November 3rd, 2021
Independence, Missouri
Commentators - Excalibur, Jim Ross, & Tony Schiavone
ITS WEDNESDAY YALLLL :’)
1) Kenny Omega vs. Alan Angels
This is perfectly fine, I guess. They do stuff. The best part for me was the opening moments when Angels charges Kenny with a running drop kick. Then the fire wears off for me. I never saw their first meeting in April 2020 where Angels kicked out of a bunch of V Triggers and made everyone mad. But.. this didn’t make me wanna go back and watch it because truthfully, I can’t remember much of anything Angels has done since. It doesn’t upset me like it does others, but I also have no big reason to care about the stuff done in this match. The fire from Angels early is good, the commentary hyping him up as the underdog who may have Kenny’s number for some strange reason is also good, and the V Triggers at the end looked nice. But largely, it meant much of nothing. Still a fun stop in route to Full Gear, though! I like that they circled back around to this. Omega wins after selling Angels short with a lazy cover off a V Trigger leading him to hit a couple more brutal ones and properly cover him for the victory.
Match rating - **
After the match, Kenny Omega tells Angels that he has the power to give, but he also the power to take. Hangman Page makes the save. They tease Omega getting the buckshot lariat, but he ducks at the last second which was awesome. Hangman grabs the title that Omega accidentally left in the ring and says Omega better hold onto it because he’s got 10 more days! Let’s go!!!
CM Punk hits the ring next. Punk brings up two people who aren’t here tonight. One of which is Jon Moxley who has a good reason not be here. Punk says he is god damn proud of Moxley and encourages anyone at home who may need help to not be afraid to reach out for it. Punk then brings up the second person.. Eddie Kingston. He says he knows Eddie thinks he’s a tough guy and he wants him to apologize on Rampage on Friday for interrupting him. A fan says to fight him, Punk says he would if he was here, but since he’s not this will have to do. Punk says he will see him on Friday in St Louis, where he will be waiting for his apology.
The Young Bucks & Adam Cole (and Brandon Cutler) are backstage for an interview with Alex Marvez. In the midst of it, Christian Cage walks up… then Luchasaurus. The Bucks say they don’t want to fight tonight only to throw the first punch. The five men fight out to the stage. Jungle Boy pops up out of nowhere with a huge dive off the stage onto the Bucks. Christian drags Matt up to the stage and teases an unprettier, but Nick super kicks him from behind for the save. Christian gets the last laugh, though, as he brings out a chair and hits a CONCHAIRTO on Adam Cole who sells the hell out of it. That segment took a while to get going, but that final moment was super cool.
Ruby Soho & Kris Statlander pre-tape. Both women respect each other and Stat looks up to Ruby, but both are looking to advance in the TBS Title tournament. Ruby says she knows Statlander will be one of her toughest opponents, they collide on Rampage this Friday.
2) FTR (c) vs. Aerostar & Samuray Del Sol - AAA Tag Team Title Match
It’s v cool that this is happening. I’ve wanted to see Del Sol in AEW since he got released. This felt a little off beat almost the entire time. Thankfully, Aerostar & Del Sol got their stuff in, but you could tell FTR had never worked them before and didn't know all their stuff that well. Plus, Aerostar seemed to have hurt his leg on a dive to the floor, which put things a little off pace as well. Still a fun time none the less. FTR wins with a roll up using the ropes.
Match rating - **1/4
Nyla Rose backstage tells Shida to enjoy her 50 wins because she won’t be winning when they meet in the TBS Title tournament. Nyla says it’s going to be an easy night for her & Vickie and they leave.
The Inner Circle comes out to pick their opponents from the American Top Team lineup for Full Gear. It’s much like every other Jericho/Top Team segment. Has good moments, but also is way too extra at points with loads of forced punch lines. Santana’s promo was great and AEW needs to sign Paige Van Zant because she rocks. Everything else is about as textbook as you can get for those involved, and it goes on and on. Inner Circle picks Santos, Andrei Arlovski and DAN LAMBERT to face in the Street Fight at the PPV. Lambert blows a gasket as we cut backstage.
Backstage, Matt Sydal has found a new young up & comer in Lee Moriarty and challenges Lio Rush & Dante Martin to a tag match against them. YESSSS TAIGA STYLEEEEE!!!
3) Jamie Hayter (w/ Britt Baker & Rebel) vs. Anna Jay - TBS Title Eliminator Tournament Match
Jamie Jamie Jamie. What a queen. This doesn’t go long and most of it is during the commercial, but it’s definitely not bad at all. Jamie actually can be commended for guiding Anna to a suffice little contest here that’s better than a lot of recent women’s stuff on TV in the last month or two. Jamie wins off some distractions and stuff.
