Brodie talking to Tony from the grave:

It's been a year of big shows now and the biggest complaint has always been production value. Yet tonight we had that ending, Taz cracking soda cans during the cinematic match, JR barely able to speak...

They need to wake the fuck up already. You can't have that ending happen. You either blow the place up, or you have the wherewithal to call an audible so that Eddie doesn't sell the explosion and you can salvage the ending.

Thank god for Jon Moxley having the smarts to improv that line during his promo or else the reception would be even worse than it currently is.

They should've moved the match to the football field, so they could've had more room at ringside for more powerful explosives.

It's not like they've done matches there before.

Mar 8, 2021 3:37:09 GMT c said:

Came down to money. Vince low balled him and would not commit to a run of E&C. Given that, Christian has no reason to sign.

TK probably thinks he's smart with his Out. Work. Everyone. T-shirt, but he's too silly to see another 45+year old just worked him out of an easy pay cheque. This is WCW all over again.

They had more powerful explosives in the pyro. The issue was they went too safe and there is a cost. The reason the FMW matches were so good looking, was there was no gimmick, they were really burning the guys to the point where the wrestlers after the matches were carted to the emergency room. AEW thought they could gimmick the shit, and Moxley is normally a fan of this, but they went way too safe.

Anyone who seen even one time bomb match could tell you the end always sucks. Either it is too weak, or the smoke from the explosives makes it impossible to see anything. The gimmick just makes no sense since you cannot really blow anything up without risking lasting injury. For the ropes, the sparks work better than the smoke blasts, but the sparks can burn pretty badly. Landmines suffer from the same fate. You either smoke things out so people cannot see them hit, or legit burn the wrestlers with the sparks. AEW went the smoke route but did not give the smoke enough time to cover things and the gimmicks were exposed. It did not help the camera work also focused on the gimmicks from the start of the match so people could see the gimmicks were not on the ropes as they were in the FMW stuff.

But yeah, there was no way this match would not be clusterfuck. IMO the ending worked out perfectly for them. Being so shitty, it at least got people laughing and cracking jokes, which gets talk. The FMW ones are largely forgotten.

Mar 8, 2021 7:00:26 GMT NATH45 said:

Mar 8, 2021 3:37:09 GMT c said:

Came down to money. Vince low balled him and would not commit to a run of E&C. Given that, Christian has no reason to sign.

TK probably thinks he's smart with his Out. Work. Everyone. T-shirt, but he's too silly to see another 45+year old just worked him out of an easy pay cheque. This is WCW all over again.

I love Christian debuted that shirt, then walked to the back.   I would not be shocked he turns it into a work smart not hard gimmick.

There is only one way AEW can make this up to fans. At Double or Nothing, Moxley vs Omega in an exploding pool death match.

AEW looks absolutely awful coming out of this, all the momentum with the Christian signing gone (even though most guessed it anyway) with that incredibly botched ending.

Wrestlemania 35 had an amazingly bad finish but it’s also WWE that wasn’t trying to establish a name for themselves, they’ve been Coca-Cola for decades.

It really sucks as the rest of the PPV was pretty good. And for a deathmatch it was not even that bad. I mean, they call deathmatches garbage wrestling for a very good reason, 95% of deathmatches are utter trash.

Feel bad for the team involved in the Sting match. That match was fantastic but already people are forgetting it because of the deathmatch finish. And really, if they just let Moxley make his comment on Kenny sucking at building explosions on the air, everything would have been fine.

I am really sad to see to so little respect being given to Kingston from fans. He died in the ring to save Moxley from the sprinklers and everyone is acting like it is no big deal. At least Kingston is now with Sweeny again

Damage control is being done. Blaming Kenny for the shitty finish on the official account. Moxley seems good at running audibles others lack the foresight to pull off.

Well, things can always be fixed for the replays...

Ok, best take of the night. Kingston absorbed the explosion like a fucking superhero saving Moxley taking the full impact on himself.

