Revolution 2021: Bang, In Really Small Letters
Revolution 2021
Date: March 7, 2021
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Jim Ross
There is something rather pleasing about having another AEW pay per view. The company has such a great track record with these things and it should be awesome to see what they can do again. The main event is an exploding barbed wire deathmatch because….I have no idea why but it is certainly going to get them some attention. Let’s get to it.
Pre-Show: Britt Baker/Rebel vs. Riho/Thunder Rosa
Hold on though as Rebel has been attacked (she’s on crutches so it must be true) so we have a replacement.
Pre-Show: Britt Baker/Maki Itoh vs. Riho/Thunder Rosa
Itoh sings her own entrance song rather loudly. Riho takes Baker down by the arm to start so it’s quickly off to the rope. Some dropkicks rock Baker and there’s a headscissors to put Baker down again. Rosa comes in to armbar Itoh down and it’s switched into a crossface. With that broken up, Rosa wins an exchange of forearms and Itoh starts to cry. A stomp to Rosa’s boot just makes her shoulder Itoh down and she drops Itoh face first onto the turnbuckle.
Riho comes in and gets dropped down onto Itoh for two of her own. Back up and they slug it out until Baker pulls Riho to the floor, where Rebel is suddenly fine enough to send her into the steps. Itoh misses a falling headbutt back inside so it’s back to Baker to stomp away. A missed charge allows the tag off to Rosa so house can be cleaned. The running backsplash gets two on Baker but a Sling Blade drops Rosa.
Now Itoh’s falling headbutt gets two but Rosa is right back with a Stunner. Itoh hits a tornado DDT for two so she goes up top, only to miss the falling headbutt. Riho comes back in and charges into a half crab from Itoh, meaning a rope has to be grabbed. Another headbutt is blocked with a shot to the head and it’s quickly back to Rosa vs. Baker for the exchange of rollups. Baker runs into Rebel by mistake and walks into the Death Valley Driver with Itoh making the save. Rebel gets in a crutch shot to Rosa to give Baker the pin at 14:52.
Rating: C+. It was certainly energetic and fast paced and it was quite nice to see Baker get the win. The Rebel swap was fine as Itoh certainly has a lot of charisma, though I’m not sure how long she is going to be around here. If it is a one off appearance then great, but I’d hope it isn’t someone else in the way of Baker getting her overdue Women’s Title.
The opening video looks at the big matches.
Tag Team Titles: Young Bucks vs. Chris Jericho/MJF
The Bucks are defending and jump Jericho and MJF to start and hammer them out to the floor. Jericho and MJF send them together but stop to brag a bit, allowing the Bucks to take them down with stereo dives. The Bucks grab stereo Sharpshooters until the ropes are grabbed so Nick heads up top. This time Jericho is ready for it and hits the triangle dropkick to send him outside to take over.
Back in and a flapjack lets Jericho and MJF mock the Bucks’ pose. Nick flips over and slides between the legs to make the hot tag to Matt. The house cleaning doesn’t even get past the first room as MJF takes him down and gets in a Fargo Strut. Jericho hits a suplex as JR’s voice sounds like it is about to go out. A double suplex gets two on Matt and we hit the chinlock. Matt fights up but gets sent back into the corner, where he comes out with a double DDT.
It’s back to Nick to pick the pace way up, including the slingshot Canadian Destroyer for two on MJF. Everything breaks down with Matt hammering away at Jericho, who reverses into the Walls. That’s broken up so the Meltzer Driver is loaded up, only to have Jericho reverse into a Tombstone. Now the Walls can go on in full until Jericho stops to drag it back to the middle, allowing Matt to slip out. A missed charge in the corner crotches Jericho so MJF comes back in to counter a hurricanrana into a sitout powerbomb for two.
MJF gets rather cocky so Matt scoops him up for the Meltzer Driver, only to have Jericho hit the Codebreaker on Nick for the save. A Floyd the baseball bat sets up the Heatseeker for two on Matt and MJF is stunned. It’s back to Nick so the Bucks can hit stereo high crossbodies for two each. Jericho’s Judas Effect hits Wardlow by mistake but the Lionsault is superkicked out of the air. The BTE Trigger gets two as MJF makes the save, earning himself a trip to the floor. The Meltzer Driver finishes Jericho at 17:50.
Rating: B-. They did a nice job of making me buy into the drama off the Heatseeker so they had to be doing something right. There wasn’t much of a reason to believe new champions were coming here but they did a nice enough job of changing my mind throughout. Good opener, though it went on a little longer than it should have.
Post match we run down the card, with JR apologizing for how bad his voice sounds (fair enough as he sounds horrible).
Casino Battle Royale
It’s a tag team Royal Rumble with 15 teams announced coming in. There are ninety second intervals and both members have to be eliminated, with the winners becoming #1 contenders. At least they have the casino game to validate the gambling theme this time. The Natural Nightmares (Dustin Rhodes/QT Marshall) are in at #1 and the Dark Order (5/10) are in at #2 and the brawling is on in a hurry. Dustin snaps off the powerslam on 5 but Marshall is caught in a fall away slam/running dropkick combination. A double bulldog takes the Order down and it’s Santana/Ortiz in at #3.
