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Showing posts with label Orange Cassidy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orange Cassidy. Show all posts

AEW All Out (Sept. 5, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



All Out was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on September 5, 2020 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the second event in the All Out chronology.

The event was originally slated to take place in the Sears Center, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just like the previous edition of All Out were held Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation, the state's equivalent to a state of emergency, since March 9, which banned large public gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the state. Instead, the event was moved to Daily's Place, where all of AEW's events have been held since March.

Eleven matches were contested at the event, including two on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated MJF to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, Orange Cassidy defeated Chris Jericho in a Mimosa Mayhem match, FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) defeated Kenny Omega and Adam Page to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship, and Hikaru Shida defeated Thunder Rosa to retain the AEW Women's World Championship.



Match Results:



Singles Match
Joey Janela (with Sonny Kiss) def. Serpentico (with Luther)


A completely rotten match won by arguably the worst talent (or lack of) on the entire AEW roster with the second place candidate taking the L here. I have remotely no clue why you would even start your PPV off with a completely "nothing" match like this that does absolutely NOTHING to garner interest in buying the PPV later tonight.

I remember chatting with a friend and saying that Sonny Kiss was great back in Lucha Underground, but I feel that him being associated with Janela is going to only bring him down. Kiss' glass ceiling is going to be whether or not the TNT Network (and more importantly mainstream wrestling as a whole) is ready to accept an extremely flamboyant wrestler (that's not a complete gimmick nor parody) as a serious competitor. He fit right in with the exoticos in Lucha Underground, but it's hard for me to tell what his shelf life is going to be in this company long-term.





Tag Team Match
Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) def. The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver)


I couldn't give a flying fuck about this match. It's the same as every other Private Party match, but just against the bottom of the rung guys in the Dark Order. The boys in PP do some nice spots but their basics STILL need a lot of work.


I LOVE Private Party's finish though.


I still can't help but chant "SPOTS! SPOTS! SPOTS!" during their entrance theme now after making that joke a while back.








Tooth and Nail Match
Big Swole def. Britt Baker (with Rebel) by knockout


I'm sure Big Swole is a nice person outside of wrestling in her personal life, but as an onscreen character and an in-ring talent, she's fucking horrible. I don't see why this company invested so much time into this nothing feud. While I love Britt Baker's heel persona, I'm fed up with all of these "role models" in mainstream wrestling, whether it's Madison Rayne in IMPACT as the "Locker Room Leader", Sasha Banks & Bayley in WWE as the "Golden Role Models", and here with Baker as the "Roll Model". I'm just sick and fed up of hearing that shit. Come up with something else original that not everyone and their grandmothers are using right now. I want to add that as much as I like Britt Baker's heel persona, I never thought her in-ring skills were much to write home about either, despite the fact she has a pretty sick submission finish. Reba's reactions (Rebel) was the best thing about this "cinematic" match - if you could even call it that. If this was supposed to be a dig at WWE's cinematic matches, then they definitely have a lot to learn in terms of cinematography.


Britt Baker stabbing herself with her own needle that loaded with numbing agent.

Britt Baker lost the match after falling victim to her own laughing gas/sedation.


At the end of the day, I thought the finish was creative, but Britt Baker buried it when she woke up immediately following the decision. She's a fucking dentist after all, so she should know how long laughing gas/sedation would keep someone under. C'mon, now. In either case, I'm ready for both of these women to move on to another feud. 







Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt)



I hate to admit it, but I honestly liked this match more than the AEW Tag Title match later in this show. It didn't overstay it's welcome and it showed the best of both teams here, even though I wasn't too crazy about how much stuff Jungle Boy was kicking out of at the end. I thought the Jurassic Express should have pulled off the upset towards the end, but of course, the BTE boys had to turn things around for the win. To their credit though, I like seeing them working with a more serious "edge" them now as if they are teasing a heel turn too, much like they have been planting the seeds to the point that it's inevitable with Kenny Omega for the last few months now.








21-man Casino Battle Royale
Winner received a future AEW World Championship match
Lance Archer won by last eliminating Eddie Kingston


Casino Battle Royale entrances and eliminations
DrawEntrantOrderEliminated byEliminations
ClubsTrent9Lance Archer1
Christopher Daniels2Jake Hager0
Jake Hager6Sonny Kiss1
The Blade1Will Hobbs0
Rey Fenix4Darby Allin0
DiamondsFrankie Kazarian12The Butcher1
Will Hobbs16Lance Archer1
Chuck Taylor5Santana and Ortiz0
Santana8Trent?1
Ortiz10Lance Archer1
HeartsBilly3Brian Cage0
Penta El Zero M11Frankie Kazarian0
Ricky Starks13Darby Allin0
Brian Cage17Lance Archer3
Darby Allin14Brian Cage2
SpadesShawn Spears15Matt Sydal0
Eddie Kingston20Lance Archer1
The Butcher18Matt Sydal1
Sonny Kiss7Brian Cage1
Lance Archer-Winner5
JokerMatt Sydal19Eddie Kingston2




Matt Sydal pulled the Joker card and made his AEW debut in this match, only to deliver the first scary as hell moment on this show when he slipped and fell off the ropes while attempting to do a Shooting Star Press. That scared the hell out of me seeing it live and I thought we were watching that guy break his neck from how bad that was. Fortunately, he was fine and was able to complete the match. As of this posting (9/11/20) he hasn't reported any injuries.


Introducing Will Hobbs. One of AEW's best kept secrets tucked away on AEW Dark...


This match marked the standout performance of Will Hobbs. Now where have they been hiding this guy? Dude was on par with Big E's size while showing off Keith Lee's power and ability. This is a guy they should be featuring on Dynamite instead of regulating to Dark every week.

Seems like AEW is just pairing people off to rekindle old Lucha Underground dynamics and/of feuds as that was the exact vibe I got from Sonny Kiss eliminating Jake Hager. Kiss/Janela are already booked to face Hager/Jericho on Dynamite this week as payback from Jericho's brutal attack on Janela the week prior in his "warm-up" match for Cassidy later tonight.




Stupidest bump of the night (up to this point anyway) went to Brian Cage performing a Border Toss on Darby Allin trapped within a body bag full of thumb tacks to land on the corner of the stage/ramp. There was absolutely no reason to do this bump but a million and one ways that this could have ended horribly wrong. This wasn't cool nor amazing to watch. It was just fucking stupid.

I was fine with Lance Archer picking up the win here, but it pretty much spoiled the main event in a sense. You knew that AEW are marks for that New Japan style matches and feuds, so you know that they want to setup the Wrestle Kingdom rematch between Lance Archer and Jon Moxley at Full Gear.








