AEW - All Elite Wrestling (*Spoilers for Latest Show*)

Headshot

Love the PPV and I loved that cinematic match.

The ending of that main event put a bit of a damper on the show though, I dont know why didnt just collapse the ring or something. It felt a bit amateur-est

TimesArrow

Wow that finish was hilariously bad

B.A._Baracus

Re: the ring exploding

I am starting to think it wasn't a mistake. There's been many a crap Japanese exploding ring match that ended with just a tiny bit of smoke. Some have ended with an insane amount of pyro too of course. But I fear AEW may have not thought this through.

I thought they were gonna put the ring on hydraulics then collapse on 0 and let off insane blooms of smoke. Sure that famous Terry Funk match ending should have been used as a template (the smoke was insane)

bennyl10

Chuck Noland wrote: »

Ah, I see the “everything AEW does is aMaZiNg” lads are still out in force. That was a pathetic ending

No one has said anything to close to that

It was a good PPV, the ending was disappointing but it doesn’t take away from the card.

The level that some ‘fans’ hate AEW simply as it’s not WWE, especially on here, is mind boggling

daithi1989

My main issue with the ending was Eddie and Mox lying in the middle of the ring like they had been shot.. Granted Mox had been through a gruelling match, but Eddie did nothing! Kane’s pyro is more intimidating!

And TK coming out blaming Kenny for the way he built it makes Eddie look even stupider - the reaction is what killed it.

The ending did take away from the whole PPV; I really enjoyed the Tag Team BR and the Cinematic Match. I think Christian was a let down considering how hyped it was, as I dont see him challenging in a Top Card feud..

Loughc

Here’s how it should have looked.

https://twitter.com/wrestlingtravel/status/1368785963397316611?s=21

Even bigger pyro and smoke to cover it all up would have worked better than Sparklemania 2021.

Lithium93_

Has it been dubbed over with Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On yet? :pac:

chopperbyrne

Christian was forced to take years off due to repeated concussions, and now he's going to a company who (from everything I've seen of it) don't appear to give a **** about the safety of their talent.

I hope he just gets to have a few safe matches and retires on his own terms, and he doesn't suffer any more concussions.

daithi1989

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Gonna assume that's me since apparently I'm the AEW guy around here, or partially at me. So Chuck can you please point to where anyone said the exploding ring was "amazing" or anything to that effect? Like just one example of anyone on this board making that post.

If that was directed at LOB, then it was a silly comment - one of the first things he said was the ending was stupid. I dont normally agree with everything LOB says, but on this occasion, he didnt defend AEW on the ending in anyway!

J. Marston

nazmoalex wrote: »

That main event was a 2 star at best. Literally shockmaster levels bad when it came to the end of the ppv.

Far worse than Shockmaster, in my opinion.

This involved the two biggest stars AEW has, in the main event of a PPV that got a lot of hype and it ended with everyone laughing at them.

Moxley is supposed to be a badass but he's being cradled and shielded from sparklers.

B.A._Baracus

Loughc wrote: »

Here’s how it should have looked.

https://twitter.com/wrestlingtravel/status/1368785963397316611?s=21

Even bigger pyro and smoke to cover it all up would have worked better than Sparklemania 2021.

That is amazing.
The right amount of pyro and the helicopter shot was a beautiful idea. Who ever thought of it well done.

Wonder how'd you'd breath tho :pac:

beakerjoe

One thing is for sure after reading back, wrestling is subjective and we all view things differently.

My takes.

Missed the buy in match mostly as pizza man was at the door.

The tag match was very enjoyable enjoyable considering i wasnt hyped for seeing Jericho and MJF teaming. However Ive been loving the Inner Circle story. All 4 worked very hard, MJF has really come on and Jericho, for all his flaws, had his best match in a long time. I much prefer The Bucks PPV matches to their tv matches (I always feel they go too hard in TV matches they should be winning easily). A fine match to kick off the show. ***1/2

Looking forward to Wednesday, I smell an MJF takeover ala The Rock and the Nation.

