AEW Revolution

[LaGoosh]

4 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

Rey Mysterio and Acolyte Bradshaw have been world champions.

Being part of Sting's retirement match will be bigger and have a longer lasting legacy than any hypothetical World title win.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Sting's retirement means more than mere trinkets or baubles. Its the biggest thing in his career.  The second biggest thing of old DA's career will be if he actually climbs Everest and comes back alive. Any World Titles would literally be downhill after that. 

[BomberPat]

@LaGoosh - in terms of cutting something from the show and shifting to a Dynamite main event, I'd have gone with BCC vs. FTR.

It made sense to have Orange Cassidy losing the belt finally happen on PPV, and Roderick Strong had to win that match to prevent the Undisputed Kingdom from looking like a complete damp squib. I did find it funny that they all made their entrance with Wardlow for the Scramble, left, then came back out (minus Adam Cole) with Roderick Strong, left, then came back out again to celebrate with him. Getting their steps in, at least.

FTR vs. BCC meanwhile, was good, but there were points where it felt like the crowd were sagging and I think a lot of that was because they had decided it had to go long, and because it all felt a bit forced - I hate to be the "where's the story?" guy, as the story didn't need to be more than them both being super-competitive teams who want to win, but it's a match that felt like it was lacking something in terms of purpose and direction, even if it did turn out to be quite good. For the pacing of the show, I'd have maybe cut it. Not before the Scramble, though, that was a bag of bollocks.

[SuperBacon]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

The usual bad faith hand wringing for Darby's insane bump across the internet I see

I don't think that's fair at all. I really don't care if he is a "stuntman" I thought it was a silly thing to do.

Now whether or not I think it looked good or not (it looked amazing obviously) doesn't take away the fact that I thought it was stupid. That's not bad faith hand wringing at all.

I'm sure he did it as safely as he possibly could, but its still stupid in my opinion (and it is just my opinion)

[Loki]

3 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I don't think that's fair at all.

I’m going to be charitable and say that @LaGoosh meant the wider internet/Twitter rather than posters upthread.  I hated that spot and have been consistent about disliking deathmatch AND needlessly dangerous bumps for years so it’s definitely not bad faith here.

[LaGoosh]

29 minutes ago, Loki said:

I’m going to be charitable and say that @LaGoosh meant the wider internet/Twitter rather than posters upthread.  

You would be correct. 

[Factotum]

A lot of the response on Twitter is from the usual 'AEW SUX' crowd. People calling it pointless and having no meaning having clearly not watched the match. That spot utterly has meaning in the context of it. It's dangerous and you don't have to like it, but some of the responses now are tiresome.

[Keith Houchen]

1 minute ago, Factotum said:

A lot of the response on Twitter is from the usual 'AEW SUX' crowd. People calling it pointless and having no meaning having clearly not watched the match. That spot utterly has meaning in the context of it. It's dangerous and you don't have to like it, but some of the responses now are tiresome.

No doubt if that spot happened on a WWE show they would be praising it to the heavens, and vice versa. I’d say it’s worse than football fans but it isn’t. 

[LaGoosh]

This may be a boring discussion to start but typically I don't really see very much across Instagram, X and Reddit of AEW fans attacking WWE but you can't find any post relating to AEW without finding swathes of the most miserable and horrible WWE trolls slating every little thing they're doing off. They are completely obsessed with it and just the worst, dumbest people possible.

Edited March 6 by LaGoosh

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

20 minutes ago, Factotum said:

some of the responses now are tiresome

Another of the ever growing list of mottos for this place. 

[Chili]

 

It's his son so it shouldn't be a surprise, but FUCKING HELL!!!

[Supremo]

This is really nice. Sting’s son reveals himself to be a YouTube gamer, who had to pause uploading so he could get into Surfer Sting shape.

If he’s excited by ten thousand subscribers just wait until he gets that full time AEW contract, regular TV, before eventually hooking up with Xavier Woods!

Edited March 6 by Supremo

[RedRooster]

8 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- I'm not really a fan of OC's giving up his title to Strong, I think it would have been better to give it to someone with more upside - Powerhouse Hobbs, RUSH, Takeshita, the list goes on.

 

I totally agree with this. Putting aside the fact I find the Strong character very grating, Cassidy has given that title so much credibility. I absolutely love the (now impossible) idea of Takeshita being the person to take the title from him, and having a dominant run, building on that credibility. 

[LaGoosh]

3 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I totally agree with this. Putting aside the fact I find the Strong character very grating, Cassidy has given that title so much credibility. I absolutely love the (now impossible) idea of Takeshita being the person to take the title from him, and having a dominant run, building on that credibility. 

