When they announced the match, I figured that exact spot was coming, but I was wondering how they were gonna do the chair shot since I thought direct head shots were done, but I guess not.
Also the cage was basically a pointless gimmick and hardly came into play.
I’m a bit more optimistic about the DoN card now that Wardlow/MJF is on.
I would break it down like this:
Super excited
Hangman/Punk
Rosa/Deeb
MJF/Wardlow
Could be good
Tag 3-way (Jurassic/Hobbs-Starks/Swerve-Lee)
House of Black/Death Triangle
Cole/Samoa Joe
Hardys/Bucks (wrestling probably won’t be great, but Hardy’s been doing crazy shit on free TV, so I cringe to think what he’s got planned for this)
Meh
Jade/Anna Jay
JAS/Blackpool-Eddie
Baker/Soho or Stat
I think that’s everything apart from Hookhausen on the pre-show.
Couple things in the past few weeks that confused me:
-Women’s division could use fresh blood, but they put Baker over Toni Storm. Baker’s matches all suck.
-TNT title pic looks like yet another iteration of Sammy/Scorpio. I don’t get why they don’t use someone like Lee or Aleister Black to freshen up the TNT title pic. Personally, I think they’ve completely wasted Black and don’t really care about this House of Black stuff and he seems like the perfect guy as a TNT competitor. He’s great, but not quite main event level.
-I don’t really like the general idea of everyone needing to be in a faction. It smacks of WCW when it was dying. It also leads to dumb faction v. faction angles which are usually among my least favorite angles AEW does. And instead of freeing up wrestlers for more interesting 1v1 programs, they’re all stuck in these stupid faction feuds.
faction is what tony wants so that’s what tony gets
factions can briefly work for quite some time (ie, the horsemen or even the bullet club in today’s works well enough though it’s a bit stale with the constant turnover) but people have to care and they have to somewhat work together both in and out of the ring. AEW doesn’t have any of this, they’re all disjointed. WWE is also turning some people into factions at this time too which wut. and they wonder why I don’t tune in anymore
Darby v. O’Reilly (no build, but both are solid wrestlers, so I’m looking forward to it)
Mixed Tag: ATT v. Sammy and Co. (this will be shit, but hopefully Scorpio wins so Sammy/Frankie can no longer challenge for the TNT built and we might get something interesting happening)
Britt v. Soho (the booking for this tournament was a complete cluster. The fans wanted Storm and Statlander, and got neither. Boos were pretty audible when Soho won.)
Acclaimed and Ass Boys are getting over big time, and I have to admit, it’s one of my favorite segments going in AEW now. I think you could easily push Caster towards bigger things, but it seems AEW disagrees. Instead they put over Dante Martin, who brings all the charisma of paint drying, and is another in the camp of athletically impressive acrobat, but matches are never really that great.
A couple could be really quick. Jade v. Jay should be a squash. Maybe MJF/Wardlow too. But yah, I much prefer a card with 7 or 8 solid matches than a bloated card with a dozen matches.
MJF no showed whatever meet and greet he was supposed to do and is apparently going home
he is underpaid on that contract for his value (especially considering the $ tony threw to people he isn’t using at all) but this event is about wardlow not you
martin’s only 21, needs to be in ring of honor not the big program for now
same with jungle boy, and just cut the dinosaur guy
neither can promo yet, that’s a skill that takes time for many
darby they tried to jeff hardy, then they signed jeff hardy so they got nothing for darby
the four pillars of aew didn’t age well, darby (stagnant) mjf (just bailed on a meet and greet and probably the ppv), jungle boy (won’t be able to cut a promo for a long time), and sammy (who has the most punchable face in wrestling and people actually don’t like him but he’s just in a thing nobody wants to watch atm) or britt who was fine but has become stale herself. Not that I watch any of this I just assume all this is happening.
MJF is super elite, but might be asking too much money, and could be headed to WWE (can’t wait to see how they ruin him).
Sammy only works as the hateable heel, hopefully he keeps playing that character.
Too many guys who are labeled “future stars” whose only skillset is acrobatic, highly choreographed moves. Can’t cut a promo, can’t sell, no ring psychology.
Luchasaurus is ok, but it’s like the exact same sequence every single match. And when he does his acrobatic stuff, it’s slow as fuck, and awkward.
If MJF is really out of the PPV, I’ll be gutted. They’ve been building to that match so long, and it was actually a great build too.