This is the last show at Daily’s Place since the start of the pandemic as AEW will be going on the road from next week. That should be refreshing in a sense in seeing a new location, even though I still disagree that places should be re-opening with the variant. Nevertheless, tonight was with a live crowd as the show made its comeback from the awful Friday and Saturday times. So I figured it would be good to get off a review while it’s fresh in my mind.
- Chris Jericho’s Entrance – Of course, he gets his own entrance without having to do any wrestling tonight. And of course, it’s so that he can hear the crowd sing and further boost his ego. Worse yet he’s turned this show into an infomercial for his new book. Ugh, so many minutes wasted for just one person.
- The Young Bucks Vs. Eddie Kingston & Pentagon – This match sets up a future title shot for Kingston and Penta if they win. And the prophecy comes partly true here in that the Young Bucks go on first to warm up the crowd. Too much interference with The Good Brothers coming out to try and distract the ref while the goober Cutler on the outside eventually spraying one of the Jackson brothers to allow Penta to hit his move and score the victory. Kazarian picks up his paycheck for the night by interfering and I have to ask why.
- Backstage interview with Christian Cage and Jungle Boy – Christian gives Jungle Boy a pep talk and I’m wondering why he’s sticking around Jungle Boy. Considering this is AEW, I’m always waiting for an ulterior motive to pop up because we’re trained to not trust consistency here. Luchasaurus actually talks and Christian bonds with him. More goofiness that goes nowhere.
- Ethan Page with Scorpio Sky gets ring interview time with Tony Schiavone – They try to justify the motivation for Page asking for the coffin match and it still makes no sense. Then Sting hauls out a coffin where Darby Allin leaps out to tackle Page while Sting drops Sky. Allin rakes Page’s eyes and Page suddenly wants out of the match. This is so beyond stupid. If you are the one asking for it then suddenly denying it for no reason, why did you ask for it in the first place? They got the roles all reversed where Darby (or Sting) should have asked for the coffin match. It’s still stupid but at least get the guy with the imagery closely associated with such a gimmick to be the one to demand the match. Having Ethan asks for the match and eventually lose to it just makes Ethan look like a big clown. Also, how is beating Darby in a coffin match supposed to damage him psychologically? Considering the shit he does, I’m surprised he doesn’t have CTE already. They’re just trying to extend something because they don’t have an end game with long term booking and are making things up as they go. It’s awful.
- Jack Evans vs Jungle Boy – The match is justified because of how Christian is the one being attacked by Hardy Office Space. Huh? Why is Jungle Boy getting involved in Christian’s shit? He was just in the title picture now he’s dropped down to this? Then of course, Matt Hardy comes in to try and assault Jungle Boy, with Christian coming in and chasing them off. But there’s no end shot with Jungle Boy after his 50th win, which they seemed to want to make a huge deal out of and only close with Christian being teased to eventually have an out-of-date/fashion match with Matt Hardy, who looks more like a part time truck driver than some office worker. Where did Jungle Boy go? Oh, and for the record, the run in part was Christian’s “match” for the week.
- MJF Promo – Talks way too long. He can talk but there’s already too many long promos on this show. Pick one person and let them ramble. Otherwise, don’t let these promos ramble on. You can get back 2-3 matches with the time saved.
- Andrade Promo – This was horrid. Andrade barely can speak. At least with Vickie, he’s got a mouth piece. There was a lot of anticipation for his “surprise” tonight. The surprise ended up him declaring that he will wrestle Matt Sydal next week in his debut match. Wait, why is that a surprise? That’s just announcing a match. In fact, was there supposed to be a big announcement or surprise? How is someone he demeaned in his interview as his first opponent a big announcement or surprise?
- Kenny Omega-lul Promo – These just don’t stop. One after a fucking another. Omega-lul rambles on and I think a sharp needle piercing through my ear into my brain is less painful than his promos. And as with so many other interviews, we get an interruption. From the Dark Order of all groups. People who haven’t been relevant since Brodie die. Uno apparently speaks on behalf of Hangman Page but does not mention Page by name. Why? This segment went on for way too long.
- Brian Pillman Jr vs Miro (TNT Title) – Actually, I was looking forward to this. Brian had a previous interview segment. He sounded good but why have a promo before a match that you’re going to have? Why not just have the match? Why not have that promo a week before to setup the anticipation of the upcoming match? Pillman looked good here. He was fired up for the live crowd. Miro looked good too. Short enough match that lasted so Pillman could get some stuff in and show that he’s still in it for the future. But Miro is unstoppable now and I’d keep that title on him for a while. Don’t think anyone should challenge him to win for some time.
