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So to review: You're Tony Khan, it's November 2022, your new world champs (MJF and Hayter) are 26 and 27 years old respectively, and you're about to blow up KANSAS. Wrestling is amazing.

Let me get this outa the way: I HATED the ending. But, only because I wanted Regal, Bryan, Claudio, and Mox to be BCC 4 Life and stay together forever. I was a hell of a main event, though. I prefer MJF in the ring to MJF on the mic. Anyone else? MJF now stands for Muscular Jacked-up Freak. I was surprised by the crowd booing Moxley! I guess Regal and Bryan can stay together... we'll see how Friedman fits in. I felt like it was a 4-way tie for MOTN: Kingston's Road, the cage match,the Trios Title match, and Storm vs Hayter. All great in their own way and four really different and distinct matches. Impressive. Loved the pre-show! Loved the crowd! My mark-out tank was empty by the time the tag title match rolled around. I enjoyed the overarching theme of "using tools ( such as hammers or pliers) for evil will win you a title but cost you your immortal soul." PRE-SHOW Rocky! Nice job on saving the "mystery partner" reveal. Having Hausen and Cassidy together makes total sense now. The goofy dudes who can really go. Full Gear would be a good nickname for Brian Cage. Who doesn't love a nice "David and Goliath" plus "Injured bodypart" story? Nice structure. I am so excited for the AEW video game! Kingston Road Style! Pure Wrestling Love! Imagine getting respect from your idol like that. I can confirm that Akiyama is an awesome dude. I "almost" started crying when Kingston paid tribute to Baba, Jumbo, Misawa... MAIN CARD I see TWO Cages! That was a hell of a crimson mask on Jungle Boy, and some classic cage match images. Christian stealing the key was too slick. FUCK C.M. PUNK!! and COLT CABANA chants!! What a pop for The Wayward Sons! I'm working on a "Top 200 Spots" list for the Trios Title match. Not a complaint. BEST OF SE7EN!! What's in the box?! WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!? Tony K: More wrestling! Jade's Thundercats ring gear! Oh, my! First Nyla fell down, then... What have I become? The sing-along is still one of the best things in wrestling. Or, in Sports Entertainment. I think they did a good job of using the 4-way stip to tell stories. Sammy is The Real Judas. Also Bryan. I was hoping the crowd would be 100% behind Britt, forcing AEW to BMMSM was BMMSM but also Wardlow flying. More like Ward-high, eh? Eh? Loved the Ohtani shout out. You can donate when you go to shows in Japan. ISHII!!! STONE PITBULL!!! AEW really does love us! I take back all that Burger King stuff... ...oh. Jeff Jarrett. Enjoyed Satnam re-defining "Catch as catch can." Hayter and Storm beat the hell outa one another, had so many great near-falls, and as much as I like Toni Storm I am glad they pulled the trigger. Crowd was awesome. Match was awesome. I was semi-hemi-burned out for the final two matches but they were both really good. What a show! Ishii coming up! Best of Seven! Takeshita is All Elite. Oh. Hell. Yeah.

GODDAMIT, GORDLOW!

Holy shit, y'all, I'm going to see Tomohiro Ishii wrestle live.

I pretty much loved everything on this show except the ending of the main event. I'm curious where the BCC goes from here. I'd like them sticking together minus Regal, a name change, and all going after MJF. I'm tired. I've been at the movies for five hours.

It should be noted that the top-of-their-division AEW champions are MJF, The Acclaimed, and Jamie Hayter. Young, organically over AEW originals who were in "pull the trigger" situations that the booking actually followed through on - and I guess it should be mentioned that they all got over as babyfaces by doing heel stuff, which is just the way of the world these days. Other than Jade understandably second-guessing her ring gear (jesus christ) this was probably the best night ever for the women of AEW. Not just because of Jamie's win, also because Aubrey brought back the Part Pizazz.

@DEAN.

I mean, in that case they’d be right because he clearly needs fiber.

TK could shit a gold bar and people would criticize him for not shitting gold coins.

Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus is going to be hard to top. Holy shit. Love all the Taler/Shawn tributes including Perry's gear and HOLY SHIT the finish as well. Looked like he had a nasty bruise after that one. This surprised me on every single level, unbelievable outing. Up there for second best AEW cage match ever, behind that Lucha Bros/Bucks title match. And props to Luchasaurus, he seemed to work really hard on this one, and it showed. Goosebumps for Elite entrance but stream crashed as soon as they hit the ring, and the first few minutes back were in RealPlayer quality. I love how much the Trios titles resemble the Ron Simmons/Vader WCW belt.I need Omega and Pac to wrestle at least 3x a year moving forward. Chef's F'N KISS to my beautiful Jersey neighbors for the 'Fuck CM Punk' and 'Colt Cabana's chants. Say what you will about the Bucks' and Omega's schtick, but I missed the hell out of those guys. this was honestly the exact type of early-AEW fix I needed in my life. Picked up Jade/Nyla halfway through, as my internet or BR once again died. I really enjoyed the part where Nyla hit Jaded on Jade, it was an awesome visual, and a great power move (and likewise for Jade at the actual finish). Huge Queen-sized bump by Nyla on that senton attempt, kudos to her for that one. And big shout out to both ladies for their gear, they both absolutely killed it on that area tonight. Bryan Danielson is the greatest wrestler to have the worst music, I think. @The Natural forgive me, I HATE this song. It reminds me of the Uncle Kracker song X-Facter used to walk out to in 2000. Digging Sammy coming out without the usual Inner Circle-era biker colors on, but not digging on the replacement very much - at least the idea was there. Nice to see the singer from Midnight Oil in the house singing Judas tonight. Feed has died once again, and I've returned to Jericho visibly calling a spot in Danielsons ear. This double crab, you can see Bryan laughing, I love it! And Sammy and Jericho with the old Le Sex God's pose, too, that was a nice shout out to that period. Sammy pulling Jericho off Claudio and everything that came after with those was really great, too, especially twith him hitting the codebreaker and attempting the lion tamer. Excalibur blew my mind when he mentioned they've been a team since the first Dynamite - its impressive they were kept apart this long and resisted the urge to make them come to blows during the original IC breakup. Thought Sammy was gonna do it with that killer shooting star. Taz's "Don't do the striking game with this dude" was a great line, and it lined up perfectly with Danielsons facials. The dueling hammer elbows in Claudio/Danielson's part was really cool. Jericho creeping up while Danielson had Sammy trapped was such a great visual. Glad Jericho retained, and I'm wondering now if we'll get Sammy/Jericho at Final Battle. That's going to be a cool one to see at such an early, smaller venues show, if so (or Jericho in general, really - It's still a trip to see him at places like Tokyo Dome after such a long WWE stint - even the first ECW ONS during his time there was interesting). Opening stretch of Saraya/Britt was awesome with Paige gripping her neck and Britt just smirking. I lost my feed a third time as Saraya grabbed a beautiful headlock. I returned to Saraya booting her in the corner and she looked pretty good. J.R. made some seemingly contradictory points in "I could see this rivalry lasting for years" but also questioning the condition of Saraya's neck a second later. Certainly some of these spots made me wince, the same way I do with Sting, and the same way I did with Danielson at first, but overall I thought she looked absolutely fantastic from what I was able to see. I loved her having to hit her finish twice to beat Britt - keeps her and the promotion looking strong in light of the recent promos by them. There was a funny moment during Hobbs' entrance where my girlfriend and I both said "I wish this was in a cage too" aloud at nearly the same time, interrupting each other to do so, so should they ever run a rematch in one, there's at least two guaranteed viewers. Wardlow coming off the top is fucking wild, man. That swanton was something, man. Joe is a little slower than he used to be naturally, but I loved the intensity he brought tonight - I missed a lot from him before his arrival here as I quit WWE, but I haven't personally seen that kind of fire from him since probably the Brock title match at Great Balls of Fire '17(?) Hobbs taking the straps down and putting Wardlow into the Earth was sick as hell.i briefly thought Hobbs was gonna just shake off the two powerbombs and keep whipping Wardlow. Great finish with Joe just saying fuck it and grabbing the belt, and at least if Hobbs had to be pinned it was after a bunch of finishers. I suggested unifying the TV titles a few weeks ago, but joked that ROH didn't have TV, so perhaps this is a clue into their future. ISHII!! And God bless Jericho for the $7K jacket line. Hager/OC's entire interaction was high art. Brilliant promo all around. Darby jumping off that ladder into Singh's arms was AWESOME. I cannot say enough about that spot. Sting continues to operate in Terry Funk mode, and I thought for sure that dive was overshot, I was so relieved when he stood up. Jeff Jarrett doing the classic Memphis begging off routine was a nice throwback. Singh handling Sting on Dutt's behalf when he had the death lock on was a cool moment, but I was a little worried on that chokeslam for obvious reasons. Jarrett cracking Darby with the guitar during the coffin drop was awesome, as was Darbys Sting -like no sell and comeback - really nice touch to visually show being under Sting's tutelage paying off. SCORPION COFFIN DROP ON SINGH. Fun as fuck. Wonderful, wonderful match, and great use of the veterans. I absolutely love this formula for Sting/Darby's big matches and whoever put this together deserves a raise. JAMIE FUCKING HAYTER. Finally. A little overbooked, but possibly the best women's match in the history of the promotion; top three, easy. Everything clicked for the most part, and both ladies showed why they're top 5 in the company. Looking forward to the ensuing Britt fued, and hopefully unifying the title vs. Thunder Rosa at some point. It's been so long, I'm beginning to wonder if they'll eventually just drop the 'Interim.' If they're going to continue doing the interim thing, there should be some kind of official rule like, the interim champion unifies the titles by default if you're unable to return within 120 days or 200 days or something (similar to the old '30 day title defense' rule). Tag match was killer but my only small gripe was that the pliers stuff was a little too similar to the trios deal w the ring bell - but if the intent was to contrast the choices made by Rey as vs Keith, then it worked brilliantly. Great one. Acclaimed having reached this level of fverness is a real pleasure to watch, after having followed their ascension from Pandemic-era Dark. And once again: another great use of a veteran in Billy Gunn. I'll say here what I said to my cousin's husband at Dynamite when we were chanting for him: "Imagine having a time machine and telling little 1998 us this was going on in 2022?" Feed went out again, but came back up as I heard Tony and Taz debating the 'tri-state area' which got a kick out of me. Love Mox leaning into the boos. piledriver spots on the apron and with the table were wild, man. The whole figure four segment was some really cool shit, and I was a huge, huge fan of MJF's selling in trying to reverse it. Mox going back to work the hurt leg from the tombstone was a nice touch. Avalanche paradigm shift was scary on first glance - but the replay exposed it slightly by showing MJFs feet. Mox's jaw jacking was intense, it seems there's been an effort to save the blue language for PPV, and he let it fly here for sure - but I thought it was very impactful. Speaking of things used sparingly and let flown: holy ref bumps! I had a feeling this was going to be the finish on Wednesday, because I noticed live that Regal kept the knuckles on for the big staredown. Should be interesting to see where we go from here with the BCC (and I'm equally looking forward to some classic villainous promos from Regal). I haven't been feeling particularly religious over the last decade, but I would like to publicly acknowledge God for answering my prayer that there be no involvement from the Firm in this match, or on this broadcast. If this show is the template moving forward, things are probably going to be just fine. There was no speculation on debuts, no swervey bullshit, just a kick ass show chock full of big names having big matches. There were clearly issues with the build, but for those calling for a reset (much like I was hoping Grand Slam would be) this show feels like it could very well qualify. I mentioned it a few times in my novel above, but there was tons on this show that had a 2019-2021 feel, and I very much appreciated that; at the same time, there were many steps forward that felt like we were heading into what we all predicted the future would look like. HUGE night for 'pillar' wins with Starks, Perry (that's officially his name now, right?), Darby, new first time World champ MJF, plus first time champ Hayter, still-undefeated champ Jade, mega-over under-30 champs in the Acclaimed, and people like Britt, Wardlow, and Hobbs looking good in defeat. Great performances by vets like Sting, Joe, Jericho, Lethal, Mox, Danielson, Claudio etc. Phenomenal, back-to-the-roots, wall to wall, great show IMO. Looks like some good TV next week, so let's hope they can ride the wave and capitalize on the momentum. Not sure who the outages were on, but I'll include 'em both to be safe, 'cause I'm not in love with either: fuck Comcast and/or Bleacher Report.