Broken Rules Match
Matt Hardy def. Sammy Guevara
Had Hardy lost, he would have had to leave AEW


The match started out into the stadium arena where the Stadium Stampede Match took place at their last PPV and quickly spilled out into the backstage area/parking area. One thing led to another that set Sammy and Matt up on a raised platform that saw Sammy SPEAR Matt Hardy off the platform, seemingly to go through the two tables that were set up below. What happened instead was their lower bodies hit ONE of the tables while the back of Matt Hardy's head hit the unforgiving concrete below.




This was the moment where I was absolutely disgusted with this company. I've seen wrestling podcasters, journalists, wrestlers, and even the die-hard of their fanbase express their absolute disgust with how AEW handled this situation.





As of this posting (9/11/20), Reby Hardy (Matt's wife) has reported that Matt Hardy has suffered a concussion when he was checked out at the hospital that evening and was kept for more testing Sunday. On the other end of things, Tony Khan has been removing all of the blame on himself and pointing it towards the ring doctor who checked Hardy out and clarified that Matt was able to continue after administering a concussion impact test. There's no way in hell that they ran an impact test when the match was restarted within the span of 3-4 minutes after Matt Hardy was knocked out unconscious for at least 45 seconds. That tells you right there that there's no sort of concussion protocol in place nor that Tony Khan have the slightest idea of how to administer one, despite the fact that he owns a fucking football team. This entire incident showed me a complete lack of proper leadership and this money mark - that's all what he is at this point to me - only cares about booking his fantasy matches and jerking off to high spots no matter who gets hurt as long as it pops a rating. It's HIS fucking company. He could have easily overruled the doctor to stop this match. Stipulation or not, this match should have been stopped the moment Matt Hardy was knocked unconscious for his own safety. Instead, Khan is giving his company a very bad look not only to his fanbase but to the wrestling industry as a whole for this false narrative that he is painting with how this entire situation played out Saturday night.






But yet, you have ass-hats out there like Dave Meltzer is siding with Tony Khan on this decision.  Like seriously, how much is that dude paying you to blow him every week in your writing and radio shows dude? Anyone with a fully functioning brain could tell that Matt Hardy suffered a concussion in that match. You could see it in Ref Aubrey's face when it turned pale when she trying to get him to respond. That was arguably the hardest moment to watch as wrestling fan out of my 30+ years of being a fan. When I saw Matt Hardy's head hit that concrete and his body stiffened up like he was frozen, I thought we just saw that man die live on PPV and it legitimately scared the shit out of me for the second time tonight during this broadcast. If I saw a man die on this broadcast tonight, I can guarantee you that I would not have come back to watch this sport again.




For me personally? I'm siding with Konnan and Disco Inferno on this discussion.

Seriously, this should be the last straw and wake up call for every fan out there that fails to realize week to week that these reckless, downright STUPID, and completely unnecessary bumps (especially with or without crowds) aren't needed to make any match any better. That doesn't just go for AEW, but for all of modern wrestling as a whole.







Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship
Hikaru Shida (c) defeated Thunder Rosa


I was hyped for this match ever since it was announced and they did the mock MMA contract signing for it between both respective champions.


Watching this live was pretty darn tough after the horror show that we witnessed with the Matt Hardy situation, but Rosa and Shida definitely had my favorite match of the evening by far. If you don't watch anything else from this shit-storm of a PPV, go out of your way to watch this match. This is EASILY the best thing on this show and not only the second best women's match in this company's history. That's shocking too when Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb killed it on Dynamite a few days prior to this event.


Another completely unnecessary, reckless bump that could have EASILY ended horribly, like many things on this card.

The only knock I have against this match was the diving senton spot out onto the stage where if Thunder Rosa's head and neck was any closer to those steps from the entrance ramp that Shida would've killed or paralyzed her from the landing. Can ANYONE in this fucking company tell these people enough is enough when it comes to these reckless and completely unnecessary bumps? Seeing that spot really made me mad, especially after what we saw with Matt Hardy in the match prior to this.

Outside of that one knock, this match raised the bar for women's wrestling in this company. I felt sorry for the folks who had follow this act. NWA's Thunder Rosa may have lost here, but she has put on two standout performances in every match AEW has featured her in.








Eight-Man Tag Team Match
Matt Cardona, Scorpio Sky, and The Natural Nightmares (Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall) (with Allie and Brandi Rhodes) def. The Dark Order (Brodie Lee, Colt Cabana, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) (with Anna Jay)



This was easily the bathroom break match of the night and should have served as the buffer following the Matt Hardy situation. Piss poor match order placement in regard of having these matches following that event. If the crowd was struggling to cope with what had transpired in the last match then they really didn't care about this shit. I know I sure as hell didn't. Hell, I didn't even know that Brodie Lee was even in this match until it started. I thought it was going to be full of more of standard losers of the Dark Order. To be fair though, Stu Grayson and Evil Uno are decent workers. I'll give them that much, but they are saddled with this gimmick that is utter shit, no matter what AEW does to polish this turd.

Can someone explain to me why Brandi Rhodes is already back to managing the Natural Nightmares? She couldn't sell that attack that her and Cody suffered for a few weeks at least? She stayed out for what felt like a goddamn week or two only to show up at the PPV like nothing happened. She only came out here to contribute to some of the run-ins in this match, namely to get some payback on Anna Jay (who strangled her to death during the assault on Cody) - when Allie could have done that to the same capacity. The Nightmare Family has all of these managers and extra sidekicks and associates that they are starting to look as foolish as the Dark Order as the weeks and months have rolled on since the start of AEW. Speaking of friends, Matt Cardona sure looks like he's taking full advantage of not being tested on WWE's Wellness Policy. Scorpio Sky seemed like he was just there to be the extra guy on this mash-up of guys who needed to be in this filler match that should have been relegated to Dynamite the following week.

Jim Ross got a lot of heat online for his wardrobe malfunction comment he made towards Anna Jay on commentary. I laughed hearing it live, but at the same time, it just adds to the laundry list of questionable moments of him on commentary since signing with this company. It just adds to the proof that JR doesn't give a flying fuck working here as long as he's just collecting that fat paycheck while squandering away his own credibility by endorsing this tomfoolery going on in this company with his name and voice attached to it.

