03/01/24 – Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Taz and Excalibur
Samoa Joe starts the show talking to the camera which is directly after the Worlds End pay per view.
He warns that if anyone tries to take his AEW Championship he will take everything away from them.
Adam Cole comes to the ring with his new faction “Undisputed Kingdom” along with Wardlow, Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett and Matt Taven.
He felt like MJF would have turned on him and he just beat him to the punch. He took credit for the crowd now loving MJF.
He said the group are chasing gold and named Roderick Strong as going after the International Championship and Wardlow going for the World Heavyweight Championship down the track and when Adam Cole is 100 percent Wardlow will give him the World Heavyweight Championship which gave Wardlow a strange look on his face.
Adam Cole said the devil was here to stay as he wrapped up the promo. Jay White’s music hit as he came out and addressed the fact that he was the first person that got jumped by Cole’s gang. He brought with him the returning Gunns who have been gone without explanation for a while, where is Juice Robinson also?. They ran down to the ring and attacked The Undisputed Kingdom.
The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass who were also victims of the attacks and ran out and joined in to attack Cole and his cronies.
The Undisputed Kingdom retreated into the crowd with security protecting them, Jay White and The Gunns were looking at The Acclaimed which got a “Scissor” chant from the crowd. Jay White and The Gunns rejected the crowds plea and left.
I’m glad AEW addressed Jay White being attacked first as I got the impression they had forgotten this detail.
Short Daniel Garcia backstage segment talking about his match tonight against Swerve Strickland, Garcia has turned it around lately but it will hard task against the red hot Swerve Strickland.
International Championship Match
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Dante Martin
I feel Orange Cassidy wrestles almost every show with Tony on commentary confirming he has the most wins in the calendar year.
Dante Martin is a high flyer with tremendous speed but definitely lacks in charisma and character from what I’ve seen.
Cassidy took it to Martin on the outside doing his trademark hands in pockets and running around the ring to build up speed to hit him with a drop kick. Silly stuff.
The guys spent an eternity on the outside. Is there no count outs in International title matches? If there is then the referee must of been asleep.
Another silly spot happened with Martin copying Cassidy’s gimmick of doing light little kicks before trying to super kick him but missed with Cassidy laying the boots in the corner.
Dante went for a flying kick missed and when he turned around Cassidy nailed him with the Orange Punch for the win.
Winner – Orange Cassidy
After the match Hook and Danhausen came out to celebrate with Cassidy, who shook Dante’s hand for a good effort.
The returning team of Private Party came out saying the tag division has been lacking since they have been gone with all teams on notice.
Renee is backstage with Tony Storm who says she is off to Manhattan, Renee asks if she was going to stay to watch Mariah May in her first match, Storm said she doesn’t watch wrestling and leaves with Luther who picks her up out of the scene.
Renee is backstage with Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana, Swerve is looking past Daniel Garcia tonight and has his sights set on Samoa Joe and championship gold.
Singles Match
Mariah May vs Queen Aminata
Queen Aminata is already in the ring as Mariah May comes out to make her debut in AEW after hanging around and helping Toni Storm for the last month or so who hasn’t given her nothing in return this far.
We have been conditioned that if you have no entrance in AEW you are going to lose and that was the case with Mariah winning in convincing fashion.
Winner – Mariah May
Mariah spoke to Renee after the match celebrating her win, she bagged the crowd saying her only regret is her first win was in New Jersey which brought out hometown debut of Deanna Purrazzo, she told Mariah that she has a message for Toni Storm that it doesn’t matter where she runs or hides she will find her.
Mariah said that she is not the messenger and to tell her yourself bitch! Delivering a slap with Purrazzo responding by knocking her out of the ring.
Tony Schiavone in ring interview with Christian Cage and Nick and Shayna Wayne
Tony asks about becoming a two time TNT champion, before Christian could answer Shayna grabbed the mic and responded to the crowd, how dare you boo a mother she said, she puts Christian over as the greatest TNT champion ever.
New Jersey got insulted again as Christian called them “Sweat hogs” a term I haven’t heard used since the late great Ravishing Rick Rude.
Christian thanked Shayna and Nick Wayne and he teased that he was going to thank Killswitch (formerly Luchasaurus) who gave him his contract to win the TNT title but instead of thanking him he said he thanked himself. Teasing that at some point Killswitch will need to turn on Christian, the crowd chanted “Luchasaurus” which seemed to annoy the TNT champion.
Christian said he would do whatever it took to keep the TNT title and that Adam Copeland won’t be getting any more title shots.