Chris Jericho and MJF vs. The Young Bucks

I thought it was a good decision to have this open the show. It allowed the Bucks to work their style of match without the pressure of having to out-do themselves to 'save' the show or stand-out. It was a fairly shallow tag team match mostly comprised of false finishes but it felt like the best possible version of the match they could have had.

Casino Battle Royal

If only they could have booked the Jurrassic Express vs. Death Triangle and called it a day. The actual Jungle Boy-Fenix stand-off was good, but the rest of the match was filler with some terrible spots. Somehow this ended up being the longest match of the show which seems like a terrible choice. It's crazy to think the match went that long considering they cut a few teams out of the mix.

Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami

I predicted this could be the best match on the show but somehow still prove to be forgettable. I don't feel like I was far off the mark, they had a solid match built on a marathon of false finishes but when it was all said and done, the biggest takeaway was the aftermath with Nyla Rose, Britt Baker and Maki Itoh. I've thrown my support behind Shida and often called her the highlight of AEW but she's a limited worker. Her idea of a good match is just to go back and forth as much as possible and hit as many knee strikes as she can which loses it's luster very quickly. It feels like she's working the AEW style, but doesn't have the repertoire of moves.

Miro & Kip Sabien vs. Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy

Surprise surprise, I didn't hate this. Miro showed some nice intensity without completely burying Cassidy who still has some pull with the AEW fans. It didn't add to the show, but at the very least it didn't hurt it either.

Adam Page vs. Matt Hardy

I was disappointed they saved all the shenanigans right until the finish. The match was up against it because there was no way Page was ever going to lose this and even Matt hitting consecutive finishes did nothing to change it. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go all smoke and mirrors but they didn't do that until the finish. The Dark Order-Page stuff was fine because it's what the fans wanted but there was no reason for this to be on the show in this format.

Face of the Revolution Ladder match

Ooof Ethan Page was a swing and a miss. Not a bad addition to the roster, but not somebody who is going to impress in this cluster of a match. The 'gawdy' brass ring somehow stole all the attention and even when guys are hitting Canadian Destroyers through ladders it all just feels so empty. It's hard to explain, but somehow Scorpio Sky winning felt like a let-down. He's obviously one of their better performers, but AEW has rarely put forward a concerted case for him. Just the odd stop-start push without any real development one way or another. Despite being a part of the first ever tag team to win the titles, he just feels like another shmo.

Imagine somehow booking the signing of Christian Cage to be underwhelming. I don't think fans hated it, but this should have been so much more. Christian Cage was the first ever B+ player fans obviously got behind, he's proto-Daniel Bryan yet somehow fans worked themselves into expecting Brock Lesnar.

Sting & Darby Allin vs. Ricky Starks & Brian Cage

Well I worked myself into thinking this would be a normal match. It was probably for the best and logistically it did allow them to set up the Extreme Barb Wire Death match, but this is one of my least favourite trends in Pro Wrestling. The matches just feel completely inconsequentialand it rarely benefits anyone. You also get a situation where the commentary team doesn't know how to play it, so you get Dark Mode Taz and Excalibur taking the piss out of the match.

Exploding Barb Wire Death Match
Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega

Half-way through the match I was trying to figure out what the standard of these matches typically is. The only match I remember seeing recently was Onita and W*NG Kanemura and that match was pretty terrible because Kanemura had a broken ankle. Both guys gave it a sporting chance, but it clearly played against Omega's strengths as he couldn't show off any of his athleticism. I thought they salvaged the match somewhat when Omega sold his eye like death and then took a nasty pendulum shift to the table on the outside. However seemingly in the theme of the match, even though Omega took a great bump, the landmine table failed to deliver so somehow they found a way to make a spike DDT onto barbwire seem underwhelming. Nice spot with Moxley triggering an explosion to kick out of the OWA and then they completely ruined the match with the Anderson-Gallows run in. I get that they wanted to put heat onto Omega but it was such a lukewarm finish that destroyed whatever appeal the match had.

