Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals
On a show that was actually kind of low key and more a primer for next week, AEW not just packed in a ton of good stuff but caught my feels too. Taz and Cody Rhodes pulled one of the finest worked shoots I’ve ever seen in wrestling and an angle that made Vince McMahon look like a damn fool: for giving up on Taz and for giving up on what managers bring to wrestling in general.
My feels got caught in the first half-hour but the whole show was strong: quality wrestling, solid angles for Hangman Page and Scorpio Sky, great promos from Mox and Kingston, good development for Top Flight and Anna Jay, and just weird cool pro wrestling stuff like Hager/Daniels exchanges and SON OF TAZ.
Areas of Excellence Within Performance
Team Taz is a concept that should have been around since 2000 but I guess 2020 will do: Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs and even Brian Cage aren’t obvious picks to be feuding with Cody Rhodes but with the promo and motivations of Taz behind them it makes all the sense in the world. Taz has revitalized his entire legend and I’m not sure he even had to.
He called out “management” this week on not respecting the FTW Title and got his mic cut, real run-of-the-mill “ooo this is real” wrestling stuff. Soon though a headset-wearing Cody emerged from the Backstage Area and tried to calm the tensions. AEW has been better than I ever expected with references to guys on the roster being executives, both taking advantage of it but not being annoying about it.
Cody setup a tag for next week and tried to move things along, but when that failed he asked why Taz’ actual son was training at Cody’s Nightmare Factory and not with Taz. This prompted Taz to drop his mic and calmly say the quote above, pulling off both an aggrieved Long Island Karen and former wrestler badass vibe. He went to leave, then put the Tazmission on Cody too – by then, I was lost in the wrestling again.
I was very fond of the bit where Jon Moxley walked up to his most recent rival Eddie Kingston and they silently acknowledged Moxley being attacked last week before Kingston said, “You know it wasn’t me.” 60-seconds of TV pushes everything forward.
AEW is taking full advantage of Kingston and putting him all over the show, including commentary for the main event where he bantered with JR and Tony Schiavone and made Eddie Gilbert and Akira Taue references. It’s so good.
Yeah, just give the folks more John Silver. The Hangman Page match ruled, competitive without being silly. The Dark Order bit with Page was neat too.
Elsewhere: Darby Allin vignettes and Ricky Starks fashion, a screaming angry MJF promo with Wardlow and Jake Hager staring each other in the background, and good bits with Scorpio Sky running off The Inner Circle and Abadon freaking out Hikaru Shida.
Suggested Areas of Improvement
And then they closed the show with Lance Archer standing tall, which felt like such a reality check that I almost appreciated it.
My Favorite Things
2. “My dad would probably beat the shit out of your dad.” – Kenny Omega on Jon Moxley
1. The fact that in the middle of all of this, HOOK – the Son of Taz – has arrived