House is cleaned but the Order knocks them both down. Marshall tosses 5 for the first elimination and has to hang on when 10 tries to toss him out as well. The Sydal Brothers are in at #4 and we get everyone brawling again with no one being tossed. The ring is getting a little full and the Dark Order (Evil Uno/Stu Grayson) are in at #5 to make it even more crowded. Everyone in the Dark Order teams up on Santana for a toss powerbomb and 10 adds a spinebuster. Mike Sydal was tossed in there somewhere so things are a little less full. The Gunn Club (Austin/Colton) are in at #6 and get to clean house for a bit.
The Quick Draw takes Santana down and Matt Sydal is out for the first full team elimination. Peter Avalon/Cezar Bononi are in at #7 and get in their own share of house cleaning. With no more eliminations, the Varsity Blonds (Brian Pillman Jr./Griff Garrison) are in at #8. The Gunn Club starts taking over with Peter Avalon being tossed. Bononi is in trouble but Marshall dumps both of them (despite them being part of the Nightmare Family). Dustin yells at him but Marshall eliminates himself and walks out as Bear Country (Bronson/Boulder, who I’ve never actually seen in the ring before) are in at #9.
A big boot to Grayson is enough for the Bears to toss him and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus) is in at #10. Jungle Boy clotheslines Ortiz out and Luchasaurus does the same to Bononi to get rid of another team. There go Garrison, Santana and Evil Uno all at the Express’ hands and Butcher and the Blade are in at #11. The rest of the Dark Order is out thanks to interference from Jack Evans, leaving us with Dustin, Bear Country, the Jurassic Express and Butcher and Blade. Bunny gets involved and pulls Dustin out to get us down to six at the moment.
Private Party (Marq Quen/Isaiah Kassidy) are in at #12 to make it eight people at once and more brawling ensues. Stunt saves Pillman from being tossed it’s SCU (Christopher Daniels/Kazarian) in at #13. Luchasaurus breaks up their house cleaning but Bear Country tosses him out. Butcher dumps both Bears thanks to a Bunny distraction, only to have the two of them pull Butcher underneath the ropes to beat the heck out of him.
Rey Fenix and Pac are in at #14 to wreck a bunch of people and toss Quen and Blade. The brawling continues until the Dark Order (John Silver/Alex Reynolds are in at #15 to complete the field. Some rapid fire eliminations leave us with Fenix, Pac, Silver and Boy, leaving us with three teams over four entrants. Silver is almost tossed but manages to hang on with one hand and Fenix has to do the same. Pac and Silver slug it out with Silver kicking him up against the ropes but missing a charge into the snap German suplex.
Pac tosses Silver to the apron and Fenix walks the rope to kick him in the head for the elimination. Boy can barely get up but he manages to duck Pac’s kick to the head and low bridge him to the floor. That leaves Fenix vs. Boy in the staredown with Boy being knocked through the ropes to the floor in a hurry. Fenix hits a heck of a flip dive but Boy is right back with a clothesline back inside. There’s the poisonrana but Fenix kicks him in the head and tosses him out for the win at 26:47.
Rating: C+. I’m never sure how to rate these but they kept things moving quickly enough to keep it from being boring. That’s the key to something like this as while the ring got too full more than once, it was cleared out in a hurry near the end, which is what matters most. Fenix and Pac winning is the right call and it’s rather impressive that they are such a good team despite being thrown together. Good enough stuff here and the right team won.
Paul Wight says the big signing is here and gives us a hint: no one can out work him.
Diamond Dallas Page and Al Snow are here.
We recap Ryo Mizunami vs. Hikaru Shida for the Women’s Title. Mizunami was ready to retire until she showed up at Double Or Nothing and it revitalized her career. She won the #1 contenders tournament and is ready to go for the title.
Women’s Title: Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami
Shida is defending and gets knocked into the corner early on. The chops have Shida in trouble but she sends Ryo face first into the buckle and hits her own chops. Ryo chops away even more until Shida sends her into the corner for a running knee. Another running knee gets two but Ryo counters the running knee off the chair into a powerbomb over the barricade.
Back in and Ryo hammers away until Shida gets in a kick to the face out of the corner. The missile dropkick gets two on Ryo so Shida takes her to the ramp for a sunset driver. Shida smiles a lot and takes her back inside for two off a suplex. They strike it out until Ryo nails a few clotheslines to take over. Shida hits some running knees to the face but can’t cover. They grab hands and get up for another slugout until Ryo hits a Rock Bottom.
The guillotine legdrop gets two so Shida snaps off a straitjacket suplex, with Ryo popping back up for a screaming clothesline. Another running knee sets up the Falcon Arrow for two on Ryo and a poke to the eye sets up a small package for the same. The running knee connects but Ryo reverses into a rollup for two more. Shida hits an enziguri for two more and she tries another Falcon Arrow…which looked to be countered into a DDT but seemed to be swung into a Rock Bottom to plant Rio instead. Another running knee gets two on Ryo, followed by another knee to retain the title at 15:46.
