From Rochester New York at the Blue Cross Arena, AEW had its second night in New York, which normally has been associated with the WWE. Coming after the major Grand Slam event at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, this event was different because it was dedicated in memory to Brodie Lee. And for that they announced the creation of the Jon Huber Legacy Foundation to honor the man. Also, once more CM Punk joined the broadcast team at the top of the hour to a massive pop.
Jungle Boy Vs. Adam Cole
This was a match I actually was looking forward to. I’ve only started seeing Adam Cole but heard very good things about him and this was a fresh match against two young lions. Adam Cole is in his prime while Jungle Boy is starting to really find himself. Match was quite good, slightly slower than what Jungle Boy was used to but the pace was dictated by Adam Cole who knows how to structure a match.
There were some great spots such as Jungle Boy delivering a rana onto Adam Cole standing on the outside apron to the outside as well as a major Panama Sunrise by Cole for a close 2 count. Adam Cole’s face on the kick out was priceless. I think within a year, Adam Cole will be seeing gold in AEW without a doubt. This guy will definitely be the main event here in a year or so.
Finish came where Adam Cole used Aubrey Edwards, the referee, to prevent Jungle Boy from suplexing him and thereby giving Jungle Boy a low blow out of Aubrey’s sight. From there he delivered his signature Boom knee and pinned Jungle Boy pretty clean. The announcers hinted that this would not be their last encounter but both looked excellent here and I enjoyed Jungle Boy having a better paced match.
The Elite Interview Segment
The Elite’s music stinks. It’s annoying and I’m sure they know it but it just is awful. The full entourage of The Elite came to ringside in joining Adam Cole. Karl Anderson tried to put everyone in the group over, briefly mentioning Cutler and Nakazawa at the end, showing they were nothing. I mean, these two suck ratings away. Maybe I should say four because of Gallows and Anderson as well.
Bryan Danielson interrupt Kenny’s horrible interview and tries to excite the crowd. He challenges one of the members of the Elite, which will be against Nick Jackson on Rampage. There’s a verbal exchange between Omega and Danielson leading Bryan to call down Christian Cage and the rest of Jurassic Express, causing the Elite to scramble.
This was a painful segment. The Elite are painful to watch and not even close to the NWO. I like Adam Cole but this whole faction needs to be splintered since it’s really doing no favors for anyone. Adam Cole and Kenny Omega are better off on their own while Anderson/Gallows should stay on Impact. Nakazawa and Cutler shouldn’t be anywhere near TV and the Bucks need to stay off TV for a while.
Dante Martin / Matt Sydal Vs. Cody Rhodes / Lee Johnson
Strange match because it was a face vs face match. But giving what happened with Cody on last week’s Dynamite, it was pretty obvious that they were setting this up for possibly the start of Cody’s heel turn. Once again, Cody received pretty big boos but now they’re working it into the story line with Arn Anderson initially telling Lee Johnson he should have started while Cody going in immediately to take the glory.
Not a bad match with Dante Martin again showing why he’s going to be a super star one day. Lee Johnson surprisingly got the win here and the announcers teased tension in the Nightmare Factory’s ranks. Afterwards, Tony Schiavone went to ringside to interview the group. Arn took the mic and gave a great Arn Anderson promo with him being Horseman-esque in telling Cody he would take a glock and put it to a potential robber’s head and spill the guy’s brains out. Then he took Lee and said that at least Lee listens to him, leaving Cody to ponder his fate in the ring.
Side note, Brandi Rhodes was at ring side again but did not factor into this match nor interview, thankfully. Part of it seemed to promote their new show after Dynamite, which I didn’t care to watch. Whichever way, hopefully Cody doesn’t take this to an extreme and just uses the booing to motivate himself into become a self-deluded, jingoistic heel. I see him as a kayfabe version of a self-destructing Bret Hart.
