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WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD'S END (12.28.2024)
The weather remains wonderfully mild, everything is crisp and white and sparkly, and I saw a fox on my way to work this morning! Last night I ate an entire medium pizza and listened to some Townes Van Zandt, and now this is a wrestling post.
Toni Storm vs. Leila Grey: A PPV Zero Hour match already! I think this new rookie is going somewhere!
Jeff Jarrett vs. QT Marshall: JJ's gonna bree woo off into the sunset soon, isn't he? I will miss The Biggest Carny In The Universe. Pleasantly surprised that the Costco guys didn't show up.
The Outrunners and Top Flight vs. Lio Rush, Action Andretti, and Murder Machines: Leila coming out to second her boys immediately after losing a match was the real star, here. Nice to have the Outrunners out there keeping Toni's Timeless gimmick alive, after their fashion. Pretty weak how this was the only tag team match of the night, though; those divisions continue to inexplicably stagnate despite the abundance of great teams.
ENOUGH ABOUT THE PRE-SHOW, ON TO THE (mostly) GOOD SHIT.
Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher, Continental Classic 2024 Semi Final Match: HOLY SHIT, WILL. SAVE SOME BLOOD FOR LATER, BRUV. Easily one of the best show openers ever, but JESUS.
Kazuchika Okada vs. Ricochet, Continental Classic 2024 Semi Final Match: Pretty fun, but nothing too special, especially after Ospreay and Fletcher went so crazy. The post-match angle was the most memorable part, honestly. Swerve, my guy! As much as I'm enjoying Ricochet getting brutally, embarrassingly clowned on as he pivots into being a pathetic manosphere chud, I do feel like you should maybe remember what happened the last time you picked a random guy to start relentlessly bullying? He turned into a monster and ruined your life! Please be careful (clap clap clapclapclap).
Mariah May (c) vs. Thunder Rosa in a Tijuana Street Fight for the AEW Women's World Championship: Pretty fun! Never really kicked into that extra gear I want from a deathmatch, but seeing Papa Thunder was nice, and that finish was pretty sick (POCKET SAND!!!!!!!!!!!). I definitely want Rosa to be the one to eventually take the belt from my perfect Wrestle Barbie, but she had to chase it for a while the first time around, too.
MJF (c) vs. Adam Cole for the AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring: I'm... happy they finally got to finish their story, hopefully? But it felt like I time travelled to some of the worst parts of last year at times. I'm just super over that dumb ring still being treated as an actual prize years after it was established as just a shiny trinket for MJF to hold forever. Happy to see Adam scrub off the worst of that jaundice yellow spray tan he's been rocking of late. This did NOT earn both Max and Adam getting colour, especially right after such a bloodless women's plunder match. With Ospreay going Full Muta to start the show, the blading here just made me roll my eyes. Both of these guys just need to get it together and be scumbag besties, it's exhausting seeing the crowd never know how to react to them because of the weird alignment flip-flopping. Sad to see Kyle going back to his toxic exes. Why are we still calling Orange a locker room leader when he can't even keep his friend groups together???
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Powerhouse Hobbs for the AEW International Championship: Very fun, very athletic strong boi fight, maybe a bit too long since the style didn't really play to either guy's strengths? Take's really brought a nice stability and identity to the International title that it's been lacking since Roddy took it.
Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Kris Statlander for the AEW TBS Championship: MY LONGEST YEAH BOY EVER. As gutted as I am by the ending (the only match of the night where it genuinely feels like no, that was the incorrect outcome), the match itself was so fucking good that I can't even be mad about it. I bit on every single near-fall, every single near-countout. So many cool moves and counters from both ladies (I particularly love the way Mercedes has to really twist herself out of every suplex of the Three Amigos to get the necessary leverage for the next one because of the size difference and she STILL made it to, like, SEVEN AMIGOS. SO MANY AMIGOS). SHOE LORE. The CC final is gonna be the one getting six stars in the magazines at the end of the day, but this was undoubtedly my match of the night. Also, a lot of people are touting the slightly depressing milestone that this was the first AEW women's match to ever crack twenty minutes; I prefer to dwell on the much cooler fact that this was the longest match of the entire pay-per-view by a significant margin, and that is what progress looks like. Now give Kris her damn belt back. >:[
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW Continental Championship: NOT THAT THIS MATCH WON'T DESERVE TO GET SIX STARS IN THE MAGAZINES. Fuckin' hell, boys. Li'l Kazu really saw all the people saying he was washed and said BET, BITCH. This was a proper, classic New Japan main event, except half as long and both of these guys are in a different company now and it wasn't the main event even though it really should have been. Slow to start, then those last five minutes were just craaaaaaaaaazy. I was pulling for Will to win, but when I realized this means Okada tied Chono's tournament record it was like actually oh hell yeah? And all of Will's blood fell out in the opener, anyway, so I think he did really well considering!!! And then Kenny came out and I almost cried and oh my god July is so far away though????? Time enough to watch their first four singles matches eight million times, I guess.
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Hangman Adam Page vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Jay White for the AEW World Championship: A whole mess! Everything I expected it would be, but also nothing that I hoped it could be? I love everybody in this bar so very much, but none of them ever really got the chance to cook here, even before it got bogged down in the Death Riders of it all. Every single part of this, right down to the post-match stuff, felt like a solid Dynamite main event, and decidedly not a PPV finish. It very much ties into my problems with Mox's story as a whole and how integrated the Death Riders are (or are not, as the case may be) with the rest of the company. It's the Codyverse or Punkverse shit writ large, with stuff existing in these two disparate universes that share a backstage, and this sports entertainment mess coming right after the tremendous CC finale was a really perfect distillation of why it's not working. If these guys are a legit threat to AEW, they need to be a threat to everybody, all of the time. It's wild how their whole thing was never more effective than it was when it was pushing Private Party to go for the Young Bucks?? And now we just get Mox burning through three worthy challengers in fifteen minutes of shenanigans to get to... Cope, I guess? If he's really holding onto the belt until Darby steps up for Y'all In in July, I would have much preferred to see Orange, Hangman, and Jay all get proper singles feuds along the way, since they all belong at the top of the card. And I'm sure this was all deliberate to push the big Max simulcast debut, and I'm happy to see Edge back even if he brought those attention sponges FTR with him, but when I revisit this show, I will definitely just be pretending it ended with the big Omega/Okada staredown after the tremendous Ospreay match, as it should have.
ALL THAT BITCHING ASIDE, I do think this was probably my favourite show of the year? As life changing as All Out was, that was mainly down to the cage match and street fight, while the way they tweaked the Continental Classic format this year made World's End a beautifully consistent card from top to bottom (yes I am ignoring the main event, go away (oh except Mox bleeding out of the back of his head was pretty gnarly)) and a stunning improvement on last year's. It was also the shortest AEW PPV of the year, interestingly? It ended with half an hour to spare, and nothing ever felt rushed. As much as I love an overstuffed card to really give me my money's worth, I think I love moments like Kris' loss being given time to breathe and linger even more. If I had one general complaint, it would be that not a single title changed hands, even the ones that felt like total gimmes, which is never fun. Which worlds ended here, exactly??? SEE YOU IN 2025, AEW, IT'S BEEN A SLICE.
And then I woke up just early enough to catch Starlight Kid taking the white belt from Natsupoi and Saya Kamitani publicly executing Tam Nakano THE EVIL IS DEFEATED!! Even setting aside the massive amounts of hatred I hold in my heart for Meltear, I'm insanely happy for Kiddo, it's about goddamn time her accomplishments start reflecting just how good she is (I say as if she isn't only 23 and this isn't her fifth different championship in Stardom). THAT'S MY GOOD GOOD TIGER GIRL AND SHE DESERVES THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Howww is such a short week feeling so long? I'm probably just still tired from the holidays.
