ALL OUT VII - 9/20/2025

[Niners Fan in CT]

The contrast between Fletcher-Page and Lesnar-Cena was hilarious for me.  I had two screens going for some of it and I'm not knocking people who just want to see "moments" or whatever they are calling it now but Cena-Lesnar wasn't for me at all.  Two guys wrestled their asses off and two other guys stole money. 

[tbarrie]

2 hours ago, Steventon said:

- C&C vs FTR was good, though they clearly have better in them. The finish felt a bit duff though the post-match angle with Beth was pretty dastardly and gives us reason for more between these guys. I expect we'll end up with FTR winning the next and then a final 3rd match.

You could be right, but Kip Sabian and the Waynes being around for the post-match shenanigans leads me to believe that feud isn't over either. Do C&C recruit more help to even the numbers and have a big four-on-four match? Come to think of it, have they had a Blood & Guts match yet this year?

2 hours ago, Steventon said:

Not sure Kingston really needs Hook, but I can see the benefit of having him work a bunch of tags to get rid of the ring rust in the short term

Certainly Kingston doesn't need Hook, but surely the pairing is for Hook's benefit and not Eddie's? The kid could learn a lot from him.

2 hours ago, Steventon said:

Jurassic Express reunion wasn't on my bingo card and feels like a regression for both guys, though they are kinda of stuck with what to do with them otherwise seemingly

Putting aside my marking out for a moment, I see where you're coming from. Jack Perry going back to being the same Jungle Boy as before would feel like a regression. Hopefully they'll add something to the character to reflect his time as a cynical heel.

Luchasaurus, of course, is a Goddamn dinosaur who knows lucha libre. He needs no change or growth. So he'll be fine.

[Sublime]

I think Perry needed the reset Jurassic Express to go forward, his heel work just wasn’t what it need to be to move him further and a reset to his baby face tag team will play to his strengths better. And this let’s  him to spin off into singles as a face someday which is what should have been the plan all along. 

[Go2Sleep]

Thought this was a really good show top to bottom. I completely agree the wide variety of match styles helped everything. 

The pre-show stuff was very compact. Fun, but in no way attempted to be big moments for anyone or upstage the ppv. It was like a good episode of Rampage.

C&C vs. FTR was a good choice to open. This seemed like a very WWE-style match, which made the Cena tribute very fitting. It had some of the same flaws as a lot of WWE matches like the extremely long setup for a run-in and a choppy finish that made the loser look kinda bad, but there is still a place for that kind of stuff as long as the crowd is into it, which they definitely were. Great to see Beth and her post-match spot going down swinging against FTR was badass.

Eddie/Bill was there. Again, it's totally fine to have some TV-style matches on PPV (even sloppy ones) if the heat is there for it. 

Riho/Mercedes was one of Riho's better matches. The double stomps and new leg submission actually looked credible, and they did a great job making Riho look like a threat by being able to out-quick Mercedes and her taking a while to figure it out. Just another day at the office for the GOAT.

Tables and Tacks was a good combo of smart character work and bloody death match violence. Having the ring covered entirely in tacks forced a slower pace for most of the match, which again was great for show variety. The announcers also did a great job putting over the various dangers beyond just getting poked.

The trios match was another nice TV-style match that didn't try to do too much and was all the better for it. MVP was milking his ring time for sure, but in the end, him trying to prove himself against full-timers cost his team and gave The Demand a solid win.

The triple threat was a match I didn't care about at all going in, but these three really pulled me in. They kept the right amount of tension with Takeshita and Okada where they didn't go too hard at each other, but also looked like they were both trying to win instead of the WWE trope of both heels working together for 75% of the match until someone breaks up a pin. Dorada filled in the gaps with some crazy offense and bumped when he needed to.

The Coffin match was standard high-octane AEW death match stuff. Darby actually dished out a decent amount of punishment here instead of just taking it most of the match. Pac coming back looking like Wade Barrett and costing Darby was lame, but they made up for that with the backstage segment later.

The women's 4-way was kind of short. I still don't really like ending Toni's title reign so abruptly, but at least Toni took the fall and I might be the biggest Stat fan here, so I'm still quite happy for her. 

The ladder match was the only part of the show that seemed to run a bit long, but there were certainly some crazy spots. The Jurassic Express reunion and possible Acclaimed reunion in some ways feel like a step back, but also feels like a refreshing admission that not every tag team exists to be broken up for singles runs.

