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AEW R-EVOLUTION IV - 3/5/2023


Dolfan in NYC

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3 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

FTR Bald already said they were waiting to see where Punk would land before deciding their future, so get ready for MJF-Punk III

I'm surprised we didn't get Punk's return here to send the fans home happy. 

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This was a hell of a show! I was having trouble getting up for it over the last few weeks/maybe month or two of TV, but these guys don't miss on PPV 99% of the time, and this was no exception. Main event far exceeded my expectations, MJF brought his working boots tonight and Danielson seemed legit overjoyed out there. Stellar match with two tiiiiiny nitpicks: 1) I could have done without MJF's Dave/star crap, 2) the water stuff had no payoff! I thought it was gonna be Checkov's bottle, and like Danielson would spray him in the eyes for a fall or MJF would be too slick to stay in the LeBell or something; nope, just thirsty. It's so minor, but bad look to have em chanting 'H²O' with 3 mins to go. Otherwise, ffff'nnn stellar bout (sorry Danielson didn't go over for your bday @The Natural - hbd man!) I have many other thoughts on the show but I'll get to them post scrum. Thumbs way up though

 

 

 

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I think the water was just to show that MJF is not as experienced in these matches as Danielson and needed help to push through it.

He was in the deep water, as it were.

It’s also the kind of thing Danielson would be too proud to do, but MJF wouldn’t give a shit about

Edited by elizium
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Final observation before bed: Stokely had a LOT of tv time the past few months and is really doing wonders with that new iteration of his character. Shame they didn't at least have him come out with the Gunns and join the fun in the tag match (especially when absolute loads like Mark Sterling and Alex Abrahantes were given time in the preshow).

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Every match was slightly better or significantly better than was expecting. Joe/Wardlow was just *there* but had so much competition around it. I'll slap five stars on the trios title match, I'm no coward. I think the "MJF can't wrestle" talking point can officially go away now (it never should have existed but he worked his ass off tonight). Really great PPV.

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28 minutes ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Final observation before bed: Stokely had a LOT of tv time the past few months and is really doing wonders with that new iteration of his character. Shame they didn't at least have him come out with the Gunns and join the fun in the tag match (especially when absolute loads like Mark Sterling and Alex Abrahantes were given time in the preshow).

I think Stokely is still rocking back and forth in the Cow Palace in fear of Hook. 

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Who was the performer of the night.. I gotta say Bryan Danielson. He just would not die and the way he sold every bit of those final 15 minutes + overtime i thought he was done for multiple times and I thought MJF was done multiple times. I bit on 2 or 3 nearfalls and a submission spot. Wild. 

I think that might be a full 5 stars if you're into that kind of thing. 

Bryan was super protected here too, I need him to win that title at some point, please Bryan 

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Man that was so much fun. Like everyone else I was lukewarm to most everything heading in and just about everything over delivered. The crowd was red hot and super fun to be a part of. 
 

My favorite matches were the trios, mox/hangman, and the main. Omega is my favorite wrestler and that was such a fun match and I hope omega returning to the main event scene can help spark things up a bit. 
 

I went in with a very low interest level in the jungle boy Christian match and I have to say they and the crowd really pulled me in and had me thoroughly entertained. That was a great match and really fun. 

Even the woman behind me commented on how stunning Julia looked. 
 

No one around me wanted wardlow to win and no one wants to see Hobbs lose to him either.

I was curious how the crowd would do, and how Bryan and mjf would manage the crowd. I thought live the crowd was super hot except for a lull around the 15 minute mark, but they expertly got the crowd out of that with the roll up battle. Overall it was a really awesome crowd live  

 

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1 hour ago, elizium said:

They are dill, I don’t believe he mentioned if they were kosher. They got a nice snap when he bites into them

as someone who ordered Hebrew National Hot Dogs on an Amtrak once and didn't notice a difference.. I don't know if I could notice a difference between Kosher and Non-Kosher pickles.

Now if he was drinking the brine to prevent cramping, then he would be taking it to another level.

