WORLDS END II - 12/28/2024

[Shartnado]

Watched until the beginning of Continental Classic Finals.

The opener was fantastic! I DID NOT expect a gory bloodbath this early. Amazing stuff!

Okada-Ricochet was a good match with the emphasis on the fact that Okada had way easier time dispatching Ricochet than Ospreay did Fletcher. Ricochet getting perfectly TP'd after the match was a lucky accident.

And that's the end of feelgood moments until I stopped for the time being.

Mariah retains over Rosa in an intense brawl. This was expected, obviously, but took the wind out of the sails a little bit.

MJF beat Cole for the millionth Dynamite Diamond Ring but got his ass kicked in the end by Undisputed O'Reilly none of whom turned on Cole. Shouldn't MJF be given the option to retire and purchase the actual ownership of that damn ring by now?

Takeshita vs Hobbs ended up being a wonderful match and I guess there were people who wanted Takeshita to retain? But still, no actual babyface win or title change here, either!

Not Sasha vs Statlander was probably even better than their first match but c'mon! WTF was the point of having this match again, if the end result was the same? Still, the package piledriver and the Stone Cold Driver'97 on the apron were both batshit!

Wonderful stuff aside this is was like watching a great movie with a bummer ending over and over.

I doubt the main event will bring any change to that, so it will be all up to Ospreay taking the Continental title?

[AxB]

1 hour ago, Shartnado said:

 

Not Sasha vs Statlander was probably even better than their first match but c'mon! WTF was the point of having this match again, if the end result was the same?

Not a fan of the Misawa vs Kawada feud, then?

[The Natural]

18 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Lemme give some life help.

You enjoy things way, way more when you don't care what other people think about them.

Did you enjoy something? Great! Did a podcaster or some rando on TikTok not? Okay! Nobody's making you listen to those podcasters or TikTok randos or people on social media. You can block them! It's just as easy as whenever people respond to "I didn't like this aspect of the show" with "well just stop watching". People are allowed to have different opinions, and it has no bearing on whether or not you enjoy things unless you let it bother you. You have to take the steps to block out that sort of noise, and if it somehow shows back up, roll your eyes and BLOCK IT AGAIN.

Cool? Cool. Now give Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale the world.

 

17 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

I wasn't; I was mostly potshotting the chucklehead who felt the need to insult Natural for daring to have a different opinion and post a lot (like... that's Natural's thing). I get very annoyed when people proclaim there is too much negativity somewhere while being equally negative, if not moreso.

That said, I'm not saying you shouldn't feel a certain way. I'm saying that if you're letting other people's opinions bring you down, you are choosing to let them do so. They hold no credence in your life, they don't pay your bills or buy your food, so why should you let them influence how you feel about entertainment? If you want to feel down about discourse or social media or algorithms, be my guest, but I just want you to know you're choosing to let something you have no control over bother you, and that's not a productive way to live your life. There's a reason I have a highly curated social media feed with tons of blocked accounts and muted words, and it's because I refuse to let some person who I don't know and have no interest in knowing hold any kind of sway in my life.

If you feel that's me talking down to you, so be it, but the advice I gave is literally what I do for myself because I was in this same exact position a few years ago (albeit with things other than wrestling). I can't control other people. I can only control what I do. You can do the same but you have to make the active choice to do so.

 

17 hours ago, Octopus said:

More importantly, @The Natural is great.

 

14 hours ago, caley said:

Quoted for posterity

Thank you all. Means a lot.

[The Natural]

10 hours ago, Octopus said:

Agreed.

I like Penta’s taunting and my best internet friend hates Penta’s taunting. We tease each other about that a lot. 

This made me laugh. Indeed we do. Love you, bud.

Edited December 30, 2024 by The Natural

[Shartnado]

33 minutes ago, AxB said:

Not a fan of the Misawa vs Kawada feud, then?

Those matches were mostly years (year?) apart each, though, not a month or so. Doing a rematch this quickly, with not that much build-up, and having the same result seems kinda pointless. Sure, keeps Mone strong for Wrestle Dynasty but you probably could have pivoted someone else to this spot, instead of jobbing Statlander again, this quickly. The match wouldn't have been as good with almost anyone else, that I will gladly concede.