- Another backstage segment with more Dark Order – Hangman Page gets propped up by the Dark Order and they try to make him believe in himself. This makes no sense to me. Since Brodie is gone, the Dark Order really have no place. So I guess Page is the filler. That said, Page winning the AEW Title wouldn’t be bad but I’m wondering if it’s too little too late. He’s just not featured enough to make me believe he’s the top guy.
- Nyla Rose/Vickie Guerrero vs Rebel/Britt Baker – This match shouldn’t have happened. People were telling me this was a match for Guerrero to fuck with Baker’s head so that Zelina Vega could come in. Instead, that’s all wishful thinking. Better yet that jobber Rebel is the one who got injured from just getting in the ring. I mean, if that doesn’t say GTFO from the business, I don’t know what should. But she looked terrible. Vickie barely did anything outside of get the Lock Jaw because Rebel got hurt. But there’s a post match where Nyla power bombs Britt through the table and apparently gets a title shot despite losing a tag match. How does this make any sense? And here’s where everything pisses me off. Hikaru Shida, who was just the champion, is ranked #5. How does the previous champion drop 5 ranks from a single loss? And the #1 contender I believe is Tay Conti. Why isn’t she getting the title match? It makes far more sense to have the baby face Tay Conti face heel Britt Baker who wrestled like a fucking heel against Nyla Rose and Vickie who are obvious heels. What the hell? This was idiotic all the way around and beyond frustrating. I think Rebel getting actually injured (after coming off those fake crutches for so many months) on a dumb move like that was just karma against the promotion for doing Hikaru wrong and being stupid with their booking.
- Another painful backstage segment with Santana, Ortiz and Hager – More Pinnacle vs Inner Circle crap. It just took forever and I tuned out.
- MJF vs Sammy Guevara – Another unending Pinnacle vs Inner Circle match. But it wasn’t too bad and they tried to make it almost seem like a wrestling match at times. The best part came when MJF did a super pile driver and injured his leg. He actually sold the leg for the rest of the match. Then Jericho got involved along with Wardlow and Spears and an anti-climatical chair shot finished up the match. I get why MJF had to win but the wrong side went over for the last show at Daily’s Place that was supposed to send the crowd home happy.
- Video package of AEW at Daily’s Place – This was probably the best thing on the show. It was emotional, repeatedly showed Brodie and the various memories so that it demonstrated an appreciation of the support the limited fans had of Daily’s Place in allowing them to wrestle while the pandemic continued.
- They should have gone off the air with that video package because it had the right amount of emotion. But I absolutely have to mention the supreme fuck up when JR mentioned WWE Dynamite right at the last second. I did read beforehand that he messed up but when I heard it, I couldn’t stop laughing. Poor JR. I think people can forgive him but man this promotion just has to work on the execution aspect.
What can I say about this promotion? I liked seeing a live crowd again just because pro-wrestling is never the same without it. I still think it’s stupid for live crowds like this to be gathered around especially when there’s a variant and possibly vaccine immune virus going around in a state where people are anti-vaxx, anti-mask and have an idiot for a governor. But I will say that the crowd has helped make the show somewhat bearable.
The booking on the other hand is atrocious. There was a lot less interrupted segments in general but still way too many non-wrestling segments. Also, too many run-ins. Alex Marvez is a joke because he just stands around for 10 seconds until an interruption happens.
The main event was exciting but again too spotty. I don’t understand why MJF and Sammy had a cruiserweight bout from the start. It had no heat. That’s not why people wanted to watch them. From the sound of their interviews, it made me think they needed a brawl. Instead, flippy flippy floppy. There were a few moments that really impressed me by Sammy such as his dive over the guard rail and a few other dives. But how many dives do you need man? And MJF just kept taking bumps after bump. He’s more than capable but he didn’t get a lot of offense in. The top rope pile driver was good and the selling of his leg was great because it made for an interesting match moving forward. But the interference just ruined everything that was setup. Chris Jericho, in his portly, dad bod self, clomped his way down just to get chumped by Wardlow. And the one of the revolving useless people in AEW, Shawn Spears, does his only trick to receive a paycheck. It just stunk.
I mean, if this was a kind of go home show as a way to remind people that they appreciated the crowd at Daily’s Place, then it’s a very strange manner of saying it. I think Sammy could have won here without hurting MJF because they’re pretty much at level with one another. And the crowd was ready to buy it. We’ll see how the non-Daily Place crowds will treat AEW. I’m very curious when they go to other parts in the country how people will react. If people still cheer for this shit, I’ll be impressed. But I think most people simply will be craving live events since the pandemic is supposedly winding down. And how long will that feeling last, I wonder?