LIVE after the pay-per-view
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Dustin from Maui: It was a great show overall. I’m just glad that the Devil storyline is over. Looks like MJF might be taking a break to recover after the clean loss.
Q: So was Samoa Joe working with Adam Cole, Wardlow, and the Kingdom the whole time?
Cody From Maine
A typically bloated PPV card with an atypically disinterested crowd until the last three matches.
Miro-Andrade was dead on arrival. Swerve did NOT need to go nearly ten minutes with Dustin after pulverizing his ankle. That should’ve been a promo segment that ended with that spot. And then there’s Chris Jericho.
It cast a dark cloud over this event that they couldn’t shake until the final three matches. I loved the finish to Copeland-Cage to continue both their story. The C2 final was everything it needed to be, with Danielson amplifying the presentation tenfold. What a year for Kingston after being seemingly relegated to ROH.
And I loved the shock finish of the main event. Joe’s finish has always been treated seriously and with the injuries they’ve touted for Max, he finally ran out of steam. I thought it was the best job of selling a shock finish since Taker lost his streak. Everyone involved taking those few extra moments to sell the end was PERFECT.
All in all, A middle of the road PPV that joins a few others in being overshadowed by events out of the ring. But the last three matches delivered big time.
A show that was really saved by the final three matches on the show.
While the opening match eight man was a lot of fun, the combination of a few dark clouds hanging over the show (Andrede news, Keith Lee injury, and the Nick Hausman accusations around Jericho) really distracted from things.
Personally I loved the Copeland / Christian match as it was an absolute tribute to their Attitude Era days, including the overbooked finish.
The C2 finals was a perfect ending to the incredible tournament, and provided a really good feel good moment for the crowd. Eddie deserves is and I hope this is a big reign for him.
The main event was exactly what it needed to be. A slight controversial finish (and Adam being slow to pull out the ring so Joe could get up to chock him out), ending a super hot contest.
The post match reveal was what should have been suspected all along. My assumption is that MJF takes some much needed time away only to return for a big feud with Cole.
Obviously the big distracting Twitter bullshit dark cloud of the day was the Jericho allegations.
First and foremost, I would love to see the wrestling media call out Nick Hausman. His total lack of professionalism and clear direction of going after engagement farming and clickbait is dangerous and has real world affects. Hausman came across like creep, using supposed knowledge of sexual misconduct as a twitter gotcha. He worked with Punk and Ace to cause lots of drama over the last year. And now there is this.
Nobody knows the truth behind the Jericho allegations. And unfortunately, now, Tony and AEW is in a near impossible place. If they claimed they investigated it five years ago and found nothing - a large portion of the audience won’t believe it.
Part of me thought removing Jericho from the show tonight may have been the right move. But when there is no actual allegations - and only irresponsible reporting (including Hausman comparing Jericho to Harvey Weinstein and essentially calling him a rapist), it’s impossible to truly address things in my opinion. As it sets a dangerous precedent that powerful online critics and essential control the content of shows.
Anyway if Jericho is actually guilty of something (which the story seems to be he made an unwanted advance - and that was it - which has now blown up into something far more), then obviously he should face the consequences.
But people are acting like a crime was committed - and an NDA was used to cover it up. NDAs don’t work like that, anywhere besides the over active minds of Twitter folks.
It sucks that once again, a big night for AEW seems to be distracted by what feels like an organized collaboration of distraction from a very specific group of folks from Chicago.
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John from Montana,
Keeping Jericho on the show made that match really awkward. Even if the twitter stuff ends up not being true, it was a large enough story that it created a distraction during the PPV and tarnished what should have been a nice moment for Sting.
Copeland vs Christian was the real standout of the PPV, also loved seeing Eddie win the C2.
I really hope taking the belt off Max is to allow him some time to rest and recover (If he has indeed re-signed with AEW). I really liked the match, and the Devil angle played out basically the way we all thought.
Honestly an underwhelming PPV overall.
Jay from Colorado
Match of the night was Edge vs Christian. It’s amazing to watch two guys who were medically retired five years ago work as good as the younger guys.
I enjoyed MJF and Joe, but was completely surprised by the ending. Not the Devil thing as I think we all expected it to be Adam, but the way MJF lost. I didn’t love it, but I do enjoy being surprised and that definitely surprised me.
7/10 show for me
Andrew from Cape Breton
So I made the mistake of buying the pay per view on my cable service provider without realizing that the power grid in Cape Breton is held together by duct tape and prayers as my power went out during the Copeland/Cage match. It’s actually back on now and just in time for the media scrum. From what I did watch, I thought the show was fine but coloured too much by the Chris Jericho match. I would argue it’s the worst match in AEW history, despite the efforts of everyone involved. The fact that they let Jericho wrestle after everything that went on today might be the worst thing AEW has ever done, and I’m including everything that went on with CM Punk. I guess I’m biased as one of the tweets Kylie Rae liked was one I made, which I found out from someone else on twitter as I wasn’t paying attention to my likes. I know twitter likes aren’t gospel but it made me feel uncomfortable watching the show and put a dark cloud over the show. It felt like all the good will they built up from the Continental Classic died tonight. It may have been one of the worst pay-per-view experiences.
Jordan from the Bronx
It must be stated that the way that the Jericho/Hausman interaction played out is very ugly. Using allegations of this severity as a gotcha for Twitter likes does not honor the victims. We may not ever fully know the details (if the allegations are even true), but all that this did was open up wild speculations and enable bad faith actors to sow nonsense. I wish for strength for those affected and I hope that if these things are true, that appropriate actions are taken and people are held accountable.
This is rare AEW PPV where the matches didn’t deliver as well as they could have. The undercard didn’t move me much, and the Jericho Black Cloud was very evident with the crowd’s reaction to him. Swerve’s match didn’t need to be as long as it was, but kudos to Dustin for stepping in on short notice for a match that already felt unnecessary.
Eddie Kingston getting two big moments in consecutive NY shows was great. Copeland and Christian was a fun garbage match. The main event was fun with a surprisingly clean finish. I expected the devil stuff to work directly into the finish, but it was refreshing to see a heel win clean. I’m excited to see Joe as champion. The Devil reveal was predictable, but I’m glad that they mystery is over and we can move on into the new phase of this group.
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It was probably the most mediocre AEW PPV I can remember but I’ve been a Samoa Joe fan forever and loved that the put MJF to sleep to win the title… it resolidifies Joe’s finisher and was a surprise finish when the arm didn’t go up like it always does
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