[just drew]

I thought TAFKA Sasha was pretty good again. I'd listen to an argument that Kris Statlander did the heavy lifting in that match, but I think Mercedes has really settled in. I still roll my eyes when folks in certain corners of the internet say patently ridiculous things like "Mercedes is one of the best women's wrestlers of all time," but since they got her away from Britt she's removed herself squarely off the "liability" side of the ledger. I also thought Mariah and Rosa put in some good work.

[Brandon Bones]

I liked the show a lot.

 

I was glad they didn’t have Osprey and Fletcher go out a do another epic.  Both guys were used well here.  Osprey gets the win yet he got visually wrecked by the guy that beat him last time.  Its 2-1 Osprey at this point IIRC.

Moné/Stat was another banger that really helped cement Monés shedding of her skin of this unfortunate situation many expats from WWE experience.  The injury killing the momentum of a new popular hire.  Someone here called it “getting her sea legs” but I fear there is more to that hill being climbed.  Punk getting dinged in the Rumble suggests those problems would have continued to haunt AEW had he stayed there.  But this string of really great matches and their frequency really has her growing out of it.  Knock on wood.

MJF/Cole really exceeded my expectations but it really shouldn’t have.  Max works hard and is very reliable to produce a good to great match.  Cole should probably go back to WWE.  At least there, when he is lost in the shuffle, an injury won’t derail a years worth of work.  I see and understand many of the criticisms laid upon the guy.  I just don’t see it as a death sentence to his career.  Clearly the guy has something to offer if given the correct role.  Just not sure it’s AEW.

I was pleased with many of the extra curricular segments of the show that did a lot of heavy lifting in table setting for the future.  There are a bunch of matches on the horizon to look forward to.  Shoot Omega/Okada into my veins.
 

Didn’t realize Mox vs. Copeland was even possible.  Any one want to gander at the marquee value?  Two famous wrestlers (yet not selling tickets under their probably more familiar names) burdened with being a draw in a vacuum doesn’t sound promising.  But I guess if it’s in the correct town, right?

May/Thunder Bae was solid.  May exceeds my expectations every-time, since she is a rare occasion of a fresh act getting some good early in the career momentum.  Rosa seems a half step slower of foot since the injury comeback.  But no less game for doing anything and everything to make it work.

JR didn’t say anything notably stupid or cranky.  This time.

Just a production suggestion for the C2.  I like how concise the smaller block tournament is set up.  But I think for the sake of investment in the tournament itself that eliminated competitors should be highlighted during the semifinals and final match.  It suggests an attachment to the prestige of the tournament and gives a built in motive for everyone to want to be in it.  So yeah.  Have Shelton back stage.  Have Briscoe watching in the locker room with his friends.  Darby can watch from the rafters.  Brody can hang upside down like a bat in an undisclosed dark room with the rest of his crew.  Over the years, similar to the Rumble its status and importance will build.

Otherwise another likable show from my favorite set of underdogs.  It has and continues to feed the need so I can continue to not watch WWE.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Mercedes is definitely one of the best of all time. Just this year her matches with Stat, Willow, Momo and Hazuki are among the best women's matches we've seen in the U.S. All different types of opponents. The common denominator is Mercedes.  It was the same in WWE.  Charlotte, Becky and Bayley all had their best matches with Sasha. 

As far as Stat losing the rematch goes,  doesn't the standing ovation she received post-match prove that it worked?  She got the standing ovation that Benoit received after he lost to Kurt Angle at the Royal Rumble.  

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Ospreay vs Fletcher smoked everything. Stat vs Mercedes was also really good. But I am still baffled by the direction in a lot of cases here.

Okada over Ospreay is a choice. Even if you're planning to dive right into Okada vs Omega, it seems Like Ospreay just keeps losing important matches.

Mox vs Cope on top is not the direction I'd be going. That certainly doesn't scream alternative to WWE. They may be able to capture a gritty violent feel WWE would never allow, but even still just seems like there are better options.

Ospreay, Swerve, Darby, Omega, MJF, Hangman. Those are your hottest acts. Some combination of them together or mixing them in with Mox, Cope, Jay White, Samoa Joe, Malakai, Brody King is where the money is. Out of those 12 performers Mox vs Cope is the least compelling combination possible in my opinion.