The main event was great pure wrestling and helped by being the only pure wrestling epic on the show. Kyle took some of the nastiest head-drops I've seen in a while. Both guys came out looking great and while we had a tremendous variety show, it closed out with the focus being true professional wrestling at a high level.

[Curt McGirt]

I'm thinking Eddie and Hook form a tag duo so Hook can do the majority of ring work, King comes in for hot tag and limits his time to reduce risk/give him time to work off ring rust. And Hook learns, of course. 

After all these years I just want Luchasaurus to lose the name and the fucking mask. They suck.

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

After all these years I just want Luchasaurus to lose the name and the fucking mask. They suck.

Then you, sir, are my nemesis.

Edited September 21 by tbarrie

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

After all these years I just want Luchasaurus to lose the name and the fucking mask. They suck.

I mean he basically looks like tall tattooed Seth Rollins without it. Nobody needs that.

[The Green Meanie]

4 hours ago, tbarrie said:

You could be right, but Kip Sabian and the Waynes being around for the post-match shenanigans leads me to believe that feud isn't over either. Do C&C recruit more help to even the numbers and have a big four-on-four match? Come to think of it, have they had a Blood & Guts match yet this year?

Certainly Kingston doesn't need Hook, but surely the pairing is for Hook's benefit and not Eddie's? The kid could learn a lot from him.

Putting aside my marking out for a moment, I see where you're coming from. Jack Perry going back to being the same Jungle Boy as before would feel like a regression. Hopefully they'll add something to the character to reflect his time as a cynical heel.

Luchasaurus, of course, is a Goddamn dinosaur who knows lucha libre. He needs no change or growth. So he'll be fine.

 

4 hours ago, Sublime said:

I think Perry needed the reset Jurassic Express to go forward, his heel work just wasn’t what it need to be to move him further and a reset to his baby face tag team will play to his strengths better. And this let’s  him to spin off into singles as a face someday which is what should have been the plan all along. 

So, this sets up an interesting conundrum; 
Christian, as heel, points out that Jungle Boy (a face at the time) was not a good guy. Luchasaurus then becomes a heel, and Killswitch, joining Christian.
Jurassic Express briefly reunites once, until Christian tells the now Killswtich something (will we ever find out what?) causing them to separate again.
Jungle Boy then turns heel becoming Jack Perry, separate from Christian/Killswitch. 
Christian (possibly, seemingly) turns face joining with Adam Copeland.
Killswitch returns (separate from Christian directly) to join with Kip Sabian, but then turns on him becoming face(?)
Jack Perry returns, reuniting with the now again Luchasaurus to re-form a face Jurassic Express(?)

How exactly are they going to tie up all these loose ends? Namely, do the three meet again? Do we acknowledge that Christian was right all along? Do we ever find out what exactly Christian held over Luchasaurus for so long?
To a lesser extent; whom exactly do Kip and Nick get revenge on? I *think* they've moved on from Christian but now they have to deal with a reunited Jurassic Express?

[RazorbladeKiss87]

20 hours ago, The Natural said:

Congratulations Kris Statlander. First woman to win the AEW Women's World Championship and AEW TBS Championship.

First extraterrestrial too. 

[Craig H]

FRIENDSHIP WINS!

I was very confused who attacked Darby and when it was Pac I still didn’t recognize him as Pac because he wasn’t in full gear and he cut his awesome hair. First Juice’s beard (that he’s at least growing back) and now Pac’s hair.

I have more thoughts, but I’m wiped out from being awake for 22 hours on Saturday going into Sunday and doing marching band stuff from 9 am until midnight yesterday. So I didn’t get to watch this until this morning. The show was pretty awesome even with a very respectful crowd.

Then curiosity got the best of me, used my VPN to watch the replay of WWE’s shitfest, barely got through Cena vs Lesnar, laughed at what a complete joke and load of horseshit this retirement tour has been compared to Danielson’s and Sting’s, and even Edge’s at this point, and turned it off partly because the commentary is FUCKING. UNBEARABLE. 

