Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals
It’s over a year later and AEW is promoting the second Moxley/Omega match, and it’s also basic in a good way: two top guys want to be top guy. The paths they took over the last year made sense, and instead of attacking each other or trying to find ways to make it interesting they cut a couple straightforward promos on this show that has this big match reeling big.
AEW might not hit on everything but their effort to put meat on everything is appreciated. Moxley is beaten up but has handled every challenge at the top of the mountain; Omega has taken a longer path there but is ready to prove he always should’ve been. Something like that.
Areas of Excellence Within Performance
A Rhodes in charge approached things that way in the past, and a Rhodes in charge also occasionally baited eyeballs with a celebrity and had a lady suck up to him on television – Cody hit all three here, and if you want to tease Shaq finally doing some kind of wrestling match then you better do it.
Ummmm also JADE CARGILL CRUSHED THAT PROMO. What an ask of a new character and what a delivery.
MJF’s theme music is great, yeah? Perfect amount of bumping beats and annoying horseshit.
Pentagon/Fenix wasn’t as wild as last time though I felt like it deserved more than the occasional soft “ooooo” from the socially distanced crowd.
PAC is back and had the red carpet rolled out with a big return at the end of the show. It they can sustain it, AEW has done an amazing job this last month making both PAC and Eddie Kingston into main event guys.
Suggested Areas of Improvement
First the Brian Cage vs. Matt Sydal match was AEW in all the worst ways, a match where they tried so much they lost the plot: it was solid competitive wrestling, but Cage hasn’t been around in forever – keep it simple and get to the finisher, dudes.
Darby feuding with Cage feels a few months too late soon – it seemed like it’d be awesome the night Cage made his debut, but it’s lost steam and I think I just want Darby vs. Ricky Starks.
Also the Darby save where he had to carefully run down steps while his badly timed and mic’d music played was lame. How do you make Darby lame???
The Bunkhouse Match was something different but after all the prop bumps, ladder spot, blood, Allie table bump.. I thought: maybe choose like two.
I do not like Shawn Spears’ theme music.
My Favorite Things
2. “Oh, SHUT UP” – Tony Schiavone on MJF saying he’s been in the business five whole years
1. “OH MY GOD!” – Tony Schiavone, timing it brilliantly, on PAC’s return
