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COMPLETE AEW BLOG FROM CHARLOTTE

By Anthony Pires on 2019-11-06 20:25:00

Charlotte, NC is alive and ready for AEW and we're kicking things off with PAC vs Trent Baretta.  Justin Roberts pronounced it "PACK" so that should settle it.  Trent apparently dropped the Baretta name.  Chucky T and Orange Cassidy are out as well.  If I'm not mistaken this is the first time AEW is starting off with a "cold" match, no tournament, no feud.  Pac with a staredown with Cassidy.  Not sure if OC should be showing no fear to Pac.  Cold match or not, this crowd is on absolute fire so far.  Pac is in total control, as he should be.  If AEW wants to get Pac over as a true monster, bastard heel they'll have him destroy Cassidy at some point tonight.  OC is just sitting ringside, doing his gimmick.  Given the beating his buddy is taking, It might not hurt to have him seem  little concerned.

EXCELLENT!!!  While Chucky T distracts the ref, Cassidy goes into his schtick and Pac pumpkicks the living crap out of him.  This allows Trent to get a little offense in from the distraction.  These two are doing some very close near falls, great story being told here: Pac is clearly the better man here but the distraction has given Trent some real quality hope spots.  Black Arrow for what should have been a 3 count but Pac slaps the Brutalizer for the referee stoppage.

Pac, postmatch, warns Hangman Page that he's coming for him Saturday Night.

Perfectly executed opener.  Pac obviously need the win but Trent didn't get made to look like a jabroni.  The crowd seemed to really like the Orange Cassidy spot.  Not my thing all that much, but who am I to tell a crowd what makes them happy.

In news that'll thrill Dave Scherer, The Dark Order will complete tonight.

Cody's out for his announcement that he wasn't able to make last week.  Charlotte absolutely loves the Rhodes family.  Cody's not smiling, nor should he be after the beating his brother took.  There is something very cool about Tony Schiavone holding the mic for a Rhodes in North Carolina.  A nice touch is that Cody never says "dad", he says "Dusty Rhodes".  I like that.  He references his father as well as Bill Watts and other wrestlers who were also "office".  He understands the criticism around an EVP getting a title shot.  The big announcement is that if Cody does not beat Chris Jericho at Full Gear, he will never challenge for the AEW Title again.  Once this is over Saturday, the entire Elite are coming for The Inner Circle.  Interesting that Cody said it will be a match "beyond" anything we've ever seen.  Very impassioned promo but is 10 weeks of a promotion's existence a little too short a time to start making stipulations like this?  There's a lot of wrestling still in this company but not a heck of a lot of tippy top stars.

SCU is out for commentary.  This can only mean one thing: THE DARK ORDER will be in action.  Dark Order vs Private Party, winners get added to a 3 way match with SCU and the Lucha Bros at the PPV.  Far be it for me to complain about a guys physique, but people might take Evil Uno more seriously if he kept on the leather vest he wears out to the ring.  I respect the fact that AEW wants its tag team titles on the PPV, but maybe hold off on it, or at least don't do a 3 way, let it burn slow.

UPDATE: Evil Uno is, in fact, wearing the leather vest I suggested.  I should be on Tony Khan's payroll. Grayson is an athletic freak. This is the kind of match Private Party needs, something a little slower, forcing them to sell a little bit of offense from time to time.

Dark Order seems like the controlled the entire commercial break. Quen with the hot tag and some dives.  I'd honestly rather see Private Party lose this, as failing in a title match so early in their tenure would set them back.  They need to be built and losing to a veteran team like Dark Order won't hurt.  Order hit their cannonball and dive and only got 2.  I hate it when they kill finishers.  Private Party hits Gin & Juice for the win.  Good luck to them, I think it's a spot they're not ready for.  