And for the record, I can't speak for anyone else, but while I think that Dustin Rhodes has had a career renaissance since the tail end of his last WWE run to now in terms of his ring work, I don't give a damn about seeing him face Brodie Lee for the TNT title on Dynamite. I don't understand why they are rushing this match, along with having Brandi coming back so soon, when they could afford to space this out a bit. Let the Dark Order breathe a bit and garner more big wins if they are so dead set on establish them as this "dominant" faction (laughs), even though they are no less threatening than Aces & Eights (BEFORE Bully Ray was revealed as the leader) at this point.




Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (with Tully Blanchard) defeated Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c)


I watched this match twice - once live and again a few days later to make sure I didn't miss anything. I don't fault the talents involved, but I didn't think this was a very good match at all. The best tag team match on the card goes to the Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express in my humble opinion. FTR against Omega and Page felt like a styles clash at multiple points in this match. The lack of a pumped, enthusiastic crowd for this match hurt it even more, along with the fact that Omega was half-assing the selling of the limbs that FTR were tirelessly working over. Working over Omega proved to be for nothing when Page was the one who got pinned when it was all said and done. Did I miss something or did they do the exact same finish twice before covering Hangman for the win?

After the match was won by FTR, Omega immediately quit selling his leg (even though he was barely doing it during this match, if at all) and went outside of the ring to get a table. He TEASED using it on Page to complete the heel turn that everyone is anticipating at this moment and thought better of it before storming into the back with the Young Bucks. They seem to be teasing a heel turn for the Elite collectively instead of solely with Omega. I'm fine with that if they are going forward with Hangman being a lone wolf babyface.

Even though I wasn't happy with the match as a whole, I'm glad that the tag team title are with FTR, who can confidently call themselves the first tag team to hold the NXT, RAW, SmackDown, AND AEW Tag Team Championships.





Mimosa Mayhem match
Orange Cassidy def. Chris Jericho by knocking him into the vat of mimosa
Match could be won by pinfall, submission, or fully submerging an opponent into a vat of mimosa


This was just there at this point as I kept looking at the clock in my room. It was past 11PM after this point. I get that AEW doesn't have too many PPVs over the year, but by this point we were clocking in roughly 6-7 hours of AEW content in one night if you watched the Countdown to All Out on TNT, the Buy-In Pre-show, and the Red Carpet specials on YouTube - along with this PPV in its entirety to this point. I was pretty much waiting for the bump into the mimosa and Jericho didn't disappoint in that regard at all.







Singles match for the AEW World Championship
Jon Moxley (c) defeated MJF (with Wardlow)
Moxley was banned from using the Paradigm Shift finishing move


Time and time again and I honestly don't see what's the fascination with Moxley as a world champion. I didn't see it in WWE and I REALLY don't see it here in AEW. Out of the three guys in The Shield - Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose (now Jon Moxley), Moxley was the easily the short end of the stick. I think that it's ironic that while he went off on podcasts and interviews after leaving WWE that he was frustrated with being the "wacky Dean" character on WWE programming, he still gives off that vibe here when he's trying to splice in elements of Stone Cold Steve Austin too. I have tried to give him the benefit of a doubt but there hasn't been a single Moxley match in this company that I have seen that I have been blown away by in any capacity. Ambrose bored me to tears in WWE and Moxley is repeating that trend in AEW. I'm really starting to see why Vince McMahon (much like Brodie Lee) didn't have faith in him as a top draw. This match had a lot of ass-backwards psychology going on, with MJF working majority of the match from underneath as the heel while Moxley was in control as the babyface no less. It didn't make much sense to me, especially when they kept dragging this match along and it was minutes to midnight at this point of the show. Watching this match live, I was just beyond fed up and ready for this show to end. 


A Paradigm Shift ends the match regardless of the fact it was banned.


Like I mentioned earlier, the end result wasn't a surprise in the least when you already knew that Lance Archer won the Casino Battle Royal for the future title shot against Moxley. This company isn't stupid. They want to do the Wrestle Kingdom rematch from this year that New Japan can't capitalize on. I will give AEW props for the finish here as that was a nice touch as it gives MJF an out and something to complain about like all shit-eating heels do. 


Afterthoughts:



Overall, I thought this was AEW's most embarrassing PPV outing to date. I was downright disgusted with this company by the time it was over. This show, from top to bottom, should be a wake-up call for every wrestling fan thinking that this company does no wrong when that is the furthest thing away from being true.

I'm not the only one saying this either. You got a wealth of people calling out AEW for this bullshit tonight with a few noteworthy tweets below.












Without a shadow of a doubt, All Out (2020) will live on as a complete embarrassment for this company. The honeymoon period is CLEARLY over and we need to stop giving AEW a free pass when it comes to constructive criticism and grade them in the same capacity as IMPACT, WWE, or any other promotion under the sun. A lot of stupid shit went down on this show and AEW along with Tony Khan should be called out for it, no matter how much you may love the talent that works here or want to see an alternative "topple" WWE. If Khan expects AEW to survive long term and no one doesn't end up killing themselves on his programming then he needs to really start telling these guys and girls NO when it comes to some of this reckless abandon that I see on these shows on a regular basis. It's not cool - it's goddamn stupid and that's exactly what we need to be calling it as.


As of this posting (9/11/20), the All Out fallout edition of Dynamite has come and gone. Matt Hardy appeared on Dynamite, accompanied by his wife, Reby Hardy with their infant child in the crowd, and thanked all of the fans for their support in that dire situation on Saturday night. He apologized for scaring everyone, his family included, for putting them through that traumatic experience, but I felt that Tony Khan should have made a rare appearance on-camera and apologized not only to Matt Hardy, but Reby Hardy as well, for allowing that match to continue when Hardy wasn't in any shape to continue it just to do the finish spot. Instead, Khan continues to brush this whole situation under the rug and sweep all blame away from himself. If you go onto AEW's Twitter page, you will notice that they have removed all traces of Matt Hardy's infamous fall off their account. Between how this company has mishandled that situation and the stupidity that allowed on this program on a regular basis, I can't see Tony Khan as nothing more than a money mark. I'm sorry, but he hasn't shown me anything to make me think any different.

During an interview on Dynamite, Kenny Omega clarifies that everything between himself and Hangman Page is fine, but the more he talks it seems to be that he's teasing a return of "The Cleaner" from his days in New Japan while the Young Bucks seem to be going "all in" on this heel turn for The Elite. Omega needs to do something as compared to a year ago, his stock value in wrestling has drastically gone down. He's nowhere as the high profile free agent that was in high demand this time last year. Being a giving performer in this business is one thing, but you don't be so giving that it's detrimental to your own career. Omega and the Bucks should have taken the reigns at the start, much like Chris Jericho and THEN put over guys to bring them up to their level. One year later, it seems like it's going to be all for nothing when only the AEW die-hards still think those guys are in high demand anymore.

Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford revealed that Miro - the former "Bulgarian Brute" Rusev in WWE - is their "best man" for their pending wedding. Miro came out to the same song and dance as every other ex-WWE guy coming into this company or IMPACT Wrestling for the last decade and a half, saying how they were misused and denied a brass ring. I'm sorry but I'm not feeling sorry for him with that shit. Same goes for a lot of ex-WWE talent. No one held a gun to your head and MADE you sign those renewal contract deals for all of those years you stayed there. Don't be mad now that the checks stopped coming in. That was your own stupidity. The best way to get back at WWE is to rub your newfound success in their faces, not constantly bring up the past looking for some sort of a pity party. Rusev, now Miro, had a lot of high-profile matches for WWE. I can't say that they completely misused the guy when his ultimate downfall was him and his own wife, Lana, went to TMZ and told him about their real life wedding when they were in divorce storyline on camera. I don't blame WWE for burying him for killing kayfabe on what was a great gimmick and pairing at the time. In regard to Miro in AEW, I don't have any high expectations for this lackluster debut. All I'm going to say is that it's "nut up or shut up" time.

FTR held a "celebration" of sorts on Dynamite to celebrate their win with the entire tag team division, but I was more surprised that they didn't get their faces dunked into that sheet cake that they brought out. Instead, all of the tag teams at ringside were able to enjoy it at their leisure. That definitely has to be a first for modern wrestling that a cake was shown on television and not ruined in any capacity. On a positive note, I'm anxious to see who FTR works with next in hopes of elevating this tag team division because that mess with Hangman and Omega didn't click at all.

NWA's Women's Champion Thunder Rosa walked away from All Out in a losing effort, but I think between her match on Dynamite and on All Out, she opened a LOT of people's eyes who weren't aware of nor familiar with her talents prior to her appearances for this company. I'm glad to see that she's getting a chance to defend her title next week on Dynamite with one of her fellow Lucha Underground alumni, Ivelisse. Meanwhile, Shida seems to be pegged to resume her feud with Nyla Rose yet again. AEW signed Tay Conti from the Deadly Draw Women's Tag Team Tournament this week. She lost to Rose on Dynamite, but I hope we see more of her. She's still pretty green, despite being trained at the WWE Performance Center, but she shows a lot of promise, especially more than a lot of the other women in that division.

As for that Dustin Rhodes vs. Brodie Lee match for the TNT Championship, I walked out of the living room and did the dishes in the kitchen over watching the bulk of that match. Naturally (no pun intended), Dustin lost. Who didn't see that coming? They aren't going to take that title off of Brodie Lee after that massive injury angle they did with Cody to write him off television. He's probably isn't going to lose that title until Cody is ready to come back. I doubt we have to wait long as they were airing vignettes for him during All Out and he's being advertised for appearing on another television show, so we know he's not hurt. It's not like this company keeps up much kayfabe to begin with.
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AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 & Night 2 (July 1 and 8, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts




Fyter Fest was a series of professional wrestling television special episodes produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the second event in the Fyter Fest chronology. The two-week event took place on July 1 and 8, 2020. The event was broadcast on TNT as a two-part special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.

The main event of night 1 saw Kenny Omega and Adam Page successfully defended the AEW World Tag Team Championship against Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent). The main event of the second night was scheduled to be Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Championship against Brian Cage, but this match was postponed to the Fight for the Fallen event due to Moxley being exposed to the coronavirus disease 2019. Instead, in the main event of night 2, Chris Jericho defeated Orange Cassidy.


Results:


Night 1


Tag Team Match
Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt) def. MJF and Wardlow


This was a great match to start things off for AEW, especially with what was airing in opposition over on NXT. My only issue with this match is the fact that I don't understand why they are forcing the issue with a possible split between Warlow and MJF. Those two haven't been paired up for even a year and they are already teasing this. Like c'mon, give this act a chance to breathe and grow some legs. It hasn't even been around long enough to make people care enough about the split. They want to tease splitting guys like this up, but just completely ignored the storyline where Adam Page and Kenny Omega were going to split up. I swear, the booking in this company is fucking asinine at times.





Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship
Hikaru Shida (c) def. Penelope Ford (with Kip Sabian)


For the record, I like both of these women as competitors and talents on this roster, but at the same time, I didn't think it was a great match at all. It was Penelope Ford's best outing on Dynamite to date though, but that's not saying much when she's only been competing in singles matches for a cup of coffee anyway. For the people who might get mad at me saying that this match wasn't very good, look at this way. This match was good by the low standards of the AEW Women's division, but as a women's wrestling match period, it was average at best.







Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship
Cody (c) (with Arn Anderson) def. Jake Hager (with Catalina Hager)


Jesus Christ, I keep forgetting how hot Hager's wife is. I remember seeing her from a few WWE Hall of Fame and red carpet events while he was part of the company but damn, she's a great accessory to his MMA fighter feel. Too bad Jake Hager comes out there dressed like he's a default Create-a-Wrestler in the next WWE 2K game. I didn't care about him in title matches in Lucha Underground and I sure as hell don't care to see him going for belts in AEW. Sue me, I'm still salty about him being the LAST Lucha Underground Champion in history before that company went under. Let's face facts though. Hager was a charisma vaccuum in WWE and nothing has changed since coming to AEW. The best role for him was being the silent enforcer for Chris Jericho. Now that the ship has sunk on that initial title reign for Jericho, there's little for the big man to do, especially when AEW has found themselves "killing time" for the best possible time to do the Jericho vs. Mike Tyson.

To be fair though, I'm going to admit that Cody brought out a decent match out of Hager here. Much like a lot of Cody's matches though, I didn't agree with the finish. Hager came off as a colossal dumb ass celebrating after the bell when Cody's music was playing, but one would think that he would lay into Cody and the rest of the Nightmare Family who came to celebrate with Cody instead of the referee. Instead, Hager lays out the referee and gets himself suspended.

With all of these various run-ins and questionable finishes to his matches, it bloody apparent that AEW is slowly itching towards a slow burn into a Cody heel turn within the coming months.





Tag Team Match
Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) (with Matt Hardy) def. The Inner Circle (Santana and Ortiz)


This wasn't good at all. The more I see of Santana and Ortiz in AEW, it seems like they are just phoning it in and not taking a single damn match serious - completely contradicting their performances as this no nonsense tag team (LAX) in IMPACT Wrestling. As for Private Party, I like the guys as athletes but every single match they have since their debut in this company is worse than the last. I hate to say it but they are getting exposed hard in this company and coming off greener than grass.




