This was a taped show from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. Pretty much the last major show before their huge Arthur Ashe Stadium event next week in New York. Since by Dynamite only three matches for their Arthur Ashe Stadium had been announced for next week’s Rampage, I figured that this show would set up the remaining ones since Rampage will be a special 2 hour edition. On top of Excalibur being back from his wedding, Mark Henry was absent from the commentary booth this week while Ricky Starks replaced him. Sadly, Starks seemed to do a much better job there than Mark Henry but we’ll get into that later.
Lucha Bros Vs. Butcher and Blade Tag Team Title Match
This match had virtually no build going in. In fact, somehow they advertised Butcher and Blade having a 7-0 win/loss record and were ranked #1 going in, despite the fact that Butcher had been out for months while Blade wandered around in meaningless, silly single match feuds.
Match pretty much was a standard Lucha Bros match with chaos. No Penta glove/Zero Miedo spot. Butcher/Blade worked a spot where they tied Penta’s mask to the corner while they bullied his brother around. When they were about to go for a double team move, Penta escaped in quickly sacrificing his mask for knocking Blade out to allow Rey Fenix to hit a rana for the surprise pin.
Afterwards, Matt Hardy got pissed and summoned Private Party out to do a post-match beat down while Penta tried to get his mask back on. Poor Alex Abrahantes got knocked to the floor. But Ortiz and Santana made the save. Since there is a segment that addresses all of the aftermath, I’ll save my comments until that time. Overall, the match was more of a setup and probably gave Butcher/Blade an old title shot that was long forgotten since the Bucks had the belts for so long.
Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega Video Package
Sadly, I still believe that AEW’s video packages manage to get across what’s needed far better than their live segments. They should really stick to this formula as opposed to having most of their hokey live segments except for the really good people. I’ll also get back to that in a moment.
Anna Jay Vs. The Bunny
Matt Hardy stayed by ringside for this, which felt weird. Bunny came out with Penelope Ford while Anna Jay was accompanied by Tay Conti. This match sucked because neither girl are very good. At least with Anna Jay, she has the excuse of being on the shelf for a while along with being inexperienced. But the Bunny is just really bad. She has experience and seems to only look partly reasonable when she’s in a squash match in front of a small crowd.
Anna Jay got the pin over the veteran, which says a lot about The Bunny in the scheme of things, which lead to Penelope coming in to help beat down Anna Jay. Tay Conti came in to help her partner but got a brass knuckle sandwich from The Bunny. I really hate that because the punches she does looks awful. They gave one to Anna Jay for good measure. Otherwise, this was just a setup match for next week.
Powerhouse Hobbs and CM Punk Video Package
Hobbs got a chance to talk here. They gave him kudos for the comment about Punk’s 7 year lay off. Many people think he’ll be a star one day and it’s really a matter of time and experience at this point.
Matt Hardy Interview
Schiavone is in the ring with Matt Hardy. Schiavone basically tells Hardy he’s a loser since both his members lost on the same show. They announce that next week will see Blade/Butcher/Private Party vs Lucha Bros/Santana/Ortiz on Rampage while Anna Jay gets Penelope Ford at Rampage. Matt spots a wannabe Orange Cassidy plant in the crowd and Jack Evans and he grab him to embarrass the man by shearing the guy’s hair. The plant must be some upcoming wrestler in training because he took a bump to the floor being pulled over.
This leads, of course, Orange Cassidy to make the save. There’s now “anticipation” of an eventually hair vs hair type of match with Cassidy, which sounds stupid because Cassidy’s hair is short to start. So I’m guessing Matt Hardy wants to become Matt Baldy.
But I’m going to pause for a moment to go over Hardy Office/Matt Hardy. If you look at his group, he’s effectively got the largest faction in AEW, discounting the Dark Orders’ eminent albeit meaningless break up. Hardy now has H20 (Jack Evans/Angelico), Blade/Butcher, Private Party and The Bunny/Penelope Ford. Despite having this many people, Matt Hardy effectively is John Paul Jones feuding endlessly against Jimmy “the Boogey Woogie Man” Valiant in the NWA where Orange Cassidy is playing the role of Valiant.
Despite having all these people, Matt Hardy right now is effectively a mid-carder who just acts as the door and filler to lead to whatever is next for a given talent. Sadly, his excellent match against Christian led to nothing for the guy and he’s been stuck in this purgatory for a long time.
As far as the upcoming 8 man tag match next week, it’s a situation where I anticipate Private Party might somehow get a match against the Lucha Bros just because AEW likes giving gratuitous matches with teams that have been on a losing streak title shots and/or Santana/Ortiz will have a moment against the Lucha Bros somewhere in that match, leading to a feud/title match. I’m betting on the latter.
Penelope Ford vs Anna Jay is going to be the bathroom break match. Some people anticipated Penelope Ford/The Bunny vs Anna Jay/Tay Conti at this show but now we’re getting just a singles match. It’s going to be bad because both women suck. I’m not going to beat around the bush on my feelings about their abilities. Both might be really pretty but neither are very good, they’re both inexperienced and it’s a mistake to put them in a match like this on a huge show. At least, a tag team match would have hidden all the BS that would potentially happen but I’m guessing Tony Khan is thinking a slow burn for that match. However, no one really cares because none of the people involved are great and should be kept in tag matches so they don’t overexpose themselves. So I expect a disaster there.
Britt Baker Vs. Ruby Soho
Where the previous match was the display of two indy level girls, this segment was the display of what you can achieve at a high level. Pretty much this was the highlight of the show for me. I really wanted to see Ruby on the mic and she delivered! Ruby easily had the line of the night by explaining Britt Baker was like other broads she faced in “banging some dude in the back” (poor Adam Cole, but I guess Tony Schiavone was enjoying that one). That’s when the crowd woke up from this otherwise dreary, insipid show.