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Oh during the tag match this lame but loud section of fans started an obnoxious “San Francisco” chant, but then the rest of the crowd turned it into a “San Fran scissor” chant. Which was awesome. Not sure how much of that came thru on the broadcast. Reminds me of the first nxt house show here with Nakamura. Sold out red hot crowd but this super obnoxious section of fans was trying to take over the show. Like literally chanting “section 115!” Or whatever it was. 

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Good show. Starks/Jericho was a solid opener. Nice to end with no interference needed after all. Thought Starks having taped ribs would be key to him losing. 3rd Revolution in a row that Jericho's been in the opener of.

Great big win for Jungle Boy Jack.  Trios match was pretty great. House of Black don't do much for me, so I was rooting for the Elite, but the finish looked excellent.

Sad to see no more babyface Ruby, but thought the turn was well done. Saraya & Toni outside like Hall & Nash as Ruby reveals herself to be the Third Woman.

Hangman/Moxley was epic, ultra violent at it's best. Liked the Outlaws Hangman theme even if it was just for one night, always dig licensed music usage. 

I liked Wardlow/Joe, thought things picked up in the second half and ended up pretty good. Popped for Wardlow with an Alexa Grasso-esque back jump in to the rear naked choke for the win.

Tag titles match was fun, bought one of the near falls for Orange/Danhausen towards the end. Legit surprised to see FTR back, thought they were really leaving after the whole AEW not mentioning their Observer awards win deal.

Main event was amazing. Time really flew by and didn't feel that long at all. Definitely had me believing by the end that Bryan somehow had a chance. Fantastic stuff here from both.

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I loved seeing all the cribbing MJF was doing with territorial stars, and even Jay White.  I had two matches make it to my all-time great list tonight.   This might have been the best AEW PPV.


Mox/Page was a well-told, well-earned story as well.  The only real mediocre match on the card was Wardlow/Joe, and that was perfectly servicable, and in a spot no one was going to pop for more due to being worn out, so that was fine.

They paced the card out well.

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6 hours ago, tbarrie said:

Odd bit of trivia: other than the tag title match, every match featured somebody who'd previously wrestled for WWE jobbing to somebody who never has.

You could stretch and include the tag title four-way too on the basis that Jarrett didn't win.

Edit: Oops, forgot about the trios title match. Never mind.

Kenny did have a cup of coffee in WWE developmental

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12 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

If he was a manager or something it would be fine but as an interviewer it's like having an amateur comedian show up and try to loudly do his set overtop of the pro set you actually paid to see. 

That’s what it is! I couldn’t put my finger on what it is about his presence that I don’t enjoy…

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I didn't watch this live. I had a late Sunday the 5th of March with my Dad/Aje who is like a brother to me. An early start to my birthday today the 6th of March with Aje heading back and my birthday is always difficult missing my marvellous Mum. Will watch ASAP without sleep deprived.

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Just wrote my 800 words about the main. It was worth an hour and I'm glad I wasn't spoiled (as even a little bit of uncertainty helped the medicine go down) though I could tell there was an extra 5-7 mi I still have to make it through the rest of the card, but I liked all of the goofy bullshit in the pre-match trios. It was fine to warm the crowd up considering there was just going to be one pre-show match

Anyway, here's my SC write up.

Spoiler

MD:  When you watch a match like this, you're looking for the overall narrative, for the transitions, for the selling in the moment and deep in the stretch, for the false finishes and the real ones, for their ability to keep things interesting and fill time but also to make things meaningful and resonant so it's not obvious that they're filling time. You look to see if minute 13 somehow inevitably leads to minute 48. You're looking for Chekhov's collections of guns, the ones that fire off successfully, the ones that never go off, and the ones that strike without warning in build. In most cases, something fails and something falls because it's a long time to fill and humans are fallible. I thought this hit most of its marks pretty well, far better than most of the matches you'd compare it to.