Miro v OC n co, ..... ugh.... just insert a homer killing the krustyburger gif. End it all and start again. Kip is bland, Chuck Taylor has go away heat from me, OC, while a good wrestler and I like the guy, and his gimmick has worn thin with me. Ever since the last PPV its jumped the shark for me. He and Miro need to move away from everyone in this feud and pretend this feud didnt happen. *3/4

Womens match was good though I disliked how weak the finish looked. Its didnt need the afters either IMO. AEW did a good job with the prematch package, gave me reason to get invested. ***

The tag team battle royal was great fun. Loved the subtle QT heel work. From the crossed wires on their entrance (QT going or a fistbump when Dustin went for a handshake) to QT not shaking hands with DO, then eliminating the Gunns. Its been brewing. Good set pieces, an excellent finish and the right team won. I need a Fenix v Jack Perry match. ****

I enjoyed the ladder match but it was nothing blow away. Ethan Page was a nice, but expected surprise and to be fair he did good. Disliked the Cody semantics (will he ...wont he return) and Penta's constant showboating, but some nice spots (particular the splash mountain onto the ladder with Archer in between). Max Castors entrances continue to crack me up. Sky winning is the right call, Ive been enjoying his subtly turn....well slow turn. ***/14

Page v Hardy didnt have me hyped, and while it went on longer than any Hardy match should, I enjoyed it. Both men worked hard and loved the finish. Glad Hardy didnt win (thought he had at one stage). ***

Christians return was handled badly. Just like Wandavision, when fans work themselves into a realm of possibilities then they will be let down when their fantasy booking doesnt come true. Christian turning up unannounced would be better. Yes it got buzz going considering the mystery and might have got a few extra buys, but it fell flat. Besides how the reveal was handled, Im looking forward to seeing Cage back. Loved his TNA theme, so happy to hear it and they guy hopefully still has it.

Not a fan of the cinematic match beyond the entrances. I dont wanna see more of these matches, no appeal to me. Sting was always gonna win, so not unhappy with the result. He was always gonna win his first match back. *3/4

The main event was very good, a solid 4 stars match until the finish. The gimmick worked well until it didnt. Very happy to see Kingston turn face, he has Foley levels of potential, but I feel sorry for him and Mox. Selling that was out of there control, they had their faces covered, they heard a pyro..... what else were they gonna do. Not their fault at all. It was a pyro fcuk up. It wasnt worse than the Shockmaster..... that was his own clumsyness, this was just an error...a big error. The match ended on a big fail, a big whimper and it sucks. But its not as bad as people are saying. ***3/4

A decent PPV that will sadly be remembered for the wrong reasons. It was probably AEWs worse offering on PPV but it was still very enjoyable.

Lithium93_

Don't know if it was posted here last night, but Double Or Nothing will be on May 30th, which is a Sunday.

I wish they'd stick to Saturday night PPV's.

beakerjoe

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Don't know if it was posted here last night, but Double Or Nothing will be on May 30th, which is a Sunday.

I wish they'd stick to Saturday night PPV's.

Its a bank holiday weekend over in the States so its as good as a Saturday for the US fans.

Sucks for us as ours is a week later.

bmorrissey

My first AEW show i watched in a long long time, was a good show no doubt, brilliant in ring stuff. Wasnt a fan of the ladder match (i dont like the brass ring thing among others) but everything else was good. Hopefully they dont go down the route of having too many older guys in the ring similar to TNA and WWE to an extent. But i might actually tune in next week, i really like MJF, Darby Allin and Adam Page so i may stick around.

Necro

Tis a shame about that ending which will be the main talking point overall I guess. Pretty much the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling, at least in the last 20 years tbh.

The whole 'Barbed Wire Deathmatch' stuff does nothing for me anyways, I think it's ok on an undercard but as a main event it just doesn't interest me at all. Especially with that sort of embarassing end sh1te as the closing of the PPV.

Christian is a shrewd signing, though Khan building it up the way he did was always going to end badly - but it's about where AEW can pull talent from at this point in time. Another year or so and who knows. I'll say one thing, he's light years ahead of Big Show/Wight who I still find extremely underwhelming and meh.

Miro continues to be very underwhelming, pretty much like his entire WWE career - maybe the company isn't the problem after all.


The rest was great and yeah, Sting was always winning but I dunno, would it not be better to give 28 year old Darby Allin the pinfall as opposed to 61 year old Sting - the legend still gets his win but also gets Allin over better.

