All Elite Wrestling

[UVA_Guy81]

My favorite matches were the opener and the Claudio and ZSJ matches.
I’m still trying to figure out where exactly in the match Adam Cole would’ve gotten the concussion. One of Okada’s drop kicks? Just sucks we didn’t see him hit at least one Rainmaker.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Also, two mistakes that made the refs look bad. The count in the tag title match where it definitely sounded like a three and the other being Rick Knox looking directly at Gedo grabbing Hangman’s foot and not doing anything to stop it. Honestly surprised that they didn’t have a NJPW ref for that match since it was for their title.

 

[fastforward]

I've only watched the 1st 2 matches of Forbidden Door so far. I was impressed. I thought it would end up being worse than Double or Nothing, (which I abandoned). Hopefully the rest of the show is this good.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

I've only watched the 1st 2 matches of Forbidden Door so far. I was impressed. I thought it would end up being worse than Double or Nothing, (which I abandoned). Hopefully the rest of the show is this good.

The two best matches worth watching was the opener and the ZSJ-Claudio match. I will also say that the Orange Cassidy and Will Ospreay match was better than I was expecting.

 

[fastforward]

So far - the opening 3 matches have been good. The women's match lacked any charisma and I hate to see people being dropped on their heads - ok/decent/average match and by far the weakest of the 1st 6 matches. I'm not a fan of the 'pretend' style of wrestling so it goes without saying i'm not a fan of the Young Bucks or Sting, but with that said what they produced was good 'for that style'. Obviously i'm not a fan of Cassidy either and didn't like the first 5-10 minutes of that match. However I do like the more athletic and technical moves and I thought the 2nd half of that match was excellent. I've just started the ZSJ-Claudio match. So far this is the best AEW card i've seen, which is a big surprise because my expectations were low. I'm not really looking forward to the last 2 matches though. We all have our favourites and pet hates.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

So far - the opening 3 matches have been good. The women's match lacked any charisma and I hate to see people being dropped on their heads - ok/decent/average match and by far the weakest of the 1st 6 matches. I'm not a fan of the 'pretend' style of wrestling so it goes without saying i'm not a fan of the Young Bucks or Sting, but with that said what they produced was good 'for that style'. Obviously i'm not a fan of Cassidy either and didn't like the first 5-10 minutes of that match. However I do like the more athletic and technical moves and I thought the 2nd half of that match was excellent. I've just started the ZSJ-Claudio match. So far this is the best AEW card i've seen, which is a big surprise because my expectations were low. I'm not really looking forward to the last 2 matches though. We all have our favourites and pet hates.

The IWGP title match was fine but the abrupt ending due to Cole’s injury hurt it a bit as it still had a few minutes of life to it.
Agree about the Bucks match. You usually know what you’re getting going into those. So if you like them, you’ll like their match.
In the All Atlantic title match, Connors was way out of place with the other three. Would’ve been much better I think if Ishii wasn’t hurt. PAC winning was the biggest shock of the night as I thought Miro was going to win.

 

[Judge Fudge]

The IWGP title match was fine but the abrupt ending due to Cole’s injury hurt it a bit as it still had a few minutes of life to it.
Agree about the Bucks match. You usually know what you’re getting going into those. So if you like them, you’ll like their match.
In the All Atlantic title match, Connors was way out of place with the other three. Would’ve been much better I think if Ishii wasn’t hurt. PAC winning was the biggest shock of the night as I thought Miro was going to win.

Conners was Impressive but ya out of sync a bit.

Liked the Whole Forbidden Door. Got me thinking about buying into NJPW world.

Spoiler: Something about BandG

Who thought Eddie was going to toss Claudio off the cage tonight

 

[wildturkey]

Conners was Impressive but ya out of sync a bit.

Liked the Whole Forbidden Door. Got me thinking about buying into NJPW world.

Spoiler: Something about BandG

Who thought Eddie was going to toss Claudio off the cage tonight

Crossed my mind briefly but then realized its too early for that. They did enough to start watering the seeds for their feud.

Show was really good tonight. BnG was great (though I liked Anarchy in the Arena better) but I also got a really big kick out of Danhausen/FTR vs The Assclaimed. Everything about it is so stupid, but it works and I love it. Also, Luchasaurus' new look is pretty tight.

BTW, early word right now is Santana is seriously hurt. Looks like he blew out his knee basically right when he entered the match. He went down and they eventually took him out and to the back.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Another injury is definitely not what this company needed right now.
As for heel Luchasaurus, I’m not opposed to it but he’s going to have to get beat so Jungle Boy gets to Christian. After that, what does the guy do is the question.
I feel like the pacing for these B&G matches has been lackluster. It usually goes well during all the entries and once everyone is in, it just stalls for a while until the end. They could cut probably 10-15 minutes off these easily.

 

[wildturkey]

Another injury is definitely not what this company needed right now.
As for heel Luchasaurus, I’m not opposed to it but he’s going to have to get beat so Jungle Boy gets to Christian. After that, what does the guy do is the question.
I feel like the pacing for these B&G matches has been lackluster. It usually goes well during all the entries and once everyone is in, it just stalls for a while until the end. They could cut probably 10-15 minutes off these easily.