Then not to be outdone they completely ruined their own PPV with one of the worst endings to a PPV of all-time. This was Shockmaster levels of bad and I couldn't stop laughing. Even now thinking about it is hurting my ribs, that was awful and I feel so bad for Kingston and the commentators who had to be professional.

If last year was the best AEW show to date, this maybe their worst. There's nothing here I'd consider great and despite taking some crazy bumps Moxley/Omega found themselves caught up in one of the biggest travesties of a main event of all-time. Khan trying to come up with a storyline reason is just bad as well considering how the story was presented. Either you ripped the fans off and made one of your better personalities look like an idiot or your production team messed up.

“@nathanwrestling：IMO there were some good and bad points on this PPV. Review vid later 👍🏾“

I read this comment and this is why I stick to forums.
One of the most redundant statements I’ve ever seen 🤣

Absolute funniest thing in wrestling history.

To those saying the problem is it was too safe. The problem is don't do a stupid fucking gimmick that looks like a scene from an underground indy show when you're a national promotion. Either you do it real and people get hurt, or you do it fake and look like idiots. They chose the latter. Stupidest thing I've ever seen. The referee in the hazmat suit had me belly-laughing, this was like a parody from start to finish. And how stupid is it that the clock on the mines doesn't stop when the match stops? So Tony Khan has gone from forcing Omega and Moxley to have an unsanctioned match to sanctioning a death match with landmines.

Wrestling lost itself somewhere. It used to be guys wouldn't have a mark on their faces, but people believed the fight was real. Now guys are cutting themselves up with real barbed wire - but everyone's laughing at how fake the end of the match is. How sick Omega and Moxley must feel.

Stop booking this utter shit.

Assorted thoughts:

- Ryo Muzinami has the worst chops in the history of pro wrestling. Why is she pushed? Shida is at least good. The women's division continues to be utterly bizarre.

- The cinematic match I didn't think was bad but it shouldn't have had commentary over it, because then you're acting like it's live. Which is insulting to fans' intelligence - a theme throughout the night

- Multi-man ladder matches need to die. And why on earth would you introduce some random tag team Impact guy as a mystery competitor on a PPV?

Nailed the problem in one. The exploding ring gimmick always produces lame matches. I had a feeling this would be no different but held off hope that Mox could save it.

And Pete, the way these matches usually work is they basically tease whips into the ropes for 5 minutes, dig weapons into each other's heads for 5 minutes, do two to three whips into the ropes where someone stays down for a minute selling and the other just sort of stands around. Then someone is thrown out of the ring into the landmine and that is a 3 to 5 minute segment with someone playing dead and fighting free o the barbwire while the other guy stands in the ring. Then both guys return to the ring at the 20 minute mark, the ring blows up, and one guy covers the other. Sometimes they use a finishing spot, sometimes they just return from the explosion in a pin. The match structures itself the same way all the time which is why most deathmatch fans actually hate them. Kudo and Toyota then Kudo and Shark did good matches in this format but they were the exception to the rule, mainly because Kudo was really one of a king for this style of match and Toyota in her retirement and Kudo in hers took insane spots. Toyota took a nasty powerbomb and the Kudome Valentine (Helm's stole it for the Vertibreaker) and Kudo was set on fire in her retirement. So those were the standards set to live up to. Neither match used the lame timebomb though.


And Bryce, like Mox and Omega, was marking hard to wear the traditional style Japanese ref outfit for this style of match.  

How do people feel about Christian? He looks great and he was a very good talent at his peak, but what he's not and never has been really is a quintessential 'star'. Hyping a big debut and have it be Christian is a little low-league, and a little TNA to be honest. They bring him in another way and I like this move for AEW.

Also, would it not have been more apt if Christian debuted on Dynamite and Show was the surprise. :suspic:

Christian is a great wrestler in a tag setting. As a solo guy I never really care for him. Him and Jericho and him and MJF should have fun matches, but really, I would have preferred AEW got rid of 20 of their weakest guys than bring anyone more into their already insanely bloated roster.

