Happy Canada Day~!~!
Chris Jericho is out to do commentary. Yes! What a Canada Day to be alive.
Tag Team – Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) v. MJF & Wardlow
Yet another awesome promo by MJF, who is probably the top promo guy in wrestling at the moment.
This wasn’t the cleanest technical wrestling match, but it started HOT~! and that HEAT!@!@~!~ carried on throughout. I don’t mind a sloppy match that feels like a fight unfolding before our eyes, or at least a high-impact physical competition. This was a little sloppy, and I wouldn’t say it felt like a “fight”, but it was heated and angry the entire time. Everybody in this match got across how much they disliked their opponents, and how badly they wanted to win. Maybe I’m just talking absolute garbage and I am a full on biased AEW stan, because I’ve criticized more than a few WWE matches for being sloppy, including at least one WWE match on July 1st 2020. But this was sloppy in a good way.
4* 80/100
AEW Women’s Title – Hikaru Shida v. Penelope Ford
AEW is finally building some new stars in their Women’s division! Long overdue. Penelope Ford looked like a huge deal in defeat, kicking out of two Falcon Arrows (a move Shida has used to beat opponents on AEW Dark and in tag matches on AEW Dynamite in the past) before finally losing to a devastating knee strike.
Hikaru Shida is in the opening stages of a Bret Hart-esque fighting champion run here, and Penelope Ford is a great prospect who is starting to put it all together. We have at least two women becoming stars in front of our eyes.
Best performance of Ford’s career, and the best match of July 1st 2020.
4* 80/100
AEW TNT Title – Cody (Rhodes) v. Jake Hagar
Pretty solid match, if a basic one. They tried to protect Hagar in losing, and generally do a good job of that stuff, but boy it feels like Hagar loses an awful lot. Hagar celebrating like he won despite the production team immediately hitting Cody’s music was pretty funny. You shouldn’t have had to wait for Justin Roberts to tell you that you lost bro. You don’t come out to Downstait.
I wonder if Jake Hagar is going to be “suspended” and off of AEW TV for a while to go fight for Bellator, because he struck the referee after the match, and they treated this as though it was a pretty big deal.
Katalina Swagger has some decent heel valet potential. I would make her into an Anne Colter republican heel character. Actually scratch that, I can immediately tell that’s a terrible idea.
3* 60/100
Darby Allin Hype Video
I think this was the moment that I became sick of Darby Allin. That’s probably too harsh, but I’m very ready for these hype vids to be over. Maybe I’ll care more about skateboarding when the Tony Hawk 1 & 2 remaster drops. I do sincerely look forward to seeing Brian Cage and Darby wrestle each other / seeing Cage throw the Jeff Hardy of this generation around.
Tag Team – Private Party (Isaiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) v. Proud & Powerful (Ortiz & Santana)
To me, this was every tag team match in 2020. I respect the idea behind pushing Private Party, the potential is certainly there. They haven’t really mastered the selling portion of this stuff, though. Marq Quen for sure seems to have a far better grasp on selling than Kassidy does, and even then. Neither are Randy Savage or Toshiaki Kawada out there.The more you see of Private Party, the more everything they do just seems generic, and the less they stand out as a team. I think it’s because nothing is given time to breathe in a Private Party match.
Average match, and the wrong guys won. Not that PP are bad, they obviously and clearly have potential, and are young guys who are in the process of learning the nuances of the industry. But Ortiz and Santana are criminally underrated and shouldn’t have lost to an inferior team on a big show, IMO. Ah well. Gotta break a few eggs.
2.5* 50/100
Taz Promo ft. Brian Cage
Taz is out to officially announce that Moxley/Cage will be taking place on July 15th, and not July 8th, because of Mox’s exposure to the COVID-19 virus. . Taz says that Moxley is not worried about the safety of his co-workers, but is instead scared of Brian Cage, registered scary heel. Taz emphatically says AEW doesn’t, quote, “run a sloppy shop” and that Mox has tested negative and would be tested if he showed face next week. A solid and necessary heel promo by the the Human Suplex Machine and the Human Drug Policy Violation.
AEW Tag Team Titles – Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent) v. The Elite (“Hangman” Adam Page & Kenny Omega)
I might have pulled the trigger on a tag title change here if I were Tony Khan, but they probably want FTR to take the titles from The Elite. Which makes sense. FTR vs Omega and Page is a far, far better match than FTR vs Chuck and Trent on paper. I do think FTR beating Chuck and Trent decisively in the BF’s first defense would have been an awesome heel moment. They could do FTR vs Page and Omega at any time. But yeah, probably the right call to have the champs retain. Ruthless move to have Trent lose in front of his mom like that, though.
Good match, but Omega and Page have had better. They’ll go on to wrestle Private Party next week at Fyter Fest Night 2. Can’t wait to see how that match looks.
3.5* 70/100
