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Rest In Peace Road Warrior Animal.
They say the best thing to do with chickenscratch is to make chicken salad. That's what AEW aims to do tonight as Jon Moxley will defend the AEW World Tilte against Eddie Kingston tonight. But that comes later.
We've got THE Best Man Miro and Kip Sabian against Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela. I'm guessing Miro is going to have a huge chip on his shoulder as he embarks on his AEW career. It is imperative that he looks like a killer here, absolutely no offense to Janela and Kiss, who I really like as a team. They are, however thus far, an underneath team. Miro gets his first action and he slams Janela like he insulted his mother. He gets in and gets out, Sabian seems to be shouldering the load thus far. This is great for Sabian to part of this act. He's needed something to help elevate him. Not to suggest I think this'll be long term, but this is the first time that Sabian will have a ton of eyes on him.
Sabian and Miro are fluid so far, working more as a team than I'd have thought. Miro might be hurt. He took an odd looking bump over the top. Hopefully it's just a bad twist. He seems Ok after a few minutes. That looked like it could have been very bad. Matchka Kick, or whatever they're going to call it, sets up his Accolade and Miro and Kip Sabian get the win. Disaster averted as it looked like Miro was pretty badly injured for a second.
No hesitation and Eddie Kingston is right out to talk to us. This is going to be passionate, to say the least. He calls out Moxley. I wonder if we're getting our main event now. Apparently not, since we just went to commercial. I believe every word out of Eddie Kingston's mouth, that's how passionate he is.
No early main event. We're back and the ring is clear. Ah the Mighty Dark Order is next. All is well in the world as Kenny Omega comes out to join JR, Tony and Excalibur in the booth for this one. The Dark Order is on fire with Brodie Lee as TNT champion and three (count em, THREE) big wins yesterday on Dark and AEW Dynamite After Hours. Evil Uno vs. Hangman Page is next up. Omega isn't necessarily sounding like a heel, he's just adamant that his tag team career is done. Colt Cabana, the Lovely Anna Jay, John Silver, 5 and 10 are at ramp-side supporting Evil Uno. Colt is front and center. I can't help but imagine his ongoing saga of "will he or won't he" will continue tonight. Evil Uno looks nothing like the caliber of athlete Page is, but he moves like a man much much lighter. We go to commercial without any advance warning that picture in picture is coming. Definitely prefer that over being told way in advance. .
I'm going to repeat what said last week: I'd like to see Adam Page be presented as more of an ass kicker. I love the Dark Order and all, but for Page and the Dark Order's sake, I would have put 5 or 10 in there to take the beating. As Page gets built as a singles star, I not sure it behooves him to have an ultra competitive match with Evil Uno, much as he did with Frankie Kazarian last week. Fallaway slam by Page, THAT is strength. Buckshot Lariat by the Hangman and Page gets the duke. The loss does absolutely nothing to hurt The Dark Order.
Earlier today, Tony Schiavone spoke with Matt Jackson. He gives a half hearted apology while making fun of Mike Posey and Alex Marvez. Matt takes exception to Tony's line of questioning and destroys his phone. Luckily Tony's got that sweet sweet Conrad Thompson money for an upgrade.
It is TNT Championship time! The Challenger, and tonight's victim, Orange Cassidy makes his way to the ring, the fear in his eyes hidden by his sunglasses. The Mighty Dark Order, including a fatigued Evil Uno, accompany their magnanimous and Exalted Leader to the ring. The Exalted One weighs in at a ready 265.7 pounds, lean and mean and ready to go. This will be glorious. Jim Cornette is going to love this match. Cassidy sticks the hands in his pockets but Lee is all over him. Why everyone doesn't attack is beyond me. This right here is where the Orange Cassidy gimmick is flawed. I love the schtick, don't get me wrong, but the slacker doesn't work as a character when he's getting pummeled as he is in the early going.
Cassidy is trying to mount some offense but Lee just shrugs him off at every turn. It's been all Brodie Lee throughout the commercial. We've easily got to be at/beyond 10 minutes past here. Cassidy is slumping to the ground, seemingly on purpose to throw Lee off. It works as Cassidy gets his 2nd wind. Diving DDT by Cassidy. Cassidy gets a close 2 after a DDT and a Beach Blast. John Silver gets in the way of an Orange Punch with VERY little warning from the referee. Discus Lariat and Mr. Brodie Lee gets the win. Way too much shenanigans from Silver throughout this match. It's like watching a really good Jay White match in New Japan, with Gedo interfering at will. Really takes away from the match itself.
