Steventon

I’ll be in the minority but I though Okada vs PAC was a dumb dumb spotfest with no structure and dumb stuff like an avalanche brain buster being used as a throwaway spot a third of the way in and forgotten about instantly. Okada’s heeling was great though, more of that and less movez please. Agreed on the rain maker being restored to a one shot kill move feeling refreshing after years of it being nerfed in new Japan. ospreay vs danielson was really excellent. As a ospreay sceptic, he’s clearly matured a lot over the past year and now uses his incredible athleticism to enhance his matches rather than as a crutch for lack of substance. Yes there were big spots but most of the match was built around struggle, grit, and beating the crud out of each other. This felt like a match designed to make ospreay as a top guy and pass on the mantle, and his passion and emotion matched that. No issue with the ending, I actually was glad such a move was presented in such a serious way, it makes a change from them just being another in a long line of predictable kickouts 6-man was really fun thanks to the babyfaces. Brody shines in these matches too. Murphy is mechanically fine but bland. Black feels like a guy who has long been exposed as average and whose time has passed. Copeland doing a regular superplex on Brody got a much bigger reaction than PACs brain buster because a) it was more impressive and b) it was better placed in the match. Just saying. we need to hurry with mone’s heel turn. I’m already turning on her garbage entrance, painful wwe dancing and lack of actually doing anything storm vs Rosa ruled and was the best women’s match in ages. Considering she has a rep for being a stiff, Rosa’s selling was pretty great. Both ladies laid it in, took some big bumps and showed a lot of energy. main event was ok. I liked swerve but have come to feel he’s overrated recently. Like most joe matches it peaked very early. The stuff with the arm work was good but was kinda filler. The flubbed finish was ambitious, shame they couldn’t pull it off. Good on Swerve and cool moment, can’t say there’s tonnes of matches im looking forward to from swerve though. I loved the Jimmy rave robe though, god bless nana for keeping that. I skipped most of hook - Jericho and the ladder match. Jericho is boring, hook is an over pushed nepo who gets to kick out of 2 Judas effects for some reason. Jack Perry being back is cool, i am down for him to cause some (on screen) chaos

assuming no one has brought up that Solo hasn't won a match in over 6 months? if wins and losses are supposed to matter as he said in his promo, he should have been the first one kicked out of the group

Pretty standard WM show, in the current era it's more about the pomp and circumstances and the entrances rather than good wrestling so I can't say I was disappointed. Becky vs Rhea was fine. Becky hasn't been anything special since pre-pregnancy but atleast she put Ripley over clean. There is a world where Rey/Andrade vs Dom/Escobar is a banger, but not here. It was a fine WM highlight reel. My expectations for Uso vs Uso were low so I wasn't too bothered by their match, but can we put to bed the idea that either of them are any good as singles, because they are not. Put them back together as faces to carry on the Yeet thing which is popular for some reason. The women's 6-man wasn't good but I agree Jade has It and can be a mega star if they treat her right. That said it was only a couple years ago Bianca was It and now she's well down the pecking order. Gunther vs Sami was the only really strong match and pretty satisfying. They probably have a better match in them away from all the WM schmozz and melodrama, but seeing the Brainbustahhh on GUNTHER of all people was pretty sick. The main was fine, no need for it to be so damn long, but credit to Rock for stepping up. This type of match def helped him keep up with everyone els, def a better showing the Cena matches. Could have cut it down to 20 minutes though and nothing would have been lost. I will find it mad we get a bladejob in a segment leading up to this match, but no blood in the match itself. That's when it counts!

Yeah as much as the perception of Billy Gunn seems to have somehow been retconned to him now being a 'legend', the guy's always been a chud who was lazy, un-giving in the ring and big-leagued plenty of guys on the indies because of his size. Why he is getting the singles match here rather than Bowens or Caster is mind boggling.

The lack of Mox/Claudio in the tourney is bizarre considering they just went over FTR clean on the PPV and the commentators were talking them up as a new force in the tag division. hopefully there’s a curveball and we get something like the Best Friends winning it

There's also the very real probably now (and we saw some of it last week) that heel Rock will be so fun people start to cheer for him and boo Cody in response. The more they can lean into Roman as the Big Bad the better.

Okada vs Kingston is cool and Okada will surely go over, but seeing Eddie awkwardly stand there while Okada grabbed his wrist from behind to set up the Rainmaker looked hilariously forced. Like when Brock returned and F5'd Cena and Cena just looked like he was in the middle of shower thoughts.

