SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
NEWS NOTE
• ROH Supercard of Honor has been postponed until All In Texas weekend where it will take the place of Death Before Dishonor which in turn moves to December.
INTRO
Last week AEW delivered not only a milestone edition of Dynamite, but one of the best episodes in years. A lot of analysts and fans alike viewed it as better than this past weekend’s WrestleMania. Will Ospreay and Konosuke Takeshita stole the show with an incredible 21-minute match that had the crowd in the gorgeous MGM Music Hall at Fenway on its feet. Ospreay pulled out the win with Storm Breaker, punching his ticket to the finals at Double or Nothing.
The other semi-final saw “Hangman” Adam Page defeat the debuting Josh Alexander who then promptly joined the Don Callis Family. It’ll be interesting to explore the history between Don Callis and Alexander, but the Walking Weapon feels like a good fit for Callis’s crew. I like the emphasis being out on the DCF. Having a strong heel faction ready to slide in once the Death Riders are finally vanquished is good planning. My only qualm is that the just-returned-from-injury Trent Baretta and newly turned heel Rocky Romero feel out of place amongst these dynamic athletes Callis has assembled.
Tonight’s show needs to continue the momentum from last week. The Young Bucks return to the ring this week against Kevin Knight & “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Expect Swerve Strickland to be involved, perhaps Kenny Omega too.
The final semi-final match on the women’s side of the Owen Hart Cup Tournament takes place tonight as well. In the words of the late great Prince who died nine years ago Monday, “let’s go crazy.”
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
Latest Developments
The Will in this case was Will Hobbs who subbed for the injured Hook and helped Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata wrest the trios titles from the grasp of “Mox +the Mechanics” and hand the insurgent heels their first significant loss.
Analysis
At the top of the show, the commentators announced that Hook had been attacked by the Death Riders and taken to the hospital. In reality, it was a cover for Hook not being medically cleared after reportedly suffering a concussion the week before. Samoa Joe and Shibata were said to be determined to fight alone.
When it came time for the match, it had the unenviable task of following the incredible Ospreay vs. Takeshita match. Given how matches involving Mox and the Death Riders have gone, there was reason to be concerned. The champions entered first walking into the arena from the streets of Boston. As Joe and Shibata then made their way down, they paused; that’s when Powerhouse Hobbs was revealed as their substitute partner.
The match was pretty good, but like most Mox matches it came down to the finish. First Willow Nightingale prevented Mox from using a chair to get disqualified. When the Bucks sauntered to ringside, Swerve popped up to wipe them out with a double Swerve Stomp and send them packing over the barricade. Marina Shafir attempted to interfere only to be obliterated by Willow with a clothesline. Hobbs neutralized Yuta with a uranage on a the unyielding announce table. Shibata put Claudio to sleep on the ramp. That left Mox to be choked out in the ring by Joe thus giving the Opps the win and the trios titles.
The babyface locker room emptied out in celebration of the Death Riders losing after many months of dominating AEW. On a night where AEW celebrated surpassing Nitro in terms of aired episodes, this scene was reminiscent of the episode of Nitro where Lex Luger defeated “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title. At least this win didn’t undermine an ongoing major world title program and get undone at the next available opportunity. The babyfaces – Team AEW, if you will – were due for a big win and it made sense to set up the celebration to coincide with celebrating AEW’s company achievement.
The next night on Collision, The Death Riders created anarchy at the beginning of the show attacking ringside crew members and destroying cameras and other equipment. Mox cut a promo acknowledging how much of a badass Samoa Joe is and challenging him to a world title match presumably at Double or Nothing.
Later, Claudio tried to mitigate the loss of the Trios Titles by answering Adam Cole’s TNT Title open challenge, but failed to bring the belt home after falling victim to a crucifix pin. A frustrated Claudio flipped over the announce table in what Tony Schiavone rightfully called a temper tantrum. With the Death Riders on the back foot after a rough week expect them to get their heat back in some form or fashion tonight.
Grade: A-
Daddy’s Home!
Latest Developments
Christian Cage returned from several weeks of self-imposed exile, but the tension within the Patriarchy remained.
Analysis
Nick Wayne was in the midst of cutting a promo backstage when Kip Sabian noticed Christian Cage lurking off to the side. Christian walked up and picked up right where he left off, in Nick’s face.
