Well, I have now lasted over a year partaking in the AEW Experience. My first pay per view of theirs was Dynasty and my first review was last year’s Double or Nothing. I went to Dynasty this year and had a mostly good time but the ending was disappointing. After eight months and four PPV title defenses that have been mostly not great matches with run in finishes, this Moxley title reign has been a big rain on the parade for many of even the most diehard AEW fans. The company needed to hit a home run here to wash the stink of those finishes away; it is also a chance to make a good impression on anyone curious now that WWE has jumped into an overstuffed schedule that is requires an increasing amount of time and energy to stay on top of. So did they succeed? Let’s take a look.
The Good
Let me just that none of the matches were bad, a rarity for a nine match pay per view from any company. The opener between Mercedes Mone and Jamie Hayter was very good, minus a couple of convoluted spots. It was a couple of minutes too long (21:17), but a women’s match on a PPV getting 21 minutes isn’t something I’m gonna complain too much about. The tag team matches that were there to advance a storyline – FTR vs Nigel McGiniess and Daniel Garcia, and the Hurt Syndicate vs The Sons of Texas – did that well. Ricochet continued his surprisingly well done heel turn in the stretcher match with Mark Briscoe. Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa turned what was essentially a filler match into a fun 15 minute affair. Same with Kazuchika Okada’s title defense against Speedball Mike Bailey.
Then there were the two marquee matches of the night. The Anarchy in the Arena match was every bit the ridiculous over the top affair that we’ve come to know and love. We got a forklift, and ambulance, and electrified table, frying pans, chains, and much more. An this year it went coed with the inclusion of Willow Nightengale and Marina Shafir. Willow has been a great addition to the AEW roster, and it showed tonight when she got to do stuff like this:
The Anarchy match is one of those things that violates all the rules of serious, realistic pro wrestling but you don’t care. If it’s too much for you then you should skip it, but if not then it’s good fun. I mean, they had a forklift for crying out loud, how cool is that?
And the main event was all that was expected. Yes it was very indieriffic and video game like, but that’s what you’re going to get with these two guys and it was in the main event of a big PPV and not a random Wednesday night TV match. Ospreay is the best out there at doing moves in the ring and Hangman Page is one of the few people who can come close to replicating it. In this spot on this show yes, you let them do all of their stuff. Ospreay got a bit heelish halfway through as he brutalized Hangman outside the ring after he he couldn’t pin him with a few of his big moves, and then they went big move crazy to head to the finish. Was it as good as Will’s matches with Bryan Danielson and Swerve last year? I’d say no, but it was still excellent in it’s own right. And call me surprised that Hangman got the win, I did not see that coming.
I also gotta give them credit for the entrances and video packages; they were all well done tonight, and I didn’t see any egregious bad camera shots or missed shots tonight. This show passed the vibe check more than any PPV of theirs that I’ve watched since All In last year. That stuff matters more than we often want to admit, and I attribute much of that here to the announced main event. Hangman Page vs Will Ospreay is the kind of match that has been the backbone of the company since it’s inception and just knowing that this show was going to end with that and not another schmozz fest like the last five PPVs was a big plus out of the gate.
The Bad
I know, I know, AEW doesn’t do shorter PPVs. But I’m gonna say it anyway: this was too damn long. The six man tag between the former Undisputed Era and the Don Callis Family didn’t need to be on the show at all, and seemed to exist only for the post match run ins by various New Japan wrestlers. Seriously that would have made a great Collision main event; putting that on at 11:15 PM after a 35 minute Anarchy in the Arena match was a choice. The same could be said for the FTR/McGuiness & Garcia match, which went for an egregious 23 and a half minutes right after a 21 minute opener. Nothing in that match couldn’t have been accomplished in 12 minutes, come on guys. Cut or trim down those two matches, and take 10 off of the Anarchy match and main event which both went 35+ minutes and you save almost an hour of time, easy and gotten us home at 11:00 instead of midnight.
Final Verdict: A-
Start to finish this may be the best PPV of the year so far. If they had trimmed the fat a bit it would be the clear winner to date in my book. But for all my complaints about time none it was bad, no head scratching winners or anything. The biggest, most important thing was to not end yet another show on the down note of the Death Riders standing victorious. And to that end, they stuck the landing. Not only did they lose their match, but the show ended on a positive note with the Ospreay/Hangman match that was a good reminder of why they exist in the first place.
AEW is at it’s best when they do their own brand of sports entertainment, meaning that while they do have the five star workrate matches, they also mix in things like Anarchy in the Arena and Timesless Toni Storm. It’s not about just being something different than WWE, it’s about being who they are regardless of what WWE is doing. Their most loyal fans want to see shows end with matches like Hangman vs Ospreay and not Jon Moxley cheating to win and the Death Riders beating people down like it’s an episode of Nitro.
I still have my issues with the in ring style and I still think they tend to do too much in a lot of these matches. But it’s what got them to the dance, and I do think they’re better off going with that and hoping that people like me will give them some grace if they execute it well enough than they are if they stray from it, which this whole Death Riders story has been doing for 8 months now. They very much needed to end a show the way their core fanbase had gotten accustomed to, and they did that here. Great job by everyone involved.
Stroke of Genius 