Tag team match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c) def. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent)


When Chucky T and Trent got dropped off by their "mom" in her station wagon, I immediately swapped back to NXT's main event because I knew there wasn't absolutely a snowball's chance in hell that Omega and Hangman were losing the tag titles to this losers. I couldn't believe these clowns made it that easy to choose which main event to watch. That was literally handing the ratings war over to NXT in my honest opinion.

I just couldn't believe that AEW would put these losers against the Tag champs in the main event slot against the highly anticipated dream match between Io Shirai and Sasha Banks over on NXT.






Night 2


Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
Kenny Omega and Adam Page (c) def. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) (with Matt Hardy)



At this point, I want to start chanting "SPOTS! SPOTS! SPOTS!" during Private Party's entrance theme instead of SHOTS! for their matches as that's all what it's going to come down to. For their sakes, I hope Matt Hardy is actually taking them under his wing and offering true mentorship like how Michael "PS" Hayes was for him and Jeff Hardy back in the early days of their WWF careers. How many times can Kenny Omega get moves off after stopping, shaking like The Ultimate Warrior, pointing to the ropes and running towards them without anyone stopping him? The more I see him do that, the stupider it looks to me. It was worse when one of the members of Private Party tried to do it too before Omega cut him off and got his in instead. There were a lot of flashy bits to this match - as to be expected with the talents involved - but that was the problem. It was all flash and little substance for much else in-between. It wasn't a bad match at all, but it was just lacking in terms it was a match between two guys just doing moves. I didn't get any sense of a conflict nor a narrative here. The important thing was that Omega and Page got the win though as they shouldn't be losing to any underneath tag teams in this division. This win just keeps them at the top of the food chain in that tag division.






Singles Match
Lance Archer (with Jake Roberts) def. Joey Janela (with Sonny Kiss)



I laughed my ass off at this and not in a good way either. Ever since Lance Archer has arrived into this company it has been painfully obvious that these people in charge don't have the slightest clue on what they are doing with him in terms of booking. He came in with a strong start, beating the piss and vinegar out of some job guys in a ring setup on a farm while his manager, Jake Roberts, watched. He immediately gets into a program with Cody for the TNT title with Jake tearing into Cody heavily with the promos and even dry humping Brandi Rhodes during one episode of Dynamite. In the plug for the PPV, Jake makes another promo for the match, in which it sounds like he's putting himself over for a match with Arn Anderson instead of building towards the matches with their two clients. At the PPV, Cody beats Archer for the TNT title like it's another walk in the park and absolutely nothing comes from the fact that Jake dry humped this man's wife. Cody didn't deliver a fired up promo nor demanded the life of Jake's first born child to be laid as sacrifice for the comeuppance. Cody just won the belt, showed up on Dynamite a few days after all smiles and moved onto his next program without even acknowledging Archer. Meanwhile, Archer has been left to wade through the pools of shit that is AEW's booking as he's been put in against almost every traveling goof that AEW has at their disposal from Marko Stunt to Joey Janela in this contest.

Can someone explain to me why that these matches aren't over in a minute flat? Instead, these matches are going on past a commercial or two! What the hell, man? I thought the point of these monster heels was to show their overwhelming strength with a few squash matches here and there. Stunt was at his best from the little that I saw of him in MLW prior to being on the AEW roster when he was getting the sin beat out of him by the heavy hitters on that roster. He would get a little offense in but he still got the bricks beat off of him. 

I just don't understand what is the fascination with having someone who is flat out god-awful at everything from presentation to in-ring ability in that which is Joey Janela. For some reason this company has Archer dragging this match out and trying to make it look competitive on top of that. I thought this should have been over the moment Archer came out carrying out Sonny Kiss like he was a corpse being laid out to the slaughter. He should've thrown Kiss into the ring and do the first bump as usual, hit his finish and should've called it a day. If they want to make Kiss and Janela into a tag team, fine, but fuck that noise about trying to act like Janela can hold a candle to the Murderhawk.

As for Sonny Kiss, I think he can get over on his own without being coupled with Joey Janela in a makeshift tag team/alliance. Being paired up with him is only going to bring him down long-term in my honest opinion.






Eight-Man Tag Team Match
The Butcher and The Blade and Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) def. FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)


On paper this should have been good, but I ultimately found this match hard to follow after the opening moments, especially when all four teams started getting involved at once. I honestly couldn't even tell you who was legal at points. I really hate being a Debbie Downer on stuff like this as I like a lot of these guys involved in this match, but once again, the action devolved into a lot of insane spots with not too much logic or reason behind them outside of looking cool. 

If I'm honest, I'm not too fond of how AEW has been setting up this FTR and Young Bucks feud. They debut FTR with them "saving" the Bucks then in the weeks that followed they are dicks to each other until they are reluctant to tag with each other to face the Lucha Bros. and The Butcher & The Blade. Don't forget that FTR beat the latter in a normal tag team match, so it's not like they couldn't handle them on their own. FTR has made it clear that they don't need anyone's help but the Bucks keep "brown nosing" with them to get into their good graces almost to suggest that they don't want to face FTR in any shape nor form. Smarter booking would have done the initial tease between the Bucks and FTR during the FTR and not even have both teams come in contact until after one or the other beat Hangman and Omega for the AEW Tag Team belts.





Handicap Match
Nyla Rose def. Kenzie Paige and KiLynn King


This was the squash match of pure domination that Nyla needed at the start of her run here in AEW rather than months after the fact since they've squandered her momentum. To be fair, she lost the AEW Women's Championship in against arguably the best woman on the roster, Hikaru Shida, and that wasn't a burial. Shida had to beat her in a gimmick match to get the job done, so Nyla still has her rematch clause to lean back on if that's a thing in AEW to get her back into the title conversation. 

Seriously though, who's decision was it to give Nyla a manager when she's one of the few women in this company who can cut consistently good promos? As of this posting (7/17/20), it has been revealed that Vickie Guerrero has been brought in to fill that role, even though I thought it was going to be Awesome Kong (only if she was done filming her scenes for the final season of GLOW on Netflix...) or Brandi Rhodes. 