Jon Moxley / Eddie Kingston / Darby Allin vs. Bear Country / Anthony Greene
This was the debut for Anthony Greene, who apparently was on NXT before getting canned. Not sure why this match happened outside of Bear Country seeing some TV time. JR did note to keep an eye out on these two. I will admit that at least both guys are different visually. Also, not sure why Darby/Sting was paired up with Moxley/Kingston since their “alliance” has been on/off. At any rate, Greene got destroyed and Sting gave the poor guy a Scorpion Death Drop after Kingston showed a Brodie sign. So I guess this was just another tribute match without rhyme nor reason.
Ruby Soho and Britt Baker Video Package
Good package for both. I really believe that whoever does AEW’s video packages should get a raise because it’s some of the best stuff the company does. Heck, I’d argue that they should be doing exclusively these rather than stupid backstage interviews with Alex Marvez getting interrupted all the time. At least, these packages look coherent, have the interviewees doing their best promo work and use great clips to tell a story.
Dark Order / Orange Cassidy Vs. HFO
Before the match started Matt Hardy complained about his debut supposedly being in Rochester but getting canned due to the pandemic. That was supposed to give his guys some heat but the truth is that Matt Hardy at this stage of his life is Paul Jones with his goofy army of misfits in his ever quest to vanquish Orange Cassidy, who effectively is Jimmy “the Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant.
A 16 man tag team match where it was just too chaotic and more like a battle royal. Honestly, they should have just made this into a battle royal between both teams because the match was non-existent and used to just get each wrestlers’ spots in. They did a stupid angle where Evil Uno was going to walk out but Amanda Huber, Brodie Lee’s wife, came out with -1, Anna Jay and Tay Conti to force Evil Uno to go back and fight. It was so contrived and terrible looking that I wanted to shoot myself and join Brodie Lee.
Jora Johl, who isn’t officially on AEW’s roster page but is the lowest ranked person in HFO, pretty much was the de facto job boy. He took everyone’s finisher from the Dark Order then ate the pin by John Silver. Post match had a big hug from the Dark Order as well as -1, Huber and the girls in dedication to Brodie Lee.
I get why this match happened and it’s nice to see AEW still honoring Brodie Lee. But this match was horrible with a bunch of nobodies outside of Matt Hardy, who plummets downward and this whole angle of “does the Dark Order break up this week?” continues to never end. Most likely, next week they’ll find out even more ways to go back and forth without any progress and more people will turn the channel after their opening hot match because the masses just don’t care about these jobbers.
Lio Rush Video Package
What? Isn’t this his 1 millionth return after retiring or saying he was retiring? At any rate, Rush is getting a gimmick as a fraudster playing the market. He might have talent and character but the lack of sincerity in his retirements is going to literally kill off his career on its own.
Dan Lambert and Men of the Year Interview Segment
Lambert brags about putting out Jericho for good after his man gave the guy a killer knee. Then Scorpio Sky came in to reset himself as someone people should take seriously. He does a decent promo but I think that Sting – Darby Allin feud pretty much killed these two.
Ethan Page gets the mic and tells the crowd to shut up. As he’s giving his interview, the crowd starts chanting “WHAT?” after his pauses. Rather than take advantage of the chants, Ethan Page talks over them without rhythm and brags doing his Roddy Piper grin with the finger poke to the cheek, which makes me not take him seriously at all. It wasn’t a bad promo from Ethan Page but he lacks sincerity and more importantly, conviction especially in how he started off in delivering a stale “shut up” (note I didn’t even use capital letters to emphasize his weak nuance).
The problem for me is that Scorpio Sky is up there in age and hasn’t done anything major outside of taking bumps for grandpa Sting while Ethan Page sounds goofy and got buried badly by his feud with Darby Allin. Neither man has the credibility regardless of martial arts background to be with Dan Lambert’s team. It just doesn’t work and they would be better off feuding against the Dark Order on Dark rather than be given this time at this stage.
Hikaru Shida and Serena Deeb Video Package
Shida actually is going to get a match on Dynamite again. She speaks well and this package looked good for her. Her goal is to get her 50th win but against a returning Deeb. I’m going to look forward to this match.