Rating: C-. I’m so sick of Shida with her 917 running knees offense mixed in with some Falcon Arrows to spice it up a bit. She has been champion for almost ten months now and it feels like she has had the same match throughout her reign. I didn’t get into this for the most part as a good bit of the work was sloppy and the abundance of knees had me begging for the thing to be over. Shida needs to drop the title almost immediately and the sooner it is to Baker, the better.
Post match Nyla Rose, Britt Baker and Rebel run in to jump Shida and Ryo but Thunder Rosa makes the save, likely setting up a six woman on Dynamite.
Miro and Kip Sabian jump Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy in the back but demand the music be played anyway. Taylor is busted open thanks to going into some glass and is dragged to the ring as Miro calls him Charles over and over. Miro offers him the chance to let it stop but Taylor says ring the bell.
Miro/Kip Sabian vs. Chuck Taylor/Orange Cassidy
There is no Cassidy and Taylor is clotheslined down in a hurry. Miro rubs Taylor’s blood on his chest and Sabian is in with a missile dropkick. Chuck is sent into the corner for a boot to the face and another dropkick from Sabian makes it worse. Taylor gets in a shot to the face as Cassidy staggers to the ring. Well part of the way as he falls down on the stage on the way there.
Cassidy pops up to Orange Punch Miro and Taylor knocks Sabian down, allowing Cassidy to get the hot tag. Everything breaks down with Cassidy hitting a dive onto Sabian but getting caught in a fireman’s carry gutbuster. The Deathly Hallows is broken up and Taylor tags himself in for a Beach Break/double stomp combination. A piledriver gets two on Sabian with Miro having to make a save.
Cassidy puts his hands in his pockets for the slow motion kicks to Miro (of course), who kicks him down (as you should). Cassidy is back with the Stundog Millionaire but is driven into Penelope Ford to knock her to the floor. Miro kicks Cassidy in the head and throws Sabian back inside so Miro can make the tag. The jumping kick to the face sets up Game Over to finish Taylor at 7:54.
Rating: D+. Now can we please move them both on to ANYTHING else? Miro getting the win makes sense, but I hope this isn’t setting up some Miro vs. Cassidy showdown. The match needed to be this short after everything else has felt long and thankfully they didn’t do anything stupid here like giving Cassidy a fluke pin. They need to move on though if they want to make Miro into something important as it isn’t happening against Taylor and Cassidy.
MJF and Chris Jericho aren’t happy with their loss so on Wednesday it is the Inner Circle War Council, when changes are coming. MJF seems to suggest that Jericho may be in trouble.
We recap Matt Hardy vs. Hangman Page. Hardy wants to be Page’s manager/agent but Page tricked him into signing a contract where the winner gets the loser’s income for the first three months of the year. I’ve heard far worse ideas.
Matt Hardy vs. Hangman Page
Private Party is here with Hardy. Page ducks a right hand and hammers away in the corner as commentary talks about how Hardy has been wrestling almost as long as Page has been alive. There’s a fall away slam to Matt and they head outside with Page hitting an ax handle off part of the stage. Back in and Matt bails straight to the floor again, where he sends Page’s arm into the post.
The hand is wrapped around the post and sent into the steps with commentary wisely pointing out that it’s the Buckshot Lariat arm. Back in and Hardy bites the finger before bending the fingers back again. Page fights up and uses the right hand without thinking, which makes it even worse. The springboard clothesline puts Hardy down but the bad arm keeps Page down too. Hardy grabs a Twist of Fate on the floor and Page has to beat the count at nine.
Back in and Hardy German suplexes him off the top for two but Page is back up with a shot to the face. A clothesline puts them both on the floor as the fans are VERY into Hardy. Page is up first with a moonsault to take Hardy down again, followed by a sliding clothesline back inside. Deadeye is broken up and Hardy takes him down with a neckbreaker. Hardy catches him on top with a Razor’s Edge powerbomb for two more but the Twist of Fate is countered into the Deadeye.
That draws up Private Party for the distraction with Page having to get rid of both of them. The Buckshot Lariat is countered into the Side Effect (that looked good) and the Twist of Fate gets two (with commentary spoiling the kickout by shouting about how Matt is going to do it). Cue the Dark Order (all six members of them, which is not evening the odds as Excalibur calls it) to take care of Private Party, allowing Page to hit the Buckshot Lariat for the pin at 14:57.
Rating: C+. This was a better match than I would have bet on, though the fans at ringside screaming for Hardy every two seconds were rather pesky. They went with the only result they could have chosen so at least nothing went too far here. Page with the Dark Order intrigues me, but I’d rather they keep it this way instead of him joining in full.
Post match Dark Order and Page celebrate with some beer.
Video on the Face Of The Revolution ladder match for a TNT Title shot on Wednesday and with a mystery entrant.
