Wardlow/Jungle Boy
What a match to start a great show off with. I've been missing Wardlow so much recently-- seeing him in this tournament is very much welcomed. I long for him and MJF to be separated so that he can go on to be a cool nice guy who does cool nice things. AEW has really filled their "giant meat man" quota since the start of the year, and it would be nice to have another one besides Hobbs who's out there fighting for the people.
Wardlow tends to win quickly, but Jungle Boy decides right out of the gate just to piss him off, delivering a healthy smack to the face. This actually works for Jack here, as pissed off Wardlow is stupid Wardlow. Jungle Boy is able to systematically take out Wardlows legs and then assaults his back. He gets some good, healthy offence in before he gets too bold, I think, and goes right for the front. He should have stuck to the legs and just brought him down but he's young and cocky still.
Wardlow gets the upper hand here and despite a good show by Jungle Boy, eventually kills the hell out of him with an F10 into the ring, then ANOTHER nasty one to take the match.
It really is shocking how quick Wardlow is for such a big dude. He did a kip up at one point even, and the guy is like 7 feet tall.
Jungle Boy is so good, however, that despite any of this and all of Wardlow's offence, he really could have won the match had he played a little more defensively.
Eddie Kingston's 10.21 Post Show Promo
I don't know what to say about Eddie I haven't already. This promo is insane. It's ridiculous how good Eddie is. He's a shit bird heel who decked a man after an insane match with Lance Archer of all people and had his goons beat Mox down, and STILL comes off as sympathetic. He talks about how Mox left him behind for big money and "entertainment", and not wrestling.
I encourage you to watch this segment. It's worth your time. Eddie is untouchable.
Moxley Responds
Mox says no one was happier to have Eddie in AEW than he was. He says despite all his clamoring, and big talk, no one is to blame more for Eddie's failures than Eddie. He gets in his own way. Never does things right. Says he doesn't know who this new, whiny loser is. He accepts Eddie's demands for an I Quit match for Full Gear.
Too good.
Sonny Kiss/Kenny Omega
Sonny comes out, then Omega gets a whole brand new extremely involved introduction. Justin Roberts names all Kenny's achievements, says he's performed in North Carolina(!), Kenny gets choreographed ring girls dancing with brooms, he comes out, shakes Sonny's hand, V-Trigger, One-Winged Angel, 1,2,3. Kenny shrugs the match off, shakes Sonny's hand again and leaves. Kenny isn't playing around anymore.
Orange Cassidy gets "interviewed"
OC is... "excited" about his rematch with Cody and says he can't wait to do it in Cincinnati. Tony reminds him they aren't traveling anymore. This seems to come as a shock to OC.
Cody On Gains
Cody says he's been bulking up to be a true heavyweight contender. Says he's excited to watch the show tonight as a fan and for the OC rematch. Not much here.
Eddie-- WITH MORE!
They can promo off each other all night for all I care. Eddie is first hyping up the Lucha Bros match to come, then talks more shit to Mox. He says Moxley might embrace the darkness but he lives in it, was molded by it, etc. The I Quit match is on.
Pentagon/Rey Fenix
To be totally honest with you, there's no way I can explain this match written down that will convey exactly what happened here. The story was two brothers taking it a little too far with each other. It starts off friendly, you got the hugs, then Fenix gets some early offence in which irritates Pentagon. They get into some chops with each other and they are not playing around. They hit each other so hard I felt it. Viscerally. I'm surprised they didn't draw blood.
This match was like one of those WCW lucha/cruiserweight matches that would go for 6 minutes turned all the way up to main event status. I wish it was the main event. It sure felt like it.
For two people who are often accused of "not selling" and "no psychology", the story telling in this match was beautiful. Fenix fakes a serious injury to lure Penta in, only to go back on the attack. Penta tries to break Fenix's arm. Playing off of empathy for each other, Fenix eventually pulls some kind of insane move they called a destroyer but it was like-- this match was art. It was the best thing on the show bar none. Save, for maybe, a backstage segment yet to come. Wrestling wise this is as good as it gets dude. One of the best matches all year. Up there with the tag match from Revolution.
Cobana/Hangman
This bit starts with some of the Dark Order telling Colt he's not really their friend and that he needs to win this for Mr Brody. Colt talks about the Exalted One, says he's excited to get that win. John Silver goes off. Silver is nuts tonight, btw. He's so good.
