Weird decision to do an injury angle and still have the babyface retain. It reminded me of Hogan vs Earthquake from way back in the day. I'm more convinced than ever that Cole is the Devil and they're just waiting till he's healthy
Expecting the reveal definitely soured the main for me some. Fine match, but they’ve spoiled us with debuts/big storylines at PPVs and it’s the expectation now.
Should have just given us a straight up main event instead of all this overbooked injury and ambulance stuff. MJF didn't need some Willis Reed in the NBA Finals story to cement his championship reign.
I'm typically a "world title should always headline" guy but Swerve/Hangman would've sent the crowd home buzzing instead of wondering wtf was up with the main event you could've done the "this match is unsanctioned" gimmick to explain why it was on last too
Should have done some hook with the Devil or Adam Cole at the end to get people buzzing and wanting to tune in Wednesday.
Overall enjoyed the show outside of the main event overbooking nonsense. I'd go like 7.75-8 out of 10. Definitely not as good as what I'm used to out of an AEW PPV though.
Just going by what happened tonight, Adam had reason to be out there. You could do the entire MJF story tonight without Cole... MJF gets injured in the pre-show. They tease a potential forfeit. MJF makes a late return. Match happens and a gimpy champ "overcomes the odds." Obviously you don't need the injury angle at all, so I imagine the use of it was solely to get Adam Cole out there in front of a live crowd again, which means his appearance tonight wont be understood till later. Clearly there's more to the story. I just hope it's not too much longer before the next big twist. I think people will start to get restless with it after the overbooked main event tonight.
Craziest cutter I have ever seen. The athleticism to pull that off as flawlessly as he did is insane. I just wish the match hadn't been surrounded by a bunch of overbooked, WWE-lite nonsense.
So TK announced at the scrum that the New Japan Strong Openweight Title, the ROH title, and the Continental Classic title will be consolidated into one championship, wow.
Seriously pulling the trigger on Swerve when he won the first match in this feud shocked the hell out of me. Hangman taking the belt off Swerve in like 2025 would be enormous. Long term booking at its best.
I 100% was not expecting Hangman to lose last night. If I was a betting man I would have bet a nice little sum of money on Hangman to win that, thought it was a foregone conclusion when they made it a Texas Death match. Swerve as AEW champ in 2024 needs to be on the agenda - Swerve vs. Ospreay headlining Wembley should be the move.
AEW has such a weird disconnect between their live fans and the internet fans with the MJF stuff. Live crowds seem to love it, everyone on the internet is royally panning it now and it’s easily the worst rated main event in AEW PPV history on TK’s go to site Cagematch.
Other than late-stage Cody, and Sammy Guevera (lol), AEW live crowds don't usually turn on a match or person, so I wasn't surprised people there were into it. It's easier to stop and be critical from your couch vs in an arena with 11k other people. That said, the match itself had plenty of big spots and crowd pleasing moments. It was just wrapped around an overbooked mess, and had too much MJF overselling for my taste.
Owens and Styles are the only two I can think of at the moment left on my AEW wish list. Everybody complains about the bloated roster, but the amount of main event/future main event talent on the roster now is absurd. Ospreay and Jay White are two of the best in the world and have been carrying NJPW since AEW was formed.
My top 10 for men would be, in no particular order Gunther Zach Sabre Jr Mike Bailey Jay Malachi Leon Slater Chad Gable Ilja Dragunov KEvin Owens + Sami Zayn - it's a package deal for me, either both or neither Carmelo Hayes Kazuchika Okada Honorable Mention would be Ricochet, Mustafa Ali, and Vikingo. Ricochet left off because there is a ton of flippy guys and his age makes younger flippy guys above more attractive. Vikingo is around so much between AEW and ROH that it's like he is already an AEW part timer. Ali, seems like a foregone conclusion from the dirt sheets that he'll be AEW bound And on the women's side my top 10 is very heavily Joshi to no surprise. Mercedes Mone Stephanie Vauquer Rhea Ripley Giulia Starlight Kid Maki Itoh Masha Slamovich Miyu Yamishita Utami Hayashishita Suzu Suzuki or AZM
I don’t mean this as an insult, how much time of your week do you spend watching or reading about wrestling? Idk who most of those people are
Continental Classic is shaping up nicely so far with Danielson, Andrade, Mark Briscoe, and Kingston. Think Daniel Garcia is going to be in it too. No interference and no one else allowed ring side. Just straight up graps.
I just watched like 5 minutes of that match and cut it off. Idk how someone could enjoy that shit. I said during the BCC v Elite Blood and Guts that this is borderline 1990/2000s backyard wrestling. You want to blade yourself? I'm fine with that. The staples, drinking blood, and barbed wire stuff is stupid and unnecessary.
They made Jay White look like a fucking loser last night. Good luck recovering from that shit anytime soon.
It’s not my cup of tea either and why I think takes like “it’s maybe the best AEW match ever” are so stupid. But they had a well done backstory and outside of the overbooked interference that the match did not need and actually took away from the match. I think it was a very good match.
I think the interference was used to keep hangman strong. Having a heel go over in a grudge match like that is tough unless there’s interference
I get it, I feel like AEW is above that generally. Hangman loses nothing from a clean loss. That match was excellent and he was very strong throughout. Polar opposite to the main event that killed White.
He was main eventing for the world title 7 months after his debut. Don’t think they made him a fucking loser. It’s obvious they think highly of him and he’s in the main event scene for years to come. The match itself was fine, it was the external stuff that took away from it. I honestly don’t think anybody really even took much from that match, they were too engrossed waiting for something to happen with Cole and the devil. I would like for White to get away from The Gunns and Juice, he’s not a comedy guy. They steal from his vibe some as a stone cold killer.