AEW World's End 2023 discussion

[Infinity Land]

10 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I’m not watching AEW, so perhaps age has caught up with Dustin and I’m unaware, but he’d have been a great participant in the continental classic instead of Jay Lethal, with the obvious story being Rhodes looking to hold one last major title before he retires. Unless Dustin feels incapable of wrestling regularly, I do feel like his final years as an active performer have been wasted a bit. 

Since you didn't watch it, I should explain what the angle was. Both Dustin and Swerve come down for their entrances. Swerve jumps Dustin before the bell, brawl at ringside. The cinder block comes out, Dustin's ankle is propped onto it by Nana. Swerve then curb stomps Dustin's ankle with the cinder block under crumbling. Doc comes out, they aid a hobbling Dustin to the back. Dustin changes his mind and goes hobbling into the ring for the match to start.

The match goes about 10 minutes geared around the fake injury, with typical moments of just forgetting about it when Dustin gets back into control. There would have been a fine match between the two if you didn't have to fake believe in a crushed ankle.

[LaGoosh]

30 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I’m not watching AEW, so perhaps age has caught up with Dustin and I’m unaware, but he’d have been a great participant in the continental classic instead of Jay Lethal, with the obvious story being Rhodes looking to hold one last major title before he retires. Unless Dustin feels incapable of wrestling regularly, I do feel like his final years as an active performer have been wasted a bit. 

He barely wrestled in 2023 (10 matches total) so either he can't regularly wrestle or just doesn't want to. 

[Infinity Land]

9 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

He barely wrestled in 2023 (10 matches total) so either he can't regularly wrestle or just doesn't want to. 

He's had some injuries long the way, but even without that i'd never consider him someone overly protective of his spot. Backstage duties and his training school do seem to be more his priority. I'd really like to see him team with Sting. There's some history there from their WCW days and I don't think they've done anything together in AEW. 

[RedRooster]

2 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I’m not watching AEW, so perhaps age has caught up with Dustin and I’m unaware, but he’d have been a great participant in the continental classic instead of Jay Lethal, with the obvious story being Rhodes looking to hold one last major title before he retires. Unless Dustin feels incapable of wrestling regularly, I do feel like his final years as an active performer have been wasted a bit. 

Ugh, I take this back. I hadn’t realised that he had sexual assault allegations made against him in Dark Side of the Ring, or that he allegedly made race-based comments to LuFisto. Cheers for that Google. Very disappointing to read all of that. 

[Accident Prone]

Funny thing about Worlds End, is that I saw posts everywhere about the PPV card highlighting AEW's deep roster as they'd crafted a PPV card filled with "bangers" without any of The Elite (or CM Punk, for those still salty about that). AEW has always depended on those six wrestlers to push PPVs from being merely average to the realms of great-to-excellent, and Saturday was proof that the AEW talent pool isn't as deep or as well-utilised as it should be as what we got was a PPV that was marred with an undercard that jumped from dull (Miro vs Andrade, Strickland vs Dustin) to utterly shite (Toni vs Riho, Abadon vs Julia) to awkward as all hell (Sting's Squadron vs Callis Family).

I even felt like the main event was an extended squash with a weak finish, and the less said about that fucking post-match, the better. The opening 8-man tag, Eddie vs Mox and Cope vs Cage were the only highlights, but even they were fighting a crowd who appeared like, at some points, that they'd rather be anywhere but an AEW PPV.

If anything, you could always depend on AEW to deliver an excellent PPV, no matter what bullshit or internal strife was going on, and so I hope this one is the exception to the rule. 

Edited January 1 by Accident Prone

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

Saturday was proof that the AEW talent pool isn't as deep or as well-utilised

I think that's it and AEWs biggest problem by far. A roster filled to the brim with incredible wrestlers and at least half of them (probably more) are being underutilised. It's frustrating to see one of the best rosters ever not being used to their full potential. 

[Loki]

23 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think that's it and AEWs biggest problem by far. A roster filled to the brim with incredible wrestlers and at least half of them (probably more) are being underutilised. It's frustrating to see one of the best rosters ever not being used to their full potential. 

Remember when Hobbes body slammed Paul Wight onto the top of a car and looked like a killer?  Tony Khan doesn't, and it was only a few weeks ago.

[Devon Malcolm]

Christian Cage sitting on a chair doing Boston crabs and taking other people's briefcases to win his belt back, on the best run of his career and an absolute treat every single time. Fair play to Killswitch for playing into it all so well with his mannerisms too. Wrestler of the year 2023/24.

Edited January 1 by Devon Malcolm

[Mr_Danger]

7 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

Since you didn't watch it, I should explain what the angle was. Both Dustin and Swerve come down for their entrances. Swerve jumps Dustin before the bell, brawl at ringside. The cinder block comes out, Dustin's ankle is propped onto it by Nana.

As it’s someone unfamiliar with the product I really hope he doesn’t know that it’s a prince you’re referring to.

