- Cole vs Christian ***3/4
- Joe vs Caster NR
- Spears vs Dean **
- Elimination Tables: Hardys vs Butcher & Blade *1/2
- Shida vs Hart **
- ROH/AAA World Tag Titles: FTR(c) vs Young Bucks ****1/2
Thoughts:
It's time to dig through AEW's output that I had missed. The second part of my US digest likely wont be live yet when this is first posted, but it's funny to note that the first AEW match I watched for the month of April was better than anything WWE put out during the entire month.
The match in question was Christian Cage against Adam Cole. The finish was a bit weak, but the entire thing was a great contest. I have found myself really enjoying Christian's output since he's returned, by the way.
After, reDRagon ran out to attack. George of the Jungle and Dinosaur Train ran out for the save, fighting back the heel team leaving Cole alone.
Adam Page ran out to confront Cole for a decent, heated interaction with the champion insisting on defending the strap in a week on a live edition of Rampage. Good shit that made the champ once again look good. Cole, admittedly, has been a bit iffy at times in how they've booked him but still largely decent. NXT might have done a slightly better job, as controversial as that might seem.
I look forward to watching the Texas death match soon.
Next, Caster cut a decent promo before being murdered by Joe in a match that served as a qualifier for The Owen. Sonjay and Lethal then came on the screen to interrupt the victory celebration, promising a big gift for the Samoan for the following week.
A decent energy here kept the show rolling along nicely enough.
Spears and the Captain was just an angle dressed up as a super basic, average-at-best wrestling match, with Wardlow going on a rampage and then distracting the chairman, costing Spears the match.
The Best Friends/Yuta drama ran.
Eddie and crew ran off the JAS, then came out, mic in hand. Basically, they're gonna kick some ass.
Jade came out, shut Tony up, and put herself over (with the help of her manager).
The PA system at this show was fucked or the production team was. My bud was at this show and said it's far more likely that the production team once again botched, though. Step it up, guys and gals.
MJF and Spears are mad. The broken TV thing was entertaining.
The tables match was...a disjointed mess. How are you going to have Jeff get eliminated and then also have him get the winning elimination, by the way? There was simply no logic to this improv car crash and it made the handful of fun spots moot. Commentary was super confused, too. A fun cherry on a shit sundae.
AFO came out after but were ran off by Sting.
Next, we had Hikaru topping Julia Hart to qualify for the women's side of The Owen. Clearly they aren't going to put in a dark horse simply because of obvious ties. I applaud that in a way. The match itself was sadly rather average.
Serena tries to attack after, leading to a standoff.
Swerve chats about shit. Starks and Hobbs attack. Lee helps. It was okay.
We closed with a MOTYC level tag match between FTR and The Young Bucks. Was it overbooked and circus act to a degree? Yup. But it fucking rocked it and leaned into the insanity. This was two of the best teams ever working a world class, PPV matchup on TV and giving top shelf entertainment to the masses.
Fuck yeah.
This show started strong, dipped into rather skippable stuff for a large portion in the middle, and ended on a high note. While I cannot recommend anyone reading this very late review to go and watch the full episode, I do strongly recommend the opener and main event. Anything else should be simply as it catches your eye.
Overall Rating: 60/100%
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