Max Castor vs. Lance Archer vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Penta El Cero Miedo vs. Scorpio Sky vs. ???
Ladder match and the mystery entrant is…Ethan Page. Eh works for me. It’s a brawl to start with various people being knocked outside. Archer grabs a ladder to hit Cody in the bad shoulder and hit Sky and Castor in the head. Penta kicks Archer down and hits the Sling Blade but gets caught with by Sky’s German suplex. Castor comes in to clear the ring but here is Jack Evans with the boom box, only to have Dark Order’s 10 run out to take care of him (because a six man ladder match needs another story going on).
The ladder is set up and Page kicks Cody down to get rid of him. Castor starts hitting everyone with the boom box, including a few shots to Cody’s bad shoulder. Penta uses the ladder for a ramp to flip dive onto Cody and Castor. Archer dropkicks Penta to the floor but Page is back in to tie Archer up in the ladder. Page can’t hit a tilt-a-whirl side slam on Sky so he settles for Splash Mountain to drop Sky onto the ladder onto Archer.
Said ladder is bridged between the ring and the barricade so let’s bring in another one. Cody has to springboard in with a dropkick to knock Penta off the ladder but Penta is right back up with the Canadian Destroyer to drive Cody into the bridged ladder. That’s enough for Cody to be taken to the back (or at least to the entrance of the tunnel) as Sky pulls Castor off the ladder. Castor and Sky are up at the same time but Archer and Page join them. Everyone gets knocked off with Penta being up first for some kicking.
Sky pulls Penta down for the big crash, leaving Page and Castor to slug it out on the ladders again. Castor hits a huge sunset bomb to bring him down but Sky puts Castor onto the ladder in a crash. The frog splash crushes Castor onto the ladder and everyone is down again. Archer catapults Sky onto the ladder but then has to pull him back down. A jumping knee knocks Sky off the apron and through another ladder at ringside to put him way down.
Penta is back up to clean house but here’s Cody to whip a bunch of people with the belt. Archer suplexes Cody onto the bad arm and Castor adds an elbow drop off of the ladder to keep Cody down. Archer shoves the ladder over to take out Penta and Castor, followed by a string of chokeslams. The Black Out onto the ladder knocks Castor silly but Page powerbombs Archer off of the ladder.
That brings Jake Roberts in for a clothesline to Page but Penta kicks Roberts down. Cody is back up with the Cody….uh, slap to the face this time, to bring Penta off the ladder. Penta is right back up to take Cody off of the ladder but Sky cleans house with a chair. Cody and Sky slug it out on top of the ladder, with Sky being smart enough to pull on the bad arm. Cody gets knocked down and Sky wins at 23:16.
Rating: B. This was the spot fest that it needed to be and I’m rather pleased with Sky winning. Not just because I picked him to win, but also because he is the kind of smooth wrestler who can have a good match against anyone. Now they need to actually do something with him, because it feels like the kind of spot we have been in with him more than once before.
It’s time for the big signing and….yeah it’s Christian Cage. Cool moment as he was just in the Rumble, but dang I wanted to see Edge and Christian vs. the Usos. Christian signs without saying or doing anything else.
We recap Sting/Darby Allin vs. Team Taz. Allin has been getting on Team Taz’s nerves so they beat him up multiple times. Then Sting showed up to even the odds, meaning it’s cinematic match time.
Team Taz vs. Darby Allin/Sting
We go cinematic in a warehouse, with Allin hitching a ride on the back of a truck ala Back to the Future. Sting and Allin have an army of people in face paint to accompany them and we’re actually in a ring. Allin gets thrown over the top so he bounces off of a wall and back into the ring (Tony: “LIKE SPIDER!”) to drop Cage. They’re out of the ring in a hurry with Cage powerbombing one of the masked men against the apron. Cage drags Allin away from the ring as Sting hits the Stinger Splash on Starks.
A big camera zoom takes us across the building to Allin slipping out of a powerbomb attempt. Cage throws him through some doors as another Stinger Splash hits Starks. They leave the ring too with Sting grabbing the bat to chase Starks away. Starks says Sting is nothing without the bat so Sting throws it down and beats on Starks without it. We go back to Cage picking up Allin for a suplex and walking him up a flight of stairs (because he can just do that).
Back to Starks beating up Sting and throwing a barrel at his knees. Cage hits Starks in the head by mistake though and Allin is back with a bottle to Cage’s head. A double chokeslam puts Cage through a table and there’s a Coffin Drop off of a post to take Allin down. Cue Powerhouse Hobbs and Hook to beat Allin down and a big toss sends him through a window. Sting gets kicked in the ribs as JR says so much for this being a tag match.
With Sting in trouble, Allin pops up and throw him a bat (across the building and down a floor), which Sting breaks over Cage’s back. Allin then dives off of a balcony through Cage through part of the floor, leaving Starks and Sting to go back to the ring. The Stinger Splash hits exposed buckle and Starks spears him for two. Back up and Starks misses an elbow, setting up the Scorpion Death Drop to finish Starks at 13:49.
