Boss Rock

Now that we're farther into the tournament, more exciting matches happening/could happen. Cobb-Naito and Okada-CIMA were both good.

I totally forgot to do this, but for 1985 I'm switching Steamboat for Funk.

Another really good show I thought. The first match was an awesome spotfest and I look forward to a potential ReDragon-Jurassic Express title match. The Bryan-Mox-Regal stuff is terrific and I love that they appear to be going in the stable direction that was first teased. Hopefully they face Sydal and Moriarity next week. I was skeptical about JAS but they're off to a good start. Daniel Garcia declaring himself a "sports entertainer" is the second biggest heel move this year. Jericho's AEW run has been very peaks and valleys but he seems to be back on the upswing. Warldow-Scorpio was...well the result was correct but the crowd really doesn't care about Scorpio due to the booking and this wasn't an ideal first title defense. That being said, the beatdown was great and proof that Wardlow is an absolute star in the making. The Hardyz-PP tag was solid for what it was. I don't need to see a Hardyz title run but I am interested in them against nearly every AEW tag team. The main event, while not on the level of Lights Out last year, was really good but Britt's no-selling of some spots was pretty blatant. Wouldn't be surprised if there's legit heat between the two.

I enjoyed Naito-Tana as well and really appreciated the ending, but wish they hadn't taken it so slow the first few minutes.

Togo is a definite lock. And while I think his NJPW work trumps his Dragon Gate resume, Shingo is definitely in consideration.

Okada-Taichi was really good, but still not as good as their New Beginning match in 2020. CIMA-Goto was also pretty fun. Shame they didn't get the rest of Stronghearts in this tournament.

Hiromu-Suzuki was really good, like the Taichi-Ibushi G1 match but with overhand chops instead of kicks. Unless we have a major upset coming, I'm guessing the semis are going to be Okada-Cobb and Ospreay-Shingo. Thinking Cobb wins the whole thing.

Two recent ones in AEW would be Eddie-Miro and Eddie-Punk. Both only given a few weeks build but were incredibly captivating and entertaining programs.

Couldn't get through the whole show, but Douki-Sabre was a hoot. Ospreay-ELP was pretty good and had a cool finish, but nowhere near what they've done before.

Awesome list! Honestly forgot about some of these matches considering how much good stuff there's been.

MVP vs. Matt Hardy 2007-2008. Terrific year-long chase with the MVP challenge series, the tag title run, and then Matt returning at Mania to cost MVP Money in the Bank. I do wonder if they still intended to have the blow-off match after Mania considering Matt got shoot injured, but it played very nicely into the whole thing.

I'm curious if there's a case for Sting now or at least a re-evaluation considering his current work in AEW.

I dunno what everyone else was watching, I thought this was a really good show.

So far Desperado-Okada and Shingo-Ishii have been the only must-watches of the tournament (big shocker). But Okada being a jerk to Wato was fun. And we saw some flashes of the old Dick Togo before more House of Torture nonsense.

1985: Stan Hansen, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat 1995: Kenta Kobashi, Jushin Liger, Mitsuharu Misawa 2005: John Cena, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson 2015: Daniel Bryan, Sasha Banks, Kazuchika Okada 2025: Hook, Jade Cargill, Bron Breakker

I saw this pointed out on Twitter and I agree, it's good that this show delivered when you consider last year's is remembered for the dud explosion.

Pretty terrific show. Gonna be really, really hard to top that. Almost unfair how stacked AEW is. I wasn't a huge fan of the finish to Britt-Rosa even if it was expected. But if they do the title change in San Antonio, which is looking pretty obvious, then all will be forgiven.

I remember being blown away by how much I enjoyed Erick vs. Reigns at Clash of Champions 2019. Felt that it ridiculously overachieved.

I've always wanted to get that shirt.

Should be a great show and some matches that are genuinely unpredictable and could go a number of ways.

I also can't imagine TV ratings getting much lower. It seems like those still watching are going to keep watching regardless and will watch the entire show.

Could end up not being related to Cody at all, but naturally folks are speculating.

Cobb is another one who's not particularly tall but carries himself and wrestles like a behemoth.

Oh yeah, I will absolutely pass on those as well.

Really enjoyed the show. Rosa pinning Britt and the fact this feud wasn't given a ton of time makes me wonder if Britt retains and Thunder wins on a later Dynamite.