Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

All In II - 8/27/2023

Dolfan in NYC

By Dolfan in NYC
in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

 Share

Recommended Posts

The Natural

The Natural

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, EVA said:

With Eddie and Penta out of the match for long periods of time, I loved how Stadium Stampede ended up being a showcase for Best Friends, a heart-and-soul act for AEW. Great to see them stand tall in front of 80,000.

 

Kudos to Sue doing the culturally relevant v sign.

  • Like 3
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SturmCRF

SturmCRF

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great show overall, fascinated by how it came off on TV but probably not enough to spend four hours watching the replay on Thursday when there'll be a new Dynamite to watch.

We left at the end of the Trios Title match, because queuing down Wembley Way for two hours plus with 80,000 people would have been intolerable, especially just for more of MJF and Cole's Bloodline bullshit. It's very well done bullshit, in that it's over, but if they hadn't lost me with weeks of poor cinematic skits, they had done by the time they'd casually dispatched Aussie Open, simultaneously removing most of the doubt that MJF would retain with no big turn.

Punk vs Joe and the tag titles were my favourites, as the crowd were genuinely split and passionately invested in the outcome, which you need when you're watching things you can't hear happening half a mile away.

Wembley is so huge, Stadium Stampede was kind of a chore to pay attention to, rewarded with massively entertaining spots if you happened to be concentrating at the right time. But like, Eddie and Claudio were fighting one tier above us, in the right quadrant of the building for us to have a good view, and I could still barely see them. If I wanted to strain my eyes to see two distant bald men hitting each other, I could just wait until Millwall next make the Playoff Final.

I went into Ospreay vs Jericho intending to belt out Judas (which is at least a slightly more ethically sourced National Anthem Of Wrestling than Real American) and then get behind Ospreay, and glad that everybody else seemed to have the same idea. Very good match, happy to see that Will is over like a motherfucker.

The Bullet Club six man was also disappointing, so many men with big hair that it was tough to follow, and when you're part of a minority who seem familiar with all the years of tangled NJPW lore, there's not much you can do to get an atmosphere going. Made me wonder if your Cornettes and Punks are onto something with a Hangman or a Kenny missing some fundamental old school wrestling crowd connection intuition. Much less so with Kenny, but it didn't work here, and wasn't going to when 3/4 in attendance were watching at a distance where he looked barely distinguishable from Juice Robinson.

Coffin match ruled, House Of White ruled, even if it never feels right seeing them lose to anyone, let alone the Bum Father. Women's match was fun for the entrances and didn't outstay its welcome, dubious about Saraya as champ, but hard to begrudge her, and the whole division needs a shakeup anyway.

Good time overall! The Rev Pro show the day before was much more how a live wrestling show should be, but none of the stadium shows I've been to can possibly match the intimacy of a normal sized building where you can smell the Deep Heat and hear the slap of man chopping man. For all my grousing, I'll definitely go again next year.

Edited by SturmCRF
  • Like 7
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Fighting a man with a perm

Fighting a man with a perm

Posted
Posted

In no particular order, my personal highlights were:

Juice Robinson, down on all fours like a dog in front of Jay White in the tunnel before they made their entrance. Juicy boy has so quickly gone from boring to "can't take my eyes off him"

MJF landing the Kangaroo Kick. So stupid, but he continues to make stupid work.

My boy OC getting the big win and a hell of a visual with the gusher he tapped. As others have said, Best Friends are the heart and soul of AEW, love seeing them win!

Mox with a head full of skewers like a low budget pinhead.

Cash Wheeler channeling his inner Darby with an out of control dive through the ropes - such velocity!

Darby continuing to be one of the most compelling wrestlers in the world - he makes everything look like it matters.

Couple of lowlights:

Not making the trip across from Dublin myself.

JR - his every utterance detracts from what I'm watching.

Billy Gunn Julia Hart interaction  - didn't love that for a face team.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
jm29195

jm29195

Posted
Posted (edited)

 This show was absolutely amazing. Having never been to any type of stadium show before, it really was an experience like no other.

