Alright I’m at the show tonight. Never get a chance to give live thoughts so I thought I’d chip in here. Haven’t seen raw yet, so no spoilers
Gotta be honest. Not great attendance. I’m from Vancouver and when I saw the seating in the venue I thought it was too big. It was. In a venue that seats maybe, 5,000 for wrestling I saw like 2,500. Hopefully on TV it looked good cuz the crowd that WAS there was hot.
Biggest pops of the night would’ve gone to Orange Cassidy (I bought the shirt), Cody, Hangman/Kenny, and the closing angle. Jericho got a big reaction but so did the turn and Moxley.
Props go out to Justin Roberts and Daniels got off screen promos to rile up the crowd. MJF did a really good job too but I’m not sure what was on camera. Lastly I wanna say HUGE thumbs up to AEW for their off camera work. Honestly I was only SURE twice when they went to commercial. They kept the crowd going for almost the full 2 hours. That’s something WWE doesn’t do (or hasn’t in my previous experiences, I’m going to Smackdown Feb 14, we’ll see).
Dark took place after the show, which I THOUGHT was odd but maybe that’s just me.
Darby Vs Brandon ducking Cutler, way too long. Darby should’ve killed this guy but I guess he doesnt get squash wins. Darby wins after what seems like 10 mins.
Nyla vs the Portuguese woman (sorry forgot her name)
One more announced match which I forgot.
Worst segment of the night went to the women unfortunately. The match between Kris and Riho was fine, but the angle went down as a fart. No one pooped for Kong, or later Brandi. No one knew who Swole or Shida really were. And NO ONE KNEW who the duck the bald woman or man were. I asked around to see if anyone knew the bald guy, no answers.
Hangmans guide to getting over with the live audience as well as Wolfman Hansome: walk through the crowd during commercial break and slam the beers people give you.
I might scoff at a 63 year old man Diamond Cutting some younger stars if not for the power of DDPY. Have you guys ever tried it? Clearly the Butcher and Blade have not. BANG!
AEW continues to build momentum with hot stories and great matches. The opening tag was fast paced and hard to take your eyes off, and the Riho and Statlander shined even as they move forward with the Nightmare Collective. The 6 man at the end was a fun match before an electrifying segment at the end. Some people might not like the swerve or saw it coming, but enjoyed Mox lulling the Inner Circle into a false sense of security before striking.
Christopher Daniels using the botch to further his story of feeling down and out is smart and helped when The Dark Order came out, because even if Daniels isn’t ready to join now, planting seeds down the road for other big names to jump ship is a great way to build them up in the future.
We need to see the Luchasauras/ Orange Cassidy one on one match ASAP
I love AEW as I refuse to watch WWE but even I have to admit, last nights show was not great. With all the run-ins and everything going on, I thought AEW had hired Vince Russo. Then, I heard JR say “bro” during commentary and really started worrying about it. I love JR but something about his commentary has been off since joining AWE. I think Excalibur and Tony Scevane by themselves would work a lot better. I think the number 1 issue right now with AEW is they have no writers. There are so many people with so many ideas giving their opinions that nothing flows together. Its just segment…segment…segment. It doesnt feel like a flowing tv show. This isnt the case every week but last nights shiw was very telling. I think they need 1 or 2 people backstage, taking all these ideas, polishing them up, and making them flow better. I think a great idea would be to take JR off commentary and make him and Arn those 2 guys. These guys have been in the business long enough that they can deal with the talent involved and be able to put together a tv show.