For all the things AEW do right they have a lot of flaws too yet. For one thing they're gonna have to cut out the 'Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch' stuff to get taken fully seriously. I know WWE does some weird and absolutely awful stuff but there's a distinct bang of second rate when you have that sort of nonsense main eventing a PPV, that's just my opinion though - I was never into the massively OTT, ECW gorefest matches like that tbh. Secondly is stop shooting themselves in the foot with the overhyped announcements.

Christian is a fine signing, but will probably suffer from not being Punk, or Brock (like the latter was ever happening lol)

J. Marston

Necro wrote: »

Miro continues to be very underwhelming, pretty much like his entire WWE career - maybe the company isn't the problem after all.

When you look back it was his managers that worked the magic for him. People loved Ravishing Russian Lana. There was "We want Lana!" chants most weeks which made them do that awful angle of putting her with Ziggler and her becoming an "All-American girl".

As for Rusev Day, Aiden English being his hype man was a huge part of that being the success that it was.

LineOfBeauty

Two takes I don't think I fired off last night but I will now.

This show was interference heavy. It didn't get into current NJPW territory where it turns me off the company and sours my opinions about everything they produce now but they're walking a very fine line at the moment. Stupid distraction finishes or dumb ref stuff repeated throughout a show is not the way to go.

I've said here already that Christian Cage doesn't do much for me and I'm sticking with that. I've not a whole lot of interest in seeing him each week in 2021. That being said, TK is a smart guy and there's absolutely no doubt that his quarter hours on WWE television in recent times have always popped a number. So I get the thinking behind it at least, even if it's not for me.

hynesie08

That ending was ****ing pathetic, the camera man is in more danger during cody rhodes entrance.

beakerjoe

Necro wrote: »

Tis a shame about that ending which will be the main talking point overall I guess. Pretty much the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling, at least in the last 20 years tbh.

Do you mean the match as a whole or just the finish?

Granted it was an epic fail, but I feel Ive seen much worse, esp stuff that went as planned.

It was a botch at the end of the day, it was supposed to be much better and sonething failed to go off.

Id rather that, esp given what went on before it, a pass over the Fiends last year for example or Kip Sabians Wedding.

Necro

beakerjoe wrote: »

Do you mean the match as a whole or just the finish?

Granted it was an epic fail, but I feel Ive seen much worse, esp stuff that went as planned.

It was a botch at the end of the day, it was supposed to be much better and sonething failed to go off.

Id rather that, esp given what went on before it, a pass over the Fiends last year for example or Kip Sabians Wedding.

The finish in particular. Tbh I didn't watch the match as it's not my kinda thing (I hate that OTT hardcore rubbish personally, I think it's unnecessary to put people through that) but I have seen the clips of the finish which was just awful. Watched the rest of the show mind.

Didn't see the wedding, but I'd take hours of the Fiend over that finish

LineOfBeauty

Necro wrote: »

The finish in particular. Tbh I didn't watch the match as it's not my kinda thing (I hate that OTT hardcore rubbish personally, I think it's unnecessary to put people through that) but I have seen the clips of the finish which was just awful. Watched the rest of the show mind.

Didn't see the wedding, but I'd take hours of the Fiend over that finish

OK let's not get crazy here.

Agent Coulson

Matt Hardy teleporting was worse than the ending last night.

Better it went wrong that way and not an over explosion were someone actually could get hurt.


No it wasn't good however it's not the end of the world the pyro guy left some wire somewhere not connected these things happen.


And I love Eddie for being a total pro and selling it like he was dead.


Babyface Eddie will rock and no one deserves it more.

Necro

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

OK let's not get crazy here.

Ok ok I'm being a little hyperbolic

I just don't like that Deathmatch style of wrestling anyways so the main event was never going to appeal to me really.

Like I said the rest of the show was fine, I do agree with you on it being interference heavy mind.

I'm interested to see where they go next though.

LineOfBeauty

Necro wrote: »

Ok ok I'm being a little hyperbolic

I just don't like that Deathmatch style of wrestling anyways so the main event was never going to appeal to me really.

Like I said the rest of the show was fine, I do agree with you on it being interference heavy mind.

I'm interested to see where they go next though.

