Note: This was supposed to go up this past Wednesday, but then I saw Slammiversary and that takes presedence.
The final AEW PPV of 2023 took place a day before New Year’s Eve and featured World Champion MJF defending his title against Samoa Joe… also a bunch of other stuff happened too.
Mark Briscoe, Bryan Danielson, Daniel Garcia & Claudio Castagnoli defeated Brody King, Jay Lethal, RUSH & Jay White in what was billed as an all-star 8-man tag match… lots of talent, lots of moves, lots of wrestling prowess, lots of people, lots of stuff to take in, and lots of stuff happened, I guess. As long as you kept the energy going, I can put up with this sort of thing and for what it’s worth, I thought this was a highly energetic and thus entertaining enough opening match.
Miro defeated Andrade in what I assume turned out to be Andrade’s last match before he made his way back to WWE to do… whatever it is he’s doing in WWE right now… but at least, he’s back with his lovely wife, so that’s something, I guess? Anyway, for some reason, Miro’s hot and flexible (now former) wife CJ was managing Andrade and then she turned on him to allow Miro to win via Kick and Game Over submission… and then everyone falls off the face of the Earth or something and I go back to asking “Where the fuck is Miro?” (He was out with injury… get well soon, Miro.)
AEW Women’s Champion Timeless Toni Storm defeated Riho to retain the title in a match that happened. Timeless Toni was a wonderful gimmick that didn’t need the title, but they gave her the title and now I’m already tired of it. The match was just there; wasn’t great, wasn’t bad. It was just there. Both women are normally great talents, but something didn’t click here. Oh well, better luck next time.
Swerve Strickland defeated Dustin Rhodes in a perfectly acceptable wrestling match, but not necessarily one that needed to be on PPV. Other than that, there’s not much else for me to say here other than Swerve looked fine here and Dustin at 50+ is holding up a lot better than Jericho is these days… which makes me wonder why Dustin couldn’t… finish the story.
I am so (not) sorry.
Hey, speaking of which… Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin & Sting defeated Ricky Starks, Big Bill, Powerhouse Hobbs & Konosuke Takeshita in another eight-man tag match. Jericho getting booed roundly after the fans finish singing their song – apparently some controversy broke regarding him and Kylie Rae. You can look that up elsewhere because I know nothing about that. Whereas the opening eight-man was a fun little piece of business despite the amount of bodies involved, this was an absolute mess. The harsh reaction towards Jericho hurt things quite a bit here, but even with that out of the way, this was hard to stay awake through and I ended up taking a bit of a bathroom break. Not a pretty sight.
TBS Champion Julia Hart defeated spooky monster gimmick Abadon to retain the title… whatever they were going for here? No buys. I want to be charitable and say this was a thing that happened, but honestly, I don’t know if I’d go that far. Abadon is best when they’re allowed to go crazy; otherwise, they’re a bargain-basement Fiend at best… although bargain-basement Fiend doesn’t sound to bad compared to… never mind.
Adam Copeland defeated TNT Champion Christian Cage in a very WWE-esque match to win the title… and of course, the wrestling dinosaur (Luchasaurus? Killswitch? Whatever.) attacked Copeland and was about to cash in his title shot, but was told by Cage to give him the shot so that he could pin Copeland and regain the title. Why this needed to be on PPV is a question that only Tony Khan could answer (and probably won’t), but this felt like something that would play out on RAW. And the last thing I want out of AEW is something that reminds me of tired old WWE tropes.
Eddie Kingston defeated Jon Moxley in the finals of the Continental Classic (essentially AEW’s version of New Japan’s G1 tournament) to win AEW’s version of the Triple Crown dubbed the Continental Crown, which comprised Eddie Kingston’s previously won ROH World Title, New Japan Strong Championship, and the newly created AEW Continental Championship, because that’s what AEW needed was ANOTHER FUCKING CHAMPIONSHIP. Hey, you know what? I enjoyed this one. This was a different kind of raw match – the classic “two mean fuckers beating the fuck out of each other” type of match. Simple, straightforward, and the right guy won in the end. Sadly, this Crown wouldn’t last long, as Kingston would eventually lose all three belts to different people.
Samoa Joe defeated AEW World Champion MJF to win the title… and then we have the pay off to the months-long Devil storyline that was taking place and to the surprise of absolutely no one – it turned out to be Adam Cole. And now MJF is sad that he’s been betrayed when he probably should have seen this coming, but everyone had to have their stupid Kangaroo Kicks and Better Den You Bay-Bay hogwash that pretty much undermined MJF as a character. It’s okay for him to be a lovable asshole – wrestling is full of lovable assholes, but turning MJF – of all people, MJ Fucking F – into a dumb babyface betrayed by his best pal in a cliched angle that MJF should’ve seen coming a mile away? Fuck off with that noise.
I feel like anyone who enjoyed and encouraged this Cole/Max rubbish and turned around and complained about how this undermined MJF as a character can take a nice long dive off a cliff because they have no hill to stand on. I didn’t like this shit when it was taking place, I didn’t like that the reigning AEW World Champion was made to look like a total goof, I didn’t like that MJF, in his transition from hated villain to fan favorite, had to lose anything and everything that made him a great character in the first place, and when it came to the eventual Devil reveal, it was so late and so predictable that it meant nothing, especially since both guys would out for MONTHS due to their own nagging injuries. MJF wouldn’t be back until Double Or Nothing and fuck knows when Adam Cole will be up and about so we can continue THAT exciting story.
The really sad thing is that my disdain over the post-match happenings detracted from the match itself, which was actually quite good for what it was and hey, I was happy to see Joe finally win a major World title and get the big main event run that he never got in WWE. I just wish that we ended on that note instead of the nonsense that came afterwards. Hell, I would’ve been fine without any of the MaxCole nonsense, but alas…
So I am normally not overly negative on any AEW pay-per-view. More often than not, a less-than-stellar AEW showing is still a fine show with some good wrestling. But World’s End left me with a sour taste in my mouth and this was the first AEW PPV that I would classify as a genuinely bad show. Hell, I’d go so far to say that this was the worst Pay-Per-View event I’ve seen come from All Elite Wrestling and I don’t think I’ve ever used that wording for their big shows.
It’s not to say that the show as a whole was atrocious. There was some genuinely good wrestling to be found here, but none of it – save for maybe the opening tag match – was truly great and a lot of the matches featured felt like something that would’ve been better off on an episode of Dynamite or Rampage, not a major PPV you’re charging people money to buy. The pay-off to that whole Devil story… well, it was pretty obvious where it was going and I’m just glad that they ended it when they did, but honestly, I wasn’t too keen on what was happening next and so far, that pay off isn’t doing anything worth following up on.
So… yeah. World’s End easily classifies as AEW’s worst PPV event yet. And this time, there’s no backstage drama or controversy to blame for this; it all boils down to all-around bad booking and not even the briefest hints of highs could save this show. And while there have been far worse PPVs than this, when it comes to World’s End, it officially ended the guarantee that every AEW PPV was going to be anywhere between great and excellent. This was the chink in the armor. This was not a good show by any means and I don’t regret skipping it the first time.
dtm666 