Rating: B. Your taste is going to entirely depend on what you think of cinematic matches so this could be quite the range of ratings. I’m not wild on the idea, but I would absolutely prefer this to a regular match for Sting. Starks taking the fall is frustrating but this is kind of a special circumstance. I know Sting isn’t going to be a regular wrestler and while he didn’t look bad here, he doesn’t need to be doing this very often.
Double Or Nothing is in May.
We run down the Dynamite card.
We recap Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega in an exploding barbed wire deathmatch. Moxley won’t leave Omega alone so he is picking this as a way to get rid of Moxley for good. Atsushi Onita talks about how dangerous the match is and violence is promised.
AEW World Title: Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega
Omega is defending and there is barbed wire everywhere. If you touch the barbed wire ropes something explodes, and if we go thirty minutes EVERYTHING EXPLODES. Don Callis in on commentary and the referee is in something resembling a hazmat suit. Moxley takes a shot of whiskey during the Big Match Intros and we’re ready to go. They take their time going to the lockup and Moxley blocks a drive into a barbed wire board in the corner. They chop it out until Omega grabs a headlock and Moxley can’t even suplex his way out of it.
Neither is able to send the other into the barbed wire board so Moxley sends him outside through the one section with no barbed wire. A Russian legsweep with a barbed wire baseball bat takes Omega down and there’s a kendo stick shot to the back. Back in and Omega throws powder into the eyes, meaning Moxley needs to blindly swing the barbed wire bat. Moxley is sent into the barbed wire for the first explosion for two.
Some kendo stick shots have Moxley in trouble and the Kitaro Crusher through a trashcan gets two. Back up and the rather bloody Moxley is sent into the barbed wire board in the corner, setting up Omega’s middle rope moonsault for two. Schiavone: “We have exactly twenty minutes before this ring explodes.” Moxley sends him into the ropes for an explosion and then dropkicks him into them for another.
Back up and Moxley suplexes Omega through another barbed wire board in the corner but a Paradigm Shift onto a barbed wire chair is blocked. Moxley sends Omega flying with a German suplex and a side slam onto the barbed wire chair has Omega in a lot of pain. The barbed wire is wrapped around Moxley’s arm but the running lariat is countered into a dragon suplex.
The V Trigger gets two and Moxley drives him into the wire, with the explosion going off in Omega’s face. They head to the apron for a slugout until Moxley hits a Paradigm Shift through the barbed wire board for a double explosion. They’re both down for a long time until Moxley pulls the wire off of the board. They get back in and we get a noise signaling that we are ten minutes away from the big explosions.
Omega gets in a low blow and there’s a V Trigger in the corner. Make that two in a row and the One Winged Angel gets two as Moxley puts his foot on the ropes for the explosion (clever). Cue the Good Brothers to beat on Moxley and an exploding barbed wire bat to the face gets two. The One Winged Angel through the chair retains the title at 25:09.
Rating: D+. For a barbed wire street fight, it was pretty good (assuming you don’t find “yeah he used barbed wire, but now he’s going to use MORE barbed wire” to be a rather dumb idea), but for something built around THE RING MIGHT EXPLODE, this was rather disappointing. The match was built around the danger and I was laughing when some sparklers and smoke went off. Throw in how ridiculous the barbed wire stuff was and this was horrible. Make it a regular barbed wire match and it’s FAR better, but the explosions being such a joke killed it.
Post match the beatdown stays on as we’re told the ring is going to explode no matter what because THERE IS NO FAIL SAFE. As I try to figure out why that would be a feature, Omega handcuffs Moxley’s hands behind his back and the big beatdown ensues as we kill off the last of the thirty minutes.
The one minute countdown is on and the handcuffed Moxley is in the ring. Eddie Kingston comes in to try and get him out….and a bit of pyro goes of around the ring. The pyro from the corners was smaller than what would come up during Diesel’s entrance and the stuff at ringside was even weaker. This was pathetic, and Kingston actually selling it makes things even worse. I actually can’t remember the last time I saw something so disappointing and it is going to be a rather black eye for AEW for a good while.
Overall Rating: C. There were some good parts to the show but I’m rather disappointed by the whole thing. It didn’t have anything that was must see, it felt rather long and then the ending was an all time letdown. Christian signing is cool and the cinematic match was good, but this is going to be remembered for one or two things and that’s it. They went too far with the build and now it is going to cause them trouble.
The ending was a good example of one of AEW’s biggest problems: they have to do too much. The main event ended with a One Winged Angel THROUGH A CHAIR. You could put Moxley on the shelf for three months with that and it would have been fine. But no, we need to (allegedly) blow up the ring because a move you could say broke his neck isn’t enough. That’s something they do far too often and it hurts them. I’m really disappointed and I don’t like that feeling with what is usually one of the best products out there.
