AEW London 2023

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwd6GGcNNH_BYYVh6F7HR8tlKIDjHg1DCgWDxQ0/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

 

Best I can do right now 

 

 

Should add I loved the little tributes to Bray Wyatt throughout the show

Edited August 28, 2023 by Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete

[textonly]

I'm so pleased with the finish. Of course, I would have been thrilled by a heel turn, too, but there's something especially wonderful about AEW closing this massive show on such a heartwarming note. Before all the Punk shenanigans and backbiting, AEW was a company coloured by its sense of camaraderie and a different outlook on machismo and hypermasculinity. Choosing to end the show in a way that leant back into that, a finish that says, "this is who we are, what we do and the feeling we're going for" rather than just "here's a narrative reason to watch next week" was brave and, I think, a good call.

[Statto]

Imagine someone telling you 5 years ago that a company other than WWE would put 80k+ into Wembley Stadium.

Then imagine them telling you that show would go off air with the Ring of Honor tag champs celebrating with their belts as Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett & Matt Taven watch from the aisle.

[Matthew]

3 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

And didn’t help he had a drunk bloke shouting seven stars at him which made him more fed up.

Unfortunately this “drunk bloke” was the guy I was with. Met him in NY for WM35, and met him a few times since. He’d been drinking today since 10am, and was slaughtered, completely ruined the show for himself, and he’s watching it back now to see what he missed. 

He was just a nuisance and a pest to anyone around him. Called people perverts, gimps, slags, and just generally not being particularly pleasant.

Thankfully they’re away home tomorrow. Doubt I’ll be doing it again. 

If the show wasn’t as great as it was, it could’ve easily been ruined because of it.

Safe to say I never want to hear a bad impression of “nana”, “let me talk to ya”, “yeah” LA Knight style, ever again, having heard it every waking moment since yesterday.

[JLM]

3 hours ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwd6GGcNNH_BYYVh6F7HR8tlKIDjHg1DCgWDxQ0/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

 

Best I can do right now 

 

 

Should add I loved the little tributes to Bray Wyatt throughout the show

During the pre-show when nothing was happening a guy walked out onto the floor wearing an extremely high quality Fiend costume, with his friend dressed as old school Wyatt Family Bray. He got a nice round of applause and then conducted one end of the stadium singing He's got the whole world in his hands. 

I'm sure I'll bash out a good 1000 words on the show tomorrow but I am half dead from doing this as a day trip from Leeds and back. For now I'll say it was a wonderful show and it was a joy to be a part of it, easily the best live wrestling experience I've ever had, they knocked it out of the park and into orbit. Everyone I could hear was positively giddy with excitement coming out of the stadium. My friend who only casually follows wrestling and only came because I twisted his arm suggested coming back next year before I did. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by JLM

[Version1.0]

7 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

Thought overall it was a really good show that picked up steam as it went on and the crowd never let up. We’re in the worst timeline though where Saraya and Will Ospreay are the ones to get their flowers and not Pac and Jamie Hayter. I would say I’m baffled they let any of her family near the show until I remembered we had Cash Wheeler who is currently awaiting trial for aggravated assault retain the tag belts earlier in the show.

During FTR's match, a fan in one of the first fews rows held up a 'Fear the Revolver' sign. 

Other ace signs included '4 naan?' from Peep Show and the cleverly named 'Bluey Combat Club'.

[Jazzy G]

2 hours ago, Matthew said:

Unfortunately this “drunk bloke” was the guy I was with. Met him in NY for WM35, and met him a few times since. He’d been drinking today since 10am, and was slaughtered, completely ruined the show for himself, and he’s watching it back now to see what he missed. 

He was just a nuisance and a pest to anyone around him. Called people perverts, gimps, slags, and just generally not being particularly pleasant.

Thankfully they’re away home tomorrow. Doubt I’ll be doing it again. 

If the show wasn’t as great as it was, it could’ve easily been ruined because of it.

Safe to say I never want to hear a bad impression of “nana”, “let me talk to ya”, “yeah” LA Knight style, ever again, having heard it every waking moment since yesterday.

Should have left him in Birmingham. 

 

Was a great show. I was knackered because I hadn't slept a wink on the coach in the way down and we'd done a LOT of walking. I think I did about triple my usual steps for the day. I should have worn thicker socks. 

