February 19th, 2020
Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Jim Ross, Excalibur, & Tony Schiavone
1) Tag Team Battle Royal - The Young Bucks vs. CIMA & T-Hawk vs. Jack Evans & Angelico vs. Butcher & Blade vs. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Luchasarus & Jungle Boy vs. Best Friends vs. LAX vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. Private Party
Insane amount of shit goes on here. Dark Order teases their leader being revealed which distracts SCU and gets them eliminated. Scorpio dives onto them in the crowd. A discreet Raven is sitting near them. Hmm. Best Friends get a good moment here. Luchasarus and Butcher have a crazy exchange here. The crowd is HOT and everyone is over. Lots of character and story development. I'd argue everyone came out of this looking better than they went in. Except T-Hawk. Poor T-Hawk never gets to shine :( BUT great finish here though with an insane superkick spot from Matt Jackson to an interfering Sammy Guevara as Jackson eliminates both members of LAX on his own. The Elite will clash at Revolution!
Match rating - ***1/2
2) Kris Statlander vs. Shanna
My new favorite woman in AEW, Britt Baker is on commentary. Couldn't care less for her in the fall but she's flipped a switch and it rules. See last week's promo for reference. Shanna is 1-3 and hasn't been seen in a while so I expect this to be a squash anddddd it's not WWE so it's not! Both women looked good in this 8 minutes sprint and even got a this is awesome chant. While I wouldn't say it was awesome, it was fun! Statlander wins!
Match rating - ***
Tony Schiavone has new AEW Women's Champion Nyla Rose for an interview after replays of her defeating Riho last week air. She completely owned this with the line "I break bitches" that got a pop from the crowd despite them booing the hell out of her. She takes the mic from Tony and turns this fully into her segment. Really really good stuff to build her up as the face of this division. Kris Statlander comes back out and gives the title belt her signature boop. Big Swole also comes up and tries to tussle a little bit but security comes out to keep things calm.
3) Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb
One of the biggest developments from last week was the debut of Jeff Cobb as a member of the Inner Circle. That leads us here. Chris Jericho comes out title in hand to sit ringside with Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager in support of Jeff Cobb. The crowd is singing along with Jericho's theme song, even acapella. Even though he's a heel, thats so sick. This match is pretty much just Cobb dominating Moxley and showing the mainstream AEW audience what he's about. Mox picks up the underdog victory with a cradle pin. The Inner Circle attacks immediately after the bell. This leads to Dustin Rhodes running down. He gets taken out and the lights go out... "I Fell" by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal begins to play and Darby Allin proceeds to get one of the biggest pops in the short history of AEW. WOWWWWWW. Darby returns and bests everyone besides Cobb, including Hager by the use of his board and specifically targets his Revolution opponent Sammy Guevara. Moxley takes out Cobb when he threatens Darby and the babyfaces stand tall. I'm dying for a Cobb/Jericho/Guevara-Moxley/Darby/Dustin trios match or something of the sort next week now. PLSSSS.
4) Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (c) vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix) - AEW World Tag Team Title Match
First defense for Omega & Page outside of SCU. This was miles better than the solid encounter these two teams had back in December, but those matches definitely set the backstory and made this one better as they did a few callbacks to how that match ended which added to the drama of several of the false finishes down the stretch. This built very well and the second half was nuts. It had me grasping for air on several occasions. Omega & Page retain in a TV barnburner. The Bucks come out to help them/confront them as they will challenge them at Revolution.
Match rating - ****
AEW has action figures now! They show The Bucks, Kenny, Cody, Brandi, and Jericho getting their first look at their figures. Real cool.
5) Cody (w/ Arn Anderson & Brandi Rhodes) vs. Wardlow (w/ MJF) - Steel Cage Match
3) Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb
One of the biggest developments from last week was the debut of Jeff Cobb as a member of the Inner Circle. That leads us here. Chris Jericho comes out title in hand to sit ringside with Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager in support of Jeff Cobb. The crowd is singing along with Jericho's theme song, even acapella. Even though he's a heel, thats so sick. This match is pretty much just Cobb dominating Moxley and showing the mainstream AEW audience what he's about. Mox picks up the underdog victory with a cradle pin. The Inner Circle attacks immediately after the bell. This leads to Dustin Rhodes running down. He gets taken out and the lights go out... "I Fell" by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal begins to play and Darby Allin proceeds to get one of the biggest pops in the short history of AEW. WOWWWWWW. Darby returns and bests everyone besides Cobb, including Hager by the use of his board and specifically targets his Revolution opponent Sammy Guevara. Moxley takes out Cobb when he threatens Darby and the babyfaces stand tall. I'm dying for a Cobb/Jericho/Guevara-Moxley/Darby/Dustin trios match or something of the sort next week now. PLSSSS.
4) Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (c) vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix) - AEW World Tag Team Title Match
First defense for Omega & Page outside of SCU. This was miles better than the solid encounter these two teams had back in December, but those matches definitely set the backstory and made this one better as they did a few callbacks to how that match ended which added to the drama of several of the false finishes down the stretch. This built very well and the second half was nuts. It had me grasping for air on several occasions. Omega & Page retain in a TV barnburner. The Bucks come out to help them/confront them as they will challenge them at Revolution.
Match rating - ****
AEW has action figures now! They show The Bucks, Kenny, Cody, Brandi, and Jericho getting their first look at their figures. Real cool.
5) Cody (w/ Arn Anderson & Brandi Rhodes) vs. Wardlow (w/ MJF) - Steel Cage Match
They replay us the build to this match. MJF has put Cody through hell and does moreso here as Wardlow busts Cody open a few minutes in. Wardlow puts a beating on Cody with blood running down his face. Cool moment with MJF challenging Arn Anderson on the outside to slam the door on Cody's face and turn on him like he did his father. Instead, Arn slams MJF with it. They also have a spot with Brandi hitting MJF with a chair as he tried to climb the cage. But the moment from this that will live forever is a fearless, bleeding, babyface Cody Rhodes doing a moonsault off the top of the cage onto Wardlow - without even looking back! INSANE. Cody finishes it.
Match rating - ***3/4
MJF lays on the ramp in peril and shocked as Cody celebrates on top of the cage with the entire arena behind him. BABYFACE OF THE GOD DAMN YEAR. This feud rules.
AEW knocks it out of the park for a second week in a row.
Match rating - ***3/4
MJF lays on the ramp in peril and shocked as Cody celebrates on top of the cage with the entire arena behind him. BABYFACE OF THE GOD DAMN YEAR. This feud rules.
AEW knocks it out of the park for a second week in a row.
No comments:
Post a Comment