03/03/24 – Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Nigel McGuiness, Taz
Zero Hour Pre-show
Willie Mack, Private Party, Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal and Satnam Singh vs The Bang Bang Scissor Gang
A very random bunch of wrestlers were put together to face The Bang Bang Scissor Gang who badly need a storyline on AEW programming.
Max Caster fumbled his rap again tonight which is obviously a thing going forward.
Jay White won the match with a Switchblade on Willie Mack to continue their undefeated streak.
Winner – Bang Bang Scissor Gang.
Jay White cuts a face promo hyping the night after the match, i find it hard to buy Jay White as a face as he comes across as a very natural heel.
Backstage Lexi is with The Best Friends, Orange Cassidy is with the trainer who says he should be taping everything up as he is barely medically clear. Cassidy asks the Best Friends to stay backstage tonight for his match.
There was a vignette next hyping the return of PAC who says he will be back very soon.
Tag Team Match
Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander (with Stokley Hathaway vs Skye Blue and Julia Hart
Stokley Hathaway joined the commentary team.
Fun little match with some great action, No interference was nessasary from Stokley Hathaway as Willow charged and flung Skye Blue all the way across the ring.
Julia Heart tried to come in the ring but Kris Statlander knocked her out of the ring with Willow finishing Skye Blue with the Gut Wrench Sit Down Powerbomb.
Winner – Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander
Main Show
TNT Championship Title Match
Christian Cage (c) (with The Patriarchy) vs Daniel Garcia
Christian Cage oozes confidence and charisma whereas Daniel Garcia lacks in some of these qualities. I haven’t been sold on Garcia for a while.
Christian got a chorus of boo’s from the crowd as he came out, possibly the best heel in the entire wrestling business.
Christian infuriated the crowd by walking outside the ring to talk to The Patriarchy. Christian dominated this match in the early goings.
Matt Menard came down to ringside and threw Killswitch into the post, Shayna Wayne then went to slap Menard but he grabbed her hand, Killswitch hit Menard and the two brawled all the way up the ramp to the back.
It looked like Garcia was going to win but it wasn’t to be as while the referee was distracted with Shayna Wayne her son Nick Wayne jumped on the apron and clocked Garcia allowing Christian to hit the Killswitch for the win.
Winner – Christian Cage
Continental Crown Championship Match
Eddie Kingston (c) vs Bryan Danielson
The crowd was split 50/50 on who they wanted to win this contest, Danielson continued to play the role of a heel which is something we have been seeing more of from in the last couple weeks.
Eddie Kingstons chops got Danielson’s chest red raw early in this match. This was more of slow build match with a lot of grappling and submissions with Danielson’s aim to tap out Kingston very clear.
The pace picked up with both men hitting big high impact moves with Kingston narrowly escaping from the running knees from Danielson.
Danielson resorted to kicking Kingstons face in just like he did on Collision, he applied the triangle submission which got the job done on Collision but Kingston would not quit.
Both men hit German suplexes on one another until both were gassed and laying on the apron with the crowd chanting “This is Awesome”
Slaps were traded back and forth until Kingston dazed Danielson and then hit his Powerbomb pin to win and retain the Continental Championship.
Winner – Eddie Kingston
After the match Danielson finally gave Kingston his hand shake that was part of the stipulation for this match.
All Star 8-Man Scramble
Chris Jericho vs Powerhouse Hobbs vs Lance Archer vs Wardlow vs Dante Martin vs Hook vs Brian Cage vs Magnus
For a start I do not like the name of the CMLL wrestler “Magnus”
There is only one Magnus and that is Nick Aldis, I can’t take him seriously with that name.
His mask is also very similar to Rey Mysterio.
All the smaller wrestlers got thrown out of the ring until it was left with the 4 big men of the match in Hobbs, Archer, Cage and Wardlow who posed and showed off their muscles.
Looking at those 4 men, there is no reason why they can’t be your top guys, they look the part and are impressive. They just need to be pushed as such.
They began to test each others strength by trying to clothesline each other down with Lance Archer coming out on top.
All the big guys of the match were on the outside now and all the smaller guys were inside and copied the same schtick the big guys did by flexing and trying to clothesline each other.
Wardlow started to dominate the match, dishing out German Suplexes to pretty much everyone in the match. Hook locked a sleeper which got Wardlow to his knees with Jericho putting Wardlow in the Walls of Jericho as well as the sleeper.
Everyone got in the ring and battled it out until it was down to two men left in the ring with Wardlow powerbombing Dante Martin hard to the mat to pick up the victory.