If you ever needed proof that AEW needs someone to say no sometimes, this is it. One of the things that a lot of people were saying was it was going to be ridiculous and they were hyping it up too much because that’s over the top. Well this is what we wound up with because AN EXPLODING RING is kind of a stupid idea. Tony Khan needed to say no and just let them have the barbed wire match and move on. They’ll be fine in a bit after this, but this was a step back for them and that is a new situation for them to be in.
Results
Young Bucks b. Chris Jericho/MJF – Meltzer Driver to Jericho
Rey Fenix/Pac won the Casino Battle Royale last eliminating Jungle Boy
Hikaru Shida b. Ryo Mizunami – Running knee
Miro/Kip Sabian b. Chuck Taylor/Orange Cassidy – Game Over to Taylor
Hangman Page b. Matt Hardy – Buckshot Lariat
Scorpio Sky won the Face Of The Revolution ladder match
Sting/Darby Allin b. Team Taz – Scorpion Death Drop to Starks
Kenny Omega b. Jon Moxley – One Winged Angel through a chair
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After reading and hearing about this match I think I finally understand Why Lesner didn’t want to work with and refused to give the future Jon Moxly any offense at Wrestlemania 32! What a waste of time and money he was for WWE.
Lesnars a weird case I feel like cause that situation could’ve gone either way, but yeah Mox has been kind of a one trick pony since he came in. He started off solid, but that match against Omega at Full Gear 2019 I think kinda put the hardcore bug back in him. I’d say his match against Cage and his first with Eddie were his most technically sound. He wrestled well with Guevara, Darby, Pac and Jericho, but since the pandemic he really got lazy and one dimensional. I don’t know, he’s almost Janela-like right now. I hate to say that, but I guess people get complacent at a certain point. Also the fact that’s he’s only put over Kenny since he’s been here and both were screwy endings. Maybe this paternity leave will be a good thing for all of us.
Tony Khan needed to say no? Hell, it’s probably his idea! He does this all the time: announce something that sounds cool on paper and then put zero thought into how to actually pull the whole thing off.
Sometimes, the promoter needs to get out of their own way. Every promoter is guilty of it. He has to remember that what seems like a good idea to him isn’t always gonna pan out that way. Every iconic match started as an experiment, so I give him credit for trying. He needs to remember that he’s trying to run a big time promotion, not one of the niche ones.
D+ You are on crack
Or I just saw the match differently than you did. It can happen you know.
I just really hope that they can rebound after this cause it was a solid show but nobody is gonna talk about that, and that’s the sad reality. Most wrestling fans have such a short memory and they go on the last thing they see.
KB, would I be right in my assessment that they backed themselves into a corner with the explosion stuff? It’s understandable that they didn’t wanna, you know, kill two of their top stars, but then the explosion thing makes it so everyone is expecting something huge. I agree that it needed to be a barbed wire match, without the explosions.
Yeah they hyped it up too much without being able to pay it off. That’s never a good idea.
Luckily Tony and Jon are covering for it by saying that Kenny’s a bad engineer I know people are gonna dwell because wrestling fans complain about the most irrelevant things but a couple of solid shows and maybe a big dynamite should get them back to normal
But didn’t the announcers and Eddie sell it like it was actually bomb-like? They f’d up. They can’t claim that was planned when it obviously wasn’t.
All they had to do was a Goldberg level of pyro, which seems safe enough. At least give the illusion that it went over them.
Or you know, don’t book an explosion match. This is like that eye for an eye match. Don’t book something you can’t deliver.
I know that, trust me I think this was really stupid, and like I said, they booked themselves into a corner with the explosion stuff. But we can’t dwell on the whole thing, cause it’s not gonna make it any better.
That’s an awful cover though. Between that and his diagram, your champion looks like Wily E. Coyote.
Yeah but Omegas gimmick is seemingly being an overgrown child. I’m just trying to stay optimistic with the whole thing. I’m not gonna hate a company that’s two years old because of one mistake. That’s like potty training a toddler and disowning them cause they missed the toilet. Every company messes up, it’s how you rebound.
I didn’t say anything about hating them. This was one of their first big missteps, which is good. Khan‘s answer of “well what were people expecting us to do” was piss poor though. Take accountability, dude.
Yeah that was agitating. I hope he learns from this. I don’t doubt he will, but this should be a wake up call.
And I love all wrestling: WWE, AEW, Indies, etc. So I’d do this for any company. If it begins to hit Russo levels, then I’ll start having issues with the company.
Will AEW be fine? Yes. But building something up like this and having people pay for it is not a good business practice.
It’s fine to have optimism. But they screwed up here and deserve ridicule. They should not be given a pass and it should be made clear that this is completely unacceptable. To just move on would be disingenuous.
From what I’ve seen, Kenny seems like an utter dork. Like I don’t buy him in the spot he’s in but to be fair, I don’t watch enough to say that with certainty.
