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ALL IN LONDON (08.25.2024)
Stayed home from work yesterday as promised, but I only got to sleep in a couple of hours more than usual, because the preshow to All In started at nine in the friggin' morning, cuz London. Long day! There was also copious day drinking, so I wouldn't say I was productive, necessarily, but I went straight from rewatching my favourite matches after the show to watching TV with my mom for a while and we ordered food for supper, and it was a pretty nice time! Even managed to play some video games and get a quick run in once I sobered up, though it completely wrecked my ass. I think I was probably hungover by that point, even without sleep. Should have hydrated more!
Back at work now. Have mostly cleaned up the mess left behind in my absence yesterday. Take me back there. I was so much cozier then.
Action Andretti, Kip Sabian, Kyle Fletcher, Lio Rush, Rocky Romero, Tommy Billington, & Top Flight vs. Anthony Ogogo, Ariya Daivari, Jay Lethal, Private Party, Satnam Singh, & Dark Order: I really like this trend of cramming as many midcard guys as humanly possibly into the preshow so all the Brits can get their Wembley moment, even if it really exacerbates the issue with female representation on PPVs that they still have now that the roster is being booked well from week to week. Two and a half matches out of twelve already isn't great, but it looks even worse when you notice there are literally eleven times as many men on the card as there are women. Anyway, fun match! Pure chaos to open the show, why the hell not.
Willow Nightingale & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kris Statlander & Stokely Hathaway: I love themmmmmmmmm. Stokely's ridiculous Michael Jackson litter entrance and Remember the Time gear?? The way both teams matched their gear so nicely even though they're not even really teams and one of them is barely even a wrestler anymore??? The Smiling Pitbulls????? Really hope Willow picks a cool stip for the big blowoff in two weeks!!!
Dustin Rhodes, the Von Erichs, Sammy Guevara, & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Cage of Agony & Undisputed Kingdom: If anyone deserved to get to start the next Brawl Out after their match, it was Brian Cage when Sammy came out also wearing Wolverine gear. Fucking COORDINATE, BOYS. COME ON NOW. Dustin as double champ is so wild to me, but this is clearly the year of giving the old dogs their lifetime achievement awards on their way out to pasture, so whatever SPOILERS FOR THE MAIN EVENT I GUESS. And it remains so nice to see Kevin Von Erich around and having fun with wrestling again. HE'S STILL A BROTHER, DAMN IT.
Christian Cage & the Patriarchy (c) vs. Bang Bang Gang vs. House of Black vs. PAC, Wheeler Yuta, & Claudio Castagnoli in a London Ladder Match for the AEW World Trios Championship: Twelve guys is so many guys to be in a ladder match! This ended up being something less than the sum of its parts to me? All these guys are great and it was quite fun, but I think I would have preferred something a little faster paced, like the casino gauntlet, for the opener. And while I'm happy for PAC, finally getting his Wembley moment after getting sidelined at the last minute last year, it's so bittersweet to know that it was absolutely supposed to be Death Triangle winning the belts again here. Losing the Lucha Bros really hurts, man! Now their little British goblin man needs to be rehomed. :(
Toni Storm (c) vs. Mariah May for the AEW Women's World Championship: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, MY GIRL, MY PERFECT BRITISH WRESTLE BARBIE REALLY DID IT! Having watched her entire Stardom run, seeing her improve week over week, month over month, just being absolutely hilarious but also able to GO in the ring, I was SO psyched when she came to AEW in the shadow of Mercedes' arrival AND NOW LOOK AT WHERE WE ARE!!! WORLD CHAMP, BABY!!!!! She had to be a total sociopath to do it, and Mina was watching the whole thing like it was fucking Challengers and it was perfect, 10/10, no notes. I keep flip-flopping between this and the casino gauntlet as my match of the night, but you know what, this one actually stuck the landing, so fuck it, CINEMA WINS~~~
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Hook for the FTW Championship: This feud needed to be over about 800 years ago, just like every Jericho singles feud, but the cricket balls were funny and Taz finally snapping and going all papa bear at the very end popped me and the Fozzy intro was a great excuse to run to my room and find some vodka to make screwdrivers with.