Winner – Wardlow
AEW International Championship Match
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Roderick Strong (with The Kingdom)
Cassidy looked a little worse for wear with his ribs taped and putting on an elbow pad, they have been explaining that he is banged up a lot.
If he is so banged up why is booked to wrestle on every show? Here’s an idea, don’t have him wrestle on Rampage, Dynamite and Collision weekly and maybe give that time to some legit wrestlers that for some reason don’t get any TV time, Johnny TV comes to mind.
Roderick Strong sensed the weakness in Cassidy and attacked him like a wounded animal, targeting the injuries.
There was a scary spot in the match with both men on the second rope with Strong turning Cassidy into a Gutwrench powerbomb onto the top rope which look like Cassidy could’ve landed real badly on his neck, the camera showed some peoples facials in the crowd and they were shocked.
Roderick Strong toyed with his opponent all match, Cassidy would not quit though and seemed to be struggling with his ribs. Cassidy just couldn’t get going in this match and Strong put him in The Boston Crab to try finish him off but Cassidy got the rope.
Cassidy got some momentum finally, hitting the Orange Punch and the Beach Break but couldn’t put Strong away.
Cassidy went for another Orange Punch but got kneed in the head then Strong hit his finisher “End of Heartache” to win the match and become the new AEW International Champion.
Winner – Roderick Strong
After the match Kyle O Riley appeared and was behind The Undisputed Kingdom and was looking like he was going to jump them, but instead he hugged Roderick Strong.
Mike Bennett tried to hand Kyle O Riley an Undisputed Kingdom shirt but he ended up declining and whispered in Roderick’s Strong ear.
Im not familiar with Kyle O Riley’s work, I haven’t see him before but my first impression is he looked like a fan that came out of the crowd and secondly he looks like he needs a good nights sleep and to get out in the sun more.
Tag Team Match
Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli vs FTR
Moxley and Castagnoli came out wearing the spiked shoulder pads as tribute to The Road Warriors, Animal and Hawk.
I feel like I’ve seen this match a few times already so it wasn’t one of the matches I was looking forward to.
Both teams kept a physical style in this match with it spilling to the outside with both teams brawling into the crowd.
I’m not sure what happened to Cash Wheeler as it appeared his shoulder smashed into the ring post, he was busted open as he made his way back in the ring.
Dax’s forehead got worse as the match went on and the match ended the same way the first match ended with Moxley and Castagnoli choking out both members of FTR.
Winner – Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli
AEW Womens Championship Match
“Timeless” Toni Storm vs Dionna Purrazzo
The crowd was somewhat fooled when Mariah May came out to Storm’s old music dressed like Toni Storm used to look like.
Both women wrestled a technical style with them trying to one up one another.
Toni Storm fell off the ring apron and was caught by Luther, Purrazzo went to the top rope and dived to the outside taking both out.
Purrazzo had Storm in the Butterfly Sumbmission but the referee was distracted and missed her tapping out.
Purrazzo hit Mariah May off the ring apron but when she turned around Storm hit her modified piledriver to win and retain the championship.
Winner – Toni Storm
Singles Match
Will Ospreay vs Konosuke Takeshita
Don Callis joins the commentary team.
I haven’t really understood this match or angle. Will Ospreay’s connection to the Don Callis Family hasn’t been explained on TV.
Callis has put these two together to face each other which I haven’t understood why either.
This match went for ages, it was hard for me to get into it as there has been really little build for this match.
That didn’t seem to bother the fans in attendance who loved this match chanting “Fight Forever”
There was another scary spot that Takeshita did on Ospreay, he suplexed him into a brainbuster on the top rope with Ospreays back being bruised from this. This could have went really bad as it looked super risky.
Takeshita did two pretty devastating moves and back suplexes on Ospreay who just popped up like it was nothing to nail Takeshita with a forearm, this whole sequence was non sensical and looked silly.
Finally this match came to end when Ospreay hit Takeshita with a Forearm in the back of the head.
Winner – Will Ospreay
Fans in attendance loved this. This style is just not for me and I don’t share the crowds enthusiasm of it.
Kyle Fletcher came out and it was announced he would be facing Ospreay on Dynamite, they hugged in the ring, I guess they are real life friends.
AEW World Heavyweight Title Three Way Match
Samoa Joe (c) vs Swerve Strickland vs Adam “Hangman Page”
Jim Ross joins the commentary for this match. How cool it is to have both the voices of The Attitude Era on commentary.
Swerve Strickland makes a grand entrance with Dancers and some sweet ring attire.
I thought it was a pretty classy move from Tony Kahn to allow Sting to be the main event tonight in his last match.
All three men squared off, it was no surprise that Hangman and Swerve went for each other first which allowed Joe to jump them both.