Juxtapose that with the moment in the AEW main event where Danielson jumps out of his seat because the match fucking rules and Don standing next to him in shock at  what just happened to Fletcher. One has Fox News lite shills that sound dumb as fuck, except Wade when he isn’t shilling, and the other has dudes who are really good at calling wrestling and fucking LOVE good wrestling.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Yeah, that main event rocked. It was executed perfectly,  in my opinion.  Fletcher is going to come back and win the title someday.  If Hangman isn't the champ, he becomes the roadblock to overcome.  They could even have switched face/heel at that point and have Hangman come in like Emma Roberts in AHS:Coven "I bet you thought you saw the last of me" *Boom* there's a ppv cycle leading to Fletcher's crowning at the next one. 

[Curt McGirt]

2 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

First extraterrestrial too. 

*boop*

[Curt McGirt]

5 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

I mean he basically looks like tall tattooed Seth Rollins without it. Nobody needs that.

I finally looked at a photo of him today without it on and though I didn't think of it... yeah, pretty much. 

I dunno. It's just... he doesn't do lucha. He works like any other tall guy only with a mask. It's a good mask, but it's a mask that goes with a stupid name. I thought it was dumb in Lucha Underground and there was A LOT LOT LOT of stupid stuff in LU. As in they made their name on it. I feel bad because I'm sure he is a real nice guy but they could ship him off to MLW or TNA and I would not miss him at all. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

I'd say that about Jurassic Express as a whole. I have no desire to see Jungle Boy at this point. 

[Craig H]

Luchasaurus rules. He’s a dinosaur that lived millions of years until now and got a PhD and wrestles and does the minimum amount of flippy stuff to have lucha in his name. 

It’s silly and it’s fun. It’s what made so many of us love AEW in the first place. Some stuff needs to not take itself so seriously to balance out the more serious things in AEW.

I’ll accept the Death Riders, Hangers internal battles, the stuff with MJF and Mark if it means also getting to have a very lackadaisical wrestler who just doesn’t care about much, a wrestling dinosaur that’s also highly intelligent, a wrestling actress, a wrestling cat, the Young Bucks being broke and losing their EVP status and getting jobber intros, etc.

You need the set to balance the salty. Or to go one step further, just like with cooking, wrestling needs salt, fat, acid, and heat.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Eh, I get why some enjoy him. I just don't think they actually do anything to make him interesting.  But it's easy to skip so I don't care.

Taz was getting grumpy by the end of the night.  

[Casey]

COUNTER PROGRAM DEEZ NUTS

That’s all. That’s the post.

[Phantom Lord]

This was a really good show. I think the early start time was a bonus this time around, though I would have gone head to head with Palooza because AEW was there first. I ordered off HBO Max. I thought it worked fine for the most part. 

FTR VS. Cope/Christian was a good tag match. Loved Christian in the intro just being a dick to everyone. Bubbles and The Green Bastard got a huge reaction from me. I think this match would have been a little more special had FTR won the tag titles at the previous PPV. Though I have no interest in seeing Copeland and Christian as tag champions. Was shocked to see Beth at the end. I guess the WWE owns the name Phoenix.  FTR are so mid 80's Horsemen scummy when they piledrive people like that. Wonder what this sets up next with them all.

I don't know what people were complaining about with Eddie vs. Big Bill. Eddie hasn't wrestled in over a year and a half, so of course his timing was off on stuff. Shape wise, I thought he looked pretty good...for himself anyway. What did people think he'd come back ripped or something? Eddie Kingston is Eddie and I love him for that.

MJF vs. Mark Briscoe was a spectacle that you'd expect at a CZW show. I don't know why there were tables involved. The millions of thumbtacks were a good enough stipulation. Overall it was a fun match. I don't know what people were expect with a gimmick like this. I'm glad Mark won and hopefully it's an upward trend for him.

Hurt Syndicate vs. Ricochet and GOA was the first match they could have saved for Dynamite or Collision. I mean nothing wrong with it, but it just felt shoehorned into the show. MVP was a good leader taking the loss like that.

Mone vs. Riho was good, but as usual the wrong person won. This whole nine belts thing has gone too long and apparently it won't end till she has 11 or something. The match was good. I love Riho, so obviously I was heavily rooting for her. They did tell a story though that Mone is getting more and more desperate to win now as the competition gets tougher. 

Okada vs. Takeshita vs. Dorada was good. Again, another match that could have been saved for Dynamite. Don't know what anyone expected. Okada wins like he always does.