Anyway, we got the train up from Marylebone and kicked around Wembley for the afternoon. We we in that much maligned green section, and didn't have any problems with a long queue or anything like that. I could feel myself nodding off the first few hours but as things started to ramp up the adrenaline gave me my second wind. Pretty much as soon as the bell rang at the end of the main event we were in our way to Wembley Stadium train station and we're at Paddington for about half 10. Easy travel. 

Loved the show. The little Cena/Hogan segment Punk & Joe did was fun. 

Tag title match was great. 

Stadium Stampede was brutal in places. 

Bullet Club/Elite trios match stunned me with that finish. 

Loved the Seek & Destroy Joker Sting entrance. I'd been looking forward to that match most, and it was heaps of fun.

Main event was cracking. Told a great story. 

I don't think Jericho Vs Osprey needed Sammy Guevara and Don Callis out there, and feel like Jericho/Sammy having their little moment took away from the fact that Osprey had just won in front of 81,000 at his home country's national stadium. 

Trios title match was fun but I wasn't really that involved. Good pallet cleanser between the Jericho match and the title match. 

Women's title match wasn't great. I don't get why everybody would cheer Saraya for getting all vindictive against Toni Storm over what was obviously an accident. Could have done without all that tearful celebrating in the ring as well. Shida is better than a transitional champion, but I guess she gets largely ignored and shuffled back into the pack so Saraya and Toni Storm can have a little feud. 

We saw them advertising for next year and I bet it'll be a great show again, but with everything going on in my life I have no idea where I'll even be this time next year. If I could I'd go again though, and probably make a proper weekend of it so I can hopefully get a decent sleep around everything. 

[quote the raven]

We’ll just woke up decided to make a few more comments.

I will admit that i thought I’d over hyped myself and that vast amounts of show time would see me sat as the kids would ask when’s the next superstar coming on.

How wrong I was from the silly fun cole mjf pre show to the main I was and more importantly the whole crowd was invested in everything. 
 

Sues van pulled in just down bellow us so our seats where decent enough a few guys behind us where actually quite funny. Top line being in the casket match when swerve tossed in stings bat “don’t give a guy that uses a bat a bat” followed by him shouting “see” 

The only thing I was a bit gutted by was the combat club came in from the total other end.

Kingston is over as hell isn’t he? The place was nuts for him if they don’t do a run with him at the top they are missing a trick.

Any attempt to get to a merch stand was impossible on the way in the lines snaked forever they must have done decent business on that.

In short my crew that ranged from 8 to 44 had a absolute blast and will be back next year. 

 

[69MeDon]

Had a great time. View was decent, but I'm going to have to re-watch most of the matches properly. Was a great atmosphere inside. Think I was sitting right by you @LaGoosh.

[unfitfinlay]

I honestly thought folk were exaggerating about dickhead attention seeking fans who try and get themselves “over” but I had one right behind me.

Cunt just wouldn’t shut up. Fucking roaring his shite patter all night. It genuinely took away from the show. Its really hard to focus when you’ve got some dickhead screaming “Fook Tha Young Buuucks!” in your ear in a stupidly fake voice (sounded like the Bat Dad from South Park), especially when they weren’t even wrestling. Kept spilling beer on my row as well. The boy next to me has the patience of a saint, he got covered.

I was genuinely considering swearing off live wrestling - this is only the second live show I’ve been to (Stardom in April being the first) - but that Main Event managed to turn it around. Fucking incredible. I can’t believe I rolled my eyes when these two got programmed together. It’s made both feel like proper, legit superstars to me. Really glad we got the feel good ending as well. Genuinely saved my night.

I’ll be back down next year, hopefully with a few others since there’s far more time to plan. 

[Michael_3165]

3 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

I honestly thought folk were exaggerating about dickhead attention seeking fans who try and get themselves “over” but I had one right behind me.

Cunt just wouldn’t shut up. Fucking roaring his shite patter all night. It genuinely took away from the show. Its really hard to focus when you’ve got some dickhead screaming “Fook Tha Young Buuucks!” in your ear in a stupidly fake voice (sounded like the Bat Dad from South Park), especially when they weren’t even wrestling. Kept spilling beer on my row as well. The boy next to me has the patience of a saint, he got covered.