Finally Joe was out of the ring and it was the two bitter rivals against each other with Swerve extracting some revenge on Hangman for the stunt he pulled on Dynamite.
Joe look comfortable in this match pegging off both men who were too distracted with thier own rivalry. Surprisingly Hangman and Swerve worked together to double powerbomb Joe of the second rope.
Swerve had a bit of a busted eye from this match and Joe looked like he was winded from Swerve landing a 450 splash on his back. Swerve hit the Swerve stomp and looked like he was going to win but Hangman grabbed the referee’s legs and pulled him out the ring knocking him out so he couldn’t count the three.
Hangman smashed Swerve with the title and delivered the buckshot lariat but there was no ref to make the 3 count, finally a referee came down but Joe kicked out at two.
Joe reversed Hangman’s Lariat and put him in the rear naked choke but it was broken by Swerve landing a corkscrew on both men.
Prince Nana handed Swerve his crown to nail Joe with, Swerve thought about it but decided he didn’t want to win that way and tossed it. This almost came back to bite Swerve in the ass with Joe locking in the rear naked choke but it was reversed into a pin.
Hangman Page broke up the pin by hitting the referee and laying punches in to knock the ref out.
Swerve looked like he was going to win the match when he nailed his Driver on Hangman with the original referee crawling into the ring, Joe grabbed Swerve and and back suplexed him on his head and locked in the rear naked choke on Hangman who tapped out.
Winner – Samoa Joe
Tornado Tag Team AEW Tag Team Championship Match
Sting and Darby Allin (c) vs The Young Bucks
Ric Flair comes out to ringside followed by the special time keeper Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.
Sting had a great intro to his entrance titled “The Last Showtime” featuring pictures and moments from his career and the ones in AEW with him watching it on a movie theatre.
Sting came out to the 4 Horsemen by Metallica which got a massive pop from the crowd. Sting had both his sons out with him dressed in retro surfer Sting and Wolfpac Sting.
Allin didn’t waste any time by jumping out the ring on top of the Young Bucks to start the match. The Bucks were in both corners with Sting, Allin and Sting’s sons coming in the ring to deliver Stinger Splashes over and over.
Allin and Sting brought out tables and sheets of glass which they put on chairs and tables. Sting was almost psychotic with his bat in this match so much so that The Bucks retreated into the crowd.
Darby Allin and Nick Jackson fought on the ramp until Jackson Falcon Arrowed Allin onto a table taking him out of this match.
On the other side of the stage Matt Jackson suplexed Sting off the stage onto a table.
A “F**k The Young Bucks” chant erupted from the crowd.
Darby Allin was back in the ring and getting double teamed by The Bucks as Sting was recovering from the table bump.
Allin did a good job fighting them both off and knocked Nick Jackson onto the glass plates on the tables, Allin got a ladder setup jumped off it and missed Jackson as his brother pulled him out of the way.
This was the most insane risk I have seen in a match, instantly Darby was lacerated and bleeding all over his body from the impact, insane.
Sting came back to the ring and now was getting double teamed by The Bucks.
Sting also did a good job fighting both of The Bucks with him having Matt Jackson on the table in the ring.
Sting climbed up the ladder with the crowd anticipating what Sting was doing, Nick Jackson setup another glass panel in the corner with Matt getting off the table and pulling Sting off the ladder and through another table.
The Bucks celebrated but Sting popped up and tried to fight both Bucks but they ended up throwing him through the Glass panel, Matt Jackson hit Stings Scorpion Death Drop but at the last second Sting got a shoulder up.
Nick Jackson went to grab a belt but Ricky Steamboat stopped him and gave him a right hand, Matt Jackson hit Steamboat with a chair and went in the ring where Ric Flair was covering up Sting trying to protect him.
The Bucks did a double super kick to Flair knocking him out. Steamboat came on the apron and got a double super kick too.
The Bucks then went for double super kick on Sting who was still standing from it with a crazed look on his face, Sting beat his chest and clotheslined The Bucks.
The Bucks hit the VP trigger but Sting kicked out, they did it again and he kicked out at one. The Bucks went for the Newley named TK driver but Darby Allin finally got up and pushed Nick Jackson off the top ropes where he landed through a table. Sting then Scorpion Death dropped Matt Jackson but he also kicked out at 2.
Darby Allin went to the top roped still heavily bleeding and hit the Coffin Drop on Matt Jackson with Sting finishing Matt Jackson off with The Scorpion Death lock with the crowd erupting.
Winner – Sting and Darby Allin
That was an awesome match and quite possibly the best last match of anyone’s career.
Great ending to a great career of one of my personal favorites of all time Sting.