[Craig H]

I couldn’t care less what anyone else says. I want this shit to blow me away and get me jumping out of my seat. I don’t think I’ve seen a wrestler that is at Ospreay’s level other than Okada and Okada to me is the GOAT. Ospreay is just such an amazing athlete. He is so smooth, all of his stuff looks so tight, he’s phenomenal. 

People can disagree with that. That’s fine. We’re all entitled to our opinions.

And for me, I thought that Ospreay vs Kyle was awesome, but I think some of that was Ospreay juicing like crazy. Best ever opener? I don’t know, but it was pretty fucking good and that’s all that matters to me.

Now, Okada vs Ospreay? Holy shit. Hell, before that, Okada vs Ricochet ruled. It reminded me of Michael Jordan schooling some dude who thought he was hot shit.

Okada vs Ospreay was amazing though. Right finish, right man won, NOW START FUCKING SHOWCASING OKADA. 

I actually liked the main event because it was less of the typical multi man style match where someone is taking a nap and just two guys are going at it. When Mox was out it seemed like all three guys were just constantly battling it out and even when Mox joined back in we were back to all four guys doing shit. I just didn’t like the finish. It’s probably what bugs me the most about the Death Riders angle. You know they’re going to interfere like crazy. Have others on the ready to take them out.

[stuntmanc]

I sort of like the Ospreay losing streak.  I'm probably wrong in my recollection, but he's been a far "softer" wrestler since injuring Danielson and while we've had the resolution of it for the most part, i wouldt put it past TK and his love of long term story telling that is an underlying issue for Ospreay that his killer instinct is currently dead and buried and ontributing to his losing big matches constantly as of late.

 

I also might be reading into things far too much, but he's definitely less Aerial Assassin and more "Bruv I'm psyched to just be here and making you guys cheer"

After seeing Fletcher/Komander live  and then the string of Fletcher matches in the C2, he's the real deal.  Just absolutely blown away by him.

I was really hoping Statlander would pull it out, but I'm not too upset at the result.  Mercedes has been on a roll lately and while she'll never be in my top 10 womans wrestlers, i don't understand the barrage of negativity she gets from all corners of the internet.  I was very much on board a few weeks ago with Anna Jay taking the belt off of her, but now I want her to hang on for a bit longer.  This might've been a fever dream, but i feel like I read somewhere that Athena has stated she wants to face Mercedes sooner than later?

I liked the main event.

I know that people as a whole aren't real sold on the Death Riders angle and I respect that opinion, but I genuinely feel it's picked up steam the past week or so and is atually having stakes be implemented.  I was a low voter on the end of Rampage, but it definitely added gravitas to their act and now we have it escalating from mid card talent to main event talent and I think Copeland/Mox is a great way to keep the stakes going higher and higher.

I'm a broken record, but I want Hangman to be the one to take the belt from Mox with an assist from Omega.  I will say it every chance I get to try and will the Omega/Hangman team back into existence.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

I think my biggest gripe with The Death Riders stuff (aside from the muddy motivations / follow up) is essential Mox is Flair. Death Riders are The Horseman. We know there's gonna be interference. Make it creative. Don't just spam the run in button. Find cool creative ways to keep the belt on Mox if that's the plan.

Like shit use a new ref for a few months. Run a Last Man Standing Match. Let him count Mox til 9, then swerve. He beats the fuck out of the baby face picks Mox up and counts to 10 for the win. Then he's thier new young boy. Shit like that is way more compelling than just generic run ins.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

3 minutes ago, stuntmanc said:

I sort of like the Ospreay losing streak.  I'm probably wrong in my recollection, but he's been a far "softer" wrestler since injuring Danielson and while we've had the resolution of it for the most part, i wouldt put it past TK and his love of long term story telling that is an underlying issue for Ospreay that his killer instinct is currently dead and buried and ontributing to his losing big matches constantly as of late.

They already completed that story. He was gun shy after hurting Danielson with The Tiger Driver. Then he stopped and lost because of nit using it a few times. Danielson said stop being a pussy, use it. So he did. And beat MJF with it. And won The International Title back.

If you're expecting some other conclusion coming down the road from that angle I think you're about to be a disappointed boy lol.

