It is Wednesday and AEW is coming from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago Illinois, which could get interesting. Our commentary team is Excalibur, Taz and Tony Schiavone. It’s time to see what the fallout is from Full Gear!
We start with William Regal in the ring who asks if we would like to hear from MJF. He then tells the crowd they will hear from him.
Next week.
MJF doesn’t have time to talk to people in Chicago as he is on the set of a movie and the crowd loudly chants Regal Sucks. They then have a non-PG=14 chant. And Regal is back to his old Posh British Bastard persona. He even has gone back to the facial expression that he has smelled a mountain of month old dirty diapers.
Jon Moxley comes out to get an answer. Regal refuses to leave the ring. Bryan Danielson slides into the ring to talk to Mox. Bryan makes the point that they have all done bad things. Bryan tells Mox not to hurt Regal, who has a ton of injuries. Mox is pacing in the ring trying to control himself. Bryan actually gets on his knees to beg Mox not to attack. Bryan explains that Regal taught him how to love his father with all of his troubles, and goes to pluck the heartstrings.
Mox does a great job of showing he is restraining himself as he grabs the mic. He goes face to face with Regal and tell him he wants Regal to run. He tells Regal to leave and keep on walking.
They have been teasing stuff with Bryan not being OK with the Blackpool Combat Club, so I wonder how that will tie in with all of that.
In the back, Renee Paquette is with Keith Lee and she asks where he stands with Swerve Strickland who shows up. Swerve covers the camera, so we’ll see where they go from here.
Orange Cassidy (All Atlantic Champion) vs Jake Hager
I like that Cassidy is ready to defend his belt at the drop of Jake Hager’s ridiculous bucket hat. It’s a twist to his “slacker” persona and works better for a championship.
They do a comedy bit with Cassidy taking Hager’s hat and Cassidy out thinking the Jericho Appreciate society that works for a laugh. They come back to another comedy bit and this is your reminder that Jake Hager is no longer considered a big monster, he’s a part of the JAS like 2.0 which is part of the comedy faction. Cassidy wins with a Casadora into the most devastating move in all of professional wrestling, the surprise roll up.
Winner and still All Atlantic Champion: Orange Cassidy
QT Marshall and the Factory are on their way to the ring. The Factory surround the ring, and then the lights go out. The lights come back and it’s time for the House of Black to return and beat the Best Friends down. The Factory applauds, so...they are the next to be taken down.
Referees and prelim wrestlers are out to take a beat down now. The crowd is cheering them, which shows where the Best Friends rank. Malakai Black grabs a mic and tells everyone to rise as we go to commercial. Great return, let’s see how they follow it up.
Ethan Page vs Ricky Starks in a World Title Tournament match
Starks has his shoulder wrapped up, and after the last match being a comedy match. This one is more meat and potatoes. We have Page as the cocky heel who sees Starks as a wounded animal and Starks trying to fight from underneath as a sympathetic babyface. Even when Starks gets in a big move, he’s unable to follow up due to being hurt.
The commentary team is messing with each other in this match, which doesn’t quite fit. When a match isn’t a big deal, I don’t mind if Taz and Excalbur are messing around, but this is is for a title shot with an injured babyface, save the banter for another match.
When they come back, Starks is selling his injury so well that you wonder if he can get any offense in. Starks does a dive, and Hathaway pushes Page out of the way and takes the blow before getting tosses from ringside. Starks has a big comeback after a super plex, Page eventually cuts him off and starts in with power moves. Starks has a final comeback and gets the pin and the win after two spears.
Winner and challenging on 12/14 for the AEW World Title: Ricky Starks
I think Starks is a solid challenger for MJF, but he sold WAY too well for this match to work for me. He acted as if he was unable to do much of anything, and if he sold less spectacularly, his powering up at the end would fit the match better.
We get a video about how Wardlow lost the TNT title to Samoa Joe.
Renee is in the back with Jade Cargill to talk about her feud with Bow Wow. Nest week, she will have a Baddie celebration...so someone is getting a face full of cake. Mark Sterling shows at the end to fire Kiera Hogan.