The Young Bucks (c) vs. FTR vs. The Acclaimed for the AEW World Tag Team Championship: Fine. It was fine. I'm ready for new champs, but I want NEW champs, not any of these guys again (especially FTR). It was nice to see the Bucks get to make up for last year's massive buzzkill of a result, and their Sgt. Pepper gear was INSANELY sick, but apart from that it was very hard not to think about what could have been. So much of this card, as well as the tag division kinda being in the mud right now, is a direct consequence of an old man jumping off a cage three months ago and that's wild.
Adam Page vs. Christian Cage vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kyle O'Reilly vs. Luchasaurus vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Ricochet vs. Roderick Strong vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a Casino Gauntlet Match: NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. God, this was just an absolutely ride of nonstop fuckery, beginning to JUST ABOUT end. From the Mr. Bean intro for Orange, to Okada actually referencing their history in CHAOS before the beatdown to fucking NIGEL WHAT????? MAN HAS LITERALLY NOT WRESTLED A MATCH IN THIRTEEN YEARS, BUT MARIAH GIVES HIM ONE LITTLE KISS AND IT HEALED HIM UP ENOUGH TO TAKE ONE LAST STAB AT THAT CLAMDIGGER DANIELSON, IT'S BEAUTIFUL. To my good good scrungly Kyle to my BOI ZSJ, FRESH OFF HIS G1 WIN, ugh I'm still so emotional about that, to Roddy, to Mark because hell yeah let's just Conglomerate all OVER this show, to Hanger JUST CLEANING HOUSE to Jeff who really should have come in with a Taylor Swift guitar I will die on that hill to RICOCHET, who VERY much impressed me within his first 90 seconds in the company how in the hell did WWE not know what to do with this guy??? To... Christian, for some reason? Which was weird, but sure, okay, he lost one belt and immediately went for another one, you gotta respect the hustle and Hangman almost throttled Karen, which was fun. To LUCHASAURUS?????? Not Killswitch????? Seemingly turning on Christian finally?????? except then he didn't yet again, christian wins lol EDGE WHY DID YOU HAVE TO JUMP OFF THAT CAGE??????
MJF (c) vs. Will Osprey for the AEW International Championship: It hasn't been that long since we saw these two go for a full hour, so while it was naturally very good, it never really rose above that for me? Will's ridiculous Assassin's Creed entrance was fucking phenomenal, though, and it just wouldn't be All In without some rogue streamers hanging from the lighting for much of the last few matches.
Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Britt Baker for the AEW TBS Championship: Ooooooooof. I was hopeful, but Mercedes was ultimately not able to join the exclusive club of women capable of dragging Britt to a decent match. You could tell she was trying, but you gotta really be a special talent to get four stars out of a sexy lamp. Really hope this was the last straw for Britt getting these shots, it's plain she's never getting any better and the rest of the division has left her so far behind at this point it's not even funny, just kinda sad. And she seemingly has backstage beef with half the locker room now (Jamie coming back on the preshow to feud with Saraya instead of Kamille here was SO telling), so like... why? Just pure sunk cost fallacy? So many other women would have killed in this spot. Discussions about the dentist NEED to be had.
Jack Perry (c) vs. Darby Allin in a Coffin Match for the AEW TNT Championship: Very fun, but weirdly short? Made me wonder if plans changed here at the last minute. Still, Nick having apparently shaved between the end of his match and this one made me laugh very hard, guess Matt figured out the paperwork that would make it okay to let an employee burn to death! Were it not for STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING (he heard there was a new Crow movie out and could not let that stand).
Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship: A'right, Brittle Bryan, enjoy your Make-A-Wish title run, someone wake me for Hangman/Swerve IV.
Overall: a good-ass PPV, well worth playing hooky from work for. Curious to see how it sets the stage for All Out in two weeks!
Match of the Night: Toni/Mariah
Runner Up: Casino Gauntlet Match
Gear of the Night: Young Bucks
Runners Up: Will Ospreay, Stokely Hathaway, Mariah May
Dishonourable Mentions: Brian Cage/Sammy Guevara, FTR/The Acclaimed, Killswitch/House of Black EITHER COORDINATE OR BRING A SPARE OUTFIT, BOYS
Entrance of the Night: Will Ospreay
Runners Up: Mercedes Mone, Orange Cassidy, Stokely Hathaway
Best (re)Debut: Nigel McGuinness
Runners Up: Jamie Hayter, Ricochet, Sting
Honourable Mention: Whoever in the crowd was holding up a trans flag during Saraya's entire promo.
