AEW’s second show continued some of the good vibes brought on by their first, though it also threw in a few nuggets that messed with those vibes.
The big thing is that this was essentially a paid gimmick show, complete with an untrained promoter working a match on the pre-show and a lot of video game references, and though the latter isn’t bad the former sure was.
I still enjoyed this show, namely because it’s just fun to see what feels like a major league wrestling show that isn’t produced by Vince McMahon and his stockholders. Lots of new faces, forward momentum, and a crowd that was beaming with goodwill for the professional wrestling. The variety continues to be a strong suit for me too – flying, joshi, dinosaur gimmicks, and barbed wire boards all had their moment on this show.
I dig that they’re adding a few old school bits to what’s a very new school in-ring product. Kudos for trying that stuff out, like the time calls that I hope stay and weren’t just there because Cody and Darby Allin were going to a 20-minute draw. While I liked that, I hated Justin Roberts’ whole “this is the final match of the regular show, the lights will go out then turn back on, etc.” thing before the Unsanctioned Match. Don’t be silly so early guys.
The video package and graphics guys are the real all-stars for me right now. What an intro, and everything felt properly major league.
Weaving everything together for TV will be, as it always has been, the real test. But overall this was another fine world-building show for a product that has certainly made waves but is also still really really new. It wasn’t the HOLY SHIT show Double or Nothing Was, but the journey continues and it’s fun to watch play out. What choices do wrestlers make when they’re given a bunch of money to make a wrestling company? Well let’s take a look.
I guess one thing they do is bad Kickoff shows. The 3-way tag and Moxley’s promo at the end were good (“If you don’t know who Jon Moxley is… you’re about to find out”), everything else was various levels of questionable.
0. 3-Way Tag Match – Winner Advances to All Out for Opportunity at First Round Bye in the AEW World Tag Team Title Tournament: The Best Friends vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky)
This was the coming out party for the tag team Private Party and seen purely through that lens this match was a success. Otherwise – odd match stipulation aside (I thought WWE’s whole “Winner Advances for an Opportunity at Blah Blah at Extreme Rules thing was bad!), a solid opener. We’ve got friends hugging, we’ve got old dudes still able to go, and we’ve got Private Party’s dance-based eye-popping high-flying kicks to the head all over the place. Whatever that “Silly String” spot was was AWESOME. The little bits where Kassidy reluctantly tagged out to SCU when Quen was on the floor or when Kazarian dragged Trent to get the tag were fine world-building exercises too, for this is how real humans might act if they ever were put in a 3-Way Tag Team Match. There were probably a few too many near falls and it didn’t need to go over 15 minutes, otherwise I had a good time. ***1/4
Everything after this on the Buy In sucked.
The Dark Order followed up their incredible debut with a cheesy promo. Kenny and the Bucks did Fyre Festival jokes, and while I was into the docu-style they were going for and know comedy is subjective… YEESH. Punch it up, boys. I bet Ron Funches would LOVE to be on the writing team.
0. Allie vs. Leva Bates w/ Peter Avalon
If you’ve been on the Internet in the last few days you probably know nobody liked this. And neither did I. The match stunk. God bless Allie, but Bates didn’t deliver gimmick-wise or work-wise. Still, as bad as this match was, whoever’s going with book-reading as a heel gimmick in 2019 needs a stiff kick in the ass. I think they blew the finish too. DUD
3. Hardcore Match: Michael Nakazawa vs. Jebailey
This was bad but could’ve been so much worse if not for the magic of Michael Nakazawa. The initial pop, his semi-successful attempt at turning the crowd on him by cutting a promo in perfect English, him condescendingly thanking this goof Jebailey for letting him know which leg to work over… GOLD. Nakazawa’s performance here is very much worth watching and I hope he got a nice bonus, but no more of this please. This isn’t Good Weird wrestling, it’s just Bad Weird wrestling. DUD
1. Christopher Daniels vs. CIMA
I’ve given Chris Daniels a lot of grief over the years like the uninformed asshole fan I am, but there was a reality to it – guy was boring. Curry Man ruled, but Christopher Daniels himself for years remained the most competent of competent wrestlers that are very competent. And here he is kicking off this show with this gimmick where he carries a mic stand and just grooves around like he’s the most satisfied man in the world, and though I’m sure he’s been doing this for a while this was my first time really seeing it and I am very happy he is doing it. CIMA meanwhile is still CIMA – older, slower, maybe wiser. Each guy is a step behind and it feels like they’re trying to balance pulling off a match they could’ve a decade ago and also adapting to what they’re capable of today. The result was what felt like a pitch perfect opener. They hit the spots, they got the crowd jamming, and they proved they can still get it done in that squared circle. ***1/4