Another great segment from Christian Cage, who continues to get real heat from the crowd and build the TNT as possibly the most important title on the show.
Backstage Renee is with Ruby Soho, Saraya and Harley Cameron. Soho thanked Harley for her help last week in her match. Harley is ecstatic to be in their group “The Outcasts”
With Saraya treating her like she is beneath her. Harley comes accross nutty and said she would do anything for the outcasts.
Singles Match
Konosuke Takeshita (with Don Callis) vs Darby Allin
These two men had great chemistry together, lots of innovative moves with some super dangerous stuff also. Darby Allin took a back suplex on the outside ramp that looked like it would break his break.
Darby Allin is one of AEW brightest young stars but by the way he wrestles every match with this much high risk bumps I find it hard to see him having a long career.
Darby ran off the ropes and dived through the ropes flipped and sort of surfed Takeshita knocking him into the guard rail.
Takeshita did another back suplex on Allin but this time off the top rope, this looked devastating and it’s a wonder Allin could even walk after this.
Allin started to get up signaling he was not done with Takeshita hitting the running knees to finally put Allin away in a highly entertaining match.
Winner – Takeshita
After the match Takeshita is with Don Callis, Will Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher celebrating his win, Don Callis makes a challenge for next week for Darby Allin to bring Sting so that Takeshita and Will Hobbs can beat their unbeaten tag record.
Number 1 contenders match for the Continental Crown Championship
Trent Beretta vs Brian Cage vs Bryan Keith vs El Hijo Del Vikingo
Eddie Kingston comes out to join the commentary team so he can see first hand who will be the first challenger for his title.
I have two issues with this. This Continental Classic Tournament went for a whole month of programming for Eddie Kingston to come away the first champion at Worlds End, now we have a 4 way match way match to determine the first challenger and this is the four guys you have challenging for it?
No disrespect to any of the competitor’s but they haven’t exactly been presented on programming as serious threats or have any steam behind them and above all else none of these guys were in the Tournament.
Right out of the gate this title means nothing, none of the competitors in the Tournement can get a shot? Non sensical.
Secondly everybody gets an entrance except for Bryan Keith who was introduced 3rd, your telling us he doesn’t mean much and is borderline enhancement talent, I just don’t understand this at all.
All four men worked their ass off in this match but Trent Beretta was the one to get his hand raised and guess who he pinned? Poor Bryan Keith.
Winner – Trent Beretta
Renee is backstage with Matt Menard who will be on commentary in the main event cheering on his friend Daniel Garcia.
He is interrupted by Hangman Adam Page who seems to have just arrived at the building, he is pissed off and is after Samoa Joe, he alleges Samoa Joe was the one who got him taken out by Adam Cole’s faction a number of weeks back when they were masked, he said if he can’t find Joe it will be Adam Cole or anyone else involved.
Singles Match
Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana) vs Daniel Garcia
Matt Menard joins commentary.
I don’t feel this is a main event calibre match to close out your flagship show, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of Swerve Strickland but I don’t think Garcia is an opponent for him that would draw viewers to watch or increase the ratings.
There was a goofy spot in the match on the outside with Garcia doing his dance in front of Prince Nana who responded by doing his dance right back at him. I find Garcia’s dance annoying as hell but Prince Nana’s dance is one of my highlights of the show and makes me chuckle.
Swerve and Garcia had a good match and it was very much a 50/50 contest but I feel if you want Swerve to be a major player for AEW he needs to be wiping the floor with Garcia
Swerve hit his Swerve Stomp and Garcia kicked out, again I don’t think this should be happening, he has been putting everyone away with that and instead he ended up doing a modified driver to finish Garcia off for the win.
Winner – Swerve Strickland
After the match Swerve signaled for a handshake with Garcia, just as Garcia was going to shake his hand, Prince Nana hit Garcia in the balls from behind with Swerve Strickland laughing at Garcia, I loved this, it made me laugh.
Matt Menard came off commentary and came to the aid of his friend but ended up getting thrown out the ring.
Hangman Page came out and looked Swerve in the eye and began to attack him with both men scrapping all around the ring with security and officials trying to break them up as the show went off the air.
Kev’s thoughts –
Didn’t Hangman say earlier on he was going after Joe and Adam Cole? Now he is back at it against Swerve Strickland? I don’t understand that logic at all, disjointed storytelling for my liking.
The shows highlights were again Christian and I thought Takeshita and Darby Allin had a great match, Adam Cole’s explanation was a little underwhelming if I’m honest, the rest of the show the matches were either predictable or just not interesting.
