January 10 2024
Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, FL
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur
Singles Match
Adam “Hangman” Page vs Claudio Castagnoli
Hangman looked in a foul mood and attacked Claudio as soon as he entered the ring.
Claudio got back in it and swept Hangman in the “Big Swing” early followed by the Sharpshooter with Hangman escaping.
The look and feel of the show was different than a normal Dynamite with a smaller more intimate crowd.
Hangman brawled with Castagnoli on the outside, working up a thirst, grabbing a fan’s beer and taking a swig of lager.
Back in the ring Castagnoli held Hangman high over his head in a press and threw him over the top ropes onto the ramp.
The two men went at it once again on the outside trading blows all up the ramp with Page clotheslining Castagnoli back in the ring.
It didn’t last long until both men were back outside brawling again with Hangman getting up on a ledge and moonsalting on Castagnoli.
The way the arena and ring looked was much different with a lot more ramps and ledges to jump off with the hard camera fans a little further away than normal.
Hangman hit his Deadeye finisher but it didn’t get the job done as Castagnoli kicked out.
It took two buckshot lariats but finally Hangman Page was able to put Castagnoli away.
Winner – Adam “Hangman” Page
A package played of the years AEW had been at Daily’s Place and the moments with the late great Brodie Lee winning the TNT championship.
All men are in the ring with no entrances, we have.
Eight man Tag Team Match
Adam Copeland, Orange Cassidy, Dustin Rhodes and Preston Vance vs Lance Archer, Brian Cage, Toa Liona and Bishop Kahn
What a complete random pairing of wrestlers put together for this match, I don’t even know
Why Adam Copeland would be involved in this and not even having an entrance, it’s little details like this that makes a wrestler seem unimportant.
I know this match is supposed to be a tribute to Brodie Lee but it just didnt have any stakes and seemed like lazy booking to get as many people on the card as possible.
Preston Vance ended up picking up the win for his team with a massive lariat clothesline.
Winner – Preston Vance, Adam Copeland, Orange Cassidy and Dustin Rhodes
Renee is backstage with Jay White and The Gunns, Jay White talks about The Undisputed Kingdom, They said they are after all the good in AEW, Jay says whatever they can do they can do better.
The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass come in the scene with Anthony Bowens once again proposing that they all team up and have all the gold.
Austin Gunn once again seemed to be championing for this to happen, Bowens suggests the name “Bang Bang Scissor Gang”
Jay White says they need some time to ponder the idea and that they will get back to them.
Samoa Joe comes out to address the crowd.
Joe had a suit on for his first outing as AEW World Champion after Worlds End PPV.
Swerve Strickland came out and said he will repeat what he did to Hangman Page at Full Gear and that it’s nothing personal but he wants Joe’s title and he is going to take it.
Hangman came out and got in Swerve’s face with Swerve leaving in frustration. Hangman got in Joe’s face and said he hadn’t forgotten what happened to him, insinuating Joe had something to do with him getting jumped by the Devil masked man a couple of weeks ago and said he was going to take the AEW World Title.
Hook then came out and got in Joe’s face too, Hook looks like a boy compared to Joe and I find it a little odd that Joe wouldn’t retaliate to any of the aggression at him tonight, especially Hook, Hook singled one week, as he will be receiving a AEW World Championship shot next week.
Renee is backstage with Toni Storm, Mariah May and Luther, Storm addresses Deonna Purrazzo and asks Luther to book a meeting with her to sort it out, Storm dismisses and puts down Mariah May a number of times during this segment.
Singles Match
Sammy Guevara vs Ricky Starks
Two men with similar builds and style in this one, Ricky Starks just edges Guevara in the Charisma department.
These guys kept it classic in the early going until Guevara hit Starks with a moon salt off the top ropes to the outside.
Once again, which is a theme in AEW, Starks used the outside ring apron to hit Guevara with a double armed swinging face buster, this hard part of the apron just seems like a transitional move now where it used to be a rare thing.
Starks went for a back suplex off the top ropes but was countered with Sammy trying another moon salt with Starks getting the feet up.
It looked like Starks had this and was signaling to hit Guevara with the Spear, he missed with Guevara leap frogging it, Starks went off the rope and got caught with a super kick and a small package with Guevara getting the three count to pin Starks again.
Winner – Sammy Guevara
Guevara ending up shaking Starks hand for a good contest but Big Bill came out and attacked Guevara. Chris Jericho came out to rescue Guevara with a bat in hand, clubbing Starks and Big Bill, all four men brawled around the arena with Jericho prevailing.
Eight Man Tag Team Match
Kris Statlander, Willow Nightingale, Thunder Rosa and Anna Jay vs Julia Hart, Skye Blue, Ruby Soho and Saraya (with Harley Cameron)
Unlike the men’s eight man tag team match, the women got all their entrances which chewed up a lot of time. If I were a guy like Adam Copeland, I would be thinking, what is going on here?