Lights out....
Cody, with jet black hair, makes his return. No way Brodie Lee is getting involved with this with no money on the line. Instead, 5 gets to be the sacrificial lamb. Cody is laying into him HARD. Nice return by The American Nightmare. The match itself was good. As big as OC has gotten, I didn't forsee a scenario where he walked out with the belt.
It's a Dark Order kind of night as Brodie Lee is FURIOUS with Cody having interfered in his business. For some reason, Mr. Lee has a chain with a dog collar on either side. So I guess we're getting a Dog Collar Match.
Matt Hardy, in his 2nd straight appearance since announcing he was talking time off, is out with Private Party. Chris Jericho is Hardy's prime suspect in the attack on him last week. Almost on cue, Le Champion makes his appearance alongside Hager, Santana and Ortiz. Jericho goes on a rant about Sammy Guevara being out but, of course, it was a ruse and Sammy re-joins his compatriots on the ramp. Jericho pleads not guilty in the attack last week. Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy take the mic. Kassidy appreciates Hardy and Quen's help but he knows he has to confront Jericho for beating him last week. Kassidy wants him one-on-one next week. I'm 101% certain this'll be made offical within the next 42 minutes.
will always find it surreal when Tony Schiavone interviews Tully Blanchard in 2020. It takes me back 32 years. Tully informs us that, according to AEW Rules, they have the right to dictate the time limit on television matches. So next week, SCU will be challenging FTR for the titles in a match with a 20 minute time limit. Best Friends come out and they want a match right now. Almost looks like we're getting it but FTR pulls the football away ala Lucy at the last second.
It's Ivelisse and Diamante vs. Hikaru Shida and Thunder Rosa up next. You have to respect Thunder Rosa being in Los Angeles last night for a title defense against Priscilla Kelly and then flying across the country for this match. The woman is making her claim that she's the top female in wrestling 2020. Thunder Rosa's makeup tonight is in honor of Road Warrior Animal. Jim Ross has a lot of fun throwing it to picture in picture.
We're back. Things seem a little off as we get back but it leads to accidental Rosa knee strike on Shida. I honestly thought that would be it but Rosa made the save at the last second. Awkward little moment there with Diamante kicking out of the falcon arrow. Shida and Rosa get the win. I'm really surprised they didn't build to an NWA Title Match between the 2. It seemed like a logical next step. Seems a waste of a cross country flight for Thunder Rosa.
Chris Jericho accepts Kassidy's challenge before MJF interrupts him and they give each other phony praise until they bring up the "loser" remarks from last week. They did a highly entertaining job denying they called each other a loser. MJF claims he was talking about the limo driver and Jericho swore he was talking about Schiavone.
It took 23 minutes for the Jericho- Kassidy match to be made official next week.
I always feel bad for the "other guy" in those Good Rx commercials where the person next to him pays a normal price for their prescription but he's gotta sell a liver to make his co-pay.
Main event time. Feels like something really special when you consider Kingston is getting probably his first legit world title match in his 18 year career. Jeez Kingston's chop sounds like bullpen catcher's mitt in pregame warm ups. His chest looks like it's blistering up right then and there. Ref is really relaxing the rules for this world title match. The two have been out of the ring for way more than the 10 count will allow.
We're back from commercial and things have slowed down inside the ring. I feel bad for Archer being ill but, luckily, they had this storyline of Eddie Kingston not being eliminated from the All Out Battle Royal in their back pocket. I'm guessing there was some other endgame in mind and they had no choice but to use it here. The old adage is that if you have to replace a main eventer, you replace him or the match with something better, and I'd say a hard hitting world title match fills that bill. If memory serves me correctly, this is Moxley's 6th title defense. Moxley gets the win when Kingston passes out from the Bully Choke. The Lucha Bros come out and attack Moxley but here comes Will Hobbs and Darby Allin. Allin was last man standing until Ricky Starks came out and speared him. Taz is directing traffic here. Wild little scene as we go off the air with Kingston choking the AEW Champion.
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