Another weekend, another wrestling pay-per-view to review.
I’m not complaining.
This weekend, it’s AEW’s time once again. It’s the fourth annual WrestleDream event, as the company continues to pay homage and tribute to wrestling legend Antonio Inoki.
Addition Financial Arena on the campus of the University Of Central Florida in Orlando is the host venue this year. This morning, WrestleTix was reporting that there 336 tickets left for purchase, but commentary has mentioned the show is completely sold out during the pre-show. If that’s the case, there will be 7,234 fans in the building.
There are eight matches on the main show, with a whopping seven of them featuring a title on the line. Again, that’s entirely too many titles, but what the hell do I know?
Let’s have some fun.
Oh, hey, AEW did the thing where they start a match during the end of the pre-show, but have it still continuing on as the pay-per-view itself gets underway. Right now, the Motor City Machine Guns and FTR are in the ring having the first match in their Best-Of-Five series. I have no idea how long the match has been going on. I’m sure the match has been fun, but man, I really wish AEW would stop doing this stupid shit.
We’re 15 minutes into the main show, and the match is still going on. Tony Schiavone just said the match has reached the 25-minute mark. Of course, that leads to the very end of the match, as Cash Wheeler gets pinned, putting the Machine Guns up 1-0 in the series.
I missed almost half of the match, so I won’t be giving a review, but what I did see was a ton of fun. No surprise there.
Mercedes Moné vs Thekla – AEW Women’s World Title Match
The opening bell rings at 26 minutes after the hour, signaling the technical start of the main show’s first match.
This has been a weird crowd reaction so far. Quiet, quiet, quiet, then a “C-E-O” chant, then quiet, quiet, quiet, then a “Thekla” chant, then quiet, quiet, quiet again. As I type that, they went from being quiet to dueling chants of “let’s go, Thekla” and “C-E-O” within a millisecond.
The match itself has been fun so far, but very slow paced. Paul Wight is on commentary, and he tried to explain it by saying that champions don’t have to wrestle at the challenger’s pace, but instead, the challenger has to wrestle at the champion’s pace. While that is true, it doesn’t explain why the challenger might be wrestling at an even slower pace when she’s on offense.
Mercedes pulls off her face mask and hits Thekla in the face with it behind the referee’s back, but Thekla is able to fight off an offensive flurry to get a near fall of her own. It wasn’t enough to swing momentum in her favor, though. Seconds later, Mercedes with the Moné Maker to get the pin and the win. The champion retains her title.
Good match, without a doubt, but I would’ve appreciated if they kicked it into a higher gear at some point. It was entirely too slow for lengthy stretches, and I think that prevented it from reaching “great” status. 3.25 Stars
Chris Jericho vs Nick Wayne
This is the “rubber match” in an unofficial Best-Of-Three series between the two… on the same show that the first match of a Best-Of-Five series takes place, as well as the same show where a Two-Out-Of-Three Falls Match is happening. That’s just lazy.
If Jericho wins this, I want a congressional investigation to get underway about what personal dirt he has on Tony Khan. Jericho has been with AEW for nearly eight years now, and in those eight years, nobody that has worked with him has gotten over. Not one opponent, not one tag partner, not one stablemate… nobody that has worked with him was better off when they were done than they were when they started working with him. It’s one of the wildest runs of all-time.
Jericho mounts Wayne in the corner, and reigns down on him with some of the slowest and worst looking punches I’ve ever seen. Good God Almighty, Chris. I’m not saying you need to potato the kid and bruise his face up, but you should at least try to make it look like you’re hitting him harder than my eight-year-old hits me when we play fight. It’s weird, too, because earlier in the match, Jericho was dishing out some majorly stiff chops.
After the first match and the inclusion of Chris Jericho, I’m very thankful for Nick Wayne and his desire to push the pace.
Jericho and Wayne go for… something… but ref Bryce Remsburg wanders around the ring, looking like a fucking idiot. Commentary tries to play it off like Nick Wayne accidentally hit him in the face, but that’s not the way he sold it. He literally wandered over to them, turned his back on the action, and got in position. This allowed Wayne to deliver a low blow to Jericho, but Jericho no-sells it. Remsburg’s stupid ass finally comes back, but is then pushed out of the way, and he staggers and stumbles for multiple seconds, again looking like a complete fucking dipshit. This gives Wayne time to deliver another low blow, which is also no-sold. Turns out that Jericho is wearing a cup, which he takes out of his trunks and starts using as a weapon, hitting his opponent in the head. Eww.
