There was a WWE PPV this weekend… I didn’t watch it. Had stuff to do.
Instead, you’re getting musings for a bunch of AEW PPVs from last year that I originally skipped out on for reasons. A friend was kind of enough to loan me his DVD recordings of the shows I missed and I ended up doing musings for the shows. That’ll be this month’s output and we’ll see where things pop up in August.
So we begin with the first ever WrestleDream PPV, named in honor of the late Antonio Inoki; of which Tony Khan is such a huge fan of, he dons a similar looking red scarf to the one that Inoki-san used to wear. Aside from that, it is a show that I missed the first time because I did not want to watch more than my fair share of AEW PPVS… or something. I don’t recall. I don’t remember. Most importantly, I don’t care. We’re here and… well… let’s begin…
ROH Tag-Team Champion MJF (whose partner Adam Cole is injured) defeated The Righteous (some ROH tag-team) in a handicap match to retain the title. He won via Kangaroo Kick, which people were happy about. I often forget that this took place during that weird period where MJF and Adam Cole had this weird frenemy relationship going on that was played for laughs and people seemed to enjoy it… which is all fine and el dandy, but oh, by the way, one of the guys being played up for yuks-yuks is your reigning AEW World Heavyweight Champion. I know people liked that schtick and were happy to keep it going, but given how long the Devil sidestory dragged out and how underwhelmingly predictable the reveal turned out to be, was it all worth it in the end?
The answer, of course, is NO!
But I digress.
ROH World Champion Eddie Kingston defeated Katsuyori Shibata to retain the title. More of a slugfest than anything, but sometimes, that’s all you really need. For what it’s worth, I’ll take a World Champion in a slugfest over whatever the fuck MJF was doing at the time. Kingston would hold the belt for a considerable amount of time before eventually dropping it to Mark Briscoe.
TBS Champion Kris Statlander defeated Julia Hart to retain the title in a match that flew by and was pretty good while it lasted. Julia would win the title the following PPV.
The Young Bucks defeated The Gunns, The Lucha Bros, Orange Cassidy & Hook in a four-way tag to win a future tag title shot at any time… which is extremely vague. I’d imagine that’s what was used for Sting’s last match or something, but that’s jumping ahead here. Anyway, this was your designated party match. Lots of high spots, lots of moves, bit of a trainwreck, but at the very least, it wasn’t boring and I wasn’t falling asleep. So kudos on that note.
Swerve Strickland defeated Hangman Page in a damned fine match. Both guys brought out their best and .
Ricky Starks defeated Wheeler Yuta in a fun little match that was made better with Jon Moxley’s superb commentary, who sticks around for the next match, which sees Bryan Danielson overcoming Zack Sabre Jr. in an excellent professional wrestling match. It’s going to be a sad day when I no longer have any Bryan Danielson matches to look forward on the horizon. It’s already sad enough that they never bothered to give this man a title at any point, which is being a bit stupid, but whatever…
Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita & Sammy Guevara defeated Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi in a six-man match that saw Jericho downed with a Don Callis baseball bat, allowing Sammy to get the winning pin. Genuinely fun six-man match. Not sure if this was Kenny’s last match before diverticulitis took its toll and put him on injured reserve.
AEW Tag Champs FTR defeated Aussie Open to retain the titles in another excellent professional wrestling match. They don’t do enough with these Aussie Open guys; they should be booked more often. As for FTR, well, Dax is out with a back injury. Wish him a speedy recovery so I can go back to saying “Fuck The Revival.” (At least I’m being honest.)
TNT Champion Christian Cage defeated Darby Allin in a Best-Of -3 Falls match (2-1) to retain the title. Well, you can’t say that they didn’t throw out all the stops here. Christian is as smooth a worker as you can get and Darby is as much of a nutjob as you’d expect him to be here. This was loads of fun and a bit of a surprise that Cage would win, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After the match, Cage’s crew beats up on Darby before Sting pops up, but he gets beat up for a bit before the lights go out and some woman says that we think we know him. And yes, it’s the AEW debut of the Rated R Superstar Adam Copeland, who got to keep his nickname AND his entrance music. Good for him… and hope he has a speedy recovery from his current injury.
WrestleDream had a couple less than stellar moments but more than delivered the goods with the better part of the show. I honestly wasn’t expecting much out of this one, but hey, it was a great show for the most part and seeing another longtime WWE guy outside his usual comfort zone is always going to be a treat so long as he embraces it. And so far, I think Copeland has done more than fine up to this point. I’m not sure if I would have called this a “new era” of anything, but hey, at the very least, it wasn’t boring.
dtm666 