They come in for the entrances, Page gets a lot of chants tonight for "Cowboy STUFF" since they're trying to downplay the shit's for TNT while they have a smaller crowd.
This match is not as fast as Hangman's. It's a lot of pretty brutal stuff-- at one point Colt hits Hangman who was climbing the turnbuckle and knocks him off onto the ring apron. It looked nasty, he hit so hard. Cabana then jumps off the ring onto him.
There's a lot more of this heavy hitting stuff as Hangman tries to go for the Buckshot. Colt keeps reversing or dodging it, outsmarting Page. Finally, Hangman is able to fake him out, get the lariat, and win the match.
Unexpectedly, Dark Order comes out to take Colt out, a rare show of in-group unity from them. Perhaps they were as impressed with Colt's performance as we all were. He put up a crazy fight. This match was way more snug than it seemed like it would be.
Sammy Threatens Matt
Sammy is back with another promo about how he's gonna end Matt's career. It appears to be setting up a cinematic match considering how it looks. Hopefully neither of them dies. This feud is cursed.
Taz on Hobbs/Allin.
Taz wants Hobbs decision on joining Team Taz QUICKLY, or it won't end well for him. They also whine some about Darby, saying he's spoiled, he gets everything he wants. Starks calls him a face painted bitch.
Le Dinner Debonair
This is... if not the best backstage segment of all time, one of the very very tip top contenders. They fight about their restaurant orders for a bit, then Jericho says he's tired of how rude MJF is to everyone. If he wants into Inner Circle, why isn't he trying to be nice? To be courteous? That's when all the sudden it turns INTO A FULL FLEDGED PERFORMANCE OF ME AND MY SHADOW.
SHOWGIRLS, DANCING, SINGING.
I have never been happier. Watch it.
Britt Baker/Kilynn King
I sure hope they sign Kilynn soon. Seriously. She's put the work in the past few months so much. She's at every taping. She's good.
This is a pretty even match at the start, for the most part. Kilynn gets some offence in, Britt does as well, going back and forth. Kilynn sneaks out of a lockjaw attempt, but in the end Britt is able to hit her with a DDT, a curb stomp, a fishermans suplex, and then gets the lockjaw to win. No promo here, but they do announce a womens match for next week in a rare move.
Darby And Steve-O.
Darby says Ricky is a dead man. To prove he's tough, he slides down a half pipe in a body bag. Darby being Darby.
Tag Team Contender Match with Bucks/Private Party/Butcher and Blade/Silver&Reynolds(DO)
Like all the multi tag team matches, this descends into chaos relatively quickly. Highlights here are Silver killing everyone after the best hot tag of his career, young bucks fighting off 3 close pins (then everyone else all clambering into the ring to stop theirs), some GREAT offence by Marq Quen, and really not that much from Butcher and Blade. The Bunny is back. They play the clip from Dark on the show at least.
I know this isn't really the place for it but-- what happened here? This Bunny/Nightmare Family thing was a storyline running for about 6 months, over almost the whole COVID era. It went nowhere. Bunny rejoins B&B halfway through QT's match and he barely even notices. I figured they would have some kind of cool end to this, but it just ends with a big fat nothing. Does QT even care? Eddie said Blade needed to get his house in order, but I assumed we'd SEE that. She's out there tonight just being same ol' Bunny. She even seemed to be more of a face after Brandi got all heel after getting her action figure. It's just weird and bad. Missed opportunity. Maybe it'll lead to something in the future but as far as the present in concerned, this whole angle is squandered to nothing.
Back to the tag match-- Reynolds gets knocked OUT at one point when Private Party do a Hardy Bros style double flying move onto him. I mean hands up, fencing position, cold cut salami dude was dead weight. No one seemed to notice even though Doc was out there banging on the mat. Blade literally drug him to the corner and tagged himself in and they just whipped his ass out of there.
Despite the chaos and the full blown unfollowable mess it was, the story was basically the Bucks getting their win back from Private Party. It's fine, but it wasn't very great either. Bucks Vs. FTR for Full Gear is real though.
Then, in the definite for sure worst segment of the match, we get a good ol' fashioned beat down. Tully comes out disguised and helps FTR smack down the young bucks and just about break Matt's leg. It goes on for too long with a lot of vamping. The end. Tully did get a sick move in though to keep up with Arn lol
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