Curt McGirt Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) Others made the argument as to Mercedes' faults in the chat so I deferred to them; really I only watched the second half or so of the match. All the stuff Vaquer did looked cool. I must also admit that I don't like Mone's character nor her auto-push, and her slopping it up on lucha spots in the matches I've seen of hers. It really looked like Vaquer should have won too. Man, Takeshita could have been Kenta Kobashi if they'd kept him face, or he could be a cool tweener if they let him simply go around knocking people's blocks off right now, but instead he's just stuck in the quagmire of Don Callis (who seems to be losing heat finally, or it could just be Buffalo and Long Island). There were some really gnarly and ill-advised spots in that ladder match. The tables exploding spot was really choice. EDIT: Big up to Ex and company for repping Hayabusa in the main event! Go check him out, kids. (As in the kids they told to go check it out because I know you all know who he is) Edited July 1 by Curt McGirt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 2 minutes ago, Ace said: I dug the show a lot but it was far too fucking long. Danielson needs to stop using the injury spot in every single match. I love Bryan Danielson but that gets on my wick. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcN7l1I9h1I&pp=ygUDQWV3 Media scrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 11 minutes ago, Mike Campbell said: Would it be a safe assumption to say that New Japan doesn't appear to be as fond of the Freshly Squeezed one as Coach Tony? New Japan already has Naito. They don't need an American version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Idiot King Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 I'd rate it as a high-mid AEW PPV. Not a lot of meat on the bones, but hard to hate on the overall level of matches. Loved Toni/Mina -- a well built story with a good payoff match that all made sense. Impressive how much they sold Mina over just the past month or so. Mercedes/Vaquer was sloppy and a little all over the place and that finisher is still SO BAD, but I had never seen a Stephanie Vaquer match before, and I was hugely impressed. Not a ton to complain about, really, and glad to see Britt back just for star power reasons. Danielson/Shingo was about as good as you'd expect, and I like Bryan pretending to die all the time (Dante Martin stole a bit of this in the TNT Ladder Match -- and that Briscoe Sabu flip was fucking dirty and dumb and fun). The main event really delivered -- even as someone who is not traditionally a huge fan of EPICNESS in matches -- and solidified both guys as real stars. That stomp onto the table was NASTY. I like all the little story beats (even the bad acting) and think they have built something nice with the MJF/Ospreay/Swerve/Garcia quadrangle that is actually elevating everyone. Everything else was fine. I have trouble enjoying ZSJ matches, while appreciating that he is very talented. Feels like some momentum and buzz is building with Ospreay and Swerve starting to take over the top spots. The fact that this whole PPV was more or less sold on that match, which was very suddenly a dream match, says a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) edit: nah Edited July 1 by John E. Dynamite 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) 1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said: Others made the argument as to Mercedes' faults in the chat so I deferred to them; really I only watched the second half or so of the match. All the stuff Vaquer did looked cool. I must also admit that I don't like Mone's character nor her auto-push, and her slopping it up on lucha spots in the matches I've seen of hers. It really looked like Vaquer should have won too. Man, Takeshita could have been Kenta Kobashi if they'd kept him face, or he could be a cool tweener if they let him simply go around knocking people's blocks off right now, but instead he's just stuck in the quagmire of Don Callis (who seems to be losing heat finally, or it could just be Buffalo and Long Island). There were some really gnarly and ill-advised spots in that ladder match. The tables exploding spot was really choice. EDIT: Big up to Ex and company for repping Hayabusa in the main event! Go check him out, kids. (As in the kids they told to go check it out because I know you all know who he is) Takeshita's scheduled for the G1 so my smark-ass brain knew he was a non-factor. New champ isn't gonna be off TV for a month, but those that book heard the reaction. Crowds are dying for him to actually win a belt. Edited July 1 by John E. Dynamite 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go2Sleep Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 49 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: That main was the most ridiculous ninja kung-fu gymnastics competition sixteen-thousand kickout double triple quadruple finisher wrestling match ever. Even those of you who like such stuff had to feel like you ate a whole Chicago-style stuffed pizza in one sitting. DEAN once said about a match that a fucking shot from a shotgun probably wouldn't keep the participants down and that's what it felt like. No, I felt like I got exactly what I wanted from that match. Super fast and clean action sequences, good counters on signature spots making both guys hit them in creative ways, generally two guys looking like the actual best guys in the company fighting for the title. Both are established hard-to-kill guys, and this is the type of match where a couple finisher kickouts per side are justified. They didn't burn the TD91 and Big Pressure still got the win on the first try. The only thing that wasn't really necessary was the ref-bump/visual fall. The Callis bullshit was minimal and pushed the killer instinct/ethical winner dilemma without discrediting the result of the match. The efficacy of this type of match is obvious because they had the otherwise-terrible crowd invested from the get-go and kept them in it the whole way. The build and execution was perfect by both guys. Loved ZSJ/OC too. Mox/Naito was kinda bad. