Yeah I mean, Punk looked incredibly slow and back a step when he wrestled in AEW to me. I don't look for spectacular matches, but the interviews could be fun. But I imagine it'll be pretty white washed. It's a shame, we watched Survivor Series and I thought both war games matches were pretty good. Punk just totally overshadowed Orton's return. Entrance was cool but his returning to Dynamite seemed much more emotional. Internet is alive with whether Seth and Drew's reactions were legit. I don't know, or really care. But I did get a laugh of the video of Orton sitting on a chair in the ring, pointing to an imaginary watch on his wrist as a "I want to get out of here".
I never wrote about Full Gear. Once again a ton of fun at an aew event. Although for the first time ever I felt like a bad father because....
The Texas Death Match - yeah my 11 year old was not a fan and halfway through had to bury his head in my shoulder. At one point he asked to leave and get food. Yeeesh. He made it though, and was back to his super excited self by the Young Bucks/Jericho & Omega match. I am not sure what to say other than a joey styles "oh my god". I mean even I was in a bit of shock. I was never a huge Swerve fan but he earned my respect. And he is super over. Even I got into a few Swerve's House chants. Hangman drinking his blood? Geezus. The barbed wire getting stuck on their head, neck and back a couple times. Geezus. That was something. It made TMZ so I guess a win? I should also note my 9 year old and his 12 year old cousin loved it.
Chants heard during this match:
"you sick f***" (to both guys at points)
"we're sick f***s" (the crowd to itself for cheering the match)
"we want fire"
"no we don't" (okay that was a girl behind me in response to we want fire)
"fight forever, please don't die"
I didn't have any complaints really about any other matches. Even the pre-show matches were fun. I thought MJF angle was overbooked. If they wanted to have a "fight through injury angle" they could've just had him mistakenly hurt his knee on a fall during the White match. To have him go to the hospital and have Cole pretend that he'll wrestle, I mean nobody really believed it. I am more certain than ever Cole is the devil. A couple times during the match it looked like he was either going to turn on MJF or "accidentally" do something to help White win. It has to be coming. No one else makes sense. And White not being able to beat a guy with no leg doesn't do much for his stature. Also - I'd like to thank all the AEW fans for waiting around after the match for something else to happen. It made my walk to the car and exit of the parking lot in about 10 minutes super worth while.
Golden Jets/Bucks - everyone was pretty much out of breath after the Swerve/Hangman match, so took awhile for the crowd to get into this one. They did by the end. I thought a very cool match with the spots it needed and the tantrum by the bucks after sets up their heel turn nicely.
Moxley/Orange - great match. Knew Cassidy had to win and Moxley put him over. Having to take 6 or so orange punches before going down still makes Mox a bad, bad man.
4 way Tag Ladder Match - this might have been my favorite match of the night to tell you the truth. No real advanced story just lots of cool spots. And I was super into it. Everyone worked damn hard. My kid now wakes up and does the Stark pose before getting ready every morning. I think the right team won as Starks and Big Bill have plenty more to do. But eventually House of Black has to do something.
Shida/Storm - so the title changes again which is a little sketchy, but Storm deserves it. Her distracting aubrey with the shoe was great. Fun match that had Storm (and Luther) act as perfect heels to win. She's got a ton of potential......until DMD comes back
Statlander/Hart/Skye - fun match. Nothing spectacular but each woman got in some good spots. Statlander has been a bit stale, good to see Hart get a run. And at least someone in the house of black won something.
Sting et al/Cage et al - Copeland was legitimately touched that the crowd sang his song after the music stopped (well more like mumbled but a good effort). Cage is the ultimate heel and running away from Copeland into the crowd was classic. After the match, Darby got on the mic to remind everyone this was Sting's last ever match in CA. He got a tremendous standing ovation alone in the ring thereafter. I'm not crying you're crying!
Ospreay - crowd super into him coming out. Thought his interview was short and sweet and said all the right things. Looking forward to him being full time, but hope the booking is a bit better than Jay White's so far.
If I had only one complaint - it was again not having Penta at an LA event. I thought maybe in pre-show, but alas no. I compare this to Survivor Series, and if I had to spend money on one or the other I'd sure be glad it was Full Gear.
Then Adam of course, knew it was coming so he even called Christian a dumbass and told him to F himself which TBS didn't censor until it was tooooo late.
