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AEW SWINGS FOR THE FENCES: MIKE'S COMPLETE REVOLUTION THOUGHTS

Shane Swerve Strickland was announced as signing here.  The parade of awesome performers into the AEW campground continues!

Jade Cargill remains the AEW TBS Champion, beating Tay Conti in a solid bout.  Tay's war paint was cool and Jade's entrance always looks like she's a top notch star coming down to the ring.  Tay going right after Jade and taking her down was a slight surprise early. Jade's line about, "Who cares about that karate sh**" cracked me up.  I guess she's never seen Cobra Kai!  Conti kicking out of Eye of the Storm kept her looking strong.  Jade keeps getting better and for someone who hasn't even had 50 matches yet, you can see the star power growing every week as she gets more experience.  Her frog splash looked awesome.    The twist of the babyface using her partner to trick Jade was a nice twist.  Jade drilling her in the corner with the idea Tay may have hit the camera stationed above the buckles gave Conti a reasonable excuse as to getting pinned clean without losing any shine.  This was a really well laid out bout to make everyone involved look strong.

Man, the last thing I expected was CM Punk doing his old Ring of Honor entrance to AFI.  That was absolutely amazing and brought me right back to the Rexplex and the Frontier Fieldhouse in a powerful way I never anticipated.  It takes a lot for me to get chills watching something on TV at this stage in my life but I had goosebumps for that.  If you lived through ROH in its best era, you know what I am talking about.

The Dog Collar match with MJF vs. Punk was as brutal as you'd expect it to be.  Early on, it was MJF cowardly trying to escape but realizing he was screwed and trapped.  MJF then cut him off going for the bulldog and brutalized Punk.  The close-up of the chain bruised into Punk's back was insanely evil looking.  MJF cutting a promo as he stomped away on Punk brought back memories of Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk.  Punk was busted open to the shock of no one but still low blowed Max.  The old school physical brutality of this was unlike anything we usually see.  There were absolutely allusions to the Valentine-Piper bout at Starrcade with Punk going after MJF's hand the way Valentine went after Piper's ear.

MJF using the sleeper with the chain was a great twist.  The crowd coming to life for Punk made it an even better moment.  Max blocked the GTS and went for Salt of the Earth but couldn't lock it on because his wrist and hand hurt.  Punk locked in the Anaconda Vise and Max's selling here was insanely good, his hand shaking out of fear.  Punk wrapped the chain around his own knee and drilled Max with a Shining Wizard.  He worked over Max on the floor.  This was a damn good brawl.  Punk smashed his knee against the steps charging at Max.  This might be where the momentum changes.  Yep, Punk is now limping.

The battle continues with Punk reversing a tombstone piledriver on the apron outside, hurting his knee even worse in the process.  Punk went for the flying elbow with a chain wrapped around his elbow but missed.  MJF brought out tacks, which honestly, this match didn't need because it's been so good and brutal.  They battled over the tacks and did a great job teasing the bump.  They battled to the ropes where Punk went for the Pepsi Plunge but was crotched and hit with a superplex into the tacks.  That's insane.  Max covered him in the tacks but Punk got a shoulder up.

MJF called for Wardlow, who came to the ring.  He wanted the Diamond Ring for Wardlow forgot it.  Punk yanked MJF into a GTS and Max landed in the tacks.  Wardlow then realized he "had the ring all along" and left it on the apron where Punk easily claimed it and the crowd went NUTS.    Punk prepared to drill MJF, who defiantly spit in his face.  Punk smashed him and scored the pin.

I wouldn't have wanted the tacks here but beyond that, this was an absolutely perfect storybook moment for Punk followed by the best feud blow-off match that I can remember in forever.  These were two men who hated each other who went to war, hero vs. villain who believed he was the hero and it was old school professional wrestling the way I wish it would always be.  I know some will hate the blood and I understand why, but you couldn't follow the angles they did and not have the blood.  After tonight, AEW would be wise to retire blood for the next six months because nothing will have the emotional equivalent of what took place here.

As you can plainly see, this was phenomenal in my mind, a tremendous 30 minute war that took you on an emotional ride in a completely different way compared to most of professional wrestling these days.

If CM Punk never wrestled another match, this would be a hell of a final match to look back on.

For MJF, this was yet another incredible performance that will be remembered on his "Best of" collection one day.

Kudos to everyone involved - and for the record, they didn't need those damn tacks!

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