What a great job they did with the MJF deal. I really enjoyed the Joker deal and the reveal at the end with the scarf. Really world class way to present that and make him feel like a star. Watching the show later but caught the MJF deal on social this morning and was really impressed.

MJF outpopped CM Punk. In Chicago. This is the AEW's Ace whether they want it to be or not.

Alright…

Pre show was good. I feel for Ruby. Broke her nose and got dumped on her neck. At this point who even wants to work with Tay and Sammy? They’re not just assholes but now they’re dangerous and careless too?

Action Bronson saving HOOK was pretty cool. I’m always here for a celebrity pop.

I love Kip Sabian’s new look. He’s like if Al Snow hung out at Hot Topic. I’m curious where this is going.

Kingston getting a big win always puts a smile on my face. They’re clearly going for a best of 3. I wonder if Eddie is one of the AEW stars headed for Wrestle Kingdom?

Main show!

Opening match was great but kind of fell apart towards the end. I dunno what Claudio’s spot with the ladders was supposed to be but it wasn’t that. Still, Lucha Bros got some spots in and did their thing and the finish was great. Was super obvious who the Joker was but it still worked.

I made my thoughts known about The EVPlite winning over Dark Order but I’ll say it again: bad decision. Especially if The Elite are supposed to be faces at this point. Boneheaded decision, especially with some more decisions to come later.

Jade beats Athena in easily the worst match of the night. Jade has become boring and Athena hasn’t done anything to boost the women’s division since showing up in June. It’s almost like only the TNT or TBS title is allowed to be interesting at any given time, not both.

FTWar vs Lethal Machine Guns was fun but felt pointless. I liked Dax’s kid breaking the pencil and pinning Sanjay though. That was nice.

Hobbs and Starks have a blood feud match and get 5 minutes. What? THAT’S the match you shorten? Okay…not sure how this gets either of them over but whatever.

SIOG beating The Acclaimed is one of the worst booking decisions I’ve ever seen. On its own it isn’t terrible but with how the night was going up to this point, you needed to let the crowd bust their nut there. SIOG have nothing to gain by retaining and it actually hurt their rep getting booed out of the building. And The Acclaimed are so over it isn’t funny. Talking about scissoring Billy Gunn isn’t going to be over forever and they really needed to strike there. So dumb.

And Toni Storm’s big moment suffered because of it. Case in point, there’s nothing wrong with her winning, but now the crowd is pissed off and they’ve decided they want Jamie Hayter. And when it wasn’t given to them Storm’s win goes over like a shart in church. This show is fucked at this point.

And then Christian/Jack Perry happens. Crowd isn’t sure what to think anymore. On one hand it’s a big surprise and Luchasaurus turning got a big reaction but on the other here’s another heel win and another short match. It feels like the wheels have come off. I am sports entertained but also kind of annoyed. Basically how I felt watching WWE before I quit. :lol:

Jericho vs Danielson was great and probably squeaks into my top 3 of the night. Well nah. Trios titles, tag titles, Eddie/Ishii then this one. Two of the best ever showing us how it’s done.

Sting doing the mist was pretty cool in an otherwise meh match. Sad to hear about afterwards though. House of Black hugging and Malakai blowing a kiss on his way out. I hope he isn’t gone for good because it feels like HOB has lots left to accomplish.

And CM Punk wins. The build aside, the match still delivered. I thought it was pretty great. Felt like a title fight should feel like. Two of the very best trying to kill each other. It was very well done.

And then MJF reveals himself and all is right with the world. Nothing could possibly ruin this perfect ending. Nothing whatsoever. Now to go check twitter…AH FUCK.

That Ruby thing looked nasty.

I'm kinda amazed by how far Sammy's reputation has dropped so quickly. A couple of years ago, it seemed like he was gonna be a big star of the future, but now he comes across as a huge asshole IRL and just really sloppy in the ring.

He's a nuisance.

I liked how the battle royal shaped up. I wasn't invested in anybody in the match getting a title shot. I enjoyed the match for what it was until that point.

Some great matches but like RT said, questionable booking decisions.

I'm not sure you could predict Jamie Hayter being as over as she was, but The Acclaimed have been on the rise, it was definitely their moment. Ditto for the Dark Order. Even though Acclaimed didn't win, they looked outstanding in defeat, better than they ever have. Luchasaurus turning didn't surprise me in the least, wasn't expecting it to go down exactly like that but I wasn't shocked.

Hobbs vs Starks was odd. I hope that isn't the end of their rivalry, but I'm not sure how it continues with Hobbs winning so decisively. Love Starks' new gear.

Jericho/Danielson and Punk/Moxley were both fantastic matches.

A loss in that manner doesn't hurt Starks much at all. It only makes me want to see more of this rivalry.

Acclaimed were so over it was fucking crazy. Tony said next event he wants a rematch. If they do that, Acclaimed are def winning.

The spot they ended Starks vs Hobbs on makes sense. There should have been no kicking out of that spinebuster. I doubt they are done though. And Starks will be fine with a loss. He just needs time really to get his single's character together. Then we will see him start to break through.

Dark Order torn on. Sure they should have won, and deserved to, but the Elite were really needed as the first champs to get the division over. Also reports are Reynolds got hurt and is on crutches That said, Silver and Reynolds proved themselves hard and I suspect will be seeing their value go up.

I am idiot too, never realized that Silver was The Shard.

I hope the trios titles aren't just stuck in their own division but rather a way to get stables some gold. They've already lost Undisputed Elite forever and House of Black for however long it takes Malakai to come back, if he comes back.

If they just start throwing "tag team + guy" at the trios titles I'm going to be annoyed. Dark Order should always be in play, as should BCC, The Factory, JAS, etc etc etc.

Are you serious c? in fairness, I didn't realize that for a while until a buddy of mine pointed it out like 6 years ago.

Yeah Ed, I never really paid much attention to who was who under the masks.