Rrrrrrroad Report! The Prudential Center is perhaps the nicest sports venue I’ve ever been in. It still sucks, but not as much as the ones closer to me. It appeared to be close to a sell-out. Most of the empty seats were on the suite level. We were in the loft area hanging from the rafters and the rest of the lofts were packed too. In fairness to the negative Nellies, there were folks around us who haven’t been following the promotion closely and didn’t know some of the talent, which indicates either papering or the television programs are turning people off. On the other hand, the crowd was more eclectic than most I’ve been in for wrestling, but they had a hardcore energy. There were women in their early 20s in front of us so invested in their favorites (The Elite and Mox specifically) going over that they were heartbroken when they lost. Pre-show opener was fine. Love That Dark Danhausen. Not much to say about Starks/Cage besides it didn’t quite look like Cage sandbagged him on the finish, but he didn’t really do him any favors taking it the way he did. I’m going to watch Eddie and Akiyama again because the general chaos of everyone getting seated was distracting. The acoustics and shitty sound meant we heard nothing anyone said all night, so I had no idea what Eddie was saying until I watched a clip of it. Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus was a hot opener that delivered. There were people talking about the spots that were lifted from Shawn/Taker’s HIAC match, which got me thinking about whether wrestling matches can truly work as pastiche pieces or if it’s too distracting when we can clearly see references. It didn’t ruin the match for me, but it was something to chew on. The sound screwed us again with The Elite entrance. We couldn’t hear the song at all and didn’t know what it was until the crowd on the lower levels started singing. This was super fun and Kenny looks better than he did when he came back, so the extra time off worked out in that regard at least. The “Fuck CM Punk” and “Colt Cabana” chants were some of the loudest all night. It reinforced just how badly Punk screwed up to have such a uniformly negative response from people who were presumably ecstatic about his return. The young Elite fans in front of us were devastated at them losing and livid about the Death Triangle cheating. It was such a pure reaction, great stuff. The bathroom migration during Jade/Rose was insane. I’ll watch this one back because the indifference was palpable and killed it for me. The ROH title match was what I expected, great work between people I want to see in singles matches and then a lot of laying around. They did some cute stuff and I liked it but it’s not my kind of thing. Sammy is a wonder; the crowd started the match with powerful “Fuck Sammy” chants and then went apeshit for all of his offense. The Saraya match had a weird energy in the building because everyone was happy for her but did not care about the actual match at all. It was nearly as dead as Jade/Nyla besides a bunch of murmuring and occasional Good for Her type of cheers. Britt and Saraya are both better matched with larger opponents that work different styles than them. The TNT title match was another one I’d rather see as a singles with any combination of Joe/Wardlow/Hobbs. Our section spent most of the match yelling, “Meat! Meat! Meat!” I assume they’re going to run some kind of title unification rematch and Wardlow will be AEW TV Champion. The old guy tag was barely a match, but we loved it. We had fun with shouting A Man Called Singh. Sting is God. It’s still Jeff Jarret’s world. Lethal looked great and felt like the glue of the match. Darby should be up at the tippy top of the company, he’s one of the best wrestler’s in the world. Hayter got some of the best reactions of the night, probably behind only MJF and The Acclaimed/Daddy Ass. Storm has been one of the most consistently good performers in AEW since she debuted. Britt’s better as Hayter’s second. I know that’s dismissive, but I enjoyed her spots in this more than in her actual match. It’s probably my match of the night. I’m so happy I was in the building to be part of it. The Tag title match started off on a down note since we had no idea what Caster was saying. The match itself was pretty good, but I don’t think it touched their previous encounters with Swerve and Lee. A lot of the weird reactions towards the end of it that were perhaps audible on tv were due to a fight breaking out in a lower level. Security took forever to get it settled down and by the time they did the finish was happening. We were fried by the main, but the crowd being molten hot for MJF got us reinvested. They kept it mostly simple, which was the right call on a night with a lot of tags and gimmick matches. We almost thought the timekeeper table was going to survive the entire show. I know this is antiquated in 2022, but it was weird how the roof came off for two title changes where the winner cheated like a motherfucker to put away their opponent. We were out right after the finish, but on the venue screens in the hallway it looked like some of the BCC came out to console Mox. We had a great time. I guess my biggest overall criticism is how much it felt like nearly every match toyed with traditional structures in some regard to stand out, but when everyone does it on the same card it’s taxing. Too many tag matches with barely any actually tagging and no disqualification matches. It created some great visuals and reactions though. Special shout-out to the guy in our section who never sat down and tried to scissor everyone, and I mean everyone, for five hours.