Six-Man Tag Team Match
Colt Cabana and The Dark Order (Brodie Lee and Stu Grayson) def. SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky) 

We're quickly approaching the one year mark of AEW Dynamite on TNT and for some reason, we're still doing this Dark Order crap. AEW saw the light and axed that awful Nightmare Collective bullshit when people pointed out how stupid it was. Why can't they do the same with the Dark Order? The longer that Brodie Lee is associated with this faction, the more I can see why Vince McMahon had absolutely no faith in this guy. He is a charisma vacuum in this role as the leader of this group and comes off as exciting as watching paint dry. As for this match itself, it was fine since everyone involved are all capable workers, but it was just a nothing match. It was just here to kill time until the main event.




Chris Jericho (with Santana and Ortiz) def. Orange Cassidy (with Best Friends)

In all honesty, I don't flat out hate Orange Cassidy like a lot of old school wrestling fans and critics do. I get he's one of these niche gimmicks that was brought into this company that caters to the hardcore AEW audience and I don't have an issue with that. My issue is that I felt that Chris Jericho gave him a little too much here. With this gimmick, Cassidy should be an upper to midcard act at best. When he's hanging in there with main eventers like this is the headliner to WrestleMania then we have a problem. Too much, too fast. You don't have to blow your load at once with this guy, especially when the comedy aspect of his gimmick has a limited shelf life anyway. Jericho hit this guy with a baseball bat and multiple finishers and still wasn't able to put him away until some additional interference from Santana and Ortiz while Cassidy was left looking stronger since he had sent the Best Friends away to handle this on his own from the start. They made Ref Aubrey look like a colossal dumb ass calling the finish too when even Jim Ross is pointing out on commentary that she's laying in the same goddamn orange juice that Santana & Ortiz threw into Cassidy's face moments prior while she's making the count. I get this is filler until Jericho can resume the feud with Mike Tyson, but there has to be someone else he can tango with than Cassidy.



Closing Thoughts


I just have to remind people who read that I'm not a podcaster/YouTuber who is desperately looking for views and subscribers to boost my channel. I'm not on Patreon, begging for my fans and followers to shove money up my ass either, so don't expect me to grade AEW on a curve. AEW has a lot of talented athletes and performers on their roster. There's no doubt about that. All I'm saying is that their booking leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of this comes across as the same level of booking that people were laughing at IMPACT Wrestling for doing a few years ago and even some of it is as bad and on par with some of the shit on Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown! over on a WWE on a regular basis. I can't help but to continue feeling that people constantly give AEW a pass on stupidity and poor decision-making because they are ANYTHING but WWE. 

I get that every company is struggling during this global pandemic and AEW is no different as Tony Khan has a lot of talent sidelined either by various injuries or barred from any sort of international travel right now. As a result, Tony Khan has limited resources to work with if the #SpeakingOut accusations didn't cripple his roster enough too. 

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All Elite Wrestling Presents: All Out (Aug. 31, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts



All Out was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on August 31, 2019 at the Sears Centre Arena in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Ten matches were contested at the event, including two on the pre-show. In the main event, Chris Jericho defeated Adam Page to become the inaugural AEW World Champion. In other prominent matches, the Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) defeated The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) in a ladder match to retain the AAA World Tag Team Championship, Cody defeated Shawn Spears, and Pac defeated Kenny Omega by referee stoppage. The AEW Women's World Championship belt was also unveiled with Nyla Rose and Riho winning their respective matches to face each other for the inaugural championship on October 2, 2019 on AEW on TNT.


The Buy In (Preshow - Watch Below)




21-woman Casino Battle Royale
Nyla Rose won by last eliminating Britt Baker
Winner faces the winner of Riho vs. Hikaru Shida for the inaugural AEW Women's World Championship, scheduled for AEW on TNT on October 2


Casino Battle Royale entrances and eliminations

Five wrestlers started the match. Every three minutes, five more wrestlers entered. The 21st and final entrant entered alone.
DrawEntrantElimination OrderEliminated byEliminations
ClubsShalandra Royal1Nyla Rose0
Leva Bates4Nyla Rose0
Faby Apache2Nyla Rose0
Priscilla Kelly3Nyla Rose0
Nyla Rose-Winner10
DiamondsPenelope Ford7Nyla Rose0
Shazza McKenzie5Britt Baker0
Sadie Gibbs17Bea Priestley1
Big Swole6Nyla Rose0
Britt Baker20Bea Priestley and Nyla Rose[1]5
SpadesTenille Dashwood8Awesome Kong0
Ivelisse9Awesome Kong0
Bea Priestley19Britt Baker3**
Brandi Rhodes15Britt Baker and Allie0
Awesome Kong12Bea Priestley, Sadie Gibbs, and ODB3
HeartsAllie16Nyla Rose1
Nicole Savoy10Nyla Rose0
Teal Piper11ODB0
ODB14Britt Baker2
Jazz13Nyla Rose0
JokerMercedes Martinez18Britt Baker0
** Priestley was already eliminated when she pulled Baker over the top rope, eliminating her.


I really wanted to see this match, especially with the promised "surprise" entrants for this battle royal, but it just came off really sloppy on execution. These women were rushing spots and the cameras barely got any of the action that would have been of note, especially the arrivals of Jazz and ODB - both of which who did jack shit before getting eliminated despite the pops for their inclusions for this. I felt even more sorry for AAA's Faby Apache and Impact Wrestling's newly signed Tenille Dashwood (formerly WWE's Emma) who came in to do absolutely nothing in this match. I know if they did this match in the traditional "Royal Rumble" format we would have been here all night watching this match, but I have to admit that I'm not a fan of the card suit format at all, especially when you want to introduce fans to the women of your roster and couldn't tell you 90% of the women in this match outside of the last few that made it to the end.

They made the right choice in having Nyla Rose eliminate the most women AND winning the whole damn thing as I thought it was a mistake to have Riho beat her during their last PPV special. They should be establishing Rose as a wrecking machine and she got a fluke loss by that chick who looks like she should be in grade school? C'mon now... I liked what they did with Britt Baker getting "screwed" out of the win by Bea Priestley too so that takes "Mrs. Adam Cole" off the table and out of the conversation for the AEW Women's title for the time being. I know that's the woman they seem to be deadset on building their division around, but I don't see it. She's definitely not it to build around. Give her time to grow much like a lot of their young talent on this roster. Speaking of Bea Priestley, she had a fight with Sadie Gibbs backstage following this show (after Bea allegedly no-sold a move from Sadie) https://wrestletalk.com/news/report-aew-stars-involved-in-backstage-fight-at-all-out/ and that doesn't surprise me in the least, given those two personalities in one locker room. If AEW were smart, they would cash in on this real life animosity and put these two in a feud ASAP. Imagine how hard hitting that affair would be with those two women's backgrounds.