Wayne gets the roll-up and gets the win. Okay then. The match was decent, I suppose, but it was yet another AEW match featuring a terrible ending thanks to Tony Khan’s fetish for making his referees look as dumb as humanly possible. I hate it. They look so stupid, show in and show out. 2.75 Stars
The Young Bucks vs Kyle Fletcher & Kevin Knight – AEW Tag Team Title Match
An early offensive flurry from Fletcher and Knight sees them taking page after page out of the book of the Bucks, and then they end the flurry by doing the Bucks’ “flex” pose. The crowd gives them a big reaction for that. That was fun.
As soon as I begin to type a sentence, these teams have gone through another two or three sequences. They’re having a really good start to things, working balls-to-the-wall. It’s the type of heavily choreographed match that will drive people like Jim Cornette insane, but I enjoy stuff like this, so it works for me.
A “fight forever” chant breaks out. They’re building a banger, that’s for sure.
I’m serious, folks… the only times these guys have slowed down is to sell a major flurry of offense for a moment, and then, they’re back to the action.
Multiple near falls, and we get another reset, while the crowd gives all four men a standing ovation.
Knight blind tags himself in and goes for a Coast-To-Coast, but gets kicked in the mush. Fletcher fights off both Bucks by himself, but Knight eventually makes his way back to things… only for his springboard maneuver to accidentally take Fletcher out. The Bucks dispose of Knight, then kick Fletcher in the face and head approximately 71 consecutive times. It’s enough for them to get the win, retaining their titles.
That was fantastic. All four men brought the goods here. Again, it’s not the type of match that everyone loves, but it’s the type of match that I love, so I’m giving it 4.5 Stars here. Great stuff.
Persephone vs Hyan vs Dani Luna vs Queen Aminata – Four-Way Match for the AEW TBS Title
This feels like a match that should be taking place on a Ring Of Honor show. I’m sure it’ll be fun, but sure enough, the live crowd seems to be back in their “I don’t care about this” mode.
I would like to see more of Hyan on my screens. Just thought I would share.
The crowd starts an “Am-i-na-ta” chant, and they’ve become supportive of her after she delivers a bunch of stiff strikes to Persephone. Credit where it’s due, all four women have been pretty physical in the relatively early stages of this one.
That physicality has continued. The crowd still isn’t really into things all that much, but these four are out there beating the hell out of each other.
Moonsault from Persephone, and she pins Hyan to retain her title. There was lots to like about that one. 3.5 Stars. Lots of physicality, and they kept things going at a really good pace.
Andrade El Ídolo vs Tommaso Ciampa – AEW National Title Match
Ciampa challenged for the International Title at All Out, and is challenging for the National Title this time around. If he loses here, expect him to challenge for the Continental Title at Full Gear next month.
My God, Tony Schiavone sounds like such a fucking dork when he says things like “He is so cool!” talking about Andrade. Schiavone continues to steal money from Tony Khan, as the man hasn’t contributed anything worthwhile to the sport of wrestling in decades.
LOL @ Ciampa doing his own version of Andrade’s ringside spot with random women, but doing it with his daughter, Willow, instead. He snapped a selfie with her, then kissed her on the top of her head. That was great. Schiavone, of course, says “Ciampa is so cool!” on commentary.
LOL again @ Ciampa, after teasing taking off his trunks on multiple occasions, finally doing it, revealing a second set of trunks with “I Just Know” on the back.
Ciampa is really doing well in this match so far. He has found a good balance between some mean, nasty offense and some comedy spots. Entertaining stuff.
To continue that, Ciampa grabs the pants that Andrade took off, and he starts performing offense on the pants. He goes to pin the pants, demanding that Aubrey Edwards get down and count the pin. She eventually starts her count, but the pants kick out! Ciampa is shocked, and the commentators are dying of laughter. A loud “holy shit” chant breaks out. This is great.
Ciampa keeps trying to break the rules, but he keeps getting caught by Aubrey Edwards. It backfires on him, though. As Aubrey goes to get rid of a steel chair that Ciampa tried to use, Andrade is able to deliver a DDT atop the National Title belt… that Ciampa also brought to the ring to use. Andrade eventually gets the pin and the win, and we have another champion retaining their title tonight.
That was a blast. A really good mix of comedy spots and violent offense. Both men looked good, but even in defeat, Ciampa looked magnificent. 4.25 Stars
Swerve Strickland, Kofi & Austin Creed vs “Hangman” Adam Page, Bandido & Brody King – Two-Out-Of-Three Falls Match for the AEW Trios Titles
Yup… it’s still REALLY weird to see Kofi and Creed in a ring that doesn’t belong to WWE.