Oh for sure! This show was an A easily until that ending brought it down, cause I was really having fun with it. It’s unacceptable and I hate Kenny even more than I did before. I’m not trying to make excuses or giving a pass on this, and I can see where it seems like I am. Kenny and The Bucks are hard to take seriously cause they are so NWO/DX esque sometimes and they are very self serving most of the time. I have a hard time remembering Tony and Cody even exist backstage sometimes. I’m not saying sweep it all under the rug, but I just wanna look at the good things that happened on the show. So yeah, they screwed up badly. I will never deny that. Tony tried to appeal to a different market and couldn’t deliver. Their pride got in the way.
So if it’s not clear what my ridicule is: I can’t stand Kenny at all, and they need to tone him down cause you can see the power getting to him. It’s as much everyone else’s fault as well cause they’re just going with whatever he feels like doing.
Always appreciate a mature discussion, so thanks man!!
It’s like Game of Thrones. Greatest show I’ve ever seen. Loved it. Deep nerd dived into it unlike anything in a long time. Then the ending happened and I never wanted to hear about Game of Thrones again. A bad ending can override a lot of goodwill.
I do love AEW existing as an alternative.
AEW gives you freedom where as WWE is more scripted. Love the strength and weaknesses of both.
A huge problem I had with Kenny is when he was going after Impact’s world title and his reasoning was I like collecting comics so I want to collect titles. Like what a dork. Nothing wrong with that as a hobby for someone but not for a top heel world champion. I know that’s a minor thing to most people but to me, it doesn’t scream top guy.
Bucks drive me nuts. Never understood their appeal. I understand why they are where they are but I just don’t get it.
Tony needs to learn to say no. Hopefully this helps accelerate that process. He also said previously that he hated Matt Hardy teleporting but let it happen anyways and regretted it. Same thing here.
Yeah I fully agree with that point. I love the freedom of the wrestlers, but Tony needs to start going “Alright, I’m taking this one so we don’t look like idiots” cause I’m gonna take a wild guess that Moxley and Kenny decided they wanted to do something insane, and everyone else didn’t wanna hear Kenny’s whining is what it comes off as. I get he’s a VP but so is Cody and look at Cody in AEW so far: gave up any chance he had at getting the world title, lost the TNT title twice, once in a squash and the other to a rising star, had great matches with guys not even signed and got them signed in Kingston and Starks, and put over Scorpio Sky in the ladder match. Meanwhile, Kenny lost to Jericho, lost to Pac which started a rivalry that he won anyways, won the tag titles, held them for the better part of ever, lost to Moxley in a match that didn’t even count, and now looks like a complete childish dork holding the world title. See who’s helping build the company’s future and who’s making it their own personal love note? This to me comes down to Tony needing to, like you said, start telling him no. Otherwise we have Hogan Jr. on the horizon and that’s the last thing this company needs.
This was a big L for AEW. When you hype up a surprise, to the point I actually thought it would be Cena or Lesnar, you better deliver. Christian is a fine surprise but he shouldn’t have been hyped up. Also would it kill Jim Ross to sell his debut a little? My God. And of course that absolute fail of an ending will go down in the record books with the Shockmaster. The matches might have been fine. I don’t know, I didn’t watch. But this was AEW’s chance to deliver and they failed. To think I almost bought this ppv. So glad I didn’t.
They didnt hype him up. Fans did. They only said it was hall of fame worthy and it was one of TKs favorite wrestler. Christian fits that bill 100%
lol yes they did. It was all over their social media. Even Big Show hyped him up in a way you thought it might be Angle or Punk. Christian is a fine surprise like he was at the Rumble, but they should have just let him show up without announcing it if that was your big signing. I’d say unless you had Cena, Punk, Lesnar or Batista coming out, don’t announce the surprise signing beforehand.
I’d actually say it in reverse. Don’t announce it when it’s Cena, Punk, Lesnar or Batista… Do announce it when it’s someone like Christian who can still go full time if he wanted to. They announced it just fine and how is Angle better then Christian at this point? Angle would be a very very big disappointment in 2021, and he’s my favorite wrestler.
Aew has my attention and now they’ve lost it. Oh well
It was a fun ppv, I like the gimmick show feel. But man they dropped the ball hard with the explosion stuff. The barbed wire explosive bat would’ve been a cool gag had the match not been based off of explosions. I love AEW to death, but just like I say with WWE, which I always will love to death, these stupid bait and switch endings need to quit. The cell with the Fiend and Rollins was embarrassing, and while they told a great story with Kingston, this was also embarrassing. Somebody get Kingston an award because he literally sold that like a champ even though it was stupid looking. If they stay away from the gimmicky stuff for a while (Mox being on paternity leave might help actually), they’ll bounce back. I give the match an A but it drops to a D because of that “explosion”. Awesome match that felt like old school NWA violence with the psychology, but terrible execution with the angle after. I can’t stand Omega, as he seems to be this generations Hogan. He has solid matches, but he doesn’t need that title.
As for the rest:
The Bucks overtelegraph everything and it’s hard to get into. That being said, I’ll go higher than you and say B+ cause they had me on some of those falls. Call me a mark, but that last 5-7 minutes was pretty slick, and the Superkick ping pong bit with Tony being cheerleader made me laugh.
