LIVE immediately after AEW All In
Link to call in (for patrons):
Disclaimers: Iâm a childhood WWF/E fan. Iâve had several gin and tonics / I love John and wai probably more than I should.
I attended todays show as a wrestling fan. A wrestling fan wanting to be part of and to witness history
I donât watch AEW or really follow the product, I mainly follow WWE through your podcasts. So I thought tonight would be a fun experiment.
Firstly, it was fucking great to be surrounded by 80k+ wrestling fans having a great night. Nothing better. And having been to multiple 5 hour WWE events, and in contrast to those, this didnât drag, kept me entertained and laughing throughout.
And there were some great matches - the main event, coffin match, osprey/Jericho to name a few.
But controversial opinion time, in terms of the product itself, I couldnât get past the fact that I found the matches essentially to be a massive spot fest. I know this is a really easy/common âindieâ wrestling criticisism but I felt it today. For example, one minute, both young bucks are in sharpshooters. Within seconds they are jumping off the turnbuckles and ropes doing their stuff. Christian hits Darby in the back twice with a chair and literally 30 seconds later heâs diving all around the shop. Trios match - one of the guys was pushed off the top turnbuckle and literally less than 10 seconds later heâs doing a springboard dropkick. Why would I care about any damage being done to anybody on this show if thereâs no consequences? Thereâs no storytelling and nothing really to get invested in if (I imagine) you donât watch the weekly product.
Anyway, happy to be critiqued on this but those were my thoughts as a live extremely casual AEW follower. It came across as a show where the crowd were very into the individuals and the characters but what happened in the ring didnât really matter. Eventually thatâs got to change right?
Sal from California
I really enjoyed this show, top to bottom. My personal favorite match was FTR vs. The Young Bucks. Those 4 can do no wrong when paired together.
Also, I loved being able to watch a morning pay per view. Itâs now 2:00 PM in my time zone and I can go enjoy some daylight.
Have a great evening, John and Wai!
Kav from Glasgow
Hey Post! Was live at the show tonight, so giving some rare UK time feedback, will try to keep it tight.
FTR and Bucks was easily the best match Iâve ever seen live. Itâs my first time seeing either team live and they absolutely delivered.
We had rampside seats, so we got the best view in the house for Stadium Stampede. Loved every second, and hope the energy came across on TV.
If you only have one womenâs match on the card, make it that one. A perfect mix of comedy and drama, with the right winner. For our section, the most emotional part of the night. So glad for Saraya and her family to have that moment.
But the show was perfectly bookended by MJF and Adam Cole. The tag match was okay, but wow, that main event was incredible. While we all suspected a turn, the ending was perfect. Hats off to both these men. And same time next year! See you gents then.
But for now, Iâm off to harrow to meet the BDE. Thanks John and Wai for all you do.
Eric from Cork currently in Wembley
Fun show live with a great main event that is probably the best example of pulling off a match filled with bullshit and âwhy am I so violent?â moments that Iâve seen forever. Also enjoyed the coffin match, stadium stampede, Joe Punk and Prince Nanaâs little dance to the ring.
Fozzy were atrocious live and I didnt think the match that followed was much better for a number of reasons.
Giving Saraya the womenâs belt is idiotic and is only going to drag the division down further if they donât take it off her quickly. Sheâs abysmal in ring and offers absolutely nothing. People should also look up the abuse allegations against her family if they donât know them already. Was disappointed to see them get a platform here.
Cody From Maine
The matches delivered from the preshow to the main event. The crowd delivered with very few moments of evident fatigue. I wouldnât be surprised to see next years show do another gigantic number after the success of this show.
In regards to All Out? All I can say is good luck to those on the card. All six of them so far! Very intrigued to see just what they promote in the coming week to try and stop this show from seeing a record low buyrate.