Penelope Ford / The Bunny Vs. Anna Jay / Tay Conti
Honestly, an eye bleach match because these girls aren’t good. They extended this match all the way here and now I can see why: Brodie Lee. Pretty much no heat because no one here is over. -1 comes out and gets more action than most men do all their lives.
Jade, Thunder Rosa, and Nyla Video Package
An advertisement for a match on Rampage. I like Thunder Rosa but Jade is just so green it’s painful seeing her involved with anything that isn’t on Dark or Elevation. I personally think Jade would be better off doing Dark and Elevation while being sent to various indy promotions to get more experience. Send her to Stardom so she can develop and learn to work a bit. But keep her off national TV until she improves.
MJF Interview
This was a mixed bag for me. MJF does a great heel promo but when Darby Allin came out it became awkward. Rather than do something against Darby Allin, MJF just walked out with Wardlow because Darby told him that he couldn’t break the guy mentally. Outside of hinting at a match between the two, couldn’t they at least have done something here? This segment fell completely flat for me.
Sammy Guevara Vs. Miro
This was for the TNT title. Decent match from Miro. Wasn’t a spot fest and the match was reasonably structured and logical. Sammy hits a series of moves before attempting the pin to get his first title. CM Punk noted that Sammy needed to hit multiple moves to put over Miro’s toughness. Big post match celebration with Fuego Del Sol coming out to hand Sammy the belt.
I can see why they gave Sammy the belt. A few weeks ago he did mention that he was looking at that title in particular so I figured at some point Miro would lock up with Sammy to put him over. Also, since this is National Hispanic Month, it was a good gesture by AEW. Not sure how long Sammy with keep the belt. I’m guessing Adam Cole is going to beat him in a month or two. But for now, Adam Cole is dealing with the main event Elite feuds so Sammy ought to be safe. If not Adam Cole then Andrade or Malakai Black might go after him. Andrade would be a good person here to keep the National Hispanic Month theme going as well as getting him away from Pac and actually having the guy wrestle rather than do stupid interviews all the time.
What about Miro? He was in a very odd position up until now. Pretty much most of his matches were squashes except for Lance Archer, Brian Pillman Jr and Eddie Kingston. He had a good run and I wish it lasted longer but what can you do vs political correctness?
At any rate, I’m guessing he might take a break and be with his flexible wife for a while. Still no word on if she’ll ever return to wrestling. I’ve seen a few of her Instagram posts where she looks to be training but no idea for what. The only place viable for her would be AEW so maybe he’ll return with her eventually. Not sure to what capacity though.
Final Thoughts
Originally, I was hesitant about writing a review just because I didn’t care for the bulk of this show. Adam Cole vs Jungle Boy was the only match I really cared for. The rest of the show was pretty bland to me. I was disappointed with Miro losing but I’m going to guess that Sammy only holds that belt for a month before one of the three I mentioned takes it.
Seeing the ratings come in lower than last week’s show does not surprise me. Stuff like the Job World Order vs Boring Hardy and his group of losers as well as that awful women’s match are not attention keepers on a major show. The Elite segment just dragged on and I felt bad for Bryan Danielson in being forced to stoop low in trying to make his promo feel edgy. Stuff like that is just a major turn off for me.
As far as this being a show dedicated to Brodie Lee, there only were two segments really for him. I think they would’ve done better having something like the Brodie Lee cup or battle royal rather than having us suffer through that awful 16 man tag team match. Visually, it’s about the same but at least the idea of a controllable match won’t be dishonored in the same way that mess of a match desecrated the idea of normal wrestling.
I can’t recall if they mentioned anything about the Owen Hart Cup just yet. Now, that’s something I am looking forward to. I hope they won’t make it into a stupid King of the Ring one night stand type of deal but into a round robin tournament with a group of young talent that get the chance to wrestle each other and having a few key surprises leading to a finish between the highest pair of people with points on a PPV.