It’s just days after Darby Allin became AEW Men’s World Heavyweight Champion. The live crowd is fired up, the card is hot, can AEW keep up the momentum? Let’s find out.
MJF immediately hits the ring, demanding the World Championship be returned to him, claiming to have been screwed in Seattle. He touts his victory over Kenny Omega, then states he did not feel cleared to compete again on Wednesday. He calls out the champion, but the champion who responds is not the one he wants.
Kevin Knight, the new TNT Champion enters instead. He reminds he had MJF down for the count if not for underhanded tactics. MJF decries Knight’s near-victory, claiming a fluke, but then also claims the TNT Championship is for people like him who will never main event. However as Knight runs down MJF, the former World Champion seems to get ideas, then accepts a challenge from Knight, right then and there.
With Referee Bryce Remsburg in the ring, MJF then rolls out, saying “See you next week, when I’m ready.”
While disappointing we did not get an impromptu title bout, we got something exciting to look forward to next week. Knight’s promo was… alright. He seemed to rely heavily on some catch-phrasing and monikers being “The Jet.” Knight will be a main eventer in the future once his mic skills improve.
Will MJF dethrone Knight so soon? It seems MJF is leaning into the “I’ll wrestle when I’m ready” bit, part of the justification for his loss of the championship.
Backstage: The Demand challenged Chris Jericho to a trios match on Collision. Jericho will find some partners. He also swipes Ricochet’s idea and trademarked it for merch. It’s silly and brilliant. Leaning hard into Jericho’s ability to whip up new gimmicks on the fly.
Big Bad Brody King defeated Lio Rush
Rush is freakin’ creeptastic. King didn’t seem fazed. Would it be weird to see them as a tag team? Rush razzled and dazzled with the high flying crazy and the possession-esque no-selling. That is until King made squishy out of him.
King says he’s got his eye on the World Championship.
Lio can lose his matches, because it appears to make him crazier. Did anyone catch what he said before the match? It definitely sounded like “It’s not his house anymore…” Could this be a Swerve reference?
Hikaru Shida defeated Mina Shirakawa
For the time being both are babyfaces, but it seems quite obvious Shirakawa will be going the way of a heel soon. A heel Shida vs. a babyface Willow for the TBS Championship may be in the near future. Statlander’s facial expressions are gold.
“Dunkzilla” Mark Davis defeated Will Ospreay by referee stoppage
Potential Match of the Year. Two wrestlers who have been on opposing sides and on the same side for much of their career makes for an excellent match. Davis targets and works over Ospreay’s neck, but strangely doesn’t seem to slow him down at all. Ospreay busts out his usual fast-paced strikes which bewilder but not stop the Dangerous Dunkzilla. A pop-up piledriver followed by a nasty piledriver on the apron brings out Doc Sampson who stops the match, stating Ospreay can’t continue.
While a pinfall would have worked, this finish has more impact. Ospreay gets booked as the injured underdog, while Davis now looks more like a monster, winning by ref stoppage.
The post-match takes a turn, as Davis is about to piledrive Ospreay again, until the Death Riders hit the ring and ABDUCT Ospreay. There is no follow up later on, so we’re left to wonder what the hell the plan is.
Samoa Joe defeats Cody Chhun
Yes, Chhun with two h’s. Chhun got a tad of offense, before the obligatory Nope spot, followed by Joe mauling and destroying him with a Muscle Buster. Short and effective, Joe is then embraced by Hook.
Will The Opps return?
Backstage: Chris Jericho finds his partners… The Hurt Syndicate. Holy crap.
Darby Allin defeated Tommaso Ciampa to retain the AEW World Heavyweight Championship
Another potential Match of the Year Candidate? Bloody fun this was. MJF interrupted Darby’s entrance, demanding a match tonight, but Darby continually declined. Ciampa hit the ring, and had a brief staredown with MJF, ending with the challenger planting a kiss on MJF’s cheek. Gotta love the Psycho Killer.
The match was brutally awesome. Darby is turning the dial up on his arsenal, with Ciampa responding in kind with moves which put himself in danger too, such as the absolute crazy of a Psycho Driller off the top down to the arena floor! Ciampa was busted open after being crushed through a table. Darby and Ciampa put on a PPV-level main event on free TV. Tons of near-falls. Ciampa could believably be a future AEW World Champion. A long and suspenseful Scorpion Death Lock forced the challenger to tap.
Wow. An Excellent Dynamite to follow the Dynasty PPV. Forbidden Door and Double or Nothing are on the horizon, and plenty of time to build towards them. Hopefully AEW does not rush a card together, but continue to allow the feuds to build organically.