Ye I mean there were bits last night I wasn't high on and I think most of that came across in my posts last night as the show was happening. But there was a lot I liked too. And it seems the ending has left a sour note that's overshadowed the show.

While there's so much more to a good show than this, I'll say I stayed up til 5am last night to watch a 4 hour show and I wasn't ever bored and I didn't regret it this morning.

ThePott

Just finished watching it.
I had the old adage in my head after this, "underpromise and overdeliver" (funnily heard Bryan Alvarez say the exact same thing).

There was a lot of good. While I didn't think the Women's title match was outstanding, they're clearly starting to take an interest in their women's division. Show in general just started strong. Young Bucks match was excellent, looks like we're gonna start seeing MJF trying to takeover the Inner Circle which is exciting and Death Triangle vs TYB will be a belter. Glad Miro looked strong, now throw this story in the bin please and do something worthwhile with it. Did enjoy Dark Order getting involved with Adam Page even though I really don't need Matt Hardy to be an in ring competitor in 2021 if I'm honest.

From there it started slipping for me. The ladder match was pretty decent overall. With some reservations, Ethan Page does next to nothing for me. Penta looked a dope constantly taunting to the camera. Not sure what they're doing with Cody been hearing forever that they're doing a slow heel turn at this stage his schtick is just nauseating. Max Caster shined in this match and Scorpio Sky is awesome even if him getting the push is sort of out of nowhere.
The cinematic match was pretty meh. It had it's moments towards the end but never really got into it overall, just felt a bit tryhard. Christian is a decent signing but the way they promoted it and even presented it made it so this was always going to be underwhelming.

So the main event. The match itself was great. Omega and Moxley just have great chemistry and it managed to feel fresh still despite them doing matches like this in the past. The ring rope explosions were decent but the floor ones were a bit underwhelming.

The end of the whole PPV though took away from the show by quite a lot. Sort of sullied the match for me a bit. The Good Brothers getting involved was whatever, didn't hate it as much as others did although they were there a bit long. On paper, Eddie Kingston coming out to save Mox is excellent, would have been an amazing moment and wonderful face turn.

Except of course for those damn sparklers. There is so many ways they could have got around this. Have pyro block the camera and "cut the feed", billow the ring with smoke so it looked more devastating than it was, collapse the ring among plenty of other methods. I genuinely thought it was going to be Kenny trolling them. Even kayfabe wise, why is there no fail safe? That doesn't even make any sense. Whatever storyline they go with, Eddie sold the thing like death and the commentators talked about it like it was devastating, that just doesn't work. It was a major mistep, unfortunately for me this was a PPV where the matches I most anticipated left me down.

JP Liz V1

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Christian was forced to take years off due to repeated concussions, and now he's going to a company who (from everything I've seen of it) don't appear to give a **** about the safety of their talent.
I hope he just gets to have a few safe matches and retires on his own terms, and he doesn't suffer any more concussions.

He should put his health first

CastorTroy

Yeah Kingston, being a tough guy, sacrificed himself to save Mox from some sparklers and seems he paid for it.
When they went off, I was sure they were going to have Omega and co point and laugh as if they were only joking when they said the ring would explode. Expected Eddie to look up then and realise nothing happened.
The explosion outside was bad as well and Mox got the worse of that landing.
Looked like they had some pyro under the ring so maybe not everything went off as planned.
Seemed the One Winged Angel pin was done too far from the ropes since it looked like Mox kicked out of it while trying to put his foot on the rope

Don't think Ethan got to do much in the match really.
He and Darby were in one episode of The Wrestlers. First I heard of either guy.
I expect to see edited pictures online with Sonic going after that ring.

Britt did well to get Itoh over from Japan since Rebel was only injured earlier in the day.
Is she a face or heel in Japan?

Don't know if this was a QT turn or did he ever turn back after his time with Allie? Can't say I pay much attention to him anyway.

Oh and Christian. Yeah. Great! Woo, and indeed, hoo.

cena

Is AEW worth watching? I have not watched it since the very first ppv

ThePott

cena wrote: »

Is AEW worth watching? I have not watched it since the very first ppv

There's probably some negativity about it right now but that was mainly just from the ending of the PPV but in general it's fairly consistent as a wrestling show despite the occasional mistep or fumble. Well worth the time if you have it.