That being said, I'm glad AEW made the right call with Nyla Rose going forward. She definitely needs to be in the conversation when determining their first Women's Champion. Awesome Kong would have been a fine candidate as well, but who knows what her full capacity is at this rate. She did a few spots here and there, but after her last two runs in Impact Wrestling, I can't see AEW getting much else out of her when she's already at the end of her tether to begin with. This isn't Kong of 2006-2007. This is 13 years later with a lot of wear and tear from over the years. That's why I'm not expecting much out of that Aja Kong feud they seem to be teasing between them either.







Tag Team Match
Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) defeated Angélico and Jack Evans



I personally haven't seen much of Private Party in action until now, but these guys really won me over here on the preshow. Angelico and Jack Evans were the perfect opponents to showcase what they can do. To say that people mark over the Street Profits' ability on NXT, but Private Party takes the cake in that regard. Pretty much imagine if the team was two guys with Montez Ford's athleticism, agility, and charisma dialed up to eleven.

I had to laugh at some points of this match as it was deja vu from the triple threat tag team match from NXT UK TakeOver earlier that afternoon. If you didn't get pumped for the rest of the show after this match then I don't know what to tell you.

The only thing I could knock this match for is the ending where Angelico and Jack Evans hug Private Party at the end only to lay them out when it would have been just to lay them out without the unnecessary pandering to the crowd and breaking kayfabe for five seconds.





Six-Man Tag Team Match
SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky) defeated Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, and Marko Stunt)



I thought Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus are a money tag team with the right build and story behind them. Adding Marko Stunt does nothing for me outside of them having a weak link in their armor that can be beaten in 6-man matches like this without taking anything away from Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus' credibility. Let's face it - that kid got hired just to take stupid bumps and that's it. Even I'll admit that I laughed my ass off seeing him get ragdolled around in MLW when I first got back into watching their product. Luchasaurus was awesome back in Lucha Underground and I'm glad that more people are getting to see what he is capable of on a mainstream/widespread level. I'm warming up to Jungle Boy the more that I see of him but he truly shines more in these tag team matches than in singles bouts. They should keep Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus tied to the hip for a LONG while.

As for this match as a whole, it was a solid opener. I can do without SoCal Uncensored's lame duck, wannabe nWo/New Age Outlaws call out to the local town though. All three of those guys are capable of stellar things at their age(s) and this match is a testament of that as yet another fine outing for them in the opener of these AEW events.






Singles match
Pac defeated Kenny Omega by referee stoppage



At this point of the show, I was looking at those win-loss ratios on the name bars as each wrestler made their entrance and I was going, "This is going to look fucking stupid after a while..." I get that AEW wants wins and losses to matter, but boy, once they start booking people regularly, they are going to notice that showing the win/loss records for every show is going to look bad after a while. That's one reason why I don't obsess over those numbers like the folks who track the statistics for WWE wrestlers. It's going to get absurd really fast and soon enough I wouldn't be surprised that they abandon it altogether or fake the stats like how WCW and Eric Bischoff did with Goldberg's winning streak at one point just to inflate some guys' (or girls') street cred.

While I don't lose my mind off everything Kenny Omega does like everyone else seems to do, I thought this was a solid match. Pac (formerly WWE's Neville) is still working his slow, methodical heel style that he was working the last time I saw him compete on 205 Live - much to his benefit here. I wasn't too crazy about that ringside bump he took that could have mangled his calfs if he wasn't wearing shin guards. AEW really needs to make sure they have enough room at ringside if they expect guys to be doing shit like that. It only takes one fluke accident or the wrong fall into the crowd and someone - either talent or a random innocent fan - could get hurt. I was legitimately shocked that Pac picked up the win via submission at the end, but it made perfect sense. Despite everything they threw at each other, the submission came out of nowhere and Omega submitting to it put the hold over. Well done on both fronts there.

Seems like they are onboard for Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley for their upcoming Full Gear show while Pac will face Adam Page after an altercation during their press release/conference. Moxley missed this show since he was still dealing with the recovery of his stalph infection in his arm.






Cracker Barrel Clash
Jimmy Havoc defeated Darby Allin and Joey Janela


This was the point of the show where I thought they just were doing a ton of stupid spots just for the hell of it. A lot of this match was the senseless hardcore bullshit that the genre/match type has transformed into over the years and I honestly didn't care for a lot of this. Outside of Darby Allin (who I can EASILY see as this generation's Jeff Hardy in terms of his reckless abandon and daredevil mentality), I don't see the fascination with the other two guys in this match, Joey Janela and Jimmy Havoc. I know Havoc's known in the UK for all of these deathmatches and hardcore stuff, but I never thought much of him from the few times that I have seen him compete. Triple goes for Janela, who just comes off as a goof off the street putting his body through this torment for shits and giggles.



Speaking of which, he got one joke in reference to Jim Cornette. One thing I have to say about Cornette though, he's right on the front that all of these indie guys make a point to reference and mention him, despite saying that he has no credibility in the business anymore and his opinion doesn't matter, but yet his name is always brought up by these folks. The truth hurts so much that they have to go out of their way to do pointless gags like this in a nothing match.




I wouldn't be calling it a compliment when Tony Hawk names one of your moves in a match there, Allin. Back Disaster should be the name of that shit he did afterwards with the barrel. That was just fucking moronic, even moreso than the "Coffin Drop" he did during the match with Cody in his AEW debut. Jeff Hardy needs to call this kid up and tell him to quit torturing his back and spine at an early age or he's going to be dealing with the same pains that he is in his old age.







Tag Team Match
The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) defeated Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta)
Winners receive a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament


If anything on this show was the ABSOLUTE definition of a bathroom break, it was this match.

The Dark Order gimmick isn't working and it's going over with fans in and out of AEW as well as a fart in church. I'm not necessarily saying to have them revert back to their Super Smash Bros. gimmick from the indies/Chikara, but AEW needs to admit that this shit is dead on the water. It's a shame too as I think those two guys in the Dark Order aren't bad workers. They just need a better gimmick or to be repackaged altogether. I'll repeat myself from the last write-up too - I thought the Best Friends gimmick was stupid in ROH/NJPW and I still think it's stupid now.



I honestly don't see what's the big fascination with Orange Cassidy, but the dive did look good, especially when he didn't even lose his shades off it. I have to wonder what a character like that has in terms of a shelf life before people get bored of it and move onto something else, i.e. the next flavor of the month.