Darby vs. Moxley was pretty good. Standard match with Moxley and Darby. I'm surprised they sprung for two caskets and only really used the one. I really wish The Death Riders would ride away for a while. Moxley needs a recharge and hopefully the events later in the night with Darby trying to set him on fire will have him off tv for a little while at least.

The women's 4 way was good. Again another match that felt thrown together when Toni vs. Thekla would have been good enough. I was surprised as was I guess everyone when Statlander won with the surprise roll up.

I honestly didn't pay much attention to the ladder match which means I'll probably have to re-watch it. I was just tired at this point and it was a fight to stay awake. This one was definitely thrown together though. Like I said earlier I would have liked to of seen FTR win last month, but that didn't happen. I guess they are going with Brodido for the time being.

Post match I guess Luchasarus and Jungle Boy are back. That gives The Young Bucks something to do.

Main event was a damn good match between Page and Fletcher. They went all out so to speak and it was a good match. Another one I'll have to rewatch to see what i missed.

So between this and Palooza, I'd say All Out won the night.

[Curt McGirt]

35 minutes ago, Phantom Lord said:

I don't know why there were tables involved.

TNT: Tables N Thumbtacks

Yeah, it's goofy. But it's Mark Briscoe, whaddya want. 

I was surprised they didn't break the board with the spraypainting that Darby brought to the ring with him. At least the second coffin got Darb bounced off of it with the Razor's Edge. 

37 minutes ago, Phantom Lord said:

Post match I guess Luchasarus and Jungle Boy are back. That gives The Young Bucks something to do.

God I hope so!!! Put them together so I don't have to watch it at all. 

[Casey]

Jurassic Express and the Young Bucks always have good matches with each other. This is about the only way I can stomach a non-Jungle Boy version of Jack Perry, so whatever, I’m here for it. The forced Scapegoat shit was dumb, his heel run leading up to it was worse. This was really the only way forward. It does kind of leave Kip Sabian & Nick Wayne just flailing in the water by themselves, and that sucks for them.

[Brandon Bones]

Did anyone else notice that after Darby/Mox… The announcers were doing a 3 shot promo.  While Ex was doing the run down.  Bryan seemed kind of “in his head”?  Like he was planting a narrative seed for something in the future?

 

[Go2Sleep]

Danielson always gets really mopey during Death Rider matches, it's the only negative with him on commentary. It's as bad as Nigel was with him, and that even had a payoff. There's no way Danielson is going to "end Mox's career" so they need to find some way for him to move on and call Death Rider stuff normally.

Also seemed like there were a lot of F-bombs in general for the first ppv on HBO, including Danielson.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

@Brandon Bones Yeah, I noticed that.  They started planting seeds when he left the desk before the cage match last PPV.  I've also noticed how much bigger Danielson is than when he left.....

I loved DB on commentary.  When Darby started making his comeback he was like, "I've tried my best to be impartial but FUCK THAT GUYS, LET'S GO DARBY!!!"  I marked the fuck out.  Same when he lost his shit (and his voice) during the main event.  He adds so much genuine enthusiasm to the proceedings.

Great show.  I thought it was too long.  This is going to be a subjective thing for everyone IMO, coming down to how/when/where/who with they watched it.  I didn't watch it live, started it spoiler free late night Saturday and hit my wall after the insane Unified Title triple threat.  Then it took me a while to get back into the right headspace to finish the show yesterday.  But if I'd been watching it live?  I'm sure I'd have been fine just like I was for All In.  I get the value for your money argument, but as a rule I think damn near 5 hours (6 if you watched the pre-show) is too fucking long.  I get it with this one because of the WWE show and wanting to bleed into it, but it doesn't always make for the best viewing experience

I don't want this post to be as long as the show and a lot has been covered so I'll try to truncate my thoughts

- I marked out huge for Bubbles and The Green Bastard.  I used to post on 411Mania in another life and a couple of my Canadian friends there turned me onto TPB back in like 03-04.  As a proud early adopter of that show I've been happy to see it become sorta mainstream popular over the years......but I'm willing to bet a ton of people had no clue what was going on here (Dave & Bryan I'm looking at you)

