Stiva

Hosted by Tony Schiavone in front of some truly terrible green screen but, nevertheless, a really fun B show outing. Commentary from JR and Excalibur for the most part. Darby Allin/CIMA was a good little TV sprint with CIMA meshing pretty fantastically to Allin and his ludicrous body control. The 8 man was a mess of spots, some fluid, most kind of awkward and the crowd was fairly dead throughout it. And to make matters worse, the cameras didn't catch Orange Cassidy interacting with the kid dressed as him in the front row. It really feels like The Lucha Bros have to win the tournament and then they need ROH to finally fold so we can get The Briscoes in the division. The women's tag had some decent moments but Ford seems really green and there was some bad miscommunication and timing with some of the spots. Though Allie feels like she should be someone that they can focus more going forward; she was a good FIP and hot tag. The 6 man was probably my favourite of the night; it was a condensed, TV match version of the PPV one and probably better for it with all the guys getting a shine, some fun comedy spots and more build for the tag tourney. Even though I'm not high on all the teams they have, they've done a good job of casting enough doubt over each match in the tag tournament so far. Either way, this is a show that's certain to have some awesome little gems on it going forward.

Eddie Kingston in a studio wrestling setting sounds pretty great to me.

The dark show idea is great and seems absolutely aimed at the likes of this forum who rue the fact so many cool match-ups were never filmed.

Why buy the PPV when you got Jeff Cobb for free? I’d have tuned out after that too.

I didn’t see Raw but did they even give Rey a promo where he talked about the attack on his son and what he was going to do about it? That would have been a decent bridge other than him just wandering out with the guy.

Popped huge for Tyson Fury, he's been one of the best stories in heavyweight boxing for years and years and has charisma and the gab to spare. He'd be genuinely fantastic in a celebrity Mania build. Kofi getting squashed was pretty ridiculous, he should have probably got SOME offense in and if like me, you don't watch UFC, the ending was Brock Lesnar getting run off by a dud with a dad bod and a leg brace. We talk about Raw dragging but this thing moved almost too quickly at times; I think it worked as a hype job for the PPV (what few matches are announced anyway) but a lot of guys were barely featured at all. Like, Orton and Styles hit one move in their time on screen and then they were gone. Still, the commentary was 100x better, I liked that we were spared bad backstage vignettes and I'm pretty confident that Rollins isn't coming out of the cell as the champion so, we can be positive.

I really hope those arches open and close like the old Saturday Night set

I thought they pretty much knocked it out of the park, even if the Pac/Page match was a bit of a lull. Could have probably used another tag match in that spot to break things up a little bit. But, I thought they looked like a pretty big deal; great hot crowd, serious presentation, great, relaxed but informed commentary and a hot angle at the end of the show. I'm fine with Swagger coming in as part of Jericho's group, especially since I think the company needs a couple more hosses to break things up a bit. Luchasaurus/Swagger could be genuinely fun. Though, I do like how the PPV is probably going to have Swagger/Goldust which I'm pretty sure was a running feud on WWECW in 2008.

I really want a gauntlet match wherein Keith Lee has to go through all of Undisputed Era to win the NXT Title and just steamrolls those nerds in 30 seconds flat. Dude looked like the biggest star on the show in the opening match, they really need to push him into the spotlight.

I’m all for a Miz and Morrison reunion

This has to be a slow-burn heel turn for Seth, right? Surely Heyman is too savvy to not know this is terrible babyface booking, right? Then again, he’s emasculating Mike Kanellis every week on TV so I don’t know.

The problem I have with Mauro is the sheer volume of his voice. When you chuck in his tortured, lame references, it becomes completely unbearable. Yeah, he has a personality but it’s grating in the extreme. People like him because he makes references and for 90% of people, references are the highest art form imaginable.

I actually thought the Network hour contained most of the stuff that should have been on USA. Ending with that huge brawl was a hot ending and Lio Rush and Matt Riddle come off as much bigger stars than Undisputed ERA, even if the brand is going to be built around the latter. I’m sure someone thinks they’re cool but “stoned up dude who kicks people in the face in bare feet” is a much cooler aesthetic to me than “Dude who shouts his own name”

Bayley and Sasha should be the babyfaces in this feud.

Holy shit, Roman coming out to boos after narrating a video about a cancer charity is something else. Oh man, it's a meaningful, heartfelt promo about charity work. Live TV everybody. ANYTHING can happen

Not going to repeat too much of what others have said but I dug the show and still love how they cut and present their video angles. For me personally, I’ve been getting diminishing returns as each of these big shows come and go. I’m definitely ready for this roster to move to weekly TV with shorter matches and a more angle-heavy focus.

Jurassic Express are so much fun, they’re total breakout stars.

Yikes, I’m not sure the TNA style entrance videos being shown on TV is the right idea

Jazz's look is incredible! Badass as all get out.

If, like me, you couldn't find the Buy-In on AEW's Youtube page, it's streaming on TNTs

I feel like Orton needs a recurring spot on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia so we can see how he compares to The Maniac

Maybe Wyatt has learned that his promos and character need some form of solid, explicitly stated motivation and cause this time around...

Luger was clearly reinvigorated by jumping back to WCW which led to some fantastic work from 95-97. He’s a really underrated part of the whole nWo hot streak.

I really hope they hit some home runs on the early TV because that'll set the tone for the dates following. Like you say, they're building some momentum and they just have to hit the right air pocket to keep it up.

The obvious thing to do with Cassidy seems to be him doing his shtick and jobbing for a while until he, somehow, finds himself in a big TV main event and then shows that he can go. Similar to the match he had with David Starr a while back. Where you go from there, I don’t know but I actually have some faith that these guys are thinking long-term, to a degree.