Tag Team – SCU (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) v. Low Rida & Fuego Del Sol
I wouldn’t say this quite hit the standard of an average wrestling match in 2020 (which would be 2.5*, at least on this website). This match didn’t show off the personalities of any of the four participants particularly well, and wasn’t memorable or unique in any real way. SCU looked good, and won a decisive, quick match.
Nothing wrong with it, nothing particularly right with it either, but a perfectly acceptable start to AEW Worldwide Pro Saturday Night.
SCU wins by pinfall with the SCU-Later (Gory stretch by Scorpio into Go-2-Sleep Knee by Frankie) to move to 10-6 as a tag team
2*
Brodie Lee / Dark Order Promo
Brodie Lee and the off-putting spokesman from the Dark Order promos hand jobber Alan Angels a mask, and welcome him into the Dark Order as #5. Good enough for me. Not an all-time great promo or anything, but a fun little 25 second short, and at least they explained why the new guy is there.
Singles – #5 (Alan Angels) v. Lee Johnson
I really like these AEW Dark matches between winless competitors. We know we’re getting a new player in the game after this match, even if that person is a lower-midcarder. The winner of this match is officially elevated from “jobber” status in AEW canon.
This was pretty fun for what it was, I wish we could have gotten more. A lot of AEW matches can go too long (especially on Dark), but this was the rare Dark contest that needed 4-5 more minutes.
Alan Angels looked good in his new #5 Dark Order character, showcasing some nice offense. Lee Johnson, probably the jobber who gets the most respect from commentary at this moment, continues to search for his first W.
This Dark Order numbering system is ridiculous though. So there’s a leader, but he’s not numbered. You have Evil Uno who is 1, Grayson is 2, the Beaver Boys are 3-4, and this new guy is #5. Great. Why was the last guy who joined #10? What happened to numbers 6 through 9? There are four missing dark order members and I for one demand answers.
5 wins by pinfall with a double-foot backstabber* to move to 1-5 overall in AEW, but 1-0 as 5 of the Dark Order
*Cool move, I’ve personally never seen it before. 5 takes his opponent’s wrists, holds their arms straight behind their back, and does a backstabber with his boots, rather than his knees. Looks brutal but is probably pretty safe, as long as he doesn’t lean into it and blow both of buddy’s shoulders out at once.
2.5*
Tag Team – Proud & Powerful (Santana & Ortiz) v. Musa & Brady Pierce
Now this was a good squash match. All four competitors got a chance to show their characters off in an organic way, all four were put over on commentary to various degrees, and we got some awesome, high-impact tag offense by the stars. I now want to see more out of all four competitors. This is everything I need and want out of a squash match.
Proud and Powerful win via pinfall with the Street Sweeper (powerbomb by Ortiz w/ a middle rope blockbuster by Santana) on Musa, on top of a prone Brady Pierce. They move to 6-4 as a tag team.
(Only 6-4! That’s still shockingly low for the best tag team in AEW since the promotion started, but at least it’s creeping up there)
3*
Q.T. Marshall / Brandi / Dustin promo
Q.T. Marshall struts down the hallway with something in his hand. He meets Dustin and Brandi, and shows off the new Natural Nightmare T-Shirts, that Allie apparently stayed upall night making. The shirt shows Q.T. prominently on the front, with Dustin and Brandi in the background.
Brandi asks a bleeped-out question, I believe “what the fuck is this”, which got a laugh out of me. Fun AEW Dark promo. We need more of this. We need a Mean Gene interviewing these guys backstage between every match. We need a Sean Mooney doing AEW Event Center. I digress.
Tag Team – The Butcher & The Blade v. Pineapple Pete & Anthony Catena
Haha wow, Taz really dislikes Pineapple Pete. I guess it’s not exactly a character that screams Frank Gotch-style in ring killer at you. I can see why the Human Suplex Machine would have no time for this guy. But Taz absolutely dismissed the former Sugar Dunkerton here, openly cheering for the heels to hit him as Pete did karate kid poses.
Decent match, and a good showcase for the bigger, scarier Butcher and Blade as they head into tomorrow’s match vs. FTR, definitely the biggest match of Butcher and Blade’s career and arguably one of the biggest of FTR’s career.
Not a lot to it, but fine for what it was.