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) I do not shill for Ospreay, but. His willingness to sell his completely busted ability to use the Hidden Blade and have his head patted by the man about to murder him belied an understanding of how to put the champ over. And neither hammed too hard on it - "too" being a funny word in 2024 PPV main event wrestling criticism, but imagine the same spot happening in Shawn's NXT. IMAGINE IT. Edited July 1 by John E. Dynamite 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Go2Sleep said: Super fast and clean action sequences, good counters on signature spots making both guys hit them in creative ways, generally two guys looking like the actual best guys in the company fighting for the title. Both are established hard-to-kill guys, and this is the type of match where a couple finisher kickouts per side are justified. They didn't burn the TD91 and Big Pressure still got the win on the first try. The only thing that wasn't really necessary was the ref-bump/visual fall. The Callis bullshit was minimal and pushed the killer instinct/ethical winner dilemma without discrediting the result of the match. The efficacy of this type of match is obvious because they had the otherwise-terrible crowd invested from the get-go and kept them in it the whole way. The build and execution was perfect by both guys. 18 minutes ago, Go2Sleep said: the most ridiculous ninja kung-fu gymnastics competition sixteen-thousand kickout double triple quadruple finisher wrestling match ever These things don't necessarily negate the other/are actually the same Edited July 1 by Curt McGirt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) You can have an over the top video game action movie style match where both guys hit their stuff more or less crisply and have lots of fun looking sequences. It's not for everyone but there's a difference between what Osprey and Swerve did and your average indy jabronis trying to recreate something they did with their action figures. I thought the match was pretty good, but there were a few too many sequences that looked too cooperative, namely the Swerve Stomp/springboard cutter counter and that stomp to the outside where Osprey jumped back before contact was even made. Work was fairly busy tonight so I was distracted with a good portion of the show, but what I saw was decent at worse. Even though this was just as long as the average AEW ppv it seemed to fly by with no too long faux-epic slogs to get through and not nearly as much fat to cut through. Edited July 1 by HumanChessgame 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) double post Edited July 1 by HumanChessgame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamBroken Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) Loved Mone/Vaquer and Ospreay/Swerve as probably my two favorite matches of the night. The crowd going anti-Boston but coming off as though Vaquer was winning them over and the pop when she powered Mercedes up out of the crossface was great. Also great reaction when the Monemaker was first teased before it eventually hit. Great stuff. Loving Mercedes' PPV output thus far and glad that Vaquer got to really show out here. Love to see Britt finally back too, welcome back. Ospreay/Swerve definitely had an epic big fight feel. I always figured Ospreay was losing since he already had the International but some very good near falls throughout and I was surprised it was mostly clean. TNT title match was a pretty fun wild spotfest. Takeshita's blue thunder through the tables looked awesome. Hoped Moxley would have a longer IWGP run but figured he had to drop it back. Pretty good show all the way through. Edited July 1 by DreamBroken 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcellenceofAirPollution Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 Loved the show, thought everything was at least solid-good. Favorite matches probably Swerve/Ospreay and ZSJ/Orange. I watched it on a delay as that's my prerogative but it was an easy watch for such a long show, pre-show included. MJF/Hechicero was a fun opener. I was thinking to myself MJF has opened a lot of PPVs. Him and Darby, him and Tanahashi at the first forbidden door, probably some others. Speaking of Tanahashi they did as good a job as possible working around him. It's tough to see how he moves, but at the same time he still manages to do some fun stuff and be over. For a show like this it's fine. Okada was mega over. Caster had his best rap in a while. I don't know if he said bitch a bunch at the end because it's PPV or because he got lost but it made me laugh Danielson/Shingo was really good but like everyone else I hate AD faking the neck injury. I hope Martin was selling in the ladder match because that scared the shit out of me. I was worried Takeshita was hurt once too. Work was good in this one, Lio did some fun stuff, ELP was over, Takeshita was super over, and it was actually kind of safe all things considered. I'm just always scared for the dudes as I'm watching these matches. Toni as Lady Liberty was fantastic. Fun match, happy family at the end, I was entertained. Crowd was good I thought, no clue what people are talking about there. They popped big for lots of stuff, were still hot for the main event, were really into ZSJ/Orange, I can't think of anything they were totally dead for and when they were losing interest they'd at least start some shit. Hook wasn't over on his entrance but got some pops in the match. It got quiet at times during Mone/Vaquer but they were definitely into SV, then started getting pissed when it looked like Mone would win and turned on her, they were definitely invested. I'm looking back at the results and those are the only two matches where the crowd was a bit quiet at times, and they also came in the middle of the show sandwiching the ladder match. It was a long show, not 5+ hours of sustained heat but the crowd was up for a lot of it. I just watched the entire thing with headphones on and never once thought it was a bad crowd so that's nuts to me. Anyway, thumbs up show, lots of good wrestling, good drama as the two world title matches genuinely could have gone either way, AEW rules! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 I am sure there is better research on this but is most of these fake injury angles involving Bryan are occurring when Nigel is on commentary? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