Video package of Le Champion.  Sammy Guevera and VIRGIL are paying tribute to him.  Sammy with an awesome line about Jericho being the youngest AEW World Champion of all time.  Holy crap that WAS Virgil AND he worked in an Olive Garden Breadsticks line.  Jericho even worked in a little bit of the bubbly for good measure.  Great Jericho-esque feature.  Congrats to Fozzy for getting the sweet gig as official band/song of Full Gear, I wonder if they know someone.

Time for a women's tag match Jamie Hayter and Emi Sakura against Shanna and Riho.  I really liked the recent debuts of Hayter and Portugal's Perfect Athlete Shanna.  This'll be more about Sakura and Riho, which is fine.  Shanna's in there, showing some fire.  More excessive double teaming in front of the referee, who does nothing, and this is Aubrey Edwards calling the match.  Heels are in control and Hayter gets to shine a little bit.  I honestly don't know much about her history in wrestling, but she's a decent brawler with a relatively unpleasant personality (that's a good thing, btw, since she's a heel) who can definitely handle being hit hard, because Shanna looks like she's really laying them in.  I have to tip my hat to these women, they've left absolutely nothing in the locker room tonight.  Sakura hits a Vader bomb on Shanna but Riho breaks up the pin with a double stomp.  That couldn't be pleasant for Shanna to take.  Sakura with the pin on Riho.

Another Brandi Rhodes promo.  Brandi is mad at someone, I'm not sure who.  Whoever it is, Amazing Kong is coming for them.

The Big Hurt wants me to take Nugenix.

An hour and 20 minutes in and this has been a fun little episode.  The problem is that in 3 days, AEW wants me (and you) to give them $50 for their PPV.  They've advertised it and said it, but I'm not feeling this as a go-home show, a nice presentation to be sure and they're checking off the requisite boxes like Sakura pinning Riho before their title match and getting a few words in by the participants.  

Brandon Cutler is in the ring like a lamb awaiting slaughter as Shawn Spears makes his way to the ring.  I wonder when the last time Tully Blanchard appeared in a ring in Charlotte.  Not much to speak of here as this built to the post match when Joey Janela came out to get some revenge for Spears' attack last night on Dark.  This has the potential to be a pretty good series of matches.

Video package for Moxley vs Omega in the match that doesn't count for anything.

9:30 and they're going to the main event.  This tag team match looks to be getting a healthy amount of time.  Hangman and Omega vs Sammy and Le Champion.  Interesting situation here for the Inner Circle.  I think it's very important for Sammy to either score the pin OR not be the one the pin gets scored on.  They absolutely have something here and I'm afraid that they're going to make him out to be the guy who takes the losses for the main heel group.

Commercial over and Jericho is still in his hat and jacket.  I bet he cut a hell of a promo live on these people.  I have to give the crowd a lot of credit, they haven't burnt out and are still on fire.  Schiavone just referenced Omega's matches of the year at the Tokyo Dome, so let the speculation run rampant.  Sammy's chest is turning Beet red from the chops Omega is laying in.  Omega and Page nailing Sammy with everything.  Sammy finally get out of there and gets a tag.  The aura and star power when Jericho is in there is obvious.  Sammy and Omega back at it with a nice exchange.  Hager prevents an Omega dive and we get our 9:50 commercial.  Normally, this is the part where I complain about a commercial so close to the end of the show BUT they've given this match a little time and it's meaningless so I'll give this one a pass.

Jim Ross just called Jericho El Champion, who had to do that standing perfectly still thing and wait to catch a moonsault by Page.  Jericho with the Judas effect on Page for the pin.

Here comes the last (first?) sell for the PPV.

Cody comes out to save Page from an attack, here comes Cody to go after Jericho and here comes Moxley to go after Omega.  Santana and Ortiz come out and, obviously, this brings out the Young Bucks.  MJF is out there as well.  Fun brawl to end the show but this should have been done earlier.  To me it just came off as a reminder of who has the issues with each other headed into the PPV instead of something to sink your teeth into that REALLY makes you need to see the show.

Overall a nice effort.  Some really nice action but nothing that made me need to see Full Gear.

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