1. Why does he look like a goof? 2. Who cares? The things people try and parce with "well he should've done x..." is getting kind of absurd now.

Kingston vs Akiyama might be my favorite AEW match to watch since Suzuki vs Danielson.

Combo of lots of moving parts for Thanksgiving week and no commute this week, so it'll take me a while to get through this whole show, but I do have some early thoughts. Factory vs Chaos/Best Friends/etc. was a thing I willed into the universe and I enjoyed it. I would have liked to see a little more Comoroto. Trent always looks so sharp. Lee Johnson is developing into a good stooging heel, but I kind of wish they had protected him somehow? He should really become the Ace of the Factory, a guy who they can elevate to a higher level. I like the Rocky Romero sneaky style thing (more on that later) as sort of a follow to rat boy Ogawa? It makes me sort of want to track down some of his Japan stuff where he leans in heavily to that. I kept waiting for Danhausen and for a moment which would really warrant his arrival and I'm not sure it was built up quite enough but him coming down as a monster is sort of funny "Finn as the Demon" thing, which frankly, just makes the notion of Finn as the demon even funnier, right? I'm all for it. Hook vs Moriarty was a good match for Hook to have. Nice to see him sell. I thought he did a good job of it. I liked the series of gut punches on the comeback. The transition into redrum wasn't as exciting for me as it was the announcers. Starks vs Cage was good. Starks working from underneath to beat two monsters worked for me. The spear not being enough worked. I feel like I'm still getting used to Starks as a babyface. Page was very good on commentary. Eddie vs Akiyama was a hell of a thing. I usually like Eddie vs Japanese guys the worst out of all of Eddie's matches, but not this, not this at all. This was a joy. I'll write it up for Wednesday. The post-match was probably the most emotional AEW thing all year. ---- And so far I've seen the top title matches (sans spoilers): Hayter vs Storm was very good. I loved that they leaned into matwork early (which gave good contrast to Mox coming in with a punch to start his match) which gave it a real title match feel, and all of the familiarity. It got brutal out on the floor. The blood certainly helped, especially after the Rebel title shot. The crowd was up for Hayter of course but didn't turn on Storm either necessarily (like they did Mox). I don't love the finish. It feels like Hayter's win and the feel good moment was built on a throne of lies, basically. She fought hard but it didn't feel earned at all. It was a hell of a moment when Britt suddenly appeared because she knows how to make the best of the camera, and the hugging at the end and everything felt special, but this wasn't Eddy Guerrero being lovable and lying, cheating, stealing. It was an ace babyface dethroned by a bunch of cheating, disingenuous heels and as good as Hayter was and as hard as she fought, it wasn't enough and it wasn't going to be enough on her own. And the fans just ate it up like candy. If I was Storm, I'd go heel hard and team with Athena and just break Hayter's face to get revenge on the crowd. Just real shaky foundation here given the match they were having and the crowd not caring about basic good and evil and hard work and what was earned. They just wanted their moment. It's the sort of booking which undermines other more earnest attempts that may come later because it just tosses basic morality out the door. Main event was good. Very similar thing. AEW is basically a heel-as-face promotion right now and I don't know if that's sustainable in any way. It's not attitude era resist authority stuff either. Like I said, Mox came out fighting so it had a different feel. He's basically Hansen and people have to endure him as he brings out what's inside. We know this. MJF has a lot of conflicting things inside. If Romero is sneaky style, he's got a lot of scum style in him, the way he'll grab a rope instead of trying to get a kick out and I do appreciate that. Again, a lot like Adam Page, what makes him interesting in ring are his vulnerabilities and weaknesses and how he overcomes them. He got overzealous and hurt his knee. He pushed too hard and got reversed on the pile driver through the table attempt. He got goaded into the punch exchange and Mox going to the kick midway through the exchange isn't about honor and heeling, it's about the fact Mox is a wild animal and he acts on instinct. My sincere hope on the finish is that it wasn't some sort of DEVIOUS PLAN but instead Regal rewarding MJF for tossing the diamond ring aside, that in that moment he proved something to Regal and therefore was allowed to be a true villain. Rest of the show over the rest of the week. I'll admit some disappointment on no debuts. I know AEW doesn't need it but you know, candy. I have a plan for what I'll be watching and reviewing in AEW TV space instead of Elite vs Death Triangle as that sounds like literally the worst possible wrestling imaginable btw. 9 match series spanning nine years, two continents, and three territories. I did see the Elite's entrance though and that was really great.