[JLM]

World's End Zero Hour 

Willow/Statlander was ok, impressive showcase for Statlander's power and she busted out some stuff I don't think I've seen before. However, I think it was a waste to book this singles match at all at this stage, especially at the beginning of Zero Hour. Also unfortunately derailed at the end as the Doctor Bomb was botched twice in a row before it eventually ended the match. I don't like this direction with Stokeley Hathaway so far because I think it'd be a huge mistake to try and turn these two against each other, or for either of them to turn heel.

Battle Royal was a bit ploddy and not as fun as the last couple of these they've done.. Liked them continuing the Dalton Castle spiral. Kip Sabian doing a little nod to Mad Kurt was nice. Killswitch was the obvious winner as soon as he came out

Yuta/Hook was a decent scrap but they didn't seem to have the crowd for most of it, which hurt it a little. 

Danielson/Garcia/Claudio/Briscoe vs RUSH/Brody/Lethal/White

Danielson's music starting before Garcia had finished his entrance was a massive, massive dick move. What a fantastic opener this was. Perfect follow up/continuation of the Garcia CC story. Wrestled at a crazy pace but packed with great little moments. Garcia tagging himself in, all the Brody/Daddy magic stuff, everyone else getting plenty of chance to shine (Claudio's delayed vertical suplex on Brody in particular!) and a manic closing stretch into a finish that made me do little fist bump of joy when Garcia got the pin. Loved this to bits. 

Miro/Andrade

These two work well together and I think this could have been a great match if any of it made sense. Andrade hasn't done anything wrong. Miro is nuts, CJ is nuts. Andrade has also spent much of his time as CJ's "client" in a tournament where everyone is banned from ringside, so it is extremely unclear what benefit he's supposedly had from her managing him. If they knew Andrade was leaving and this would be his last show, why not have him be a complete dick about it instead? Talk loads of smack about how Miro's wife wants to manage a real star, do some vignettes of him goading Miro, so Miro winning her back tonight feels like a victory? What a mess. 

Toni Storm/Riho

Fun closing stretch here after Luther got removed. They weren't really clicking before that. I think they needed to embrace the fact that Timeless Toni is a hugely popular babyface champion sooner and line up some heels to challenge her. Riho works best as a plucky underdog babyface, wasn't a great fit for her having to try and work like that when the champion was clearly the crowd favourite. I suppose Mariah May will be that heel when she eventually attacks Toni. 

Swerve/Dustin Rhodes

They tried all the bells and whistles on this one, and even at 54 I think Dustin is a great babyface against adversity. AEW is currently Swerve's House, however, so nobody was really buying into this. I hope they skip the Swerve/Lee feud and let Swerve move on to better things. 

Sammy/Jericho/Darby/Sting vs Bill/Starks/Takeshita/Hobbs

Unsurprisingly frosty reception for Chris Jericho. I bet in his head he thought the simultaneous Scorpion Deathlock/Walls of Jericho would be an iconic moment. The "World's NDA" sign right opposite the hard cam during the Judas sing-along was also a touch awkward.  Zero heat for Sammy Guevara and his latest flip floppy babyface turn has him re-attached to sex pest Jericho. I've missed watching Takeshita do what he does, so that was nice I guess. 

Abadaon vs Julia Hart

"This is spooky" is a fun chant. This was several minutes too long given who was involved, which is frustrating because it felt like there was some stalling and padding in there to make it longer intentionally. Not sure if that's because it's a title match on the PPV and they feel the need for it to be 12-15 minutes, but it was a bad decision. As much as Julia has improved, she'd still need a very strong opponent to do a 10-15 minute pay per view match. Abadon, who has also improved a bit during this recent run, is most definitely not that opponent. There's no reason for Julia to be wrestling anyone for longer than 7 minutes at age 22 with her experience level anyway. They lost the crowd when they could have just done a 7 minute sprint, upped the intensity and got to Abadon biting Julia much quicker. Julia usually has a nice looking moonsault, felt bad for her that she sort of botched it by doing too clean a backflip and landing on her feet.

Christian Cage vs Adam Copeland.

"We want fire" is a shit chant. Occasional annoying smark chants aside, I bloody loved this. Just like the first match, a couple of old pros doing what they do best. Copeland attacking Christian the second he sees him, because of course he would. Then over committing and falling prey to Christian's sneakiness, then heroically fighting his way back into it. The hatred was there, the intensity was there. They did nutty high spots but they teased and built up to them, and let them breathe afterwards. Great twists and turns and little details; loved the callback to the first match with the leapfrog over the spear. And the most old pro move of them all: let the kid take the flaming table bump instead. Tremendous. 

Thought the transfer into immediate cash in was pretty lame though. 

Eddie Kingston vs John Moxley 

Eddie you beautiful bastard. What a triumphant end to one of the best stories of the year. John Moxley positioning himself as the final trial, Eddie's final test. His promo before the match said as much. He wanted Eddie to win this as much as we did, but he would only let him win it if he brought his best. Danielson absolutely magnificent on commentary. I hope when he does stop wrestling we'll still get to hear him commentate, even if it's as a guest or for specific matches, I'll take it. Not going to go into too much detail on individual spots or moments, though Eddie rocking the Kawada kickpads *and* doing the Kawada stretches was a nice touch, the big geek. I'll just say that I was gripped throughout, I knew Eddie would win but still jumped out of my seat when he got the 3. Continental Classic 2 in 2024 please. Put Takeshita in it and somehow make it as good as this one. That'd be lovely. 

