Mar 7, 2022 5:08:48 GMT KITN said:

Yes but also generally, the whole show was great. Like that Dog Collar match, holy shit! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!

How we feeling about the Dan Lambert multiple cameos? He and his group were made into huge deals, makes me wonder how much AEW has invested in Paige VanZant in particular. Brandi's gone but PVZ still got her part time deal. 

Hero wrestled yesterday. Kingston with the Hero shit is not rational. Sometimes they would be booked and they would fine. Other times Hero would be dick or Kingston would see red and they would wrestle, then fight legit for a bit until whoever was freaking out calmed the fuck down. Their feud was one of the weirder things you will see as it was really at times two people trying to hurt each other as much as possible while still claiming it was all "a work." And Kingston burned like every bridge he had at one time fighting Hero legit during matches in every fed that wanted the feud.

But Claudio and Kingston do go way, way back, as in when they both were training they lived together for years. And Claudio put up with Kingston at his absolute worst in the pre-sober days where Kingston would get drunk and start fights. I am assuming since Kingston called out Claudio as soon as he was released, that the heat is not real, but you never know with him. Kingston has a history of blowing up at weird shit, then keeping it real. Everyone is hoping it is over now him and Hero do not have to work together, but you never know. And Claudio in his interviews Kingston keeps referring to him as the same as Hero.

If there is legit heat, it will be like almost everything else was in the past. Claudio will come in, and Kingston will leave. He did it in RoH, PWG and CZW. I do not think the heat is legit, but I been following Kingston since the Wild Cards days, and seen him sabotage his career time and time and time again.

That said if it is a work, then those of you who never seen Claudio vs Kingston are in for a treat. Heel Claudio cutting promos on Kingston is a thing of fucking beauty. Again, they lived together for so long, that Claudio just like knows Kingston so well and the insults are fucking savage and personalized.  Their matches are a lot of fun too.

Mar 7, 2022 5:11:17 GMT Blindy said:

Mar 7, 2022 5:08:48 GMT KITN said:

Yes but also generally, the whole show was great. Like that Dog Collar match, holy shit! HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!

How we feeling about the Dan Lambert multiple cameos? He and his group were made into huge deals, makes me wonder how much AEW has invested in Paige VanZant in particular. Brandi's gone but PVZ still got her part time deal. 

Did you see how PVZ was dressed? She can show up on my TV as many times as she wants.

Mar 7, 2022 5:22:18 GMT RT said:

Mar 7, 2022 5:11:17 GMT Blindy said:

How we feeling about the Dan Lambert multiple cameos? He and his group were made into huge deals, makes me wonder how much AEW has invested in Paige VanZant in particular. Brandi's gone but PVZ still got her part time deal. 

Did you see how PVZ was dressed? She can show up on my TV as many times as she wants.

Yeah she deserved all of the TV time that she was getting for sure. :laughy: 

That new Women's World Championship belt looks fantastic. I'm glad AEW have belts made for champions, and not for toy stores.

Also, I just wanna take a second to point out something that's fucked up. The Private Party/Matt Hardy angle started because Matt, the scumbag heel manager, was fucking Private Party out of all of their money because he suckered them into signing bullshit carny contracts. There's been absolutely nothing to imply that the contracts have been reworked or that they've gotten better ones, so presumably Matt is still stealing from them, but now the angle is going to have Matt be the babyface because Private Party sucks and Matt's brother is showing up so Matt can live through his fucking third midlife crisis. It's fucked up.

Mar 7, 2022 5:45:20 GMT CM Punk'd said:

That new Women's World Championship belt looks fantastic. I'm glad AEW have belts made for champions, and not for toy stores.

Wonder did she debut a new belt as another throwback since once Shida got a new title she lost in her next match. Maybe to help people think Thunder Rosa had a chance of winning.

My super late thoughts!

-House of Black rules. PAC vs Buddy please!

-Jericho looked the best he has in a while and worked Eddie’s style. Was very good.

-Tag title match was my MOTN. Loved it. Just happy to see Kyle on his top game again.

-Ladder match was great. Everyone shined, and my goodness Wardlow is over.

-Punk coming out to his ROH theme was a perfect touch. Fantastic match and a great cap to the feud. Wardlow/MJF is gonna be money,

-While I enjoyed Bryan/Mox, the real story is Regal! That was my huge hope for this story and they delivered. He’s gonna be great on and off screen.

-Really liked the main. Hangman has been a great champ.