Have lost my voice now after so much shouting, as has my 11 year old, who has picked up Will Ospreay as his new favorite wrestler over the past couple of weeks.

It was brilliant to see Joe-Punk in-person again, 18 years after I last saw them at the Skydome in Coventry. It speaks volumes how far they've come on since then. From where we were, it sounded like the crowd were mostly against Punk, but we were cheering him. Thought the Funk tribute was brilliant, having just watched Funk do the same stick in the main event of No Way Out 1998!

The Omega and friends match was solid. Crowd really wanted Omega etc to win and he was over like a God. Ibushi seemed better than his first appearance. Robinson and White are phenomenal live. Callis got incredible heat whenever he appeared on screen.

The Stampede match seemed bonkers. Brilliant to see Eddie live. Will be rewatching this show on TV primarily to see how this match came off, as there was so much going on that we couldn't see.

FTR - Bucks was just outstanding.  I don't think anyone saw FTR retaining and we were jumping out of our seats when they did. Bucks were definite heels from where we were. Didn't get the Queen reference!

Women's match was predictable. Don't how it came off on TV but it seemed a very mixed reaction for Saraya.

The Sting/Darby match was exactly what I thought it would be. Just amazing to see Sting go at this stage of his career, and I think Jericho needs to call Darby and have a word like he did with Ospreay, the guy's a lunatic out there! My wife is a bigger Metallica fan than a wrestling fan, so loved the Seek and Destroy entrance.

Ospreay- Jericho was fantastic. Having seen Ospreay at Rev Pro the night before, it is absolutely crazy what this guy does on a day in day out basis. The Jericho entrance was perfect. Jericho must have ticked off a bucket list item there. Again, we went ballistic when Ospreay won, which was absolutely the right result for the crowd. How was it played on TV, as they had Callis managing Ospreay, so he was presented as a heel?

The Acclaimed match was nothing special, but it was brilliant to do the scissoring stuff etc. Almost wish they could have kept the Gunn return for the night itself, rather than having it take place on the previous Dynamite. 

The main event was perfect. I don't think I've ever seen a match with such a brilliant story running throughout. No one turning just felt right. The double clothesline spot and restart was amazing. Strong played his role to perfection. Who would hsve imagined these three headlining the biggest paid attendance ever just a few years ago??!

Already looking forward to next year.

Here's a photo, hope my son's language didn't offend anyone. He's autistic and had the time of his life, we agreed 'what happens in Wembley stays in Wembley' He certainly enjoyed joining in with the chants and heckling!

https://ibb.co/BGLBdQq
 

Edited by jm29195
  • Like 16
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brandon Bones

Brandon Bones

Posted
Posted (edited)

AEW has a habit of taking that old trope you’ve seen a million times and just spinning the usual expected result.  Got two that can’t get along and make them a team?  Yeah, the framework for that has got all kinds of potential for going in different directions (weird how rarely it doesn’t).  Which is probably why it’s so popular in modern booking.  

Usually the result is they can’t, betrayal, blowoff, rinse/repeat.  But this time around the question is being asked… “What if they DID get along and get long great even after a rough start”?  
 

I’ll grant you the cliche was probably the original intention.  But what has been produced thus far has handed AEW something that’ll inspire a totally different direction.  At least you could hold it off until all the eyes are off the ball and pull the trigger then.  
 

Now you can park this story somewhere and move MJF along to other contenders.  With all the convenience and comfort of injecting the bromance story right back in at any time, like say… in an injury scenario.  Which happens way too fucking much in AEW.

Edited by Brandon Bones
His name is MIKE Santana.His name is MIKE Santana
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Craig H

Craig H

Posted
Posted

Friendship and friends helping friends has always been a theme in AEW. They just haven't done it at the top of the card like this or put as much emphasis on it so good on them for finally doing so.

Weirdly enough, WWE did great running a friendship angle at the top of the card and using friendship literally nowhere else in their shows.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Craig H

Craig H

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, EVA said:

We should note that Ibushi looked to be in much better shape here than he was at Blood & Guts. 