- C&C v. FTR was an excellent opener.  Cage as the asshole everyone cheers works, and it's basically their podcast dynamic (which was great "back in the day" fuck I feel old).  I think they're trying to tell the story of Cope having an indestructable neck?  Otherwise I agree that he shouldn't have kicked out of the stuff piledriver.  When the post-match went the way it did I figured Brodido was probably retaining

- My only note on Kingston and Big Bill was that I thought Eddie was moving pretty well and didn't have a noticable limp or anything, and that's really all I cared about.  The 'Claudio Sucks Eggs' shirt was certainly a choice.......pairing him with Hook is fine I guess, for the reasons others have stated.  Thought it was going to be Hook and OC, but that got covered later

- Tables and Tacks was AWESOME and possibly my MOTN.  Both of them coming out in white was a good sign.  The sheer amount of tacks in the ring was the story and the announcers did a great job telling it, especially with how all the tacks in their boots made it harder to get footing.  You couldn't do anything without sacrificing yourself to them.  I've watched a ton of wrestling over the years, as we all have, and whenever I see a match that's unique like this and actually delivers it's a big win

- I'm over The Hurt Syndicate.  Why am I supposed to cheer for the guys who don't want to do business the right way?  Who aren't "all in" on AEW pardon the pun?  If I'm a smart fan who's rooting for a successful AEW why do I root for the ex-WWE guys with WWE attitudes?  I never wanted them in AEW in the first place, I warmed up to them due to their presentation and the fact they were so over.....now I'm right back where I started.  Ricochet got really over with me with his heel act, think the group is still a work in progress, I just want Lashley and MVP to fuck off at this point.  And don't give MVP props for doing a job, he did it because the other two wouldn't and he shouldn't be taking up a ring spot on PPV with all the amazing talent they have.  Plus Lashley can barely move these days, if he's saving himself from doing jobs to get another WWE run....meh whatever.  Go back to WWE and feud with your sisters again ya big goof

- Gonna be honest I skipped Mone and Riho.  I'm a big Mone fan, Riho not so much, plus zero drama about the winner.  When you book a 5 hour show the occasional sacrifice must be made.  I'll take people's word for it being a solid match with little heat and move on with my life

- Triple Threat was INCREDIBLE and also possibly my MOTN.  Star making performance by Dorada, definitely need to see more of him in AEW after this.  This match accomplished everything it set out to do and elicited multiple HOLY SHIT and wild markouts from me.  Incredible execution of really high level stuff by all three men

- Coffin match also blew me away, and ALSO POSSIBLY MY MOTN.  Loved how the match started, loved the violence.  I couldn't believe Darby did the Samoa Joe dropkick on the stairs.  Actually I could, just.....please don't.  Add me to the list of people who for a second was like, "IS THAT WADE BARRETT WTF!!!!" and then was like, "PAC FINALLY PUT CLOTHES ON!!!!  YAY!!!!"  I swear my biggest problem with Death Riders V. 1 was Pac's insistence in ALWAYS being in his trunks, even while riding in the back of a pickup.  If he can manage to keep his clothes on I'm cool with him.  The Razor's Edge on the coffin looked like it SUCKED.  I figured the coffin was gimmicked, but no, watch the replay he lands right on a support bar in the middle of it......ugh

This match did an incredible job of playing with my emotions.  Someone mentioned Darby not getting his "cathartic win" and that's a good word because it felt cathartic when he got the plastic bag from Bryan and was choking out Mox, I was marking the fuck out along with D-Bry.........and then nope.  No happy ending.  I was legit pissed for a moment when Darby lost then was like, "ya got me.  As jaded as I am ya still got me"   AEW's ability to pull stuff like this off is incredible.  This was great storytelling all around.

- Thought there was a chance Toni would lose here, but wasn't expecting STAT and wasn't expecting Toni to be the one to get pinned.  Great surprise, really happy for STAT, she's one of my faves.  I haven't gone anywhere but here since the show but I was immediately expecting bitching about this result and Toni not putting over someone newer/younger/whatever.  I'm sure it's out there....

- Multiple team ladder matches aren't my favorite but for the style this was pretty great.  I'd have to go back and watch old ones which I'm not going to do but it felt like one of the best of these matches in AEW so far.  Each team played their role well, and a few spots I don't think I'd seen before.  Bandido is a bit of a glory hog and I think I can see Brody being annoyed with it, like on their entrance and post match.  Think there's merch money in that team for a little while longer.