[AxB]

You know what should have been on this card? Any time you watch an indie tournament, be it BOLA or Ted Petty Invitational or whatever, on night two they do an 8 man tag with everyone who got eliminated. Where was our Gold Block Runners Up vs Blue Block Runners Up 8-man? I mean:

• Daniel Garcia, Beast Mortos, Shelton Benjamin & Mark Briscoe vs Darby Allin, Claudio Castagnoli, Brody King & Komander

would have fucking rocked. And it's not like any of them were on the show otherwise, other than Claudio's run-in.

[Craig H]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

You know what should have been on this card? Any time you watch an indie tournament, be it BOLA or Ted Petty Invitational or whatever, on night two they do an 8 man tag with everyone who got eliminated. Where was our Gold Block Runners Up vs Blue Block Runners Up 8-man? I mean:

• Daniel Garcia, Beast Mortos, Shelton Benjamin & Mark Briscoe vs Darby Allin, Claudio Castagnoli, Brody King & Komander

would have fucking rocked. And it's not like any of them were on the show otherwise, other than Claudio's run-in.

Didn't they do that last year? I swear I remember some kind of all-star tag match with people from both sides that had been eliminated.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

They did an 8man last year but they mixed the teams up. It wasn't straight up gold vs blue. It was mostly babies & a heel vs all heels if I remember right.

[tbarrie]

22 hours ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

Nigel on his love for Mariah May, "simpin ain't easy!"

Good line, but the Call of the Night Award goes to Jim Ross. During the main event, he said something like "Jay White is like a Slinky! He can hurt you at any time from any position".

JR clearly had a different experience with Slinkies than I did as a child.

[Technico Support]

2 hours ago, AxB said:

You know what should have been on this card? Any time you watch an indie tournament, be it BOLA or Ted Petty Invitational or whatever, on night two they do an 8 man tag with everyone who got eliminated. Where was our Gold Block Runners Up vs Blue Block Runners Up 8-man? I mean:

• Daniel Garcia, Beast Mortos, Shelton Benjamin & Mark Briscoe vs Darby Allin, Claudio Castagnoli, Brody King & Komander

would have fucking rocked. And it's not like any of them were on the show otherwise, other than Claudio's run-in.

 

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

Didn't they do that last year? I swear I remember some kind of all-star tag match with people from both sides that had been eliminated.

I’m too lazy to look but I’m pretty sure they did do that last year.  Still, without a remote control slo-mo spot or thumb in the butt train, what’s the point?

I really miss PWG.  At the same time, with AEW and various super indies existing, is there even a point to it coming back?  The whole deal with PWG in their heyday was that you’d see wrestlers, matches, and a style, that you couldn’t get anywhere else.  That’s not the case anymore, so I don’t know what a resurgent PWG could do, except maybe giving us a mix of AEW guys vs other Indy guys.  No idea.  I’m just rambling.  All the best to Super Dragon and his gf.

[Matt D]

I think they wanted to write off Darby first. 

[matwarz]

I genuinely don’t understand the Ospreay losing streak waffle. The guy has been bulletproof since day one as he’s clearly a level above everyone in the company. Any loss he’s taken has been to elevate or solidify someone. The CC works the same as the G1; everyone takes losses to foreshadow programmes or rematches. Ospreay will get the world title but not until they run London again and it would be stupid to do otherwise. At that point, all the losses he’s taken creates a slew of challengers that create real possibilities of him losing. Am I missing something?

Anyway, all the CC matches were great. Dick Okada was awesome. Holding back spots for the final was awesome. Taking the time to break the referee counts was awesome. Having a styles clash for a finish and then a big near fall in the finals was awesome. The finals were flat out great. They didn’t do half of what they could, made everything mean something and kept the stretch to a bare minimum. By today’s standards, the restraint and common sense used in these matches was terrific. 

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

6 hours ago, tbarrie said:

Good line, but the Call of the Night Award goes to Jim Ross. During the main event, he said something like "Jay White is like a Slinky! He can hurt you at any time from any position".

JR clearly had a different experience with Slinkies than I did as a child.

The old metal slinkies actually could!!!  I'm sure JR had one in the 50's when everything was dangerous.  I got a plastic one as a kid in the 80's, my dad busted out his old metal one, I proceeded to cut myself and that was the end of that.  I've also got metal lawn dart and BB gun stories for days!

[SovietShooter]

9 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Find cool creative ways to keep the belt on Mox if that's the plan.

I wonder, philosophically, if there is resistance to booking that way, out of a fear of backlash over constant screw job finishes? 