Death Triangle (Pac, Rey Fenix and Penta El Zero M) (AEW Trios Champions) vs The Elite (Nick and Matt Jackson, and Kenny Omega) #2 in a best of 7 series
The Elite comes out to a loud, mixed crowd reaction. It is NOT all boos. Death Triangle, however, mostly cheers.
Don Callis joins commentary. They dial down the sound of the crowd as everyone has pre-match shenanigans.
Kenny and Rey shake hands before Kenny immediately gives him a high knee when the bell rings and The Elite take control in a brawl in the ring. The Bucks brawl with Penta and Pac outside the ring as Kenny and Rey work in the ring. From here you know what you are going to get, lots of flips and dives and craziness.
Another thing about The Elite is that they are the ones who the early style of the company was built on. Will the fans still want that style as the rest of the show has become more traditional? They seem to be won over by the car crash pinball action The Elite work.
Pac hits a German Suplex on Kenny after Kenny comes off the ropes that looks like ti can kill a human being. Pac’s stuff always looks great. As Fenix hits a series of moves to take out both of the Bucks, the crowd explodes. The Bucks are back to working pure heel, which is best for them. I don’t think they could be a face anywhere, but in Chicago, they are leaning into the heel reaction.
When Pac is recovering, Matt Jackson is slid the bell hammer, and Penta comes into the ring and pulls out a bigger hammer and nails Matt with it allowing Pac to get the pin and the win.
Winners and up 2 – 0: AEW Trios Champions Death Triangle.
They keep teasing that Rey is not happy with Pac and Penta cheating.
enee is out with an announcement that Thunder Rosa not being able to return in the near future, and Thunder Rosa has agreed to forfeit the title. So, now Jamie Hayter is the NEW Women’s (not interim) Champion.
Hayter comes with Britt Baker and Rebel. Britt Baker does all the talking in the interview segment saying that Renee needs to get out of the way.
Tay Melo and Anna Jay A. S. vs Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter vs Skye Blue and Willow Nightingale
This is a pretty standard tag match where everyone gets some time to shine, and there is no chance the crowd after the last Car Crash. I’m not a fan of three team matches, and there is not much heat between the three groups, so in a lot of ways, it’s just an excuse to get everyone some reps in the ring. That being said, it’s a well worked match and shows how everyoen involved has grown over the last year.
Winners: Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter
After the match, Rebel goes for a high five from Hayter and gets left hanging.
Renee is with FTR and Top Flight, and Dax compliments Top Flight, and he wants them to take over tag team wrestling with them. Top Flight says a match between the four of them is a dream match, so they will be facing each other on Rampage.
The Acclaimed are up next. They have a quick promo interrupted by Sonjay, Jeff Jarrett, and Jay Lethal. Now we can hear the CM Punk chants. We then get our scissoring moment. I think this should have been after the Trios match to let the crowd simmer down a bit and then get ramped up for that three way.
Chris Jericho (Ring of Honor World Champion) vs Tomohiro Ishii
Ian Riccaboni joins commentary, and he explains to us why Ishii is an important figure in a few quick lines.
They start with a slap fest, but it starts with Jericho yelling at Ishii in Japanese. It got goofy toward the end, but Ishii just looks like he’s killing you with his blows. The story being told is that Ishii is brutal and Jericho is trying to out think him. LOTS of standing the striking, which is Ishii’s style.
Jericho’s chest is split open from all of Ishii’s chops when we come back from commercial. I don’t think I have ever seen that before. It just looks brutal. The whole “out smart him” has been thrown out the window. They move into a more traditional match when they come back from the commercial break, but the moves are slow as both men are beaten down. Jericho starts hitting finishers, but Ishii is able to kick out at two every time.
The end of the match is Jericho locking Ishii into the Lion Tamer, and as much as Ishii tries to fight out, he has to tap, but after flipping Jericho the bird.
Winner and still ROH World Champion: Chris Jericho
Just a brutal match that, like most of Ishii’s matches, looked like a shoot fight. If you don’t like blood drawn hard way, you won’t like the match, but it felt like more of a MMA fight than a wrestling match in most ways.
Jericho goes up the ramp to go after Ian, but Claudio Castagnoli is comes from the back and nails him to stop him.
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