This eight women tag at least had some sensibilities to it with a heel and baby face team with some feuds intertwined.
Ruby Soho took a beating early on which every member of Kris Statlander’s baby face team took a shot at her on the ground with fast tags in and out.
Willow took a hard bump off the turnbuckle hitting her head on the top turnbuckle as Harley Cameron interfered pulling her leg causing her to fall.
All women got in the ring for a eight women suplex with the faces getting the best of the heels with the crowd loving this spot.
All women came in and out of the match hitting big moves on each other until it came down to Anna Jay and Julia Hart in the ring.
Anna locked in the Queen Slayer sleeper hold but backed into the corner with Skye Blue tagging herself in from behind.
Blue went to pick Anna up but she locked in the Queens Slayer sleeper hold and tapped Skye Blue out in a huge win for Anna Jay who seems to lose more often than win.
Winner – Anna Jay, Kris Statlander, Willow Nightingale and Thunder Rosa.
A Wheeler Yuta package was next reviewing Yuta’s ROH Pure Championship run, he made the challenge to Eddie Kingston for a match on Rampage.
Singles Match
Roderick Strong (with The Undisputed Kingdom) vs Bryan Keith
Strong comes out with the Undisputed Kingdom at ringside. Keith has been used as pretty much enhancement talent in AEW programming, this one is very very predictable.
Another hard bump on the outside apron was used in this match with Keith taking the hard hit. These guys blasted each other with hard forearms until finally Strong hit his “End of Heartache” finisher. This finisher is one of my favourites to witness.
Winner – Roderick Strong
After the match Adam Cole grabbed the mic and sat in a chair, he said they weren’t going to earn anyone’s respect but take it, he said Roderick Strong is coming for the International Championship and when the time is right Wardlow will win the World Heavyweight Championship. Cole said they are going to be around for a very long time.
I’m starting to feel AEW have lost it with this Devil mystery man storyline, now being revealed that they are The Undisputed Kingdom there isn’t anything there anymore with MJF not being in the picture.
If this is your main story, it needs to have threads throughout the show but we get one appearance a week and that’s suppose to be it? Not good enough.
Backstage Renee is with Deonna Purrazzo, she has her sights set on the AEW Women’s Championship and Toni Storm, Red Velvet comes in the scene, it turns out they have a match of Collision with Purrazzo making her AEW debut.
Jim Ross joins the commentary team.
Tornado Tag Team Match
Sting and Darby Allin (with Ric Flair) vs Powerhouse Hobbs and Konosuke Takeshita
Being a Tornado Tag Match it was just chaos from the start with the match spilling into the crowd and beyond.
Takeshita on the outside caught Darby Allin off the top rope as he tried to do a Coffin drop, Takeshita did a rolling german suplex spiking Darby on his head on the concrete.
I’ve said it before but I don’t know how Darby is going to wrestling in a few years, he takes just crazy risks and bumps on a regular basis, he has to be hurting.
Meanwhile Sting is brawling with Hobbs in the crowd as the match takes a commercial break.
When we come back Hobbs and Takeshita have Allin with both men swinging his arms and legs, they finally throw Allin with him spinning and crashing hard to the mat with his head hitting the rope.
Sting comes into the ring and starts punching and jabbing both men, he went for a Stinger Splash but was cut off with a knee from Takeshita.
Ric Flair had enough and came into the ring and started laying in trademark chops to Hobbs with little to no effect until the dirtiest player in the game jabbed Hobbs in the eyes.
All four men went back up the top of the ramp. Darby went to the top of the stage and dived off for a crazy Coffin Drop onto Takeshita that took him out.
Hobbs tried to carry Sting down to near the ring to power slam him on a table but Sting reversed it into a Scorpion Death Drop crashing Hobbs through 2 tables to pin Hobbs for the win.
Winner – Sting and Darby Allin
After the match Sting and Darby Allin hobbled into the ring battered and bruised with Tony Schiavone and Ric Flair joining them. Tony asked the question of who will be Sting’s last match?
Before he could answer The Young Bucks came out sporting a new look and stared down Sting and Allin at the top of the ramp hinting that The Bucks could be the last match as the show went off the air.
Kevs Thoughts – The main event was a great match that could have been on PPV but I thought the rest of the show was wall to wall wrestling with not much else going on.
The Undisputed Kingdom with Adam Cole being the devil seems to have stalled, with no MJF on the show, I haven’t been impressed with the aftermath of the reveal of this group being the mystery men as nothing has happened.
I’ll be honest this show felt long, it needs more segments that don’t revolve around having a match then a quick interview with Renee then another match and repeat. To sum it up the show needs to get more creative to enhance the show to be more enjoyable for my liking.