Lol. I appreciate the thought. If they insist on putting The Elite on tv, keeping them away from anything I give a shit about is preferable…

I’m gonna need to go ahead and get a debate segment as part of this Swerve/Lee feud, with Swerve represented by his special council Rick Ross

If this is the end of the Blackpool Combat Club then good riddance. Moxley and Regal don't need it, it's done nothing for Claudio, they put all that work into getting Yuta over at the beginning and now he's doing nothing of note again, and the way Danielson has become a complete afterthought in AEW is borderline criminally negligent

That PPV rocked so fucking hard that I don't even know where to start. Honestly, the only thing I'm kinda down on is the finish to Moxley vs MJF, but even then, those two motherfuckers stiffed the motherfucking shit out of each other for 20 some odd minutes and beat each other's brains in for our entertainment. And no Firm! JAMIE MOTHERFUCKIN HAYTER! PRO. WRESTLING. MOTHERFUCKERS. I was jumping out of my seat for that win. Hayter rules the fucking world and is maybe the best female wrestler in the US. I can't say enough for how awesome she is. Every little thing she does is amazing. GIANT MOTHERFUCKING HOSS FIGHT FOR THE TNT TITLE! SUPER CLUBBERIN' ALL UP IN THIS! I didn't really care who won because we all won. The Trios Titles match rocked my motherfucking balls off. And I loved the finish. I went from being all in on the Elite winning to really wanting Death Triangle to win and Death Triangle indeed won. Now, there's no way in hell they're going to win the best of 7 considering match 7 will be in LA, but we get 6 more matches and I'm already out of balls for them to rock off. JUNGLE BOY IS A MAN, BABY! I mean, doing a dive off the cage through a table is risky enough, but a fucking elbow drop? You gotta be shitting me. Jack Perry has more guts than brains. I enjoyed the shit out of Nyla vs Jade. In fact, it may be my favorite Jade match. Nyla's entrance was king sized. And then Jade nearly one-upped up by coming out in Cheetara cosplay. Like...Look, this PPV ruled and I enjoyed damn near everything. Better yet, it got kicked off with the final zero hour match with Eddie getting to live out his dream match. I cried! You cried! We all cried! Eddie rules the world! AEW RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD

The Darby coffin drop getting perfectly caught by Satnam.. Han Solo: "Great Shot kid! That was one in a million"

Right result. Great match. Congratulations, Jamie Hayter.

If less is more, think of how much more more is!

Penta's spam taunt. .

What I can interpret through different podcast interviews, a lot of the creation and development of the BCC was very reactive to the content of promos and what was happening in the wrestling landscape. It was a Danielson as heel facing face Moxley and trying to get in his head to them hinting at and maybe teaming. The promo mentions mentoring the younger guys. Regal getting realized from the WWE so they quickly sign him to form a team. Jericho hears Danielson’s promo about teaching the young guys and now he wants to do that with 2.0 and he supposedly laid claim to having Garcia stay with them and be his young boy. So the build (at least from Jericho’s perspective?) was doing Sports Entertainment vs Pro Wrestling. What jumbled that up (maybe for the better?) was Kingston being the most captivating part of the feud. Then after that a series of injuries, drama, and inter-promotional politics whatever plans to end, continue, or change the BCC more than likely got changed. I loved the BCC and I think now would be a good time to implode. Maybe Danielson is a dick again and injures Mox so he can take a well deserved vacation. Or they just dissipate. The ball is in the booking court. I liked the dojo concept of like minded fighters training to toughen up. We got a lot of great moments and matches. Like a lot of AEW I feel a good deal of booking could have been different, but I thoroughly enjoyed this ride. Interesting side note: Danielson said in a podcast (unrestricted?) that he pitched for a different wrestler to recruit originally, but they had an injury. Who do you think that was? I was debating on posting this in the November thread, but it was relevant here. Just like @Zakk_Sabbath, I respectfully disagree with @A_K and @Cristobal. But they’re far from wrong. Personal taste is an awesome thing. I know it’s obvious and silly to say that, but I’ve read a lot of unnecessary cheap shots on taste elsewhere and I feel compelled to include this in my ramble. I’m too tired in life moving around right now for mean-spirited pettiness. But saying that, if anyone disagrees with me I hate them and their entire family and I curse anyone they love or that is pitiful enough to love them. Let’s work together for a better tomorrow.

