AEW London 2023

[westlondonmist]

Just now, Infinity Land said:

 

In the press conference it was confirmed both All In and All Out will be on the August bank holiday and Labor day weekends. Hope to making them traditions.

I don't mind it.

The real issue is Grand Slam in a few weeks and they also announced a PPV on October 1st WrestleDream. That's 3 PPVs and a major televised event in the space of what 5 weeks? If they're adding more PPVs they should move Grand Slam to the 1st half of the year.

if they want to make traditions out of them then fine but I think it hampers them. Wrestle dream probably won't be there next year but I dont understand having fyter fest and Grand Slam so close. They can be moved surely.

[The King Of Swing]

WrestleDream is such a 90's Joshi boom sounding name, I wouldn't be shocked if it's some sort of Women's Forbidden Door.

Especially with Mercedes being at All In.

Edited August 28, 2023 by The King Of Swing

[69MeDon]

My section was cool but I did watch 3-4 dudes get dragged out from the floor seats and taken into the tunnel that the BCC came out of, where I assume they were sacrificed to Jon Moxley.

Edited August 28, 2023 by 69MeDon

[Bus Surfer]

First time I've watched an AEW show top to bottom and I gotta say it was great. The pacing seemed spot on and there was hardly any filler in between matches to make it feel like anything was was dragging. The bouts themselves were all easy to watch and nothing felt out of place. I usually find myself fading badly towards the end of most wrestling shows but after that double pin in the main event I felt a little deflated and actually grinned like a goon when it continued.

MJF is a megastar 

Jericho's entrance was fucking great and I thought he had a banger with Osprey (Cut him some slack you nasty bastards) 

Stadium Stampede was a little much for me but the closing stretch was super fun

Darby Allin will be retired before Sting at this rate. 

Only negative was seeing the Knights paraded out like they mean anything. 

8 Sniffs out of 10.

[RedRooster]

46 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Sounds like our section was pretty decent as far as fans went. The guys behind us didn’t seem to like anyone, to the point that you wonder why they went to the show - Orange Cassidy? Shit. Darby Allin? Shit. Sting? Too old. Eddie Kingston? Fat and shit. Etc - but they were as obnoxious as it got.

Some hot takes of my own: 

Cassidy - I'd have absolutely no issue at all with him winning the World title at some point. He's tremendous. 

Darby - He's become one of the best promos in the company. Who'd have thought that would ever happen two years ago?

Sting - They should put a title on him soon. Sting winning the TNT title belt would be one hell of a moment. 

Kingston - He's just phenomenal. AEW is in a better place when he is in a prominent role. 

And an additional take...

Adam Cole - Out of the three men who came in at roughly the same time - alongside Danielson and Punk - Cole has proven to be the best signing; and has absolutely proven fans who criticised him wrong. He deserved to be in that main event, he deserves to win the World title at some point, and he's absolutely thriving in AEW. Plus he seems like a really nice person. I'm a convert!

[TobyK]

We had a great day leading up to going in the stadium, boxpark was a fun gathering and then walking about the area. A bit disappointed by our seats, even on level 1 were struggling with the view and a fair few annoying folk around us. I’m probably not used to being surrounded by so many people these days either. We left before the ending so to not be waiting in even more queues. If going back next year we’ll pay a bit more to get closer. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

31 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

WrestleDream is such a 90's Joshi boom sounding name, I wouldn't be shocked if it's some sort of Women's Forbidden Door.

Especially with Mercedes being at All In.

WrestleDream was actually a 90s show, that they’re bringing back. It’s a tribute to the Super World of Sports WrestleDream shows.

I don’t know much about them, other than they were quite Forbidden Door-y. The first one was a SWS/WWF joint venture, and Bret Hart, Macho Man and Earthquake all fought Japanese opponents. Hogan headlined against Yoshiaki Yatsu.

It’s such a Tony Khan, deep-geek throwback.

Edited August 28, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

One other thing I took away from the event - AEW benefits from Schiavone, Excalibur and Taz. It just didn't quite feel the same without their energy and enthusiasm that comes across so well on TV

[LWOLeN]

Good seats. Fun crowd.

Extra happy for locals like Saraya, Will Ospreay and Malakai. What a dream life.

Wembley is very large, almost a bit to much. If this was really 81.000 then they can go for 100K next time because plenty of space left.

Great trip. I was all relaxed. Everything went smooth. Straightforward public transport. Like I was at home. Could easily do this every year.

Next year I prefer more Indy shows around plus a wrestlecon etc. to make it up par with a Mania weekend.

Kudos to AEW!

(Note: Possible next trip; New Japan Pro Wrestling returns to London on October 14th.

The NFL will have their London Games one day later @ Tottenham Stadium.)

[The King Of Swing]

11 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

WrestleDream was actually a 90s show, that they’re bringing back. It’s a tribute to the Super World of Sports WrestleDream shows.

I don’t know much about them, other than they were quite Forbidden Door-y. The first one was a SWS/WWF joint venture, and Bret Hart, Macho Man and Earthquake all fought Japanese opponents. Hogan headlined against Yoshiaki Yatsu.

It’s such a Tony Khan, deep-geek throwback.

Man SWS is a blast from the past. That's where the Earthquake/Kitao incident happened, right? 

[air_raid]

6 minutes ago, LWOLeN said:

Extra happy for locals like Saraya, Will Ospreay and Malakai. What a dream life.

Are we claiming all of continental Europe to be "local" for him?