Alright, that ate up half my day! Just... 18 more hours of work until I'm off the wheel again!
Back at work now. Have mostly cleaned up the mess left behind in my absence yesterday. Take me back there. I was so much cozier then.
Action Andretti, Kip Sabian, Kyle Fletcher, Lio Rush, Rocky Romero, Tommy Billington, & Top Flight vs. Anthony Ogogo, Ariya Daivari, Jay Lethal, Private Party, Satnam Singh, & Dark Order: I really like this trend of cramming as many midcard guys as humanly possibly into the preshow so all the Brits can get their Wembley moment, even if it really exacerbates the issue with female representation on PPVs that they still have now that the roster is being booked well from week to week. Two and a half matches out of twelve already isn't great, but it looks even worse when you notice there are literally eleven times as many men on the card as there are women. Anyway, fun match! Pure chaos to open the show, why the hell not.
Willow Nightingale & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kris Statlander & Stokely Hathaway: I love themmmmmmmmm. Stokely's ridiculous Michael Jackson litter entrance and Remember the Time gear?? The way both teams matched their gear so nicely even though they're not even really teams and one of them is barely even a wrestler anymore??? The Smiling Pitbulls????? Really hope Willow picks a cool stip for the big blowoff in two weeks!!!
Dustin Rhodes, the Von Erichs, Sammy Guevara, & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Cage of Agony & Undisputed Kingdom: If anyone deserved to get to start the next Brawl Out after their match, it was Brian Cage when Sammy came out also wearing Wolverine gear. Fucking COORDINATE, BOYS. COME ON NOW. Dustin as double champ is so wild to me, but this is clearly the year of giving the old dogs their lifetime achievement awards on their way out to pasture, so whatever SPOILERS FOR THE MAIN EVENT I GUESS. And it remains so nice to see Kevin Von Erich around and having fun with wrestling again. HE'S STILL A BROTHER, DAMN IT.
Christian Cage & the Patriarchy (c) vs. Bang Bang Gang vs. House of Black vs. PAC, Wheeler Yuta, & Claudio Castagnoli in a London Ladder Match for the AEW World Trios Championship: Twelve guys is so many guys to be in a ladder match! This ended up being something less than the sum of its parts to me? All these guys are great and it was quite fun, but I think I would have preferred something a little faster paced, like the casino gauntlet, for the opener. And while I'm happy for PAC, finally getting his Wembley moment after getting sidelined at the last minute last year, it's so bittersweet to know that it was absolutely supposed to be Death Triangle winning the belts again here. Losing the Lucha Bros really hurts, man! Now their little British goblin man needs to be rehomed. :(
Toni Storm (c) vs. Mariah May for the AEW Women's World Championship: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, MY GIRL, MY PERFECT BRITISH WRESTLE BARBIE REALLY DID IT! Having watched her entire Stardom run, seeing her improve week over week, month over month, just being absolutely hilarious but also able to GO in the ring, I was SO psyched when she came to AEW in the shadow of Mercedes' arrival AND NOW LOOK AT WHERE WE ARE!!! WORLD CHAMP, BABY!!!!! She had to be a total sociopath to do it, and Mina was watching the whole thing like it was fucking Challengers and it was perfect, 10/10, no notes. I keep flip-flopping between this and the casino gauntlet as my match of the night, but you know what, this one actually stuck the landing, so fuck it, CINEMA WINS~~~
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Hook for the FTW Championship: This feud needed to be over about 800 years ago, just like every Jericho singles feud, but the cricket balls were funny and Taz finally snapping and going all papa bear at the very end popped me and the Fozzy intro was a great excuse to run to my room and find some vodka to make screwdrivers with.
The Young Bucks (c) vs. FTR vs. The Acclaimed for the AEW World Tag Team Championship: Fine. It was fine. I'm ready for new champs, but I want NEW champs, not any of these guys again (especially FTR). It was nice to see the Bucks get to make up for last year's massive buzzkill of a result, and their Sgt. Pepper gear was INSANELY sick, but apart from that it was very hard not to think about what could have been. So much of this card, as well as the tag division kinda being in the mud right now, is a direct consequence of an old man jumping off a cage three months ago and that's wild.
