Minor PPVs that don't deserve a thread *Spoilers*

[The Gaffer]

Graves cracked me up with his "It's not the first time Dom's fought for an apple, happens all the time in the clink" line. He's been frequently excellent deadpanning how dangerous Dom is. 

[Statto]

I think my highlight of the night was the two blokes casually continuing to work without a hint of a reaction as one of the biggest stars in the music industry right now was thrown off a platform through 2 tables about a foot in front of them.

[Tommy!]

9 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I'm telling UK Border Control he's a wanted nonce or something. 

Where's the proof?

He posts on the ukff

 

[Supremo]

Fantastic show. One of the greatest crowds of all time. If Jeff Jarrett isn’t already trying to book an AEW show in Puerto Rico then he’s lost his mind.

Can you fly drones in Wembley? Those shots are the fucking future of this business. Bad Bunny looked like the biggest star in the history of the sport.

Loved the Savio Vega and Carlito cameos. Hopefully Carlito gets a small run out of this. Big fan of everyone being instant members of the LWO. They’re going to sell so many of those T-shirts.

I’m still convinced the wheels are falling off in terms week-to-week TV, and it’s going to take a miracle to reignite the Bloodline saga, but as far as Pay Per Views go? I can’t remember the last time they’ve had such a consistently great run of shows. In 2023, they haven’t missed yet.

HBK once again in the mud, though. Dom Mysterio, Logan Paul, Bad Bunny, even Solo Sikoa. The best people in WWE in 2023 were either fast-tracked or skipped the Developmental System entirely. Genuinely convinced it’s a ticking clock before Endeavor shuts the whole thing down. Waste of money. Millions lost mainly just injuring trainees by forcing them to lift heavy or making them take ridiculous bumps they’re not experienced enough to execute.

I mean, seriously. Other than Cameron Grimes and Grayson Waller, who out of the NXT lot that were drafted to the main roster stands a genuine chance? I’d be shocked if any of them are even employed by Summerslam.

Most fascinating thing about the show was Lesnar bleeding. Did he blade? If so, that’s the most impressive blade job in forever. I couldn’t see it at all. Even more impressive if he got that much blood hard way. Either way though, you’ve got to love Brock. Company mandate goes out where talent aren’t even allowed to post photos of blood on social media, and here’s Brock going full Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL days later.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Supremo

[FUM]

Echo all the thoughts on the crowd. Not much I can add that hasn’t already been said.

The Bloodline story used to be unmissable, I fell asleep as The Usos made their entrance last night but to be fair to them on watching the rest of the show today they’ve brought back a bit of intrigue with Jey finally showing a bit of how he was previously after weeks of being a loser. Shouting at Solo, “he’s not your brother”, was fantastic stuff.

I don’t know how much I buy the Cody win as him coming out looking good. He’s a face who won through a bit of chance with the exposed turnbuckle and a lucky pin. Doesn’t scream that he can beat Brock Lesnar with all things equal. He’s still nicely over at least.

Pay Bad Bunny what you need to and push him to the moon.

[METAL ON METAL]

8 hours ago, Supremo said:

I mean, seriously. Other than Cameron Grimes and Grayson Waller, who out of the NXT lot that were drafted to the main roster stands a genuine chance? I’d be shocked if any of them are even employed by Summerslam.

No, boy. Pretty Deadly are going to have the best run out of any of the call ups. They’re just made for the main roster.

[Arch Stanton]

12 hours ago, Supremo said:

Most fascinating thing about the show was Lesnar bleeding. Did he blade? If so, that’s the most impressive blade job in forever. I couldn’t see it at all. Even more impressive if he got that much blood hard way. Either way though, you’ve got to love Brock. Company mandate goes out where talent aren’t even allowed to post photos of blood on social media, and here’s Brock going full Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL days later.

Lesnar's giant purple head always looks ready to blow open at the lightest of touches. I couldn't see a blade job either, looked to me like he just cracked himself open on the exposed turnbuckle. It really made the closing sequences of the match though. 

[Devon Malcolm]

I wonder if Lesnar told the referee not to clean him up or stop the match, because the guy had the gloves and the towel ready. It was quite weird but also refreshing and such an important visual for Rhodes going forward.