For Great Justice Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 I’m not going to hate on the main because wrestling is a three ring circus and I get that Star Wars Movie Lightsaber Dual Stunt Coordinators is a style. It ain’t for me though 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SovietShooter Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 7 hours ago, Mike Campbell said: Would it be a safe assumption to say that New Japan doesn't appear to be as fond of the Freshly Squeezed one as Coach Tony? I think OC is well respected enough that a win over him is a big deal for the NJPW guy, and at the same time OC is over enough that it won't hurt him in AEW. Mox is similar in this regard, but for different reasons. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 If the brass at New Japan isn't fond of Orange, the wrestlers sure as hell seem to be fine with him. I mean I can't imagine that guys like Shibata and Ishii and others are just puppets for the boss and just tolerating him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 16 matches is too many fucking matches. 15 was and then they decided we really had to see Serpentico vs Fletcher. ZSJ is the best foreigner on the New Japan roster if Titan doesn't count. OC is feuding with Trent. That wasn't a political finish it was common sense. When you're getting a huge push and everything you're doing looks tentative and slow and your opponent looks like the only wrestler in the match trying to fight someone, the crowd is going to turn on you. Not a fan of this Mone stuff. Loved the Penta match and I hope that when he leaves Antoine remembers he put this on the preshow and Jericho was on the PPV (he's probably not leaving but I wouldn't be mad if he did). He continues to anger me over the most basic things. Like El P, one of my least favorite wrestlers, being in the ladder match over AR Fox. Come ahnnnn. The announcers being surprised by the crowd being behind Takeshita was weird as fuck, you guys. Like did you see who else was in the match? What did you really think would happen? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matwarz Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 ZSJ v Orange warmed my old British blood. The step up to the final run was majestic. Zack deserves the big gold but eternal TV champ having those matches would never get old. Dragon and Shingo are old masters. That’s just a great fucking wrestling match. Are people really coming on here to complain about a guy selling the shit out of the backstory? That main event was exactly what you would sell a classic AEW world title match to be. If you’re seriously going to call that a spotfest you really need to go and watch an actual spotfest. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technico Support Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 53 minutes ago, matwarz said: That main event was exactly what you would sell a classic AEW world title match to be. If you’re seriously going to call that a spotfest you really need to go and watch an actual spotfest. Watching AEW and then complaining about spotfests is like watching German porn and complaining about too much poop. 1 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 This was the first I've watched any significant amount of AEW in a few months. Although admittedly, I half watched the show while I cooked and also did some work that I have to do before a Monday morning staff meeting. I thought Zero hour was fun, and the crowd seemed amped. It just kind of died off for me after that. I'm about as big of a Danielson mark as anyone, and even that match did not fully click for me. If a match isn't working for me on a certain level, I am more likely to be annoyed by nearfalls that should have been definitive finishes, and I get the story here for Danielson, but he kicked out of at least two legit match enders. I hopped into the discord in the middle of ZSJ and OC and stayed until Moxley/Naito ended. I finally tapped out for the main and will probably watch at some point this week and give a couple of other things a second look. I had never seen Vaquer prior to tonight, and I came away impressed by her. I just think the match was a little long in front of a dead crowd that came alive to turn on Mercedes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fighting a man with a perm Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 That OC ZSJ was extremely my thing! Loved it. That final submission hold was nasty. I wish Excalibur would break out some of the niche submission names Zack has used though - I want my "Barry from Eastenders" call, dammit! The main was thrilling. Because Ospreay continuously pulls off these incredible physical feats it's easy to go, "well that's just Will", but like, I've been to see My Bloody Valentine live a few times and they're always ear-bleedingly loud, but I still love it every time even though I expect it. All the matches were good to great, but I would have liked a sprinkling of some story beats. There wasn't really anything coming out of tonight that sets up what's next, except for the return of DMD. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Otto Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 4 minutes ago, Fighting a man with a perm said: That OC ZSJ was extremely my thing! Loved it. That final submission hold was nasty. I wish Excalibur would break out some of the niche submission names Zack has used though - I want my "Barry from Eastenders" call, dammit! Orienteering With Napalm Death! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technico Support Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness Also, not Sabre but Ospreay...is the head stuck upside down in the corner superkick still called "Cheeky Nando's?" Edited July 1 by Technico Support 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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