A “Fuck ICE” chant breaks out. It doesn’t last long, but it broke out nonetheless.
Swerve, Kofi, and Creed have an impressive amount of in-ring chemistry together, especially so for a trio that is only working their sixth match together here.
You know exactly what you’re getting from a trios match in AEW. Non-stop offense.
The champions pick up the first fall, and there is absolutely zero break, as we move right into the second fall. Weirdly, there was very little reaction from the crowd to that fall coming to an end. Maybe because they know there’s at least one more fall to go, but there was almost total silence when the three count was made.
The challengers pick up the pin to earn the second fall. While the first one was lengthy, the second fall didn’t last all that long, but we’re down to the final fall now.
All six men are moving a lot slower here. They all seem exhausted. Lots of standing still and selling in the third fall so far.
Bandido hits BOTH Kofi and Creed with a double Spanish Fly from the top! Beautiful spot! Swerve goes to hit Big Pressure on Bandido, but Bandido reverses it and rolls Swerve up for three! We have new Trios Champions. Another great trios match. 4.25 Stars
After the match, Swerve refuses to give up the title belts. He tells Kofi and Creed not to hand the belts over, either, saying the other team doesn’t deserve them. After some discussion, Kofi and Creed hand their titles to Bandido and Brody, embracing them. Swerve offers his title to Hangman, only to drop the belt to the mat when Hangman goes to grab it. Their beef continues.
I have to assume that Kofi and Woods will be going after the Tag Team Titles soon.
Before the next match begins, Renee Paquette comes out and introduces the newest member of AEW… Ilja Dragunov. He gets a really nice pop from the crowd. Off the top of my head, it sounds like he is back to using the same entrance theme that he used in wXw and places like that before he signed with WWE, but don’t quote me on that.
Ilja doesn’t get to say anything. He just makes a victory lap, poses for the crowd, and then leaves.
Jon Moxley vs Mark Davis – AEW Continental Title Match
It’s still really emotional to see the Death Riders make their entrance with an empty chair, and a towel that says “Benjamin ‘Pac’ Satterley” on it.
Hey, Mox is a bloody mess early on! Commentary says that an elbow from Davis is what opened Mox up. No matter what it is, Mox has a cut just above his left eyebrow that is bleeding a ton. Things have really slowed down. Mox is a mess, but he keeps fighting back.
There are multiple noticeable blood stains on the white ring ropes. Gross.
The crowd has gone mostly silent again. Perhaps it’s because of the pace that the match has, but perhaps it’s also because they’re tired and saving themselves for the main event, which is up next.
Davis hits a SICK piledriver on the ring apron, and Mox lands with a violent splat, sliding off of Davis’ lap and falling to the floor.
Mox is distraught at ringside, and commentary wonders if he’s getting ready to quit. He sits against the ringside barricade, but Marina Shafir and Daniel Garcia show up in the front row and give him a pep talk. Mox uses it as motivation, and he gets back in the ring.
Mark Davis is now bleeding a lot after Mox sidesteps him and causes him to run face-first into the top turnbuckle. Okay then.
Mox puts the Brutalizer on, but before the crowd can even fully react to the Pac tribute, Davis rolls out of it. All Mox does is turn it into a Bulldog Choke, and it eventually causes Davis to pass out. The champion retains the title, and the Death Riders all hop the barricade to celebrate with him.
That was a lot of fun. Even with an insanely slow pace for 99% of the match, those two were dropping bombs on each other from bell-to-bell. It would’ve been nice to have a bit faster pace at times, but it’s understandable that there wasn’t one. It’s not like either man is known for their lightning-quick offense to begin with, but once the match got bloody, you knew things were going to get slower. I’m still going to give it 3.75 Stars, and perhaps that might be underselling it a bit.
Will Ospreay vs Samoa Joe vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Darby Allin vs Ricochet vs Kazuchika Okada vs Konosuke Takeshita vs Adam Copeland – Clockwork Carnage Match for the AEW World Title
Main event time.
It’s also a first-time match type. We’ll start with two competitors at random. Every three minutes, another wrestler will enter. During that phase, anyone pinned or submitted is eliminated. Once all eight men have entered the match, a 15-minute “scoring period” will begin. Every pin or submission during the scoring period will count as one point, and the man with the most points at the end of the period will be the winner of the match and the AEW World Champion.
Convoluted? Yes. Convoluted? Yes. Convoluted? Also yes.
Ospreay is the first man to join the match, which means he needs to work the entire thing if he wants to retain his title.
Takeshita is out next.
