Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals
There was a lot going on here, and all of it was good except whatever The Young Bucks are doing.
Areas of Excellence Within Performance
Jungle Boy/Wardlow was a David/Goliath match that made the most of two interesting prospects, Hangman Page/Colt Cabana was an amazing to-the-point Hangman showcase (the strikes! the bumps!), and Penta El Zero M/Fenix was THE MATCH.
The Lucha Bros wrestled each other for the first time in AEW and it ruled from bell-to-bell, an all-out showcase (what one might call a spotfest!) that was grounded in lots of layers of story. Fenix’s Tornillo spiral football plancha to the floor was one of the greatest of all time, and only he could take a pop-up ACTUAL powerbomb.
Also, did AEW finally figure out Kenny Omega? Did it all just happen on this show? I’m still calling the decision to introduce him low key in a tag team with Page brilliant, but this week saw a kind of reboot: introduction with an annoying amount of stats (broke five-star scale this many times, won all these awards three years ago, etc), ridiculous cleaner-themed dancers cheering him on, and finally most special of all: he just straight squashed Sonny Kiss.
I hope this was was the plan with COVID Janela too – this wasn’t the Kenny squash where he gives the guy a whole match anyways, he just hit the V-Trigger and dropped a One Winged Angel and sighed like he finally figured out how to be a TV wrestler. Then he shook Sonny’s hand and hugged him! DID AEW FINALLY FIGURE IT OUT???
Also, Eddie Kingston signed with AEW a couple months ago and promo’d his way into a feud with Jon Moxley and a shot at the AEW World Title on pay-per-view. What was that little segment AEW used to do – From Undesirable to Undeniable? That’s right, partna.
There was a lot of pro wrestling on this show, but Cody cutting a promo Earlier Today about putting on mass standing next to Arn Anderson wearing khaki by god shorts was the most pro wrestling this show got.
Britt Baker is back, Ricky Starks crushes promos, and Steve-O hanging with Darby Allin is too perfect.
John Silver‘s main event hot tag was excellent but so is John Silver in general. “Everyone-! Brodie! Brodie! Brodie!”
Also, of course – OF COURSE – the Chris Jericho and MJF Le Dinner Debonair dueling heel dipshit musical dance number was a wrestling treasure and will probably have entire chapters of books dedicated to it one day. I can’t believe there is any discussion of division on this one. I refuse it. Anybody engaging in it is WRONG.
Suggested Areas of Improvement
JR and Schiavone both calling Baker a bitch at two completely separate points in the show seemed a little much, though the pivot to the AEW Heels plug felt like everybody involved is laughing about this. Maybe. Hopefully. Eek.
Too many Dave Meltzer references – stop.
The Fatal 4-Way main event and the Young Bucks/FTR feud was a bummer way to close a great show: the match was alright if not a little silly and in poor Alex Reynolds case completely dangerous. But while the Bucks have been all over the place for a couple months, FTR and Tully Blanchard had kept their characters consistent.. until this week. Lame commentary by FTR, even lamer angle at the end of the show where a masked assailant helping FTR’s was revealed as… their manager, Tully Blanchard.
The Bucks gimmick at this point is basically double X-Factor-era X-Pac’s.
My Favorite Things
2. Rey Fenix’s Tornillo!
1. Le Dinner Debonair
Official Star Rating
4 out of 5 Stars