[d-d-d-dAz]

7 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Man SWS is a blast from the past. That's where the Earthquake/Kitao incident happened, right? 

Yeah, that same first show in ‘91…

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Are we claiming all of continental Europe to be "local" for him?

Amsterdam is closer to London than the tap end of Stevenston so probably fair he’s in ahead of Grado 

[LWOLeN]

13 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Are we claiming all of continental Europe to be "local" for him?

I go to work; takes me 55 minutes.

You fly from Holland to London, takes you 55 minutes aswell.

The year is 2023.

Go watch Back to the Future, we even got flying cars these days.

Edited August 28, 2023 by LWOLeN

[Duke]

I don't have mates that like wrestling. Well, I have one, but he moved to Northern Ireland, so he doesn't really count. Because of that, I don't really go to shows. Before last night, I've been to two in my life. The first was when I worked the boxes at the Nottingham Arena for one of those UK house show tours WWE do. I've never had any desire to go to one of those, they're never connected to the wider story of what's going on and I always assumed they'd be a bit half arsed. I wasn't exactly dossing off work to try and get a glimpse, if you get my meaning. I did, to be fair, get to go in an empty box for Brothers of Destruction v Regal and Finlay, so I'm grateful for that, but I wasn't exactly at the show, you know? 

The second was TakeOver London. My girlfriend (now wife) came with me, and, bless her, basically ruined the experience. There were two acts I really looking forward to seeing. American Alpha, who were super hot at the time, and I was hopeful that Sami Zayn would come back from his injury.  My girlfriend  got there a bit late, brought a big bag that obviously got checked (just after the Paris attacks, so checking was stricter), which meant we missed American Alpha, and she got me to leave early, missing the dark match which had the return of Sami Zayn. She also was clearly bored out of her mind. I think she got a bok out at one point. In her defence, she found the whole thing a bit aggressive. That's partly because it was, but it's also partly because of what happened in the first five minutes. Emma didn't know who anyone was and had no interest, so when thousands of people started chanting "Fuck you Emma" over and over, it took her a bit by surprise. Not the best introduction, you understand.

Since then, I basically resigned myself to not going to shows. I've been looking enviously at you bastards going to Manias, or Clash at the castle or whatever, knowing that's just not a budget priority for us. Since having kids that's gotten even less likely. So All In coming to town was a massive opportunity for me. I've been far more into AEW than WWE, partly because it's easier to stay in touch with, but also because I prefer the pace of match, I prefer the sense of humour and I prefer the feel. When they announced they were doing a show that was big, that was local and that had budget friendly seating options, I figured this was my chance.

I got in contact with my mate, hoping he'd come over. No such luck. I tried a couple of casuals who might be up for a cheaper ticket, nope. My wife refused before I'd even asked, the fuck you's still echoing in the corridors of her mind, which meant I had to go by myself.

I'm not a go by yourself kind of person. I know some people like to do that, even prefer it, but I am not that guy. So choosing to go by myself was a risk, and to be honest on the journey there I was starting to get nervous. Was I just going to be standing in queues looking at my phone for hours? What if the show was crap? Would I be able to get into it without anyone else there to process it with? 

It's worth saying at this point, I've also not been to this Wembley before. Walking up Olympic way was pretty special for me. The advantage of going on my own is that I could pick up the sights and the sounds, and, since this was wrestling, more than a few smells. If you go to a big football match there's always an edge of tribalism to it, but there just wasn't here. It was just excitement and joy and positivity. Some proper smart fans, some super cas, some very intense cosplayers, the whole spectrum of humanity, with a particular emphasis toward over weight and beardy men, but the rest were there too if you looked. 

It turns out, even the cheap seats at Wembley are pretty good. I wasn't as well off as my work colleague who was up near Mercedes Mone, but I got value for it. I've hurt my foot, so I sat down early and watched as the place slowly filled up. The noise didn't so much slowly come to a crescendo as start with a bang as the tag match started, and it just stayed hot from there. I thought we'd run out of energy, but we didn't. The matches kept delivering and the crowd kept asking for more. It tells you something about how invested we got that there was genuine anger at the possibility of a draw in the main, as if they'd ever do that for this match on this show? I chatted to the people around me, probably more than they'd like, but sorry lads, I'm an extrovert. Myworries about not getting invested from the view or being by myself got blown away by the Punk match as we all sang and cheered and chanted for Joe. As an aside, the two guys next to me were cheering for Punk and started getting more than a little confused to see how much of a minority they were. Watching their uneasy faces as the people around them chanted "Joe! Joe! Joe!" will stick with me, as will the guy in front of me who was...well let's just say it was clear from his appearance that he was a big House of Black fan. The way his body deflated when they lost was equal parts hilarious and heartwarming.

I'd been up since 5:30 that morning, so don't get me wrong, when the show finished, I was ready for it to be finished, but that just meant I wasn't deflated when I left. The show hit all my hopes and none of my concerns were meritted, other than having to remortgage my house to buy some nachos. Yeah, it took 3 hours and some inventive use of the transport system to get home, and yes I'm still in my dressing down at 11:30 this morning and yes I spent more than I'd probably have liked, but if you can't have days like that sometimes, what's even the point? 

As for the matches, that's all already covered, and this post is already way too long. I just wanted to take time to process what was an unusually special day for me. Not the best day of my life, not something I'll be telling my children about in 20 years, but still a special day. A day I'm grateful for and an experience I'll remember. Here's hoping I can make the next one. And hey, maybe I'll actually get some friends for it.