- I think it's clear that Nick Wayne's injury messed up their plans for Luchasaurus' return, because it didn't work as well as it would have if he hadn't already been back for a while as Killswitch.  Count me in the camp that thinks this is a step backwards.  I was enjoying Perry as a heel way back before the shit with Punk went down, he was just starting to get his legs under him IMO.  I wanted to like the Scapegoat stuff but it just didn't fully click.  If the two of them retain the character progression from being heels it could be interesting......but then they play Baltimora which doesn't fit the edgier JE I'm envisioning...........I'll wait and see. 

- Main event delivered. Great match, clearly a step in the larger story of both characters and the Don Callis Family, not much to add

Great show T2B.  I love you AEW. XOXOXOXOXO

edit* holy shit that was still really long.  oh well, long show you get long posts

 

 

 

Edited September 22 by ExcellenceofAirPollution
AEW AEW AEW

[Curt McGirt]

4 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

Also seemed like there were a lot of F-bombs in general for the first ppv on HBO, including Danielson.

After Bubbles/Green Bastard got off two separate ones before the first match I thought it was just them being true to the character, and then boy did they continue after that. 

3 hours ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

I don't want this post to be as long as the show and a lot has been covered so I'll try to truncate my thoughts

*scrolls down... and down...* HA! It's nice to see someone else tried to do the same and failed. 

[Craig H]

Full show thoughts...

When I saw Bubbles I immediately thought, man, I really wish this with the Letterkenny cast or the Shoresy cast instead. And then after Bubbles I thought, woah, what if the next guy they bump into IS Shoresy and I immediately wanted Christian to say something about Shoresy's dad only for Shoresy to say something about fucking Christian's mom last night, for Christian to give his balls a tug, and for Shoresy to tell Copeland to go out there to win and get himself a game stick and Copeland to tell him, "Hell yeah, fuck yeah."

The match itself was good. Too many death moves including a stuffed piledriver on Copeland which I'll get back to in a second. Thought the callbacks to Cena, the Hardys, and the C&C hitting a 3D was cute. Then the finish came out of nowhere with Copeland's still shitty spear (the only person in wrestling doing a spear is Bron Breakker and I haven't even watched Bron in months since I gave up on WWE). Then came the end where the heels get their heat back to extend this feud so the Matriarchy can be a stop gap to the rematch with FTR, which at that point I'm assuming FTR beat Brodido for the titles. So 5 minutes or so after Copeland kicks out of a stuffed piledriver and and Shatter Machine, FTR hits a stuffed piledriver on Christian and it kills Christian. Then they hit one on Beth and it kills Beth. I thought that was very inconsistent booking. Don't do the stuffed piledriver in the match and the heat segment post match is more acceptable.

Eddie vs Big Bill. I really thought Big Bill would win here to heat him up as Hangman's next challenger since Hangman needs a monster to slay and they never had Eddie cut any promos before this to build this match up. I had a lot of problems with this match at the end. The duration of it was fine. Big Bill looked impressive even with his dead lift looking Black Hole Slam. Props to him for not dropping Eddie. The end comes, it's really sloppy, Big Bill sells for the finish way too soon so Eddie completely whiffs, Danielson points out he missed, Ex tries to cover it up by saying he thinks he caught Bill on the jaw, which, LOL he didn't, and again the match just ends! I kinda felt bad with that being the end to Eddie's first match back. AND CHANGE HOOK'S FUCKING MUSIC. IT FUCKING SUCKS. NO ONE POPS FOR IT. THE H SPOTLIGHT IS LAME. YOU HAVE MADE ONE OF THE MORE ENTERTAINING WRESTLERS SOMEONE THAT EVERYONE GROANS FOR BECAUSE HIS MUSIC DOESN'T MAKE HIM LOOK LIKE A BADASS. Christ, get the license for the knockoff War Machine song that Taz had when ECW stopped using the KISS version. Get Chairman's Intent back. Just get this lame ass fucking Goodfellas with a hip hop beat horseshit off of my fucking TV.

MJF vs Mark ruled. First awesome match of the night. Each guy is dressed for blood. Filling the ring with thumbtacks was a cool visual and led to a ton of selling for the thumbtacks all match long. And then they added MORE thumbtacks because why not! Danielson adding to why he's the announcer of the year clearly breaks down this entire feud and history. Mark FINALLY gets his revenge hitting the J Driller and slaying the dragon. Awesome moment for Mark and awesome blow off to the feud. 

