13/12/23 – College Park Station, Arlington, Texas
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Taz
Samoa Joe comes out first to get answers for last week’s Dynamite where the mystery devil mask man tricked him and beat up MJF who he had promised to look after until the Worlds End PPV.
Joe accused Hangman Page of being the one who attacked MJF. Page came out and got in Joe’s face and it looked like it was going to come to blows until Roderick Strong came out with his neck brace with The Kingdom yelling “Samoa” “Somoa”
Roderick once again reiterates that MJF is the one behind the Devil. Hangman turns Roderick around and hits him with a right hand, next thing you know it’s a match.
Singles Match
Hangman Page vs Roderick Strong
Fast paced, action packed affair, Strong seems to be back to wrestling full time after being out for a while showing no signs of slowing down.
This was Hangman’s first match back after his brutal match with Swerve Strickland, he also showed no sign of effect from that match with a return to form hitting his Dead Eye finisher to win the match.
Continental Classic Tournament Blue Match
Andrade El Idolo (with CJ Perry) vs Brody King
Andrade had a hard hitting match with Bryan Danielson on Collision just a few days prior to this one but it didn’t seem to effect him, he had the crowd firmly behind him as he fired up on his quest to slay the bigger Brody King.
King tried to suplex Adrade off the top rope, Adrade smashed Kings head on the exposed turnbuckle and then hit his modified DDT to win and gain another 3 points in the tournament.
Backstage Renee is with The Von Erich family and gets interrupted by Orange Cassidy, Danhausen and Trent Baretta. Cassidy asks The Von Erichs if they would tag with them on Rampage which they accepted.
Kenny Omega comes down to the ring but it goes to an ad break, when it returns Kenny Omega has a mic with Chris Jericho in the ring talking to Big Bill and Ricky Starks at the top of the ramp.
Jericho and Omega make the challenge for a tag team title match at the Worlds End PPV. They also make fun of Big Bill and Starks not having a team name and come up with potential names for them like The Absolute Assholes etc
Starks takes a shot at Jerichos clothes saying he got them from hot topic. Jericho retorts with a great line saying Starks is like a better dressed less charismatic version of Enzo Amore which had the crowd chanting.
Starks and Big Bill accepts the match for Worlds End PPV. This was a good segment.
Toni Storm comes out to join the commentary team with Mariah May holding her title.
Singles Match
Ruby Soho vs Riho
the match continuously goes back and forth to Storm who is in black and white at all times.
The girls in this match were kind of overshadowed with the constant attention to Toni Storm on commentary with her over the top character taking the spotlight.
With it being Riho’s return match it was kind of obvious she was going to win, she hit her running double knees to pick up the win over Soho and it looks like she will be next in line to face Storm.
A Wardlow package was next continuing his goal of getting revenge on MJF.
Continental Classic Tournament Gold Match
Rush vs Jay Lethal
I have a real problem with this match, Jay Lethal is essentially eliminated from this tournament and can’t win so a) we know Rush is going to win and b) there is no reason to care about this match.
Rush wins and advances with another 3 points with a sleeper hold victory. Jay Lethal has been on the losing end a hell of lot lately and it looks like he is at a crossroads.
Continental Classic Tournament Gold Match
Jay White vs Marc Briscoe
Just like the last match, Briscoe is eliminated from the tournament and we know Jay White is winning this.
We have back to back pointless matches with no stakes. This match was quite lengthy too with Jay White winning and gaining 3 points in the tournament after a hard fought contest with Briscoe.
Continental Classic Tournament Gold Match
Swerve Strickland vs Jon Moxley
I’m predicting Moxley to bleed in this match, I know he can’t help himself.
These guys started off with a lot of mat wrestling which surprised me, I was expecting them to slug it out.
Moxley had Swerve in the corner and planted a kiss on him, Swerve then locked up with Moxley and gave him a kiss back. I don’t even know what to say to this, Taz on commentary explained it as playing mind games.
Both men scrapped it out on the outside with Moxley throwing Swerve into the steps on his hurt shoulder.
After the ad break it was back in the ring with Moxley in control. Swerve made a comeback firing the crowd up. The comeback was cut short with a cutter from Moxley followed by a piledriver that only got a 2 count.
Swerve fought his way back and went for the Swerve stomp but was cut off by Moxley who pushed him off the ropes to the outside.
Back in the ring Moxley tried to tap Swerve out but couldn’t get him to quit which frustrated ha Moxley resulting in him getting a chair from the outside.
Swerve hit Moxley onto the a chair. Swerve did the Stomp on a chair on the outside and then a Swerve Stomp on the inside with Moxley somehow kicking out.
Moxley ended up winning the match with a sneaky pin grabbing the tights and stealing the victory. Swerve was pissed as he knows he got robbed.
I was wrong, Moxley didn’t bleed in this match, I was actually expecting a more violent match than what we seen.
As the show goes off the air Hangman Page is seen in the parking lot getting mobbed by the mystery Devil mask man’s goons, The devil mask man appears in a car watching Hangman get beaten and slammed through a car windshield.
Kev’s thoughts –
A little bit of a disjointed show, I thought the ending was good as a cliffhanger to build intrigue, the main event was a solid match but the meaningless tournament matches really made this show sluggish. A solid segment from Jericho, Omega, Starks and Big Bill was another highlight.
It annoys me with AEW as they just can’t seems to string a show together that’s must see from start to finish, they have bits here and there that are good and then let themselves down with stuff that is just predictable.