If they really wanted to have Seth and Cody torch Rock all they would have to do is bring up how much of a flop Black Adam and the XFL were. But that may cut too close to the bone.

Things I liked: - Everything about the main event, obviously. Not a lot else to add everyone hasn't already talked about. The video montage was wonderful. I'm a Bucks detractor but let's be honest, they were perfect foils here and deserve their flowers for the roles. - Hangman going nuts on the ref and the finish to the world title match. Page is 100% going to claim he tapped out just to spite Swerve. - BCC vs FTR was rad and better than their TV match, and it might have even been my favourite MOTN outside the emotion of the main event. Cool tag team spots, violence, some blood, heat, and I was surprised at the finish given how well protected FTR are generally. They seem to have cemented Mox and Claudio as players in the tag team scene going into the upcoming tourney. - Roddy vs OC will be overlooked but was a super tight mid card match. Hyper-focused, some good spots (the backbreacker on the tunbuckle looking way better and being sold better than the Ospreay/Takeshita brainbuster) and Roddy winning clean without it making OC look weak. If Roddy is going to be the 'workhorse' having title defences regularly, this match bodes well. - Kingston vs Danielson was probably the weakest of their 3 AEW matches but still really good. They laid in the stiffness and the stuff with Kingston's hand was done well. A 50-50 match like this doesn't play to Eddie's strengths and Danielson kinda felt like he was going through the usual spots (as much as a guy like Danielson does), but it was still a thumbs up. The handshake and show of respect was a brilliant, well-earned moment and would have been the highlight of the PPV if it wasn't for the main event. Things I disliked: - Ospreay vs Takeshita - Guess I'll be that guy, but this was the epitome of Big Dumb Dumb Wrestling. All big spots and kickouts and hulk ups but zero story or structure. Sure, some of the spots were cool, but they were forgotten about quickly, and yes there were some good shots thrown, but there was plenty of obvious thigh-slapping going on too and nothing felt long-lasting (especially after a match like Kingston vs Danielson where both dudes visibly had the wounds of war by the end). The brainbuster spot was a combination of being legit dangerous and looking shite. Ospreay is undeniably talented and, like Jay White, I think he'll flourish in AEW away from sterile, workrate wankfest environment of New Japan, but these guys brought out the worst tendencies in each other. That said, I appreciate I'll be in the small minority on this one. - Storm vs Purazzo was flat and showed that the face-heel dynamic is the wrong way around for these two - Kyle O'Reilly making a big return and... doing nothing. Hopefully the guy's health is OK but if not, why do this. And if he is back in the ring, please no more storylines about who's friends with who. The times KOR has been best in his career were when he wasn't tethered to Strong/Cole/Fish and could forge his own path, putting him in an angle with these guys is the least interesting option. - I'll be honest - Christian vs Garcia was pretty underwhelming for me. PPV openers are usually quite hot, but this didn't feel like there was much of a strong story in it or that they had much chemistry. This would have been a Rampage main event or Collision mid card bout and no one would talk about it a week later. Maybe they have better in them if they run it back. - I'm not an Adam Cole guy, but where is he? This was meant to be a re-building of his faction with Wardlow and Strong winning, but having him absent makes this whole group feel solidly in the background.

The Wardlow promo was pretty good. During the OC vs Bennett match I was thinking about how the Undisputed guys were the main event angle of the last PPV and are now focusing solely on a mid card feud, so hopefully they put some heat behind him and push him against Joe or Swerve next

They are trying really, really hard to make Jey Uso, Singles Superstar, a thing. It's just a shame he's proven to be completely average whenever given the opportunity to show something. Some people are just better suited to being in a tag team. Michael Cole's "OK" during Michael Chandler's promo killed me

HHH babyfacing against a heel Rock could make for a pretty interesting direction (as long as it doesn't overshadow Cody and Roman)

There's also degrees to this though right? You may know Vince is a sleaze and a old perv (frankly most CEOs of his generation probably are), you may not know he was an actual rapist and abuser

We need a redux of the "from undesirable to un-goddamn-deniable" promo

Sure, fully agree, just saying they could have made it work if they really wanted it, which is what we all thought like 48 hours ago. Hopefully the change of direction is for the better but who the hell knows with this company, it’s a lot of flip flopping in the space of a week or so