Mar 7, 2022 5:52:46 GMT KITN said:

Also, I just wanna take a second to point out something that's fucked up. The Private Party/Matt Hardy angle started because Matt, the scumbag heel manager, was fucking Private Party out of all of their money because he suckered them into signing bullshit carny contracts. There's been absolutely nothing to imply that the contracts have been reworked or that they've gotten better ones, so presumably Matt is still stealing from them, but now the angle is going to have Matt be the babyface because Private Party sucks and Matt's brother is showing up so Matt can live through his fucking third midlife crisis. It's fucked up.

I think PP realize this and the first Hardy Boyz feud in AEW will be against them.

Matt gonna lose HFO Weds. They gonna kick him out.

LOL, Black did a short stream just now. Post shows stream was weird, as he was clearly tired and hurting.

LUL My buddy and his manager throwing serious shade.

Okay so after MJF/Punk from Chicago I was completely done with the feud. 40+ minutes where the match only dragged on because Punk had to sell a bunch of self-inflicted injuries. However then MJF cut a great promo and while I didn't like that they walked it back the following week I thought the dog collar match would give it that intensity that I felt was lacking the first time around.

Except they're both snakes...

Again it was 'fine' but outside of Punk's blade job there was hardly anything riveting. If anything the chain was a hinderance as both guys had to constantly keeping unwrapping it through out. Once again they went heavy on the body part selling, to the point where Tony Schiavone buried Punk for telegraphing a move. In the end, the match only picked up when they switched gears and added thumbtacks to the mix. But even then after all the bumps, the guy who got the biggest reception was Wardlow.

It was fine, but of all of Punk's PPV matches, easily my least favourite.

This really reminded me a lot of an ECW show where they would give mid level matches huge stunts to get them over. It was entertaining that’s for sure, but there wasn’t anything on it that I would go out of my way to watch again. Moxley Danielson could have been great if we hadn’t already seen the blood brawl a few matches earlier. I loved Jericho/Kingston but that had the advantage of the hot crowd and that heat dwindled through the night, and the crowd had had it by the main event. Again, AEW is hurt by its predictability, outside of Danielson and Moxley it wasn’t difficult to predict the winners of the big matches. This particularly hurt the main event, which I found to an eye-rolling affair of Adam Cole’s silly move set and interference. What is the Dark Order doing playing a decisive role in the world title match?

A+ for effort as always and I did enjoy a lot of the show, I marked for Wardlow and the AFI music got a pop out of me even if no one in the arena cared. The Dog Collar match was good I thought, top 3 matches of the night.

Mar 7, 2022 12:59:55 GMT Todd said:

This really reminded me a lot of an ECW show where they would give mid level matches huge stunts to get them over. It was entertaining that’s for sure, but there wasn’t anything on it that I would go out of my way to watch again. Moxley Danielson could have been great if we hadn’t already seen the blood brawl a few matches earlier. I loved Jericho/Kingston but that had the advantage of the hot crowd and that heat dwindled through the night, and the crowd had had it by the main event. Again, AEW is hurt by its predictability, outside of Danielson and Moxley it wasn’t difficult to predict the winners of the big matches. This particularly hurt the main event, which I found to an eye-rolling affair of Adam Cole’s silly move set and interference. What is the Dark Order doing playing a decisive role in the world title match?

A+ for effort as always and I did enjoy a lot of the show, I marked for Wardlow and the AFI music got a pop out of me even if no one in the arena cared. The Dog Collar match was good I thought, top 3 matches of the night.

I wonder if the card was re-arranged and it ended with MJF-Punk it would have felt more climatic? When you run four PPVs a year, there ought to be this feeling that you're paying to see the season finale and there was hardly any of that in Page/Cole which was an obvious pairing but the way it came about was fairly lacksadaisical.

AEW have done a good job of booking maintenance shows but I agree that they could take their show to the next level if they employed more creativity. That's why somebody like Adam Page was able to connect to the crowd because we got to witness a failure act like a human and come out the otherside a champion. AEW needs more storylines like this, they also need to colour outside of the box every once in awhile. It's crazy that Dan Lambert is allowed to be involved in multiple segments on a show but somebody like Malakai Black does his one deal and is out of there.

I also find it absurd that they follow so many Pro Wrestling tropes (the invisible wall!). If I was TK, I'd learn from those mistakes and either avoid it or just outright destroy it.

Also, I just wanna take a second to point out something that's fucked up. The Private Party/Matt Hardy angle started because Matt, the scumbag heel manager, was fucking Private Party out of all of their money because he suckered them into signing bullshit carny contracts. There's been absolutely nothing to imply that the contracts have been reworked or that they've gotten better ones, so presumably Matt is still stealing from them, but now the angle is going to have Matt be the babyface because Private Party sucks and Matt's brother is showing up so Matt can live through his fucking third midlife crisis. It's fucked up.

