the end with the dastardly sell out Ilja playing the coward to cut off Starr's momentum. A compact match that just went a hundred miles an hour. ****1/2

Rey Fenix defends the AAA Mega Title. Kenny got a much better reaction than I expected during this match. Really enjoyed this as neither guy seemed particularly interested in killing time which is when they're both at their best. Kenny worked over the back early with a really great looking backbreaker. Fenix got his beautiful dive spots in. But things really kicked into the next gear when Kenny started throwing the V Triggers and busted Fenix's nose up. That combined with the big bombs Kenny threw at the end there really did a lot to elevate the match as Fenix did his best to try and weather the storm of Omega's brutality. Great match, my favorite Omega match since he left New Japan. ****1/4

That was probably my favorite Kenny Omega match since he left New Japan. The busted face did a lot to enhance that finishing stretch.

Holy crap, did Kenny bust Fenix's face with a V Trigger? Or was it something else I missed?

Tuned in just now for the Omega-Fenix match.

They seem to be actively promoting it on online and even mentioned it on commentary before tv began.

Nice little narrative thread here of Starr having the harder hits but Deppen having the ability to string together flashier offense in order to get the better of him. All the offense looked great here, with some nice looking strike offs. I liked Deppen's crazed coffin drop off the top to the floor and I really loved Starr's whiplash bump into the second rope. Really great atmosphere and it escalated nicely. Dope match. ****1/4

This was a really great piece of work with Gresham frustrating Starr on the mat to open. The arm work is really compelling and creative which is what Gresham excels at. The character work of Starr getting more frustrated with Gresham added a nice layer but the best narrative thread here is the arm work which Starr sells incredibly consistently throughout the whole match. And of course when the big bombs and dives started coming out, it escalated into a really exciting bit of indieriffic fun. Awesome stuff. ****1/2

Not sure if I've done this yet but I'd like to throw my own channel into the ring here. Been doing video essays on anything that particularly interests me in wrestling that day. https://youtube.com/JosephMontecilloYT

Great opening segment to build to SCU-Lucha Bros down the line (kind of telegraphed how the other tournament match is gonna go though). On top of that, I like the addition of a quick squash plus that awesome vignette for Cody-Jericho.

I did a video talking about how much I loved the closing angle. Check it out.

Janela-Omega in a Lights Out match is on tap for next week. Holy shit.