Chris Jericho vs. Ricky Starks
Surprisingly good. And Jericho didn’t need to imitate All Japan spots to do it, he just focused on solid wrestling fundamentals and storytelling. Ricky Starks’ selling was fine. He has hurt ribs that didn’t seem to affect his movements at all but nonetheless, it became a good target for Jericho. Otherwise, I thought he put in a solid babyface performance. Sammy Guevera teasing his interference defeats the point of the stipulation but he got quickly taken out by Andretti and Starks won in the end. Good match. I can’t find any real fault. ***1/2
Final Burial Match: Christian Cage vs. Jack Perry
This was so good and it was mostly all Christian. Jungle Boy was a good opponent and of course the story isn’t there without him but Christian is such a master at putting it in a compelling match and stole the show with his performance as a grimy. He got all the heat being a scumbag, working in a heated way, taunting the crowd and JB’s family in just the perfect ways and then put it on Jungle Boy for the finish. Now the finish was a bit melodramatic but it’s his deceased father dammit. The real thing that stood out as odd or distracting was Snare Trap being done with the broom. How would that make Christian pass out? But enough about those aspects, the match was good. Super good. I mean, Christian pulled off a turtleneck tank top. ***3/4
AEW World Trios Title Match: The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. The House Of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black)
This was a very good rendition of the Elite Trios match which often exhausts me or bores me. However, with a slightly slower pace and a bit of a styles clash to freshen up the formula, I found good entertainment in this. The better parts of the match were when Omega and Black were in the ring together opposed to when all 6 are in but those are just going to happen in this kind of match. New champions were crowned, a surprise for sure. Good match overall. ***1/2
Texas Death Match: Jon Moxley vs. Adam Page
I may be the low rater on this but I still will call this an awesome match. Flaws out of the way first though: this felt way too long. It was diminishing returns near the end of everything. They peaked early in the match and tried to top it later. And despite some great spots, it just didn’t feel the same until the ending where Page literally hung Moxley. That was insane. Another flaw of the match was it was a bit aimless. Well that’s a lie, the aim was to try to top what they did. Unfortunately some crucial story notes were lost, such as Page’s hand being crushed by the brick. However, I’d be a fool not to acknowledge how insane the match was and how great Moxley was. Page had his fair share of good moments but the energy just isn’t the same. Moxley is insane and feels it when he wrestles. I might need to revisit this later in the year when the dust settles. ***3/4
AEW World Title 60 Minute Iron Man Match: MJF (c) vs. Bryan Danielson
Firstly, I like to say that I thought the match was good. I thought aspects of both of their performances were also really good but both really let me down in some parts of the match, doing things that these two should normally excel in. I think they tried to be a little too clever in parts and it hurt the match at times. Secondly, the stipulation heavily relies on its nearfalls and how effective they were; basically being a case of “good falls = good match” and this had a mixture of both, which links to my first point. And thirdly, the last 20 minutes of the match - the last 15 of the normal time plus the overtime - were genuinely great and filled with drama and great wrestling, even if there was one spot that made me think Bryan isn’t the genius that everyone thinks he is. Now onto MJF. Bryan Danielson was good through but he wasn’t the star performer. MJF was, for better and for worse. His performance ranged from a really smarmy, hateable heel that you wanted to see beaten to someone distracting, a little obnoxious. At one point, his selling seemed like an imitation of Neymar diving and feigning a leg injury. The screams and rolling around is hard to take seriously and believe. And this is moments after he tried to kill Danielson with a jumping tombstone, hurting his own knee in the process. Plus I couldn’t begin to tell you how much I hated the sequence where Bryan and MJF decided to tumble around. It was designed purposefully to show that MJF can wrestle when that’s not what good grappling is - there is no drama, no struggle, anything. Shame on Bryan too for that sequence. What made it even worse is the sequence late in the match where they were fighting from the Fujiwara Armbar to the LeBell Lock to a crazy looking hold where MJF has both arms tied up and Bryan has to make the rare rope break, as Taz rightfully points out. This is a 60 minute match where everything is designed and laid out in certain segments and in parts so it's hard not to pick the match apart like this. To conclude, I didn’t hate this. I definitely didn’t. I enjoyed the good wrestling and disliked the bad wrestling. It’s as simple as that. ***1/2
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