Oh man, you thought so? I thought Ibushi still looks like shit. For all the talk about Shibata and his brain, to me it feels like Ibushi is the one out there wrestling like he has severe brain damage. There's just something that looks really off with him. He looks like he still fell off by many steps and the one thing he could do well was kicking people really hard. I felt sad watching him out there. I thought his injury was shoulder related, but it appears way worse than that. Either that or he's just pilled to the moon. I know the joke with Ibushi is that him being out in another galaxy is a feature and not a bug, but these last two appearances have made me worry about the guy's health.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Natural

The Natural

Posted
Posted (edited)
Just now, Craig H said:

Oh man, you thought so? I thought Ibushi still looks like shit. For all the talk about Shibata and his brain, to me it feels like Ibushi is the one out there wrestling like he has severe brain damage. There's just something that looks really off with him. He looks like he still fell off by many steps and the one thing he could do well was kicking people really hard. I felt sad watching him out there. I thought his injury was shoulder related, but it appears way worse than that. Either that or he's just pilled to the moon. I know the joke with Ibushi is that him being out in another galaxy is a feature and not a bug, but these last two appearances have made me worry about the guy's health.

I'm with you. The dislocated shoulder in the final of the G1 Climax 2021 vs. Kazuchika Okada put Kota Ibushi out over a year till he returned to wrestling in 2023.

Edited by The Natural
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zakk_Sabbath

Zakk_Sabbath

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

The worst trend of this year has been wrestlers transforming into alter egos that don't mean shit.

Penta Oscuro, Bad Ass Billy Gunn, Brood Edge, Lionheart Jericho, Painmaker Jericho, Starship Coyote Jericho

Everyone wants that Mankind doing the Clark Kent shirt-rip moment, and on some level, I can't blame them.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
For Great Justice

For Great Justice

Posted
Posted

All of this Best Friends love makes me so happy. Like others, the shot of them leaving the ring victorious was the highlight of the show for me.

When it’s all said and done (hopefully a very long time from now), humanity will look back on Best Friends as the very best of AEW. The Parking Lot Brawl, Arcade Anarchy, OC’s debut match (“he’s gonna TRY!”), what we saw yesterday, Sue’s Dark Order segment, it’s all just the best. 

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zakk_Sabbath

Zakk_Sabbath

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, For Great Justice said:

All of this Best Friends love makes me so happy. Like others, the shot of them leaving the ring victorious was the highlight of the show for me.

When it’s all said and done (hopefully a very long time from now), humanity will look back on Best Friends as the very best of AEW. The Parking Lot Brawl, Arcade Anarchy, OC’s debut match (“he’s gonna TRY!”), what we saw yesterday, Sue’s Dark Order segment, it’s all just the best. 

Same - yourself, EVA, Perm, Craig, all spot on - we can argue all day about the 'heart and soul' thing, but it's Kingston and the Besties. Fullstop. Gonna stink when OC has to finally drop the INTL, but I think there's a real shot these guys are up next for the trios titles after the Acclaimed. Perhaps once Pac's NOSEBONE is healed, we get into a Death Triangle/BF issue (expanding on the upcoming OC/Penta on Weds).

I know they aren't on TV much together anymore, but I'd have loved if Statlander got to at least swing a cane someone's way during this.

And fucking a million stars to Eddie walking down the ramp with that Kubrick stare and the barb wire chair.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Natural

The Natural

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

One other thought: at my age, a four-hour show starting at one in the afternoon goes over a lot better than eight in the evening. Any way we can get AEW to have all their PPVs in Europe?

All for it. Felt so fucking good watching live wrestling at a great time than the constant 1am-4am PPVs/1am-3am TV, add an extra hour on for RAW.

Edited by The Natural
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Raziel

Raziel

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, The Natural said:

CM Punk going to the fan after his match with the "Trans rights are human rights" sign made me smile and got me choked up.

Too bad Saraya went and won the World Title not too long after,

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...