Toni Storm vs. Leila Grey: A PPV Zero Hour match already! I think this new rookie is going somewhere!
Jeff Jarrett vs. QT Marshall: JJ's gonna bree woo off into the sunset soon, isn't he? I will miss The Biggest Carny In The Universe. Pleasantly surprised that the Costco guys didn't show up.
The Outrunners and Top Flight vs. Lio Rush, Action Andretti, and Murder Machines: Leila coming out to second her boys immediately after losing a match was the real star, here. Nice to have the Outrunners out there keeping Toni's Timeless gimmick alive, after their fashion. Pretty weak how this was the only tag team match of the night, though; those divisions continue to inexplicably stagnate despite the abundance of great teams.
ENOUGH ABOUT THE PRE-SHOW, ON TO THE (mostly) GOOD SHIT.
Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher, Continental Classic 2024 Semi Final Match: HOLY SHIT, WILL. SAVE SOME BLOOD FOR LATER, BRUV. Easily one of the best show openers ever, but JESUS.
Kazuchika Okada vs. Ricochet, Continental Classic 2024 Semi Final Match: Pretty fun, but nothing too special, especially after Ospreay and Fletcher went so crazy. The post-match angle was the most memorable part, honestly. Swerve, my guy! As much as I'm enjoying Ricochet getting brutally, embarrassingly clowned on as he pivots into being a pathetic manosphere chud, I do feel like you should maybe remember what happened the last time you picked a random guy to start relentlessly bullying? He turned into a monster and ruined your life! Please be careful (clap clap clapclapclap).
Mariah May (c) vs. Thunder Rosa in a Tijuana Street Fight for the AEW Women's World Championship: Pretty fun! Never really kicked into that extra gear I want from a deathmatch, but seeing Papa Thunder was nice, and that finish was pretty sick (POCKET SAND!!!!!!!!!!!). I definitely want Rosa to be the one to eventually take the belt from my perfect Wrestle Barbie, but she had to chase it for a while the first time around, too.
MJF (c) vs. Adam Cole for the AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring: I'm... happy they finally got to finish their story, hopefully? But it felt like I time travelled to some of the worst parts of last year at times. I'm just super over that dumb ring still being treated as an actual prize years after it was established as just a shiny trinket for MJF to hold forever. Happy to see Adam scrub off the worst of that jaundice yellow spray tan he's been rocking of late. This did NOT earn both Max and Adam getting colour, especially right after such a bloodless women's plunder match. With Ospreay going Full Muta to start the show, the blading here just made me roll my eyes. Both of these guys just need to get it together and be scumbag besties, it's exhausting seeing the crowd never know how to react to them because of the weird alignment flip-flopping. Sad to see Kyle going back to his toxic exes. Why are we still calling Orange a locker room leader when he can't even keep his friend groups together???
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Powerhouse Hobbs for the AEW International Championship: Very fun, very athletic strong boi fight, maybe a bit too long since the style didn't really play to either guy's strengths? Take's really brought a nice stability and identity to the International title that it's been lacking since Roddy took it.
Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Kris Statlander for the AEW TBS Championship: MY LONGEST YEAH BOY EVER. As gutted as I am by the ending (the only match of the night where it genuinely feels like no, that was the incorrect outcome), the match itself was so fucking good that I can't even be mad about it. I bit on every single near-fall, every single near-countout. So many cool moves and counters from both ladies (I particularly love the way Mercedes has to really twist herself out of every suplex of the Three Amigos to get the necessary leverage for the next one because of the size difference and she STILL made it to, like, SEVEN AMIGOS. SO MANY AMIGOS). SHOE LORE. The CC final is gonna be the one getting six stars in the magazines at the end of the day, but this was undoubtedly my match of the night. Also, a lot of people are touting the slightly depressing milestone that this was the first AEW women's match to ever crack twenty minutes; I prefer to dwell on the much cooler fact that this was the longest match of the entire pay-per-view by a significant margin, and that is what progress looks like. Now give Kris her damn belt back. >:[
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW Continental Championship: NOT THAT THIS MATCH WON'T DESERVE TO GET SIX STARS IN THE MAGAZINES. Fuckin' hell, boys. Li'l Kazu really saw all the people saying he was washed and said BET, BITCH. This was a proper, classic New Japan main event, except half as long and both of these guys are in a different company now and it wasn't the main event even though it really should have been. Slow to start, then those last five minutes were just craaaaaaaaaazy. I was pulling for Will to win, but when I realized this means Okada tied Chono's tournament record it was like actually oh hell yeah? And all of Will's blood fell out in the opener, anyway, so I think he did really well considering!!! And then Kenny came out and I almost cried and oh my god July is so far away though????? Time enough to watch their first four singles matches eight million times, I guess.
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Hangman Adam Page vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Jay White for the AEW World Championship: A whole mess! Everything I expected it would be, but also nothing that I hoped it could be? I love everybody in this bar so very much, but none of them ever really got the chance to cook here, even before it got bogged down in the Death Riders of it all. Every single part of this, right down to the post-match stuff, felt like a solid Dynamite main event, and decidedly not a PPV finish. It very much ties into my problems with Mox's story as a whole and how integrated the Death Riders are (or are not, as the case may be) with the rest of the company. It's the Codyverse or Punkverse shit writ large, with stuff existing in these two disparate universes that share a backstage, and this sports entertainment mess coming right after the tremendous CC finale was a really perfect distillation of why it's not working. If these guys are a legit threat to AEW, they need to be a threat to everybody, all of the time. It's wild how their whole thing was never more effective than it was when it was pushing Private Party to go for the Young Bucks?? And now we just get Mox burning through three worthy challengers in fifteen minutes of shenanigans to get to... Cope, I guess? If he's really holding onto the belt until Darby steps up for Y'all In in July, I would have much preferred to see Orange, Hangman, and Jay all get proper singles feuds along the way, since they all belong at the top of the card. And I'm sure this was all deliberate to push the big Max simulcast debut, and I'm happy to see Edge back even if he brought those attention sponges FTR with him, but when I revisit this show, I will definitely just be pretending it ended with the big Omega/Okada staredown after the tremendous Ospreay match, as it should have.
ALL THAT BITCHING ASIDE, I do think this was probably my favourite show of the year? As life changing as All Out was, that was mainly down to the cage match and street fight, while the way they tweaked the Continental Classic format this year made World's End a beautifully consistent card from top to bottom (yes I am ignoring the main event, go away (oh except Mox bleeding out of the back of his head was pretty gnarly)) and a stunning improvement on last year's. It was also the shortest AEW PPV of the year, interestingly? It ended with half an hour to spare, and nothing ever felt rushed. As much as I love an overstuffed card to really give me my money's worth, I think I love moments like Kris' loss being given time to breathe and linger even more. If I had one general complaint, it would be that not a single title changed hands, even the ones that felt like total gimmes, which is never fun. Which worlds ended here, exactly??? SEE YOU IN 2025, AEW, IT'S BEEN A SLICE.
And then I woke up just early enough to catch Starlight Kid taking the white belt from Natsupoi and Saya Kamitani publicly executing Tam Nakano THE EVIL IS DEFEATED!! Even setting aside the massive amounts of hatred I hold in my heart for Meltear, I'm insanely happy for Kiddo, it's about goddamn time her accomplishments start reflecting just how good she is (I say as if she isn't only 23 and this isn't her fifth different championship in Stardom). THAT'S MY GOOD GOOD TIGER GIRL AND SHE DESERVES THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Howww is such a short week feeling so long? I'm probably just still tired from the holidays.