As an aside, while storylines and feuds may be long, AEW has blow offs to way more feuds than WWE does since, man, the last 20 or so years or more. It feels so satisfying when you get an actual blow off to the feud and where AEW excels is that it's a blow off to that feud, but the history still remains. For example, Kenny and Hangman had their big blow off match and years later we get those two reuniting THROUGH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! It makes those moments matter so much more.

The Hurt Syndicate vs...the Demand? AEW's batting average for faction names really sucks as of late. At least we're not getting goofy spelling for the faction names, but the faction names are by and large so bland. Match felt more of a showcase and memberberries for MVP than anything. It was...fine. It was a match. Not bad, not good, just a good time for me to play some games of Magic on my phone looking up every now and then.

This is going to read like a weird ass statement, but Riho is like the best big match women's wrestler in matches that aren't a big match. There is some kind of aura to her where she elevates the match itself following a lot of milquetoast booking that led up to it. Pretty good match. Nothing spectacular, just really, really good wrestling to a match with a foregone conclusion. 

That three way match was one of the best three way matches I have ever seen. Not to step on TNA's name, but this match was actual total nonstop action. It was the rare three way match where it seemed like everyone was constantly involved instead of the third wheel taking a nap on the outside. Specatular moves, Okada's best dropkicks in AEW to date, everyone looked like a star especially Mascara Dorada. He looked so smooth, hell, everyone looked so smooth and the only rough moment I can think of was Okada hitting one of his biggest dropkicks ever on Takeshita right to his face and Takeshita slamming against the bottom rope. That looked really painful. Ending sequence ruled. Okada is still better than you all, but my man is eventually dropping that title to Takeshita.

Darby vs Moxley was everything I figured it would be. A totally wild brawl that was a wilder brawl that MJF vs Mark because Darby and Moxley both don't give a fuck where as MJF had to sell like a chickenshit heel and then peacock around at times. All of those bumps on the coffin looked horrific including the Awesome Bomb to the outside on Darby's coffin where Darby takes most of the bump on the part of the coffin with give to it and his neck and back of his head just slams against the edge of the coffin that stays shit. For a split second until Darby sold it I thought, oh my god, Darby just severed his spine. Since Mick Foley talked about it, there's always been this specter of bump cards and Darby seems to punch 5 to 10 holes on his bump card with every match he has. At this point, Darby doesn't have a bump card, he has a bump poster. I'm fine with the finish except for the appearance of Pac NOT in full gear and with shorter hair really fucking me up. OH, and Moxley playing scared, rolling out of the ring, just to setup a cutter on Darby's dive to him outside the ring was awesome. That's the edge Moxley has. Darby is all unbridled violence and to defeat Moxley, he's going to have to strategize more to beat him because violence alone is not going to beat Moxley.

Going out of order here, but I figured at some point Darby was going to get his heat back to continue the feud because that definitely didn't feel like the end of the feud. What frightened me was the use of fire. You can work getting hung by a chain, you can tolerate getting stabbed by a fork, you can tolerate blading, you can tolerate the shit that was happening to Moxley's ear...Fire is a whole other level of danger because of how unpredictable fire can be. So much can go wrong with it and AEW teases fire way too much without actually resorting to it. Now I feel like we're either getting something like an exploding barbed wire deathmatch to do it right this time or something better than the inferno match and Kane losing because...his obviously fireproof arm caught on fire. TK, I know you or your surrogates read this board - DON'T DO A FIRE MATCH. For the love of the safety of these guys, don't do it.

STATLANDER DOES IT! SHE WINS!!! HARLEY COMES OUT! FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!! Match was really great even if multi-person matches are overdone. Loved the finish with Thekla and Hayter bringing the violence, even more history that Danielson brings up with Statlander busting out the seat belt, and Statlander wins with it! Stat had Toni perfectly scouted, knew it was going to take something unconventional, and had to do something Toni would never expect to win it all. I loved it. I was confused trying to read Toni's reaction afterward and I don't know what happens from here, but dammit, this title change was needed, it went to the woman it should have gone to, and it happened in a way that made sense. 3 ways and 4 ways are supposed to be unpredictable but the champion always wins. This time they didn't. Now the seed of doubt is sown into more of these matches.