[Supremo]

I liked them launching a towel at Brock, just before the credits.

"Alright, you've had your fun, at least give us a closing visual we can use!"

[simonworden]

13 hours ago, FUM said:

Echo all the thoughts on the crowd. Not much I can add that hasn’t already been said.

The Bloodline story used to be unmissable, I fell asleep as The Usos made their entrance last night but to be fair to them on watching the rest of the show today they’ve brought back a bit of intrigue with Jey finally showing a bit of how he was previously after weeks of being a loser. Shouting at Solo, “he’s not your brother”, was fantastic stuff.

I don’t know how much I buy the Cody win as him coming out looking good. He’s a face who won through a bit of chance with the exposed turnbuckle and a lucky pin. Doesn’t scream that he can beat Brock Lesnar with all things equal. He’s still nicely over at least.

Pay Bad Bunny what you need to and push him to the moon.

Cody's win was good enough for me for now. Assuming he wins some form of big boy gold this year not having a full blown clear win over Brock gives opportunity for a follow up match but for now he still has some momentum. 

[SuperBacon]

59 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

such an important visual for Rhodes going forward.

Agreed, the blood all down his side at one point looked fantastic. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 hour ago, simonworden said:

Cody's win was good enough for me for now. Assuming he wins some form of big boy gold this year not having a full blown clear win over Brock gives opportunity for a follow up match but for now he still has some momentum. 

It was still a clean win over Lesnar. He may have had to use wrestling smarts over pure domination, but that’s sort of his gig and it was Brock Lesnar.

I think if he’s champion and he’s beating Dominik Mysterio that way it’s not great, but hanging in a fight with Lesnar and then pinning him clean is still a big win.

It requires the context of Lesnar for that finish to work, but with it I think it’s fine.

[The King Of Swing]

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

I liked them launching a towel at Brock, just before the credits.

"Alright, you've had your fun, at least give us a closing visual we can use!"

Bet he threw the towel at Vince as soon as he got backstage. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Crowd - Phenomenal. Genuinely, one of the best crowds across the two nights they've ever had. I hope they come back here every year. 

👍 Bad Bunny/Damian Priest - What a glorious, bonkers, brilliant spectacle this was. From the moment big Damian walked out in his spiffy white attire (I think the 😍 emoji would best describe @Devon Malcolm's feelings on this?) and Bunny getting the mother of all receptions, you knew this was going to hit different. I don't think I've ever looked forward to a celebrity match more, and not only did it deliver, but it exceeded expectations too. They don't deserve Bad Bunny - a serious grafter and you can tell he absolutely fucking loves this mad shit. But while he'll deservedly get the plaudits - Priest was absolutely fucking fantastic in delivering what I genuinely think should be considered a match of the year candidate. He seriously elevated the proceedings with he execution, his storytelling, his selling, taking a wild beating and working the crowd with aplomb. The cameos from Carlito, fucking Savio Vega and the rest of the LWO and Judgement Day mobs were great additions - similar vibes to the DX/NWO confrontation all those Wrestlemanias back. A wonderful celebration of the culture and just a massively entertaining spectacle throughout. Bad Bunny? More like the Duracell Bunny. He can GO, brotha. I've seen some people call it the best celebrity match they've ever done - but I think that's almost disingenuous to Bunny in particular. Nevermind the outside celebrity tag - he's a bonafide WWE superstar and performer, period. He can wrestle once a year or 100 times a year - he puts in the work, he respects and loves the business deeply and it shows in everything he does. 

👍 Cody Rhodes/Brock Lesnar - Superb brawl. I fear with some of the reaction there's a deep distrust of WWE's handling of Cody  with what happened at Wrestlemania and there's almost a reluctance to praise him or WWE's wider booking because they feel like they can't let go of how let down they felt with the Mania decision. I don't share that negative outlook with what transpired here. I love how he went straight for Brock and tried to unleash hell on him before he bell rang - he's been pent up for weeks trying to get his hands on him, why waste another second? He also knows full well what Brock is capable off and knows you have to fight fire with fire to get close to beating him. The pin that beat him showed great ingenuity and made for a clean victory. In Brock's case, he was booked well here and didn't come off weaker - he was still more than a match for Cody despite being rocked at the start by the attack and even getting busted open. He got caught and it happens. As for the blood, red = green and it made for a great visual. I'd be more than happy for them to run this back in future. Only minor gripe, Cody was quick to bolt down the tunnel. Wouldn't have minded seeing him revel in it a bit more before they went off the air. That aside, great main event. 

