21/12/23 – Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Commentary – Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Taz
Continental Classic Tournament Gold Match
Swerve Strickland vs Rush
The crowd were firmly in the corner of Swerve Strickland, chanting “Who’s House, Swerve’s House”
Rush seemed to hurt his leg on a dive to the outside which hindered him walking. Rush played to the crowd who were almost all behind Swerve by doing some taunts to annoy the crowd to get some heel heat.
Both men tried the same thing twice and ended up kicking each other and both collapsed to the floor.
Rush tried to do his finisher the bull horns but his leg gave way with Strickland taking advantage of his disability.
Swerve hit his Swerve stomp to secure the victory and add another 3 point to be joint top of the Gold group with Moxley.
Chris Jericho backstage
Jericho gives a heartfelt message to Kenny Omega who is out indefinitely with Diverticulitis.
Jericho says he will be waiting for him when he comes back.
Continental Classic Gold League Match
Jay Lethal vs Mark Briscoe
Absolutely pointless match with two men who are eliminated from the tournament, just fighting for pride I guess.
Both men chopped the hell out of each other with the friendly vibe going into this match going out the window.
Jay Lethal hit the Drill Piledriver but somehow Briscoe kicked out, Lethal tried it again but was countered into the The Burning Hammer from Briscoe who then hit his own Drill Piledriver to pick up the win and put some points on the board.
Samoa Joe and MJF in ring confrontation
Samoa Joe calls out MJF, he is starting to think that maybe MJF is the mystery devil man
And wants to ask him a few questions.
MJF accuses Joe also as they both nearly come to blows. They get interrupted by the mystery devil man’s goons who came into the ring to attack both men but were fought off.
The lights go off and on and the mystery devil man face appears on the screen, the message is a challenge for next week to defend the ROH Tag Team Titles. Joe accepts the challenge to be MJF’s partner to fight the mystery devil next week.
Renee Paquette is backstage with Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta.
Romero says he is looking for new opportunities after he lost his CMLL championship, Orange Cassidy says ok I’ll see you on Friday and grants him a title shot for Rampage. This segment was pointless.
Number 1 contenders match for the AEW Women’s Championship
Saraya vs Riho
Tony Storm joins the commentary team.
This match was very clunky with some botchy moments. Riho ended up nailing Saraya with a double stomp from the top rope to win clean.
Saraya’s stock has significantly dropped being in AEW and she shouldn’t be losing in this fashion to the tiny Riho.
Storm comes down to the ring with Luther carrying her. Riho attacks her and was getting the better of her until Mariah May came out and hit Riho with the Women’s title.
Tony Schiavone written statement
Tony reads out a statement from Christian Cage, he insults Tony, The crowd and sarcastically says he expects a huge ovation when he returns this Saturday on Collision.
Backstage MJF finds a black mask out the front of The Mogul Embassy’s dressing room.
MJF knocks on the door with Prince Nana answering, MJF confronts him and grabs him, this brings Swerve Strickland out, him and MJF have a back and forth war of words which gets quite heated. Samoa Joe comes into the scene and tells MJF we have business elsewhere and removes him from the situation protecting him from getting beat up by The Mogul Embassy
This was a good scene, I wish AEW did more of this stuff sprinkled throughout the show, ther was some good dialogue and it did a good job creating some questions that maybe the Mogul Embassy could be involved with The Devil.
Singles Match
Roderick Strong (with The Kingdom) vs Komander
Komander did a great highflying spot tight roping along the ropes and back flipping onto Strong and the Kingdom.
It was short lived with Strong winning the match with his Fireman’s carry gut buster.
After the match Renee came in the ring to get some words from Strong who reiterated that MJF is the devil and that Samoa Joe needs to listen to him.
Continental Classic Tournement Gold Match
Jay White vs Jon Moxley
Jim Ross joins the commentary team.
Jay White has really been effected by this tournament, he had a lot of dialogue on the show and was a prominent feature with Bullet Club Gold helping him prior to this tournament. Now they have just disappeared and he hasn’t uttered a word in weeks and all he has done is wrestle in this tournament.
Moxley quickly locked in the chokehold and went for the win early hitting a piledriver with White narrowly kicking out.
These guys brawled on the outside and up the ramp with Moxley inflicting damage. Back in the ring Jay White started to work on the leg of Moxley.
Moxley hit the stomp, he went for his double armed DDT but was reversed into the Bladerunner by Jay White to get a shock win over Moxley.
Moxley’s knee was giving him problems after the match with Jay White attacking it. Swerve Strickland came out and looked on as all three men face each other next week in a triple threat match.
Kev’s thoughts –
Besides the Tournement matches I thought AEW did a better job building the Devil angle tonight, leaving the viewers with some questions as to who this could be.
MJF, Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland were the MVP’s of the show tonight, some good segments from them.