Watching this match now and in awe of the fact that Crowbar is 50 years old and still busting out some new twists on moves (here it's a chair-assisted Northern Lights Suplex) and making it look crisp and credible...AND IT GOT THE PIN!

Mox carries taped blades everywhere like we carry wallets.

This match fucking ruled.

You know, this really had a bit of everything. Fun Shlock to start the show to get the crowd in the mood? Check. Brutal Cage match? Check (Jungle Boy Jack Perry, you insane. you cray cray. You nuts!) Strong-Style personified? Check. (eddie and Jun throwing bombs) Matches that told a story? Check. Sweve in Our Glory's bustup, Britt vs Saraya Many Meaty Manly Men throwing Meat? Check 1 (Joe), Check 2 (Hobbs), Check 3 (Wardlow) Modern Day lucha-infused trios craziness? Death Triangle and The Elite Crowd pleasing title change (Hayter) Hated Heel squeaking by so you'll tune in next time hoping that next time he'll get his ass kicked? Jericho. Collection of crazy-ass-moments? Sting and Darby vs Jarrett and Lethal. I gushed a while back about the Darby coffin drop off the ladder that satnam singh caught effortlessly, but Jarrett catching darby with the guitar on the way down, and Darby showing that he had learned Sting's no-sell, puts it to good use. Fun Shit. And then the main event. Crazy main event that will provide the talking point and "NOOOOOOO!" moment. Regal giving MJF the Knux.

This is awesome.

The main event was great with MJF as your territorial babyface absorbing an ass-beating from your cocky touring champion. Having a double ref bump and a manger turn was about as Dusty-ass a finish as you can get without actually doing a Dusty finish. Also a nice callback to the end of the dog-collar match, but with MJF coming out on top. For a show I wasn't too stoked for going in that was pretty damned great and didn't feel quite as exhaustively long as some other PPVs. (Looking at you, All Out)

MJF is now the AEW World champion. Great to know a wrestler can do absolutely nothing worthwhile over the past year, do nothing but promos and is awarded the World title. They should rename it to the AEW Promo Championship because that's all MJF can do. Let me know when a REAL wrestler wins the title.

Love you to death @DEAN BUT BUT you forgot to talk about Marina Shafir stealing the show by cosplaying as Sad Girl from Mi Vida Loca.

Oh MAN! FIRST MATCH is alllll about THE BLOOD! Jungle Boy is fucking HARDCORE! FUCKING AWESOME! This match is great. That match was fucking awesome. Man, what gets to follow THAT? That match had HATE. They violated the cagematch rules that have never been not violated and it set up the table spot. KANSAS! Well, that's fucking awesome. My GOD! The crowd is fucking MOLTEN. The Young Bucks and the Lucha Brothers are really great in the ring together. PAC and Omega are great together. Man, the crowd was ready for the return of the Elite. Oh yeah! I forgot! KENNY OMEGA FUCKING RULES. I get the feeling Meltzer is giving this seven stars. AWESOME FINISH! That was fucking great. PAC IS A BASTARD! And now REY FENIX IS A BASTARD! Nyla and Jade wrestling makes one wonder- WILL THERE BE BLOOD IN THIS ONE? Nyla is bumping like a champ for Jade. Nyla with an INVERTED WRECKED EM! Jade is selling a lot. Strange. Jade hits a Beast Bomb! Nyla hits a JADED! Jade with the Big Kick To The Face! Jaded for the win! That was WOW good! It was perfectly fine in a General Wrestling way. Sammy is a TOTAL HEAT MACHINE! They discuss how shittily the ROH title has been booked the last twenty years. Danielson and Guevara are beating the crap out of each other again. Sammy looks great in this. This match is vast series of nearfalls! The question is how do get Jericho to leave with the belt? AH! That's how! That was good. Saraya! Britt Baker! I've never actually seen Saraya wrestle. I didn't start watching WWE until like a year and a half ago. I love that Baker works the neck IMMEDIATELY! I guess her neck is okay. This is pretty good. Saraya's finisher is nasty. Saraya looks like she hasn't wrestled in 5 years but Baker carried her pretty well, especially by mangling her previously broken neck. That was a good re-debut. Oh man, a TRIPLE THREAT MATCH! Yeesh. What is this- IMPACT?! Wardlow and Hobbs beating the hell out of each makes me wish that this was a normal wrestling match. WARDLOW DOES THE JEFF HARDY CORNER THINGY! Wardlow hits the MODERN DAY SWANTON- crushing Hobbs like a bug. Wardlow fucks around too much after Powerbombing Hobbs! Samoa Joe is your new TNT champion! That was a three-way with all its inherent flaws. Jericho versus Ishii! That'll be good. Jeff Jarratt is bumping like a FREAK for a guy as old and decrepit as he is. This is fun! STING crushes Satnam the way wee Darby couldn't! So they are going to have a normal tag match now? Sure! Oh yeah, Jay Lethal RULES. Darby Allin also rules! They re-crush Satnam with a Scorpion Death Drop/Coffin Drop! Jeff Jarrett was fucking GREAT in that. It's Jamie Hayter! It's Toni Storm! Man! The crowd is MOLTEN for this. Early WRECKED EM! This match is STIFF. FUN nearfalls! BLOOD! MORE FUN NEARFALLS! MOORE FUN NEARFALLS! EVEN YET EVEN MORE FUN NEARFALLS! HAYTER WINS! HAYTER WINS! HAYTER WINS! That was fucking awesome. That was booked fifteen ways to Sunday, but all booked pointing to the most fun a finish can be. That was great. Oh awesome! SIOG are channeling the Minnesota Wrecking Crew and destroying the shoulder of Anthony Bowens. FUN NEARFALLS! Keith Lee turns on Swerve! Needed FTR. MOX is wrestling total heel and it's great. MJF is wrestling as our sympathetic babyface (who motorboated a lady at rail side.) MJF is getting HOPE SPOTS~! MOX cuts him off and beats him to death. MOX is getting LEGIT HEEL HEAT! Fun near count out! This match is fun. Moxley seems to be having WAY too much fun wrestling heel. Regal gives MJF the brass knuckles! We have a new champion! That was a good PPV. The best match was Storm/Hayter.