To his credit, Nick Wayne didn’t back down. He told Christian that he believed Christian cashed in his contact when he did because he couldn’t stand the idea of Adam Copeland winning the AEW World Title before him. Christian admired Nick’s gumption and told him that not only was he responsible for getting Nick in New Japan’s Battle of the Super Juniors, he arranged an ROH TV Title match for him for the following night on Collision. He warned him not to disappoint his father. Nick didn’t disappoint him. After a fun match, Nick defeated Komander with the Prodigy Plex.
This was good. Nick Wayne continues to come into his own. I could do without another ROH Title on AEW TV, but I am interested to see what he does in the BOSJ.
As far as Christian goes, if the goal is for him to turn face in the not-too-distant future, this wasn’t a good start. Christian didn’t come across the least bit likable. He was his usual smarmy self. Turning someone face by virtue of them getting jumped out of their group is never the best course of action, so I hope there’s a plan in place to make Christian at least a little sympathetic before he’s inevitably booted from the Patriarchy.
Grade: B
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: CLICK HERE (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)
Dreamweavers
Latest Developments
Mercedes Moné and Athena delivered an excellent match to open the show. Mercedes won with the aid of a handful of Athena’s trunks.
Analysis
The crowd chanted “Holy s—!” before the women even locked up, that’s how much this match was anticipated. Once they did lock up, they did not disappoint. The match opened with a collar and elbow tie up that ended with both women crashing onto the ramp.
It took a minute for them to find some rhythm, but once they did it lead to some really good work. There were some innovative counters like Athena dodging a Meterora and hitting a springboard stunner to the floor or avoiding Mercedes again and hitting a brutal snap slam on the apron. In the end, Mercedes blocked an O-Face and turned into a modified victory roll with a handful of tights for the win.
Even though I was against this match taking place now, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it felt like they left enough in the chamber for another match down the road. It was notable that the announcers didn’t bring attention to Mercedes cheating. Perhaps they correct that tonight.
Initially, I took Toni Storm’s appearance in the balcony after the match to be a foreshadowing of the outcome of the tournament but she was on commentary the next night when Kris Statlander got the pin on Harley Cameron ahead of Stat’s semifinal match with Jamie Hayter tonight. I expect that match to he super physical. Hayter likely emerges victorious as I can’t see Stat challenging Toni on the biggest stage of the year or losing to Mercedes for a third straight time.
Grade: B+
The Ho Train Has A New Conductor
Latest Developments
MJF used a bevy of women and an expensive gold watch to try and bribe his way into the Hurt Syndicate in a segment that was reminiscent of a bygone era.
Analysis
The Hurt Syndicate defended their tag team titles against The Gates of Agony. Kaun & Liona got the match off to a hot start and were game opponents, but ultimately fell after Bobby Lashley cut Liona in half on the floor with one of the smoothest, cleanest blindside spears you’ll ever see and followed that up by spearing Kaun out of his boots for the pin. They didn’t get to bask in their victory long as MJF made his way to the ring.
After some perfunctory congratulations, Max got right to the point, once again expressing his desire to get into the Hurt Syndicate and saying he had a gift for the men. That’s when he called out this group of beautiful buxom women. He attempted to use them to buy his way into the group. Shelton Benjamin was distracted by the women (apparently, he’s never seen cleavage before), but Lashley was unmoved. Shelton got on the mic and asked for the watch off MJF’s wrist. Max demanded a vote first. MVP gave a thumbs up. Shelton hesitated but ultimately gave the thumbs down. Max gave him the watch anyway and vowed to win him over.
My first thought when MJF brought the women out was that he’d placed a phone call to The Godfather. This felt like a segment from Raw in 1999 straight out the warped mind of a certain writer whose name I refuse use. While there were moments of levity, overall, this segment was distasteful.
What’s more, the Hurt Syndicate didn’t come off as strongly enough opposed to the whole thing, especially with Shelton gawking over the women like a teenage boy with his first Playboy. If they’d at least isolated MJF in his grossness and misogyny, that would’ve been one thing. MJF has already shown himself to be a sexist pig, so no harm there. MVP and Shelton implicitly cosigning this was eye-rolling. I expect stuff like this from that emotionally stunted at puberty New York bro, not Tony Khan. It needs to stay in the past where it belongs.
When it comes to the larger angle, it seems like maybe MJF is wearing Shelton down but Bobby remains a hard no even after MVP attempted to convince to put his personal feelings aside for business. My guess is as soon as the Hurt Syndicate agrees to let him in, he tells them to go to hell and we have a proper feud.
Grade: C
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.