Takeshita as International Champion while building tension with Ospreay as Don Callis desperately tries to keep a lid on it would be a good story I think.

[JLM]

AEW Revolution 2024

Pre Show -

Bang Bang Scissor Gang vs Jarrett Clan/Private Party/Willie Mack

Despite the massive, massive backlog I just worked through I still watched the pre-show. Don't often get to see AEW in front of a crowd this big so I wanted to soak it all up. Caster deliberately choked on the rap this time, is this a thing now? Is it going to be a thing? What's Willie Mack doing hanging out with these shady characters? The whole team (including Willie) doing the strut was my favourite bit. Crowd got very loud for the Daddy Ass hot tag. I quite like that Jay White's babyface promos are him basically taking the piss out of babyface promos. Such a natural heel, I cannot wait for this BBSG thing ito implode and for him to get back on track. When is Juice back?  Maybe he can sort this. 

Pac's "BASTAD" sweatshirt was excellent. Look forward to his return, will pretend that match with Gravity never happened. 

WIllow/Stat vs Julia/Skye Blue was a cracking tag match. Perhaps a few too many hot tags and near falls, but it was wrestled at a sprint and Statlander in particular looked tremendous as usual. Best bit of the whole thing was Willow escaping the Code Blue and then pouncing Skye Blue's soul out of her body. God damn. Should probably be illegal to use "Improved" in the same sentence as either Julia or Skye these days as it's all we ever say, but it really is lovely to see how far they've come. They managed to keep up with two of the best wrestlers in the division here in what was quite a long and ambitious match. 

Main show:

16,000 fans in attendance! Awesome. 

Daniel Garcia vs Christian Cage

Danny's scorpion jacket was a lovely touch. This was amazing. Tremendous heat, incredible fire from Garcia and another masterclass from Christian Cage. The fake injury, the selling of the "real" injury, telling the camera man to scram when the patriarchy was doing a strategy huddle, the man is flawless. What an opener, especially for those of us who have followed Garcia's story up to this point. I was jumping out of my seat when Daddy Magic sent Killswitch packing. Devastated by the result but Danny will have his day and it will be the BEST day. 

Kingston vs Danielson.

Before the match even started, having Lexy and Renee paraphrase promos  on their behalf was a wonderful touch. They've already said everything, they're both laser focused. Proper big fight feel before they were both in the ring. What a match. Hard to even know where to begin with it. The in-ring storytelling throughout this feud has been some of the best I have ever seen in pro wrestling and this was no exception. We've had Danielson goading Eddie into losing his cool, we've had Eddie making Danielson lose his cool. We've established that Eddie's strikes are one of his biggest strengths against Danielson.

This time Danielson is taking it more seriously than ever. He is not trying to wind up Eddie, he is not engaging in mind games. He is a better wrestler than Kingston. He is a better strategist and a better technical wrestler. He knows this, he has told himself this (perhaps NEEDS to tell himself this?) and he is going to dismantle Eddie and make him tap out. 

It's working, too. He picks apart the leg to slow Eddie down, then moves on to the arm to remove the threat of the Uraken and set up his submission finish. It is all going exactly to plan. Eddie is barely surviving his holds, he is forced to use the weaker left hand for his offense. However, once again, despite all logic and despite Danielson doing exactly what he set out to do, this fucking guy will not lose. The growing frustration in Danielson and the gradual collapse of his gameplan as it went on was a joy to watch. 

On Eddie's side, yes, the strikes are a big asset and he has relied on them in the past. However, the things he has that can't be out-wrestled or outplayed are his resolve and his FIRE. What was once both a strength and at times an achilles heel for Eddie has been channeled into his greatest weapon. He isn't losing to uncontrollable rage, but rather deploying the rage when he needs it the most, and when he has it under control it's something no opponent can plan or account for. 

Perhaps Danielson could be in the World Title picture and headlining on the posters and perhaps that might be a better business move for AEW, but as a fan I am glad he has chosen to do exactly what he's been doing on this run. Will Osprey might have more sizzle and razzmatazz, but for me Danielson is the best pro wrestler in the world. The Messi to Osprey's Ronaldo, for any sport ball heads. 

The Scramble match was a big clusterfuck, obviously. Aside from the nod to the meatfest that wasn't, the first few minutes were all over the place. People looking lost, particularly Dante and Magnus. Half way through there were some fun pairings and entertaining spots. Great showcase for Wardlow towards the end, but ultimately this wasn't very good. 

OC vs Roddy. I never saw this match going any other way. Roddy systematically picking apart an already broken man.

FTR  vs BCC 

Did not have the crowd for the first half. Turned into a good brawl with a typically high drama closing stretch, but it wasn't the time or the place for them to have a blood soaked epic unfortunately. 