he hid in the stadium overnight so he didn't have to pay for two tickets

Chucky T's chainsaw

Meltzer:

It elevated Yuta (and that schmuck insult was just ridiculous) and Garcia, made the JAS 10x more interesting than they had any right to be when they started, hell BCC as a foil made Jericho more interesting than he’s been in years and helped him to a career year in his early 50s. Every match featuring a member of BCC was stiff AF and elevated the opponent in defeat. It gave Mox a purpose and a mission, and without that would he really have been able to be THE GUY to carry the company when shit kept hitting the fan?

Most of my wrestling love comes from puroresu. So, when I saw Kingston/Akiyama and the aftermath, there was pretty much nothing that was going to top that for me. Eddie showing genuine emotion from the pre-match promo all the way through the moment he left the ring afterwards was something to witness. I'm happy he got to have that experience. I did not follow Kingston on the indies but I can see why he generates passionate reactions among some of the posters here. I'm all for a Kingston world-title run after this match. That said, there were some other nice little puroresu tributes I'll combine and ramble about for a second. I really liked Orange Cassidy using the PK after his match with Shibata. OC's growth as a wrestler and character in AEW is one of my favorite long-term things the promotion has done so far, and OC himself has been note-perfect in a lot of big matches this year. Since Shibata requested that match specifically, having OC take that move as a tribute makes sense to me. I also liked Mox throwing up Muto's "pro-wres love" hand gestures when he used the figure 4. I have mixed emotions about the women's interim title match. By the time Hayter and Storm were in the ring, there was a significant "big match feel" going, but I'd say that none of that was thanks to AEW. 100% of that credit goes to the wrestlers themselves. I do not have a dog in the fight with respect to some of the controversies that have followed Thunder Rosa around. So, nothing against her by writing this, but: Storm/Hayter should absolutely have been a decision match for the "real" championship. Both Hayter and Storm have been tearing it up lately, and both have earned the right to a legitimate championship run. The "interim" tag coming or going is meaningless; the story upon Rosa's return is the exact same regardless. She never lost the championship in the ring - it doesn't matter if she's facing an "interim" champion or the person who won the belt after Rosa was stripped of it. My next statement is no doubt influenced by the fact that I think this should've been a match for the "real" championship: the match didn't need the interference. Storm and Hayter were having a killer match until then, and Hayter winning via interference only takes away from the organic reactions she has been getting lately. It has been mentioned (by Tony Khan himself, I think) that the stance is that AEW fans can and should cheer for who they want. Yet sometimes, it still seems like AEW tries to swim against that tide a bit.

I am going to chalk the lack of The Firm last night up to TK realizing “yeah, this is stupid and isn’t working” until proven otherwise. And that’s a good thing, right? Otherwise yeah it’s all nonsensical.

I have skin issues where the belt buckle rubs against my belly. So I sometimes where my belt not overly tight and throughout the day I realize I’ll be slightly pulling up my pants. Im glad to hear I have stuff in common with Jade.