The battle royal is a C for me, as it was fun, but it was missing teams like FTR and Top Flight to really give it that ooomph. Pac and Fenix can have good matches with a rake and a mop, so the title match with the Bucks should be really fun.
Shida grew on me in the good way at the beginning, but she started to get inflamed after a while. Mizunami was an ok challenger, but give the title to Baker who has a moveset and can actually cut promos due to, you know, speaking English!!!! Match is a C for me. I’m so wire out of finisher spamming, so I can’t go higher.
The comedy tag was an A after watching Taylor get put through a window, but he came back and it dropped back to a D. I love Cassidy, he shouldn’t be hanging with a monster like Miro. Sabian is solid, just needs more seasoning (and a less hot girlfriend). Trent needs to heal soon, cause Chuck by himself hurts my soul.
I love Page, the Dark Order and Private Party. Why is the match a C for me? Matt Hardy is old, slow, obnoxious (I know it’s his character, but even so) and he’s been sucking interest away from stories since 2010 (there’s a t-shirt). Page needed to win, and I coined the term “Broke” Matt Hardy on instagram- I most likely didn’t invent it but I haven’t seen anyone before me do it so screw them.
Ladder Match was cool, but nothing I’ve never seen. The destroyer on the ladder was sick and I’m surprised Sky can walk let alone climb after that crash, but other than that, it was a run of the mill multiman ladder match. I’ll give it the base rating, which is a B, and I’ve liked Page a lot, and it’ll be nice to see him in regular competition now that he’s officially signed (by the way KB, I was right about the indy signing, so HAA!!!)
Christian Cage was the biggest rumor all weekend and wasn’t earth shattering, but he can put on solid matches. Just let him take it easy so he doesn’t get hurt right away.
The Street Fight was a hard one for me. It was endearing like one of those really bad, over the top low budget kung fu movies, where you just have to laugh at it. Honestly, I’m giving it an A because of selfish reasons. Me and my dad have never had a very strong bond, and wrestling was really the only thing we ever saw eye to eye on. He is a huge Sting fan, maybe the biggest I’ve ever met. He didn’t get the PPV because he’s short on money with my birthday coming up, and I called him to warn him about the main event because he hates the Good Brothers. I told him about the street fight and the pure joy in his voice when I said Sting and Darby won really got me back into my normal self, as I was livid about that ending. So it’s an A+ for personal nostalgia reasons.
Overall, I give the show a B-, as it’s a fun gimmick show, but nothing is technically sound outside of the opener. The Main Event was top 5 of AEW ever for me until the ending, the street fight was a personal thing, and everything else just kinda came and went. Death Triangle and Scorpio Sky winning were good moments,and I’m a huge Christian mark, but nothing was overly game changing.
I appreciate your feedback and you answering my bombardment of questions today. Have a great night KB!!
I actually liked this PPV more than KB.
The cinematic match was great without over exposing Sting that also had the right ending as you can’t have Sting lose yet.
The Ladder match was great without overstaying it’s welcome and all participants had their moment to shine.
While the ending to the exploding barbed wire deathmatch seem a little underwhelming (along with the pathetic “explosions” after the match) – overall it was hard hitting, extremely violent and was uncomfortable to watch which I assume was the point.
In fact my major complaint about the whole show is that the camera angles failed to show how many people were actually in that building apart from during Moxley’s entrance. I feel like AEW in general needs to actually do a few more crowd shots to capture more emotion and set the stage a little more.
Christian and a Florida based promotion with an easy schedule. Name a more iconic duo. I’m actually intrigued what they’ll do with him.
Though yes, robbing us of one more Edge and Christian match is pretty mean.
Why didn’t they have Omega be the reason the countdown didn’t stop? He’s the heel I think. That would be an evil thing to do.
Yeah my head twisted to the side when they said there was no fail safe. Why would Omega do that?
And when it wasn’t a big explosion at the end, Callis could have semi saved it on commentary by saying something like, “Do you really think we would take the chance of having the champ blown up? The champ is always one step ahead.”
There were definitely some eye-rolling moments. I’m ok with Christian being the surprise. People were going to be disappointed with anyone that wasn’t Punk or Lesnar, but those were both unrealistic. The biggest issue was the length. WWE has trimmed their shows down nicely and AEW needs to follow suit.
I can live with the length as it’s four times a year, not once a month.
It was 3,5 hours not including the preshow. For a company that does ppv’s sporadically I’d say that a pretty good runtime.
KB, WWE doing events only once a month? I wish.
It doesn’t feel long when they have what basically amounts to a big quarterly blowoff show. And it was nice that the comedy tag and money match were decent lengths. Not every match needs to be 20+, and only 3 matches hit that long, and one was a battle royal with time intervals. I appreciate them not having Jericho go more than 20 as that would’ve been another harping point for people. They did really well at pacing on this night.
This was the first AEW PPV I bought. I don’t see a second one happening anytime soon. They did nothing to convince me these shows are worth remotely close to $50.
I pretty much agree with your review completely.