👍 Bianca Belair/Iyo Sky - Fantastic opener. A huge performance from Sky and the best of her career to date - a bit of a coming out party for her in terms of proving herself as a viable women's main event performer. They've gradually built this aura around Bianca as a performer who has that intangible big-fight-feel that surrounds her and she carries that star power and responsibility with a serious determination and panache. I also thought she handled the pro-Iyo crowd very well in the early going - she lent slightly into a heel role - enough to acknowledge the crowd were cheering for their opponent, but not enough to confuse the wider public watching someone act ridiculously out of character. It's a tough balance to strike but I thought she totally nailed it.  

👍 Rhea Bloody Ripley vs Zelina Vega - Not the most eye-catching when you analyse it from a technical perspective, but they had the crowd in the palm of their hand riding the emotional rollercoaster. That's a moment Zelina will treasure for her entire career - what a response! As I said with Bianca, Ripley too carries that big-fight-feel into her title matches now and it automatically elevates them as a result. 

👍 Omos/ Seth Rollins - A really good outing from both. The Omosapien had the best match of his career to date and you can see he's gradually improving and getting a better feel for how to work longer matches and interact with the crowd - lots of good back and forth with them here in this one. We all know Rollins is a talented soul, but he really made someone with a completely contrasting size and style look like a big deal here, selling his kickouts with that sort of startled look where you can't believe you can't keep the big lummox down. Some will say it will be difficult to build up Omos if you keep making him lose, but I think in this case it worked well enough that despite taking the fall you'd still totally buy him as a legitimate threat - if his opponents have to keep busting out the big guns and finding bigger, bolder ways to beat him, that can still buildup his aura if you want to make him a future world title contender. 

👍 Bloodline/Sami/KO/Riddle - Wasn't sure how I felt about this one for the most part as it felt like they plodded along a bit at times. I don't mind matches having a slow build to a crescendo, and this did also come just after the Bunny/Priest match, but there were some long pauses between interactions and it took a while for them to slip out of that funk. Still, it definitely picked up and turned into another enjoyable encounter. The Solo/Jey business is keeping the Bloodline storyline going in a positive way - it's enough of a nugget for me that it's counteracting the wider sense of apathy that's starting to become attached to the wider Roman/Bloodline dominance that's been present since Wrestlemania. 

👍 Sensational Savio - Think he deserves a Fatty Facesitter thumbs up of his own. Let me take you back to this backstage segment from 2015, where Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose use his name in a jokey context as part of partner reveal (WWE YT vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zlyzzH5rN0). I know this is just a backstage segment that was in jest in didn't even make TV, but unless I've missed something inbetween, that's one of the last mentions of him within WWE's output. Look at Bunny's face when Savio walks in backstage. And how badass did he look standing there ready to fight the Judgement Day? Admittedly he was a bit before my time and he could be a terrible bloke for all I know, but I thought this was a such a nice presentation of him and he probably never had a moment like that in his prime WWE career, so what a wholesome experience that must've been for him, especially with that reception. 

👎 US title triple threat - Nothing terrible, but on a show with lots going on this lacked as much spark as the other offerings and was too short to get close to reaching any kind of epic status. We really need to see some elevation from Austin Theory from a character perspective. It tells you something when one of the hottest crowds ever barely reacted to him when he made his entrance - one of the very few instances that's happened across the two nights they've run in that building. He's clearly capable and talented, but it's not clicking at the moment. Perhaps the roster shakeup might be what the doctor ordered. 

Overall - Meh, it was alright. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Fatty Facesitter

[Devon Malcolm]

3 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

👍 Bad Bunny/Damian Priest - What a glorious , bonkers, brilliant spectacle this was. From the moment big Damian walked out in his spiffy white attire (I think the 😍 emoji would best describe @Devon Malcolm's feelings on this?)

Oh aye, he looked the absolute business. They have to do something with him now.