A lot of what made it work was how self-aware and metatextual it was. Coming in, the match was presented as Danielson wanting to push MJF well past his limits and MJF being vulnerable and unable to hang. That's a little different than the athlete vs athlete nature of most ironman matches, where the gimmick is set up to present both as the very top of human endurance and achievement. That allowed for a bunch of narratives beats you wouldn't normally get, beats and counterbeats really. For instance, MJF opened up the shoulder work after stalling a few times, and even calling out how negatively stalling had been looked at by the sheets over the years (best not to let me get into that). He escaped the ring a few times and when it looked like he might again, he lured Danielson to yank the arm over the top. At times, the character of MJF was using the underlying metatext as a tool. At other times, he lost himself to it and wanted to prove himself. The first fall is a great example of the latter, where Danielson coaxed him into going along for the Malenko/Guerrero pin attempts and blew him up so he'd be open for the knee. 

What made this work was that, with one exception, it never seemed self-aware from human beings putting together a match. It was more than all of the players/characters (including Bryce) were aware of the history of these matches and the history of one another. That's what led to MJF hitting the low blow to get two falls while losing one, and more importantly, getting back into the match after Danielson's initial comeback. It's what led him to taking big chances (missing the moonsault which took his leg out for the rest of the match but hitting the elbow drop through the table). It led to Bryce spotting the ring and taking it off or for Danielson to dodge first before hitting the knee to score his third fall. 

The things that didn't work for me are primarily nitpicks. They went back to the water so many times. Taz covered well for it on the idea that maybe MJF couldn't hang with Danielson's cardio and he was making a mistake but it never cost him and never played into the match save for the one stalling heel moment early on with the fan. I would have liked that to have been a false finish where he tries to blow it at Danielson only to miss and then that set up the oxygen shot, just because they built it up so much, whether they meant to or not. I thought the selling was appropriate for most of the match (Danielson was maybe up too soon after the Storm Cradle Driver but sure, that could have been desperation). I don't think the visual of MJF crawling across the ring with blood in his mouth and making a fish face quite worked though. The overtime period with the tap out immediately thereafter didn't quite work either. That was the one part of that match that openly broke the facade and felt like a homage as opposed to characters being aware of the past. Finally, I would have rather MJF won it with the Regal Stretch but they refuse to even call it (and Tony gets it wrong anyway) so I get why they didn't do it.

I don't want this to be a four paragraph review which has one with nitpicks though, so let me reiterate in paragraph five that this hit far, far more than it missed and in a situation with a high level of difficulty. There was a ton of thought and care put into this and the execution landed. It really did feel like a script where they went over it again and again and again looking for holes. There's an old notion in wrestling that even more than their money, fans are giving the wrestlers and the promotion their precious, valuable time. Here it was sixty minutes worth spending.

 

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9 hours ago, Octopus said:

Wu-Tang is for the children, but MJF isn’t.

To add to what @StarChief EagleDemon was saying, maybe not smart throwing water around you just drank out of in this modern COVID world. 

So apparently it wasn't water that was thrown in the kids face,  it was tequila.  Did MJF know that?  Obviously not.   But the man is playing a dangerous game in the effort of being a heel.   He is lucky that it was a woman with the kid and he was lucky that Tony Khan was able to bribe the family enough to not make it a big deal

And I know people are going to play the "all these snowflakes being mad at the heel must not know shit about history" card.   That is fair but if you are going to mess with the fans like that you better make sure that you can fight back.   

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Arguably the best AEW PPV yet. More conclusively the best paced PPV broadcast they've ever done. Credit to the new Mansury regime? Especially liked the proper pre-show with lots of fun promos and just one match. As @MattD mentioned in the ROH thread, Mark Briscoe is 'an absolute folk hero right now'. Man, what an incredible run of matches!

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I think the pacing was good because they knew that they couldn’t fuck around when the main needed an hour plus of time. 

I don’t expect future PPVs to have a lack of backstage stuff or post match gaga. 

Related/unrelated, I laughed at the HoB bailing on the ring before the orange/red spotlight came on after they won the belts 

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I think they need to do some damage control on the Wardlow character if it's not too late already. Watching the recap video last night where he's on his balcony dressed for GQ contemplating the California skyline speaking in his reading lines off the teleprompter methodical way of doing promos was a useful snapshot of everything off-putting about his babyface persona. A buddy of mine has been calling him "Job Interview Wardlow" which I think is pretty funny. I like the idea of him being a complicated, sensitive monster but when he's doing run-ins wearing a velvet blazer I kind of wonder what exactly they're going for with him.

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