27/12/23 – Addition Financial Arena, Orlando Florida
Commentary – Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Taz
Continental Classic Gold League Final
Swerve Strickland vs Jon Moxley vs Jay White
I have to say I’m happy this is the final of the Gold league, the tournament has been long winded and I’m just ready for the show to be back to normal.
All three men brawled all over the arena with Moxley taking a running knee from Swerve on a chair. The guys made their way up to the top of the stairs in the crowd beating each other.
Back in the ring all three men beat the hell out of each other, Moxley and Swerve in particular seem to have a feud brewing with one another with Jay White seemingly able to just take a breather while these guys went at it.
Swerve nearly had it with a 450 splash on Jay White but the pin was stopped with Moxley hitting a stomp on Swerve to deny him.
Jay White lodged a chair in the corner which ended up costing him with Swerve throwing his head into the chair.
Swerve and Moxley traded blows in the middle of the ring, Jay White came back in the ring and pushed Swerve off the top ropes leaving Moxley to hit the Death Rider DDT on Jay White to win and advance to the final at Worlds End.
Winner – Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana is backstage with Tony Schiavone, Strickland is bitterly disappointed but he ends up bringing up Keith Lee who he has unfinished business with and turns out Tony has a contract for a match for Worlds End for Swerve Strickland to face Keith Lee which is now official.
Renee Paquette brings out Mariah May to interview her, she asks Mariah why she attacked Riho, she says she was defending the greatest Women’s champion in Toni Storm. Mariah confirms she will make her debut next week. Riho comes out and chases Mariah down to the ring which brings out Toni Storm who tries to attack Riho but comes out worse for wear with Riho holding her title.
Top Flight and Action Andretti have a backstage segment where they are remaining positive after their loss, this is interrupted by Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero with Cassidy saying “seeya Friday” with a trios match now happening this coming Friday on Rampage.
I do not like the way Top Flight and Andretti are being produced, they come across a little cheesy and vanilla, I did like Andretti crushing and drinking the water, more of that, at least it’s something to remember him by.
A little package highlighting CJ Perry and Miro’s issues with her managing Adrade EL Idolo, there is now a match between the two at Worlds End.
Tony Schiavone is in the ring for a segment with The Don Callis Family. Callis grabs the mic off Schiavone.
Callis has 4 paintings in the ring of Don with all the members that exaggerate him being jacked.
Sammy Guevara returns and comes out to the ring. Sammy says to Don “Long time no hear”
Don unveils another picture of all the Don Callis family with Sammy and his baby.
Sammy was disappointed that Don never called him while he was injured, Don responded he was disappointed he never showed up for work for months.
Callis makes a remark about Sammy’s parenting which sends Sammy over the edge and attacks Don Callis, the rest of The Don Callis family in Hobbs, Fletcher and Takeshita jump Sammy which brings out Jericho with a baseball bat to take out the Don Callis family.
Sammy and Jericho smash all the paintings with a baseball bat, they embrace in the ring but the feel good moment is halted when Big Bill and Ricky Starks attack Sammy and Jericho from behind.
Just as it appears Sammy and Jericho were going to receive a beating the lights go out and come on with Sting and Darby Allin in the ring.
Sting strikes Bill and Starks with his bat and shares it with Jericho to take a few shots himself. Big Bill and Starks retreat down the aisle.
This is another example of AEW putting too much moving parts into a segment, although fun there was just a little too much, this lights going off and on seems to be used too often with House of Black using it, when multiple people or teams do the same thing it devalues the trick.
Renee is backstage with Roderick Strong with The Kingdom, once again Strong is adamant that MJF is the Devil having a diagram of who could be with MJF his only conclusion.
Continental Class Blue League Final
Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston
This is the second meeting between these two men in this tournament with Danielson getting the win in the last outing.
Danielson’s chest turned bright red from the chop assault from Kingston, Danielson turned the tables and locked in the Labelle lock with Kingston breaking it with the rope.
Danielson’s chest became welted and bloodied as this match went on, Danielson started to lay the kicks in to the head of Kingston, the ref checked on him and he flipped Danielson the bird.
Danielson went for his running knees but was countered when Kingston nailed him with a spinning back fist, he hit Danielson with a couple more for good measure and stacked him up with a power bomb to win and advance to the final.
Winner – Eddie Kingston
Moxley comes out with a mic, basically saying he has to be at his best but says he has no chance because he knows him better than he knows himself, Kingston retorts that he is going bring his fighting spirit at Worlds End.
Singles Match
Kris Statlander vs Skye Blue
These two women have had a number of backstage and in ring issues in the last couple months without actually explaining why or what this issue is.
The bigger and stronger Starlander threw Skye Blue around the ring, suplexing her from the ground.
Skye Blue hit her Code Blue finisher with Statlander kicking out.
Statlander got back in control of this match until Julie Heart interfered behind the refs back to assist Skye Blue who hit her Code Blue off the top rope to get the win.
Blue and Heart started to beat up Statlander after the bell until Willow Nightingale made the save. Heart and Blue retreated but Abadon came out to block them from leaving with them leaving out the side.
ROH Tag Team Title Match
MJF and Samoa Joe vs The Devils Henchmen.
Samoa Joe is seen backstage clutching his leg, someone has attacked him backstage.
MJF insists on taking on the match by himself as he starts smashing the mystery men.
As MJF was about to unmask one of the henchmen on the outside, another masked man came out from underneath the ring and hit MJF with a lead pipe behind the refs back throwing him in the ring with the legal masked man hitting MJF’s signature move “The Heatseeker” to win the match and become the new ROH tag champions with no one knowing who they are.
More mask men pile in the ring to attack MJF with Samoa Joe running to the ring hobbling with a chair to chase them off.
The Devil masked man appears on the screen with a message saying “pleasure doing business with you”
Samoa Joe hits MJF with the chair and it now appears Joe is in cahoots with The Devil. Joe lays out MJF as the show goes off the air.
Kev’s Thoughts
Was a nice little swerve to end the show and add some intrigue to Joe vs MJF title match at Worlds End PPV.
Wasn’t a bad show from AEW, they have done a decent job with The main event of MJF and Joe but I feel the rest of the card has lot of stuff has been added with not a lot behind.
Christian was suppose to have a face to face with Adam Copeland which I’m assuming he was stood up, it wasn’t really explained, just scenes of Christian throughout the show waiting.
