Tonight, AEW closed the Forbidden Door… temporarily. There’s local business that takes the spotlight now, let’s see how everything unfolded.
Jon Moxley vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Forgive me, my Puro knowledge is nowhere close to the extensiveness as others.
Chopfest to start as Mox shows that he’s able to dance with the legendary Ishii. Dirty play enters with some biting. Eventually, Eddie Kingston enters the picture (literally), drawing the curious eyes of Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta.
No surprise, Mox bleeds midway through the match, but more importantly he’s got the action well in hand. Mox, when he’s at his best, is the top in the biz and he proved it tonight, grinding it out with brawl style and also hitting some impressive moves like an RKO that we rarely see him bust out of his playbook.
Mox ultimately hits the Death Rider for the duke.
Winner: Jon Moxley
Post match, Mox briefly exchanges words with Kingston, the latter of whom shows he is trying to draw Mox out of the BCC. If this was WWE, you’d assume that Kingston is secretly campaigning to get Mox out to get himself inserted into the Club.
Backstage, it’s the tried and true story of strange bedfellows with MJF and Adam Cole being forced to team. MJF capitalizes with a mixed-message tee shirt. MERCH!
Elsewhere backstage, Renee Paquette chats with hubby before Kingston comes into the picture. Paquette seems interested in Mox leaving the BCC as well… hmm…
Orange Cassidy/Keith Lee/El Hijo del Vikingo vs. JAS
Looks like there’s one “forbidden door” which hasn’t closed fully. Wonder if we’ll ever see AEW co-promote a card with one of the Mexican leagues…
As tired as I am of Orange Cassidy, the goofiness of some of the JAS is starting to wear on me more sharply. I was a huge Daniel Garcia fan, but I’ve lost faith now.
The key in this match is Lee’s performance, showing that despite having grey hair, he can get stuff done in the ring. Lee pins Matt Menard following a Jackhammer variant.
Winners: Cassidy/Lee/Vikingo
We travel back to earlier today where The Elite are confronted by the Dark Order about an open challenge. Challenge accepted. This just feels ridiculously awkward.
Backstage, Paquette, who seems to be the only interviewer working today, chats with Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara. Apparently Jericho calling himself the “Painmaker” today is a big deal. Riiiiiiight…
The Elite vs. Dark Order
This wasn’t the squash it should’ve been.
The big story here is Adam Page not wanting to hurt his friends in DO. At one point he breaks up a pin attempt by Evil Uno, who is upset. C’mon, really? It’s a freaking match!
Eventually sensibility prevails and indeed Page comes to blows with his (former? Current?) friends, and the squash really begins soon after. The “This is Awesome” chant is a misnomer. Prime Lariat (ooh I can hear the AEW marks booing me for that one) ends it.
Winners: The Elite
Post match, Page checks on his fallen friend alongside his Dark Order buddies, when BCC attacks. Mox takes a screwdriver to Page’s keppe as Dark Order wanders off.
Callis and Takeshita enter the ring only to be confronted by Kingston. Numbers don’t work in the latter’s favour. End result is Blood and Guts… on my birthday. Swell.
Backstage, Cole is looking for MJF, likely to ensure he gets his cut of the merch money. Roderick Strong is in the picture, at least until Friedman arrives and courts Cole into driving off together.
Back to the ring we go and Jack Perry is out following the heel turn I called for a few weeks back. Look it up kids. Apparently the licensing deal on the 80s theme music is up because Perry says fans will never hear it again… let’s see how long forever is. Perry rips on Hook until the silent assassin arrives. Perry hightails it out of dodge soon after.
Ruby Soho vs. Alexia Nicole
Nicole is making her AEW debut, and is the sacrificial lamb. Soho uses Lockjaw for the duke.
Winner: Ruby Soho
Post-match, Nicole is spray painted before Soho goes off on Britt Baker for missing the show due to illness.
Backstage, Cutie Marshall and Johnny _insertlastnamehere_ are with the QTV crew.
Chris Jericho/Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin/Sting
Turn on Sting Darby… turn on Sting…
Bat jousting comes into play, which is just so very, very lame.
Flip flop stunt stuff from Guevara and Allin carry this match. Sting tries a dive to the outside but really, really shouldn’t have. Catch a clip on YouTube to see what I mean in case you missed it the first time around.
Weapons continue, and I get to say, “It’s a plunderin’ Tony!” Ladders, skateboards, and other goodies come into play. Scorpion Death drop attempt from Sting is reversed into the Walls. Rope breaks can’t save the Stinger, but a bat can.
Codebreaker from Jericho gets a two count. Death Drop also gets two. Eventually, Scorpion Deathlock from Sting gets the tapout win and hopefully ends this rivalry.
Winners: Sting/Allin
The episode, overall, wasn’t bad and the pacing is certainly showing signs of improvement; but the BCC is far and away the driver of interest for this show, and with Bryan Danielson on the shelf for the foreseeable future, one can only hope that momentum isn’t derailed. Two more hours of TV are hard to fill when your biggest story is derailed with injury.
And that’s the show. See you some other time.
RELATED LINKS
Musings from a first-time AEW attendee (includes Rampage spoilers)
