Paid Members Kamran Posted September 4, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 4, 2023 I thought this might be a slog after All In, Dynamite, Rampage, Collision and Payback but I absolutely loved it. I even watched Zero Hour and thought those 3 matches were okay/good too. On the subject of Danielson, the below is from the WO Newsletter, which makes the match even more impressive: Quote > BRYAN DANIELSON SAYS STRAP MATCH WAS ALL "SMOKES AND MIRRORS" - Bryan Danielson says his strap match against Ricky Starks was filled with "smokes and mirrors" to protect his arm which he broke at Forbidden Door back in June. During the post-show press conference, Danielson said he got cleared by AEW medical personnel as well as a surgeon but he didn't really use the injured arm much, in fact, he never even threw a punch with it. Danielson was full of praise for Starks who he said carried him throughout the match. He noted that he heard people rave about him before and can confirm that he's a great worker. The two had never crossed paths in the ring before Sunday. It's unclear if Danielson is back in the ring full time now or this was just a one-time thing to fill in for CM Punk until he's fully healed. During the same press conference, AEW President Tony Khan hinted that we might see more of Danielson on Saturdays at Collision because it fits his work/family life balance better. Danielson pulls double duty and also helps with creative for shows and recently Khan said that if something happens to him and has to leave the show in someone else's hands, he would pick Danielson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted September 4, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 4, 2023 (edited) My fucking God. Bryan Danielson is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. I’ll have to give it some thought, but has Danielson had both the greatest Iron Man and the greatest Strap match of all time in the space of months? Violent catharsis on a level I’ve never seen. Unbelievable. Fucking strapping each other’s faces off. Pure murderous joy. The way he can be both the most endearing, loveable man, yet also the scariest man to ever exist, is something to behold. Bryan Danielson could beat a T-Rex in a fight, animatronic or otherwise. Danielson’s the only person giving Orange Cassidy a run for his money as Wrestler of the Year. Imagine having a year where it’s genuinely arguable that your worst match of the year was with Okada. Didn’t Tony Khan explain in the Forbidden Door post-show press conference that, “Final Countdown,” costs as much as a wrestler’s contract? Well after that performance I think everyone can agree that every penny saved by sacking CM Punk should be spent on allowing a blood-soaked Danielson to have the time of his life getting the crowd to sing the chorus night in and night out. A far better investment. It wasn’t even his feud, and he’s out there delivering one of the all-time pay offs. Incredible. He’s the best. Give him the music. Give him Collision. Give him the whole fucking company. Edited September 4, 2023 by Supremo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyUK Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 (edited) Life after Phil isn't so bad is, it? Great show once again. They've knocked it out of the park with these two shows. All In was probably an overall tighter show, but there's an argument for a couple of matches on this being better than anything we got on there so it's swings and roundabouts. All I do know is that it's all bloody good. Cassidy/Moxley was fantastic, the Danielson/Starks Strap match was brilliantly violent and Omega/Takeshita was full of insane bumps. You've got three stars there in Orange, Starks and Takeshita if done. properly. Best Luchasaurus match I've seen, best womens match AEW have had in a while with Ruby and Statlander and a war between Miro and Hobbs too. Edited September 5, 2023 by AndyUK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 7 hours ago, Supremo said: Didn’t Tony Khan explain in the Forbidden Door post-show press conference that, “Final Countdown,” costs as much as a wrestler’s contract? Well after that performance I think everyone can agree that every penny saved by sacking CM Punk should be spent on allowing a blood-soaked Danielson to have the time of his life getting the crowd to sing the chorus night in and night out. A far better investment. It was hinted at the FD presser, and confirmed after All Out, the deal was for 2 PPV performances. That plan was presumably for Wembley and the Omega match that was lined up 😢 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted September 5, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 5, 2023 I haven't even got to the main event yet, and that show was phenomenal. Takeshita vs. Omega, holy hell. Strong match of the year candidate for me, and the win, and moment, that Takeshita has been in dire need of. AEW is never better than when doing these "this is who we are, let's the show world" shows coming out of negative press and just proving themselves, and it's always been OC and Mox that have been at the forefront of that. It wasn't intentional, presumably, but them being in the main event of the first post-Punk show is perfect booking. Mad that a show with a run of heel finishes in big matches could be considered a "feel-good" show, but that's what this was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Version1.0 Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 As much as I loved All In and All Out, please don't run two 4-hour PPVs in 7 days again. I'm exhausted. Some of us have jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69MeDon Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 1 hour ago, Version1.0 said: As much as I loved All In and All Out, please don't run two 4-hour PPVs in 7 days again. I'm exhausted. Some of us have jobs. I'm afraid I've got some bad news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted September 5, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 5, 2023 3 minutes ago, 69MeDon said: I'm afraid I've got some bad news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 It's just occured to me that MJF and Roderick Strong are now both going to be dealing with competing neck injuries, and Adam Cole (bay bay) is going to have to decide who's neck means more to him. It'll be endlessly funny if he calls out Joe to get retribution for MJF, only for Roddy to come out at the end like "ADDAMMMMMMMM, why didn't you do this for me?