AEW World Title Match: MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
I thought this was a decent opener. I’m not sure why it opened the show but it wasn’t a bad choice as it allowed fans to get sucked into the show immediately. Tanahashi is very limited but I thought MJF did a professional job at covering for him in certain ways. MJF attacked the ribs and hips of Tanahashi allowing the pace to be fairly slow while hinting at a knee injury which Tanahashi can do a lot with, as his career shows us. MJF went a little too over the top in his antics. Not unlike Flair but he’s no Flair and it doesn’t really work for myself, though it works to rile up the crowd. MJF cheats to beat Tanahashi, protecting Tana and putting even more heat on himself . A good finish to a solid opening. ***1/4
Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Men's Tournament Quarterfinal Match: CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima
This wasn’t so different from the previous match except Punk’s heel work, which was magnificent in every way, was less about getting Kojima over, or hiding him, and more about setting Punk’s role in the promotion. Kojima did a solid job at working with Punk, even if he was the supporting character next to Punk and the crowd. He is charismatic in a way to get attention on his own merits. Plus I love him doing the Mongolian Chops in response to the Anaconda Vice. Punk winning was never in doubt and he did just that. But predictability never hurt it because Punk is such an amazing wrestler. ***1/2
AEW International Title Four Way Match: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Garcia
4 ways aren’t usually my thing and this had a lot of tropes that I don’t care for in this match (2 wrestlers resting while 2 wrestlers do stuff, consecutive moves between the 4) but this had quite a great pace on things and was a lot of fun. Shibata adds so much intensity to his work and ZSJ is just a master of his craft. I guess I can’t fault the other two as they did their part. ***1/4
IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match: SANADA (c) vs. Jack Perry (w/Hook)
This didn't feel like a proper IWGP World Heavyweight title match. It was worked like the midcard match it was placed in. Jungle Boy is a solid wrestler and this a solid match but he's not a credible title challenger and it dampened the idea of a title match a little. But nonetheless, I think SANADA put in a decent shift, giving Jungle Boy a lot while running through his key spots and Mutoh tribute spots. The match was mostly built around counters and reveals with not much meat to it. The biggest talking point was Jungle Boy attacking Hook after the match. Let's see where that goes. ***
The Elite (Adam Page, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson), Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takeshita & Shota Umino
It was far from flawless, although pretty much everything I thought was wrong with the match came from the Kingston portion of the match. Is he so lazy or out of ideas that all he can think to do to build up a potential match between him and Moxley is chops? So lazy and I’m tired of it. And the spot where Kingston protected Moxley? Fuck off with that sappy shit. Kingston only minutes prior spent ages chopping Moxley, trying to cave him his chest and now he’s conflicted. No thank you. But that is about as far as my issues go with the match. I thought they did a great job at making Takeshita look strong, having him actually beat up Ishii and outclass him and have him work almost like a monster against the Bucks. Whatever they intended was a success in my book. Page, who I don’t like, proved very capable at a guy waiting and doing a hot tag. He’s really great at it and he should stick to that role because he’s just not a very good singles guy, at least compared to how much better he is in this capacity. He was pretty damn awesome, I must admit. The Bucks were used really well too. Not only being the main sellers for Takeshita but doing a few spots here and there to spice up the action. It was much more effective than the Bucks doing things aimlessly for 10 and then 10 more. A great use of a team that has a lot to offer but has total baggage in their work. Umino didn;t really shine, no surprise and Yuta looked solid enough. Perfect as a pin eater, which he was. ***1/2
AEW Women's World Title Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
This was a fine match, probably. It was the obvious break match. Not much else to say. **1/2
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay
This was a pretty great match but something was really lacking to make it as transcendent as that seemed to be. I thought Ospreay getting heat with the flag was very cheap and not really what I want from these two, as was the Callis interference which was also pointless as he was gone within minutes and the brief (and I do mean brief) Sharpshooter spot - all things that seemed very much beneath either guy - but I liked the role reveal aspect of the match with Ospreay being more of the heel and wrestles more dominant and aggressively than Omega. Ospreay is also the first to initiate blood by slamming Omega’s face into the table, which is something Omega has done before to Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom. Eventually both were bloody up and the match seemed to peak around this part. But then the match didn’t stop. It carried on for way too long. It seemed like they were trying to peak the match but they couldn’t actually pull the final trigger as it was just a smokescreen before Don Callis came back out to the ring. Piss off. He interfered and thankfully Omega got the foot on the ropes, giving the match a clean finish, when it eventually came. My conclusion is that this was an awesome match that bogged down with cheap heat and annoying american wrestling tropes, further proving that Japanese style main events are the best, simply because it often lets two wrestlers just wrestle, plus it contains a closing stretch that felt too bloated and long, despite some great spots sprinkled throughout. This was a classic sequel in many ways. References throughout to the true greatness of the second but inferior in plenty of ways. Still great however, because these two are great when they get going. I just wish it didn’t go near 40 minutes, especially with a 3rd match obviously in the works. ****
Minoru Suzuki & The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara) vs. Darby Allin, Sting & Tetsuya Naito
This was fine from what I saw. It was just sort of there. **1/2
Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
Boy was this underwhelming in every regard. The crowd was still up for it because it's these two but it wasn’t a great crowd. But what really did the trick is that never ending feeling that this never got passed a certain level. The saying “good but not great” lingered on and it was at the point where Okada was hitting rainmakers where it dawned on me that this was a disappointing match. There were dives into the crowd, rainmakers, running knees, money clips, reversals and nearfalls but it lacked that connective tissue to make this a main event level match, which this wasn’t. Forget about expectations, I expect a match better than this and it wasn’t to be. Additionally, the match really lots its way with Bryan faking a seizure, which is a little too far in playing possum, which is shown by it killing the crowd out right, and any heat that Byran could have gathered while he was working for the double shoulder lock submission was lost, thus making a good finish, a flat one. And Okada tapping out should never feel flat. Never. ***
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