Ospreay and Takeshita are going crazy from the start. They’re going to have to work a 33-minute match to win, so you’d think they would want to pace themselves a bit. Apparently not.
Speedball is the next entrant in the match, and he enters to almost zero crowd reaction. Ouch. Strangely enough, there’s a “Speedball” chant once he officially enters the ring.
Ricochet is next, and he calls for he and Takeshita to work together. Makes sense, as both Ospreay and Speedball are members of United Empire together. Of course, Ricochet “turns” on Takeshita after about a minute, going for a pin on Takeshita, and he is met with a stiff strike to the face by Takeshita for his troubles.
Darby is next, and the mood in the building has changed. He pulls a table out right away, and that excites the fans in Orlando. I have a question, folks… between Darby Allin and “Speedball” Mike Bailey, who LOOKS like LESS of a main event star? I’m legitimately curious. Again, I’m just asking about how they look. I’m not asking about who is the better wrestler, who is closer to winning the World Title, or anything along those lines. Just who fails the “eyeball test” more.
Kazuchika Okada is out next. That means that the two oldest and slowest men involved in the match have conveniently earned the final two spots, which means they have the shortest paths to victory. Weird how that works.
Takeshita pins Speedball to eliminate him from the match, three seconds before Adam Copeland is revealed as the next entrant. I guess Speedball is Tony Khan’s answer to my earlier question.
Rainmaker! Okada pins Takeshita to eliminate him before Samoa Joe has even entered the match. We’re down to six competitors as Joe finally makes his entrance. As Joe runs to the ring, Ricochet goes to hit him with a suicide dive, but Joe simply steps aside, and Ricochet crashes and burns.
The 15-minute scoring period is officially underway.
32 seconds in, Joe pins Darby after a Muscle Buster. Joe then hits a dive to the outside, allowing Ricochet to sneak in and also earn a pin on Darby. Seconds later, Okada hits Copeland with a Rainmaker, and he’s also on the board. Three pins in about 75 seconds, making this exactly the type of match I hate with these types of things.
Ospreay pins Ricochet with a Styles Clash, and then Darby immediately hits a Coffin Drop on Ospreay to get a pin. That makes five pins in about three minutes. Sigh.
Seconds later, Darby rolls Copeland up for another pin. Fuck my life. Darby is now in the lead.
Hidden Blade to Darby, giving Ospreay another pin. I hate this more as the seconds tick by. There were seven total pins in about four minutes.
We’re halfway through the scoring period now, with Ospreay and Darby in the lead with two points. Joe, Okada, and Ricochet have one point, while Copeland has zero points. It wasn’t mentioned in the rule rundown, but Excalibur says that we’re going to a sudden death period if there’s a tie of any kind at the end of the scoring period.
Copeland hits a Spear to Ricochet on the ring apron, sending both men crashing through a table at ringside. That popped the crowd big.
Ospreay goes for an OsCutter, but Joe walks away. Luckily, Ospreay noticed it, so he steps down, runs to the other side of the ring and goes for another OsCutter… but Joe walks away again, and Ospreay crashes to the mat. Funny.
Joe causes Ospreay to tap to a Coquina Clutch, causing Joe to earn his second point, tying him with Ospreay and Darby. We’re down to three minutes left in the match, and Joe remains on offense and takes the pain to Ospreay.
Copeland hits a Spear on Joe out of nowhere to get a point, and then immediately hits Ricochet with another Spear for another point. Just like that, Copeland has two points and is tied for the lead with less than two minutes remaining.
One minute remaining.
Copeland hits a Spear on Okada, but before he can get the pin, Ospreay hits him with a Hidden Blade. Ospreay pins Copeland to get a point with two seconds left, and the champion retains his title.
There were ENTIRELY TOO MANY pins here, with 11 total pins in the scoring period, and two more in the initial stage of the match. Worst of all, though, nobody in the world thought Ospreay was going to lose this match. Even with the odds stacked against him here, the outcome was never in question, and that has hurt the last two pay-per-view main events for AEW.
Things were fun, but the way the match was put together really hurt the overall quality of it. I’ll still give it 3.5 Stars, but there was a lot of potential for it to be better.
Once All In(nit) comes to an end, it’s like there’s a big lull in AEW, with their next two pay-per-views not really meaning as much in the grand scheme of things. It’s very similar to what happens in WWE when WrestleMania is over. We know these companies aren’t going to have less pay-per-view events on their yearly calendar, so it’s up to both companies to make sure that fans are enticed to continue paying attention once the major events are over.
Overall, this was a pretty good show, but again, it didn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things, and that’s where the problem lies.
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