Deonna vs Toni was OK but they did not have the people. Bit of a shame because the build for this was very good. 

Osprey vs Takeshita was absolutely batshit. Delivered exactly what they set out to do. State of the art stuff from two of the best, putting on a show that nobody else on the roster could achieve. I thought "bell to bell" was the expression but Callis is pretty insistent on "rope to rope". But yeah, completely insane match that felt like it was from a different universe. I personally slightly preferred Eddie vs Danielson but this was spectacular. 

Joe vs Hangman vs Swerve

I loved Swerve out with the dancers looking like a superstar ready to take his rightful place at the top of the mountain, contrasted with Hangman coming out like a raving lunatic and completely ignoring his own pyro. Especially jarring when you consider the entrances Hangman has had for previous world title matches. He's not the modern day cowboy striding in to clean up this town and fulfil his destiny this time, he is there to make sure Swerve doesn't win and that's it. Joe looked great, Swerve looked great, Hangman in this role is doing some of the best work of his career. I was gripped throughout because I genuinely wasn't sure which direction they'd go, but ultimately thrilled with the result. I didn't want Joe dethroned just yet and I'm glad he retained. Swerve is inevitable, Hangman and Swerve fighting for this title is inevitable, but neither of those things needed to be at Joe's expense by giving him a short reign with barely any defenses. 
 

Sting/Darby vs The Bucks

Ooh boy. So Sting in the cinema watching the absolutely phenomenal video package made me shed a tear. I know we're not supposed to compare things to WWE in AEW threads, but this was a WWE-esque video package in terms of sheer quality, and I consider that to be high praise. When he delivered the most subdued "it's showtime" with the little stare into middle distance, that's when I shed another tear. I knew he'd get me. 

On any other night I'd have had Kingston vs Danielson as match of the night, but nothing was competing with this. I've seen people online complaining that a legend retiring in a crazy stunt fest full of mad high spots wasn't appropriate somehow, but I feel like if you've paid any attention to Sting's AEW run at all you'd see that it was the perfect send off. Sting has mentored Darby but he's also been inspired and rejuvenated by Darby's daredevil attitude, and that has rubbed off on him. This sort of madness has been a hallmark of what has been a note perfect last run. 

Like others have said, I don't have the same nostalgia for Sting as some of the fans in attendance. I watched Silver Vision WWF tapes and didn't see any WCW at all in the early to mid 90s. Later I watched Attitude era WWF and caught snippets of WCW on TNT. I went to see WCW when they toured the UK, but it was the tour when Goldberg had used real glass and was crying rivers, and everyone else was sat at home getting paid. I thought Crow Sting was cool as fuck and I bought his t-shirt on that tour even though he wasn't on the show, and I bought Spring Stampede 99 on VHS because he was on the cover. I had a Surfer Sting alarm clock because I think my mum had confused him with The Ultimate Warrior, but have only ever seen odd matches from the early days. I have gone back and watched quite a bit of late 90s NWO/Wolfpac stuff but I didn't watch it all as a kid and form that nostalgic bond with the Sting. The TNA run I've seen even less. 

So pretty much all of my good will towards Sting has been based on reputation, watching stuff after the fact and, most of all, this incredible AEW run. AEW make plenty of frustrating decisions, stopping/starting pushes, unnecessary signings, whiffing on cant-miss performers or directions or at least failing to fully capitalise on them. The Sting run though, for me, has been as closed to perfect as anything I've watched in this silly fake sport. A returning legend banking on nostalgia and the existing fandom and not disgracing themselves or tarnishing their legacy is a rare enough feat in pro wrestling, but for a guy in his 60s to MAKE me a fan on his final run is truly remarkable. That is a credit to him as a special performer, but also AEW's immaculate handling, presentation and appropriate level of reverence without ever 100% relying on nostalgia. 

Sting's sons in the outfits got me choked up all over again. Outstanding. 

I don't know if any spot this year will top the no sell on the double super kick. The kick outs and the 3 count itself were also magical, but that bit was one of those special times where pro wrestling makes me feel like a child again. 

Wonderful, wonderful send off for The Icon. Good lord I am going to miss him, and if ever he does pop in again for a surprise appearance I am going to lose my fucking mind.

The card was perhaps too stacked for its own good, and the Storm/Purazzo and BCC/FTR matches were the casualties of that. The Scramble match was a bit pants. However, Osprey/Takeshita was a mind-blowing spectacle, the World Title match was tremendous and Garcia/Christian, Kingston/Danielson and Bucks/Sting all had me jumping out of my seat like an excitable child and shedding real tears by the end of the show. Can't really give a show any bigger endorsement than that. 9 and 3/4 stars. 

Edited March 7 by JLM