Matches:

  1. Danielson vs Daniels ***1/4
  2. Casino Tag Team Battle Royale **1/2
  3. Baker, Hayter vs Mercedes, Thunder *3/4
  4. Wardlow vs Cezar NR
  5. Cole, reDRagon vs Page, Dark Order ***1/4

Thoughts:

TK announced that he had purchased ROH to kick us off. I'll be talking about that in a separate post, but yeah it's a huge deal.

The in-ring section of the show started with The Fallen Angel and The American Dragon in a fairly good match with a lot of history. It was a very smart choice to follow the big announcement, too. It's nice seeing Daniels back in AEW and I would love to see him actually be one of the vets leading the new vision for Ring of Honor.

After, Bryan reminded fans that he's not in ROH right now and attacked CD before calling out Mox. The two teased their match for Revolution on the mic. Bryan slinked off to end the segment.

Darius Martin is back and Caster is rapping again (even name dropped dipshit Kane). The battle royale was fine, but I rarely care much for such things and this did little from a quality stance to make me care. The Bucks, as expected, won with reDRagon providing an assist.

We followed this up with another amazing chapter in the ongoing MJF/Punk saga. I went ahead and embedded the video above simply because this was must-see content and I urge anyone that reads this site to check it out (presuming you missed it).

Some Lee and Starks drama follows this up.

The women's match was super average at best, which is tragic considering the circumstances and participants. I am left feeling that the build up to their rematch has been handled far below what I would expect. I am not sure why, but the path they've chosen has not worked nearly as well as it could have been. I also fear that the odds of this one coming close to matching their St. Patrick's Day classic are slim as a result. Perhaps this is misguided a take, but it's what I am left with regardless.

Tay and Jade drama. Why does it feel like AEW tends to set aside a tiny section for the women's division each episode and lump it together? It feels like a trend. The division has so much talent and loads of potential. It has grown nicely, too. It still has a way to go to reach the ceiling it's capable of.

Wardlow squashed a dude, stopped Spears from going chairman after, and then had some drama with MJF backstage as they continue to set up his full face turn.

A House of Black package also aired.

The main event was good shit and worked well as a tease for the Revolution main event. The post-match stuff was a bit clunky at first, but worked pretty well, too.

In all, this episode will be remembered most for the big announcement and the Punk/MJF segment. The action wasn't must-see really, but most of it worked well in a vacuum while also building to the show this weekend. You can honestly safely just watch YT uploads that are of interest to you, but it was overall a good episode of pro wrestling either way and the two beforementioned segments are absolutely required viewing if nothing else.

Overall Rating: 70/100%