So, the war between WWE and AEW has officially begun and I had the honor of attending the new promotion’s first event at the Capital One Arena. First of all, what a great experience. It’s always a joy to be in a room full of wrestling fans and the crowd was hot all night.
In terms of the actual show, it was good. There was nothing that blew me away; however, nothing on the program outright offended me or insulted my intelligence. However, there are few problems that I need to address.
First though, I must tip my hat to Riho and Nyla Rose who worked their asses off to produce the match of the night. This was by no means the smoothest bout on the card; however, the classic David vs. Goliath dynamic got the crowd invested into the babyface and by the end of the match, fans were chanting “This is Awesome”. I was genuinely surprised that Riho won the belt and I’m curious to see what she can do as the top babyface in the division.
Should these two continue to feud, then it could easily be another Awesome Kong/Gail Kim feud that not only elevates the title, but the entire division as well.
If you argue that PAC vs. Page, The Six Man Tag Team Main Event, or Cody vs. Sammy was better then I wouldn’t disagree with you because technically speaking, those matches were better; however, the women’s match had a stronger story with higher stakes thus my reasoning for giving it the match of the night nod.
I like the faction formed between Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Santana & Ortiz, and Sammy Guevara. Hanging with Jericho and Hager instantly gives Santana, Ortiz, and Sammy Guevara credibility and I’m curious to see the dynamic between the men.
However, the main event was a chaotic cluster[frick] and highlighted one of my problems with the first show. Too much was going on at the same time. I love chaos, but that chaos does need to be organized. I wasn’t paying attention to the match because of the wild brawl between Moxley and Omega. I also couldn’t let that story sink in because of the madness that was going on inside the ring.
Also, are all AEW matches No DQ? In the women’s title match, Rose pulled out multiple steel chairs and the referee didn’t do anything to stop her. Jon Moxley simply interfered in the six-man tag team match and the referee did nothing. However, PAC needed to cheat by using a low blow behind the referee’s back in order to get the win, so I’m a bit confused on what exactly the rules are when it comes to matches and hopefully AEW fixes this in the future.
Another peeve that got under my skin was the attack from Jericho in the beginning of the show. Where the hell was Dustin Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega? They were all clearly there that night. Hell, where was MJF?
It annoys me when segments like this happen because it makes the other babyfaces look likes douches for not helping out. The simple solution could’ve seen Dustin, The Bucks, or MJF come out and scare Chris Jericho away to the back. The AEW World Champ then could’ve called for back-up by teasing that someone new would show-up later on that evening. Then the vicious beatdown with the introduction of Hager could’ve occurred.
I won’t harp on AEW too much because it’s the first show and not everything can be perfect; however, fixing minor issues like this can do wonders for their product.
As I said previously, this was a good show. I do have my concerns about the product; however, I can say that AEW has yet to put on a bad show. If you watch NXT, then DVR AEW and give it shot. There’s no need to choose sides as both NXT and AEW are solid wrestling products at the moment.