2. 3-Way Match: Riho vs. Yuka Sakazaki vs. Nyla Rose
Far be it from me to be a wrestling fan making hyperbolic statements about All Elite Wrestling, but the joshi stars could very well be their version of WCW’s cruiserweights – not everything hits perfect but it’s so unique and fun and even the stuff that doesn’t quite hit has a charm to it. Their introduction hasn’t been bad either… they’ve got little characters, the matches are given time to breathe, and they aren’t being force fed as BRANDS. Nyla meanwhile is an absolute presence, and I’m #AllIn on seeing her growth as a wrestling superstar. Riho vs. Yuka was fun, Riho and Yuka vs. Nyla was fun (the double bridge spot and double catch spot especially), and I was just tickled by Yuka’s hesitant springboard dive. ***1/4
3. 4-Way Match: Hangman Adam Page vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Jungle Boy w/ Luchasaurus vs. MJF
The MJF promo prior to this went a hair too hard on the poor gamer boys, but was absolutely one of the best things on this show. MJF is a player and I’m glad how clear that is to everybody involved in this company. This was a 4-Way Match, and with that comes inherent dumbassery, but it also showcased the hell out of the amazing Jungle Boy and continued the push of Page and MJF as the next big stars. Whatever that core strength moonsault thing Jungle Boy did off the top to the floor was unreal – everyone wants to talk about the EVOLUTION~! of wrestling but whatever that shit was, that was it. A Tower of Doom that suplexes a guy into another guy might be the only one I support too. ***1/4
4. Cody w/ Brandi Rhodes vs. Darby Allin
So first of all this was the first Darby Allin match I’ve seen and the guy is a horrifying delight. I also kind of loved JR’s confused old man analysis of him – “he doesn’t really say much … maybe he needs to talk to somebody, hell, I don’t know.” There’s such a pop, fluidity, and recklessness to nearly every movement he makes, whether it’s his rapid-fire handspring kip-up or that bump in the corner to the floor that was legitimately breathtaking. I also loved the spot where Darby flipped inside to avoid a Cody chopblock on the apron, hit the ropes, and hit a tope on Cody who was JUST turning around. The uniqueness isn’t just in the flippy stuff either though – Cody’s hand got hurt at some point and later on Darby just punched away at it on the mat.
Cody meanwhile is a lucky genius in that his matches in AEW have this atmosphere early that let’s him get away with not doing much – daddy would be proud. Unfortunately, while Darby was a revelation and I think they got their point across, this sure felt like the 20-minute draw that it was. Cody selling his hand, struggling to apply submissions, working over Darby… yep. 20 minutes. It was a good match, a good showcase for Darby, just had me glancing at the clock once or thrice. ***1/4
Then Shawn Spears ran out and hit Cody in the head with a chair. I dunno. Probably shouldn’t do that. But the blood pouring out of Cody’s was a heck of a visual and Spears looked as serious in that moment as he needed to be after nearly half a decade of being the “TEN!” guy.
5. Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros & Laredo Kid
The classic This is Awesome, Fight Forever, aaaand I forgot. A fun match but one among many of the style. It doesn’t make some of the crazy shit they did any less crazy, but it does make it feel that way. Fenix didn’t do a ton but that springboard tilt-a-whirl headscissors on the floor and the back body drop over the turnbuckle to the floor were ENOUGH. Not sure the Candian Destroyer over a kickout and the big complicated spot to setup the finish worked as well as they wanted. A fine match with some talented dudes. ***1/4
6. Unsanctioned Match: Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela
It… delivered. No epic. No statement that Dean Ambrose was some main event super-worker just waiting to be unleashed. Not yet. But this was, once again, a fun match. They brawled in the crowd and then they threw each other into barbed wire boards and thumbtacks for a little bit. Janela did what was a truly beautiful elbow drop off a ladder through Moxley and tables on the floor. And I’ve seen a lot of wild stuff watching wrestling but the atomic drop to the thumbtacks was possibly the wildest, especially with it being the (UNSANCTIONED~!) main event of this semi-major league show. Moxley’s been waiting to do some dumb stuff for a while and it was fun to see him do it. ***1/4
Not sure the Kenny Omega beatdown on Mox post-match was necessary, to be honest. I get Mox attacked first last month, but this feels like something that’s already a big deal on paper and doesn’t really need the extra junk. Maybe that’s just me.
Literally every match on the main show was ***1/4. That’s what kind of show this was. Again, not the blow-away feel-good wrestling EVENT that Double or Nothing was, and not even really an ideal follow-up to that show, but it was a solid continuation of this new wrestling thing with a lot of fun performers doing their thing. 6/10
