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I was impressed with the guy in the crowd wearing an Excalibur mask for most of the show but swapping it for an Evil Uno one during his match and surprisingly for a SES CM Punk one when he came out.

Yep, I thought Rush was gonna be another Matt Hardy like character where it was going to be obviou he was "exploiting his talent" but he shows signs of honesty and happiness for Dante from time to time so it's an interesting dynamic.

That opening segment and first match hit ALL the right notes for me. Great little wholesome moment with Hangman and the crowd, then Bryan comes out and boom just like that he's a massive dickhead, can't wait for this match and love how the tension slowly raised throughout the segment. Even the little Elite promo gave some temporary closure to their relationship, Kenny's immediate future and the inevitable Kenny/Cole implosion. Ultimate dickhead Bryan Danielson has always been the best Bryan Danielson. Holy shit, that match with Uno was low key pretty brutal from both guys, awesome stiff fest. Perfect match to showcase asshole American Dragon coming back. Holding onto submissions longer than necessary, "I've got till five", slapping the shit out of Uno, so so good. I was laughing my ass off at the unnecessary double bicep pose at the end. Bryan and Punk getting booed against "homegrown" talents like Page and Eddie has to be seen as a triumph for the company, not something easy to achieve.

Don't forget the master of the move

I hate that right before getting fucked over he was helping Shawn to apply the Sharpshooter correctly (he had crossed the legs the wrong way at first).

The Pac/Cody vs. Andrade/Black match took about 25min with entrances, I think this was perfect "Buy In" material. Apart from that, take about 5min off every other tag match on the show which all felt a bit long and you end up with a close to 3 hour, less tiring, show.

Just rewatching some matches right now, I loved this so much I had to turn it into a gif:

I thought the amount of Eddie tributes was ridiculous at first but then I checked the date and I guess it can be forgiven on this particular evening. One thing with my perception of MJF’s in ring talent is that he wrestles so rarely that I don’t have any idea of what an MJF match feels like saved in my head. But then he comes in and kills it like last night and It reminds me he’s actually pretty good. Just have to wait a few months till he’s allowed to show it again but this is the perfect example that the guy can go. I don’t know if it was because I was tired last night but Tay seemed a bit nervous during her match, it came together in the end but felt a bit disjointed at first. There is no doubt in my mind that the only possible option for next champ is Thunder Rosa, go back to that six women match last week and the crowd was completely into Brit and Rosa so that’s definitely their money match.

His crazy stare with the “I’m gonna fucking do it” face and the heat while considering doing the Five Knuckle Shuffle was amazing stuff.

Ah ok, I misunderstood that segment then. Weird that she wasn’t out there during the match. Match was messy fun so might as well throw here in there for a table spot or something.

I just realised, wasn’t Paige VanZant supposed to be in that match? Seems weird she wasn’t involved at all because I feel that apart from Lambert she’s the one that had the best back and forth with the Inner Circle during the build up. Agree with all the comments about the PPV needing to be just a bit shorter to be almost perfect. Cut 5min out of all the tag matches tonight, and imo the Cody match was the perfect Buy In material, and you end up with a tight almost perfect close to 3 hour PPV.

He had some great subtle reactions throughout the whole match. The “holy sh..” at the SSP and if you watch him in the background he was wincing at some of the hardcore spots in the match, even done to the Elite. Which played nicely into him becoming Jungle Man at the end and telling Christian “I’m ready, I wanna do it”.

Crazy to think this is Hangman’s first real singles title win ever (that I know of)

One more comment before I go to sleep (5:20 AM here) That Code Red into Razors Edge counter by MJF was beautiful and smooth AF, his counter game was on point tonight catching Darby all the time into brutal stuff. Loved the psychology of him damaging his own knees by doing backbreakers, Tombstones, etc. One of the most enjoyable MJF matches I remember watching.

Not gonna lie that graphic almost got a tear out of me, it’s the little things that matter. how badass was Hangman’s entrance video too??