Max vs Joe

Really good old school main event. Injured babyface champ fighting valiantly against the odds. Joe was great. Methodically going after the injury, taking his time, picking him apart. MJF's comeback was also very good, especially the MJF-5. Really really glad Joe got the clean win before the devil reveal. Extremely chuffed for Joe. Glad the devil was Cole and really really really really really really glad it wasn't Jungle Boy. 
 

Edited January 2 by JLM

[air_raid]

9 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

As it’s someone unfamiliar with the product I really hope he doesn’t know that it’s a prince you’re referring to.

What do you know about shrimp cocktail?

[WeeAl]

So Andrade is done with the company, yet on the way out the door they give him a win over Bryan Danielson and he goes toe to toe with Miro and is given an out for losing, with the interference from CJ Perry? Odd. 

[LaGoosh]

45 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

So Andrade is done with the company, yet on the way out the door they give him a win over Bryan Danielson and he goes toe to toe with Miro and is given an out for losing, with the interference from CJ Perry? Odd. 

They probably want to re-sign him so burying him probably wouldn't have helped with that.

I've finally watched the whole thing and it was obviously nowhere near the standard AEW have set on PPV this year. But if you judge it against typical PPV standards 3 really good matches on one show ain't too shabby.

- Opening all star tag was brilliant and felt big time. Garcia getting the big win was perfect and I love the Garcia/Daddy Magic vs Brody King thing going on and hope they run with it. As long as they don't go all spooky bollocks with it (which they would sadly) House of Black vs the ultimate under dogs Daniel Garcia & 2.0 feels like a really fun feud with tons of potential. Brody King is so much more interesting as just a big angry scary badass dude than he ever has been doing amateur poetry in front of a smoke machine and a black sheet with Malakai Black.

- Andrade/Miro just felt like a weird waste of time. No one gives a shit about Miro. Not even Miro seems to seems to give a shit about Miro. They should just release him really. He has a ton of potential but it feels like no one has the interest to exploit it.

- Toni Storm/Riho was a dud. I once stood next to Toni Storm at a pub in Bethnal Green and she is absolutely tiny so seeing her doing power spots was very weird. This just didn't work.

- Swerve/Dustin could have been a perfectly fine 6-7 minute breather match and a solid win for Swerve but this whole thing took up 20 minutes of PPV time. 

- Putting aside the allegations for a moment, Jericho looked rough on this night. He's recently started putting weight back on, his ring work is getting worse and he looks knackered all the time. And for someone who always says he has his finger on the button and knows when to change his act up when it's getting stale he seems totally unaware his act has been stale for almost a year now. He had a really good 2022 but 2023 was definitely not his year. They need to phase him out sooner than later.

- Likewise Sting definitely struggled (botches and missed/mis-timed spots galore) though that's forgivable for Sting and Sammy Guevara was...Sammy Guevara. Meaning pretty shit and completely heatless. Every booker in history has had their favourites that they stick with regardless of how little they actually deliver and Sammy Guevara is definitely one of Tony Khan's favourites. 

- Meanwhile Darby, Takeshita, Hobbs, Big Bill and Starks all looked tremendous. Ridiculous amount of talent there. Takeshita in particular is just so wasted right now, he's an absolute beast and all these men need prominent spots and regular matches.

- Hart/Abadon was another womens match that just didn't work. Bless 'em for trying but both are still incredibly green and shouldn't be out there without a more experienced hand to guide them through it.

- Copeland/Cage was very fun. It was very much a standard WWE style No DQ match but just a tad more violent. I understand the dislike of the screwy finish though from a storyline perspective of Christian using a briefcase title shot to beat Edge, the first briefcase title shot winner, is pretty perfect. I hate briefcase title shots (and am amazed/horrified that WWE are STILL doing them) but it felt justified here with this story. One time only, hopefully AEW never do it again. I'm assuming the blow off will be some kind of ladder match which I'm fine with. Hope it's nto too far away, as I'm keen to see Copeland against new opponents and get a sense of what a post-WWE Copeland looks like.

- Nothing much to say on Mox/Kingston other than it was brilliant, emotional and perfect. Best wrestling tournament ever and Kingston is now a main event level star in AEW. 

- MJF/Joe was fine considering MJF's limitations. Didn't really feel like a main event, probably due to them running a superior version of this match at Grand Slam and the feeling that everyone was just waiting for awful The Devil stuff. Couldn't be happier with Samoa Joe as Champion. It's just the freshening up this company needs. 

Edited January 2 by LaGoosh

[Factotum]

Joe as champion feels right. Looking forward to what he can do and it freshens up the main event scene.

 

[Keith Houchen]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Putting aside the allegations for a moment

Isn’t that AEWs policy?