100%, the whole storyline has been stupid from the start and everyone who signed on with Matt has been made to look like a massive dumbasses. Private Party went from beating The Young Bucks to hardly anybody, why would they stick around?

I'm really not a fan of AEW signing Jeff and I fear they're just going to take up more valuable television time.

Mar 7, 2022 11:44:05 GMT Big Pete said:

Okay so after MJF/Punk from Chicago I was completely done with the feud. 40+ minutes where the match only dragged on because Punk had to sell a bunch of self-inflicted injuries. However then MJF cut a great promo and while I didn't like that they walked it back the following week I thought the dog collar match would give it that intensity that I felt was lacking the first time around.

Except they're both snakes...

Again it was 'fine' but outside of Punk's blade job there was hardly anything riveting. If anything the chain was a hinderance as both guys had to constantly keeping unwrapping it through out. Once again they went heavy on the body part selling, to the point where Tony Schiavone buried Punk for telegraphing a move. In the end, the match only picked up when they switched gears and added thumbtacks to the mix. But even then after all the bumps, the guy who got the biggest reception was Wardlow.

It was fine, but of all of Punk's PPV matches, easily my least favourite.

Punk vs MJF was a lot like Punk vs Raven for me.  Good but not great.  Usually dog collar matches are nearly unwatchable they are so bad.  This was watchable, but just.  

Which sucks as Punk vs Rave did a great dog collar match, but Punk seemed to draw more on his match vs Raven.  Also not so sure MJF would do the crazy spots that Rave did with the collar on.  In the Rave match they used the chain to help Rave set up From Dusk Till Dawn.  MJF would have been doing the same to set up the armbar.  Am surprised Punk did not try to recreate the cheesegrater spot though, as that would have been nuclear heat for MJF if he tied Punk up and make it look like he was grinding away Punk's tattooes.  

Oh well, it was an average match on a night of great matches.  And I think they knew that the dog collar match could do either way with fans since almost every other one was the same way.  People like the gimmick, but the chain if not made the centerpiece in a good way, destroys any hope of having a good match.  

////

Announced late last night Regal is signed.  

Mar 7, 2022 12:59:55 GMT Todd said:

This really reminded me a lot of an ECW show where they would give mid level matches huge stunts to get them over. It was entertaining that’s for sure, but there wasn’t anything on it that I would go out of my way to watch again. Moxley Danielson could have been great if we hadn’t already seen the blood brawl a few matches earlier. I loved Jericho/Kingston but that had the advantage of the hot crowd and that heat dwindled through the night, and the crowd had had it by the main event. Again, AEW is hurt by its predictability, outside of Danielson and Moxley it wasn’t difficult to predict the winners of the big matches. This particularly hurt the main event, which I found to an eye-rolling affair of Adam Cole’s silly move set and interference. What is the Dark Order doing playing a decisive role in the world title match?

A+ for effort as always and I did enjoy a lot of the show, I marked for Wardlow and the AFI music got a pop out of me even if no one in the arena cared. The Dog Collar match was good I thought, top 3 matches of the night.

For a "smart" crowd no one reacting to Miseria Cantare made me REALLY, REALLY sad.  I mean no one even banging.

It is tough to do smart booking with unpredictable booking now as fans realize that people go on runs, and matches set up other matches now.  So to really do a shock upset, you have to piss on your own stories a lot of the time.  It is really hard to do.  Quack was the master of it, but CHIKARA fans until Ashes would take whatever Quack offered.  The year off and hidden season though was when Quack finally lost his audience.  

///

Also an interesting note.  Tried to find Rave vs Punk dog collar and every video I found was taken by by AEW.  They are purging RoH from the internet.  A lot of other stuff they already purged as well I was doing random searches to see if they just purged Punk to sell a DVD or went further.  

Mar 7, 2022 16:48:19 GMT c said:

Mar 7, 2022 12:59:55 GMT Todd said:

This really reminded me a lot of an ECW show where they would give mid level matches huge stunts to get them over. It was entertaining that’s for sure, but there wasn’t anything on it that I would go out of my way to watch again. Moxley Danielson could have been great if we hadn’t already seen the blood brawl a few matches earlier. I loved Jericho/Kingston but that had the advantage of the hot crowd and that heat dwindled through the night, and the crowd had had it by the main event. Again, AEW is hurt by its predictability, outside of Danielson and Moxley it wasn’t difficult to predict the winners of the big matches. This particularly hurt the main event, which I found to an eye-rolling affair of Adam Cole’s silly move set and interference. What is the Dark Order doing playing a decisive role in the world title match?