Match rating - **1/4
After the match, Jamie, Britt & Rebel attack Anna further. TAY CONTI with the big save to touch on her upcoming title match with Britt at Full Gear. Numbers catch up to her and THUNDER ROSA comes out next. Awesome pops for both women and now that the numbers are even, the babyfaces stand tall!
MJF comes out and cuts a promo on Darby who’s sitting somewhere in the crowd. This leads to our next big brawl of the night and it actually is probably my favorite of them all despite how long it took us to get there. Ima skip all the random shit and get to the good shit, Darby and MJF lock up in the crowd and start trading blows. Darby slings MJF hard as hell into the barricade and hits a running clothesline that flips MJF over the barricade and it fucking rocks. Awesome stuff.
4) Cody Rhodes vs. Andrade El Idolo
I enjoyed the fuck out of this. Stiff shots to start and a cool moment with Cody taking the buckles and flipping to the apron only for Andrade to have it scouted and flip over the ropes onto the apron to meet him there. Just a really good wrestling match here. Andrade truly has found his groove. Shit breaks down at the end when Andrade’s assistant hops on the apron. Arn knocks him down. Off the distraction, FTR is able to come out of nowhere and clock Cody with the tag belts when he attempts a dive. This allows Andrade to finish Cody off.
Match rating - ***
After the match, FTR & Andrade attack Cody. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard tease a brawl. The Lucha Bros make the big save and it kinda rules. Lots going on here.
Tony Schiavone is in the ring with John Silver to talk about his match with Adam Cole on Rampage on Friday. Silver says he is gonna kick some BUDGE ASS.
Also on Friday, CM Punk goes face to face with Eddie Kingston and The Bunny faces Red Velvet.
Bryan Danielson joins the commentary booth for the next match! Epic pop for him as always <3
5) Orange Cassidy vs. Miro - AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament Semi Final Round Match
Chuck, Yuta, & Stat enter with Orange <3333 my heartttttt. GOD shows up and holy hell I’m hyped up. Matt Hardy is in the crowd for some reason watching Orange. I thought that damn feud was over with! Anyways, bell rings and lets goooo. This is absolutely perfect. I didn’t know how they’d do with less than 10 minutes of TV left, but they crushed it and I couldn’t ask for more from this match. Orange crashing Miro through a table was unexpected and gave us an awesome false finish when Bryce got to 9.875 on a potential count out. Orange gets a great near fall or two to follow it up. Shit had me on the edge of my seat and the crowd was white hot as well. Miro shuts it all down, though and taps Orange out.
Match rating - ***1/4
Bryan Danielson immediately leaves the commentary booth and begins walking to the ring to confront Miro!!! Dude this main event ruled and has Miro looking like even more of a monster and now Danielson has his game face on.. fuck. This feels big and… the commentary team starts plugging Rampage and match graphics start flowing in the corner.. taking all the focus off of a badass stare down. Yikes. That sucked. It may be more of a gripe for me than others because I’ve been noticing and being annoyed by the way they do this for a while now. Also doesn’t help that it happened when I was supremely invested in what was actually happening on screen. None the less, they were able to really roll well with the punches of Mox needing time off and develop these semi finals and the PPV finals into a match that feels just as big as we expected Mox/Danielson to feel. So hell yeah.
Final thoughts: I don’t always do a final thoughts on these reviews, but tonight I feel the need. The two worst segments of the night for me were the Inner Circle/American Top Team and the slow motion brawl between Elite & Jurassic Express. The Jericho/Inner Circle stuff I pretty much covered earlier. It just dragged on and on and was absolute Jericho overload. You could tell he came up with this segment layout and he & Lambert had a field day. There’s some funny and good stuff packed into these, but it ultimately feels so god damn extra and fuels my disinterest as a result. Santana & Paige Van Zant deserve absolutely no flack, though. The true gems of this segment. Then that Elite/Jurassic Express brawl… I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that. Outside of the Jungle Boy dive, this had no fire. End of story. Especially after such an awesome attack from Cole last week, this felt like a failed attempt at a hype ass brawl that honestly didn’t do anything to enhance the issue between those guys. I’d have rather that time went to a match.
Other than those two things, nothing really bothered me on this show and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest for the most part. Things felt jumbled together at points. The opener and the Punk promo were good, then things seemed to kinda happen until the end of the MJF/Darby segment, Cody/Andrade, & Orange/Miro, which ended the show hella strong. All in all, as always, I’m happy to have spent my Wednesday night after work watching this show. Having AEW to look forward to mid week makes this my favorite day of the week and god damnit I love them for that.
Goodnight y'all!
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