Adam Page vs. Christian Cage vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Kyle O'Reilly vs. Luchasaurus vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Ricochet vs. Roderick Strong vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a Casino Gauntlet Match: NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. God, this was just an absolutely ride of nonstop fuckery, beginning to JUST ABOUT end. From the Mr. Bean intro for Orange, to Okada actually referencing their history in CHAOS before the beatdown to fucking NIGEL WHAT????? MAN HAS LITERALLY NOT WRESTLED A MATCH IN THIRTEEN YEARS, BUT MARIAH GIVES HIM ONE LITTLE KISS AND IT HEALED HIM UP ENOUGH TO TAKE ONE LAST STAB AT THAT CLAMDIGGER DANIELSON, IT'S BEAUTIFUL. To my good good scrungly Kyle to my BOI ZSJ, FRESH OFF HIS G1 WIN, ugh I'm still so emotional about that, to Roddy, to Mark because hell yeah let's just Conglomerate all OVER this show, to Hanger JUST CLEANING HOUSE to Jeff who really should have come in with a Taylor Swift guitar I will die on that hill to RICOCHET, who VERY much impressed me within his first 90 seconds in the company how in the hell did WWE not know what to do with this guy??? To... Christian, for some reason? Which was weird, but sure, okay, he lost one belt and immediately went for another one, you gotta respect the hustle and Hangman almost throttled Karen, which was fun. To LUCHASAURUS?????? Not Killswitch????? Seemingly turning on Christian finally?????? except then he didn't yet again, christian wins lol EDGE WHY DID YOU HAVE TO JUMP OFF THAT CAGE??????
MJF (c) vs. Will Osprey for the AEW International Championship: It hasn't been that long since we saw these two go for a full hour, so while it was naturally very good, it never really rose above that for me? Will's ridiculous Assassin's Creed entrance was fucking phenomenal, though, and it just wouldn't be All In without some rogue streamers hanging from the lighting for much of the last few matches.
Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Britt Baker for the AEW TBS Championship: Ooooooooof. I was hopeful, but Mercedes was ultimately not able to join the exclusive club of women capable of dragging Britt to a decent match. You could tell she was trying, but you gotta really be a special talent to get four stars out of a sexy lamp. Really hope this was the last straw for Britt getting these shots, it's plain she's never getting any better and the rest of the division has left her so far behind at this point it's not even funny, just kinda sad. And she seemingly has backstage beef with half the locker room now (Jamie coming back on the preshow to feud with Saraya instead of Kamille here was SO telling), so like... why? Just pure sunk cost fallacy? So many other women would have killed in this spot. Discussions about the dentist NEED to be had.
Jack Perry (c) vs. Darby Allin in a Coffin Match for the AEW TNT Championship: Very fun, but weirdly short? Made me wonder if plans changed here at the last minute. Still, Nick having apparently shaved between the end of his match and this one made me laugh very hard, guess Matt figured out the paperwork that would make it okay to let an employee burn to death! Were it not for STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING (he heard there was a new Crow movie out and could not let that stand).
Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship: A'right, Brittle Bryan, enjoy your Make-A-Wish title run, someone wake me for Hangman/Swerve IV.
Overall: a good-ass PPV, well worth playing hooky from work for. Curious to see how it sets the stage for All Out in two weeks!
Match of the Night: Toni/Mariah
Runner Up: Casino Gauntlet Match
Gear of the Night: Young Bucks
Runners Up: Will Ospreay, Stokely Hathaway, Mariah May
Dishonourable Mentions: Brian Cage/Sammy Guevara, FTR/The Acclaimed, Killswitch/House of Black EITHER COORDINATE OR BRING A SPARE OUTFIT, BOYS
Entrance of the Night: Will Ospreay
Runners Up: Mercedes Mone, Orange Cassidy, Stokely Hathaway
Best (re)Debut: Nigel McGuinness
Runners Up: Jamie Hayter, Ricochet, Sting
Honourable Mention: Whoever in the crowd was holding up a trans flag during Saraya's entire promo.
Alright, that ate up half my day! Just... 18 more hours of work until I'm off the wheel again!