A+ for effort as always and I did enjoy a lot of the show, I marked for Wardlow and the AFI music got a pop out of me even if no one in the arena cared. The Dog Collar match was good I thought, top 3 matches of the night.

For a "smart" crowd no one reacting to Miseria Cantare made me REALLY, REALLY sad.  I mean no one even banging.

It is tough to do smart booking with unpredictable booking now as fans realize that people go on runs, and matches set up other matches now.  So to really do a shock upset, you have to piss on your own stories a lot of the time.  It is really hard to do.  Quack was the master of it, but CHIKARA fans until Ashes would take whatever Quack offered.  The year off and hidden season though was when Quack finally lost his audience.  

///

Also an interesting note.  Tried to find Rave vs Punk dog collar and every video I found was taken by by AEW.  They are purging RoH from the internet.  A lot of other stuff they already purged as well I was doing random searches to see if they just purged Punk to sell a DVD or went further.  

The lack of banging and singing was kinda sad, but there were a few scattered voices absolutely giving it their all, which was kinda cool in a way.

Might have been the location. Lots of wrestling fans in Florida that will go to any big show regardless. The entrance would have been even better in Philly or NY or Chicago. Ah well.

Underrated moment: Adam Page wearing pride/trans colours in Florida right after the Don't Say Gay bill was introduced. That’s my champ! That’s cowboy shit!

Page is very vocal about his support for that community. Found it weird when I first seen him come out defending as he rubs you as someone who would be the exact opposite like the Brisceos.

Mar 7, 2022 17:05:17 GMT c said:

Page is very vocal about his support for that community. Found it weird when I first seen him come out defending as he rubs you as someone who would be the exact opposite like the Brisceos.

Please elaborate how he strikes you as being bigoted?

Watching the PPV tonight. Can’t wait to dive in!

Just did not expect someone embracing southern culture like that to be progressive and outspoken. Usually it is the opposite. Moreso in wrestling when many of the guys are hard right wing people that just do not talk politics in public.

Have fun with the PPV tonight.  It was the best overall PPV in a long, long time.  80% of it was pure fire.  

Watched the Buy In.

Statlander vs Hirsch was good. Just good. Liked the psychology and it was a good finish. Have no idea why I predicted Statlander, Hirsch winning makes the most sense to keep her momentum going. The problem I had with the match is that they were struggling to pull off complex moves on more than one occasion. Perhaps nerves or lack of experience. Sometimes it's good to stick to the basics rather than trying a MOTY with crazy apron bumps and whatnot, especially if you're the opener on the warm-up show.

Speaking of sticking to the basics, Hook vs Marshall was really good. Did everything it needed to do. Hook's weakness is his lack of experience, allowing Marshall to easily trick him to gain the advantage, but since Hook is in god mode he never sold for very long and won pretty easily. Liked the finish a lot. Hook's super over. Good for him.

House of Black vs Death Triangle was a lot of fun. All six men got lots of time to shine. Loved the spot with Penta taking out Black but couldn't pin him because he was not the legal man. It worked because minutes before there was a lull in the action and we clearly see Penta and Buddy Matthews tagging in. They did a good job in allowing the fan to keep track of the match. Another cool finish.

Still can't believe Black went home, got on stream and asked the fans what they thought of the show.

Hook with QT is not bad. But Hook against a regular roster member may not be. Good to see him being protected but sooner or later he needs to be fed to the wolves. If AEW had the culture they claim he will be protected by everyone. If not, well, Tony has issues that no one wants to talk about.

Hook is gonna be a huge star. With Regal now likely taking a run at training him this kid is working with a lot of amazing people to mold him into AEW first true homemade superstar.

Got to know, it must not be easy being Hook. He sells wrong, or misses something then after the match got pops laying it to you. Hope Taz can keep him clean. If I am right and Hook does blow up, he can easily get on that self-destruction trajectory that fucks up so many others as his fame rapidly increases.

Jericho vs Kingston was amazing.

Jericho talks about he's still the Big Dog. He hasn't been anywhere close to the Big Dog since he lost the AEW World Championship. Yet he felt like it in this match. He was the Big Boss that the fan favourite, the working class hero Eddie Kingston has to beat. The match was very hard hitting and had a great Japanese strong style flavour to it. Two things I didn't like about the match. (1) Seeing Kingston's gut flapping around. (2) The finish. I know Kingston likes to cosplay as AJPW guys, and he's generally good at it, but that Stretch Plum was awful. The perfect finish would have been the two backfists followed by the Northern Lights driver he tried earlier. Well, Stretch Plum would have been perfect if he could execute it properly.