Amazing show as always really, we finally finished Hangman’s storyline and it feel like a brand new era should start now. Loved the nod from Matt Jackson too right before the killing blow as I feel Matt had as much story with Page as Kenny did. Most enjoyable and probably rewatchanle MOTN was Eddie-Punk which is everything I wanted Eddie-Miri to be at the last PPV, a Frye-Takayama like fight. I loved that Punk ALMOST turned into Cena there for a moment.

“We’re proud of you”

Good show with lots of great wrestling, random comments: It’s wild seeing Rocky vs Danielson and looking how good both guys look when I was already watching this match 16 years ago on DVD. Where has time go wtf. Really like the Snare Trap as JB’s finish and how he seems to put his entire body weight into his opponent, it’s like your little brother trying to choke you out. I’ve never been a huge fan of Lio Rush but he was really winning me and the crowd over tonight with his crazy speed. Fun stuff. I like that we can tell he’s probably some type of piece of shit with his interest in Dante but at the same time his enthusiasm and pride when Dante wins feels genuine somehow, it goes against everything wrestling has taught me. Please let this OC/Hardy feud end. Pac vs Dax was manly stuff but I get annoyed anytime a top rope Brainbister doesn’t finish a match. How does that not finish any match ever? Loved the super quick tapout by Dax to avoid injury and then looking at Pac like come on bro let go. My body is ready for Hangman, AEW World Champion, bad penmanship or not. The Callis reveal was great as I think we all bought him going away for good with all the Impact people.

Loved the Punk-Kingston face off. They do this thing where they shout over each other a few times which feels so much more authentic than the usual slow pace of your turn my turn style of wrestling promos. I can see both sides of the argument but I feel Eddie is the more sympathetic figure in this scenario. I hope he can go over Punk as he really needs to win one day. Main event was awesome fun with goofy Johnny Hungee in full force, I laughed at him mouthing Mark Henry’s main event catchphrase. I was surprised he didn’t win after the low blow but Adam Cole is at the top tier of overkill kick outs so it’s understandable that he would be the one person that survives this. Finish felt pretty desperate too and overall both guys looked great.

He also loves to take every bump like he’s taking a high angle Michinoku Driver. Remind me of AR Fox who seems to try breaking his neck on every single bump he takes.

These two need to settle a bit, as someone says the guy speaks Spanish and John is a much more common spelling of the name and his phone could have autocorrected by itself. What a shitty thing for them to point out when the guy is putting out a nice message from the heart. Finished the show last night, I enjoyed it but it felt pretty chaotic, lots of multi people brawl which I don't feel we've had in a while. The Elite/Christian/JE one was a bit hard to follow because the camerawork was all over the place and very zoomed in on the action which is not common in AEW. I never liked Aerostar back in PWG a few years ago and he didn't change my mind much last night. I heard he got knocked loopy midway but still, he's a bit stoo sloppy for my taste. FTR's music has been playing on loop in my head for the past 24 hours or so tho.

I dont mind if a MMA guy says that because they will always be a heel in that case and It's a common mentality that wrestling fans will boo. However, I hate when commentators throw out little comments like "oh boy that Jake Hagger, he's undefeated in MMA so you know he's a real tough dude ladies and gentleman". They don't seem to realise it makes everyone else look bad when they say that.

I’ve not watched the whole show yet but just finished Kingston vs Bryan and holy shit. They had what I consider to be my favourite type of match that is just bell to bell, no hula shut, non-stop intense and brutal action, no wasted second and just a full on war. It gave me Bret-Austin and Joe-Kobashi vibes in that they’re matches that skip any sort of feeling out process and just go for 100% intensity from the get go. The crowd also added to this big time feel with how into it they where. Everything both guys did looked amazing and brutal, every hit landed a 100% and I liked how there was nothing in terms of celebration when Bryan won, they both lied there half dead after the pin. It’s not easy getting crowd support when wrestling Danielson but he even got booed a few times here and it shows how much of a valuable and beloved character Kingston is. I’m not sure he can reach World Title status in AEW with how loaded the main event scene is but he definitely deserves a TV Title run sooner than later. In terms of rasslin I like this is top tier stuff for me and I give it an easy *****