I was genuinely considering swearing off live wrestling - this is only the second live show I’ve been to (Stardom in April being the first) - but that Main Event managed to turn it around. Fucking incredible. I can’t believe I rolled my eyes when these two got programmed together. It’s made both feel like proper, legit superstars to me. Really glad we got the feel good ending as well. Genuinely saved my night.

I’ll be back down next year, hopefully with a few others since there’s far more time to plan. 

Weren't in 122 were you? We had some gobshite that just wouldn't stop talking. On and on and on and nothing! My wife was getting a kicking from his foam finger (ooh er!), he spat beer all over our backs and crotch chopping at the back of my head. It wasn't helping he was coked off his nut (so he said re a toilet break!) 

Set was brilliant, got better as got darker. 

The show was fine. Much of it was average in ring w FTR v Bucks, Kenny et al and the main event really standing out. I loved the story telling at the end even if the facials were a tad hammy. So great how they booked the ending. 

Great to see Sting though Allin won't last til 40 at this rate, Stampede was okay but way too much shit happening and some of it was a bit too much (sticks in the brain? Just no). 

Saraya getting her win made sense and I quite like her so that was a nice moment. 

Paul Wight live is always good to see. 

All in all it wasn't bad at all. It felt a WM level show aesthetically. Maybe being far away took away the connectedness w the matches, my wife preferred NJPW in a smaller venue, as did I. 

I think some (not necess here) have gone overboard w the praise for some of the matches and caught up in the buzz (I'd have been the same 7 hrs ago).

[Supremo]

These backstage shots go so fucking hard.  I didn’t even know who these men were a few years ago. Now, seeing them in person last night was like seeing The Rock and Stone Cold live in 2001. Great men.

[unfitfinlay]

17 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

Weren't in 122 were you? We had some gobshite that just wouldn't stop talking. On and on and on and nothing! My wife was getting a kicking from his foam finger (ooh er!), he spat beer all over our backs and crotch chopping at the back of my head. It wasn't helping he was coked off his nut (so he said re a toilet break!)

Nah. 522. I was right in the front row of the stand. At one point the dopey fucker fell over into my row and I shat myself thinking he was just going to go straight off the edge, which would have been a slightly less satisfying end to the show.

And, aye, I probably wouldn’t have minded the loudness so much if he was saying anything of value. It was mostly just calling wrestlers he disliked paedos and bastards, trying to start crap football chants and, at times, he was just making horrible screeching noises, when he clearly had nothing to say but still desperately craved everyone’s attention. 

[RedRooster]

MJF/Cole was my favourite AEW match of all time. I know there's recency bias - but I'm pretty sure I'll feel that way once the dust settles too. It did something I've never seen before in a wrestling match; tell a redemption story for MJF. He did the right thing throughout, and actually won the match in the end proving that he was right. The only thing I think was a bad choice now was putting the ROH tag titles on them; purely because it takes away slightly from the moment of them winning the AEW tag titles; which they may or may not do. Personally, if they're staying together, I'd have been absolutely fine if that were the main event of All Out. 

But I'll say this...Roddy Strong is an absolute revelation. Who'd have thought he'd end up being one of AEW's best signings in recent memory? What a brilliant, brilliant character. 

However, as great as the show was (and it was) - it demonstrated the power of singles matches compared to multi-man, and I want more of those next year. We don't need Punk/Omega (arguably, at this point, do we need Punk at all?); emotion-driven matches hit much more effectively than dream matches. On that note, I really hope they do Moxley/Kingston again in the next year - perhaps with Eddie chasing after Moxley's International Championship; then, eventually, winning his first title belt in AEW?

I wonder how different next year's card will look in terms of people on it? Will MJF still be there? Will CM Punk be gone? Could we have Drew Galloway in a headline match? Perhaps Edge? What about Will Ospreay? It's a very interesting time in AEW. 

[Nick James]

Seen a lot of talk on Twitter (I know) about how WWE will break the attendance out of spite. I say good, I hope they do, then AEW will try with their next event. Who the fuck cares, we all win. Let them both go at it hammer and tongs trying to one up each other, it's going to be great. 

Win win for us folks.