The line was so good Britt gave the perfect face in not trying to bust up but realizing that she got owned. Lots of great crowd reaction from that and people finally got to see Ruby make the situation her own.
Both traded a few sharp barbs, including Britt getting in a nasty “you got fired” remark which popped the smart crowd. Ruby owned that one by saying she was happy about it being the “best damned thing that ever happened to her.” There was a lot of emotion in Ruby’s voice so you could see she meant everything and the crowd was solidly behind her.
Ruby commanded Britt’s attention, using the old Game of Thrones “look at me!” line while snapping her fingers in Britt’s uninterested countenance, which got a small reaction from the announcing booth, who had been really eating their popcorn and enjoying the banter this night. The final line of the night from Ruby came by saying Britt is blind because of how far up Tony’s ass her head is. Then she brought it all home by talking about next week and beating Britt for the title match.
Naturally, Britt didn’t let it go and tried to smack her with the title. The post-interview schmoz didn’t look great with a weak take down by Ruby and some lame shots. But Ruby held the title aloft while Britt walked away and Jericho tried to oversell it with an overt, “That is what we call a money segment!” and a “I want to see this match!” Please Chris, don’t make things like this seem so obvious.
I have to comment that this was one of the best interview segments I’ve seen in a while. Some people are saying for women’s wrestling but I think this was an extremely solid moment for Ruby, possibly her own Austin 3:16 moment when she gave Britt her “banging some dude in the back” line (though not as catchy). Yet the importance of this interview was demonstrating that Ruby can go on the mic, make her into a main event player, a wasted talent in the WWE who was waiting for the moment and selling a match. This promo was academic for me in terms of everything that should be done in a promo. It felt like pro-wrestling and told a nice story, giving both people a chance to shine and show that they can talk people in the building. I mean, afterwards, I really want to see the upcoming match just because of the jaw jacking. And that’s what you want to do in these situations.
Fuego Del Sol Vs. Miro
And now back to our regularly scheduled AEW programming. They had the backstage segment with Mark Henry pre-match. I guess that’s a permanent thing but it does not explain why Mark Henry was not on commentary this week. Match was Miro giving Fuego a chance in this match with Fuego’s car on the line. Fuego tried to verbally elevate the importance of the TNT Title by putting his newly purchased car on the line for the opportunity.
The match wasn’t a complete squash and Fuego’s pre-match interview showed he could speak. But no one really was going to give Fuego a chance against Miro. After Miro destroyed Fuego with a pair of bicycle kicks, Miro shoved the car keys into Fuego’s mouth, put on the Game Over modified Camel Clutch until Sammy Guevara came into the ring to clear it.
It’s obvious that Sammy is going to be Miro’s next major challenger but that match hasn’t been set just yet. If it was going to air next week, then I would assume Sammy would have a chance of winning. Sammy did say that he wants that title but I don’t know if he’ll get it just yet.
Final Thoughts
Besides the Ruby Soho vs Britt Baker interview segment, the rest of this show wasn’t anything to write about as their go home leading into next week’s big Arthur Ashe Stadium event. Two of the matches just provided some gratuitous material for Rampage next week while the Fuego vs Miro match is obviously going to get Sammy his chance at a TNT title shot.
The Matt Hardy stuff just doesn’t click with me. In truth, Matt looks completely lost without his brother and he’s just lost in the shuffle since he’s older, his name only matters when he’s team with his brother and there being so many other main event level guys that can handle the top spots. Matt reminds me of what I would think Vince Russo would almost be like if Vince became a wrestler within a semi-limited confines of a bigger structure.
I hate ripping on women’s matches but the fact is that outside of a few women, the vast majority in AEW don’t really do much for me. I think the problem here is just a very wide gap in experience and talent. At the top of the pyramid in terms of raw talent, you have Ruby Soho, Thunder Rosa, Serena Deeb and Britt Baker. Then it’s steep decline from there. Hikaru Shida is okay with me but I think she’s more of a trainer at this stage. Riho works fine if she’s bumping around for others. The rest are green or terrible. Red Velvet, Layla Hirsch, Kris Statlander and Tay Conti might have a shot some day but they need better opponents and at least 2-3 years worth of experience more before they should go near a title. Penelope Ford, Anna Jay, The Bunny and Tay Conti might be able to just get by on their looks initially but it’s going to take a lot of work for them to get over because they aren’t naturally talented.
The Miro vs Sammy Guevara match should have been placed next week rather than one of the two filler matches they announced this week. If it were on Dynamite along with the women’s title match, I would have a harder time determining the winner of either. So it’s a mystery why a huge show like that only has one title match.
Nonetheless, with that said, I can see Ruby Soho walking away with the women’s title next week. There might be interference from Rebel and Jamie Hayter just because Tony Khan would want to get as many faces in front of a large crowd as possible, but with only one title match at a huge stadium event, I can only see a single outcome there. Although it would only be roughly a 4 month reign for Britt, the fact is that Britt still isn’t that great in the ring. Some people still think it’ll be Britt vs Thunder Rosa and I do think maybe they pulled the trigger on Ruby Soho getting a title match too soon. I would’ve saved that for Full Gear in November but they can always have a re-match, despite AEW’s poor history of re-matches.
Either way, this show was pretty bland outside of the Britt Baker vs Ruby Soho match. Fuego Del Sol should not have received any title shot, although it just served for Sammy Guevara’s purposes. But he’s shown so little after the Pinnacle feud died down that he’s just wandering around too. Then again I think that Guevara might beat Miro so that we will see Malakai Black vs Guevara for the title down the line or Adam Cole.
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