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted September 5, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 5, 2023 On 9/4/2023 at 3:37 PM, Gay as FOOK said: Phil's spectre Oof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted September 6, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 6, 2023 (edited) Finally got around to finishing the whole show (it's been hard keeping up with so much AEW this week). Tremendous, every match an absolute cracker with several all-timers. In roughly one week AEW put out one of the best big Mania level stadium shows ever, had a shitty week of backstage issues and bad TV then put on one of the best all-round PPVs ever. What a rollercoaster. Some thoughts: - the commentators strongly suggesting that if the heels won the charity battle royale they were likely to use the donation for nefarious purposes was just my favorite type of fun wrestling silliness. Like if Brian Cage won the money would go to the Prince Nana Fund. I kept thinking of George Costanza's Human Fund. Money for People. - Alex Reynolds is not very good. John Silver is quite good, though miscast as a heel when he should be a lower card singles babyface. MJF keeping the kangaroo kick as part of his arsenal is the right thing to do, I grin like an idiot for it. I love Better Than You Bay Bay tags as they basically use every single old school silly trick at their disposal for maximum crowd reactions. A breath of fresh air with all the super serious stuff going on. - Shane Taylor throws good punches. Give him a gimmick and there could be something there. - Luchasaurus, if you're reading this: that's the best match you'll ever have. It's all down hill from here. - Miro/Hobbs was an unexpected surprise. I love that they clearly had a match planned out but completely changed it up when it was clear that the fans just wanted to watch them smash each other. Miro is so good and needs to wrestle more. I'd happily watch two more of these with one in a steel cage. AEW's had a hoss division just sitting there for ages, hopefully the crowd reaction to this inspires them to actually start doing more hoss matches. - Nigel McGuiness has found his groove and is really fun. Him and Excalibur make a great team. Kevin Kelly stands out like a sore thumb because he is just so incredibly awful. He sounds like a fucking AI. - There is literally no way that the originally planned Punk/Starks strap match would have been anywhere near as good as Danielson/Starks. I think the reason Danielson is such a lovely bloke is because he lets out every single negative emotion he has in his matches because good lord he beat the absolute FUCK out of Ricky Starks. All time showing from both men. - One thing AEW has done a really good job of is gradually teaching the audience that any match can finish a match, it doesn't have to be someone's finisher to do it. Great example of this is Claudio getting the win with a random big uppercut out of nowhere. - Was that a new entrance stage? If so, good! All the PPVs should have different stages from the weekly TVs. Massive pet peeve of mine when they use the same set up. - The production team have got their shit together finally. Both this and All In didn't feature the usual constant fuck ups that have been commonplace on TV recently. - Takeshita/Omega was absolutely bonkers. Love the story with this: Callis is replacing Omega with a younger, stronger, bigger and faster version of him, one who doesn't have Omega's friendship circle to distract him and is totally dedicated to Callis. Omega is outmatched on every physical level by Takeshita, so Omega has to use his experience, technique and pure babyface fire as his advantages. The right winner here. Takeshita's insane monstrous jumping clothesline should be his finish. - Very pleased that Chicago gave both Hangman and Omega big babyface reactions. They hate the Bucks though. I was expecting some crowd hijacking of the show but I think even the Chicago crowd have had enough of CM Punk's bullshit and moved on. - Best entrance in the business. Love these four and the pure chaotic energy they bring in their matches. Just perfect frantic scrambling for the win. Fantastic match. - I've already written about the main event a few pages back. Worth noting that in about one week AEW have put on at least (in my opinion) 6-7 all time classic matches. Say what you want about the build but in ring they are putting out some of the best stuff you'll see on a incredibly regular basis. We're very lucky. - AEW has a really exciting group of stars on the verge of breaking out or waiting in the wings to shine: Jay White, Juice Robinson, Big Bill, Bandido, Takeshita, Daniel Garcia, Rush, Mike Santana, Swerve...the list goes on. The amount of potential here is exciting. - So coming out this Punk stuff everything feels positive now which is nice. Long may it continue. Edited September 6, 2023 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 1 minute ago, LaGoosh said: - Nigel McGuiness has found his groove and is really fun. Him and Excalibur make a great team. Kevin Kelly stands out like a sore thumb because he is just so incredibly awful. He sounds like a fucking AI. I've never felt so strongly in agreement with something as this statement here. Jason Powell said - on a podcast - that Ian Riccaboni had turned down the Collision job because working Saturdays didn't fit in well with personal commitments. I'd be absolutely fine with Khan making Riccaboni the lead announcer of Dynamite, switching Excalibur to Collision, and getting rid of Kelly completely. People complain about Jim Ross, but at least he has his moments. I'm not sure I could highlight any positive contributions at all from Kevin Kelly. He makes everything he's involved in worse, he's just horrendous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69MeDon Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 Just now, RedRooster said: I've never felt so strongly in agreement with something as this statement here. Jason Powell said - on a podcast - that Ian Riccaboni had turned down the Collision job because working Saturdays didn't fit in well with personal commitments. I'd be absolutely fine with Khan making Riccaboni the lead announcer of Dynamite, switching Excalibur to Collision, and getting rid of Kelly completely. People complain about Jim Ross, but at least he has his moments. I'm not sure I could highlight any positive contributions at all from Kevin Kelly. He makes everything he's involved in worse, he's just horrendous. Woah, woah woah - and break up the Tazz, Ex and TS dream team?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 14 minutes ago, 69MeDon said: Woah, woah woah - and break up the Tazz, Ex and TS dream team?! If it's a choice between that and getting rid of Kevin Kelly, I wouldn't have to think twice about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted September 6, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted September 6, 2023 Kevin Kelly is fucking atrocious, and such a QAnon weirdo that even Ian Riccaboni has called him out on it. Kelly has made noise about stopping working with NJPW soon, and I really hope that's him retiring rather than going full-time with AEW - the only value he adds is that he's got some legitimacy as the current voice of NJPW, but he's awful. Fair play to Ian if he doesn't want to work Saturdays, but a company that has Schiavone, Excalibur, Taz, Ian, and Caprice Coleman, and probably others I'm forgetting, there's no excuse for putting someone that checked out and actively detracting from the show on PPV. At least Jim Ross has the excuse of tenure. Nigel McGuinness has definitely come into his own, though, he was better on this show than I've heard him in years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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