Like, you could get away with that in the territory days because that big match only came to town every so often, and you could repeat fuck finishes that worked in other towns because none of that was televised. But with everything televised now, constant fuck finishes come off more like HHH's reign of terror from the '00s.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

I wonder, philosophically, if there is resistance to booking that way, out of a fear of backlash over constant screw job finishes? 

Like, you could get away with that in the territory days because that big match only came to town every so often, and you could repeat fuck finishes that worked in other towns because none of that was televised. But with everything televised now, constant fuck finishes come off more like HHH's reign of terror from the '00s.

Everyone's minds immediately went to House of Torture because New Japan already did it with EVIL's title reign and it fucking sucked

It isn't something that's going to work with the modern AEW/NJPW/Indy audience because it's the wrong kind of heat.  People don't say, "Man, I can't wait til someone finds a way to counter the Death Riders!"  they say, "man, this sucks, I can't wait til they stop doing this and go back to booking title matches without bullshit!" and tune out

In a promotion where "the best wrestle" that's what fans want to see in their main events.  I'm fine with run-ins and garbage and all sorts of gaga on the undercard of AEW, not the World Title scene.  Why can you have no interference in the C2 but can't protect the sanctity of your world title?  It's stupid.

And again, NJPW already did this and it failed miserably.  Bleeding your audience to get to the payoff of the guy nobody wants to see anymore losing isn't a good strategy

[Shartnado]

Holy How I Met Your Mother, Batman! So the whole amazing CC tournament was just a vehicle for a Kenny Omega return?!? Glad that Kenny is back, obviously, but I can't help but to have a bad taste in my mouth after that! So primary target was to give Okada his 5th big tournament win to tie with Chono and secondary target was to Kenny show up before Wrestle Dynasty. This definitely was more about journey than the destination. Fantastic match between Okada and Ospreay and if the record was 8-2 in Okada's favor prior to this one, the ending is logical, but wow. There were people who favored Okada during the match, so I guess they weren't bummed out by this, though?

Slept through most of the main event, but woke up to see FTR and Copeland return. Which means Moxley retained. I'll re-watch this next year.

Matches were mostly stellar to really good but the feel good moments were mostly  just the returns and Ricochet getting perfectly TP'd (and some people may find that not so feel good moment.)

So mixed feelings for this one!

[Go2Sleep]

I loved the Ospreay/Fletcher sprint opener. It's always nice when AEW matches are forced to "hold back" a little bit. At some point, someone might realize that not doing everything in every match helps in the long run. You'll notice how the crowd was never out of it in this one with no down time, and popped huge for a non-traditional finisher getting the W.

Okada/Ricochet was alright. Post-match was some stupid Vince-brained shit.

Mariah/Thunder was pretty decent. Liked the quick, but extremely believable, finish.

Didn't care at all about MJF/Cole. MJF tried his best to carry this one, but the whole Undisputed Kingdom part of the angle isn't clicking. I feel like these two could do an inspired double turn match, but they tried to play it straight, and it was very uninspired.

Hobbs/Takeshita didn't quite click for me, but I respect the effort they put into to the story of the match.

Mercedes/Stat 2 didn't start off nearly as well as the first match, but the second half was still really good. Like most people, I was confused why they ran it back so fast just to have Stat lose clean again. There has to be another woman who could've used the Mercedes rub (now that she's back to having consistently good matches again) more than Stat here.

The CC final was exactly what it was expected to be. You knew they were gonna go full epic, and it was fine for what it was, but it seems like I'm in the majority that found the semis far more interesting precisely they weren't full epics. If nothing else, it shows Okada still has his NJ Ace Mode in him. Not sure why they didn't end the show with Kenny instead of Cope.

The 4-way was pretty dull, even by filler 4-way standards. Totally baffling they didn't put this on below the CC final. Rated FTR going after the trios belts isn't something I care to see, and I was really hoping we'd get the Christian payoff at least. Only thing worse than a Mox/Cope filler program would be a program where Cope actually is the one to beat Mox, just so there's a vehicle for the Christian cash-in. Get the Not-MITB case out of his hands already.

Overall, pretty middling PPV. You can always count on most of the in-ring to deliver for AEW, but the writing for big angles has mostly been going in the wrong direction for a year now.