Danielson vs Omega to start the show. I love it. This feels like a massive deal, and it is. The fans treating it accordingly. I wouldn't even object to a "This is awesome" chant before they touch.

Fantastic match, although I did see the time limit draw coming from some distance, it was still epic. Love that the match ended while they were just striking instead of trying to force a near fall so that the two count happens as the time runs out. Showed that the match could have gone on a lot longer. This is the best I've seen Omega in a while, not only out of kayfabe, but in kayfabe Omega was determined to wrestle a clean match and prove he is the best. Great stuff.

CM Punk with another fine promo. He's not going to blow our minds every show anymore, the novelty has worn off, but after that match with Darby I'm excited to see what he can do with his new opponents.

MJF vs Pillman is about what I expected. Old school babyface vs heel match, good cool down match after Omega vs Danielson. Predictable result but a good showing for Pillman.

Black vs Cody was very very interesting. We have the heel who attacks poor innocent old people being cheered because he's awesome, and Cody being booed, as he should have been for a long time. They did work the match like Black as a face as he completely dominated the first half of the match, but victory evaded him when Cody spilled to the floor after the Black Mask. The match was great from then on, awesome near fall with the Cross Rhodes and a brilliant finish. Black mist is perfect for Mr. Black and what an execution.

I enjoyed FTR vs Sting and Darby Allin. I have been unimpressed by FTR since they joined AEW - they got known as being a great throwback tag team but quickly sank into the move spam style that dominated the division. This match I felt was a revival of the reason I fell in love with them in the first place. Sound tag team work against two hot babyfaces. Don't really like Sting beating FTR almost single-handedly, feel like WWE would be crucified if they did something like this. AEW is getting a free pass because AEW. And because Sting.

Baker vs Soho was fine. Not great but not bad either. Ruby's crappy offense makes it hard to buy into anything she does, but her selling is great. Finish was fine, and I know people were clamoring for a Ruby win, but I feel the right woman won.

Sept 23, 2021 1:41:09 GMT RT said:

Ooo it's not just about the Rhodes'. Behind the scenes AEW stuff.

Fuck now I have to watch it.

What are you talking about?

Sept 23, 2021 3:35:22 GMT @admin said:

It was nice to see the women get the main event but that was only an OK match at best. I've questioned before whether Ruby really was someone who was held down in WWE and that she wasn't used appropriately for her talent - I think she's a decent wrestler but so far she's done nothing that's proven me wrong there. I was surprised to see talk of her winning the title before the show, I don't think that was ever remotely in the cards.

The way people have been talking about Ruby recently, and even when she was in WWE, you'd think she's a great female talent being held back by the system, like Malakai Black. I get that there's a lot of excitement for her joining AEW, but it's definitely serious overhype. She's been nothing but mediocre in WWE and so far she's proving she is nothing but mediocre in AEW.

People poo pooing on Black's feud with the Nightmare Family surprises me. It's a great way to introduce his character, having him run through the Nightmare Family one match at a time, each match revealing a new aspect of his persona and wrestling style. Not every new guy needs to be hotshotted to the top, and there's no room for Black there at the moment with Punk and Danielson and Cole taking their first steps. I was kinda expecting Cody to go over tonight, which would have been a big setback, but fortunately they did not.

Emperor new reality show Rhodes to the Top or whatever it is called. I thought it was just about Cody and Brandi (and it probably mostly is) but the sneak peek they showed last night had clips of backstage stuff at AEW that looked kind of interesting.

Sept 23, 2021 19:58:26 GMT X-zero said:

So MJF kind of 100% buried Pillman. He buried him on the mic for weeks then got a tap out victory. He could atleast beat him with a ring shot.

A lot of people seem to complain about MJF winning too much or not getting his comeuppance (and perhaps that is a long term problem that I'm not really aware of) but I thought it was refreshing to see a heel win clean like that. MJF just lost to Jericho, and let's be honest, Pillman is a inexperienced guy in a mid level tag team - he doesn't really need to be protected against a borderline main eventer. 

Sept 24, 2021 0:41:36 GMT @admin said:

Sept 23, 2021 19:58:26 GMT X-zero said:

So MJF kind of 100% buried Pillman. He buried him on the mic for weeks then got a tap out victory. He could atleast beat him with a ring shot.

A lot of people seem to complain about MJF winning too much or not getting his comeuppance (and perhaps that is a long term problem that I'm not really aware of) but I thought it was refreshing to see a heel win clean like that. MJF just lost to Jericho, and let's be honest, Pillman is a inexperienced guy in a mid level tag team - he doesn't really need to be protected against a borderline main eventer. 

All of this.

They gave Pillman his moment because they were in Cincinnati but he was never going to beat MJF. People keep talking about him burying Pillman but like, it isn't "burying" every time the heel wins. This isn't Triple H circa 2000.

Sept 24, 2021 1:17:51 GMT RT said:

Sept 24, 2021 0:41:36 GMT @admin said:

A lot of people seem to complain about MJF winning too much or not getting his comeuppance (and perhaps that is a long term problem that I'm not really aware of) but I thought it was refreshing to see a heel win clean like that. MJF just lost to Jericho, and let's be honest, Pillman is a inexperienced guy in a mid level tag team - he doesn't really need to be protected against a borderline main eventer. 

All of this.

They gave Pillman his moment because they were in Cincinnati but he was never going to beat MJF. People keep talking about him burying Pillman but like, it isn't "burying" every time the heel wins. This isn't Triple H circa 2000.

Every heel win isn't a bury. It happens when you don't give the face any type of an out. MJF is definitely close to the main event and Pillman is on the lower end so it should have been an easy MJF win. But they could have gave him something to let Pillman not to look like a complete loser. But maybe the plan was never to push Pillman but to make of sympathetic babyface for MJF to dominate to recover from the Jericho lost.

This match definitely felt like a burial, though. MJF comes out, shits all over Brian's city, calls his mother a drug-addicted whore, makes fun of his aunt, makes fun of his sister, says his father IS IN HELL and sucks because he's a dead loser in hell, and then Brian loses 100% clean like an absolute bitch because Brian sucks and so does his stupid dead dad.

MJF shouldn't have won, but Pillman also shouldn't have won because then he just completely eclipses Griff and Julia, it's a match that shouldn't have happened. Just have the match IN Cincinnati to get the most pop and have Wardlow accidentally cost MJF the match and then MJF yells at him and Wardlow beats the shit out of him, so we can do the Wardlow turn that they've been teasing almost from the minute Wardlow arrived.

Or better yet, since they booked themselves into a corner, just have Pillman get himself DQ'd and beat the fuck out of MJF with a weapon. MJF wins and Pillman looks awesome because he kicked the shit out of him.

Meltzer rated Danielson/Omega five stars. 100% of Brian Danielson's AEW matches are 5 stars. Nobody has had a better batting average for a single company in the history of pro-wrestling.

SPOILER: Click to show

But not as good as Ishii/Takagi from Day 1 of the G1 which got 5.5 stars :lol:

Is still blows my mind that so many of the wrestlers care about this stuff. The dirt I can understand, it’s a way to understand the politics of the company you work in. I’ll even stretch as far as the awards since there is a voting process involved at least. But the singular opinion of one very questionable man, on a scale that doesn’t even make sense, that is something I don’t understand.

This is an example of a very good match getting its due though, so I’m happy about that.

First match I've watched in a long ass time start to finish.

Guess my standards are ***** or I don't waste my time.

Just got myself around to watching this, I'm decked laughing at Arn Anderson falling off the apron.