25/11/23 – Petersen Events Center,
Pittsburgh, PA
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuiness and Kevin Kelly.
Continental Classic Tournament Blue Match
Claudio Castagnoli vs Daniel Garcia
Garcia is on a three match losing record going into this one with Castagnoli and is probably not a guy you want to be facing when you’re trying to break your losing streak.
Garcia tried to chop Claudio but he wasn’t having it and uppercutted him to the ground.
This match went on the outside with Garcia drop kicking Claudio seated on the chair, he tried it too many times and was caught and turned onto the big swing into the guard rail.
Garcia wouldn’t die and took a hell of a beating and kept coming back, finally Castagnoli straight jacket powerbombed Garcia and picked up the win. Wheeler Yuta came out to celebrate with his stable mate.
Quick promo from Eddie Kingston regarding his match against Brodie King tonight and it was onto the next match.
Handicap Match
Killswitch (formerly Luchasaurus) vs The Boys
The newly named Killswitch utterly destroyed The Boys in a handicap match. He chokeslammed them on the ring apron that looked like it broke their back, after the bell he delivered a vicious choke slam on to an upright chair that looked nasty.
Killswitch was interrupted by Adam Copeland who came to the ring with a steel chair and smashed Killswitch repeatedly until he was unconscious before putting his head on a chair and smashing his head with another.
Killswitch after a while started to get up, Copeland curb stomped him and smashed his head on the chair again sending a message loud and clear to Christian Cage.
Backstage Copeland cut a hellacious promo on Christian, he challenged Christian to a match on Dynamite in Montreal on December 6th.
Tag Team Match
House of Black (Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews) Vs Kommander and Gravity (with Alex Abrahantes)
A get over match for the House of Black. The luchadores got some high flying moves in but I think this match probably went longer than it needed to. If House of Black are suppose to be a threat they should be wiping the floor with these guys.
Buddy and Malakai did a double team move on Gravity that looked like it went wrong with him tripping and getting a knee square to the face.
There was an awesome spot in this match where Kommander went from one ring post to the next balancing on the top rope and dived onto Buddy and Malakai.
Buddy landed a curb stomp on Kommander after Malakai baited him in by kneeling on the floor.
TBS Womens Championship Match
Julia Hart (c) vs Lady Frost
I have to laugh, the booking of this match is moronic. Lady Frost is receiving a TBS title shot and her 2023 win/loss record pops on the screen being 0 wins and 1 loss.
Is Julie Hart losing her title or this match for that matter? Not a chance. Also for some reason this match is no count out match.
Julia Hart puts the Hartless Lock on Frost and wins via submission.
Backstage Lexi has Don Callis and Will Hobbs who has a new t-shirt which is “Big Black and Jacked”
Callis is a great mouth piece for Hobbs and I can see this pairing working really well. They have their focus back on Jericho and Omega and it looks like this feud is far from over.
Tag Team Match
FTR vs The Righteous
I feel bad for The Righteous, they had some interesting vignettes that I was a fan of, building them up for their handicap match with MJF but he ended up making them look like Bafoons a resulting in them being gone for several weeks after that.
Now they are back and have been paired with Jake “The Snake” Roberts but he wasn’t at ringside for this one.
This was a brawl, Dutch has some really good movement for a bigger man, he had a great back and forth slug out with Cash Wheeler.
Righteous got a lot of offense in this one but ultimately Dutch got knocked out the ring and FTR doubled teamed Vincent to pick up the win.
I feel this another occasion we’re AEW shoot themselves in the foot, they do the vignettes well with The Righteous, then have these cult serious characters be made into a joke and now are losing regularly, the vignettes are pointless if they don’t result in anything.
House of Black came out and sent a message to FTR that they had no one to help them. FTR thought they were getting ambushed but House of Black disappeared when the light went off and on sounding a warning.
Next was a backstage promo with Action Andretti and Darius Martin, talked about their 8 months of tagging together but they agreed it hasn’t been quite right as another guy came into the scene and said “I’m Back” which was Dante Martin (I had to look this up)
This promo came across very corny and not natural, AEW needs to stop assuming everyone knows who everyone is.
Tony Schiavone in ring with Big Bill and Ricky Starks.
Big Bill cut a good promo going back to his struggles with alcohol and having seizures from withdrawl. He said he always knew he would get back to the top and him being Tag Team Champs with Starks is him getting back to the top. He sounded a warning to Jericho and Omega.
Singles Match
Keith Lee vs Lee Moriarty
This was the debut on Collision for Moriarty, I haven’t seen him at all on AEW programming so I expected Keith Lee to win convincingly.
Lee and Shane Taylor have had a feud that seems to be a slow burn that’s been going on for months without any interaction. Moriarty aligned himself with Taylor which was the reason these guys were going at it tonight.
This was a kind of awkward match and I don’t think these guys styles meshed well, in the end Keith Lee did a big power slam to pick up the win.
Keith Lee was backstage with Lexi, he complained about the lack of opportunity and said he was going to take it. He talked about “him”
The commentators seemed a little confused to of who he was talking about whether it was Shane Taylor or someone else.
Continental Classic Tournament Blue Match
Eddie Kingston vs Brody King
Both men tested each other out to start the match, grappling and chopping each other. Brody got the better of Kingston and hit a Cannonball in the corner.
These guys brawled on the outside which seemed like an eternity with warnings from the ref to get back in.
Back from the ad break, Brody hit a big superplex from the second rope with Brody continuing the assault. Kingston was having problems with his knee in this one hinting he was injured.
Out of desperation Kingston hit a spinning back fist but could only get a two count.
The you chop me and then I chop you spot was next which seems to be a regular thing in Kingston matches.
Kingston hit a bunch of suplexes but somehow Brody kicked out at the last split second.
Kingston was getting hit hard and was asking for more, finally Brody King picked him up for a gut wrench powerbomb that looked a little clunky but nether the less it got him the win.
I feel this tournement has made AEW programming worse, any sort of angles and story which isn’t enough anyway has been replaced with wrestling matches. There is nothing going on and like Dynamite I predict the ratings will dictate that this isn’t working.