And that is the problem of AEW, they have a fucking hoarding problem.  No more guys for AEW until they start to throw some out.  

I still consider the night a win since we got the Fallen Idol fully in AEW now. Maki Itoh was the highlight of the night for me. Her and Thunder Rosa are going to tear things up in the near future.

Mar 8, 2021 3:38:25 GMT Blindy said:

Mar 8, 2021 3:37:09 GMT c said:

Came down to money. Vince low balled him and would not commit to a run of E&C. Given that, Christian has no reason to sign.

He would have been used in the feud with Reigns but I guess he got promised something better. The TNA/WWECW Christian was GREAT but he's been so away and I just don't care for yet another ex WWE talent to be on AEW. AEW lacks an identity with these type of moves. 

Thoughts on Christian in a nutshell, he was great as a solo competitor in the mid to late 00's and with Randy Orton in early 2010 but he lost momentum due to injuries and a shit title reign that was not fault of his own. 

In 2021 knowing the health issues, I worry about him especially if Matt Hardy is anything to go off of. 

Christian is one my all-time favourites and I specifically tuned into ECW just to watch him showcase all these up and coming talents. I feel he could be fantastic in that role and help bolster the card which is clearly an issue with AEW right now. As I wrote in my review, it was impressive that they took what should have been a positive and managed to make it a disappointment. Fans were more excited for Maki Itoh's debut than Christian's.

Mar 8, 2021 14:51:54 GMT Big Pete said:

Christian is one my all-time favourites and I specifically tuned into ECW just to watch him showcase all these up and coming talents. I feel he could be fantastic in that role and help bolster the card which is clearly an issue with AEW right now. As I wrote in my review, it was impressive that they took what should have been a positive and managed to make it a disappointment. Fans were more excited for Maki Itoh's debut than Christian's.

If he wasn't used as a selling point to pay for a $40 dollar PPV and just randomly came in and interfered with someone or save Adam Page from Matt Hardy/Private Party after Dark Order failed or got jumped backstage or something, I would get that. But to hype the announcement up, regardless of if the fans went crazy about it or not, gives Christian Cage the stench that will carry around him of being the guy announced at Revolution. 

Clearly he is still wearing his controller and the autorun button got triggered.

Par for the course for Evil Uno. To single out that sell against what was just a sloppy match in general is kind of unfair. If it were anyone else I'd be like "what the hell?" but it's Evil Uno so it would be weird if he didn't do something like that.

I'll have to remember that argument.

'Ok it was horrible, but it was done by a horrible performer so it would be kind of weird if it wasn't horrible.'

Search your soul RT, it was the worst the spot of a gruelling battle royal.

Mar 8, 2021 16:55:30 GMT Big Pete said:

I'll have to remember that argument.

'Ok it was horrible, but it was done by a horrible performer so it would be kind of weird if it wasn't horrible.'

Search your soul RT, it was the worst the spot of a gruelling battle royal.

Thats not what I meant. I just meant it didn't stand out to me like it did for other people because Evil Uno just does shit like that sometimes.

Not defending it. I just didn't care as much as others did. Didn't take anything away from the match for me, especially because the match wasn't good until it was down to Jungle Boy and Fenix anyway.

Mar 8, 2021 16:36:19 GMT RT said:

Par for the course for Evil Uno. To single out that sell against what was just a sloppy match in general is kind of unfair. If it were anyone else I'd be like "what the hell?" but it's Evil Uno so it would be weird if he didn't do something like that.

The fact that Marko Stunt made him do it makes it worse. This is on par with someone jumping over the battle royal ropes by themselves. I forget who the wrestler was who just could not take bumps or launch himself properly in these type of matches. 

Just a funny sell that the smallest performer in the company has enough leg strength to make someone run off the ropes like that :lol:

Man, every time I think I’m going to give AEW a chance, they just alienate me so much with a show full of garbage.