For the BCC, things zigged instead of zagged for various reasons. I was excited to see Kingston hate that Claudio got the win on Jericho and fight him. I wanted Danielson to come back from injury pissed that everyone was playing around and doing Madness poses. Before that I wanted Danielson and Mox to just run through everyone and be terrifying monsters that everyone had to try to face and then over the last month or two, I wanted Moxley to be an out of control monster champion. And instead, well, we got good matches. And it's ok. Let's see what's next. I hope they go a different way instead of Claudio vs Jericho at the ROH PPV but it's ok if they go with that. More PPV matches! Jungle Boy vs Luchasaurus: I was really into this! Honestly, I liked it more than either Mox vs MJF or Hayter vs Storm. Eddie vs Akiyama is its own thing and almost impossible to rank so just put it aside. They went around a circle early but then right into the blood and after that, it wasn't about using the cage as a prop but instead using it as a weapon, which is just what you want. Jungle Boy took a ton of crazy bumps and Luchasaurus didn't do any of his goofy "lucha" stuff, instead focusing on the Saurus and it was just a mean, hate-filled, violent cage match. The timing of Christian going for the keys absolutely worked and it allowing weapons to be introduced into the cage worked too. Maybe there was one or two too many things kicked out on at the end, but in this case, it was the end and not the means, right? The end of this match was to show Jungle Boy's toughness instead of shooting for any sort of epic-ness. The slow, grinding, groaning, desperate, impossible, brilliant pile driver could well be the most meaningful spot of the whole night. The emotion put into that was amazing. I don't know about the choice of going for an elbow drop instead of a splash at the end, just visually. And in order to get over that he was channeling something downright inhuman, I would have had Perry absolutely scream at the top of his lungs after hitting it but before the Snare Trap. If they can find Wardlow something else to do, it's time to toss Perry at Samoa Joe for the TNT title at the next PPV and have him win. Jade vs Nyla: I liked this! Jade seemed to really care for the first time. I know some people didn't like the build but it really allowed for this. All the stuff on the outside was good with Nyla bumping all over the place for Jade. I loved the image of Nyla's hood falling over her head as she hit the big splash. The Beast Bomb was just a massive feat and I liked the finisher stealing stuff in general. It's not good for every match but if they pick one per show... well this was the one to pick. Jade comes off as a big deal but she doesn't usually connect for me. Here, she did after hitting the pump kick when she just let out a primal scream over everything Nyla had done to her and everything she was feeling and the triumph of surviving everything in this match so far and taking her pound of flesh and having her ready for Jaded. It was just this perfect, emotional moment of fury and exhilaration and the most that Jade has ever "lived" within a match during her career. If can continue to channel emotions like that instead of just follow a dance card, she's going to be great.

Might be a hot take, but as long as Jarrett isn’t involved in a World title scene, I’ll gladly watch anything he does in whatever promotion he pops up in. I still like his in-ring work, too. But I’ve been doing an Attitude Era rewatch with my coworker so I’ve seen a lot of WWF Jarrett from 97 to 99 lately.

Meltzer:

AEW Revolution 2021 was on my birthday weekend, 7th March at 1am. AEW Revolution 2022 was on my actual birthday, 6th March but the 7th UK time, 1am. AEW Revolution 2023 is the 5th of March but will be on my actual birthday as it'll be the 6th UK time at 1am. Cheers for the birthday present, AEW!

Did Wheeler Yuta see this coming?

Regal as Keyser Soze is what we all saw coming from a mile away, but it was the right move. Good on AEW for not having The Firm anywhere near that main event, and now MJF can beat Page ina couple of weeks and that whole thing can be buried, ‘AEW got a lot of things back on course tonight I thought. Good show!

...so I guess William Regal just had strong opinions about which foreign object MJF used.

PRE-SHOW! It's four on five! NICKY BOY! Trent is beating the fuck out of Aaron Solo! Cole Karter runs in to go up BIG! QT Marshall is a HEAT MACHINE! I absolutely LOVE then doing the Best Friends hug. NICKY BOY kills Trent! Trent kills QT! OC kills the Factory! QT punches OC in the face! BLUE THUNDER BOMB by Big Shotty! Cole Karter is a HEAT MACHINE! EVIL DANHAUSEN! DANSTEINERHAUSEN! It's ROH Danhausen, which I had totally forgotten about. Ricky Starks is STILL brawling. I dig that. I also dig Brian Cage. He wrestles like a weirdo for a body guy. Starks is awesome getting over as an injured, sympathetic babyface. Cage is great as force to work against. A Spear by Starks FOR TWO! Cage cuts him off by completely slaughtering Starks! This match is great. ROCHAMBEAU! Ethan Page was great on commentary. Once again, ZERO HOUR is a great episode of Rampage. JUN AKIYAMA! I love Kingston trying to do the Kobashi/Misawa suplex off the apron. Akiyama is such great cranky old bastard. Akiyama takes the third most painful match an American modern wrestler can take but was probably the thirtieth most painful bump Akiyama has taken. Akiyama takes a DDT like RVD! NORTHERN LIGHTS BOMB BY KINGSTON! URICAN and EDDIE WINS! Well, THAT was emotional. Goddam, top THAT, PPV.

Pretty good show overall. Honestly, Omega and the Bucks, say what you want.. they ARE AEW.. loved them coming out to fucking Kansas lol building was rocking and them and Death Triangle put on a dope match. Jamie Hayter is awesome.. her and Toni had good chemistry too. Jade Cargill gets better and better. One miss on the night was Powerhouse Hobbs.. he needs some wins he's a star. Good match though. Mox looked like shit he needs that vacation. The Max and Regal pairing should be fun.