Word on the street is Santana was out the door anyway. He hasn't been tagging with Ortiz in or outside of AEW for months now and has been taking bookings as a singles guy.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Word on the street is Santana was out the door anyway. He hasn't been tagging with Ortiz in or outside of AEW for months now and has been taking bookings as a singles guy.

I had heard rumors of that as well. I’m sure part of it was that they weren’t ever serious contenders for the tag titles and were flunkies for Jericho for most of their run. They definitely deserved better for sure. Not sure if he’d go to WWE or just do Indy’s or whatnot.

 

[futballiscool]

Really surprised Best Friends/PnP never got a major push in the tag division after their street fight on Dynamite.

I'm not sure it was the best match in company history but it might have been the most entertaining

 

[The Q]

I had heard rumors of that as well. I’m sure part of it was that they weren’t ever serious contenders for the tag titles and were flunkies for Jericho for most of their run. They definitely deserved better for sure. Not sure if he’d go to WWE or just do Indy’s or whatnot.

They had a few tag titles matches

And Involved in the first stadium stampede and blood and guts

They had a lot of stuff going on even when not in the title picture

 

[ill]

Another injury is definitely not what this company needed right now.
As for heel Luchasaurus, I’m not opposed to it but he’s going to have to get beat so Jungle Boy gets to Christian. After that, what does the guy do is the question.
I feel like the pacing for these B&G matches has been lackluster. It usually goes well during all the entries and once everyone is in, it just stalls for a while until the end. They could cut probably 10-15 minutes off these easily.

huh just learned Jungle Boy is Luke Perry's son. Did not know that.

 

[wildturkey]

I had heard rumors of that as well. I’m sure part of it was that they weren’t ever serious contenders for the tag titles and were flunkies for Jericho for most of their run. They definitely deserved better for sure. Not sure if he’d go to WWE or just do Indy’s or whatnot.

Really surprised Best Friends/PnP never got a major push in the tag division after their street fight on Dynamite.

I'm not sure it was the best match in company history but it might have been the most entertaining

It's a little bit of rotten luck for PnP. There are times where their booking could be better. But at the same time, there's been times where it looks like they are building them up for a run and something will happen. Santana has gotten injured a couple of times and that killed their push. Early on, it looked like they were gonna win the titles and Santana had a death in his family that really affected him deeply so he took time off. That halted the title run too. So you can make the case AEW tried, and could probably try a little harder still, but unforeseen circumstances just prevented the plans from happening. The timing just never worked out.

 

[Judge Fudge]

It's a little bit of rotten luck for PnP. There are times where their booking could be better. But at the same time, there's been times where it looks like they are building them up for a run and something will happen. Santana has gotten injured a couple of times and that killed their push. Early on, it looked like they were gonna win the titles and Santana had a death in his family that really affected him deeply so he took time off. That halted the title run too. So you can make the case AEW tried, and could probably try a little harder still, but unforeseen circumstances just prevented the plans from happening. The timing just never worked out.

I have been really hard on a past occasion but those are the breaks sometimes.

Ask Ken Anderson about his WWE run

 

[Judge Fudge]

In an update, Dave Meltzer wrote in the newest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the finish was rushed because Cole suffered what is believed to be a “very serious” concussion.

“Cole, who has been wrestling with a torn labrum (shoulder), suffered what was believed to have been a very serious concussion, leading to a rushed and awkward finish of the IWGP title match as Jay White pinned him,” wrote Meltzer. (H/t WrestleTalk)

Meltzer also noted that Cole is still dealing with the torn labrum, so surgery and/or rehab may be necessary, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

WrestleZone will provide more details as they become available.

 

[wildturkey]

That Royal Rampage was kinda cool. It's a little hard to follow at time, but so is a Royal Rumble/battle royal. But with the two rings, its less crowded so people can do more stuff as opposed to just a bunch of people laying on the ground while 2 to 4 guys get their spots in. The finish was pretty badass too

 

[fastforward]

Also, two mistakes that made the refs look bad. The count in the tag title match where it definitely sounded like a three and the other being Rick Knox looking directly at Gedo grabbing Hangman’s foot and not doing anything to stop it. Honestly surprised that they didn’t have a NJPW ref for that match since it was for their title.

To be fair the Rick Knox incident was in a 4-way match and for the last 30 years just about every multi-way match in every franchise has been a no count-out, no disqualification match. I don't remember the announcer stating any rules and maybe that's what the problem was. I didn't have a problem with a no-call. What was the referee supposed to do? How could he DQ someone when the infringement was from a non participant. If he DQed someone it would become a 3-way and it wouldn't help the person who was fouled. What the ref could, (and should), have done was have the non participant removed from ringside.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

To be fair the Rick Knox incident was in a 4-way match and for the last 30 years just about every multi-way match in every franchise has been a no count-out, no disqualification match. I don't remember the announcer stating any rules and maybe that's what the problem was. I didn't have a problem with a no-call. What was the referee supposed to do? How could he DQ someone when the infringement was from a non participant. If he DQed someone it would become a 3-way and it wouldn't help the person who was fouled. What the ref could, (and should), have done was have the non participant removed from ringside.

He was either not positioned right or he looked like an idiot. Whenever a ref catches something like that, they should toss the person immediately.
They very rarely issue count outs or dq’s in AEW, so that would’ve been out of the question. If they did, how many tag teams would be dq’d for being in the ring double teaming longer than the supposed 10 count they have to get out of the ring?