Not a perfect show, but still my personal front runner for event of the year thus far. 9/10
I think every match delivered, many exceeded expectations, especially Punk Vs Joe, which I wasnât anticipating, having not been a fan of their Owen Hart tournament match. This was significantly better than that match. But overall, I was a little let down that the only ânewsworthyâ thing that happened was backstage antics that shouldnât have happened. No âofficialâ debut, no return, no major angle, & most importantly, nothing set up for All Out, or even dynamite. I donât remember a single ppv that hasnât had something drawing fans to Wednesday. Was just a little surprising.
Hi John and Wai
Youâre the best! Thanks for all your awesome coverage.
I was at both Rev Pro and All in. First time watching live since WCW!
All in was a spectacle. Iâm interested to see how loud the crowd was on tv.
The main event today was fantastic. Great storytelling from Cole and MJF. Didnât know what was going to happen.
Other highlights for me were the tag title match and Ospreay v Jericho. I was a bit down on Jericho being against Will beforehand but happy to be proven wrong.
Rev pro was great too and a much better view for me, was a bit far away today. Will v Shingo at rev pro was immense, as youâd expect.
Brian in New Jersey.
Really enjoyable show, a heck of an accomplishment, and I still have my evening ahead of me.
I feel some matches had time that could have been devoted to other matches. Stadium Stampede to me was a combination of diminishing returns and too many close calls, but Iâm glad Penta wasnât actually hurt, and I liked how it ended. The first three matches and the main event were my favorites of the night.
I think you have to take the young bucks out of any conversation when you discuss the shows. Theyâre kind of a team onto themselves extremely controversial because this is what theyâve been doing their whole lives their matches donât make a lot of sense. Itâs always just high spots and super kicks and no selling. Theyâve taken criticism for this for years so itâs completely valid. I immediately fast forward any young bucks match now because I know what theyâre gonna do unless itâs some thing like versus FTR where you have so much confidence in the other team.
As for the rest of it I think you have to remember that theyâre performing for a live audience who likes this kind of stuff. This product was born out of an anti-WWE sentiment for fans that liked in the indie style wrestling. the fans that attend the shows like action and high spots more than they like selling and wrestling storytellers.
I think AEW tries to balance it, the main event certainly had a lot of storytelling. So they usually give you one or two matches like that, similar to Jericho, Osprey, and punk versus Joe where itâs not as much about just high spots.
However, there is a segment of the audience, a very large segment, that doesnât want to see Tag Team psychology wrestling they just wanna see six guys run all over the place and do a bunch of crazy shit and not sell it necessarily. Just kick outs and crazy moves.
It took me a long time to understand this. Like I could never for the life of me understand how orange Cassidyâs character works and why anyone would ever sell an orange punch or a guy walking up a ladder with his hands in his pockets. But you start to realize thatâs just what these fans want so thatâs what they give them, but they try to give you other stuff for guys like us who like more storytelling and selling and realistic wrestling.
2 Likes
Great show⌠Every match delivered⌠And then over delivered.
Great show. I really like Darby but John is right. Maybe Chris Jericho needs to make a phone call to Darby. Sooner thwn later.
Thank you mate, that does help. And like John said on the show, Iâm sure I missed a lot of call backs to the weekly show and stories that they tell. Itâs a very different product to WWE though, and in ways I wasnât expecting made me value the WWE product and âwhat Iâm used toâ more than I was expecting.
Iâll try and give dynamite some more time going forward
1 Like
Very very good show. I loved the Cole/MJF match, and I really really liked the Punk/Joe match, and the Bucks/FTR matches.
Full disclosure, I was tight for time so I skipped the Womenâs match and the House of Black match.
Only downside for me is Iâm not a huge fan of multi person matches, so I just wasnât emotionally invested in those matches as much. I could appreciate/respect the moves that were being done, but I think years of conditioning from WWE make it hard for me to care who wins those types of matches. Though the Casket match was able to pull me in because Darby is just insane.
The only thing I really didnt like was the Mox/Trentâs Mom spot. In 2023, I dont want to see a spot like that.