-It was a fun little dream match between Jon Moxley and Jeff Hardy to open the show, but that’s all it was. Moxley is arguably the biggest star in AEW, so the fact that he’s in this match without any context is befuddling.
CMLL who?
-Regarding the CMLL guys attacking Moxley, well, I’m in on it. At least for right now. The audience didn’t know who the guys were and didn’t react much to them, but it’s only chapter one. There were times not long ago where an outside talent that nobody knew just ended up in a match with top AEW talent without any reason or context at all. This wasn’t that. The CMLL gang looked like The Radicalz from all those years ago and introduced themselves as a heel invading force. This needs proper follow-up and I understand why you may not trust Tony Khan to deliver that, but for tonight, this worked for what it was supposed to be.
-Is Jeff Hardy turning heel? This is a bad idea. Bad. Jeff Hardy is one of the most natural babyfaces wrestling has ever seen. What’s wrong with him being that?
-Toa Liona as the special challenger for Adam Page this week certainly didn’t floor anybody, but the two men did have a good match together.
All grown up
-Nicholas and Matthew of The Young Bucks continue to work well, but they are walking a fine, fine line. Fining a production assistant was a smart way to show-off their EVP status, but the real magic was in the encounter with Darby Allin. The Bucks were perfect heel foil for Darby and are the best guys in the company to run down Sting because of the status they have.
-Man, Wardlow vs. Komander very much solidified just how dead the devil angle and faction is with Adam Cole. I mean, the crowd barely reacted to them and Cole has now fully faded into the background. Ouch.
-As for Wardlow, let’s hope he’s ok. He took a damn knee to the throat from Komander off the top rope. If he’s injured, lookout and pull the plug, the entire Undisputed Kingdom angle is cursed.
Business
-A tremendous sit-down promo segment between Sting & Darby Allin and Ricky Starks & Big Bill. AEW needs to do more of this. Even for matches that aren’t as big. In just a couple minutes, the four guys drove up the intensity volume for their title match significantly, interspersed that intensity with personal rivalries, and made the titles really matter. Darby and Starks carried things and both came across really well.
-Chris Jericho vs. Kyle Fletcher was fine and was what it was. Jericho is still feuding with Don Callis and Konosuke Takeshita? Still?? It’s on, it’s off. It’s on, it’s off. That story is like a Big Show babyface/heel alignment in WWE, you just don’t ever know where the hell its at.
-What the the blazes was with The Acclaimed and Bullet Club Gold segment tonight? They went out there to show the world how friendly they are? It was brutal. Look, clearly they are building to a showdown for both sets of Trios Championships at Revolution, but c’mon. Not only is that painfully obvious, the two sides just don’t have any chemistry to speak of. It’s awkward as hell and you can tell by just looking at how uncomfortable Jay White looks out there. This is an example of too cute AEW booking. Bullet Club Gold were heels already. Jay White feuded with MJF not long ago. So, why turn them babyface only to just turn them back again? For the surprise? It isn’t worth it.
-Deonna Purrazzo with another great showing this week. She’s breaking out some really interesting finishing submissions to win matches and is one of the more exciting parts of the show. AEW has a potential match of the night on their hands with her against Toni Storm at Revolution.
Defining Swerve Strickland
-Ehh, Swerve Strickland vs. Rob Van Dam was a nice little surprise and a good match, but it also helped continue to not define Strickland. The audience badly wants to cheer him, but when given a lovable opponent like RVD, the booking just doesn’t give them full permission to do so and it waters down the reaction to him.
-To end the show, both Strickland and Adam Page did some strong promo work to build to next week’s number one contender showdown between the two. That’s a big match and they treated it as such. Nothing comedic, nothing meta, just a straight up promo talking about the importance of winning the world title. Very well done.