Surprisingly I really enjoyed the Triple Threat tag match. It was spotty in a good way, there were a few stories going on in the match: Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus fighting against the odds, and the issues between Young Bucks and ReDragon. These stories were told really well and everyone got a chance to shine. Lots of amazing near falls and a great finish. Jungle Express retaining is the right decision. Bucks and ReDragon don't need the belts in their rivalry, while Jungle Boy's star continues to rise.

Ladder Match was a lot of fun. Wardlow grabs the Sonic The Hedgehog ring. He gains the ability of super speed. If you thought he was dangerous before...

Cargill vs Conti - pretty good. Both ladies brought a lot of fire. Cargill may be green, but she looks great in green AND she has that star quality.

That's me done for today, I'll hopefully get to the rest of the show tomorrow.

Mar 7, 2022 22:37:14 GMT Emperor said:

Jericho vs Kingston was amazing.

Jericho talks about he's still the Big Dog. He hasn't been anywhere close to the Big Dog since he lost the AEW World Championship. Yet he felt like it in this match. He was the Big Boss that the fan favourite, the working class hero Eddie Kingston has to beat. The match was very hard hitting and had a great Japanese strong style flavour to it. Two things I didn't like about the match. (1) Seeing Kingston's gut flapping around. (2) The finish. I know Kingston likes to cosplay as AJPW guys, and he's generally good at it, but that Stretch Plum was awful. The perfect finish would have been the two backfists followed by the Northern Lights driver he tried earlier. Well, Stretch Plum would have been perfect if he could execute it properly.

Surprisingly I really enjoyed the Triple Threat tag match. It was spotty in a good way, there were a few stories going on in the match: Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus fighting against the odds, and the issues between Young Bucks and ReDragon. These stories were told really well and everyone got a chance to shine. Lots of amazing near falls and a great finish. Jungle Express retaining is the right decision. Bucks and ReDragon don't need the belts in their rivalry, while Jungle Boy's star continues to rise.

Yeah not sure why Kingston did not finish Jericho with one of his million finishers.  Assume one of the two personally wanted that move on TV.  And Kingston always struggled with the gut.  He knows it looks like shit.  The message he was sending was he did not care, this was not going to be pretty, but be a fight.  He looks better with the shirt, but Kings Road guys did let their guts hang out.  

People waiting for Kingston to get into proper shape will be just disappointed as he never has been in great shape.  

Triple threat was amazingly overbooked.  Just so many spots pacts in back to back that made Lucha Express come out looking absolutely amazing.

Mar 7, 2022 23:04:27 GMT Emperor said:

Cargill vs Conti - pretty good. Both ladies brought a lot of fire. Cargill may be green, but she looks great in green AND she has that star quality.

That's me done for today, I'll hopefully get to the rest of the show tomorrow.

This was the first time Cargill really went out selling hard and that at least looked great.  Her offense needs some work still but she will get there.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying Kingston needs to change his appearance or get rid of his gut. If he can wrestle, and he clearly can, that doesn't matter to me. It just distracted me from the action seeing it flapping around. Still an amazing match.

Wow. Really surprised at the lukewarm reaction to the Dog Collar match in here. For me it was an absolute classic. It’s the most invested I’ve been in a wrestling match in years, honestly. I think wrestling is so much about the connection to the story for me, and Punk was my guy for so long, and I’ve been so captivated by the build - that it just blew me away. I never once found it dull or contrived. So many people have tried to claim that CM Punk would struggle in AEW because he was never that good of a wrestler, just good on the mic. Is Punk crisp like Bret? No, he’s clumsy and awkward - but everything he does in that ring he does for a reason just like Bret does, and I think this match felt so much more like a wrestling match than anything I’ve watched in a long time because everything felt like it mattered. It’s why his matches with Cena were all so good. Neither guy was crisp or pretty with their #movez but they both looked like they wanted to win a wrestling match, even if they weren’t the most athletic. I think Punk is a genius in-ring and the variety he adds to an AEW card where every match can feel like a checklist of spectacular spots has saved the promotion for me.

Punk felt like a guy who had let himself be vulnerable, and was embarrassed and angry that he fell for it, and so just wanted to make MJF pay. MJF meanwhile, felt like someone who was finally getting his chance to make himself feel like the star he knows he is, and was willing to take (and give) whatever amount of punishment necessary to prove that. All totally believable and compelling to me. Add in the Wardlow pop and a really fantastic blade job and this is a match I will not forget. Really really enjoyed it.