Singles Match
Riho defeated Hikaru Shida
Winner faces Nyla Rose for the inaugural AEW Women's World Championship, scheduled for AEW on TNT on October 2


Admittedly, I have not seen much of Hikaru Shida in a match, but I loved her entrance. She came out like an absolute badass, reminiscent of the aura that Asuka (formerly Kana in Japan) had back in NXT and prior to her signing with WWE. Shida brought the fight to Riho, who somehow managed to endure a lot of punishment in this match while showing off her own high speed, yet evasive offense - even though it came off a tad sloppy at times.

While I applaud AEW for having something not a lot of mainstream wrestling does in regard to their joshi talent on their women's roster, this match should have been on The Buy-In preshow instead of the Casino Battle Royal. I still don't understand how Riho and Hikaru Shida got a singles match to earn a shot at the title, bypassing having to compete in the battle royal in the first place. Placing this match in the middle of the card like this was like sentencing it to a death on arrival, especially after the last match. That's not a knock on these two women involved here either as I thought they did a decent job with this match, despite a few hiccups, but this match came up when we were looking at almost three hours into this show at this point.






Singles Match
Cody (with MJF) defeated Shawn Spears (with Tully Blanchard)

I don't know why so many people were confused, but Brandi was dressed as Seven of Nine from Voyager, you twats. 

Even though I liked all of the hype and fanfare building up to this match, I thought that this feud fell flat at the end of this match. The match itself was fine enough, especially with the inclusion of Tully Blanchard, MJF, and a surprise run-in for the assist from Arn Anderson himself, but I thought they killed Shawn Spears dead in the water after a CLEAN loss to Cody here. I get it - they are building Cody up as the only member of the Elite that is unbeaten in AEW so far and that deems him worthy to challenge for the AEW World title (which was already announced for Full Gear by the time of this posting). I'm just saying that where does Shawn Spears go from here when he couldn't get the job done against Cody?

I can feel in my bones that they are setting up Cody to fail at the World title with MJF being the one who stabs him in the back with the rusty knife when it matters the most. They teased it like something was going to happen during the post-match when they were standing in the ring together, but nothing happened. I'm guessing they didn't jump the shark in that regard because I mean EVERYONE was expecting it there. Cody is the only one who MJF has been painting this picture as being his "best friend" and all of that jazz, babyfacing it up for when he's an absolute dick to everyone else. The betrayal is coming, just you all wait.












Escalera De La Muerte for the AAA World Tag Team Championship
Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) (c) defeated The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)




There's no way I can put into words the sheer insanity that these four men put their bodies through in this match. A lot of it was stuff I never dreamed of seeing in one of these matches outside of a damn video game, but I applaud these guys for their phenomenonal performance.

By the end of this match, it looked like these guys were really banged up (no pun intended) and I thought they were doing a little too much for my taste, especially to say that Fenix just came back from a nasty health scare a few weeks ago. I gasped watching live when one of the Bucks' legs got caught up into the ropes when he fell from the ladder. He ended up still going through the table at ringside, but you can tell his landing was a tad shorter than intended. At that point, I was like, "Just end this before you guys kill yourselves..." and the right team won with the Lucha Bros. going over.



LAX, or rather Santana and Ortiz, didn't renew their contracts with Impact Wrestling, so it was pretty obvious that they were going to be AEW bound. With the state of the state of tag team wrestling treated like a sheer afterthought in WWE on the main roster, I knew they didn't want to go there and be locked in jail... err contracts with them for a few years. Solomonster said it best though in this regard. If you're looking at the best top to bottom tag team division in terms of talents involved you can't go wrong with AEW's on paper. Only time will tell to see how that pans out after their debut on TNT, but right now it's looking like the one to watch. Sure, NXT/NXT UK and a few other promotions have some promising teams too, but AEW's tag team division is STACKED right now. There's no denying that.






Chris Jericho defeated Adam Page Singles match for the inaugural AEW World Championship


At this point in the show, they were well past a four-hour runtime and still had to crown the first-ever AEW World Champion. I couldn't watch this live as I was burnt out at this point and watched a few days later with an open mind. I found myself busting out laughing at Jericho getting gassed a few minutes into this match when he is always the one to point out Brock Lesnar's shortcomings on social media. That dude was redder than Lesnar has ever been within the first few minutes of this match and him and Page were barely getting started. Their brawling all throughout the arena and the crowd reminded me of the old school Attitude Era World title matches where Austin, The Rock, Mankind, and Triple H would do that from bell to bell. That always has been a hit or miss thing with me, but it worked for this. At this point in the show though, they were asking a lot of this crowd to say that they have been in that building for over four hours. They pretty much gave everything they had to give in terms of pops to the last two matches. This just seem to pale in comparison of those bouts.

I was feeling it towards the end with the near-falls, but not for one second that I thought they were going to put the belt on Adam Page. His promo earlier tonight where he ripped out his stitches was pretty badass, but he's not ready to carry the company in this role yet. They don't have to rush him to the top. They can afford to build Page up into one of their top guys. They just don't have to do it overnight. If they force it then there's going to be fan backlash. Page, much like Britt Baker, has youth on his side and time isn't going to hurt him in the long run if they are building around this younger generation of wrestlers. Having Jericho as their first champion adds instant credibility to that title, especially with WWE's first ever Undisputed Champion and future Hall of Famer holding it.



I still think the Judas Effect is stupid ass finisher, but whatever. I've seen people sell stupider stuff than that over the years with The Great Khali's karate chop and that Cobra from Santino Marella, so Jericho gets a pass in that regard as it could have been a lot damn worse. He's putting the move over by legitimately beating guys left and right with it - CLEAN no less too. I don't think there has been a soul on that roster so far that Jericho has faced that has kicked out of it either.




While we're on the subject of Jericho, I would like to mention that I don't get the fascination with the "A Lil' Bit of the Bubbly!" line from his post-match interview that has exploded into a wealth of memes. At least AEW were smart enough to jump right on that and turn it into a T-Shirt for an easy cash grab. What was embarrassing though for Jericho and AEW, was the fact that the World title was stolen/lost less than 24 hours of Jericho winning the damn thing. I'm not going to go into the full story, but damn that was just bad to read over the next few days. I know Tony Khan has more than enough money to replace the damn thing, but boy that had to be embarrassing to wake up to that news the next morning. The title was found and returned though a few days later, but it was still a laughing matter fresh on the minds of wrestling fans over that week. Too bad AEW didn't turn it into a storyline and milked it up until their debut on TNT. That would have been an intriguing idea to get more viewers on their product out of interest and/or curiosity of how that was going to play out.


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