Butcher and Blade with via pinfall with The Full Death (Vertical Suplex by Butcher into a backstabber by Blade) to move to 2-3 as a tag team
2*
Singles – Q.T. Marshall v. Zack Clayton
More character development between Brandi, Dustin, Q.T. and Allie here. Q.T. accidentally bumps Brandi off the apron, but as she’s selling those injuries, Allie starts yelling about a broken nail, and Q.T. tends to her instead of Brandi. Allie, once she’s gotten Q.T.’s attention, immediately shoots to her feet and is miraculously fine. Mighty strong heelin’
Average match, not a whole lot to it, but Marshall made Clayton look good, and I’m kind of digging Q.T. Marshall’s secret Diamond Cutter finish gimmick. He’s starting to hit them out of funky set-ups, DDP-style.
Q.T. Marshall wins by pinfall with a turnbuckle-assisted Diamond Cutter to move to 8-9 overall.
2.5*
Singles – Christopher Daniels v. Sonny Kiss
Really fun match. This is the best Sonny Kiss has looked in AEW, and I would go as far to say that this is the first “serious” match I have ever seen Sonny Kiss compete in. Christopher Daniels has pulled good wrestling matches out of Hollywood actors before, so it’s no shock that he could have a good match with anybody, let alone someone like Kiss who is actually quite talented. But this was easily Sonny’s best match to date in AEW, and a positive sign for his career moving forward.
Worth watching to see that a wrestler like Sonny Kiss can be treated like a sincere and honest threat in 2020, and how a talent like Daniels can make Sonny Kiss look like a million bucks without losing an ounce of credibility.
Match of the night.
Christopher Daniels wins by pinfall with the Angel’s Wings (double underhook sit-out facebuster) to move to 9-5 overall
3*
Tag Team – Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt) w/Jungle Boy v. Peter Avalon & Brandon Cutler w/Leva Bates
Too long, too much standing around for my tastes.
I like Marko Stunt in a tag team match, or as the whipping dummy for a huge heel. Not Jim Cornette out here, but it is fairly hard to believe Marko can beat any regular-sized professional athlete in a 1v1 fight. I can 100% buy Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt beating a team of jobbers, though. Luchasaurus is a fucking dinosaur man who can flip and do roundhouse kicks. He could beat two jobbers with no partner at all.
Peter Avalon continues to impress me on these AEW Darks. The man takes some great bumps, and is a perfect Lanny Poffo for this AEW roster.
I didn’t care for this at all, but I like all four guys and think they have a better match in them, probably. Maybe. I dunno. This didn’t quite gel. Not an affront to the history of wrestling, but not a good match.
Jurassic Express (Luchasaur & Marko) win with a tandem chokeslam / standing moonsault by Luchasaurus to move to 2-0 as a tag team
1*
MAIN EVENT – Singles – Jon Moxley v. Robert Anthony
This was missing a key element, in my estimation.
Jon Moxley and Robert Anthony have history in CZW, including a fairly disgusting spot I won’t link to here (but is quite findable) where Moxley powerbombs Anthony through a plate glass window balanced on two chairs. OK screw it, here it is. WARNING: fairly graphic, it’s a fucking powerbomb through glass
These men have crossed paths before.
They went about 12 minutes and Anthony showed a lot of heart, kicking out of some stuff and bringing the fight to Mox. Taz openly laughed at Moxley struggling with this nobody on commentary.
I thought it would have benefited the match and story to have Excalibur mention Mox and Anthony’s past, even if he didn’t mention CZW by name (although he could have done that too). Perhaps they could have had Moxley specifically request this match, or either have Mox and/or the announcers explain that Robert Anthony was an old rival who wasn’t to be taken lightly. Any sort of explanation would have added to Taz’ complete dismissal of Anthony, and literal laughter at Moxley after the match. Had the crowd been told that Anthony was actually a threat (a minor threat, but still) it would have both made the match better, and made Taz more of a dick for laughing him off. As it was, this was just the World Champion struggling to beat a jobber in a cape. That’s what we were explicitly told. Weird build to a world title match.
Not a bad match by any means, really liked the “oh fuck..” callback to the glass table at the end (they did the exact same catch-off-the-top-rope-into-a-powerbomb spot, just minus the glass table) but overall this match wasn’t quite what it could have been.
Jon Moxley wins by tapout with the Texas Cloverleaf to move to 18-2-1 overall and 13-0 in 2020.
2.5*