I don't have much to say about the ladder match because ladder matches are also overdone. If you watch WWE, I'm sure they've had one recently too, maybe TNA as well, and maybe NXT, and while I shouldn't assume, these four promotions going to the ladder match well so often makes it feel less special and more of a spectacle where someone almost always gets injured. Not only that, but too many spots are contrived. There was one spot in particular where as much as I love Brodido, Brody is holding the ladder on the outside with Bandido just fucking laying there, Brody is screaming at Bandido to move, and continues to hold the ladder so whoever it was can take a dive onto Bandido and put Bandido through the ladder. That looked so dumb and bush league and was worse than when everyone stands outside for 30 seconds waiting for someone to dive onto them. Then you have Speedball sacrificing his entire lower body to do a move onto Hechicero (I think) onto another ladder. Just stupidity for stupidty's sake. None of it is going to make you more advantageous to winning the match and you're just going to fuck yourself up. Despite all of that, I was happy that Brodido retained, I'm just over ladder matches.

It's cool Jack Perry and Luchasaurus have reunited, but I hope Jack Perry doesn't go back to the tiny black tights and keeps the look he had before.

Hangman vs Fletcher was fucking AWESOME. Holy shit. Once again, I thought we were going to get a surprise upset with Fletcher winning. This match was Japanese as fuck. Maybe too Japanese and too early 00s indies with way too many bumps on the neck and shoulders, but the selling for it all was excellent. There is honestly too much that happened in this match to talk about it all, but Hangman is a fucking dude and Fletcher is a fucking dude and they just dropped bomb after bomb on each other. My one criticism is that Fletcher still seems too reckless at times where he always looks like he's going to hurt someone else and he has a history of doing so. If he can snug things up a bit and protect his opponent's better then he's going to be the best in the world. Some things to note about this match that are out of order...The best table spots are when the table absolutely explodes. It makes such a good sound and such a good visual. So many times the table spot just sort of breaks it half or doesn't break. But when you get a table spot where it explodes like Hangman's Dead Eye through the table where that fucker exploded, my god that was awesome. Hangman, please, PLEASE stop doing the Ori Hara Moonsault in every match. My man did it twice, three times?, in this match and one of these days his knees are going to explode like that table did. It's a spectacular move that you don't see anyone else do. If you bust that out every once in awhile then it will mean so much more. Maybe the risk for injury increases doing it less times, but doing it more times is going to lead to him having Mutoh or Kurt Angle knees. Kyle screaming and selling his bad on that dive to Hangman in the crowd was great. Even greater was him pulling off a headscissors takeover when doing it. And when Hangman had nothing left, I really thought Kyle was going to win and I bit and flinched on every finisher Kyle hit after that. Avalanche Dead Eye looked scary as fuck. Hangman is YOUR Men's AEW World Champion.

Rough start, but awesome thereafter with a couple hiccups along the way. Obviously not the best AEW PPV and I really hate that comparison because AEW has had a fuckton of PPVs at this point and even more Dynamites and whenever I see or hear something wasn't the best AEW PPV or the best Dynamite I'm thinking, well no shit. It wasn't setup to be the best. Why would it be? What it was was worth the $25 I spent on it on Triller and it was worth all 5 hours of my time on Sunday. I'm thankful I was able to avoid all spoilers for the show on Saturday whenever I did have a moment of downtime or didn't feel like I was going to die of exhaustion at the regional championships and check out my phone. You want to know what is really hardcore? Marching band. Competitive high school marching band. I suppose colleges do it too. I work pit crew which is the team that unloads the semis with these props and carts holding props that all weigh 500, 600, 700 pounds and you're racing to put this shit together, make sure the kids know what to do, wheeling this shit around which is always uphill or through grass or on turf, getting it setup for the kids to move these things out on the football field turf, helping them push it out there, helping them take everything off in two minutes sharp so you're not penalized, breaking everything down, loading it back onto the semi, getting selected for the finals, unloading it again, putting it back together again, and just really doing the whole thing over again and you're essentially awake for 22 hours between the time you wake up, get cleaned up, hit the road, and then drive back almost 3 hours when everything is done. That's hardcore. I'm shocked I even woke up before noon on Sunday to watch the replay of the PPV.